Our life is shaped by our mind : we become what we think ; we find what we perceive. Uncertainty and insecurity, fear and anxiety result in constant stress and strain. Here are some busters. If this collection of spiritual thoughts makes you happy, try and make others happy.

• MAN GETS AND FORGETS : GOD GIVES AND FORGIVES. Forgiveness fosters inner peace.
  
  
• A knife in the hand of a doctor and a robber yields different results. When the motive is noble, the achievements are spectacular and a feeling of contentment floods the self.
  
  
• Acquisition and possession of wealth is no measure of the quantum of one's happiness. Happiness is measured by the tranquility of one's own mind - in learning to be contented. Remember
  1. VALUES ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN VALUABLES
  2. BE NICE TO THE PEOPLE ON YOUR WAY UP, YOU MIGHT HAVE TO SEE THEM ON YOUR WAY DOWN.
  3. FAULT-FINDING IS TO BE AVOIDED, FOR IT DEBASES OUR CHARACTER.
     
     
• People crave for money more than their requirements, the negative effects of which lead to stress and frustration. Run-away consumerism puts the individual onto a never-ending ever-escalating treadmill. We spend half our health to earn wealth; then we spend more than half our wealth to recoup the lost health. Pursuit for money can distort all values, and make us blind to the basic purpose of life. Those who know that enough is enough will always have enough . Remember that MONEY IS AN EXCELLENT SERVANT BUT A HORRIBLE MASTER.
  
  
• Desire and anger - to come under their sway is ignorance; to rule over them is perfection. Sorrow is nothing but a state of mind's agitations for procuring the desirable objects or for getting rid of the undesirable ones.
  
  
• Desire is a high-state energy that could be channelized to achieve spiritual uplift. Those who desire only God are the real gainers. Prince Duryodhana had opted for Lord Krishna's army, whereas Arjuna had opted for just Lord Krishna.
  
  
• Gita is a wonderful book but by merely knowing it to be so, we cannot be benefited , either socially or culturally. We have to live and practice the Gita way of life. Nowhere, save in the Gita, do we find answers to the whys and the wherefores regarding life and living.
  
  
• The first aspect of life management is desire management. The source of happiness cannot be the desired object, for the mind soon gets fed up with this particular object and starts agitating for something else. So restrict your desires only upto the level of necessities as human birth is not just for realizing some material goal. Awakening your divine personality is the ultimate goal. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens. Self-realisation is integration of inner self or spirit into the cosmic spirit.
  
  
• Worldly obligations have indeed to be performed but without personal attachment. We only go to work, HE works. NEVER NURTURE THE FEELING OF BEING THE DOER and do not consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities. We can do nothing without his Grace.
  
  
• With the certainty of death goes the uncertainty of time and place, manner and circumstances. Knowing that death is inescapable, Indian philosophy teaches us not to seek escape from death, but to conquer the fear of death. Death is just a change of dress and address. It is not the end but a passing phase as dying is our transit to the next dimension. Life is an unbroken stream of constant birth and death. On completion of job allotted to us, death is but a trip 'back home' from where we had come. It is a cheering thought for the senior citizens that the sunset that awaits them, will soon be followed by a sunrise. Better be prepared than arrive in a state of shock.
  
  
• GROWING OLD IS MANDATORY : GROWING WISE IS OPTIONAL.

  Watch your THOUGHTS : They become your words. Watch your WORDS : They become your actions. Watch your ACTIONS : They become your habits. Watch your HABITS : They become your character. Watch your CHARACTER : That becomes your KARMA.

  
  
• The word is suffering today, caught up in a web of its own false values. Worry is a wasteful habit. IT'S LIKE A ROCKING CHAIR WHICH KEEPS YOU BUSY BUT LEADS YOU NOWHERE.
  
  
• Mind is like a parachute ; it only functions when open. Do not blame anyone or anything for your situation. All problems contain the seeds of opportunity to create and to evolve. There is a hidden meaning behind all events.
  
  
• It is the law of nature that every creature, intelligent or not, seeks pleasure and abhors pain but it is an equally applicable principle of nature that pain is bound to come upon every one in varying degree. We must recognize pain as a grace from God as we learn more through days of suffering than days of comfort. Remember HAMMER SHATTERS GLASS BUT FORGES STEEL.
  
  
• The secret of life is not to do what you like but to like what you do. CHANGE WHAT YOU CAN ; ACCEPT WHAT YOU CANNOT. Accept people, situations, circumstances and events as they occur ; struggle not against the universe. Do not persuade others or defend your point of view. Avoid argument and resistance. No amount of logic or argument will make anyone change his mind if he does not want to. You have to win people's hearts and not their minds.
  
  
• Joy and sorrow, wealth and possession, youth and strength, power and popularity, success and failure, likes and dislikes, love and hatred, things and beings - NOTHING REMAINS STATIC ; CHANGE IS INEVITABLE. The everlasting thing is nothing but the trust, faith and love for God. The earlier we cultivate this habit, the better would be the quality of our life. PRAY TO THANK AND NOT TO DEMAND. Pray for and bless others who are suffering, unhappy or in need of encouragement; you will see that gradually you will be in continuous conversation with God.
  
  
• Laughter and sounding loud and long the word 'OM' are effective stress busters. 'Om' has been found effective in various systems of psycho therapy. As per Time magazine patients in some prestigious New York medical Institute for heart operation, are being urged to chant 'OM' before surgery. It has relaxing as well as healing effect.
  
  
• Prayer, like meditation, puts us in a positive frame of mind, sharpens our senses, revives hope and makes one stoical to bear suffering. We cannot get close to God or understand His Divine nature if we do not pray. Prayer is thanking God for the innumerable things we take for granted, like parental love, food and shelter and the gift of reason.
  The fruit of prayer is faith. : The fruit of faith is love : The fruit of love is devotion.
  The fruit of devotion is service. : The fruit of service is peace.
  
  
• WE SMILE NOT BECAUSE WE ARE HAPPY , BUT WE ARE HAPPY BECAUSE WE SMILE. If you want to be happy, make others happy. True happiness lies in giving rather than taking. A true giver is one whose motive is to benefit the other person. He is one who identifies with the happiness of others. DEVELOP RIVER-LIKE GENEROSITY, SUN-LIKE BOUNTY AND EARTH-LIKE HOSPITALITY.
  
  
• Success in life depends not on proficiency but entirely on efficiency and also upon the amount of transformation we can successfully bring about in our personality and character.
  
  
• Running after power, wealth, authority, status, name and fame is running after shadows of happiness. True happiness comes from within, from the purification of mind. Happiness is not an object to be possessed or retained but a subject to be experienced and shared. THE UNHAPPY MAN ALWAYS LIVES FOR THE APPLAUSE OF OTHERS.
  
  
• Everyone seeks happiness. That's the ultimate goal. Few know where to seek it. Most of us seek happiness outside of ourselves. A deer holding "kasturi" within, searches for it running from pillar to post. The springs of happiness are , therefore, not outside of us, but lie within us. Real happiness lies within us and is actually a state of mind. A person who is jealous and grows green with envy at the prosperity of others, has little chance of being happy. If you are unhappy, it is because you think of yourself too much. Happiness is in the realization as to how lucky we are to have what we already possess.
  
  
• The source of unhappiness, in most instances, is either past experience or future anticipation. One has to realize that the past has already happened and cannot be changed by any means and the future cannot be predicated. Living in the present is an essential key to happiness and a stress-free life. The past is history, the future is mystery, and 'this moment' is a gift. That is why it is called "the present".
  
  
• We are so proud, this 'I' is so proud. It thinks "Oh, I am so successful. I am so good" But the truth is that we only go to work, God works. We can do nothing without His grace. One minute we are at our desks, acting like king of the world. The next minute, one nerve, just one microscopic nerve in our brain fails and we can no longer speak or write. One small blockage in one tiny blood vessel and we cannot even go to the bathroom by ourselves. We must be fed and taken care of, for the rest of our lives.
  
  
• EXPECTATION BREEDS FRUSTRATION. FRUSTRATION BREEDS ANGER. Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind, as anger is only one letter short of danger. Rigid oak cracks and collapses in the storm, flexible reed bends with the storm and survives.
  
  
• LIFE IS DYNAMIC as it is THAT energy which takes out oil from sea and electricity from water. Let's get tuned up to Divine Voltage to do 'something beautifully great', 'spectacularly noble', and 'surely enduring'. It was the Divine Force that enabled Lincoln to abolish slavery & Gandhi to fight against the mighty empire. LET'S NOT SIT IDLE and ACT NOW AS IT IS NOW OR NEVER.