From ‘Lagom. The Swedish art of living a balanced, happy life’ by Niki Brantmark

 

 

Lagom, pronounced ‘lah-gom’ (‘la’ like far, ‘gom’ like ‘from’), is an overarching concept that is heavily ingrained in the Swedish psyche. Often loosely translated as ‘everything in moderation’ or ‘not too much and not too little’, lagom is about finding a balance that works for you.

 

Lagom is commonly thought to derive from Viking times, rooted in the term laget om (around the team). Its said a bowl or horn of mead would be passed in a circle, and it was important that everyone only sipped their ‘fair share’ so there was enough to go round.

 

The humble rag rug

Look around a Swedish home (particularly a rural dwelling) and you’re more than likely to come across a trasmatta, or rag rug. This traditional rug is usually handmade on a loom from scraps of worn-out clothes and old rags……….plenty of YouTube videos showing you how.

 

‘There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.’

Swedish proverb

 

‘When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.’

Dalai Lama

 

‘Friendship isn’t a big thing. It’s a million little things.’

Anonymous

 

‘Love me when I least deserve it, because that is when I need it the most.’

Swedish proverb

 

‘When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world’

John Muir

 

‘A journey of a thousand miles always begins with a single step.’

Swedish proverb

 

‘When the sea is calm, every ship has a good captain.’

Swedish proverb

From ‘Heart to Heart. Stories from a life stranger than fiction’ by Gautam Sachdeva

 

 

….the Morya Gosavi Temple in Chinchwad …..A friend of mine who is a disciple of Baba Muktananda of Ganeshpuri had mentioned to me about …..how Baba would visit if often as he considered it to be very powerful.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi had appeared to His devotee Arthur Osborne in a dream, directing him to go to Shirdi and write about Baba to make His teachings known to the Western world. The result was Osborne’s book called The Incredible Sai Baba. Ramana Maharshi also guided His devotee Narasimha Swami….to go to Shirdi and write Sai Baba’s biography……Subsequently, Narasimha Swami published five to six books on Sai Baba.

 

…..I have been advised by people who specialise in psychometry – the ability to ‘read’ people wearing the object and the environment around it – that whenever I have to give anything away, it should be given to strangers who don’t know where its coming from.

 

I recall reading somewhere that a lady had come to see the great sage Ramakrishna Paramahansa and spoke about her unconditional love for her child. Ramakrishna said something to the effect that her love would truly be unconditional if she loved everyone’s children as if they were her own.

When asked about love, all that Rameshji (Balsekar) would say was not to hate anyone. He would go on to explain that when there is no ‘other’ to hate, then it truly means that there is no ‘other’ and when there is no ‘other’, then there is no ‘me’ that is separate from the ‘other’, Consciousness is all there is.

 

When hate is eliminated, its polar opposite, love, is eliminated too. What is left then? Love that rises above the pairs of opposites….I found Osho’s words in The Book of Secrets quite apt:

But what happens in a buddhalike consciousness when love and hate both disappear? …….It is difficult to express what happens, but whatsoever has been felt around Buddha is more like love without hate. It has been felt around Buddha; it is not that Buddha feels it so. Buddha cannot feel love now because he cannot feel hate. …….but around him, everyone has felt a deep love flowing.
………..the polar opposites disappear, and simple presence remains. Buddha is a presence, not a mood. You are moods, not a presence. …….never a pure presence, and your consciousness goes on being modified by your moods. Each mood becomes the master. ……..If you are sensitive, you will feel love flowing from him, you will feel compassion.

 

One loving heart sets another on fire.

-        St. Augustine

 

……Sai (Baba) Himself said, “I give people what they want in the hope that they will begin to want what I want to give them.”