If you observe any culture it has an idea of God, a Prophet/s who is/are better connected to God and miracles surround them as proof of that connection and finally the believing masses who don’t have either the time or the luxury of exploring whether God actually exists in the manner that they have been led to believe or they are simply not interested in exploring the idea but follow some book/rituals that is a tick in the check box that if one exists then s/he is doing her/his bit for being in the good books of this God. This is religion.

You are then branded as a part of a particular belief system and that is used as a basis for classifying you into ours/not ours and its consequences. This is politics.

In all this, one wonders, where is God? God seems missing in our lives that has to be led amidst uncertainty, volatility, hate politics, money making by custodians of religion because if God were there none of this would happen…

So you have to set things right by yourself, for yourself by doing the right things with the right attitude, perhaps that was always the idea of God that has been lost in translation…

I had to get my car AC repaired yesterday and replace parts that I didn’t know existed in the first place but somebody did and he was able to identify/replace the parts and lo! the AC started working. I was thinking to myself how blissfully unaware I was of what is under the hood of the car that I so enjoy driving. Same goes with the body/mind that I use daily and know so little of.

What I don’t know far exceeds what I know or want to know. I also realise that even to know one segment of known knowledge is impossible even after you spend an entire lifetime. But then I ask, is it even necessary to know everything? No. In fact, “less is more” works when it comes to enjoying life. The craving for knowing everything is what may keep you busy but it is inversely proportional to leading a satisfied life. Ignorance is bliss…

So don’t stress yourself trying to be busy, take time to step out, enjoy the rains, watch the sunset, be with your loved ones…that is where life is. Simplify your life mercilessly.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Most people are led to believe that practicing Yoga Asanas is Yoga, however it is but a part of the journey in Yoga. If achieving complicated contortions of the body was yoga then all the accomplished gymnasts/athletes across the world would be Yogi’s. Are they? What is different about a Yogi? A Yogi is equanimous, non craving/ detached and an epitome of peace.

Trying to achieve this state only through Asana’s and Diet is like a tail trying to wag the elephant- wherein the tail is the body/diet(visible) and the mind(invisible) is the rest of the elephant. Aligning the body will make your physical form supple and attractive but what about the mind? The mind is restless like a monkey with its tail on fire and the only way it can be calmed down is through Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi which is Antaranga Yoga. So just don’t stop with practicing Yoga Asanas, extend your practice to observing silence, practicing meditation(be a witness to the dance of the mind) and doors to inner peace would open by themselves.

Happy Yoga Life 

In the quest for modern amenities/progress have we gone too far to a place where it can’t be reversed? We are all feeling the heat, literally. Rains are delayed, Water bodies are running dry, forests are thinning, all the signs of natural disasters are showing up – El Nino, etc. What is our response to it? Artificial intelligence? 

I remember Gabbar Singh’s dialogue from Sholay “Agar tumko Gabbar ke taap se koi bacha sakta hai to woh hai khud Gabbar”. In real life we are Gabbar Singh and we are screwing up nature and the only ones who can save ourselves. Nature doesn’t need any help to restore balance, remember it was here before us and it will be here after we are gone. We just don’t have to interfere in its workings or make things difficult for it to maintain an equilibrium that is sustainable for humans.  

How do you do that? The answer is simple – finding balance in our own lifestyles and choosing nature(natural living) but execution is almost impossible. Nevertheless it is worth thinking about and implementing changes in our own lives however small they may be because it is a step in the right direction…

Tat Tvam Asi

So Hum

Aham Brahmasmi

All these are pointing towards the Truth that there is a changing/impermanent reality and there is a permanent/eternal reality underlying it that can be explained only through analogies- much like the rising and ebbing tides will come and go but the ocean will always remain. 

The problem and suffering is in identifying only with the impermanent and liberation is simply knowing the nature of impermanence and accepting “this too shall pass” and what remains, is the eternal – “I am that”. 

This needs the attention to be withdrawn from dance of the impermanent and to focus within to experience the underlying eternal (which, in Yoga, is Pratyahara) – Silence is the path but do you wish to walk it to realise the eternal or are happy with the dance of the impermanence, well that is up to you…

AI is the new buzzword, will it go the nuclear science way? In that, would it be used for creation or destruction? Who knows? 

Intent with which any advent in technology is used is the key – a malafide intent would open the door to hell, whilst a noble intent to heaven. Considering the state of the world, it doesn’t need Artificial Intelligence to indicate what intent is dominant.

In my view, AI is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist and science has raced so ahead of reality that the real problems of the world are in fact increasing – the have nots are still facing the same problems of poverty, lack of medicines, etc whilst the haves are driving around in driverless cars. It simply doesn’t make sense and yet the world is going gaga over something that would only be used to make the rich richer and the poor poorer… And the circus continues….

Earth belongs to no one, yet humans devised ways of owning it by drawing imaginary boundaries over it & fighting over them…Even your own life doesn’t belong to you, life assumes a form – it grows and dies, you were never the form, then what are you clinging to? 

Freedom or liberation is understanding and accepting the essence of being nothing and taking the responsibility of living harmoniously with all other sentient beings – that is Dharma – not the religion you are born into which is just another classification of something that is inherently unclassifiable. 

Freedom and Dharma are both choices of how you choose to experience life as – a Bhogi(Person bound by identities provided by external factors- family, religion, group, country, etc) or a Jeevan Mukt(Liberated Soul). 

Change the context, not the content.

Handicap is not merely physical, it is also mental, financial, karmic and in that all of us are handicapped. Reminds me of the verse

Kabhi kisi ko mukammal jahan nahi milta

Kahi Zameen Kahi Aasman nahi milta…

We try to strive for completeness in the aspects wherein we feel incomplete/suffering since we are looking at the surface, the trick is to dive to the bottom and realise that everything is complete at Source… and it has to be the way it is at the surface. This is acceptance of everything and being your bit as well as you can, till you can…Perhaps that is what Sant Dyaneshwar meant when he described his state as “Ata karne nahi, hone” (Not doing anymore, being)