Life

We make decisions and make choices based on our understanding of right and wrong almost every moment. Parents keep guiding their kids about the rights and wrongs. The entire society also keeps judging the actions of people in terms of rights and wrongs. However, rights and wrongs vary so widely that it is very difficult to understand what is right or wrong.  Probably the entire debate of right and wrong is contextual. It all depends upon the "center of the judgment". For example, when parents talk about right and wrong, it may be in the context of the potential for the worldly growth of the child. In that case what is good for the growth of the kid will be right such as healthy food, activities for the physical and mental development, and so on. Similarly, what is not conducive to the growth will be bad such as staying awake till late at night, getting addicted to screens, and so on. There may be another "center of the judgment" where spiritual growth is the center....

We keep working on one or the other thing to get the desired reward. Work hard in the school to get good marks. Hard work to prepare for the competitive examinations to get a good university. Hard work at the university to get a good placement, Hard work in the office to get promotions. Helping others to get the title of "being good". To work against our wishes and listen to society to get social validation. Our entire life, we keep running after one or the other goal post, and all our efforts are targeted towards the goal post. Society places a lot of premium on efficiency. Organizations like employees who help them meet their targets. In most families, kids who help families fulfill their desires are the most "loved" ones. We all have boarded buses, trains, and flights. When we are sitting inside them, there may be two ways of spending time there. First, we may be in a hurry to reach the destination and every jam, traffic signal or delay irritates us. We are so fi...

Around 6-7 years back, I met Mingyur Rinpoche for the first time and asked him what is the parameters to judge our spiritual progress and he said that we just have to watch our reactions. If we stay calm in the situations where we used to be agitated some time back, then we are on the right track. Else, we need to examine ourselves. We react because we want to control. The more strongly we identify with something or somebody, the more strongly we react over the fear of losing control. We do not react to the news of accidents and deaths in the newspapers but we react very strongly to even the possibility of some illness to the kids. Why do so many beggars on the streets go unnoticed while we keep spending thousands of rupees on wasteful lunches and dinners? But any span asking for OTP creates panic in our minds.  Somebody will ask what is wrong with this. After all, we are responsible towards our families, relatives, friends, and organizations. We take care of their interests a...

Selflessness in this world seems to be an impossibility. We all are doing different things in this world to serve ourselves. We have so many examples of great donors who are worshipped by the society. There is no doubt that it is a big virtue in society since many philanthropic organizations run on such donations. These organizations help millions. However, is there real selflessness behind the scenes or there is a deep desire to get a name and fame, or some reservation in heaven, or some good deeds carried over to the next birth? In how many cases, there is no such desire? If there is any such desire, is that really charity or begging, or at best some negotiation?  Some say that there is selflessness in love and relationships. Is that really so? I love somebody because I like spending time with that person, exploring the world with that person, or that person makes me comfortable. Where is love? Is it not using that other person for selfish interest. I like something and that some...

 In India, we have quite an old culture of dialogues. All our Upanishads are written in a style of dialogue where one person is asking the questions and the other is answering the questions. Bhagwad Geeta and Bhagwad also have the same style. I feel that there were few fundamental requirements for such beautiful dialogues to take place. First of all, everybody is equal. Astavakra may become a guru of Janaka in Astavakra Geeta, Vashistha and Vishwamitra may answer the questions in Yoga Vashistha, or Krishna may answer the questions of Arjuna. Age, rank, position, and nothing else matters in these dialogues. What matters is the subject matter of dialogue and whoever knows that answers the questions. Second , there is a maturity in both the persons asking the questions and answering them. That maturity requires the ability to listen. An insecure mind is always in a hurry to prove his point because what is important to such a mind is hurriedness to prove his point. The fine difference ...

Often there is a debate in the spiritual world about the role of individual efforts and the divine grace. Some people say that however we try, unless there is a divine grace, we can't realize it. While some believe that it is all about individual efforts unless the disciple is ready, no guru can teach anything. Maybe they both are trying to say the same thing but conveying different meanings since we identify "I" with ego. What is important here is who is making efforts. If "I" being the ego is making an effort, definitely, we can never move ahead because the entire path is about shedding the ego. How can the ego try to shed itself? It is tantamount to ego on a suicide mission. That can never happen. That is why probably what matters is not efforts, but rather awareness. We have the glasses of ego on our eyes, and at the same time, we have the choice of removing the glasses and seeing the world as it is. Probably what is meant by efforts is that choice to remove...

Yesterday, I was quite tired. While coming home, I met traffic jams and developed some pain in my body. I was not at all feeling good while going to bed. The morning when I get up, my body is healed and I am feeling quite fresh. Sleep is such a miracle. The body goes into healing mode while we sleep. It is such a great blessing of God.  When we fall ill or there is pain in our body, we do not feel good. Similarly, when we face tough situations, we develop doubts. Our mind tries to find solutions that are generally beyond its reach. It gets frustrated and keeps trying different solutions. However, none of the solutions brings relief. Finally, it gets tired and closes its eyes to surrender to the divine will, and then suddenly some solution appears and works. We human beings are quite obsessed with our intelligence and try to use and overuse our intelligence to find solutions to our problems oblivious to the fact that intelligence is quite limited and most of the solutions lie beyond...

While starting to write, I just had a look at the artifact of Buddha and a doll lying on a shelf in the drawing room. Suddenly certain thoughts spurted my mind. What will go in the mind of Buddha while looking at a kid of the modern world who likes to watch Barbie and cartoons, loves pizzas and burgers, travels by airplane, goes to airconditioner schools, has customized rooms, gets the best of the books of read, has choices for the country in which she is going to celebrate vacations. Similarly, what thoughts would such a child have about Buddha, especially when she gets to know that Buddha was a prince and his parents wanted to give him all types of comforts, and yet Buddha was more inclined to see the reality of the world? His attention was drawn towards the sorrow of death, old age, and diseases and despite the best efforts of his parents, all the comforts of the world could not confine him. What makes a person so engrossed with the material world? What creates a keenness in some of...

Sometimes I wonder to see that the most powerful people are the most helpless. Michael Jackson was so powerful and rich and yet was quite helpless when it came to their addictions which ate away his body like termites. The most wealthy people in this world feel helpless when doctors fail to provide any treatment for the physical ailment of their kids. It is amazing to read the books of Arun Shourie who writes about the helplessness he faced unable to find any treatment for his special child. The most powerful dictator of the world, Hitler, had to commit suicide at the end of the day. Yet, most people keep seeking powers throughout their lives. Probably we need to contemplate deeper to understand the notion of power. Did Krishna seek power? He was so full of love for everybody that he did not need any power. Similarly, Rama was full of love and compassion for everybody and therefore did not need any power. Do we need powers when we love somebody? Do we need the power to make a differenc...

Human beings are working quite hard, and have evolved quite significantly in terms of inventions in the material world. We have round-the-clock electricity, comfortable homes, furniture, modes of transport, and international currencies, have reached Mars and the depths of the ocean. We know so much about the human body and nature. We have developed techniques to build bridges and tunnels in the most difficult terrains. Yet, we are undergoing an acute crisis of mental health where many of us are diagnosed with mental diseases and are on medicines, while many of us are suffering from mental diseases yet to be diagnosed. Anyhow how almost all of us uniformly suffer from greed and jealousy.  It is counter-intuitive that with the advancement in the material world, our psychological well-being is taking a toll. In fact, I have been quite lucky to be in touch with some of the most senior bureaucrats, and have also seen the top businessmen and industrialists during income-tax raids. I have...

The greatest challenge in the spiritual world appears to be constant awareness of the truth. The world is so full of distractions that it is quite easy to fall into their trap. It is like remaining committed to being healthy at a place where every day there is a lavish party with thousands of different types of dishes. It's natural that our senses will tempt us to taste these. In this world too, our senses get attracted to worldly objects quite easily. A hungry man would definitely get attracted towards the dishes on the platter and that is the reason why one can not artificially stay away from the temptations. One has to fill the stomach with nutritious food before going to the party and that is the reason why daily meditation helps. Once we are filled with divine grace, the pleasures of the external world do not attract us. However, it is not that easy. The temptations of the world come in different forms. It is quite difficult to distinguish between love and lust. While love is ...

I often wonder whether we have free will or not. It is one of the most difficult questions to answer. I tried to read a lot of books on Neurology to find the answer, but unfortunately, neurology today does not know where the "I" lies, which is making the decisions. However, there have been quite a lot of developments in neurology, especially since the invention of fMRI and EEG techniques. Yet, by and large, they do not know the answer to this question. Exhausted by Neurology, I tried to find an answer to this question through Astrology. Astrology has some very interesting inputs. In Astrology, the behavior of a person depends upon the placement of different planets in different houses. There are nine planets representing nine forces of nature and 12 houses representing 12 different aspects of life. The planetary force that rules a particular house decides the fundamental nature of the house. For example, if the 1st house (personality) is ruled by the Sun, the person becomes a...

I read sad news of some young employees in the corporate world committing suicide due to work pressure. Such shocking news. Reflection of the brutality of parents and society. At the same time, it is also a reflection of the trap we are all caught in. I often wonder what would make young students commit suicide for getting lower scores in the examinations, for not being able to compete with their batchmates in IITs, while fighting diseases, or for facing social criticism. I feel that suicide is like surrendering to death. Probably, there is a firm belief in the mind of the person committing suicide that death will relieve him of the pain. On the one hand, there is also a belief in the continuity of life after death and a hope that pains will end after death. Of late, in the last few decades, we have become too obsessed with pleasure. Money has become the fulcrum of our lives and we want to earn a lot of money to spend for fun, pleasure, and entertainment. We want to stay at five-star h...

We all have read in our schools that light travels quite fast, at the speed of 3,00,000 kilometers per second. We run at the speed of a few kilometers in an hour. Even the fastest rocket designed by human beings travels at a speed of a few thousand kilometers per hour. Anything that has a mass can not move as fast as light. One of the most wonderful things that has happened in the world of quantum physics in recent years is the experiments of CERN where a large collider has been established where the sub-atomic particles are made to move at a very high speed and then collide. The most wonderful finding of the CERN experiments is that fermions, which are the fundamental particles of mass, get mass when they interact with the Higgs field. The more they interact, the more mass they gain. The bosons, which are the fundamental particles of energy, do not interact with the Higgs field. Isn't it the same in the material world too. The enlightened souls are like bosons. They live in this w...

I often wonder whether we can ever see through ourselves? Generally, we identify with our thoughts so closely that it is quite difficult to separate ourselves from our mindset. Our mindset develops with constant interactions with society and also the churning of these experiences. Some of us have been financially quite insecure during our childhood and therefore money becomes the pivot of our existence. Some work hard while some learn to cheat and steal. Some of us are deprived of love in our relationships and therefore love and care become the pivot of our life. In any country with a huge population, generally, there are very few who carry power and respect and therefore most people want social validation one or the other way. Then we learn with our experiences the ways and means to get what we desire. Some develop a mindset to work hard, while many develop a mindset of shortcuts and using the labor of others to project their work. Some develop a mindset to control and dictate the dir...

It is strange that we watch a movie or read a book again after a few years and it looks quite different to us as compared to when we watched or read it earlier. Yesterday, I watched the movie "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" again and I had some sort of mystical experience. I wondered why I had not noticed many things while I had watched the movie earlier. Probably we see only what we want to see. There was a scene in the movie where Hritik and Katrina go for scuba diving. Hritik was very afraid and Katrina was the coach. After that event, Katrina asks Hritik about the experience and he explains that it was a wonderful experience. Katrina says that since she did her scuba diving for the first time, she could not leave that and became a coach. Hritik asks her if isn't it "addictive" and then Katrina answers beautifully that it is like "living life to the fullest" where we can feel every breath and life seems to have halted. She says I wish we could live our e...

I often wonder as to why Buddha came back to the world. Post-enlightenment, there was nothing he was seeking from the world. He could have stayed away from the world in his blissful state. When he came back to the society, there was so much resistance from the society. There are many stories indicating conspiracies. Some even hired a lady to blame Buddha for having impregnated her. Despite all this resistance, what can be Buddha's motivation? Buddha understood that the world is a very diverse place where people are at different stages of evolution. Some are quite less evolved and therefore their degree of fixation is quite high. They are so hollow from the inside that they hold on to their material possessions, desires, and dreams very tightly. They will hold on to their wealth, and positions and the moment they see any threat to these, they will start reacting strongly. Similarly, they will hold on to their image in society, and their views and religions. The moment somebody criti...

One of the most profound message of Bhagwad Geeta is that we need to do our work without thinking of the results.  कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥ २-४७ This translates as "You have the right to work only but never to its fruits.  Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction."  This is a very profound statement. Neither action is driven by the desire for fruits not attachment to inaction. How is that possible? We have been told since childhood that we have to work to get the desired result. In fact, that is what we have been doing the whole of our lives. We studied to get good marks to get a good job to get a good package to have all the comforts and pleasures. We made friends to play with them and have fun. We got into a relationship to marry the person we liked. We work in the organization to get credit and appreciation, and sometimes promotions and awards. In fact, all our actions are...

We often feel triggered by the behavior of certain people. It so happens to us in many relationships. Sometimes an innocuous remark from the boss, a comment by a colleague, or criticism by a spouse triggers us while on the other hand, at times even the worst of abuses and criticisms do not affect us. I think that our reactions depend upon two fundamental pillars. First , it depends upon our expectations from the person we are interacting with. Second , our past experiences. Each one of us has defined one or the other meaning of life. There are some people who do not matter to us because we have not defined the meaning of our lives around them. However, there are few who matter a lot. For example, if somebody has defined the meaning of life around the parents, they will matter a lot to him and therefore he would expect certain behavior from the parents. If generally parents are appreciative and one fine moment they criticize, it may matter quite a lot to such a person. On the other hand...

All of us have heard of the instances where a person denies the death of a close relative. We become so attached to the relative that we start denying the death and live in hallucination imagining that he is still alive till somebody shakes us of that hallucination or time heals the wound and we get back to the world. We are able to get over such denial because the truth is so evident and the entire society helps us see the truth. Even if we believe that the person is alive, we can't touch the person, and if we behave like that after a few days society will take us to a psychiatrist. What if the entire family is in denial mode or the whole of society is in a state of denial? Everybody will confirm each other's denial. In such a case, how will the truth be ever known? We keep denying many truths, which are not so evident and there is a mass hallucination in society therefore there is nobody to wake us up from the denial. For example, we all know that we have a limited life and y...

Yesterday, I read a book on depression "Lost Connections" by Johann Hari. The following paragraph really made me wonder: "Today they are all around us. Some one in five U.S. adults is taking at least one drug for a psychiatric problem ; nearly one in four middle-aged women in the United States is taking antidepressants at any given time; around one in ten boys at American high schools is being given a powerful stimulant to make them focus; and addictions to legal and illegal drugs are now so widespread that the life expectancy of white men is declining for the first time in the entire peacetime history of the United States. These effects have radiated out across the Western world: for example, as you read this, one in three French people is taking a legal psychotropic drug such as an antidepressant, while the UK has almost the highest use in all of Europe. You can't escape it: when scientists test the water supply of Western countries, they always find it is laced w...