A person seeks to meet God and approaches a Saint with the request. The Saint says he will arrange for the meeting and just asks him to write down on a piece of paper who he is so that the Saint could tell God who wants to meet him & when would He like to meet. The person writes down his name, title, place of residence and gives it back to the saint. The saint asks him if his  name, title and place of residence were any different would he be any different and the person says obviously no. Then, says the saint, please find out who is asking the question and when you find that out, God would have already met you.

As Ramana Maharshi said “Your Self Realisation is the greatest service you can render the world.”

Expressing life in terms of “Doing” is largely a Western thing whilst “Being” is largely an Eastern thing. However, as they say “grass looks greener on the other side”, the West has taken up Yoga/Zen/Tai-Chi seriously and the East has taken up chasing power/wealth/fame in terms of “development” seriously and the circus continues…

The concept of “doing” something before you die was captured beautifully by the movie “Bucket List” (Things you want to do before you die/kick the bucket) that was released in 2007 with brilliant performances by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Everyone must prepare a bucket list since it helps in lending focus to your energies for the remainder of your life and also reminds you that life has an expiry date that is unknown to you.

As you tick off the items on your Bucket list you realise that it was never about “doing” and that you are going around in circles and that is when you value “being” that is finding the “Stillness” within you. This is a process of maturity which can’t be hoodwinked – you have to go through “doing” and mature into “being” and there is no guarantee that you will mature in this lifetime – so whatever stage you are in, be in the moment and enjoy it

Whatever you are chasing in the material world, you will eventually get only to know that it did not quench your thirst but only increased it…

The only rule that works here is “This too shall pass”…Then what remains? That which you were before you were born and that which you will be after passing on… Be that and all chases will drop…

If you read any newspaper on any given day there would be news about AI taking over human civilization, Statistics about % of people living below poverty line, Billionaires going on Space Travel, New Champion in Tennis/Cricket, New age Baba Wanga predictions of the world coming to an end in July 2025, Global Warming, Nuclear War, Third World War and other reports of murder, etc. What are we coming down to? Technology is bringing us closer and yet we are seemingly moving apart…There don’t seem to be any rational answers for what we are chasing and why?

We are living in an increasingly technologically connected yet psychologically disconnected world. Technology is taking its own course and giving power to destroy the world in the hands of unstable, even insane leaders. If they don’t kill us, global warming will…How do you find sanity in such insane situations? The answer is for all to find connection with the Divine within us and that is the only way of retaining your sanity and being connected with all again since we are all connected at Source. 

Our nature is brought out in every action we perform. We seem to be born with certain preferences, likes and dislikes, desirable and undesirable behaviours, etc. These are merely our personality traits and they can be changed 100% if we so wish since these personality traits are nothing but long standing habits that get passed on from one lifetime to another. A sum total of all die hard habits is called the nature of a person and is generally accepted as not changeable but that is not true, this can and should be changed if desired.

The will to change however depends on the acceptance of a person that something needs to change in him/her. Most people take the easier way out of simply blaming others instead of embarking on the path of identifying and implementing change which is a difficult process. The maturity to accept that change is needed usually comes either after the habit has already brought upon ruin or it’s too late. 

For others it is the case of “Kalta pan valat nahi” (I understand but can’t seem to bring about change). Consequently, in a world where everything is impermanent, sadly your nature remains permanent. Hence the importance of good sanskars – which is not just inculcating good habits in children but also in ourselves. However what is considered good is itself confusing in a morally compromised world. So you have to find your own balance – that is the concept of Sattva in Yoga… It is not about balancing things in your life, it is about being a balanced person….