The journey of experiencing the Oneness with the Creator and all the Creation is Bhakti Yoga which dissolves your sense of separateness, your attachments to various identities and roles. You merely let go of everything that is preventing you from experiencing this Oneness.The end of this journey is total dissolution of all likes/dislikes, pleasures/pains – whereby you transcend the cycle of duality. The path of Bhakti Yoga is as exemplified by Meerabai, Sant Kabir, the Warkari sect amongst others.The destination of this journey is a state of being as quoted so beautifully by Sant Kabir: 

Kabira Khada Bazar Mein, Mange Sabki Khair
Na Kahu Se Dosti, Na Kahu Se Bair!

Meaning: Kabir seeks the well being of all, having dissolved all identities of friendship (likes/pleasures) or enemity(dislikes/pains)

Such is a devotee for whom even the Lord would happily wait on 2 bricks till he finishes his work as Lord Vitthal did for his devotee Pundalik who was so engrossed in the service of his parents that he asked the Lord to wait until he finished serving. On the eve of Ashadi Ekadashi, I sincerely pray that such Bhakti kindles in your heart and gives you the courage to cultivate the virtues and humility required to draw the Lord to you as a magnet…

Apne Aap ko kar tu itna bulandki takdeer banane wala bhi tujhse pucche ki bol bande teri raza kya hai…(meaning raise yourself to such a level(by cultivating virtues & humility) that the Almighty himself asks you what is your wish, my son?)
​Pray to be such a Bhakt – nothing less!​
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Happy Ashadi Ekadashi​

Stop to smell the roses, have faith that all that happens, happens for the best.God is in his heaven and all’s right with the world.

Difficult, you would say during this time of strife and suffering.But ask yourself, was there a time in recorded history when mankind was free of suffering?

They say that life repeats the challenges that you don’t learn from, till you learn your lesson from them.We simply are refusing to learn the lesson that life is trying to teach us.

A bit of a conundrum we are for our creator – we are like the puppies who want to simply roam free without a care, knowing that the mother is there to protect them. There is a saying in marathi for this “Dharla tar chawta, sodla tar palta” meaning if you try to catch it, it bites. If you let it go, it runs…

Without learning our lesson, we can’t go to the next stage of evolution and the lesson that life is trying to teach is that we are not using the faculties that essentially make us human, instead we are still relying on our animal instincts. We have a capacity for compassion, for love, for large scale co-operation but instead of using these faculties, we are still in the mindset of each one fending for oneself…

C19 is just another test sent our way to check our readiness for the next level of evolution or the test simply repeats after some time…

Don’t worry this too shall pass but would we have learnt our lesson? this, even God doesn’t know…

All of us spend our time and energies trying to fulfil the needs as defined by Abraham Maslow depicted in his “Hierarchy of needs” and we feel that fulfilling these needs is the “purpose of life”.

Truth be told, “purpose of life” is highly subjective and only a few people get beyond the daily rigmarole of life to give a thought to what is truly of value to them to pursue as a purpose of life.
Even fewer realize that there is not one overriding purpose for everyone and that depending on the situation & maturity of the person concerned, one could choose suitable goal/s. However, before you get to goals, it does stand to reason that knowing yourself better is a good start and then check whether the goals being pursued are aligned with your thoughts & aspirations.

Aspirations are personal ambitions and could be limited in their scope, whilst inspirations go beyond oneself and have a much wider scope. If you choose that which inspires you then you go beyond the need-fulfilment hierarchy and experience something beyond aspirational living.

Given the limited time at hand in one lifetime, there are only so many things that you can do. If you choose an inspirational goal then everything else becomes secondary in comparison.

Inspirational goals are not limited by ability, scale or even the possibility of finishing in one lifetime. Inspirational goals are those that you work on without needing a reason, just make sure that the goals are for everyone’s well being or at least don’t harm others (Hitler, Alexander were also inspired people but the inspiration was in the wrong direction)

Conventional wisdom says: Don’t start what you cannot finish. Inspirational wisdom says: You must start that which you cannot finish.

So have you found what inspires you?

That all rivers eventually meet the sea, is the fate of the river,

How much time and what route it takes is its destiny,

To see the river in the sea and the sea in the river is a higher consciousness(of a Master)who experiences everything as the manifestation of the Advaita(One)

This is the company(of the Master) that one should seek that can liberate you in one glance.
Swami Chinmayananda who had the great fortune of such a glance of Ramana Maharshi

Reminds of another story that emphasizes the same point:

Saint Kabir was invited by the king when all the kings attempts of experiencing liberation had failed,The Kings High Priest had tried many rituals, performed poojas but none of them had given the King the experience of liberation.

Kabir put a condition that the king had to agree to everything that Kabir says, the king acceptedUpon hearing this Kabir asked the priest to tie the king to one pole and thereafter he tied the priest to another pole

Then Kabir asked the priest to free the king, the priest said how could he when he was himself tied downKabir asked the king to free the priest, the king said he couldn’t since he was himself tied down

Kabir then said
“Bandhe ko bandha mile choote kaun upaya. Seva kar nirbandh ki, jo pal me let chudhaye”
Meaning: An attached (bound) person cannot free another attached person. It takes the Grace of a liberated Master to liberate a Bound person in a moment… 

You have to face what you must and things will come to a pass when they must, that’s fate. But how you face things is not fate, that is something you can choose and change. Unfortunately we do just the reverse, we try to change fate(beyond our control) and keep our response(habits) to everything the same.

If you want to transform your life don’t focus on the content(what), instead focus on the context(how). It’s not what you do that matters, how you do it gives you the experience. Irrespective of what you do, if you are relaxed, focused and joyful whilst doing it then the quality of your life is completely transformed. Remember you can’t change what life brings your way but you can change how you experience it.

Meditation, realigning your attitude towards being relaxed, focused and joyful in your intent, thoughts, words and actions and above all cultivating tremendous patience are things that would stand in good stead in improving the quality of your life.

Focus on the context(quality) and lead an amazing life regardless of what you do (content)

As we sadly see the “Black lives matter” protests spread across the world with incidents of violence increasing and the administrative system being unable to contain it, it’s a sad reminder to us for being unable to uphold human values. Closer home, it is the issue of migrant labourers or discrimination against specific minorities, etc. The issue world over is the same, we are not able to uphold basic human values and we’re bearing the brunt of it for ages.

Jesus, Rama, Krishna, Mohammad, Buddha, Moses, many prophets arrived and showed us the way but we simply are unwilling to listen. So what should one do being born in such a chaotic world? It reminds me of the AA Serenity prayer – God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change, to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference between the two. We can change only that which we can control and change always begins with self. So one needs to change oneself first and foremost. As Jesus said to the crowd wanting to throw stones at a woman blamed for misconduct, that let him throw the first stone, he who hasn’t sinned… The crowd dispersed, there wasn’t a single man who hadn’t sinned. It’s the same today, whatever issue we want to protest against, we need to look within ourselves and see that before we throw stones at others, whether we ourselves are upholding basic human values and cleansing ourselves of our sins.

An eye for an eye will only make the world blind, that’s what is unfortunately happening. Reactive behaviour is easy, it is responsible behaviour that’s difficult.
Violence and immorality is easy but non-violence & morality requires certain level of maturity which needs to be reflected by all of us by upholding a moral & ethical framework by ourselves. We need to be patient with those who don’t and are yet to mature but keep inspiring them with our maturity. 

The personal slogan, if at all, for all should be “All lives matter”.

As we(in Western India) face an Act of God in the form of the Cyclone – Nisarga, the US is facing the brunt of Act of Man in the form of violent protests, arson, looting happening across the Country in protest of the death of George Floyd. In both cases, COVID has been relegated to the number 2 position in our minds. The point I’m trying to make is it’s possible for us to shift focus from one thing to another if we have to. This can also be possible if you train your mind in “choice of focus”. How?

Mind is our most powerful ally or enemy, depending on how you train it. It can be the cause of your greatest joys or worst suffering. Train the mind to respond positively to every situation and that training is possible by the practice of Raja Yoga which comprehensively exercises the body,  prana, thoughts, emotions (and opens up the possibility of Self Realisation). The more you practice the more you are freed of negative tendencies of anger, greed, lust, etc. So whilst you will still not have any control of what challenges life brings to you, you will have full control of how you choose to respond to them, with equanimity. 
Control the controllable, accept & face the uncontrollable. The learning and practice of Raja Yoga is within your control, it will strengthen your mind & body to respond better to any situation, do it. The situations of C19, Cyclone, Riots, etc are not in our control do accept and face is the only choice we have.

Those interested in learning Raja Yoga could start off by reading the exposition of Raja Yoga given by Swami Vivekananda and thereafter learning directly with a Master. It would certainly transform the quality of your life thereafter.

A recently shared article by an IAS officer expressing anguish on the current situation evoked mixed responses from people I had shared it with. Some agreed with the views, whilst some didn’t. I suppose that is the case with most things in life, there would be people for and against almost anything and everything in the world. This also set me thinking that whilst we share views and express our opinions on it, are we doing enough?

Irrespective of our views, the fact is clear that people need help, who doesn’t? How are you willing to help is the limited participation in the solution that you can contribute to. For some people the trauma of going through this lockdown by itself is enough, for some doing something to help others is enough, for some nothing is enough…So what is ‘enough’ is very subjective since no one has defined ‘enough’.
In my view, every situation could be looked at from a half glass full or a half glass empty perspective. There never was, is or will be any time when enough has been done, there would always be something remaining, that’s life, it’s a continuous series of activities with constantly changing goal posts, when you achieve one, the goal post moves further….

In this ever-changing world we must have a half glass full outlook when we are considering ourselves and what we have got from life. We must have a half glass empty outlook when we think of what others have got and try to fill that glass with as much as is possible given our capacity with utmost love.

Be satisfied with what you have- half glass fullBe eager to fill others empty glass with love-  half glass empty
In doing so you would have your glass & life full, always

Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Lovingly share everything, you will be happiest

Recently I read a quote that said Corona did not break the system, it only exposed a broken system. This is so true. 

The evolution of mankind has not given due importance to wisdom, instead it has rewarded & upheld intelligence that accumulates power, wealth and fame. There is a wisdom crises in the leadership which is only a reflection of the a wisdom crises in the masses.

By resuming normalcy, we mean we want to go back to the broken world where poverty & many other social inequities are claiming more lives than COVID ever could. But it will give us back our illusion of life.

There is a need to reset the foundational parameters of our society to uphold wisdom, balance, peace. Power, wealth and fame can, at best, be means to an end but not the end in itself, as it unfortunately is today. 

How do we do this? We need teams of people across the globe to start thinking in terms of a vaccine that would work against human greed & create a system that upholds wisdom and we should be as eagerly waiting to get vaccinated against greed, as we are waiting to be vaccinated against COVID.

Who will do this? If we don’t, who will?

Published on 12th May 2020 on the 3rd anniversary of my father passing on

There’s nothing in the world that he can’t do, I thought proudly as I(when I was 8 years old) saw him swim with his hands and feet tied at the Police Aquatic Games.

“You should do what you can” was the counsel this Karma Yogi gave & lived up to, whenever a needy soul came for help.
Never did I meet a person who was not touched by his kindness, nor did I ever see him back off from helping someone in need.

“Impossible is a word in the dictionary of fools” was a quote from Napolean Bonaparte who he studied deeply and admired. How could someone accommodate Napolean, Patanjali, Vinoba Bhave, Ghalib and Counter Intelligence of IB in the same brain and yet display the qualities of maitri, karuna, mudita, upeksha, is something that would possibly remain a mystery.

It was this very day 3 years back that his death did us apart but my Guru, loving father and friend, a true Purushottam remains etched deep in my heart.

And I still think proudly – There is nothing in the world he can’t do. He lived his life in a manner that convinced me that this is actually true. What more inspiration do I need?