The Word - Intentions!

Hello all,

Namaste! All of you, my dear blog readers, know about my website-swaroopa.net. I have started my business, Swaroopa store, which can be accessed from Shop tab on my website, for beings who are interested in a personal reading. There is also the Swaroopa Store link, on my blog's left side. Now to the post.

First of all, I want to convey my heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the Boulder, Colorado, USA, shooting incident. May the departed Souls rest in peace. May the family find strength and comfort in coming together of the local community and groups.

We discussed last week, how facts and truths are very important towards an honest, ethical life with integrity. All of us are reeling with a tough pandemic, which is taking a toll at our emotional, mental as well as physical balance. At such times, emotional and mental maturity is very much important. Because the everyday life as we lived till 2019 has been changed drastically and now our reality looks very different.

Only two days back the world heard about another shooting in the USA, this time in Boulder, Colorado. Ten people shot down by a twenty-one-year old. The lives of ten people gone just like that. The suspect is going to spend the rest of his life behind bars. He was just twenty-one years old. What drove him to do such an atrocious crime that decimated the sleep and peace of ten families for the rest of their life?

This is what as humans we have still not figured out. Remember last week, we discussed the logical and emotional mind. Emotions are the fuel that can move mountains. Logical mind, a clear mind decides, which mountain to move. Here most probably the suspect's thinking was clouded by some deep worry, upsets or emotional hassles. This shows we need to understand our mind deeply.

The mind: If we can really observe, every decision, intentions and actions in this world are taken by a mind. We as human fall for all the physical and material things around us. But think again. Every single thing we surround ourselves with originated in a mind as a deeper thought. That person later planned, intended and took actions. This became their creation.

Map of mass shootings in the USA- 2015
Image credits - Gun Violence Archive, via Wikimedia Commons

We humans create all the time unconsciously. We are not even aware of what we are creating. But once it comes into our life, we are asked to live with it. Think back to being a sixteen-or eighteen-year-old. Did we deeply think what career and what kind of a life we want? Most probably not. We had a very random idea from our mind and we went behind it.

I, for that matter at eighteen years of age went behind the passion my mind suggested, science and biotechnology. At that time, I didn't have a second thought about any other options. But if I had thought about it very deeply another one or two paths would have opened up most probably. So, we as humans take decisions without deep mental analysis and get stuck in situations, which does not work for our highest good. My career with biotechnology didn't work the way I envisioned.

But once something does not work, we have to find a way to overcome it, so that our life-force energy starts to flow again. Anytime our life-force is stuck we are not evolving from our Soul, heart or mind. We feel our life has got stuck in a deep stagnant and stale state. So, it matters what our mind brings and how we are using that information towards our life and career. If we become aware, life is not supposed to be a roller coaster race or a stagnant pool. Instead, it should flow gently like a meandering river overcoming the slow bumps, boulders and eddies of life.

But in our rush to make it with life, we don't consider anything and are in a blind rush towards something which we ourselves don't know, what it is. This keeps us in the treadmill of life, eternal rush towards something ephemeral and evanescent. By the time we realize we were rushing behind things that didn't really matter, the time we were provided in our life would have evaporated. How sad and deeply disturbing would be if we realize too late in life, we didn't do what we really wanted to do. So, we need to become aware of our own life and desires, deeply.

Consciousness: People are so enchanted to know and experiment on consciousness. But many forget to live as that consciousness. That is the difference between deep, true living and looking/studying with the mind. Studying and analyzing from the mind is to look at the consciousness- the "being" from the outside and living. Think like this. We are that magnificent being, the whole grand, old building- as many Souls are very ancient and the mind is the new, shiny car garage attached to it. We are that building and the mind the cool, classy garage. 

Pyramid diagram of consciousness
Image credits - Dustin Dewynne, via Wikimedia Commons

According to my understanding, each Soul comes with a brand-new mind for this lifetime forgetting all the memory it had before, like a veil being put on the total memory. The Soul has its own Soul knowledge, which is kept hanging in a static state until this particular lifetime is done. But the garage of a mind is needed to realize that massive, ancient stone structure of a building. Instead, the car garage is more interested in the cars coming into the garage, the cars going outside to the road and everything except this massive building attached to this garage. 

This kind of living is the mind living within a small garage instead of realizing, the garage is not the being, but the whole building is. The mind sits within it's very small space of consciousness with limited belief systems and limitations. Where is the humongous massive consciousness of the being, the whole massive building and the small limited consciousness of the mind. Can we realize the problem? The being or the heart wants to live limitless, but the mind over-rides that desire by its own two cents. 

The eternal inner tussle of the heart and mind. By the time the being realizes this, it would be around the twilight age of the person and there is not much time to do anything about it. So, the problem is we keep ourselves very small and live within our mind. After my own inner tussle, one day it dawned on me, why humans are in this inner turmoil, day in and day out. We are living from the mind, leaving the heart in the dust. The heart is where, the Soul or the magnificent being, the true You and Me, sits. This Soul has deep connections to the Universal Soul. 

Remember, the post, Ocean in a drop? The whole of Universal Soul within that tiny drop of a personal Soul, Brahman in Atman. But if we cannot even acknowledge and trust our own Soul, how can we think of Brahman- Universal Soul? We become stuck within our garage of a mind and the whole mansion of a Soul sits, embracing us as an extremely silent observer, feeling- "There, another lifetime wasted. Now again back to square one of taking birth in the womb." The sage of Hinduism, Sri Sankara sang- "Punarapi janani jakhare sayanam- Again, going and lying in the womb of the mother." This eternal drama of the Soul continues.

Thoughts: So, it matters to understand our mind and thoughts. This is the pathway that leads the mind from the garage to the mansion of a home. When you have a magnificent home, why live in a garage with cars, correct? Here, the cars can be considered as the vices or lower thoughts of the mind. Instead, go along the pathway, find our own heart and live in the mansion with other higher, idealistic thoughts of a greater being with a greater mind.

Robert Inerarity Herdman (1829-1888) -
Evening Thoughts -
National Galleries of Scotland

Let us come back to that terrorist shooter. Most probably he was living from his mind. The mind is dual and has the nature of a monkey, Mano (mental) markatah (monkey). Manomarkatah. It jumps like a monkey from this branch to that branch creating ruckus. In between, it would lose the grip and fall down from the tree as well. This falling can be considered sickness of the mind such as depression. Most probably this particular youth allowed his mind to run wild like a simian and the mind left the grip of the branch and fell to the floor.

I was reading the person was subjected to bullying and shaming. This caused deep anger to form, which most probably progressed to become rage. All these emotions can take a toll on a healthy mind and the person slowly becomes a captive of their wild fire of emotions. Last week, we discussed how when emotions overtake, the body is getting ready for fight or flight. The logical mind would have quietly retreated to the background. Now, the show is managed by the emotions. I read a post; uncontrolled emotions are like a wild elephant without its mahout- elephant caretaker- the logical mind.

So, here this person's emotional mind started acting like a mad elephant with most probably the emotions becoming uncontrollable. The mind can lead us through rabbit holes of nowhereness and nothingness, if we are not careful. So many, psychotic movies have come from the popular cinemas. The person becomes captive of the mind with uncontrolled thoughts and emotions. This stage is even now, the thought and random ideas stage. Nothing has become grounded in the reality. The person is not acting on any thoughts. Only consumed to the core by angry and raging emotions.

Intentions: Now, comes the next most important part. After a long process of thought, the person becoming victim of his thoughts starts considering taking actions. Remember, this post is from a negative point of view. There are also positive points of view where listening to their original thoughts, the person takes steps towards their goals and objectives. That brings good results to their life, loved ones and later community or globe. That is from the positive mindset. Realize, how important the minds and mindsets are.

Now, back to the negative mindsets. The person thinking through the rabbit hole of emotions and later reading up things/books that align with that thought process falls deeper and deeper into their own delusions. It is the same mind that can create delusions for a lesser life or great visions for a better life according to the mindset of the person. In case, that person finds networks or alliances that align with their thought process or belief systems, they become part of the cult groups or terror networks. We have read stories where youths have fallen victim to the terror network propaganda, gone and joined ISIS terror groups in Syria and Iraq. Think about the thousands of youths and young minds lost to terrorist activities. Such a waste of bright minds and human potential.

Planning, the previous step of intention. Is it for good or bad?
Image credits - Pixabay.com

So, it is actually the duty of the person to take care of their own mind. But easier said than done. Many times, it is the family or community dynamics that play into their stories that takes a negative turn of events. This particular youth was from Syria, bullied and later, found themselves on a fast track towards a very negative outcome. No, I am not supporting anything. I am just showcasing how a mind falls victim to its own narrative and chooses terror instead of peace. But as long as the person does not intend to do anything, the thought is still a thought in their mind. The thoughts just come and go.

Any day, they intend, the words, remember, the series name is words, that are ringing in their heads have started to take form. Here, the youth went and bought guns that could carry out the terror plan they were designing. His sister-in-law said, she saw him playing with something that looked like "machine gun". So, here above the thought, the person started to plan on the thoughts and acting on those thoughts. This planning on thoughts and acting upon it before the results ever starts to show up in their life is called as intentions.

Intentions can be extremely positive, like studying well to get into a fantastic University or thinking and planning to start a business or entrepreneurship. It can also be very negative where people do terror activities and kill people. So, the intentions are sprouting from the foundation of a mindset that gets set through the circumstances, family, neighborhood, community and experiences the individual goes through. This shows above nature, nurture also has a big say in what is happening with the world.

Intentions of the society: As a society, are we doing a great job to bring up our young and vibrant minds. This is not about the USA, Middle East, Europe, South East Asia or Australia. This is about the world and our young minds. As adults, are we looking after and taking care of them. Instead of deeply nourishing them, are we allowing internet and social-media to be constant baby-sitters. In our hurry-buried, crazy-horse kind of living are we nurturing the young to be deeply caring, compassionate, amazing human beings?

The young don't become bullies one fine day. They emulate behaviors of the adults in their family. So, here if this young man was bullied so much, he took up arms, the responsibility lies on the part of society as well, where this person or other young minds are feeling alienated. No, I am not justifying anything and this individual should get the punishment they deserve. I am writing this to point towards the truth, somewhere along the line, society is falling short of our young minds.

The green verdant planet -Earth
Image credits - Pixabay.com

As a society, it is our duty and should be our intentions to bring these minds into the main stream where they feel they are given a chance to be productive, upright and dignified individuals of the society. The Earth is moving fast towards climate change, rising heat indexes and changing weather patterns. We need "all decks on hand" for restoring the climate and environment of the Earth. For that we need to bring up Earth friendly, climate conscious, recycle-oriented, resources conservative, kind, loving and deeply compassionate future generations. Instead of, sitting in the fights of religion/politics and power, let us see how we can mold such future generations. Let us start to get things moving, lest we fail our youth and young.

Hopefully, we won't and soon we would get back on track about Earth conservation, climate preservation that restores a verdant greenish blue planet for the coming generations called Gaia or Bhauma Devi! Tadasthu- So, it is! 🌎🙏

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: The Word - Mindsets!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.