tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59856523412480043792024-03-28T05:23:18.722+05:30Wisdom from Sri Sri Ravi ShankarWisdom from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is one of the Official Blogs of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Visit to read question and answers by Sri Sri here.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1480125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-59169174031590015782024-03-24T23:59:00.001+05:302024-03-24T23:59:00.137+05:30Holi lessons for the spiritual seeker<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When sacredness is attached to a celebration, it becomes total, complete. It’s not just the body and mind but the spirit also celebrates. Then celebration dawns spontaneously and life becomes a vibrant fountain of colors. The sacred festival of Holi is not just about outward celebration but also inner wisdom that we must pay attention to. When you are in knowledge, then all the colors in your life coexist peacefully. Harmony in diversity makes life vibrant, joyful and more colorful.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><i>Make friends with enemies</i></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">One of the messages of Holi is: Make friends even with the enemy. Let there be no enemy. Why is an enemy born? When we have animosity within us, then an enemy is born. <b>If we have no animosity left in us, then we would have no enemies either.</b> We shouldn’t mind if someone else considers us as an enemy but we shouldn’t perceive any animosity from our side.</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><i>All colors co-exist</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>Life should be full of colors! And each color is meant to be seen and enjoyed separately.</b> All colors emanate from white, and when mixed again, they become black. Similarly, in life, different roles played by us should exist peacefully and distinctly inside us. For example, when a father continues to play his role of a ‘father’ in office, things are bound to go for a toss. When your mind is white and consciousness – pure, peaceful, happy and meditative, different colors and roles emerge. We get the strength to play various roles with full sincerity against the background. All we need to do is dip into our consciousness time and again. Between all the roles, we have to take deep rests, in order to play each role sincerely.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><i>Be Aware of Your Desires</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The only way out is to focus attention on the desire and surrender it. This act of focusing awareness or sight on desire or <i>Kama</i> is called ‘<i>Kamakshi</i>’. With awareness, desire loses its grip on our mind and surrender happens and then nectar flows out from within. If you look at the picture of the goddess, Kamakshi, holds a sugarcane stem in one hand and a flower in the other. The sugar-cane stem is so hard and has to be squeezed in order to obtain sweetness, while the flower is soft and collecting nectar from it is so easy. This truly represents life, which indeed has a little of both! It is far easier to obtain this bliss from the inside than it is to try to extract pleasure from the outside world – which needs a lot more effort.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><i>Become a witness</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Nature has all colors and so does your mind. You feel happy, unhappy, angry, jealous, compassionate, generous…all these colors of emotions come up in you. The mind is not the same all the time. But when you know you are not that, you are not these colors, moods then you can truly enjoy these colors. You become a witness to all the mind games that go on inside of you. <b>What troubles you most in life is not someone else but your own mind.</b> When you identify yourself with those emotions, you think that is you, then you are in trouble. Meditation is the way to move into this witness state.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">This itself is the message of Holi - go hug and color everyone, bow down with respect and radiate love. On this occasion of Holi, spread the colors of love everywhere making life buoyant and colorful.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Wishing all Happy Holi!</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-17135758555874222532024-03-07T22:35:00.002+05:302024-03-07T22:35:28.676+05:30Meditation and its many meanings<p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b style="color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Meditation is not an </b><span style="color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif;"><b>act;</b></span><b style="color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> it is the art of doing nothing.</b><span style="color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif;"> The rest in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep that you can ever have. When the mind becomes free from agitation, becomes calm and serene and is at peace, meditation happens. When the mind is engaged in some activity, it gets tired.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">So any type of concentration, contemplation or any activity in the mind can drain your system. Meditation is that which doesn’t drain you, but just gives you deep rest and we withdraw from all sensory activities like seeing, listening, smelling, tasting. It is almost like sleep, but not exactly sleep.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Meditation is not concentration; it is de-concentration, letting go. When can you rest? Rest is possible when you have stopped all activities. When you stop moving around, stop working, talking, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, thinking—then you get rest or sleep. In sleep you are left with only involuntary activities like breathing, heartbeat, food digestion, blood-circulation, etc.<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"></p><footer class="post-footer" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; display: block; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></footer><p></p><section class="post-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; display: block; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">But this is not total rest. When the mind settles down, only then total rest or meditation happens. There are three modes to our consciousness: waking, dreaming and sleeping; and a fourth mode is the meditative state. That is, you are aware from within and yet fully in a deep state of rest. Meditation calms the mind and gives it deep rest.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">What happens in your mind when you have to wait for something? Do you notice the time passing by? In waiting, you observe every moment that is passing by and this very waiting can take you into meditation. When you have to wait, you can either be frustrated or meditative. Feeling time is meditation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Meditation is that journey from sound to silence, from movement to stillness. It complements activity, though it appears to be completely opposite. For a layman, we can categorize the whole thing in seven layers of existence: body, breath, mind, intellect, memory, ego and the reference point of change which we call the “self.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">You know in life, we notice everything is changing. And how do we know the change, if there is no reference in the mind? There is something in us that is not changing. That something that has been with us, we call it the Self or the non-changing aspect of our consciousness. So, meditation is a journey to the non-changing reference of our Self, the consciousness.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Now, many people ask how to quiet the mind in meditation or how to get into a deeper meditation? So I would say, first accept the noise and not fight it. You fight with it and feel that you should not have this noise. The more you want to get rid of it, the more it will stick to you. The principle of consciousness or mind is such that resistance does not eliminate it but makes it grow. So first you have to let go and not resist it.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Second focus on the five different ways of getting into meditation. Breathing will help you get rid of the noise. Proper food can also make an impact on meditation. Exercise, posture and refined emotions, good understanding, all of these will aid meditation. </p></section>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-76765009519702677062024-03-03T20:37:00.003+05:302024-03-03T20:37:34.832+05:30Effort and effortlessness<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Anything that is natural does not require effort. You bathe in the morning. Do you bathe with a lot of interest? Do you brush your teeth with a lot of interest? No, you don’t. Just because you have to do it, you do it! It’s natural and effortless!</p><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Like when you are smiling naturally, that smile is effortless. But if you are asked to smile then that becomes a difficult task. Doing an action that requires effort is <i>aasakti</i>. However, doing work that comes naturally and gives you inner peace is done in <i>nirasakti</i>.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">If you ask those who prepare food every day, they would be able to prepare it without much effort. However, if the same task is handed to a person who never cooks, he will flip through the pages of a recipe book again and again, to prepare the same food. He will keep tasting the food to check the balance of spices. So wherever effort is applied, the job is done with <i>aasakti</i>, and this leads to feverishness.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">You being feverish about going to, for example, Mysore is <i>aasakti</i>; and effortlessly driving your car to Mysore is <i>nirasakti</i>. <i>Nirasakti</i> is not disinterestedness or depression; it is just an effortless attitude. The next effortless thing is meditation. If you put effort into meditation, that is it! You will not be able to do it. Meditation happens effortlessly.</p></div><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">All other things need effort – memorising anything requires effort, learning skills need effort. If you want to learn the computer, it takes you some time to adjust to the keyboard! If you want to learn some sport, you have to give 100% effort. If you want to play the sitar, you have to put in effort. And if you need to tell a lie? – 500% effort! This is because when you tell a lie, you forget what you have told, and it needs a lot of effort to keep it in mind!</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>Life is a combination of effort and effortlessness and they are complementary.</b> If you work dynamically, you sleep well. If you have memorised well, you remember automatically. If you are doing service, you are able to love more, because there is satisfaction and your heart is opening up. If you can see beauty everywhere, you can appreciate beauty!</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When you can do this, things become effortless; even jobs requiring effort, will not be strenuous. Do you see? <b>When you want to do something, when the heart is in it, when there is an appreciation of beauty, then even effort is not strenuous.</b></p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-54707137550775529562024-02-29T16:38:00.001+05:302024-03-03T20:31:04.252+05:30Satsang<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><i>Satsang</i> means the company of reality, being in touch with the truth. It is not just singing some complicated songs which you don’t understand. Music is one part of it. The second part is understanding the logic. The third part is reposing in deep meditation and being with yourself. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">So, which is the right company? That which makes you feel light, which makes you feel the problem is very trivial as compared to what you thought. If company makes you perceive the problem as being bigger than it is, that is not <i>satsang</i>. <i>Satsang</i> is where you can drop what people think about you and be authentic.</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Usually, people who are in celebration don’t go into the depth, while people who experience silence, don’t usually celebrate. However, satsang is when we value both silence and celebration. <b>The purpose of music is to create silence deep within you and the purpose of silence is to create dynamism in life.</b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Music is <i>laya yoga;</i> <i>laya</i> is dissolving. This is the highest form of <i>samadhi</i> (unity with the divine). Sound is a form of energy. Your whole body is made up of atoms. When you sing bhajans, the sound vibrations get absorbed into every particle of your body. Just like a microphone absorbs sound and converts it into electricity, the body absorbs the vibrations and transforms it into consciousness.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">If you are sitting and listening to gossip or loud jarring music, then that gets absorbed by your body and does not give a nice feeling. When you hear knowledge, or chant with all your heart, that elevates your consciousness. Being with this truth kindles the energy in you and awakens the consciousness because the sound energy very easily penetrates into the mind.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The body is made up of five elements – earth, water, air, fire and ether. The ether element is associated with sound. And sound unites. Sound reverberates in your body. Our mind and consciousness are ancient. When you dive into different layers of consciousness, there are different languages that are present there. The most ancient layer of our consciousness can understand the most ancient language of the world – sanskrit.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When we are sitting, thinking or talking then every mind thinks differently, no one thinks alike. But when we sing or chant sanskrit <i>bhajans</i>, then the mind which is so ancient identifies the impressions of all these old bhajans, our consciousness begins to unite and somewhere deep inside sharing happens. And the <i>bhajans</i> or mantras make deep impressions in the mind where they remain for a long period. It is like a brush. Each bristle joined together can clear all the knots in mind.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">That is why even though we don’t know the meaning of some of the words, we simply chant them because just chanting them has a positive effect. It is not the meaning that is important. So when we sing, we don’t have to see how well we sing, and where we are singing. Just close your eyes and be one with the music, the sound. You dissolve into the space that is, through <i>bhajan</i>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">We usually think <i>bhajan</i> is just singing songs. <i>Bhajan</i> means sharing. Divine is love and when you blossom in that love, you share the love. Divine is compassion, and when you are compassionate, you are in <i>bhajan</i>. When the mind is split into one hundred parts, there is misery. And the same minds when they all get together, becomes one unit, then there is joy.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-66107655317975605452024-02-25T15:25:00.000+05:302024-02-25T15:25:00.120+05:30Navigating storms in life with knowledge<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">All around the world, countries have stormy seasons. The tropical countries have their monsoons, and non-tropical countries have their yearly winter storms. The layout of the planet, along with its various climates and weather systems, make it such that there is always a storm happening somewhere on Earth. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The same phenomenon holds true for people. <b>Life is found to be caught up in storms very often, either in some part of the mind or body. </b>You are not yourself when you are in even a small storm. By their very nature, storms take you away from your centre, and you don’t know what to do. All your practices, concepts, ideas, and ideals fall apart during storms.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Your devotion, your love, all the beautiful things you cherish in your life simply seem to be missing, or meaningless. These things happen when you are under the influence of a big storm. And even when the storm has subsided, the very memory of it disturbs you even more. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">So what do you do when a storm appears overhead? Nothing appears to be helpful. When you sit and close your eyes to meditate, you see that the mind is all over the place. You feel as though you are in a burning furnace and you don’t know how to put out the flame. It’s like an oil well is burning inside you. The more effort you make to cool it down, put the fire out, the more the fire comes alive, and brings more restlessness and agitation.</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>Know that storms are minuscule when compared to the ocean of the Self.</b> In the Ashtavakra Gita, King Janaka says, “<i>Mayya anantha mahaambhodau - </i>In the ocean of my Self, many such lives are arising and dissolving.” Janaka knows that all those whom he sees are part of him and that all the lives he sees are just his own form. I have taken so many forms, and in my own consciousness is acting this way in that mind, that way in that mind; in all these different minds different roles are being played, but it’s all me.” One wave arises, and another wave comes back and recedes into the ocean of the Self.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">By the nature of life, different minds continually springs up into this “person”. You temporarily become all these persons and personalities and life and lifestyles and dramas and soap operas. Imagine watching wrestling on television. Can you feel that both of the wrestlers are inside yourself? If you have ever acted in a drama or in theatre, you may have consciously experienced this. You may perform a monologue in two different acts, and act in completely opposite forms. In the first half you act as one person, and in the second, you act as another person who pushes all the buttons of the first person.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Like waves, these two people clash with each other. It’s in you, in your own nature, in your own form. Different waves arise, different beings arise, different souls arise. They rise, they clash with each other, they play and they dissolve to go back into you. These storms come into your life whether you like it or not. It lashes on you and pulls you out of your likes and dislikes. <b>Every storm that has come into your life has widened your horizon, making you deep and more powerful.</b> Every storm has destroyed some smallness or obstacle in you. The storms that rise in you never stay in you forever.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Every storm is a blessing. It cuts you, it destroys you, and it finishes you off while you cry. If you are knowledgeable, you don’t cry—you will laugh. Even though the event is the same in either case, you now laugh at it because you know that it is insignificant in the face of your true infinite nature. This is the role of knowledge. In knowledge, you smile and laugh at all events, including the most difficult ones. You grow out of the event with the power of knowledge. Even a drowning person can hold onto a straw. It’s like holding onto a life jacket, the knowledge in the storms.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Even the smallest life jacket can save you from drowning. Everybody in the world faces these crises. They manifest as personality clashes, relationship problems, worries about the future and whatnot. People feel insecure, and as the days pass by, they wonder what they’re doing with their life. They wonder whether they’re in the right place or not, or if they have the right people around them. These thoughts bring about all sorts of confusions, jealousies, anger, and hatred. But the person with the life jacket is saved and rises above this storm. He should put on the life jacket, blow it up, and keep it well prepared.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-22727402145680192782024-02-20T20:23:00.003+05:302024-02-20T20:23:47.019+05:30Love, truth and strength<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">In love, one often feels weak, but truth brings strength. Then why would someone tell a lie to their close ones or to their beloved? Lovers often ask this question. Love cannot stand untruth, and relationships tend to break up when untruths exist. Understanding the paradox of love and truth; allows one to discover the answer to this question.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">People often tell lies just to save and maintain their love. The fear that truth might damage love, lends to lies told between a husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, parents and children and in other family situations.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>In love, one often feels weak, but truth brings strength.</b> So, the question that may arise is - why do people prefer love over truth, weakness over strength?</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Love is that which generally does not want to be sacrificed and so people are ready to give up the truth for love even though love takes the luster out of truth. Also, there are times when truth can make love bitter while in love, even lies appear sweet.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">For example, when Krishna lies to his mother, Yashoda! With truth there are judgements, but true love is beyond judgements. Thus, true love can make one weak and yet it is the greatest strength.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>Ultimately, the truth that does not nourish love makes no sense, and the love that cannot withstand the truth is not true love.</b> If one is assured that their love is so strong that truth can neither break it nor cause bitterness, then truth prevails and love continues to shine.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-44932238911900128212024-02-17T17:25:00.000+05:302024-02-17T17:25:00.360+05:30Nourishing your emotions<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">A person without emotions is like wood without any juice. You need to make yourself interesting to inspire people to be with you. This will happen when you nurture yourself with music, prayer and service. The way to expand from individual to universal consciousness is to share others’ sorrow and joy. As you grow, your consciousness should also grow.</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When you expand in knowledge with time, then depression is not possible. <b>The way to overcome personal misery is to share universal misery. The way to expand personal joy is to share universal joy.</b> Instead of thinking, “what about me?” and “what can I gain from this world?” think, “what can I do for the world?” Service leads to the dynamic experience of heart. It creates a sense of belongingness.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Lack of service can lead a person to depression. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Pain is physical. Suffering is mental. If you are not sensitive to others’ pain, then you are not a human being. That is why you need to serve. <b>Service alone can bring contentment in life, but service without silence tires you.</b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Service without spirituality will be shallow and cannot be sustained for a long period. The deeper the silence, the more dynamic will be the outer activity. Both are essential in life. When you bring some relief or freedom to someone through seva, good vibrations and blessings come to you.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Seva brings merit; merit allows you to go deep in meditation; meditation brings back your smile. When you sing and pray from your heart, your emotions are nourished and you become lively.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-75085565654778145312024-02-13T19:24:00.002+05:302024-02-13T19:24:28.163+05:30Changing two tendencies of the mind<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Have you noticed what keeps happening in the mind every moment? The mind keeps wondering what is going to happen next. Knowledge is being aware of this phenomenon of the mind; of what is happening right now in the mind.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">All other information and education can be acquired by reading books. You can open a book on any subject, be it birth, death or dietary habits; there are volumes of books available on countless topics. But awareness of our own mind cannot be learnt by reading a book.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">What does our mind do? It vacillates between the past and the future. Every moment, it is either angry about the past or anxious about the future. There is another tendency of the mind – clinging to the negative. If 10 positive instances or events are followed by one negative event, we cling to that one negative thing. We simply forget all the 10 positives.</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>To bring about a change in these two tendencies of the mind is the greatest help you can render yourself.</b> Becoming aware of these two tendencies in the mind will make you very natural, very simple. These are very precious values and will enable you to blossom from within.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">We are actually born with this innocence in us; but as we become more and more mature and intelligent, we tend to lose this innocence and end up becoming stiff. Drop the stiffness, and then see how much more rewarding, more enjoyable, more interesting life becomes. This is knowledge. And this is also worship.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-30534254202305371252024-02-01T13:54:00.001+05:302024-02-01T13:54:00.135+05:30Overcome the four reins pulling you backwards<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><i>Sukha</i> (pleasure), <i>dukha</i> (sorrow), logic and feverishness — these four reins pull you backwards. You dream of pleasure; this is so amazing! Even after experiencing different pleasures, you think there is pleasure somewhere else. You are pulled by the rein of pleasure. Every pleasure has been so momentary, has left your hands empty, depleted, drained. Yet one hopes for more pleasure, some unknown, unseen pleasure.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><i>Sukha</i> is pleasure and <i>dukha</i>, sorrow or the fear of sorrow. What is the sorrow that you are afraid of? What is going to happen to you? You have gone through many problems. As a child, you cried so many times when a toy broke. But what happened? You passed through that. You have passed through many stumbling blocks in life, which you thought were impossible. Yet you remained untouched by any of them. Nothing could ever shake you. It appeared to have shaken you at that moment, but later on you found that you are as complete as were before.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">And then there is desire for more, wanting more and more. We burn with desire; and this burning in desire does not allow you to relax into the peace of your being. Unless you let go of the desires, you can never find peace, you can never rest in the divine love. Love is the process of dissolving, of giving, of offering, of serving. If you do service to gain some merit, it is not service.</p><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Let go of these desires. When you are able to let go, then you blossom. Wait for the blossoming. Wait for the time; don’t be in a hurry. Every bud takes its own time to bloom; don’t force a bud to become a flower. You will have to follow a certain code of conduct. This is the manure by which the rose of love will blossom. Be non-violent, not just in your action, but also in your heart, in your speech, in your thoughts. You may be non-violent in action due to fear of the law. But in the mind when you said, “I am going to kill them! I am going to choke them!” you have already choked them.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"></p><footer class="post-footer" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; display: block; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></footer><p></p><section class="post-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; display: block; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit;">Follow the truth. Be with the truth. Be with the existence. It means live in the moment. Existence is truth. Often we mistake ‘being truthful’ to mean just speaking the truth. It’s not just speaking truth; but expressing truth your whole life. Keep the purity of your mind, speech, and body. Purity is not mixing up things. So when you become witness to the body, mind, intellect, memory and all your different faculties, and don’t get mixed up with them, that is purity. <b>Observing the observer, being very pure; this is a deeper meaning of purity.</b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit;">The greatest joy is in compassion or <i style="font-weight: 400;">daya</i>. Just stand in a corner and see the whole world. If you can just feel compassion for the whole world, a shift has already happened in your consciousness. <b>Look at all the people who are indulging in all that you don’t like. Just for a moment, have compassion for them all, for the way they are. Then a shift happens; you become big; your Self expands.</b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit;">Faith of <i style="font-weight: 400;">astikya</i> transcends logic and reasoning. You live in a very logical world. Every step in your life is measured. You reason for everything that you do and for all your experiences. You try to capture your experiences through logic, through reasoning. When the reasoning or logic breaks down, you tremble. Sooner or later you again find some logic, some reason, and feel comfortable with it. But reality is beyond logic; truth is beyond logic; you cannot capture truth by logic. <b>If you could reason out all your life and all its experiences, then you have not lived life fully, you have not known life fully.</b></span></p></section></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-11781341737129424512024-01-28T13:53:00.001+05:302024-01-28T13:53:34.744+05:30Understanding spirituality<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Life is eternal; we never give a thought to this truth. When someone dies we declare that the person is immortal, but the truth is we ourselves are immortal too. That is why we do not feel that we have grown old. No matter how old a person is, he feels he is never going to die. If someone else dies, we say, ‘oh that poor fellow died’. ‘Everyone else dies but I won’t’, this feeling is there somewhere. There is a stream of awareness within us that cannot be destroyed. To acknowledge and observe that stream is spirituality – 'I have not changed, I have not grown old, I am just the same.'</p><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">This brings such courage and strength in life that nothing can shake you. Examining your life, observing it is spirituality, it is ‘satsang’. Satsang is not just singing bhajans but pondering on the truths of life. <b>The most important truth of life – there is an element within me that does not perish, does not diminish and is deathless.</b> If you direct even the slightest attention to it, life becomes easy and uncomplicated. The second truth – everything changes. The body undergoes many changes, as does the mind, so do our thoughts.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>Knowing that everything is changing stabilises you.</b> When you are established in this truth, such a smile blossoms from within you that can never fade, cannot be robbed. To sit in an effort to gain this knowledge is satsang. If we change ourselves, we can change our environment, our society and this world. ‘God knows Gurudev, how many lifetimes it will take for me to gain this awareness’ – do not harbour such thoughts. Now that you have come for satsang, believe that you have already gained it.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Once you are on the train, know that you will reach the destination. That is for sure. How do we make this smile unshakable? How do we make our time on the planet meaningful? Being human we all have certain needs and certain responsibilities. <b>If your needs are more than your responsibilities, there will be unhappiness in life, guaranteed! If your responsibilities are more than your needs, life will be peaceful.</b> What you need to do is reduce your desires and take on more responsibility. And when in our life, personal needs disappear and desires no longer exist; an extraordinary, mystical ability is awakened within us that enables us to bless others.</p></div><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When we do not want anything for ourselves, we develop the strength to fulfil the desires of others. This is the second step you have to climb. First, become aware of your desires and whatever desires are left. Have the confidence that by God’s grace they will be fulfilled. The next step is, ‘I want nothing.’ When you want nothing, you will become so strong that whatever you say to anyone will become a blessing to them. If you bless anyone, it will manifest.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When we die, only two questions remain: how much love have you shared, and how much knowledge have you gained. <b>One day or the other, we are going to die. But we have to make sure, we all come together and create a divine society till the time we are in this world.</b></p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-37365584748122839682024-01-17T12:45:00.002+05:302024-01-28T13:42:35.998+05:30Sacred symbols of the divine<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Throughout the ages, in all cultures, place, time, people and symbols were considered sacred because the moment you consider something sacred, your inertia disappears, and you become more alive and attentive.</p><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When every action of yours becomes sacred, you become one with the Divine. Whatever our ancestors said, there are profound mysteries hidden behind them. Facts have been explained by them in symbolic form. Let us see a few:</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">— Lord Shiva, in sitting posture, has a snake around his neck. This implies the state of meditation.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">— Earth on Shesh Naag implies centripetal force. There are two kinds of earthly forces, one is centripetal force and the other is centrifugal force. The movement of these forces is not straight but they have a snake-like movement. It represents centripetal force which means ‘not going straight’ and the Earth rotates on its axis and around the sun.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">— The fact that Divinity is both male and female was represented as ‘Ardhnareeshwar’. God is not just man, or just woman. Everyone is made up of both male and female genes.</p></div><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">— Saraswati carries a rosary representing meditation; a book representing intellectual knowledge and a musical instrument – veena. This means wisdom dawns only when intellectual knowledge, music and meditation come together. Saraswati sits on a rock, meaning once you have acquired wisdom, it is deeply grounded in you. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">— Goddess Laxmi sits on lotus, meaning wealth is flowing and anything can happen anytime.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">— Even the weapons in Gods’ hands have a deeper meaning. God-Goddesses are within us, are our very own. So they show human flaws of anger, jealousy etc. in them as well. Therefore, you don’t feel guilty when such emotions arise in you. The purpose was to bring you closer to God.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">‘Rishis’ chose to express Divinity in terms of symbols rather than words. Words change over time, symbols don’t. But <b>eventually you need to transcend and feel that the entire creation, with all its symbols, places, species, people and your whole life, are sacred at all times.</b></p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-37202368070319349552024-01-13T12:43:00.004+05:302024-01-13T12:43:55.528+05:30Renunciation a.k.a. the art of letting go<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When someone blames or praises you, just observe what happens to your breath, what happens deep within you. If someone gives you a compliment, it doesn’t become a part of your breath. But if someone insults you, your breath starts burning and your heart gets filled with anger and remorse. Generally, people get stuck in negativity and unpleasantness, rather than positivity or pleasantness. Of course, when you love somebody, love becomes a very deep part of you.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Suppose you have an ideology you strongly believe in, then that becomes a part of your breath. For example, some people are committed to doing something good for the environment; then day and night they will think about it. Or someone has a particular project in their mind, then that project becomes a part of them. They are fully into it, and it’s OK.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">But renunciation is the ability to drop everything and rest. Many people do not succeed in a project, because they become feverish about it. They lack renunciation. <b>Whether you like it or not, every night before going to bed you renounce everything. If you don’t renounce, you won’t be able to sleep.</b> Insomnia is a sign of non-renunciation.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">However, renunciation has been wrongly understood. Living in the moment and making the mind free is what renunciation is all about. It does not take away fun from life. You know, people have such wrong ideas. They feel, “I don’t want to be a monk. I just want to enjoy life.” The word renunciation has been distorted to its maximum limit. I tell you, there is nothing scary about renouncing.</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">You think you have control over your entire life. But let me tell you that you have zero control over yourself. Often, we try to control other people’s life, their thinking, their feelings, the way they should or shouldn’t behave or the way they should live. When one lacks control over oneself, he cannot control anything or anybody.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Renunciation happens only in the present moment. When you are in silence, you are not acting. You are amidst the chaos but inside, you are tranquil and peaceful. You live these opposites simultaneously and this ability is in the seed form in everyone. <b>Only those who renounce can come to God.</b></p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-24084279429092808272023-12-28T15:33:00.001+05:302023-12-28T15:33:00.130+05:30Health is the optimum life force<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Once Mullah Naseeruddin met with an accident and was in a hospital with bandages all over him. One of his friends came to visit and asked, “Mullah, how are you?” He said,” I am fine. It only hurts when I laugh.” The friend said, “How can you laugh in this condition?” Mullah replied, “If I don’t laugh now, I have never laughed in my life.”</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">This undying enthusiasm is an aspect of being in perfect health. The word health in Sanskrit is ‘<i>swasth</i>’ which means an enlightened being, one who is established in the self. The first sign of being in the self is enthusiasm — one who can laugh and say, “today nothing worked.” To be able to say this you need a state of mind that is stress-free and tension proof. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Health is the optimum life force. It is when your consciousness is alert, intellect is sharp, energy high and there is a willingness to learn more and more. If you are physically fit and mentally lethargic and depressed, then that is not health. We need to recognise this aspect of ourselves. </p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Half of our health we spend in gaining wealth and then we spend that wealth to gain back our health. This is not economical. When animals get wet or play in the dust, they shake their full body and get everything out of them. But we human beings hold onto everything. When you come to office, shake the home-related matters off your mind. When you go back home, shake the office off your back.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">For tackling stress, there are techniques of pranayama and meditation which also strengthen your nervous system and mind, release toxins from the body and enhance your performance and overall quality of life. Never mind if some failure happens here and there; so, what? Every failure is a big step for success. Increase your enthusiasm and avoid getting stressed.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-63463444332140477082023-12-24T14:30:00.006+05:302023-12-24T14:31:25.766+05:30Nourishing your emotions through seva<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">A person without emotions is like wood without any juice. You need to make yourself interesting to inspire people to be with you. This will happen when you nurture yourself with music, prayer and service. The way to expand from individual to universal consciousness is to share others’ sorrow and joy. As you grow, your consciousness should also grow.</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When you expand in knowledge with time, then depression is not possible. The way to overcome personal misery is to share universal misery. The way to expand personal joy is to share universal joy. Instead of thinking, “what about me?” and “what can I gain from this world?” think, “what can I do for the world?” Service leads to the dynamic experience of heart. It creates a sense of belongingness.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Not being of service (<i>seva</i>) to others, can lead a person to depression. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Pain is physical. Suffering is mental. If you are not sensitive to others’ pain, then you are not a human being. That is why you need to serve. Service alone can bring contentment in life, but service without silence will tire you.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Service without spirituality will be shallow and cannot be sustained for a long period. The deeper the silence, the more dynamic will be the outer activity. Both are essential in life. When you bring some relief or freedom to someone through <i>seva</i>, good vibrations and blessings come to you.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><i>Seva</i> brings merit; merit allows you to go deep in meditation; meditation brings back your smile. When you sing and pray from your heart, your emotions are nourished and you become lively.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-74356821446347415242023-12-22T17:06:00.000+05:302023-12-22T17:06:00.126+05:30Creating a happy world through peace<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">In a world marked by conflicts and a ballooning mental health crisis, one pressing question beckons: Is there a way out of this?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The post-pandemic world continues to fluctuate between extremes of aggression and societal violence on one end and depression and suicidal tendencies on the other. Mental health and loneliness have become silent epidemics with estimated one in every three individuals in the world suffering from anxiety or depression.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">With nearly two mass shootings per day and classroom violence becoming commonplace in the U.S., it makes one wonder if we are regressing to a barbaric age. In today’s virtual world where more and more people seem to be operating in silos, there is an increasing feeling of mistrust and isolation.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">How did we even get here? Let’s look at life through the lens of these three fundamental aspects: passion, dispassion and compassion.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Passion is essential to achieve anything worthwhile. Without it, one could feel lost, unenthusiastic or even depressed. On the other hand, unbridled passion can lead to anxiety, fear of uncertainty and even insomnia.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>While passion propels one into action, dispassion allows one to relax.</b> Certain amount of dispassion is essential in order to feel sane, safe and to have a sound sleep. It broadens one’s vision and allows one to look at life from a bigger context, acknowledging the fact that people and situations are constantly changing. When one embraces this sense of impermanence, the world appears like a transit lounge. Both, modern scientists and ancient sages concur that the world is illusory in nature. This awareness makes individuals pause and reconsider the priorities of their life.</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The third aspect is compassion which defines humanness. In absence of which, life appears dry and meaningless. While compassion towards others is essential, compassion towards one’s own self is equally important. It also creates an environment where people feel heard and included thus mitigating the adverse impact of loneliness.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When these aspects go out of balance, it induces stress and societal discord. This is the primary cause of today’s mental health crisis. Unfortunately, neither at home nor in school have we ever learned how to manage stress and emotions. Popular interventions such as therapy and medication are cosmetic at best as they don’t seem to offer a long-lasting solution. This calls for a fundamental rethink.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Breathwork and meditation hold the key to eliminating stress and restoring balance in all aspects of life. 42 years ago, when I first started to travel across various countries, yoga and meditation were colored with prejudice. While the stigma around these practices is waning, there is still a long way to go.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Our breath has many secrets that have not been explored fully. Each emotion corresponds to a distinct breathing pattern. If emotions can impact how we breathe, the reverse is also true. From ancient times, people have been using breath as a way to relax and strengthen their minds. A strong mind can carry a weak body. However, a weak mind cannot even support a strong body.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Meditation helps individuals experience a rare state of outer dynamism and inner calm. It is no longer a luxury, but a modern-day necessity. Meditation and breathwork are not just cures but also preventive measures for maintaining mental and emotional well-being. Even if one person in a family is disturbed, it affects the entire family. Inner peace is key to the peace in family, society and eventually in the entire nation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>Wars originate as a conflict in the mind of an individual. Perceived threat from others, breakdown of communication and lack of trust fuel discord, resulting in loss of sensitivity and sensibility.</b> Thus, it is all the more necessary for people in positions of power to have inner calm and peace. This enables them to think better and act more effectively for the greater good of our planet.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">In global discussions, peace and security are always mentioned in the same breath. However very little attention is given to peace education. It will serve the planet in the long run if governments could spend a fraction of their security budget on peace education and mental health towards creating a happy world.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>A violence-free society, quiver-free breath, stress-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, and a sorrow-free soul is the birthright of every individual. My vision is to see a happier society. Some may say it’s utopia but I’m confident that together we can make it a reality.</b></p><div><br /></div></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-4071801348191092572023-12-19T20:05:00.002+05:302023-12-19T20:05:45.914+05:30The true essence of sports<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Should we take sports seriously or lightly? The answer is both. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">It loses its charm and lightness if you take sports too seriously. It turns into a battle or business and that’s where all the unethical practices can stem from.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When we do not take sports in a lighter spirit and treat them as larger-than-life, we get depressed and anxious about failing. For many sportspersons, this becomes a trigger for a host of mental illnesses. A game is a game because it is foolish. If you find meaning, it is not a game. A fool does something unique, yet meaningless. All entertainment, including games, are an act of foolishness in some way.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Just imagine if somebody from another planet lands here and sees a huge crowd watching a game – one ball in the middle, a player trying to hit it all over, another trying to catch it and bring it back to the centre, only to throw it away again. Why go through all this trouble, the alien might wonder. It would appear absolutely funny and pointless. For hours together other people sit there, howling, yelling and clapping. You can watch the whole drama, with awareness. There is really nothing in it. George Bernard Shaw said somewhere, “Cricket is a game where 11 fools play and 11 thousand watch.”</p><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Not just cricket, make your whole life a game. Take it lightly and easily. Play the game. That is worship. Have you ever seen kittens, or even small monkeys, when their stomachs are full? They don’t just sit around. They play. They are not really fighting with each other but they run, punch, scratch, and do somersaults. Sports is a natural phenomenon where we laugh and cry together. A sport or a game is the first expression of life. A baby, even before it starts recognising faces and speaking, starts playing.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">I would say sports is the purest expression of life, and so honouring it is honouring our own life force. Whether it is politics, economics, music, art, religion or sports, there is only one aim of all these avenues – to bring happiness. And sport is one of the most important tools to create happiness, harmony and well-being. But we need to look at sports and sportsmanship from a broader dimension, to keep the violence, aggression and short-sightedness out of it.</p></div><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">We need to learn the art of equanimity. Letting a win go to our head can lead to arrogance and allowing the loss to get to our hearts can lead to depression and anxiety. Somehow, the feverishness of winning has gripped the arena of sports. Even between countries, when one country wins, the people from other countries get so upset, and in some cases, there is violence. This can be avoided if the true essence of sports is brought to light – to uplift the spirit and unite people and have happier societies.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">In a game, somebody is going to win, but that somebody’s win should be eventually a celebration for everybody, a celebration of talent. I tell sportspersons, there are only two scenarios — either you win or you make others win. That puts their minds at ease. If that is not the spirit, then it is not a game, it is a war or business. Infusing this spirit in sports is important to uplift human consciousness. If this is not there, then we are missing something that is basic to sports.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Sports have this special dimension: You can be happy just by playing, keeping aside the results. Their result is not as important as the process or the joy of being involved in the act of playing, and how well you have played your role.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">It is important to make sure mental health of sportspersons is looked after. They should be beaming with real happiness when they are playing. While the physical side of training for players has advanced significantly, they should also explore their inner dimension. A strong mind can carry a weak body, but a weak mind cannot carry even a strong body. To be able to handle the demands of modern competitive sports, a calm and balanced mind is indispensable. That can come from practices that increase their focus and sense of relaxation simultaneously, like yoga, some breathing and a few minutes of meditation.</p><div><br /></div></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-14317372456112728632023-11-08T14:03:00.001+05:302023-11-08T14:03:00.140+05:30Giving prime time to the Divine<p><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">When you are talking, connecting with someone, when you look at your friend or somebody you love, something happens inside you. You feel as though some new energy is coursing through you, a joy that is hard to describe. Capture that great moment, for those moments are timeless. But don’t stop there. Okay, you might have experienced those timeless moments by the presence of that person, that person might have brought forth those emotions in you. So what? Instead of getting immersed in that person or in the situation, just be with the spring of bliss rising in you.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The Divine has given you all the small pleasures in the world but has kept the bliss to Him. To get the highest bliss, you have to go to Him and Him alone. Be sincere in your attempts. Once you get bliss, then everything else is joyful. Without bliss, joy in anything in the world will not stay.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Give satsang and meditation your highest priority. Give prime time to the Divine and know that God belongs to you. Either through awareness or through practice, you reach the same spot. When you know you are part of the divine plan, you stop demanding. Then you know everything is being done for you. You are taken care of. Usually we do it the other way: we hurry the mind and are slow in our action. Patience in the mind and dynamism in action are the right formula.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Usually, when the word ‘god’ is mentioned, everybody looks up immediately. What is there up above? It only rains from above. There is nothing above. Everything is inside, neither above nor below. Looking inside, being inside is meditation and this brings real joy, real happiness. Time and beauty are not elsewhere; they are here, right now, in this very moment. Every single moment is important. Live every moment of life. Make life a celebration.</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The silent part of the Divine is known as <i>mahakaal</i>. Shiva is known as <i>mahakaal</i>. <i>Mahakaal</i> means great time. We often say, “I had a great time.” Great time means the moments present in the timeless moments. Shiva is also known as <i>Kaal Samhaara Murti</i>. It means the lord who slays time. How is it possible to slay time? It is possible by extreme bliss. When you are blissful, you do not feel the passage of time. When you are not aware of the passage of time, then it is said that time has been slayed.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">There is a close relation between time and sadness. When we are very sad, we perceive time to be too long. When you are happy, you do not feel time. When there is peace in the mind, you will not sense the passage of time. When there is no peace in the mind, even two passing minutes make you feel as though two hours were spent. So what is happiness, or bliss? It is our very self. That self is the <i>Shiva tattva</i>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>Make your body God’s abode, and there will be peace and bliss.</b> God is not an object of senses but the feeling of feelings, the presence of <i>the</i> presence, the sound of silence, the essence of the world and a taste of bliss.</p><div><br /></div></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-66426023893192091392023-11-05T14:02:00.005+05:302023-11-05T14:02:51.226+05:30Maintaining harmony in relationships with others as well as with oneself<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">It is important to know what keeps and what really disturbs interpersonal relationships. The relationship gets disturbed when disagreement begins.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Just look at yourself. You had some idea yesterday; today you may have a different idea. Five years ago, you had other ideas that do not necessarily agree with the ideas that you have today. So, when you have disagreement with yourself, why should it not happen with someone else? The ‘someone’ you have a disagreement with is just a photocopy of your old or the new self. So you need to take a look at your own thought patterns and emotional patterns; there is a rhythm in them and in the consciousness.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">We need to find harmony between all these rhythms within us and that’s what is called spirituality. For maintaining interpersonal relationships, you have to first have a relationship with yourself. Your relationship with yourself is called integrity.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Secondly, being informal keeps your interpersonal relationship strong, for it gives space for mistakes to happen. You cannot expect perfection in any relationship or situation. Today one of the biggest problems with the world is emotional instability. When we create an informal outlook and cordial environment around us, we grease the friction and become the master of our environment and not feel helpless about what is happening around us.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Life is very complex. There is no set formula. When you think that you are very honest and righteous, you become a little stiff inside without even realizing it. <b>When you recognise that there are flaws in you, you are then able to accommodate the flaws in other persons.</b></p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">It is not only your vices or bad qualities that will harm you, even your good qualities can make you stiff, rude and angry. That is why you should surrender both bad and good qualities. Take life as it comes. Sometimes you are upset or angry; it is OK. Relax and let go. Life does not stop for anything; it moves. Just move with the flow.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-88668674711057414222023-10-15T22:11:00.006+05:302023-10-15T22:11:29.721+05:30Significance of Navratri<p> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">'<i>Navratri</i>' means 'nine nights.' '<i>Nava</i>' means 'nine,’ and '<i>ratri</i>' means 'night.'</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Night provides rest and rejuvenation. During the night, you turn inwards through sleep, and you wake up feeling refreshed and rested in the morning. In the same way, <b><i>Navratri</i> or the ‘nine nights’ is that time of the year when you get the chance to experience deep rest</b>. This deep rest brings freedom from all kinds of botherations, deep relaxation, and creativity.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Fasting, meditation, prayers, and other spiritual practices performed during this period help bring about this deep rest. Even refraining from over-indulging in sense objects during this time aid the process of attaining deep rest.</p><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Our spirit has existed since time immemorial. It is the boundless and the eternal source of energy of this universe. During <i>Navratri</i>, even the subtle energies in the environment enhance and assist one’s experience of reaching the spirit.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The prayer, chanting, and meditation performed during <i>Navratri</i> connect us with our spirit. Getting in touch with the spirit invokes positive qualities within us and destroys laziness, pride, obsession, cravings, and aversions. When stress in the form of negative emotions is destroyed, we experience the deep rest of the transforming nine nights.</p><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><i>Devi</i> represents the omnipresent cosmic energy. The whole creation is permeated by this energy. The prosperity that we enjoy in our daily lives is a manifestation of <i>Devi</i>. Mother Divine serves us in so many forms. The forms of our mother, father, friends, husband, wife, son, daughter and also the Guru. The revolving planets and the moon is <i>Devi</i> performing aarti to us. Through puja we say, “Oh Mother, whatever you give to me I give back to you. For example, during the Puja, we offer food grains to <i>Devi</i> as nature provides us with food. <i>Devi Puja</i> is an expression of expanded consciousness showing reverence to the whole creation. The puja that we perform during the 9 days of Navratri is a way of honouring the <i>Devi</i> and showing our gratitude to the Mother Divine. While attending the puja we give up all our worldly activities for a while and enter into deep meditation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says, “There is <i>Devi</i> energy (<i>shakti</i>) within all of us. <i>Devi</i> is not somewhere else, not in some other world. If we sit deep in meditation, the glow within the body will brighten, and will expand and spread outside. This is <i>Devi Puja</i>.”</p></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><i>Devi</i> is worshipped in 9 forms known as <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Navadurga</em>. The significance of each day of <i>Navratri</i> is attached to a form of the Mother Divine.</p></div><div><h3 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 41px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">First Day – <i>Shailaputri</i></h3></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On the first day, <i>Devi Shailaputri</i> is worshipped. In this form, <i>Devi Parvati</i> is revered as the daughter of Himalaya Raja. <i>Shaila</i> means extraordinary or rising to great heights. The divine consciousness represented by Devi always surges from the peak. On this first day of <i>Navratri</i>, we propitiate <i>Devi Shailaputri</i> so that we may also attain the highest state of consciousness.</p></div><div><h3 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 41px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Second Day – <i>Brahmacharini</i></h3></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On the second day, <i>Devi Brahmacharini</i> is propitiated. <i>Devi Brahmacharini</i> is the form of <i>Devi Parvati</i> in which she undertook severe penance to have Lord Shiva as Her consort. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brahma</em> means divine consciousness and <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">achar</em> refers to behavior. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brahmacharya</em> is the behavior or an act that is established in divine consciousness. This day is especially sacred to meditate and explore our inner divinity.</p><h3 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 41px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Third Day – <i>Chandraghanta</i></h3></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On the third day, <i>Devi Chandraghata</i> is the presiding <i>Devi</i>. <i>Chandraghata</i> is the special form that <i>Devi Parvati</i> assumed at the time of her marriage with Lord Shiva. <i>Chandra</i> refers to the moon. The moon represents our mind. The mind is restless and keeps moving from one thought to another. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ghanta</em> is a bell which produces only one kind of sound always. The significance is that when our mind is established at one point, i.e. divine, then our <i>prana</i> (subtle life force energy) gets consolidated leading to harmony and peace. This day thus signifies withdrawing from all vagaries of the mind, with a single focus on Mother Divine.</p><h3 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 41px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fourth Day – <i>Kushmanda</i></h3></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On the fourth day, Mother Divine is worshipped as <i>Devi Kushmanda</i>. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kushmanda</em> means a pumpkin. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ku</em> means little, <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ushma</em> means energy and <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">anda</em> refers to egg. This entire universe which arose from the cosmic egg (<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">hiranyagarbha</em>) is manifested from an infinitesimal energy of <i>Devi</i>. A pumpkin also represents <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">prana</em> as it has the unique property of absorbing and radiating <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">prana</em>. It is one of the most <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">pranic</em> vegetables. On this day, we worship <i>Devi Kushmanda</i> who showers us with Her divine energy.</p><h3 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 41px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fifth Day - <i>Skandamata</i></h3></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><i>Skandamata</i> means Mother of Skanda. On the fifth day, the motherly aspect of <i>Devi Parvati</i> is worshipped. In this form, she is the mother of Lord Karthikeya. She represents motherly affection (<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">vatsalya</em>). Worshiping this form of Devi brings abundance of wisdom, wealth, power, prosperity and liberation.</p><h3 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 41px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sixth Day – <i>Katyayani</i></h3></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On the sixth day, <i>Devi</i> manifests as <i>Katyayani</i>. It is a form that Mother Divine assumed to annihilate the demonic forces in the universe. She was born from the anger of the gods. She is the one who slayed Mahishasura. As per our scriptures, anger that supports <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">dharma</em> (righteousness) is acceptable. <i>Devi Katyayani</i> represents that divine principle and form of the Mother Divine who is behind natural calamities and disasters. She is the anger that arises in creation to restore balance. <i>Devi Katyayani</i> is invoked on the sixth day to put an end to all our inner foes that are an obstacle on the path of spiritual evolution.</p><h3 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 41px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Seventh Day – <i>Kalaratri</i></h3></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On the seventh day, we invoke <i>Devi Kalaratri</i>. Mother Nature has two extremes. One is terrifying and devastating. The other is beautiful and serene. <i>Devi Kalaratri</i> is a fierce form of <i>Devi</i>. <i>Kalaratri</i> represents the dark night. Night is also considered an aspect of Mother Divine as it is night that brings solace, rest and comfort to our souls. It is only at night that we get a glimpse of infinity in the skies. <i>Devi Kalaratri</i> is that infinite dark energy that houses innumerable universes.</p><h3 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 41px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Eighth Day – <i>Mahagauri</i></h3></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><i>Devi Mahagauri</i> is that which is beautiful, gives momentum and freedom in life. <i>Mahagauri</i> represents the beautiful and serene aspect of Nature. She is that energy which propels our lives and also liberates us. She is the Devi who is worshipped on the eighth day.</p><h3 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 41px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ninth Day - <i>Siddhidatri</i></h3></div><div><div class="field-item even" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham Narrow Book"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On the ninth day, we worship <i>Devi Siddhidatri</i>. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Siddhi</em> means perfection. <i>Devi Siddhidatri</i> brings perfection in life. She makes the impossible, possible. She takes us beyond the ever reasoning logical mind to explore the realm beyond time and space.</p></div></div><h3 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 41px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham Narrow Bold"; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="single-page template-u2" id="landing-pages-content" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: "Gotham Narrow Medium"; 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box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="row-image-child" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="row-inner full_lead_form_row" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px !important; max-width: 1220px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px !important; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="place-holder div_list div_1 PageColumn_1_of_1 div_PageColumn " id="admin-element-365589" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px -753.333px 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 753.333px;"><div class="inner-holder" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 1000px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="div_HappinessForm div_list div_1 HappinessForm_1_of_1 page-element element-HappinessForm single-of-type first-of-type last-of-type" id="element-365594" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="new_full_lead_form " style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.23) 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: border-box; display: grid; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; gap: 20px; grid-template-columns: 30% 70%; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="lead_form_left theme_green-background" style="align-items: center; background-attachment: initial !important; background-clip: initial !important; background-image: linear-gradient(to right, rgb(229, 42, 109) 0%, rgb(241, 112, 92) 80%) !important; background-origin: initial !important; background-position: initial !important; background-repeat: initial !important; background-size: initial !important; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 22.5938px 0px 11.2917px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></span></h3></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-29070624950903737162023-09-20T15:16:00.004+05:302023-09-20T15:16:00.148+05:30Navigating life using four techniques<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">A wise person is said to have four techniques, both inwardly and outwardly — <i>sama</i>, <i>dana</i>, <i>bheda</i> and <i>danda</i>. To deal with people in the world, to be wise in the world, the first thing you use is <i>sama</i> which means engaging with the world with peace and understanding. When that doesn’t work out, then you go to the second method called <i>dana</i> which means allowing it to happen, forgiving, creating a space. When people don’t recognise your generosity in allowing them space, then the third principle called <i>bheda</i> comes. This means to create a discrimination, make a difference, intentionally create a distance. If somebody is at loggerheads with you, first you talk to them. When that doesn’t work out, then, with the same love, you just ignore them. Allow them to realise it for themselves. Your generosity, your letting go, should make people realise their mistake. If they don’t notice even then, then you start using <i>bheda</i> – create a difference.</p><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The same four methods apply to your inner life, your being. However, in inner life, it is not one after another. <i>Sama</i> – to maintain equanimity through both pleasant and unpleasant sensations. <i>Dana</i> means giving up that which disturbs you, that which cannot put you in the royal seat of equanimity. It means to surrender the mind which is the cause of your sorrows, problems and misery. Negative actions bring suffering and positive actions create some pleasure. But after some time, any action, and its fruit, vanishes.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><i>Dana</i> (giving), includes forgiving also. When your mind wanders around, allow it to go. Don’t try to hold it back. Follow it and bring it back. Not saying, “I am sick and tired of my mind. My mind makes me feel jealous and it is very bad!” Don’t start hating your mind. Forgive your mind.</p></div><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Now comes <i>bheda</i>- discriminate between the imperishable from the perishable. This very body is so hollow and empty. When you are watching the body, pleasant and unpleasant sensations arise. As you watch, they all disappear. Energy oozes out of every pore of your body. If you watch, it flows in an even manner. It creates balance. And you realise you are not this body or these sensations. You have been always reacting to the sensations. An emotion used to give rise to some sensation; the sensation, in turn, used to create an impression, another emotion. So these circles of craving and aversion with sensation and emotion, made your life, both subtle body and gross body, and that took you from life to life.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Another thing that you can do is to disassociate yourself from the sensation. A grief is coming. You say, “This is something that is changing. I shall not associate with it. I’ll watch the sensation instead.” It becomes very intense and disappears. It is the same with a pleasant sensation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Then comes <i>danda</i>; <i>danda</i> means support. Determination and commitment are the <i>danda</i>. Your spiritual discipline is <i>danda</i>. Mind is like a vine (creeper), it needs support. Listening to spiritual discourses, satsang, practice, Guru’s presence are all the support, the <i>danda</i>.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-27360102061223884032023-09-17T15:15:00.003+05:302023-09-17T15:15:46.975+05:30Meditation can help create a society free from stress and violence<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">People die by suicide because they feel like there is no escape from misery. In today’s fast-paced world, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and isolated. Whether you are young or old, navigating the uncertainties of the future, and grappling with the pressures of daily life, it is crucial to remember that you are not alone. </p><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The foundation of our society lies in compassion, and there are people who genuinely care and are there to support you through thick and thin. While we openly talk about physical health issues like diabetes, mental health concerns often remain hidden due to stigma. Breaking this barrier is crucial. We must create a safe and understanding environment where people feel comfortable discussing their mental health struggles without fear of judgment. Just as we openly talk about a physical ailment, it is equally important to speak openly about depression or any mental health issue. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When energy levels or <i>prana</i> (life force) goes down you get low and when it goes further down it can lead to suicidal tendencies. When the energy is high, this thought is less likely to arise. You will not be violent to yourself or others when your energy is high. Through proper breathing exercises, some meditation and good company, energy can go up. Anyone with suicidal tendencies should be guided into meditation and some breathing exercises to raise their energy level. Every day, for ten minutes, meditate and become hollow and empty. </p></div><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>We need to create a society free from stress and violence, and the way for it is through meditation.</b> Ensure you get good sleep. Utilise free time to exercise, jog or run for better circulation. Engage in reading books that uplift your spirits like Bhagvad Gita and Upanishads. Stay busy with knowledge, music, and seva (service) to prevent recurring negative thoughts. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Let us assure the younger generation, and everyone else that they are not alone in this journey of life. Let’s break the silence around mental health and embrace the power of social connection. Together, we can make a difference in each other’s lives, spreading hope, and lighting up the world with the warmth of human kindness.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-67641996929957553212023-09-14T16:12:00.001+05:302023-09-14T16:12:00.151+05:30Meditation, pranayama and prayer eliminates doubts<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">When a child starts becoming aware of its own body, it starts asking more and more questions. And when the body matures into adolescent stage, there are ever so many questions that reel in the mind. Doubt is that state of mind where it’s not fully alive. Answers cannot satisfy doubt. Hearing and seeing cannot eliminate doubt. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Only <i>prana</i> can eliminate doubt. When a doubt arises in your mind, know that your <i>prana</i> has gone down. The life in you is dull. The wick in the lamp is going down. On the day you do <i>pranayama</i> or deep breathing, you feel so alive. Every cell in your body is alive, and then there is no doubt in the mind. You feel so wonderful because of this. There is no split in your consciousness. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Doubt is the split. A portion is awake and another major portion is asleep – the unfulfilled. And when the prana is high, you are so fulfilled. So when you have doubts, do more <i>sadhana</i> or practice of deep breathing. This is called <i>shraddha</i> or faith, the opposite of doubt. It starts with self-doubt doubting the self, doubting everything in the world and doubting the Divine. </p><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Moments of doubt are like clouds. The clouds do come, but they come and disappear. If you do not cooperate or engage with them, they will simply come and go. <span style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit;">If you shake hands with them and flow with them, then it will take a longer time to overcome them. Truth will always stand out and win in the end. Doubts may come, and this is quite possible because of the company that we keep.</span></p></div><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">There are three types of faith in the world (being Hindu, Muslim or Christian, is not types of faith). There are only three types of people who have faith, i.e. there are three types of faith – in the divine, in the universe and in the world. <span style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit;"> </span></p></div><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">There are people who just believe or have faith in the material world. You have to believe in the world. You do not know everything about this world and you believe in what you do not know. There is no need to believe what you know. You have to believe what you do not know. You do not know about anybody. You do not know about yourself, your wife, children, husband, your parents, or anybody. Do you think you know anything about them? If you think you do, you are mistaken. You know something about them, partially. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Faith in your Self, faith in the world and faith in something we do not know, the Divine. You can start from anywhere. Any one point will lead to all three; all three come together. When doubts arise in you, keep a fast, meditate, do pranayama and prayers, and see the shift that happens and the doubts vanish. There’s a shift in your consciousness.</p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-6409646399226351322023-09-12T15:11:00.000+05:302023-09-12T15:11:00.138+05:30Bhagvad Gita<p> </p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Don’t think the Bhagvad Gita got over long time ago. It’s still going on everyday in each and every person’s life. Our life is all these 18 chapters of the Gita. </b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In your life, you can see which chapter you are in now. Where are you stuck? 1st Chapter? 2nd? 3rd?</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-16799850020678053622023-09-10T14:06:00.002+05:302023-09-10T14:06:47.928+05:30Dealing with jealousy<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">There is a verse by Kabir: “I went to find a bad person in the universe, and I found none.” All human beings are good! There are negative tendencies in people but that is not the basic human nature. That is only on the circumference.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Why do we behave negatively? Because we are hurt. A happy, joyful person will never do harm to anyone. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>Antidote to jealousy is the knowledge that everybody is going to die.</b> You and the person, whom you are jealous of, are both going to die. It is better to compare yourself with your own self. How you were 10 years or five years ago and what you can be yet tomorrow. The fact that you are a sane human being is enough.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">What to do if you are jealous of other people? 1. Know that the person has done some good karma in the past and they are now reaping the fruit. 2. Take it as an inspiration to gain merit now. 3. Create a sense of belongingness with them. See that they are a part of you. 4. Think of all you have that they don’t have and feel grateful. 5. Think of so many others who have much less than you have.</p><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">What to do if others are jealous of you? 1. Praise them in superlatives. 2. Create a sense of belongingness in them by your kind actions. 3. Know that their feelings are temporary. 4. The best is not to recognise their envy or jealousy at all. If you recognise a feeling as a reality, it only makes your ignorance grow. 5. Know all feelings and emotions are just like passing clouds.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">In the Geeta, Krishna talks about all the good qualities. And then He adds that they are already in you. Just like in an atom, the core is positive and the negativity is peripheral. Don’t ever think deep inside you is all sorrow or anger or jealousy. Know that it’s not in the core.</p><div><br /></div></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985652341248004379.post-45758693050757997352023-09-07T17:58:00.000+05:302023-09-07T17:58:00.143+05:30Everything is interdependent<p> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>One who asks for independence is a beggar. One who knows that it is an illusion is a king.</b> Life is such; you should not feel “I am dependent, and I want to be independent”. The body is dependent on the whole creation. When the spirit identifies with the body, it gets pinched and looks for independence.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Mind, intellect and ego look for independence too and, in doing so, one often gets stuck in the ego and becomes more miserable. Most people are not aware of their dependence. When they become aware of their limitations and dependence, the desire for independence arises. On one level, dependence is a harsh reality, on another, an illusion because there is nothing else but the self. It’s only when one doesn’t feel oneness and belongingness that one wants independence.</p><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The self is non-dual, so there is no question of dependence or independence. When the sense of belongingness is not well founded, there is a volatile state in the life of a seeker. Then, the ego finds some excuse to revert to smallness. It is not yet totally soaked in the totality of knowledge. As it is not used to it, the mind finds every little excuse to revert to the ego and be aloof, independent and separate. It finds any small fault and blows it out of proportion. People who want to have independence are also frustrated. When you were a baby, were you not dependent? As a baby, parents took care of you, and, in your old age, your children or someone else will take care of you. So life, in the beginning and in the end is dependence.</p></div><div><section class="post-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 60px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Whether in the form of parents or as children or as friends, the help you get from anywhere is coming from only one source, divinity. It is only the divine who took care of you as your parents, and it is only the divine who will take care of you as your nurse or neighbour or friends or anybody else. Someone will always come and take care of you; you don’t have to worry at all. If your attention is on divinity, you will not feel the burden of dependence, or the frustration to have independence. Both will disappear.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">In fact, the word ‘independent’ is obsolete. Independence cannot be achieved unless you start moving from within. When you move within, you discover that you are interdependent. Every wise person knows that everything is interdependent and that there is nothing like independence. We have one nature, one ocean, one air, one earth and everyone is dependent on it. We are interdependent. From tailor to farmer, from teacher to doctor — we depend on all for some purpose or another.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.875; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><b>When you have this deep realisation that you are not the roles you play, but something beyond, then that is freedom; that is independence.</b></p></section><footer class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #010101; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com