Our lives are getting more and more complicated with an increased number of roles to be played and excellence expected in all of them. Regardless of the number of roles you are playing the fact remains that you are born in a human form and are just a part of the sum of all parts that we call the world which includes all forms whether visible or invisible that are manifested from the same Source – Some call it Prana, some call it Force….

Like actors on the stage/players on the field, we embrace our roles dearly and try to play them well. Along the journey we start assuming that we are the roles we play and start living through them forgetting the fact that everything around us is made of the same Source and that life is just a game that will surely come to an end….

This begs the question who or what is playing this game and why??? The answer lies in the realms of spirituality that demands that you silence your outgoing tendencies and turn inwards in Silence. In Yoga terminology, this is called “Pratyahara” that is the bridge to cross from Bahiya Yoga (Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayam) to Antar Yoga (Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi). Pray that you have the wisdom and strength to cross this bridge, whenever you get to it…

As we were driving in Gurez Valley in Kashmir by the Kishanganga River our guide/driver mentioned that the River comes from Pakistan and there it is called Neelam and it keeps crisscrossing the border. Similarly cattle and other animals keep roaming freely across the borders which seem to only make sense to humans.

As he pointed to the heavily barbed wire across the mountain saying that the other side is Pakistan but most of his close relations live on the other other side, I wonder what does “Independence Day” mean to him?

We are an inherently violent race whose history is ridden with people with agressive tendencies wanting to conquer the world only to find out that it wasn’t really worth it and so it continues.

Instead of maturing and learning from history & moving towards a peaceful borderless coexistence, we seem to be hell bent on reinforcing “I/Me/Mine” which is exactly what we should be fighting against….

Free yourself from “I, Me, Mine” and celebrate a true Independence Day within….

Happy Independence Day

The first news feed I read on my mobile is an Astrologer predicting the Third World War and I think to myself that just as well – instead of global warming it would be nuclear warming that would be the end of everything. Haven’t we learnt from the first two world wars that wars don’t solve anything! But then look East, West, North, South there are Wars, Conflicts, Revolutions… That is reality. How did we land ourselves in this shit? It is just our own greed, intolerance, lust, etc that is manifesting in gargantuan proportions… 

The Lord must be wondering what we are fighting for when He has provided us with enough, so long as we are willing to share and commit to co-exist peacefully without resorting to violence. As Mahatma Gandhi had said “There is enough for everybody’s need and not for everybody’s greed”.

The time has come for each one to reflect & imbibe the essence of the wisdom – “Jo Prapt Hai, Wo Paryapt Hai” – What is  received is enough…

Friendliness is one of the 4 virtues that is automatically reflected when you walk the spiritual path sincerely, then you become a Jagat Mitra.
Happy Friendship Day ❤️

I used to have a bet with my dear friend and colleague back at work when we used to stand out in the office corridor post lunch for a few minutes before getting back to work as to how many people including strangers would smile back when smiled at. 80% returned the smile since it’s a reflex however 20% consisted of people who would either refuse to look up or worse still, look up and refuse to react keeping stone faced. 

A smile is the beginning of you acknowledging the other and non verbally saying that you care. I have always believed in the maxim smile and the world smiles with you and found that it works(most times). However just smiling is not enough if not followed with sharing and that completes a simple formula to be happy in life – smile, care, share. It doesn’t depend on you having something. 

It is all the more important for seekers on the spiritual path to be joyful, which is the acid test of whether spirituality is working for you… As St Teresa of Avila wrote – “A sad Nun is a bad Nun. I am more afraid of one unhappy sister than a crowd of evil spirits”

When Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was once asked by his disciple Swami Turiyananand that despite Shri Ramakrishna being in the terminal stages of cancer he is in great delight, does he not feel the pain of the cancer? To which Shri Ramakrishna replied – What kind of talk is that? Does the body ever become a Sadhu? It is the mind that becomes a Sadhu (In Bengali – Shorir kokhono Sadhu Hoi? Moni Sadhu Hoi). It is the mind that is spiritualised, the body will decay and eventually die…

These days, there is an over obsession with the body and its care but very few train the mind to be silent and progress on the path of Self Realisation. Trying to make the body immortal is foolish, just stop identifying with it – immortality is your very Source, if only you look within….

This Guru Mantra points you in the direction of the Light/Knowledge/Source of the circle of life – creation(Brahma), maintenance(Vishnu) and destruction(Mahesh)

“Tat tvam asi” (You are that)

Happy Guru Purnima

Coincidentally, yesterday some people celebrated Ashadi Ekadashi, some people in another part of the world celebrated the parting of the sea by Moses delivering people to the promised land, whilst some mourn the passing of their prophet… Same day being viewed by different communities in different ways…

Just consider a tribe living in a remote corner of the earth who hasn’t heard of Shiva, Ram, Krishna, Jesus, Mohammad, Moses, etc – would they be any less favoured by God? Would they be any less human than we who live in cities and fight amongst ourselves to establish supremacy of our own beliefs? This brings us to the quintessential question: who/what is God? The answer to which has to emerge from within…

In my view, God is just a word for a super power that exists in all of us. People from different regions, cultures, situations interpret this in different ways and term them as ‘religions’ that mostly take you on a wild goose chase to find something that never left you. Find God within, in silence, don’t get lost in the noise of those looking for God outside….

To seek emptiness is perhaps an initial stage in Self Realisation that itself is difficult to reach since the mind craves all worldly objects knowing them albeit to be temporary. This emptiness is not that of effort but that of who is making the effort… 

The sum and substance of all spiritual paths is to realise that “I/Me/Mine” doesn’t exist and that is why people are hesitant to walk the spiritual path since “I/Me/Mine” is all they have known. To leave the known for the unknown is itself an act of courage that a very few are able to do. 

There is only one simple inquiry to be made: “Who am I?” and be patient till you find the answer…

Silence has all the answers…

“What do you want to become when you grow up?” is a common question asked of small children wherein the chase of finding your place under the sun begins and never really ends, only the “what” keeps changing. So ingrained is this question in your psyche that you feel inadequate/incomplete if you don’t play an important role in the society, so you keep running from role to role seeking adequacy/completeness but don’t realise that the direction is wrong, you are trying to find adequacy in external roles which is but a part of the impermanent ever changing world. The completeness that you seek was, is, will be within, it never left you, you just imagine that it did. 

Journey from chasing/becoming something to realizing that there is no chase, is enlightenment.