Life

आज सुबह पार्क में टहलते समय अचानक मेरे मन में एक विचार आया। हम पार्क में हर तरह के लोगों को देख सकते हैं। कुछ बच्चे, किसी भी तरह से, बहुत खुश नहीं दिखेंगे, जबकि कई अच्छे कपड़े पहनने वाले और काफी संपन्न दिखने वाले लोग काफी उदास दिखाई देंगे। यदि संसाधन नहीं, तो क्या चीज़ किसी व्यक्ति को खुश या दुखी बनाती है? संभवतः, हम सभी अपने लिए सोने के पिंजरे का सपना देखते हैं और जीवन भर सोने के पिंजरे को हासिल करने के लिए प्रयास करते हैं। हमें लगता है कि हम सोने के पिंजरे के अंदर आराम से खुश रहेंगे. कुछ लोगों को अपने जीवनकाल में सोने का पिंजरा मिल जाता है, जबकि अधिकांश उस सोने के पिंजरे को पाने में असमर्थ होकर असंतुष्ट होकर मर जाते हैं। हम सभी अलग-अलग अनुभवों से गुजरते हैं, और इन अनुभवों के प्रति हमारी प्रतिक्रिया हमारी खोज को परिभाषित करती है। हममें से कुछ लोग ऐसे परिवारों में पैदा हुए हैं जहां पैसे की भारी कमी है। हमारी शिक्षा की फीस, भोजन और बुनियादी सुविधाओं के लिए माता-पिता को कड़ी मेहनत करनी पड़ती है। हम समाज के विशेषाधिकार प्राप्त सदस्यों द्वारा भी शोषण सहते हैं। हम पैसे और ताकत के इर्द-गिर्द...

This morning, while walking in the park, a thought suddenly struck me. We can see people of all kinds in the park. Some kids, by no means, will appear to be quite happy, while many people well dressed and appearing to be quite well off will appear to be quite sad. If not resources, what makes a person happy or sad? Probably, all of us dream of a golden cage for ourselves and make efforts to acquire the golden cage throughout our lives. We feel that we will be comfortably happy inside the golden cage. A few get the golden cage in their lifetime while most die dissatisfied unable to get that golden cage. We all undergo different experiences, and our response to these experiences defines our seeking. Some of us are born into families with an acute money shortage. Parents have to work hard to get the fees for our education, food, and basic facilities. We also undergo exploitation by the privileged members of society. We make mental stories around money and power. We feel that if we work ha...

It appears to me that all of us have taken birth as human beings to grow. There are always two possibilities that co-exist at the same time. The first possibility is to set the meaning of life around pleasures. The world is full of many temptations which offer different types of pleasures. Tasty food offers pleasure to the tongue, good clothes make us feel happy because society praises our sense of dressing, a big and comfortable home makes our body comfortable, money makes us feel secure to keep getting these comforts, name, fame, and power makes us feel good being the most sought forms of social validation, social networking also provides us the same social validation in a moderate form. Some take pleasure in keeping their body fit and healthy. There is a desired outcome in all the seeking and we keep following the same for almost the whole of our lives.  Generally, we set the meaning of life around one or more of these things. Some of us are not able to achieve the desired outc...

We keep seeking one or the other things in life constantly. We don't wait for a moment; as soon as we get what we desire, we start seeking something else. Tasty food, air conditioners, nice clothes, good vehicles, servants and maids, money, power, positions, and the list is endless. Probably, we never examine one fundamental problem with this list. Suppose we have 10 items in the list and we get 9 out of the 10 times we seek, the pain of not getting the one item will always be more than the pleasure of getting the 9 items. Logically, there is almost 100% probability that we will not get everything we seek and that means that we are almost 100% sure of being unhappy. Even the momentary pleasure of achievements is often overrated. When we actually get what we seek, we are not always on the cloud nine. Most often, this is a routine experience. Then why do we always keep seeking one or the other thing? I feel that the reason is very simple. We never contemplate the meaning and purpose ...

Spirituality is all about connecting to the spirit. Spirit has no form or shape. It is a part of the consciousness from which the entire universe takes birth. If consciousness is the ocean, the soul is like a drop of the ocean. That is what our scriptures like Bhagwad Geeta tell us.  यथा सर्वगतं सौक्ष्म्यादाकाशं नोपलिप्यते। सर्वत्रावस्थितो देहे तथाऽऽत्मा नोपलिप्यते।।13.33।। 13.33 यथा as, सर्वगतम् the allpervading, सौक्ष्म्यात् because of its subtlety, आकाशम् ether, न not, उपलिप्यते is tainted, सर्वत्र everywhere, अवस्थितः seated, देहे in the body, तथा so, आत्मा the Self, न not, उपलिप्यते is tainted. क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोरेवमन्तरं ज्ञानचक्षुषा। भूतप्रकृतिमोक्षं च ये विदुर्यान्ति ते परम्।।13.35।। 13.35 क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोः between the Kshetra and the Kshetrajna, एवम् thus, अन्तरम् distinction, ज्ञानचक्षुषा by the eye of knowledge, भूतप्रकृतिमोक्षम् the liberation from the Prakriti of being, च and, ये who, विदुः know, यान्ति go, ते they, परम् the Supreme. Thus, spirituality is all about...

Looking at the kites, flying freely into the sky makes me envious of them. Human beings have developed societies for better survival and more comforts and pleasures, however, over time, human beings have become a slave of their own creation. It is difficult for human beings to even think of existence in defiance of the rules set by the society, they live in. But, a natural question arises as to why do we need to defy the rules of society?  Human beings are fundamentally free. That is the reason why infants and kids, till the time their brain is conditioned with social conditioning, are free souls. They like to explore whatever they like even if such an exploration is strictly prohibited by the parents. Infants like to jump off the bed, touch the fire, move out of their homes, and play with animals, unconcerned about their safety. Kids in their early childhood ask so many uncomfortable questions from their parents. Kids are generally not very conscious while making new friends becau...

  It appears to me that there are two different ways of living. The first is living where in we keep seeking different outcomes. The seeking of different outcomes is founded in our conditioning. For example, when we go for a trip to a tourist place, we talk to friends who have visited the place earlier, look at the Google to suggest the places to visit and also take help of the Local guide. All these things put together form our desired outcomes for the trip. When we reach the destination, we start moving from one desired tourist spot to the other. We measure the success of our trip by the number of points we have covered during our stay at the tourist station. The other way of living is living in the process. Taking the example of visit to a tourist place further. Someone may reach a tourist place without any googling or feedback about the station, or any local help. Such a tourist may just enjoy the process. He may look around at the nature, open sky, stars, flora, and fauna of t...

Often, a question comes to the mind of all the people who wish to move along the path of spirituality. How can this limited mind understand reality? Since we are living in this world, and while living, we have to make decisions almost every moment with the intellect, how can this limited intellect make decisions that help it connect to the divine? It seems that there is a fundamental assumption behind these questions that intellect will always be under the control of Our worldly desires. Thus, it appears to me that the real question is whether our intellect can be free of worldly desires and work under the guidance of the divine. Probably, we need to examine the fundamental causes of control of worldly desires over intellect. Though different philosophers and mystics have examined this question quite deeply, I feel that the examination by Gautam Buddha is quite close to the understanding of the human brain by the neurologists of the day. The neurology of the day says that basically, th...

Coming from city, like Delhi to city like Leh makes you feel humbled. Cities like Delhi offer very little space for individual growth. I am often amused to see the bonsai plants. A plant which had every capacity to grow into a full tree is confined to small pot and its roots are not allowed to grow beyond the size of the pot. The plant becomes a miniature of the actual plant and called bonsai. Isn’t that what the society is doing to all the individuals, who have got disconnected somehow from their inner self, the ground. Isn’t it so that the disconnected souls are offered a pot filled with certain temptations and comforts by restricting the opportunities of the growth of the individuals. isn’t the society taking away the ground for growth for growth by offering certain comforts and pleasures filled in a pot called family, or society, or organisation. Should the families be the pots that set an outer limit for the growth of the individuals belonging to the family. Or the families should...

It is amazing to watch nature. The river is flowing continuously without knowing its destination. The mountains are standing tall with their own unique designs and patterns. The clouds have theirown movements, sometimes moving above the mountains and sometimes into them. Sometimes it seems they want to cling to the mountains and merge with them. Birds keep playing their own music, almost whole of the day.  I am staying near Leh for the past few days. It seems as if the entire nature is operating under a silent command. Big Highway is just near the homestay where we are staying. It’s long flat road. I walked down the road for few kilometres yesterday. Vehicles are running madly at a speed of around 90 km/h, as if they are missing something badly and just want to get the same at any cost. I visited nearby monastery where again people appeared to be in a mission note to somehow have a glimpse of the statues of different realised persons as if they will come out of the statues and bles...

I was thinking about many distortions to the meaning of love and work in this world. I often see many people repeating the word "Love" without ever contemplating over the meaning of love. Often we say "I" to love a person or a thing. When there is "I", where is the question of love? Can Arjuna love Krishna? So long as the "Ego" remains, where is the question of love? In a worldly sense, love implies taking care of somebody. However, the only question relevant here is "who comes first?". So long as there remains "Ego", it is always "I" that will come first.  We see a famous proverb "Chamri jaye par damri an jaye". It means that a miser may allow his skin to go but not his money. Thus, a miser's "Ego" forms so much of an association with money that he may give away his life for money. The ego forms similar associations with different things such as money, positions, power, relationships, friends...

Energy is free to flow. In fact, in its free form such as electromagnetic waves, energy flows at a speed of almost 3,00,000 Km/second and that is a great speed. On the other hand, matter is caught in the matrix of space and time. If a human being is made to travel at almost the speed of light (which is practically almost impossible), he would age significantly less as compared to fellow human beings on earth. That shows when matter moves at a significant speed comparable to light, matter probably sets free of the limitations in a time and space matrix.  The matter has a huge energy and we have been able to use (or misuse) this energy in the past with the invention of nuclear reactors and atom bombs. However, generally, this energy stays in a latent form inside the atom of the matter. The latest research on the Higgs field tells us that all the fundamental particles of matter and energy, fermions and bosons, take birth from the Higgs field. Since both fermions and bosons have the sa...

We see kids as well as parents focussed on outcomes, more so nowadays. Good packages and powers attract everybody. Somebody was telling me one day that government service is still one of the biggest criteria for marriage. I don't know why people do not understand the side effects of the fixations on the outcomes. Most parents too somehow want to hide their own experiences. I keep talking to many of the parents and I feel that most of the parents are dissatisfied with their careers I am talking about the premier careers of the country life CAs, Civil Servants, Advocates, and Doctors.  I am not at all denying the need for money, security, authority, positions, etc. They have their value in life. They make life comfortable. But then what? What parents shy away from telling their kids is that the utility of these things not only diminishes but almost falls flat beyond a point. The time and effort required to earn that extra is definitely not worth it since that has a very limited utili...

Awareness and focus are probably two things that matter in our lives. We all are aware of so many things in life. We are aware of our families, finances, jobs, relationships, friends, looks, clothing, society, eco-system, and so on. But what about the awareness of our own body and mind? Have we ever read the manual of this body and mind? Are we aware of the deeper and deeper layers of the mind? Are we aware of how the unconscious mind guides our decisions? When we did some sessions with the students, we realized that the career choices made by the students were quite different from their areas of interest. Someone may have an interest in sports and has chosen engineering. Someone had an interest in cooking and chose a career in medical science. What is that which is driving these choices? It is the unconscious mind that is driving these choices. We are not aware of the depths of the unconscious mind. It keeps playing the most crucial role in our decision-making process. Conscious mind ...

We see so much sadness all around. There are so many ways and means to measure the overall happiness of society. Increasing psychological diseases in society are strong indicators of the increasing dissatisfaction in society. The movies and series over the OTT platforms are again reflections of the distress in societies. What has gone wrong over the years and why is there so widespread distress? In fact, during our interactions with people, we can experience that people are generally dissatisfied with their jobs, families, spouses, kids, offices, systems, and society. Everybody has one or more reasons to be unhappy. Probably the primary reason for this unhappiness is the huge gap between expectations and reality. Expectations are formed by comparison. People compare the past, present, and future. We all compare with our past experiences. That is why as we grow old and cross the 40s, the body starts its declining journey. We keep comparing our physical strength now with our physical str...