Ceramic pumpkin.
What to download, what to upload.
The Veda originated in ancient times, in a world we can scarcely conceive of now. The Rishis (seers) of that time had a presciently appropriate take on the future, including concepts that came to define the atomic age, quantum physics, and the digital realm of personal computing.
The Rishis knew that meditation was a means of accessing the mind of the Creator and replacing our narrow-minded view with God's boundless vision. Rather than the random chaos and disorder that appeared to be the way of the world before we discovered meditation, we see that the universe has an underlying loving presence and an infinitely organizing intelligence.
It is as if our Creator asks us in each waking moment, "What kind of world do you wish to live in?"
If it is a world where love is a guiding principal, we choose love and give love to all. If it is a life where fear reigns supreme, we seek to inspire fear, we fear others, and as a result, we reap fear, again and again.
We have mistaken in the past that we are alone as a consciousness and that our actions in this world have no personal repercussions, no consequences, that our wishing others suffering brings no suffering back to us. The universe knows better. It patiently demonstrates, repeatedly, insistently, the simple structure of unifying reality. When we behave as if this is not so, it is ignorance.
Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence, it is the act of ignoring that which we know to be true. It is pretending.
We pretend that we do not know God. Why do we do this? Because, long ago, according to Vedic tradition, consciousness itself played the ultimate act of hide and seek, forgetting its own divinity. It is actually a simple dynamic driving all of existence. We are destined to first play at being divided so that true nature can be restored, and both Creator and created can become reunited again.
And we will.
The filter we apply to our own sight is what we project outward into the world. If we harbor a sense of apprehension toward others, we make others apprehensive. If we nurture compassion, friendliness, and the reserve of calmness we already possess, others feel better around us, friendlier, easier, more loving.
Try an experiment. Pick a random stranger on the street and choose to have a positive interaction with them. Chances are it will go well, better than if we wait for them to act. Risk the smile first. Observe the response.
Prayer flags and wind chimes.