Baggage

(This post is in response to a message which my dad received the other day, below is the message)
Question for spiritual guru --- to add growth to a plant it is a common practice to prune it from time to time ; what is a eqv in case of humans, obviously you are not going to prune physically, so what do you do to grow?

(This is purely an attempt at decoding the question, not committing the sacrilege of considering myself a spiritual guru)

Each day, along with the continual addition to the number of days we have spent on earth, what also increases is the baggage we carry. The emotional baggage and the mental baggage, to be more specific.
I have not interacted with a gargantuan number of people in my infinitesimal lifespan of nineteen years but nevertheless, I have come across people who though, despite seeming emancipated, do end up taking certain things to heart.
For the less intellectually whetted individuals, such as us, even the most insignificant details can become hurtful.
We might pretend to ignore something or behave like it did not make any difference to us at all, but deep down inside, a harsh word does leave a scar.
In addition to the not so major, slighting incidents, there are also people who undergo serious emotional damage owing to certain circumstances.
The point in all of this being that all those scars (or scabs in some cases) pile on to our mind. Without realising it we are adding endless layers of absolutely unessential emotions and carrying the same around with us.
A small altercation in the office, or at home and subconsciously you start holding a grudge, deep down inside.

So start cutting down on all this baggage. Cutting down on all the pain and the hurt. On the innumerable grudges you are holding and stifling yourself with.
From time to time, remember to take a look inside and forgive what happened in the past, forgive the people (even if you don't speak to them anymore) not for their sake, but yours. Every  six months or any particular time period of sorts, indulge in a little introspection and find all the noxious, venomous emotions, that you might have held on to, by mistake.

I can't entirely recall where I read this, but your emotions must be enough to fit into your child's school bag. The question is would you then fill it with all the joy or the bitterness?

Maya

I find it a cruel joke that humans spend their lives believing and acting like they'll never perish, whereas life is actually nothing but a collection of short lived phases.
Our minds are so befuddled by material incantations that we seldom realise our time here is limited.
I do not mean to be the preacher who asked a little boy to stop eating sugar and couldn't give up sugar himself but I wish humanity employed their time to find a way around these foggy curtains of attachment.
For myself, I wish the sustenance to go beyond this material world.
Imagine a cliff, if you jump from the cliff into the gorge, you presume you will die, what if, one dip in the gorge and you find yourself in another world? Redeemed as a detached individual?
And the promise of redemption isn't made before the jump. It is a risk you've to take.
The high cliff symbolises the high that comes with money and power. Only after attainment of the two can you find the courage to begin the shredding of the thread, the bond, between you and the lust for money and power.

The truth is, this concept is too idealistic to be true. Getting out of the maya jaal is probably tougher than moving mountains. These material attachments, like a spider's web start off from the periphery of our lives, slowly working their way in. As we grow, so does the stronghold of the web. The irony being, we can't feel the web strengthen its grip till the moment we realise we want to free ourselves from this web. A captor that leads you to enjoying and loving each minute of captivity. So much so that you go on to consider that captive existence, your life.

Free ourselves, let us.