The world is in the grip of panic with the number of Corona cases being reported. The virus is claiming some lives and sparing some. Those spared have hopefully been immunized but we are not sure. Some say that earlier statistics regarding such outbreaks have indicated that the virus would be contained but again we are unsure that it would happen this time. 
Let us examine what we are sure of. Are we sure that we would live for a day more with or without Corona Virus? We can’t say for sure. So what are we sure of? That our existence is limited in terms of time to live but we can’t say how much limited.
What we are afraid of is this uncertainty and we try to get more and more control over everything in life as our response. We naturally seek control over death as well. We want our existence to go on forever, why? Since we have identified ourselves so much with our physical temporal existence that the possibility of losing it is unacceptable to us and hence we avoid thinking of our mortality.
What we are attached to the most also brings the most suffering. We cling on to life since we refuse to examine the nature of our existence. There is a dimension in us that is eternal and lives on beyond our physical existence. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience but you have to accept, explore, test and experience this for yourself which is the pursuit of spirituality or faith.
Death is inevitable, our acceptance is optional. If we accept death as a natural part of life then the fear will subside and we would be able to lead a much better life in the time that we have remaining.
Virus or no virus, how you live your life is your choice. Whether you want to live in fear or faith (Corona (fear) or Karuna(compassion arising from faith))is a choice you have to make…

Life is actually an echo called karma – you will reap what you sow and that is inevitable. How you choose to respond to life, is how life would respond to you. Hold love in your heart for everyone, especially the ones that have created problems for you, since they possibly need it much more. And if you do subscribe to the Advaita philosophy, then there is truly no other, so loving other sentient beings is actually loving yourself, so whats the problem?

Make life a bit easier for everyone, smile more, laugh more, care more, … All this is easier if you respond out of love as a habit. That is one habit you must create for yourself on PRIORITY and inspire others to follow suit. Love is in short supply these days hence very valuable. The value of love only increases by sharing. This simple habit has the power not only to transform you but also be an instrument in transforming the world.

If you live life with this principle then you will find meaning in the lovely couplet of Majrooh Sultanpuri: Main akela hi chala tha janib -e-manzil magar. Log saath aate gaye aur karwaan banta gaya: (Means I was walking alone towards my destination(with love in heart), people just simply joined along the way and it became a group of people who live by love)

Invest in love you will never go wrong, in any case the stock markets are not worth investing in 😉

May your life be an echo of love…

Looking at the situation world over created due to the Coronavirus, it is all the more obvious that we cannot live in a box and cannot choose to look the other way. Whether its China or Africa or any other country whatever happens there affects us (sooner or later) but if we choose to stay cocooned in our artificial heavens whilst the world suffers then we are just like the ostrich burying its head in the sand and thinking that the problem has disappeared.

Closer home, the situation in Delhi reminds us that maturity is still evading us and we still choose to live with violence as a preferred mode of lifestyle and the powers that be are just representations of what the majority wants and not leaders with a vision. Its sad for a country that on one hand prays to the Lord Rama who was called the “Maryada Purushottam” (Propriety of conduct of one who is peerless amongst wo/men) and his rule(Rama Rajya) was hailed to be the best ever. We don’t choose to imbibe the qualities of the Gods we pray to, instead we choose to use the name of the Lord to indulge in senseless acts of violence which I am sure he would have condemned.

Be that as it may, if we look even closer still at our own situation, we have ourselves lost the plot long back. We are all chasing a culture that upholds greed, lust, anger as values and are considered normal and worse still we honour those who indulge in them. The cult of accumulation without sharing is only growing – till when will we able to go on this way? If you have money then buy another flat, doesn’t matter if you don’t use it – sounds familiar? Sharing what you have with other sentient beings is the last priority for almost everyone. It reminds me of the lyrics of a number from the “American Prayer” by Doors – “I want to have my kicks before the whole shit house goes up in flames” – it captures the selfish, narrow minded culture that we have unfortunately lent ourselves to.

Enough of stating the problem, which I am sure we all know. More importantly, how are we going to find a solution? Is there a solution? Or are we all doomed?

We live our life under the impression that we are the “doers” and consequently get entangled in the pleasure seeking, pain avoiding cycle. This is due to the mistaken belief that we are separate from existence around us. We always believe that “doing” is the purpose of life and we chase challenging/ambitious goals that make us monkeys in their circuses of goal chasing. We simply keep running since everyone around us seems to be running a race. We become so enamoured with the process of running that we don’t stop to check whether we are running in the right direction in the first place.

There are two possibilities for living: one is playing the role as an actor on the stage and being completely involved in the process. The second is to try and see what is happening behind the stage that is making all this happen. Most people prefer living the former possibility, whilst some want to know what is behind the scenes who think of exploring the answers to Who am “I”? where do we come from and where do we go? etc

For going behind the scenes you have to stop being an actor or a monkey in somebody’s circus. You have to let go of attachments that are making you act in a compulsive manner, let go and dissolve all “i”dentifications. This quality is called “Vairagya” and is a byproduct of pursuing the spiritual path till you completely dissolve in the Source and become One. On the auspicious occasion of Mahashivratri – dissolve your identifications and experience “Shi-va” (That which is not)

Choice is yours: Is it better to pursue a 1000 desires that keep you in the dark or choose one that would bring you into light?

All of us apparently live in the same world and yet experience different lives. We say that we live in the same times but the life experienced by people in different parts of the world is different, let alone different nations, this is true in case of family members, even twins – though the situations experienced are the same, the manner in which they are experienced could be completely different. This is due to the conditionings that we have developed over a period of time and that is the way we respond to life and experience it.

If conditioning is habit based, then it stands to reason that we should choose habits that uphold good values, but we know that it is not the case. Usually people gravitate towards the path of least resistance and give in to negative values of laziness, boredom, greed, anger, etc which are easy to cultivate. Positive values are difficult to cultivate and maintain especially when the society in general seems to be gravitating towards negative values.

The importance of developing a code of positive values to be adhered to, that would take you towards experiencing the good in life cannot be overstated. To develop the code, to practice the code and to be the code takes efforts but they are ultimately worth it since you are able to finally see the half glass full instead of the half glass empty…

As Will Durant beautifully put it: We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

Change your habits and experience life differently…

The mind wanders to the past, relives the joys and pains, imagines future scenarios of even more joys and no pains.

Prays to the lord for keeping it sheltered from any bad weather or storms, hoping that in doing so the problems simply dissolve

It goes on accumulating, for that is what it knows; keeps collecting relationships, experiences, possessions for in it lies its satisfaction

Little does it know that in these wanderings, imaginations, prayers and collecting, it lost what was the most precious moment to be lived joyfully and in awareness of the Divinity within

For thats is what the purpose of life was, is and will be…

Ajit Bam

When did you last laugh without a care, when did you not bother what life brought your way, when did you last trust that you would be taken care of irrespective of what you do? There is an innocence – implicit trust in people & things around us when we are children. We lose the same in the process of growing up. Some learn it the hard way and some simply observe the parents, family and surroundings and make up their response to life – which is mostly based on distrust.

They say if a mirror is shattered it cannot reflect a normal image again. Thats what is done to our trust by us and others around us. The question is how do you get back this trust. The answer is never, it was good till it lasted. It has been lost and the process of losing is called experience which when acted upon gets to be wisdom at some stage and makes us worldly wise which is essential for survival. We go out in the world with this broken mirror of ours and the images we see are obviously distorted and so then is our response and then we wonder what is going wrong with our lives. Unfortunately we know no better, so this cycle perpetuates and distrust, as a value, gets deeply ingrained instead of trust which is the foundation of love and faith.

So how do we proceed in such a situation where it is essential to be worldly wise for survival in this world but it is essential to have trust in relations which cannot otherwise blossom. The answer lies in first making yourself independent – as in remove all dependencies (attachments) you have of the world around you. Now you may say that this is actually deepening the distrust but in detachment lies the answer. Detachment means that you are not dependent on any person, thing, event to bring you joy, you choose to be joyful and loving anyways. In detachment is the path towards realising that there was no mirror in the first place and that you and the existence are One. Like it or not thats the process: from dependence you practice independence whilst sharing love & joy with everyone around you and then you move on to interdependence.

The fad of minimalistic living which is catching up these days is based on this concept of detachment and is actually pratyahara in the yogic terminology. Try it, perhaps you may smile again like the children in the picture, without worries or cares and experience return to innocence….

There are many things in life that are beyond our control – the family /caste/ creed / society we are born into, the kind of situations that we face, etc. In yogic terminology this is called as Prarabdha Karma – the portion of our entire Sanchit Karma that we have chosen to exhaust in this lifetime. In spanish its called Que Sera Sera – what will be will be. This is an observation of cultures across the world that there are things beyond our control that we have no choice but to accept.

The only thing controllable in your life is your own intent, thoughts, emotions and actions. Action is also called karma in the yogic lore – actions taken in the external world with full awareness that you are not the doer is called Karma Yoga whereas internal action – the act of going towards the Source is called Kriya Yoga. The intent of both is the same and can be a means of liberation from the cycle of creating karma and exhausting it.

So whilst you may feel that many things in life are not in your control (Que Sera Sera) but the truth is that the most important thing in your control is your own choice & faculties and how you respond to whatever situation you are put in. A Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela responded to the same situation in a different way than did their contemporaries who chose more violent means – in hindsight we know what worked. It is sad to observe that despite their being number of examples in history that have proved that violence only begets violence, we don’t seem to get the point and keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. So like it or not – we are responsible for the world around us which reflects a collection of choices made by all humans.

Choice is a double edged sword – so be careful what you choose. That a knife can be used to cut fruits and to also murder is not a fault of the knife but the intent of the person wielding it. Keep your intent clean and encourage others to do so…

Que Sera Sera is only a partial truth, your choice completes it… choose wisely

Just to give a context. These were the thoughts that passed through my mind just before starting my Half Marathon run this morning on 19th January 2020. Whilst I had not practiced as much as I should have through out the year, I still wanted it to be my best run. This meant that I would have to stretch myself beyond what I could take given my present form and thats how the thought crossed my mind that what if I stretch a bit too much and become a newspaper item in tomorrows paper – “49 year old dies of cardiac arrest whilst running the Mumbai Marathon”. I asked myself whether I am ready to die and surprisingly the answer came back as yes! If it is my time to go, it is my time to go – nothing can prevent it…Thought I would share some of these thoughts with you.

If it is my time(to go), it is my time(to go)

I think I have had everything that life has to offer and cant think of anything that would make me cling on to this life

If it is my time, it is my time

Goods and bads, ups and downs, joys and sorrows are a part and parcel of everyones life including mine

If it is my time, it is my time

Do I regret anything in life? Not really. I guess it was to happen for a reason to teach me something I was refusing to learn.

If it is my time, it is my time

I am what I am more due to failures which taught me much more than my successes ever could

If it is my time, it is my time

Go with a smile I will, of gratitude to the Almighty for having blessed me with such a wonderful life, people and experiences

But if it isn’t my time then let me choose to be joyful, humble and sharing and enjoy life to the hilt

till when it will be my time, it will be my time…

I ran so joyfully & freely that I was amazed that I could complete the distance of 21 kms in 2hrs with so little practice and there was no muscle pain or paucity of energy. Of course today was not my time:-) but if ever it is now I am sure that I would go with a smile and pray the same goes for you as well…

Healthy, wealthy, wise represents being in balance and joyful. Most people think healthy means being physically fit, wealthy means having more money than you can ever spend and wise means being clever & intelligent. Accordingly they strive to be healthy, wealthy, wise by having a healthy body, enough money and good intelligence and yet joy somehow eludes them.  

We need to redefine and recalibrate our approach to being Healthy, Wealthy, Wise in order to be joyful. In my view, you actually need to reverse the sequence: First comes wisdom, then comes wealth and then comes health.

Wise are the people who know & have experienced the impermanence of life, and are equanimous in the ups and downs of life and live in such a manner that only a sweet fragrance of their existence is felt by everyone. 

Wealth is the code by which the wise live their lives – it is living every moment with the values of love, compassion and sharing unconditionally with everyone since they know that not even their breath is their own. The wealth thus created is actually multiplied by sharing and never reduced. 

Health is the resultant joyous state of living in wisdom & by the code(wealth)

Since its the beginning of a new year/decade, its time to recalibrate priorities: first to accept impermanence of everything/everyone and diminish/dissolve ego – false perception of who you are (wisdom) by living by the code of love, compassion & sharing unconditionally (Wealth), which in turn would result in a joyful state of being 24*7 which is the health you seek…

This would be a great way to start the new year/decade and being truly healthy, wealthy, wise…

Wish you a Happy Makarsankranti / Pongal / Lorhi