Mahendra Kent - Thoughts On Life

THOUGHTS ON LIFE MAHENDRA KENT In recognition of my father. Copyright 2013 by Mahendra Kent. 503503-KENT ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4836-5574-1 Ebook 978-1-4836-5575-8 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Rev. date: 07/02/2013 To order additional copies of this book, contact: Xlibris Corporation 1-800-618-969 www.xlibris.com.au Orders@Xlibris.com.au CONTENTS I express my gratitude to my parents Gurcharan Singh Kent and Jagjeet Kaur Kent for providing us with a non-religious and non-conditioning environment when we were growing up.

I was permitted to look at life without any prejudice. I am indebted to my wife, Vaty, for her support and who also ensured that my ego was always kept in check. I thank my sisters Hem and Kiran, my two children Neha and Nikhil, my nephew Christopher and my niece Nidhi for being part of my life and contributing to my happiness. My special thanks to Marek Lepkowski, Ranjit Bhambri and Indira Bhambri. Life can only be understood by living it. Most of us are too scared to live, choosing instead to exist by following the lives of others, merely imitating and conforming.

Our lives seem to be directed by others to seek goals defined by society rather than following our natural instincts and tendencies. We seem to shackle ourselves and then find it very hard to break out, putting ourselves in the hands of destiny and fate, accepting life without making any efforts to change things. In this way a minority of people in society appear to control the lives of the majority, the pattern for as long as one can remember. People are unable to free themselves because they are controlled by the society, their past, their traditions and their religions. Unless we learn about ourselves and know us, we will not know whether we are living our life or that of the others. We will always remain in conflict and dissatisfied with our lives unless we are doing what we are here to do.

Intelligence, not the knowledge, is needed to free ourselves. Contrary to general belief, no human being was, is, or ever will be permanently intelligent. This statement applies to people like you and me and also a genius like Einstein. Intelligence is not something that one carries around in their back pocket. It is not something that can be bought in exclusive stores by the rich and kept away from the poor because they cannot afford it. Most human beings cannot experience this phenomenon because they act out of greed and fear.

Intelligence arrives on the mind that is aware, peaceful and conflict free, a state that most humans find it hard to reach. I believe the saying Mind over Matter meant that intelligence/creativity is possible only when mind goes beyond thought. Interestingly, modern physics considers thought as matter. When mind goes beyond thought, the discontinuity enables it to receive the new. Most believe that suffocating the mind with knowledge gathered from elsewhere is intelligence. On the contrary, knowledge without understanding is the biggest impediment to intelligence.

A mind that is full of knowledge is incapable of creativity because it is constantly trying to rearrange the old to create the new, and the new cannot be the product of knowledge which is old. Intelligence is to understand oneself by reflecting on the way we live, our relationships and the forces that drive us. Often we feel that we control life but in reality we are driven by forces we do not fully understand. People are unable to capture intelligence because they are not free. Intelligence is to observe life without greed and fear to enable understanding of the self. Questions which are raised about life during this state of observation and the examination of all our relationships are wisdom.

One must remember that this investigation does not require the renunciation of the world and individual responsibilities. It can be done while living a normal life. All that is required is the understanding of our desires, not the killing of them. The skill is to discriminate between the essentials and non-essentials. As simple as it sounds, it is the hardest thing to do. Once we have understood ourselves, there will no doubt be love and compassion.

We often talk about love but rarely appreciate that, in the state of love, there is no me. Love requires total abandonment of the ego. The Hindu mystic Kabir has expressed this very beautifully (though the translation from Hindi to English is rather difficult), the lane of love is very narrow, two people cannot be together in it, when I am there, my beloved is not and when my beloved is there, I am not . Love is a state which is devoid of ego and it has no boundaries. Just as human feelings and emotions are changing constantly, so love is not a static state, therefore no one should expect permanency. In order to achieve the above, one must observe the activities of the mind.

It is difficult to distinguish where the brain stops and the mind begins and vice versa. I believe that mind is only an instrument for the brain which in most cases, when in conflict, is an impediment to the efficient working of the brain. As minds main function is to measure and compare (one must observe ones mind in action), it is always caught in duality. Duality creates confusion and reduces the brains capability. Unlike religion, which is now used for the control of the masses, spirituality on the other hand is very personal affair. When one examines oneself, one discovers that the images and contents of yesterday control our emotions and actions.

Examining oneself is therefore very important and demands absolute honestly, courage and humility. The unconditional observation of the self reveals all the past contents in the recesses of ones sub-conscious which tend to control us. No one actually chooses the spiritual path. It is the chosen few who suddenly find themselves on it. It is a journey that one has to take alone on an unknown road of unknown distance. Also, the journey has an unknown destination as no one has been able to describe what they found at the end.

This could either be that they did not find anything or that what they found cannot be described in words or expressed in time and space. For most people this is a very big gamble. The spiritual journey therefore is for those who have no desires left and have seen in the illusion of a material world that there is nothing to lose. Thoughts that only few people will read, which a minority of those who read will make an attempt to understand, and only rare ones of those who understand that will reach the depth. The feelings expressed in words in this book are not poetry or works of literature written for criticism, comparison or comments such as good, bad or ugly. If you can relate to them, then good, otherwise discard it as useless material.

Critical mass of consciousness is that divine entity which propels itself. It is driving nothing nor is it driven by anything. No one can create it nor can anyone destroy it. It is expanding and it is contracting because it is dynamic. It has no opposites. It is consciousness adjusting itself to the changing environment without any interference from the thought.

LOVE AND COMPASSION RELATIONSHIPS INTELLIGENCE MIND RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY FOCUSING ON THE OUTCOME IS THE MINDS BIGGEST LIMITATION. IF THE JOURNEY IS BEAUTIFUL, WHO CARES ABOUT THE DESTINATION? Nothing one can take with them therefore with open hands one should give. Taking is human; sharing is divine way to live. Sometimes in ones life the choice is to Stagnate or travel on the lonely road. Once in a while one should consider travelling on the lonely road. Slow Death Bitterness is that poison which will slowly kill you and will have no effect on the person you are feeling bitter about.