Preksha Life Skill - I Choose, I Live: 03.3

Great Disciple of great Guru: Blessings turns into Boon

A founder of "Preksha Mediation" and a great Saint of the modern era, Acharya Mahapragya, despite being such a great philosopher, thinker, poet and orator was completely devoted to his great Guru, Acharya Tulsi. Such devotion is an example of the expression of gratitude.

Expression of gratitude towards Guru

O Gurudev, I am grateful to you for:

Bestowing me with your genuine discipline to uplift my soul drawing me towards spiritual practice gifting me, with holy texts for the study of Spirituality endowing me with the opportunity to render service and propagate Spirituality granting me the desire to be liberated.

Acharya Tulsi's vision and dreams were all fulfilled by Acharya Mahapragya. Even after becoming Acharya, (a leader of a Jain religious order) his devotion did not decline towards Acharya Tulsi. Such simplicity and soberness are hard to find in any personality. His devotion showed not only in his actions, but in his thoughts and words.

It is clearly elucidated in Jain scripture Dasavaikalik - Humility is a symbol of great Gratitude.

”Anaabaah - suhaabhikankhi guruppasaayaabhimuho ramejja"

One who is in quest of eternal bliss should always act as he receives guru's blessings. Dasavaikalik, 9/1/10. It is a rich Indian heritage of religious traditions such as Jain, Buddhist, Sikh or Hindu, and these Traditions all involve guru-shishya lineage, where teachings are transmitted from a guru to a shishya (disciple). It is considered that this relationship, based on the genuineness of the guru, and the respect, commitment, devotion and obedience of the student, is the best way for subtle or enlightened wisdom to be conveyed. Arjun, Ekalavya, Vivekanand and many others are great examples of dedicated disciples. Also, in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, the teacher is a valued and honored mentor worthy of great respect and a source of inspiration on the path to Enlightenment.

In this respect Acharya Mahpragya's distinctive respect not only for his Guru but for all individual souls be it politician any religious guru or saint or common person whom he came across touched the hearts of all. He dedicated his whole life to practice and to highlight the spiritual aspect of non-violence and to spread the message of peace and harmony across the country. In pursuit of this objective he took on foot journey from village to village, town to town throughout India.  Also he put all his efforts to build the bridges of friendship with people belonging to different religions.

Prominent among the awards given to him during his lifetime were the Mother Teresa National Award of Peace (2005), Union Government’ s Communal Harmony award (2004),-Ambassador of Peace Award in London (2003), Lokmaharishi by Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (2003), the Indira Gandhi National Integration Award (2002) and many others.

Acharya Shree not only touched, but positively influenced the lives of millions of people in India and abroad and will continue to do so for many generations to come through the rich literature, tradition, and practices, such as Preksha Meditation, that he has left behind.

Besides being a spiritual saint and a religious guru, he was a thinker of rare caliber, a personality with literary sensitivity, and a social guide. Former Indian President Radhakrishnan regarded Acharya Mahapragya as one of the two fine philosophers of modern India along with Swami Vivekananda.

Great Inspiration

Imagine being born without arms. No arms to wrap around a friend; no hands to hold the ones you love; no fingers to experience touch; no way to lift or carry things. How much more difficult would life be if you were living without arms and hands? Or what about legs? Imagine if instead of no arms, you had no legs. No ability to dance, walks, run, or even stand. Now put both of those scenarios together... no arms and no legs. What would you do? How would that affect your everyday life?

Nick Vujicic:

A great exemplar to perceive the life.  A great inspiration to pursue Happiness.

His life vibrates our heart and fills it with Gratitude; The love he holds overcomes any physical limitation.

He is limbless, missing both arms at shoulder level, as well as legless. His feet are toeless except for two toes on one foot. Throughout his childhood, Nick dealt not only with the typical challenges of school and adolescence such as bullying and self-esteem issues; but also struggled with depression and loneliness. He constantly questioned why he was the one born without arms and legs.

Nick grew depressed and by the age of 8, contemplated suicide. At age 10, he tried to drown himself in 6 inches of Water, but did not go through with it out of love for his parents-

After praying to grow arms and legs, Nick eventually realized that his accomplishments could inspire others - and became grateful for his life. He realized he wasn't unique in his struggles and began to embrace and transcend his disability. He pays gratitude to God for giving him opportunity to inspire the whole world with his positive attitude, strength and passion to live life with spirituality. He is also grateful to his family, friends and the many people who have encouraged him to live life of successes.

With the statement “falling down is not a failure, but giving up hope is a great failure” he began to master the daily tasks of life.

He learned to write using the two toes on his left foot with a special grip. He learned to use a computer and type using the "heel and toe” method. He learned to throw tennis balls, play drum pedals, get himself a glass of water, comb his hair, brush his teeth, answer the phone and shave. What's more, he lives his life on his own.

By the age of 19, Nick started to fulfill his dream of being able to encourage other people and bring them to the gospel of Jesus through motivational speaking and sharing his testimony about how God changed his life and gave him a future and a hope. ”I found the purpose of my existence, and also the purpose of my circumstance.

Marla Runyan, USA

Literally sightless since she was 9 years Old - A great example of courage and strength.

 We each have so much untapped potentialities, we need only to uncover them through inner vision and set an example to the world. Marla Runyan presented a great example to the world by succeeding in her goals even though she suffers from blindness.

Marla has shown that obstacles and challenges can be overcome with the courage, passion, positive attitude and the determination to succeed. Her records not only astonish us, but truly motivate us to use our abilities absolutely without concerning any physical challenges. Her accomplishments include:

• She is a 3 time national champion in the women's 5000 meters.
• She won 4 gold medals in the 1992 and 1 gold medal in 1996 in summer Paralympics’ pentathlon races.
• She placed 8th in the 1,500-meter in the year 2000 Sydney Olympics.
• In 2001, won her first of three consecutive 5000 mete; National Championships.
• In 2001, co-wrote and published her autobiography "No Finish Line: My Life As I See It”.
• In the 2002 New York Marathon, she recorded the 2nd fastest debut time ever by an American woman with a record time of 2 hours, 27 minutes, and 10 seconds.

Marla also holds several American records for various running events. She has not allowed her worsening condition of vision to affect her career. She plans to continue competing in running events. Since 2001 Marla Runyan has been the first Ambassador for the Perkins School for the Blind, which is the school Helen Keller attended, and is the first school for the blind in the USA. She thus stays updated on the latest in teachings educational trends for the deaf and blind.She is also very actively involved with the students. Marla currently resides in Eugene, Oregon.

What We Are Complaining For?????

Despite having everything, why do we complain? It is all our unsatisfied desires that make our lives unhappy. However, looking at the scenario of the World, we can see how much better off we are relative to most others.

If we are born without any couldn’t stop major deformity........we are more fortunate than the 100 000 000 (10 crore) people in the world who have a major deformity.

 If we have food in the refrigerator, clothes on our body a roof over head and a place to sleep..... We are more comfortable than 75% in the world.

• We feel sad when we don t get the products of our desired brand, but most people in the world have to accept products that have no brand and many get no products at all.
• If we woke up this morning with more health than illness, we are more blessed than the millions who will not survive today or this week.

• If we never faced the danger of battle, imprisonment, torture or starvation...... we are ahead of 500,000,000 people of the world.
• We are more blessed than around 3,000,000, 000 people in the world to born in such country where we can attend our place of worship and can express our opinion without the fear of harassment, arrest or death.

So we have many reasons to feel blessed and to fill our heart with gratitude towards the divine and all of those who make our life easier and who love us. Moreover, when we develop an attitude of gratitude, our happiness increases and the very reasons for being thankful become manifold.

There are people who make their life bright with their mental strength and personal intuition. They are somehow disabled in their life but nothing could stop them from their goal. They never curse God for their lacking or for their bad luck. Instead they remain grateful to God for getting possibilities to progress. They create their own image through confidence, determination and hard efforts and become famous personalities.

When we see the successful stories of physically challenged personalities, such as Nick Vujicic and Marla Runyan, or people such as Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison, Stephen Hawking or Walt Disney, or many famous athletes, their inspiration serves as a powerful lesson to us to stop complaining.

We can either focus on what our life lacks or complain about our fate or the faults and frailties of others, or we can get inspired from those who succeeded against all odds. When we see the glass as half empty, we develop an attitude of pessimism and defeat. But with attitude of gratitude we can readily see the positive that the glass is half full.

Counting our blessing and knowing our strength is the best defence against fear or self-pity. This helps us to build an attitude of gratitude. Let us make a conscious effort to notice what we have to be thankful about. Saying ‘THANK YOU’ helps us and others feel good.

Preksha Meditation a Life Enhancing Technique

Preksha Meditation assists you to realize the value of Gratefulness for everything that makes your life happy, healthy, prosperous and successful. The practice of Preksha Meditation is the method of understanding the subtle world, the method of reading the subtle script of life. It is the first step towards moving from the gross to the subtle.

How to practice Gratitude?  

• Just take 10 minutes every day. Sit in a comfortable position. Close your eyes. Practice deep breathing.
• Concentrating on your forehead, feel gratitude for having a life full of joy and peace.
• Feel gratitude to the environment for allowing you to breathe freely.
• Feel gratitude to family, friends and all those who make your life easy and make you strong enough to face any situation.

When you make a list of the things for which you are grateful, you will really feel happiness about your life. Happiness is all about perspective; it is about how you perceive matters. Happiness comes only when you enjoy everything around you.

But to sustain this happiness you need to set aside just 10 minutes per day (or more, if you wish) to review that list, to verbalize your gratitude and to really take in your thankfulness for those things that you do have. Literally say it out loud: “I am thankful for my good life.”

In just 10 minutes per day, if practiced daily, you will create an attitude of gratitude which will brighten your mood and uplift your day-to-day experience of life because it allows you to refocus your attention on those things you appreciate rather than those things you might dislike. And this will result in a very real physiological and biochemical healing effect within your own body.