contentment in a discontent world

Contentment in a Discontent world
Stress, frustrations, emptiness grief, loneliness, anger, sadness, suicidal tendencies, self-pity and most important Why me? Are the main markers of the modern living and these when overpower us have a devastating effect on us hurtling us towards bleakness, despair. We lose our balance, our friends, career, spouse, and children and if you have an fb account the virtual world too.
Every part of your existence cries out why me, what went wrong? Contentment is what we all treasure but real contentment is the treasure of few. I would say 100% of us not even 1% is spared we all have a burning discontentment with the who and what we are and what place do we have in the society. Do a flashback, one keeps on asking question since an early age, only the intensity of the questions change but the why remain the same. There is a burning desire in all of us to leave a mark in the society, to move onto a higher platform. Strangely, it is said,’ Contentment comes not by the fulfillment of what we want but the realization of what we already have”. How many of you have ever looked out of the window and just smelt the roses, taken a walk outside in the moonlight until unless it’s been drilled into you because of the super moon effect, or better still woken up a bit earlier than your usual time and seen the sunrise, heard the bird’s first cry of the day? But you’d rather do this when a) you take out specific time i.e. a holiday, b) in an expensive resort so you can name drop that you went to X miles stayed at Y resort which cost you ZRs. And has the no 1! rating according to the travel magazine. No wonder in this unbalanced world we’d rather pay 100 rupees for a glossy magazine which tantalizes one with a photo shoot of an airbrushed resort in the Mediterranean rather than give somebody alms. Umm, there I go ranting again and off the track but it’s hard to be balanced.The commerce student in me sticks its nose everywhere…
Spiritual life begins when we learn the futility of unfolding our divinity outside of ourselves. By the way, the mad rush to balance homework, raise kids, pay cheques, serve meals in tandem to the fulfillment seeker by the yogi sitting in the mountain; we all try to find God within. Both struggle to unfold, unleash. The former is caught up in conflict of life, balancing it with materialistic pursuit while the latter does to find his inner atman, the eternal spirit within.
Contentment does not depend upon external factors but with mental attitude. John Milton wrote,” The mind is in its own place and in itself, Can make a heaven of hell and hell of Heaven”. We can only change ourselves, we can’t change the world. You know that story where they tried to straighten the dog’s curly tail and no matter how hard they tried it would curl up. The only thing we can straighten is oneself and I’m not talking about posture here.
To find contentment we need to go the source- Atman. Since we are the atman- we must realize it and consciously manifest it every day. We need to do this in every action so that all acts become focused in attaining God. Some of you would so why it so” …”elusive? Pardon the missing expletive. For eg: when we face a crisis you focus all your energies to safely come out of with all the three forces of body, mind , soul working in unison.
There are six principles which when followed help one to attain contentment or a degree of contentment.
1. Do something for yourself
2. Do something for someone else
3. Do something you don’t want to
4. Do a physical exercise
5. Do a mental exercise
6. Count your blessings.

Do something for yourself: When was the last time you did something for yourself? Meditation acquaints us with our minds, we need to control the drunken monkey stung by a bee! The mind which has a mind of its own wanders in the most inexplicable fashion in all directions needs reigning in. Meditation helps in leashing it, it becomes subdued and is controllable.
Do something for someone else: The joy in doing something for someone without acknowledgement or platitudes is unparallel. God exists in all creatures, the atman in all living things. The first step in attaining unity is to show kindness towards others. If we can make it a daily practice to do even one act of kindness it will bring us some measure of peace. We begin to experience joy through the happiness we give others. And the more we do for others the greater will be peace.
Do something you don’t want to: Procrastination is a stumbling block tour mental practice. We , are the only creatures on this planet who will postpone doing chores, love accumulating work for alter date, even unkept promises, a job undone, hurt inflicted or a wrong committed. Unfinished chores nag, distract us, and diminish our incentive until we face them and finish them. Daily self analysis can bring these disturbing actions to our attention. By keeping our word, finishing what we start and correcting our mistakes, a psychological load is lifted from the mind and we feel a greater sense of peace .When the dust and debris of the mind is shoveled out, the capacity of the mind to think is clearer and it is calmer.
Do a physical exercise: Sri Krishna, warns” Yoga is not for the man who overeats.” All those lessons drilled in to one when we were growing up that the body is a temple of God are true, don’t abuse this vessel, safeguard it , exercise it so that one can have muscles of iron and nerves of steel are so true. Yoga, daily exercise helps one to attain a calmer focused mind a prerequisite for meditation. Let a man be moderate in his eating, and his recreation, moderately active, moderate in sleep and in wakefulness. He will find that yoga takes away all his unhappiness.
Do a mental exercise: Spiritual study feeds the mind, nourishing thoughts which provide the aspirant with an undercurrent, a high unmatched by anything else. Even when the stress and turmoil and the daily grind becomes a burden mental study helps us to remain calm to face the demons. The exercise helps to gather the forces of the mind into an unbroken thought of God. A careful study of the lives of masters , their teachings will always give one positivity and conviction; and it is with conviction calmness of mind comes.
Count your blessings: This is the most important step towards contentment. If you are forever going to lament about what you don’t have you are never going to enjoy what you have. We are what we think. If we dwell on the negative aspects of life, we narrow our approach to life. We change into small, puny, petty egos where our outlook shrinks into a pinhole. But if we strive to have a constructive attitude to others, to ourselves we take the first major step towards to self improvement. We expand ourselves and manifest to our higher nature. When we focus on what we have rather than over small, petty trivial problems we lose the larger picture. It is important to keep the spiritual goal as our focus which is larger than life than ourselves as the prime aim. It is said, “Every wall can be a door”. We need to readjust our priorities so that we can face life’s tragedies, discomfort. If we keep on hankering over the utopian dream we lose out on the life we have been blessed with. It is important to imbibe the skill and determination to learn spiritual jujitsu .
Last but not the least let compassion be a part of you for others. No matter what we encounter , we need to be humble, compassionate to the person in front of us , because don’t forget in him resides the Atman also.