Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi (I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life)
Adinnādānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi (I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking what is not given)
Kāmesu micchācāra veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi (I undertake the training rule to abstain from sexual misconduct)
Musāvāda veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi (I undertake the training rule to abstain from false speech)
Surā-meraya-majja-pamādaṭṭhānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi (I undertake the training rule to abstain from fermented drink that causes heedlessness)
A lovely, blessed morning everyone, I am back after a week of travelling and I begin today's post with contemplation on Buddha's five percepts. As I look back over the last week, I know that I am blessed to have met all the people I did; royalty, ministers, people from the arts, doctors, filmmakers and industrialists. All came from varied backgrounds, lived in different homes but all of them had one thing in common - they had a soul and acknowledged its presence and importance in their lives.
Career achievements was one thing, soul achievements was another. All of them are following their soul purpose; all of them broke preset moulds to get where they are and all of them are humble enough to admit that they are fulfilling their own destinies in God's time. They are all following God's plan and living it and that's where their sense of accomplishment truly lies. All of them admitted that when one follows God's plan, it feels right from within. It will give you a sense of peace and strength of spirit like nothing else.
As I sit back and think of what each of them said, a few telling things come back to me: ex-minister Jaswant Singh telling me that his real friends are his books, blue-blooded designer Raghavendra Rathore hoping that he can facilitate positive change and trying his best to revive Indian culture through design, creator of the Jaipur foot - Dr Devendra Mehta on his effort to change people's lives one foot at a time, filmmaker Sooraj Barjatya who tries to highlight the importance of family values that are quickly lost on the younger generation... Indeed, change comes in different forms for different people. What's important is that all these people are on a continuous journey of soul-fulfillment and they are trying to help others get in-touch with their soul purpose too. Different people, different instruments of change, one soul-purpose. All of them are living soulfully, sharing their humbleness and living their change - for themselves and everyone else.
I close my eyes and say a prayer of thanks: thank you God for giving me an opportunity to meet people who true purpose in life was to initiate change for the better. Thank you for blessing me enough to experience their humbleness and humility. Thank you, thank you. And you know what, each of them practiced Buddha's five percepts in one way or another. Here are just a couple of examples that personify Buddha's percepts and of course a few things that we can apply in our own lives.
Dr Devendra Mehta said, "Us human can't even create an ant, what then gives us the right to kill?" Raghavendra Rathore said, "I can't think of politics at the moment. If I promise to put up a medical camp and fail to deliver, it will play on my conscious and I will not be able to live with myself." - If we read Buddha's percepts, we realise that they follow them. Whether we begin our day with Buddha's texts, the Bhagavad Gita, books by Sri Ramana Maharshi, the Bible, the Torah or any other spiritual book - we realise that all of them give us the same message, the same values for life.
All these successful people attributed their success to their life's calling - in other words, following God's plan. This begins by being true to ourself, true to our calling, true to our God, true to our destiny. It's time to stop, breathe, look within and ask ourselves a simple life-changing question: am I doing what the good Lord has planned for me? Am I following him? Am I allowing him to lead me on? Am I humble enough to accept that he knows best? I believe that God held my hand and led me through the last week - from buzzing Delhi to busy Jaipur to the peace and tranquility of Jodhpur. As I drove through the hot, hot desert, I saw people who found their peace in themselves, in God and in culture. Lessons in simplicity, humility, humbleness and truthfulness.
As I found myself back in noisy Mumbai city, I realise that I left a part of my heart in the hot Jodhpur desert... and I am glad for it. I am counting my blessings again and I realise that God is keeping on adding them to our kitty. I've learned how to look within and find my peace, now it's time for me to spread that peace and happiness to as many people, animals and nature as I can.
Life is about finding oneself and them helping everyone else to do the same. This is one of the many lessons I learned over the last week. Come, let's find ourselves and help others find themselves and their soul-purpose too. God is right here, guiding us, leading us and loving us. Let's embrace him and embark on the journey of a lifetime. That's all we have to do... begin with faith and love.
Have a fabulously blessed day everyone. :)
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