Whether Buddha, Jesus, Kabir and all other Masters are referring to the same thing or not, who knows? Their words, at best, give us a conceptual framework of what Truth could be but to experience it is an individual thing and efforts in the right direction are needed. The truth is not just going to dawn upon you one fine day, you have to lend yourself to experiencing life and maturing yourself. 

To a lay observer, taking no efforts and being effortless may seem to be very similar but actually there is a world of difference between the two. Just like driving a car – you first need to decide that you want to learn to drive a car, then you take efforts to learn it from people who know and then after years of efforts of driving thousands of kms you finally become effortless in driving. It takes the entire chain of decision-learning- sustained efforts to learn anything & be effortless. Being effortless is the culmination of sustained practice of the right effort.​

Similarly​ in the spiritual journey you first need to decide that you want to know the Truth in the first place, then find a Master who would be able to teach you the right practices, consistently practice that for years and only then perhaps you would get there. The doors open up when you lend yourself to experiencing by consistent right practice. It’s like a video game that is played at different levels, the moment you master one level, the door to the next level opens up. Who opens these doors? It’s your own mind that takes you to the next level of the game till you reach the source itself and are no longer a part of the game…

Sitting on my breakfast table, having apples from New Zealand, Eggs & Bread from the local market along with Swiss Cheese & preserves from different parts of the world, speaking on a video call on a mobile made in China, with my brother in the US, it is safe to say that we are living in a world wherein consumer or rather the money he/she has would buy goods & services from across the world – a Global Economy indeed. Do we pat ourselves on the back or is there something wrong with this picture? The micro picture looks just fine but if you consider the macro picture, things that are happening across the world – wars, conflicts, people starving, forests burning, you know that to achieve this global consumerism we’ve screwed up somewhere along the way but can’t exactly figure out where. 

Simple morality says that you shouldn’t sleep if your neighbour is hungry. How do you apply this morality in today’s age and time wherein everything has been converted into money terms and people are simply chasing money to better their own lifestyle. The more you earn, the more your needs increase and you finally never have ‘enough’ of money. So morality usually takes a backseat or at best a cheque written to a charity from time to time, that assuages your guilt. You have to figure out your own morality since society has long forgotten it’s, now it only knows the chase of money (power and fame are close siblings). People give themselves a cover of honour – Industrialists, successful professionals, Politicians etc but the underlying chase is still wealth, power, fame since that is what the society acknowledges and upholds.

We live in times wherein Presidents/Prime Ministers of First World Nations are looking at ways and means of increasing economic wealth instead of moral wealth since the parameters of success are wealth, power, fame. What good has it done these progressed nations who have economic well being but weak ethical and  moral wealth? The parameters of success have to be redefined with Ethical and Moral Values as the Foundation. A society is only a collection of people and what the people uphold. So unless individuals across the world seek Ethical & Moral Values as the foundation, this may never happen. Why not be the one to start this revolution? It simply needs you to commit to an ethical and moral code and pray that there are many more like you across the world who want this change. A revolution of this kind will come sooner or later but whether we make it happen in our lifetime or give it a pass, is upto us….

All urges that you act upon are from one of the 4 aspects of mind: Ahamkara(“I” ness), Chitta(Storehouse of Memories), Manas(Controller of senses) and Buddhi(Discriminative intelligence). The noise that you constantly experience in your head are the urges being sent out by one of these functions and you choose one or multiple things to act upon. Everything is first created and decided in your mind, the body only executes the actions as directed by the mind. So knowing your mind would get you better control of your life, it is also the doorway to realising your Self – Advaita.

Awareness is the key to Self Realisation which is a result of experience.  You may read scriptures and books written by Masters that expresses their experience but that is just the start point that assures you that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but the journey still has to be performed by you to experience it. As the Tibetan saying goes: Do not mistake understanding for realisation and do not mistake realisation for liberation.

To cultivate awareness, Buddha has indicated a simple path of simply observing your breathing. This practice keeps your mind in the present and also makes you aware of the fact that everything is constantly changing. This simple practice would develop your awareness. Simply observe what are the urges you get and what are the ones you actually act upon. This would, in time, give you a glimpse of your own mind & better control over it. Your objective however is to transcend it and get to the Source of creation itself. This can be explained better through an analogy.   

The body and mind are both manifestations of creation – the body is gross and hence can be seen, the mind is subtle and can’t be seen. Everything (Including thoughts and emotions) in creation is made of 3 Gunas (Qualities) which are Sattva(Clarity), Rajas(Activity) and Tamas(Inertia) and all this life of Gunas is played on the substratum of Nirguna (Advaita:That which has no other). Our lives are much like images flashed on the screen of a TV so whilst the images seem to be in motion all the time, the screen is completely unaffected. So Nirguna is like the screen that remains completely unaffected by the Guna’s (Images) played on the screen. The images are our existence which we identify with and the screen is the substratum on which it plays out which we miss out, even though we are in essence made of/from it, since we are unaware of it.

Cultivating awareness by focusing on breathing would eventually enlighten you. Awareness doesn’t change the world around you but completely changes the way you look at the world. That’s what the zen saying beautifully captures:” Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water”

The statistics reported on the news were just numbers till recently. However they start to look real when people you know are getting infected, it just seems that it is drawing closer and closer and that gives you reason to think about what you wanted/want from life. Better late than never, this is forcing us to prioritise our lives and put that which gives us privileged ones meaning, on the top of the stack, the unprivileged still have to deal with the struggles of staying alive on a day to day basis.

Only if we know what life is all about would we be able to prioritise our goals/roles. Life, as we know it, is governed by duties and desires – what we should do in order to stay alive & peaceful in a social context is duties and what we want to indulge ourselves in are desires. There is nothing right or wrong with anything since it’s us that give meaning to our lives, there is no standard of perfection of life since all of us are wired in different ways.

The concept of “Purushartha” is of great use in prioritising your duties and desires, hence sharing it.Puruṣārtha (Sanskrit: पुरुषार्थ) literally means an “object of human pursuit”. It is a key concept in Hinduism, and refers to the four proper goals or aims of a human life. The four puruṣārthas are Dharma (righteousness, moral values), Artha (prosperity, economic values), Kama (pleasure, love, psychological values) and Moksha (liberation, spiritual values).
All four Purusarthas are important, but in cases of conflict, Dharma is considered more important than Artha or Kama. Moksha is considered the ultimate ideal of human life.

Dharma is a guidance to perform your duties to the best of your abilities, Artha is to pursue that which gives you meaning (and money) to lead your chosen lifestyle, Kama is activities of recreation or relaxation and Moksha is seeking liberation from the attachments created to various things. You have to find your balance between these four aspects depending on your age, situation, maturity, wisdom. You cannot deny your physical existence and hence have to hold on to Dharma, Artha, Kama and yet, since you are living under an illusion of attachment to body, mind, relationships, possessions, you also have to find your way to let go of that which never was yours that is moksha…

So life is a fine balance of holding on and letting go…

Like writing a computer program, we write our life script with  “if….then” statements and mortgage our peace/happiness to the “then” whereas life is happening now. We get so used to living in this fashion that even when we are experiencing “then” it is short lived and we search for new “ifs” to justify our existence. This is the paradigm of “doing” wherein we need something external to us to justify our lives and can’t live doing nothing. The mind simply craves to be engaged in something all the time, consequently people keep watching TV, talking incessantly to others, etc even when they have a great opportunity to experience just “being”. 

It is in “doing” that we identify ourselves and willingly allow ourselves to be hijacked by “if…then” conditionalities thereby getting attached to that mode of living. This is similar to saying “I think, therefore I am”. Actually it is “I am, therefore I think”. If you accept the latter proposition then you will naturally ask “Who am I?” that is the beginning of the search within, to get introduced to your true Self. Try this out in small doses through meditating, communing with nature or simply sitting silently doing nothing – introduce yourself to your Self, for in it you will find bliss. The list of “doings” is inexhaustible and you would always have duties and desires to pursue but if you do so from the paradigm of “Being” you may experience life in a completely different way. Try it, it doesn’t harm for sure…

“Mind the gap” is a repeated announcement in the London Underground Metro that reminds people to mind the gap between the platform and the train so that accidents could be avoided. Never thought that a train station announcement could also have deep spiritual import.

Align behaviour: The effort of spirituality is to provide the practitioner a space between choice and action which is critical for overcoming compulsive behaviours. Most of us live our lives as slaves to our compulsions or habits that we are not even aware of but they govern our entire waking day – from the time of waking up to going to bed, what we eat/drink, who/what are we interested in, how we walk, etc. We live through most of the day out of reflex. It is when we want to change these habits that we find challenges and we come face to face with our own habits that refuse to change. The spiritual path and practices offer a gap between the urge and action – this gap is important for choice to be made. It is the awareness of this gap, when acted upon, that brings about change. Focussing on this gap to uphold change from vice to virtue helps in personality transformation.

Experience Advaita: Deeper still, during meditation, practitioners are asked to focus their attention on the gap that comes about when we breathe in and before we breathe out and vice versa- this gap when prolonged gives the experience of what lies beyond – Advaita/Nirguna which eventually takes the practitioner towards Nirvana.  

So remember to “mind the gap” 

The gap between choice and action for a Self Transformation

The gap between breath in and out for Self Realisation

I read a newspaper article stating that lots of people are suffering from COVID Anxiety. We suffer our past(memories) and are anxious about the future, both of which are useless and a waste of time but since we are habituated to it, we can’t seem to get over it. The root cause of anxiety is clutching on to various things including the hope that you would be alive tomorrow. We clutch on to relationships, possessions, titles, etc in the hope that they would provide us with a sense of “life” tomorrow. 

You would agree with me that death is the most uncertain event in terms of its time and manner and yet is the most certain thing to happen sooner or later. In this light, if you ask yourself that if our friend(death) comes calling you today – what are you going to do? Refusing is not an option, then check what you are clutching on to again. Anxiety is a result of clutching on to something that never was/is/will be yours. It’s like grasping air in your palms, you may believe that some of it is yours but in reality it never is.

The spiritual liberation that Masters speak about is just this – it is letting go of everything that you are clutching on to. It doesn’t mean that you will not possess anything or need anything, it simply means that you won’t allow a dependency to be created by it. People try to hold on to life by creating relationships, security of power/wealth/fame, ideas, etc. All these are just crutches that you create for yourself and when these crutches are threatened you start feeling anxious. You simply need to realise that you don’t need the crutches and this moment of realisation liberates you. 

Actually it’s a good thing that people are feeling anxious, if they go to the core of the anxiety they would find that they are the creators of it and letting go of it is in their hands… 

Faith and anxiety cannot co-exist – one of them has to go…
Faith is a product of experience – it has nothing to do with belief. You build faith gradually by observing things and decide your course of action accordingly – for e.g. you will trust people who give you reason to trust them by their consistent conduct. Repeated trust develops faith. Do we have faith that we will die? Yes – sooner or later, then why do we live in denial of it? If you remind yourself daily that today could be your last day(it well could be…) then your conduct of life changes. You no longer keep grasping material things or relationships or anything that is impermanent – you realise the impermanence of everything. This is all the spirituality that you ever need to know. Trust your observation and develop your faith accordingly – you will never be anxious about anything since you will not be clutching on to anything… That is liberation

What you are, influences your choices.
What you choose, influences what you are.
You don’t like something in your life then choose differently, if a choice is available, if not then accept that for which no choice is available – for instance the pain due to the current COVID crises. It sounds very simple – choose differently and we have all been there, done that – New Year Resolutions, promises to our loved ones, etc. Some honored, most broken. Unless you understand who is choosing, this conundrum would continue to fox you in one way or another.

Here you need to meet yourself – who are you? Are you your body, prana, mind, soul or a combination of all these factors? You can observe that all of us are born with more or less the same faculties though we may look different. What is that which makes a sibling choose differently from another sibling? This is a karmic body which is a sum total of all your habits, tendencies that you have accumulated over lifetimes. This is the reason why even twins have different habit patterns. We live our lives through this karmic body and call it our “nature”. It is possible to change this “nature” provided you have the will, grit and determination to do so.

An interesting method was brought to light in the detective serial “Elementary” that is based on Sherlock Holmes. The serial is set in recent times and Sherlock Holmes is shown to be a rehabilitating heroin addict and Dr.Watson is a female who is assigned to him to be his “Sober Companion” whose role is to stay with him for a few weeks to enable him to deal with the society outside the rehabilitation centre. She then is trying to find a “Sponsor” who is a sort of a permanent sober companion who would be friends with Sherlock for a lifetime and help cope with the challenges. Interestingly, the sponsor must be him/herself a recovered addict and must be acceptable to the addict trying to recover.

Your nature is your addiction and if there are components of anger, greed, lust, etc, then you would need the same methodology to deal with bringing about that change. Whilst a good Yoga Ashram would serve as a rehabilitation centre, you will find it a challenge to find “Sober Companions” and “Sponsors” since they could possibly not be a part of your friend circle or even if they are then they were possibly ridiculed for their non-indulgence in your dramas. If you are able to find one, great, if not then simply start walking in the direction by yourself by joining a good school of Yoga near your place that teaches the philosophy, psychology and technology of Yoga, not only Asanas.

Remember, as long as the direction is right, you would eventually reach your destination. Doesn’t matter how many times you slip and fall, pick yourself up and continue walking. As Richard Bach has beautifully put it – “You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it however”

Just before the lockdown a friend, who was visiting his parents, wanted eagerly to get back to his “family(wife and kid)” lest he get stuck in the lockdown and was encouraged by his loving parents to do so. The question that arose in my mind was when did the parents stop being family? What constitutes a family as a unit has gradually fragmented over the years to today’s position wherein a couple/single parents with their children (who choose to stay with them) are considered family. Soon we would see times wherein each individual stays separately and comes together with people for specific purposes but prefers living in his/her privacy. We are like small islands/icebergs in the vast sea of humanity and are getting even smaller by reducing the size of the islands to include “I, Me, Myself” and no longer is there any space for anyone else anymore. Look around you, it’s already happened or happening.

On the other hand, people are increasingly suffering from loneliness/depression brought in due to this island approach. People in developed nations seek professional help from therapists to deal with loneliness but in India even that is considered to be a taboo, so people simply suffer their loneliness in silence & when they cant deal with it even go to the extent of suicide. The crux of the problem is that no one wants to adjust and accommodate anymore so this intolerance is reflecting in this islanded existence…It’s amazing to see that people choose to suffer their loneliness by themselves rather than being simply more accommodative and reach out to other people who could also possibly be lonely. India has 1.3 Billion people and we have people suffering from loneliness – paradoxical? I call this phenomenon “collective loneliness” an oxymoron of sorts…People try to counter this loneliness by being active on social media but having 10000 connections over social media doesn’t help, having one good friend/family member does.

Yes the problem is well defined, but who is going to bell the cat? Unfortunately (or fortunately), the answer is “I, Me, Myself”. Dissolving the self obsession(with I, Me, Myself) is the only way out by either being more social, by being more accommodative/tolerant and investing in real relationships with family/relatives/friends, and/or turning inwards to find the Source(for the more spiritually oriented) that is common in everyone/everything. 

The social path would keep you connected with people/causes and keep you away from loneliness, whilst the spiritual path would show you that you have made yourself an iceberg but in the end you are made up of the same water as the sea/icebergs around you and that you are never really alone since the Source is always in/with you. Both efforts are to dissolve the boundaries of “I, Me, Myself” to include a larger existence – the social approach includes as many people/causes as possible whereas the spiritual approach simply dissolves the boundaries & merges with the Sea…

Do you want to exist as an Iceberg (Island -Separated from everyone) or the Sea (Connected with everyone), the choice is yours…Dissolving the Icebergs(of I, Me, Myself) is the solution. On a lighter note, I wish that we could warm the globe with the warmth in our hearts instead of the rise in temperature, that would be a welcome global warming. 

We can’t see it or don’t know it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Changing forms of the same essence is what this entire world is made of. Ice Cubes are made of water which is condensed water vapour received in the form of rain, water vapour in turn is made of 2 elements of Hydrogen and 1 element of Oxygen which further are made of sub atomic particles,… We can see Ice Cubes and water but rest is invisible / subtle. We are like ice cubes denying the existence of the very Source that provides us the experience of life.

We observe the Circle of life in everything around us – humans, animals, plants, etc and yet somehow get attached to the process of life. In accounting terms, our physical body(and everything visible) is a depreciable asset subject to wear and tear and eventually unsustainable for the life that resides within us, that is when life leaves the body to take form again later in another body. The physical body that we leave back is merged into the elements and life goes on…Despite observing this on a daily basis, we somehow live in denial of it or fear it from happening to us…

The Ganesh Festival is to remind us that even the idols of Gods are consigned back to the elements so let us not get too attached to the ephemeral/impermanent world, instead live life in the awareness that we are eternal life living a limited existence and lets make that existence pleasant for not only us but everyone around us…

Ganapati Bappa Morya!!!