One very powerful mantra from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, that is in my daily prayers. Wanted to share the meaning of it as I understand with you:

Om – Is the primordial sound/vibration signifying God

Asato Ma Sat Gamaya: Literal meaning is “Lead me from Falsehood to Truth.” Contemplation on this suggests that the prayer is for leading the spiritual aspirant from the false understanding of his/her existence or identity. Most people identify their existence with their body, emotions and thoughts which, in a spiritual sense, are just temporary tools provided to have an experience in the 3 dimensional world. However we get attached to this identification which is the mother of all problems. So this prayer is for identifying yourself with the Divine within and not with the temporary body, emotions and thoughts

Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya: Literal meaning is “Lead me from darkness to light.” Contemplation on this suggests that the life we experience is but a shadow of what truly lies within. We live in the world of shadows and don’t know what light is since if light is shone on the shadow then there would no longer be a shadow. So this prayer is to take the spiritual aspirant from shadows to the light

Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya: Literal meaning is “Lead me from death to immortality.” Contemplation on this suggests that the spiritual aspirant wants to experience the immortal divinity within him/her(we may call it soul) which is eternal. So here again the prayer is for correctly identifying our self with the immortal/eternal divinity within and not with the temporary shells of body, emotions and thoughts.

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Listening to the Wise / Reading gets you information; implementing information gets you knowledge; consistent application of knowledge for the positive brings you wisdom; consistent application of wisdom gets you enlightenment.

Most people get stuck in the first stage of gathering information, some go to the the next step of reaching knowledge, very few go further to wisdom and a minuscule proportion of those few reach enlightenment.

Preparation, Patience, Perseverance is the formula for success. You have to stick to the path till you reach enlightenment…

It is a path of learning to unlearn, dissolution of your identities… Silence, Meditation, Service is the path…

Secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new – Socrates…

Silence has 2 aspects one is the ability to focus and the other is to remain still. Ultimately both are 2 sides of the same coin that we ultimately experience as silence. It is the effort of all spiritual practices to create the ability to experience the silence so that you can experience what lies beyond…

Our mind is like muddy water, you just need to be still in order for the mud to get settled so that you can see the bottom. Cultivate such habits that make you silent. Sharing Eight steps suggested by Eknath Easwaran

1. Slowing down

2. Training attention

3. Training the senses

4. Putting others first

5. Spiritual Companionship

6. Spiritual Reading

7. The Mantram

8. Meditation

We make our lives complicated and then search for ways and means to make it simple. We make our peace/happiness dependent on so many external factors/situations that we actually never get to experience it. The short period for which we feel the joy of achievement/possession is soon whittled away by the thought “what next?”

Life is actually very simple. The God Almighty has provided us with everything we need to be joyful: it is the human greed that he has not factored in. If you observe, it is your dependence on things/people to bring you peace that is the problem. If you consciously reduce your dependence on anything external and start looking inwards for the peace, you might just find the everlasting peace. Minimalism is the path, my friend, reduce dependencies on the external to bring you joy.

Maya Angelou has put it beautifully: we need much less than we think we need….

Humans are social animals and we at times tend to forget this and pursue individualistic goals. That is a reflection of the selfish times that we live in. We measure our happiness with possessions in comparison with others and keep working to accumulate more and more. In this process of accumulating we forget sharing what we can with others that would bring them joy and happiness. We must endeavour to share the good fortune we have with everyone, only then can we experience true joy…

To wish well for all sentient beings this is a prayer that everyone must learn and practice

 ” Sarvepi Sukhinah Santu”— ‘let all be happy’ . “Sarve santu Niraymaya”, ‘let all be blessed with well being’,  ” Sarve bhadrani pashyantu” ‘let all see or witness only good things’. And last but not the least, ” Maa kashchid Dukham apnuyaat”, ‘Let no one beget unhappiness (in Life)’.

Happiness for all is wisdom that transcends boundaries. Sharing a similar concept from Africa called UBUNTU
The motivation behind the Ubuntu culture in Africa …
An Anthropologist proposed a game to the African tribal children …
He placed a basket of sweets near a tree
And made the children stand 100 metres away. 
Then announced that whoever reaches first would get all the sweets in the basket.
When he said ‘ready steady go!’ …
Do you know what these children did?
They all held each other’s hands, ran together towards the tree, divided the sweets equally among themselves, ate the sweets and enjoyed it.
When the Anthropologist asked them why they did so,  They answered ‘Ubuntu’.
Which meant -‘How can one be happy when the others are sad?’
Ubuntu in their language means -‘I am because we are!’
A strong message for all generations.Let all of us always have this attitude and spread happiness wherever we go.
Let’s have an Ubuntu Life …
I AM BECAUSE WE ARE.

hazāroñ ḳhvāhisheñ aisī ki har ḳhvāhish pe dam nikle

bahut nikle mire armān lekin phir bhī kam nikle….

Mirza Ghalibs famous couplet sums up the condition of most of us who are chasing multiple ‘desires’ in life. The things that we need to do but are not to our liking, we terms as duties and the ones that are to our liking we term as desires but for the sake of this article I will club duties and desires into one bucket called ‘desires’

Desires emerge from a mis-understanding of the very source of life. We usually crave for that which we dont have – the unhealthy crave health, the weak crave power, the poor crave money, the greedy crave more of everything… the craving is endless since desires are bottomless pits.

The only way to overcome desires is to get right understanding, realization and experience of the Divinity that is within us but we are busy looking for fulfilment outside…

A man once asked a wise man “I want happiness”

The wise man replied – “If you want happiness then first remove ‘I’, thats ego, then remove ‘want’ thats desire and then what you are left with is ‘happiness’ “

Was reading an interesting book by Yogi Ramacharaka in which he explained that there are 3 parts of our mind that correspond with the Manas, Ahamkara and Buddhi that are used in Yoga Philosophy and they are the instinctive mind (manas), the intellect/ego (ahamkara) and the spiritual mind (buddhi). The way it was explained help me gain a better understanding of the minds working and hence sharing it with all.

The instinctive mind works for all instinctive functions and regulates the desire for food, sex, rest, sleep, etc. This is closest to the way animals live – out of instinct.

The next is the Intellect which uses logic for analysing everything and is usually the basis for living in a society – it creates an image/ego of yourself that distinguishes you from your fellow human beings.

The last is the Spiritual Mind that gets the light of clarity from the spirit itself and sends its suggestions for contemplation/action.

All 3 minds are needed for existence in the human form and are usually active all the time. Which mind you choose to obey is upto you – if you work out of your instinctive mind then you would be under the sway of sense pleasures, if you are working out of your intellect then you would want to pursue something that would enhance your image/ego in relation to the society that you live in and finally if you heed to the inspirations of the spiritual mind then it would take you on the spiritual path and towards enlightenment. Which level of your mind you choose to work from, is up to you, they are all yours but you have the power of choice. Choose wisely…

Enlightenment, peace and joy will not be granted by someone else. The well is within us…. Thich Naht Hanh

Humans are the only race that hoards beyond reasonable need. The consequence is obvious that the divide between the haves and have nots is only increasing. The conflicts across the world are only growing due to this. The only resolution to this is if the “haves” share with the “have nots” and bridge the gap. Unfortunately that is not to be…

Sharing with you a lovely anecdote that captures the futility of hoarding…

An American tourist went to Cairo to visit the famous Polish rabbi Hafez Ayim. The tourist was surprised to see that the rabbi lived in a simple, book-lined room, in which the only pieces of furniture were a table and a bench. 

‘Rabbi, where’s all your furniture?’ asked the tourist. 

‘Why, where’s yours?’ retorted Hafez. 

‘Mine? But I’m just passing through.’ 

‘So am I,’ said the rabbi. 

As Winston Churchill beautifully puts it: We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give…

Love is the most misunderstood, yet most frequently used word. Actual love cannot be anything but unconditional so the title of this blog is actually to double emphasize the aspect of unconditionality in love.

The Masters say there is no other way to love other than unconditionally but we fail to experience it since we are caught up in the transactional meaning the word “love” represents. We feel that we love people, things, causes,… but if you look closely their is an inherent need for gratification by possession or reciprocation in everything we love either in relationships or in things. The moment the gratification by possession or the reciprocation in a relationship stops, the “love” vanishes. What is the use of such love?

If you want to experience true love then you have to first dissolve the concept of “mine” and “not mine” which can only be done when you free yourself of all false identifications and know thy Self…

As Rumi has beautifully expressed it – ” Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

Yoga is one of the paths to enlightenment. ​There are different forms of Yoga and you could choose the one that suits your nature. We are given various faculties that we could use to transcend and experience the divinity within us.  
​1. Body and Work: Hatha Yoga​ and Karma Yoga

2. Prana: Kriya Yoga

3. Emotion: Bhakti Yoga

4. Intellect: Gnana Yoga 

5. Combination of all of the above: Raja Yoga

Raja Yoga is a combination of all the Yoga’s​ that has been beautifully codified by Maharshi Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra’s ​​- ​the 8 fold path by adhering to Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi.​ 

Consistent practice is what it takes. It doesn’t matter how many years or lifetimes it takes. You simply keep keep at it. ​

The spiritual path has no milestones, so you can’t say how far you’ve reached and how much of the path is still remaining. ​Sai Baba’s advise to all of us is ​Shraddha (Faith) and Saburi (Patience)​​ are necessary ​to be cultivated whilst walking the path…

​So when are you starting? If not now, when?​