Our journey forward

A king was interested in a girl who was supposedly a "low born" in the kingdom and many around him, including his mother, tried to influence him not to marry the girl. He had known the girl from young as a friend who helped him in many ways to avoid the wrath of the political infighting and his possible assassination while he was the crown prince. Many times he asked her to be his concubine as the queen was not able to bear him an heir. She found ways not to come to him. The queen was also fond of her for she had the king's interest at heart. But the politics around him, made it so difficult for the concubine to come into the fold of royalty. Finally, the king approached her and told her that he would not leave her home if she did not come with him to the palace. She searched within her heart and realized that she truly loved the king. So she ran to him and she said to him - that she is a low born and of a low caste - the only thing she can give the king is her loving heart and will be there by his side come rain or shine. The king with tears in his eyes said - he never wanted anything from her at all. But hearing from her that she could only give him his heart, he felt that all the kingdom's riches could not compare with that precious gift of hers for that was the only commodity that weighed the heaviest in terms of purity and sincerity. If he was to die that moment, he would have felt the most satisfied person in the world for he has tasted the purity of her love for he loved her so much.

This story which talks of love of the concubine for her beloved, is selfless, without condition and pure. If only we can give our Master, our Lord that love which is selfless, with no preconditions and pure, would we be able to taste the purity of His Love for us.

Our expectations when we help someone

We sometimes go our way to help someone in need. When the other person is down and really needs help, you feel wanting to help by providing an opportunity for him or her to start standing up on his/her own feet. But as the person gets stronger, the person develops other opportunities, he/she decides that you are not needed in their current equation of needs and wants. And so that person says good bye to you and leaves you in the lurch or without even a thanks, decides to take a hike.

How does that make us feel? Angry, disgusted, used, etc etc..
But there's another way to look at this - from the positive point of view. Our links and relationships with people we help should not start with expectations of loyalty and appreciation. As God creates everyone differently - as those who believe in the Karmic theory - everyone is moulded according to their previous karmas. In line with that theory also, our relationships are karmic - which means its when it starts - it has to end.

still under construction.....

What do we do when things don't go the way you want to

I think this has been a perennial question by many for a long time. Children typically blow tantrums and depending on the weakness of the parents (many times guised as love) give in to their demands. But as we become adults there's lots we want out of life but we are not sure about how to go about getting them. The question is do we know what we want vs what we need?
At different times in life, as we go on a journey of adventure and mystery of love, hate, envy, ambition, greed, passion, etc etc etc...i.e our life -  the demands by our mind (depending on the vitality of our physical body, senses and desires) on us begin to wear us down and we start asking why this and why that - why are things not going the way we want them to go.
Its all about expectations from life, expectations from the people around us, expectations from ourselves.
We may think we are doing the right thing in achieving the things we want - but will all that give us happiness. Many times, its the process of getting what we want that makes us unhappy, that makes us realize that its not that easy.

Depending on the intensity of our greed, our envy, our desires, our disappointments, our expectations and the degree of our happiness/unhappiness also is affected accordingly.