Life

 I presented a paper on Vipassana long back at Delhi University, and at that time, a professor there asked me a question: "Who realises the temporality of the sensations when we practice Vipassana: the mind or something else?" That question stayed with me. I told him about my experience in Estonia. Once, I went on an office tour in Estonia, where it was extremely cold at around -15 degrees. I walked outdoors for quite a long time and developed severe stomach pain. With no medicines available to me and no doctor to visit, I sat in Vipassana and began observing sensations. After about an hour of observation, the pain disappeared. I told him that I don't know whether that was a realisation of the mind or something else, but the same brain that experienced pain some time back had no pain after some time.  The question is who was feeling the pain and where that pain disappeared after observation. When we sit in Vipassana, our minds are full of so many thoughts. Usually, our m...

Despite so much progress and availability of all types of comforts and pleasures, probably if we have a happiness index of humanity across time, we may be at the lowest in the present times. One strong indicator is the sharp rise in psychological diseases across countries. In our childhood, we hardly ever listened to psychologists' advice, and today I personally know many people who visit psychologists regularly. If there is so much sorrow, there should be a reason for the same. As I understand it, the ABCs of sorrow are A ccumulation-drive for accumulation, B ecoming-the drive to become something, and C ontrol-drive to control circumstances and others. If we look around, the primary cause of sorrow is our drive to accumulate . Since childhood, we are told to accumulate objects of pleasure and security. Since in the present-day world almost every material object is available for money, we have a very strong drive to accumulate money. We also have a very strong desire to accumulat...

How do we change? We make thousands of choices every day, and each one is driven by our belief system . Suppose a person feels that money has great value in life. Every decision he makes during the day will be driven by his belief. He will choose a career that offers a hefty package, marry someone from a rich family, and try to befriend people with a lot of money. Slowly, he will be surrounded by people who have a similar belief system, and the belief about the value of money will look all the more real. If a poor person tells him that life is wonderful without money, he will simply reject that idea and have hundreds of examples to cite in response. Similarly, if a person believes in a particular version of spirituality , their choices will naturally align with that version. He will join the spiritual organisation or guru that promotes that version of spirituality. He will discuss more and more with those kinds of people. He will read books of that type. Slowly, over time, his belief ...

Today, when I closed my eyes for a short meditation session, I realised that our existence probably extends to three different realms. The first one is the realm of thoughts , where we spend the majority of our time. Even while sitting in meditation, it is very difficult to escape this realm. Generally, on a very busy day, when we take some time off from work, we spend a significant amount of time coming out of the realm of thought, and sometimes we are so occupied with our thoughts that we are unable to come out of them for even a moment. The second realm is the unconscious mind . We are not aware of how food is digested inside our bodies. I just had dinner and started writing this blog. I don't know what is happening to the food inside my body. There would be so many activities taking place inside the stomach, intestines, blood, liver, and each cell. However, I am not conscious of the same. Similarly, we have natural inclinations and aversions toward many things, but we are unaw...

I was listening to the dialogue between a Buddhist philosopher and a scientist. The scientist said that science admits quite candidly that it does not know so many things in the quantum world , for example, the particles of dark matter , and that makes science move forward in the domain of the unknown and fosters further enquiries. On the other hand, in our spiritual pursuit, we tend to believe very quickly. A person who does not understand the ABCs of quantum physics will say that by following a particular method, you will get enlightenment , and we follow the path and claim to be enlightened. Now, what is the proof of this enlightenment? There is none. It's a very personal experience. All of this appears to be a circus. Why would somebody try to run away from what is visible and apparent to realise something that can't be explained? Why would I try to do the quantum analysis of my table? The table may be made of atoms and molecules, but that doesn't affect how I use it. ...

The spiritual journey is all about letting go of fixations, and, strangely, it becomes one of our biggest fixations. The course correction of social behaviour is easy. We are being watched by so many people around us, and if we deviate from socially accepted norms, they will warn us. They understand socially accepted behaviour, and we also acknowledge that they know, and therefore listen to their warnings and correct our behaviour. If somebody does not listen, the Law and State come to the rescue. There are the Bhartiya Nyaya Samhita and many other laws in India that provide punishment for behaviour such as nuisance, criminal assault, trespass, theft, defamation, and so on. The problem with the spiritual journey is that it is an inner journey. Most people in society do not undertake this journey and therefore are not aware of the same. Further, since it's a unique journey for each individual, there is hardly any way to assess whether we are on the right track. That's why it is...

I undertook a journey today by Taxi. The driver told me so many problems they are facing. The problems related to violence by passengers against taxi drivers , tight margins, and difficulties with instalment payments, etc. It made me think a lot, and I discussed the issue with my daughters after arriving home. The elder one was a little agitated about India's large population . She said that in the USA and Europe, the blue-collar workers get good pay and dignified living conditions.  I am not sure as to what solution will work in India. However, my colleague Prajna Paramita and I have been thinking about this issue for quite a long time. We have visited a number of schools, juvenile homes, and NGOs working with women and children throughout India to understand the real issue and guide the children. We have found that the most fundamental reason behind all these problems is the fear-driven education system . That's why the theme of all our sessions has been "Fear, Ambitio...

This world is full of temptations. Since childhood, we have been chasing one temptation or another. Temptation of money, power, tasty food, social validation, some out-of-the-world experience, comforts, stature, positions, and so on. We chase one thing, get the same, and still do not get exhausted. Then we start chasing something else. Why don't we get exhausted? Why do we keep repeating the same cycle? Probably because we have never given our 100% attention to anything. If we give our 100% attention to a relationship, why would we want another relationship? If we have even one person with whom we can be bare and discuss everything threadbare, why would we crave for another friendship? When we go to a hill station and do a tough trek that leaves us completely exhausted, why would we crave another trek? Something within us is incomplete and seeks completion from external objects. We will keep craving completion from external objects until we reach the limits of our effort and realis...

When a child is young, we protect them from outside influences. The child is vulnerable. Our brain also protects us from outside dangers, just as we protect children. It creates a firewall of beliefs and fears that prevents us from getting into a dangerous area. When we see a dark, lonely street, we naturally avoid that street. When we see a few people ganging up and engaging in unnatural activities, we maintain our distance. We learn to notice red flags in relationships and avoid them. That is how we try to sail through this ocean of life. These red flags, precautions, prevention measures, and beliefs help us in worldly matters. However, when a person undertakes the spiritual journey into the world of the unknown, none of these seems to work. There comes the real test. In the world of the unknown, influences will come from both the higher and lower worlds. Sometimes Ravan will come in the form of a Saadhu . Sometimes, God will come in the disguise of a normal human being. How do we r...

We are told to be responsible since our childhood. A responsible son or daughter, a responsible husband or wife, a responsible friend, a responsible father or mother, a responsible employee, a responsible neighbour. There are thousands of proverbs around this. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Almost every Bollywood movie has glorified the feeling of responsibility. Parents want teachers to raise their children to be responsible sons and daughters.  Where does the sense of responsibility come from? I was just wondering where that sense of responsibility came from in me. I contemplated at length and realised that this feeling comes from a combo of two strong emotions: fear and a sense of belonging. If we are born and brought up in an insecure ecosystem where we are threatened for survival, and then we get associated with a small group that feels a sense of belonging for each other, we feel that sense of responsibility for each other. A responsibility to protect each other. Genera...

I am often inspired by the character Vibhishana . He is the only character, so far as I know, in Indian mythology who was born into the Rakshasa Kula , stayed with the Rakshasas for quite a long time, and yet kept his Sadhana silent. When the right time came, he just left Ravan and joined Ram . On the other hand, Bharata 's mother, Kaikeyi, received two boons from Dashratha and asked that Bharata be made king of Ayodhya . Apparently, Kaikeyi was a well-wisher of Bharata, but Bharata understood what was good for him. His locus was pure. His locus was love, and that's why he did not take even a minute to decide that he had to get Ram back to Ayodhya. When Ram did not agree, he placed his Kharaun on the throne and carried out the functions as his servant. Both Vibhishana and Bharat had to struggle. The same struggle all of us have to go through when we move along the spiritual path. We are born and brought up in a highly egoistic society. We learn to live with divisions since ch...

There is no Google Map in the mountains. When we undertake a journey in the world of the unknown, there is hardly any visible guidance available. We mostly work on our intuitions. When we take the road less travelled, we often do not find a paved road. Sometimes we do not find any road at all, and we have to make our own path.  Similarly, when we embark on the journey into the world of spirituality , we move away from the known. The first question that comes to our mind is: "How do we know whether we are going in the right direction?" One of the easiest things to do is to hire a guide. We do so while trekking in the mountains. The guide tells us where to go. But the problem with the guide is that his own experience is again limited. The moment we take a guide, we are not entering the domain of the unknown; we are entering only the domain of the known. Just the Google Map has been replaced with the guide. There is no real exploration, so we will not be able to go beyond what ...

One of the most captivating discoveries of the day is the Higgs Field . CERN experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) confirmed the existence of the Higgs field in 2012 by discovering the Higgs boson, a ripple in that field. This field fills the universe and gives mass to elementary particles. The Higgs field is an invisible energy field that permeates the entire universe and gives mass to fundamental particles. Without it, particles would rush through space at the speed of light, and atoms could never form. There has hardly been any research in the field of consciousness. Karl H. Pribham conducted many experiments on plants. He discovered that the plants can read human intentions. Meaning thereby that if we intend to uproot a plant, the plant reads that and emits stress photons , which can, in turn, be read by a photometer. In fact, experiments were carried out showing that if a plant is regularly watered by a person, and the person travels thousands of miles away from the ...

" Purpose of life " is something we are trying to discover through the spiritual journey . A few years back, I designed a Google survey and sent it to a few friends to discover the most common conflicts in midlife . One of the most common responses of the people was that they were confused about the purpose of life. Having achieved the target milestones in their careers and families, they had little to look forward to. I see most of them today after 4-5 years. All of them have set new targets for themselves. Some have made health and fitness their priority, while others are investing their time and energy in spiritual pursuits. A friend shared a video this morning that's basically about Zen 's understanding of life's purpose. It says the ego seeks the purpose of life. Life is all about living in the present moment rather than discovering its purpose. It reminds me of the story of the frog in the well, told by Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament of Religions in C...

One of the biggest boons we all have is " limited awareness ". We can see the things that are larger than a particular limit. Think of the scenario where we can see everything clearly, however small. What if we could see the viruses and bacteria inside the food? Would we be able to eat that food? What if we could see the small microbes on the floor? Would we be able to walk? What if we can see the dust particles in the air clearly? What if we could read the minds of the people we live with? We would probably not be able to tolerate them. What if we could see our past lives? It will be difficult for us to live such a shallow life again and again. At the same time, there is a lot of premium to "awareness' in almost every spiritual tradition. Doesn't it appear to be contradictory? Why would we try to be aware of the things that are going to give us pain? When we talk about awareness, it comes in two types. First, awareness of the external world; second, awareness of...