Song of Soul

Awareness in Taking Bath

2007-10-12T15:20:00.001-07:00

Most of the times in life, we are doing something, and thinking something.
A simple example is when we take bath, our minds are very rarely focused on the act of taking bath. We are thinking about the school, work, kids, what to eat for breakfast, thinking about time crunch in catching the bus, people at work, deadlines, so and so forth. A million thoughts pass by in the span of 5-10 minutes.
I hardly know any one who takes time to actually pay attention to the bath, the way we scrub, clean and massage our own body. Act of Taking bath is a great and simple exercise in itself. It stimulates and touches various nerve centers, massages them, increases blood circulation and rejuvenates the cells in different parts of the body.
But how many of us pay attention to the actual process of such great massaging, giving time and focus to the cleaning aspect.

Essence of Yoga and Meditation is to bring the Thought and Action together. The meaning of “Yoga” is “Union”.
The purpose of all the postures and silencing mind is, Union of thought and action in everything we do.
They are tools that help us in getting to this state of Union, every moment of our existence.

People these days practice Yoga and Meditation for an hour in the day and then keep running in life creating chaos 23 hours (even in sleep in form of dreams).
The goal is to synchronize the thought and action. Yoga and Meditation are tools that help us get there. To be aware of the thoughts and actions and consolidating them is the ultimate state we all need to achieve. In a scientific perspective, What are Yoga and Meditation really doing? They are in some ways, slowing down our thought process and body movements(actions).
While doing Yoga, one is asked to be aware of every movement, every part of the body and pay attention and stay there in that posture or position and be in it.
In Meditation, we are trying to pay attention to breath or heart beat or light and try to stay focused on that. This brings a eliminating multitude of thoughts that pull mind in many directions.

Thus one need not just practice Yoga and meditation for an hour and then keep getting anxious and worried during the day.

Have you seen Kids playing or doing things any time? They are very focused in everything they do. They pay all the attention to the Act.

Have you ever asked a kid to recite something you said? They take a few seconds to actually repeat the same.
Because, kids bring all their awareness to the moment and then repeat the word. They do not mechanically repeat the word, but take time to pay all the attention to absorb the thought and put into action. And we grown ups actually look at them and get anxious and repeat the same 10 times before the kid says it. It is the Ego of the adult that creates that anxiety and also the feeling that they are superior to kids. Kids learn everything moment by moment with full awareness. But adults, disturb that subtle state by enforcing their ways and methods of looking at the world and brand kids as fast learners, slow learners and judge them.

There is an incident that happened in Buddha’s life.

Buddha is walking on the road. A fly sits on his head, and he goes on talking with Ananda, his disciple, and mechanically moves his hand and the fly goes away. Then he stops, suddenly—because he has done that movement of the hand without awareness. And to him that is the only wrong thing in life—to do anything without awareness, even moving your hand, although you have not harmed anybody.

So he stands and again takes his hand through the same posture of waving away the fly—although there is no fly any more. Ananda is just surprised at what he is doing, and he says, "The fly you have brushed away from your face long before. What are you doing now? There is no fly."

Buddha said, "What I am doing now is…that time I moved my hand mechanically. It was a mistake. Now I am doing it as I should have done, just to teach me a lesson so that never again anything like this happens. Now I am moving my hand with full awareness. The fly is not the point. The point is, whether in my hand there is awareness and grace and love and compassion, or not. Now it is right. It should have been this way."

At least from now on pay attention to the act of taking bath and that is a good start for a life style change, To bring Awareness. Attain the Union of thought and action for at least 10minutes in a day and slowly build upon it.
Observe the progress you make, see how long you are able to do that. Be aware of the actions that you are performing and if they are in harmony with the thought.
That is a great start.

What is Soul

2007-07-30T17:27:00.001-07:00

Many of us have heard the word “Soul” or “Spirit” probably many a time in life.
I am sure that we have either embraced or ignored it. The reason being, either we understand it or do not know even know what it is.
Especially in the “Age of Experiments and proofs”, it becomes quite hard for us intellectuals to understand what is Soul.
Many people ask me, “What is Soul?, How can I find it?, Where do I look for it, Do I have to pray to find it, Is it defined clearly in Bhagavad Gita, or Bible or Quran?

Well, I had a tough time to figure a way to explain it. Because Soul is something that none of us have seen.
But still we keep hearing the word Soul everywhere, including a guy like me who is so obsessed with it, that he names his blog, “Song of Soul”.

Yes, it is hard for any common man like me to know what it means. I am sure Jesus, Krishna, Prophet had a tough time to figure it too.

Let us try something here to see if we can get to understand what "Soul" is.
We all know that there are at least 2 parts that exist in us, “Body” and “Mind”. How do we know?
We all know that there is a physical part that does some functions for us that we can touch and feel, that is called ”Body”, hands, legs, fingers, face and so on.

But, How do we know that there is Mind? We cannot see it, we cannot feel it, we cannot touch it?
Good question. OK Now, slow down, stop and sit at a place. When we are not doing anything and just sitting or lying down, we are still alive, right?
There is some thing that is still going on inside us, Right? There are some things called “Thoughts” that keep running in the background and whether we want to use the mouth to speak or not, they keep rolling in the backdrop.
We also say that these silent movements in our Mind (like a background score in a movie), are in the head, inside our brain, are responsible for these thoughts. Right!

So we were able to find that there exists a Body, and when we stop the body at a place and sit, and when the body physically is not moving, we can actually observe that there is another part called “Mind” that creates thoughts.

In the similar manner, when we slow down the Mind, and the thoughts take rest, we go to a next level, and this is the 'Soul or Empty Mind'. Somewhere between the resting body and resting mind is Soul.
Wow, that was easy, Isn’t it? OK, now I will not guarantee that. You have to try and see.

Well, many people might still have doubts whether this is true or not. Whether this soul exists or not?
OK, I am still with you on this. Let’s take out this mystic word “Soul” out of the picture here.
And let’s do an experiment, a small little trick in the laboratory called “Body and Mind”.

Let’s sit at a place, close our eyes, and sit for 30minutes. And simple pay all the attention on to our breath, Just notice where the breath is going inside and how it is going outside.
Any layman can do this, anyone who is alive, Right!
Just keep doing that, and for 30min close your eyes, all your attention on your breath, how it is going in and how it is coming out. That’s It, No Other Business.
Then you will feel something, some emptiness, some silence, some calmness, something that draws you deeper and deeper, and something that keeps expanding into silence.
You can give any name to that experience; people call it Soul, Light, Spirit, God, Peace or Real Self.
This process is called “Meditation”, by the modern world, you can call it anything you want, Soul Searching, Breathing exercise, Creating Gaps between thoughts, Creating Peace, Finding Balance.
Again, please do not think that the essence of this article is to justify the so called, overly used word, Meditation.
I am not obsessed with Meditation. But I am obsessed with that experience that happens when I sit for 30 min in silence and observe the breath.
Do that process every day and you will keep experiencing the subtle feeling. Yes, you will get zillions of thoughts initially, but your duty is to just pay attention to breath, not the thoughts. Some thoughts can be very strong. But we just simply try our best to ignore them. Like some one said, "Ignorance is Bliss", that is exactly what we are trying to do.

My dear buddies, what do we do, when we are tired with our body? We put it to rest. What do we do, to rest our mind? Sit in silence like what we have done.
Can we walk every day from the time we wake up till we rest in the night? NO. We do sit some times during the day, we lie down if we get a chance. Same way what are we doing, when we have too many thoughts running in the mind. Nothing.

Well, atleast we start doing this exercise from now. Call it Meditation or Soul Searching, or whatever name you want to call, but please do close your eyes for 30minutes in the morning after waking up and 30min before going to bed in the evening.

To go into a little more complex phenomenon, and if you wish to read further, All the problems in today’s world are caused by the Mind, except for the natural calamities that are caused by the Mind of the Universe (we will not worry about that now).
But the calamities that we face, like Anger, Frustration, Depression, Loneliness, Excess Desire for anything, Attachment that is obsessive, are because of what happens with the thoughts in our mind. Too many thoughts or too much attachment to throughts creates a vicious circle and we unknowingly tend to enter into the twister of emotions. These emotions causes turbulences.

Most of the crimes and atrocities in this world happen when there are too many thoughts in the mind, and the person gets tired mentally. Overlapping of thoughts takes place, clarity of thoughts is lost. Then Man adopts some repressing way of relieving these thoughts, by use of drugs, tranquilizers, alcohol, tobacco and Some people use purging ways of eliminating these thoughts in form of revenge towards what they think is the cause of chaos in form of abuse, violence, terrorism and crimes.

Unfortunately we were taught by parents and teachers, how to rest when body is tired, but never on how to give the rest to the mind.
Parents, Teachers, and My dear friends, please make this "Experience of Silence" part of all your life styles. Give that little rest to your churning minds and thoughts.
Listen to Silent Music of your Inner Minds. You can call this Finding A Soul, or Spirit or Atma or God, Or you define your own name for that experience, you do not have to follow the crowd.
At last, it is your own inner experience. You have the right to remain silent.

Free Will

2007-07-27T10:17:00.001-07:00

A simple law that governs this universe "Every Action has an equal and opposite reaction" - This is law of Karma. These actions might not be from this birth too, it might be from previous manifestations. So everything that happens, happened and will happen is based on that. Then people say “Then let me live with no responsibility this moment if it is all Karma”. But that is like digging another grave for the near future with our own hands, It is like shooting our own leg. Because what we do now in this moment, affects the next moment or moments after some time. Yes, what ever happens and happened was based on some previous actions, but what can happen is based on action in this moment. Simple Law of Physics, we do not need Vedanta or some spiritual jnaan for this enlightenment. Even a little kid can reflect on this. But How do we control, the choices we make now, in this moment? That is exactly where the subtle force called 'Free Will' comes into play.

Free Will is the Divine grace for humanity. That is where Mind can be beautiful or ugly. If we can use the mind to turn the Free Will into a nice handy tool, then we make life beautiful to the best extent possible. It can be Ugly if we do not use that Free Will. Beautiful, in the sense, detached to the results, and absorbed in action, living in the moment. Free will is what allows us to make choices as we keep going in life. Apart from Free will, there are other factors that keep influencing us. Many people also tend to say that when there are so many factors that are influencing us that are mysterious, then why do we need to even worry about doing anything? Well, it is almost like saying, I will put the food in my mouth, but let the destiny take care of how it has to come out.
Come on Guys and Gals, we use our free will to do our basic eating, excreting and sleeping activities. Then there is no question in saying “Why use Free Will?”
This Free will is accessible to us, within us. It is freely available. If we are not accessing the Free Will, It simple means that we are ‘Ignorant Lazy Buggers’.

Free Will becomes easily available only when we become aware of ourselves, when we can get in touch with our inner self, when we slow down and watch ourselves.
Infact "Free Will" is none other than, the "Prana" energy that is moving in and out of us. Prana forms the basis of our existence. Everything in this world moves because of Prana.

Prana does not mean just the breath, it means the life force that sustains us. It is like the fuel of a car, Not just the engine, but everything that makes the car run.
If we are not aware of the life force, it causes derailment of a Machine and Man.
Prana is out, we are out. So Prana forms the foundation. The moment focus goes onto Prana, we slowly start realizing Free Will.

We all know that Breath is very important. How much time a person spends in being aware of Prana, that quicker and faster he gets access to Free Will.
Free will is something that allows us to make balanced choices, not emotional choices. Balanced choices do not mean good or bad.
Free Will is something when we use, we make detached choices, so we do not care about the result.
That is when a Man becomes Free Spirit. See the journey, From Free will TO Free Spirit.

But how de we become aware of prana, the answer is simple and straight forward –Yoga and Meditation.
Slowing down and being aware of Prana makes us accessible to Free Will.

So My Dears, Let GO everything. Do you realize that without our control our heart is beating, without our control we are actually reading, without control our eyes are perceiving the meaning of these words and processed inside, Do we have any control any of these things? NO. Same way to think we have control over something external is Maya.
Truth is, we have control only over our inner selves through Free Will/Prana.

Embrace Yoga and meditation, please find a Guru, and surrender to the divine energy flowing in the universe.
Anytime a person complains of life, I ask 2 simple questions: "Did you brush your teeth this morning". YES is the answer usually I get, unless that person really stinks :-)
The next question is "Did you clean your brain/mind today?" NO is the answer 100% of the times.
People expect Life to be beautiful without giving space to the mind and cleaning it. See, How selfish we humans are.
We want everything on the bed nicely arranged. God did create everything for us on this beautiful bed called Earth.
But still we want something else. We are blessed with two great tools, Body and Mind. These two tools are to be used to find our real self and be aware of it in the journey of life.
Use the Free will of Mind and put the body into appropriate actions. Be aware that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. That is the true definition of “Law of Karma”. The Definition does not mean that "Yaa, whatever has to happen will happen, so why do anything".

Life is too short to suffer. It is not meant to suffer.

Slow down my dear friends; take time for your inner self. Go for Yoga and Meditation classes, make them part of the life.
First make your inner self stronger and outer world will mean nothing afterwards.

Melting Mind

2007-07-16T13:53:00.001-07:00

My Journey with divine has been very interesting, a blend of ego and Doubt mixed with Faith and Love. What a roller coaster ride it is!
Inspite of feeling the divine energy in various forms and actions in this material world, My Ego mind sees you as a normal human.
It forgets to go beyond the harshness and wounds of life, that are the stepping stones to the eternity of Liberation.
Especially the wars on my humanity and personality that have left the scars of failure and turmoil? Is it a test for my Ego?
I go through a range of emotions, from pain, with drawl into myself like a little kid who is little pissed with his parents with locked lips and droopy face

Then after a few minutes, the introspection kicks in, the question of “What is HE angry about?”, “What is HE not happy about?”.
But that questioning triggers twists of events. It is that fraction of moment that can transform a person either into a saint or a sinner.
You see, how Stupid is human mind!
Every saint and sage from the ages of stone, have written endless pages of agony of mind and the poison of its egocentric pangs, from Rumi, to Thyagaraja to Annamayya and Ramadasu.
The same way they have pleaded to the divine energy innumerable times to surrender their ego to the Gods of Heavens, I do the same today.
Under your able guidance I am put to the test of Fire.
I am sure, I will come out as an ‘Agnihotri’ and that moment would be the end of the life time,
because to be sanctified completely by the egoless mind, is journey of a life time for ordinary mortals like me.
I look at my own Ego with humiliation.
At crossroads of confusion like this, the Divine energy instantly seeps into the crevices of Minds gyrations and solves the Puzzles of Mind.
And the blossoming Soul, instructs my mind to surrender and flow with the divine energy. This process is the Melting of the Mind.
At this moment of surrender, the tears of heart flow through the eyes and the Mind drowned in the abyss of blissful honey.

Thanking the Supreme for accepting me as a disciple and allowing me to grow and evolve as a spiritual being, is the least I could do.
Heart melts in joy of surrender to the innocence of silent eyes of creation and the love flowing through every being.

Human Mind is always looking for judgments that have been made by people and that it wants to make about others.
That is its nature. Sometimes I feel the advancement of Mind in the animal species is a curse.
Why Did God create a Mind? Why could not have he created a Soul and Body and left us peaceful?
See, How brutal is human creation? If a single mind can do so many weird monkey jumps, Imagine, how the whole world, with a billion minds is juggling in the circus of darkness.
It is unfortunate that most of the humanity is stuck in the cyclones of mind and its thought waves. These waves engulf the soul and throw life into the hurricanes of disasters.
The climate of the Human is devastated by the Titanic waves of Ego.
How wonderful this universe would be with no Minds in Action, but just Souls in play?

The greatest test for the humanity is to Conquer this Ego. There are no prescribed books or standard degrees that are given to finish this course.
It is just the right guru and Serpentine Minds that goes to the school to learn, The school called “LIFE” and the Guru is “Divine Energy”.
Any number of words written on solving this puzzle is a waste, because it is just the experience that stands like a feather in the cap at the graduation of life.
The Spirit inside and the Guru outside are the sole witnesses to this transformation.

Who is He

2007-07-11T16:58:00.001-07:00

He came back into the world of Light from the dreams of night. It could be his past or present, But now the moment. The dream was an icing on the baking cake of life.
Periods of pain, joy, exhilaration, realization, and many ahaa moments.
But what did they do together, not much. Same fluctuating thoughts, not sure about what is next. Want to do something but unable to do that.
Not that he is not making attempts, but just the feeling of stagnation and suffocation.
Life should be like a river they say, ever flowing, but why is it always here, same work, same people, same food, same clothes, can it get faster, smoother and easier, with no effort? Just like the water is forced to drop from top of a mountain, like a beautiful water fall, becoming a decoration of itself and every passerby says “Wow! What a Life.”

Do not feel like talking to anyone, because every one else seems to come with their own problems and overhead of baggage.
A stream of ‘Whys’ hitting the subtle Mind from all directions, like arrows aimed at an already wounded warrior, who is trying to recuperate.
Why did life turn in so many ways? Why did life create such a havoc? Why so many ups and downs?
Want to write, but cannot write. Want to act, but cannot act. Want to chat, but cannot.
Life feels frozen, passing through the worst of the winters, never like this in the past. Feels like dead end. Is this the arctic of life?
Inspite of the storms of emotions, and the gales of thoughts, he realises that there is a purpose for him.
He knows that he is the lamp in the deadly black cloud. But he is not sure of the purpose.
Many spiritualists say that Mind is the problem. He approves that too. So does he Meditate,

He knows it all. He has read a lot. He had heard words from many a good and great, knocking his own life in different phases, and he had experienced ‘em all.
He has seen the best, and created the worst too. For every rise he fell down and he knows he will rise again.
But Life is at a cross roads. He wants do something meaningful, He knows that meaning needs to be found in what we have and what we do.
He never had passion for what he is doing. It was more of a destiny’s plan. But he is good at whatever he does.
He cannot wait any more and he wants to make a plan now. He wants to do something bigger, beautiful and lead life to its fullest beauty and glory.
He is balanced. He is a perfect balance of yogi and bhogi. He knows one day just like the big bang, the whole formation is going to happen,
a star is about to be born, from the broken heart and charred mind.

All these thoughts came in at once, when he got up from the dream.
He stood and he knows it is another day. He reiterates that it is going to be better.
He is known for his positive energy, he can influence people in very inspiring way. He knows that when he does that it inspires him too.
He accepts everything that comes around. He does not like to Judge, for he knows that there are greater laws of universe that are effective, and the czar of life, is omnipresent.

He acts as if he is always alive and empty, so that he can receive many gifts from heavens. He believes in heaven and not in hell. He believes that Heaven exists in the moment, NOW and rest is Hell.
He has not read everything, but he has insight in to all the things.

He is a beautiful soul, with this thought, he walks through the rooms of life. Washes the past and looks into the mirror of Self. The face of life is beautiful.
No sign of any tiredness, no scars of the past, as fresh as a bud blooming into a flower. Ready to spread the fragrance of love, peace and joy into the universe.
He resolves, and says, “You can do it”, one more day, making a mole of confidence into a mountain.
He knows how to use the hidden energy in the remotest cells to rejuvenate the strength. He is a warrior who fought many battles.
Failures and Success for him is only a numbers game. He knows that Battle with the inner self is the toughest of all.
To bring glory to the soul is the ultimate goal of creation. Realizing himself is a way of life.
People come and become the pages of his life, Friends exists, Foes never last his glow. Friends are for the times to come and times gone.
As he thinks, all the people who walked in his life with and around him, pass like an unedited frame in the editor’s room, shadows of past dancing to the music of organic silent noise.
The noise creeps in now, shaking him from the roots, drawing him into the abyss. He cannot handle it anymore, as he slides down the tunnel of darkness, he asks with a voice so deep, that only he can hear, but very clear, "Who are you?". This Echoed every moment of life in the space of his own creation, and he finally had the strength to face it, to look into the face and simply stare.

He says to himself “Enough is enough” and jumps out in to the world again, wiping himself clean and fresh with the fragrance of self, caressing the corners of the body and glistening in the golden glow of tungsten light of the universe, that served as a shield of protection, in the wars of love and pain.
As he walks out, he looks at the clock, the time is ticking and the moments rolling, as if the seconds needle of the clock needs to catch the missing love of the hours and minutes, not realizing that time is a myth, and what’s gone is gone. “Live in this second”, he asserts himself.

At the final leap into the reality, evolves a moment, as if the hurricane of thoughts vanished into the sky of eternity, As if the heavens of Gods said, "Let's give him a break", a moment of silence dropped as a reward for bearing the will of supreme, just like a dolphin is rewarded after a feat with a small little treat.

The moment whispered to him, “He is you and Me, all that makes up the Thee.”

Ambrosia Intoxication

2007-05-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

The fingers still drowsily looking at the keyboard and unwilling to come out of the intoxication of ambrosia, each cell in the body attaining the moksha (liberation) after being served the "Nectar of Immorality" by the Lord of Ancient Medicine, Dhanvantari, himself walking into the soulful city of Vancouver.

The ancient Hindu scriptures say that, once upon a time when the Good was getting crushed in the arms of the evil, there was an attempt by the Supreme Energy to make ‘Good’, Immortal, in the strands of universe, to be passed down the lineage of humanity. In that attempt, the ocean of cosmic milk was churned to bring out the divine nectar, after crossing many a hurdles. Finally, Dhanvantari, the Lord of Immortal Science of Life, ‘Ayurveda’, evolves from the ocean carrying a pot of Nectar, serving the gods and demi-gods, all the eternal good that had been stored in the heavens from ageing universe, to reinstall the values and morals of human life, and made them all immortal, so that, there is always Light that guides the human mind, that has a darker side and keep the flame of Soul alive. Once the soul goes back to its source, it becomes another star of the cosmic mat, providing light and acumen to many more galaxies of the universe.

The History repeated itself in the spiritual city, Vancouver, the melting pot of cultures of the world, when the rest of the world is suffocating in the web of wars and violence, and discrimination of races, and genocides. Supreme Energy had realized again that the time has come to send the God of Life, back to the humanity, this time not just with the jug of nectar, but allowing him to stay on the planet for the time infinite, with a mission of living 'Ayurveda', the Harmonic Science of Living, Lord Dhanvantari walked on Earth again, in form of Dr.Vasant Lad, in the midst of souls yearning for enlightenment, and churned the ocean of wisdom to pour the "Knowledge of Life".

The season of Spring' also called the 'Basant or Vasant', in India, bringing the winds of change, life emerging from the eternal soil, sprouting the seeds of dormancy with warmth of the Sun peeping out of the clouds, the cherry blossoms of the Pacific northwest, that have taken the showers of snow and storms of winters, with the bare bodies of dry branches, impatient to wait for the tenderness in the form of leaves of knowledge to form, letting the petals of freedom, colors of vibrant energy, fragrance of flowers blooming, and joining the procreation parade are the pregnant bulbs of Tulips, waiting for an opportunity to deliver the new life, displaying the bulbs of VIBGYOR with enlightenment.
In the holy scripture, The Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna says ‘Among all the seasons, the invigorating Vasant season (spring) is My manifestation’. In the effervescence of the same light and elation, the dawn of "soulful spring",
Dr. Vasant Lad, an icon of new life, bringing freshness, inspiration and hope to the meditating souls of the ocean city.

Dr.Lad, the incarnation of the Mahatma, Gandhi himself, with the gait and walk that inspired the millions of Indians, wearing the spectacles of delicate glasses for more clarity in vision of universal brotherhood, that hold them with the frame of iron and steel will, providing the strength to hold the cranium, clear of the weeds of dark or grey hair, making way for the spiritual energy entering into the Crown chakra, "The Sahasra", the thousand petal lotus temple of Divine form, enclosing the enlightened mind, to set an example for the humanity, with the importance of living in harmony with nature, in the language of silence and self reflection.

Tall, slender, divine, beautiful inside and out, glorifying the importance of Ahimsa, Non-violence, peace and self realization as the fundamental principles that have been weaved into the ancient script, "Ayurveda", carrying the multitudes of Vedic philosophy, breathing in and out as "SOHAM", and spreading the scent of divine creation, eliminating the darkness surrounding the minds and the notion that there is God inside everyone, but reemphasizing everyone that "You are God, Don’t search for Him inside" and pointing us to see everything and everyone as GOD himself and composing a divine dance in the compassionate singing, words and recitation of poems and slokas from the saints and sages that have walked the Indian Sub continent for centuries, going as back as 5000 BC.

Ayurveda is a philosophy and science that is very easily put to practice, adaptable into any common household, nicely packaged to care for the elements of Life: Body, Mind and Soul. It is not just the medical science as many might be wrongly positioning, but is a multidimensional model, that encompasses all sides of human well being and defines “Perfect Health” as something that is naturally Inherent to Life that is Self-sufficient, Self-Happy, and Self-fulfilled, also called "Svastha", in Sanskrit. This definition of a Perfect Health is also the only one in the world that is complete in every form and is recognized by World Health Organization (WHO).

Dr. Lad begins the time travel by laying the foundation on which the human life is built, the Soul or the Spirit, that transcends beyond this material world, but covered by the layers of Prana (sensations), Manas (Feelings), Budhi(Intellect), Smrithi (Memory), Chitha (Images), Ahamkara (Ego). So, our journey at every moment consists of, perception of the objects and situations with sensations, converting them to feelings, creating our Intellect and storing them in Memory in form of the Images, that over a period of time accumulate into "Ego" which becomes the cloud covering our Inner Soul. This is what ancient Hindu wisdom calls Web of 'Maya' that creates an illusion and blinds the real perception of truth. The true nature of inner soul is "Sat Chith Ananda", Pure Bliss. He explains how we are made up of trillions of cells, and every single cell is in a state of awareness, and has its own mind, thinking and intelligence. These cells in our body are constantly communicating with each other in form of Prana. This flow of prana is what we call "LIFE".

He also very subtly delves into the concept of Ego and convinces that Ego is an essential element of this creation because of which the Universe sustains and that even a cell has an Ego of its own, that helps it to propagate and exist. He explains how "I" is very important and essential feeling, that helps humanity in the self and spiritual realization. Every thing in this world has "I" within.

But he also with a beautiful analogy ( trying to erase the lines of the marker pen ink from the white board, that sticks to his finger and does not want to leave his finger tip), explains how our own "I" which is pure and simple Ego, can become very sticky and cause attachment to the surroundings and objects. He provides a solution to carefully tread the path of our own existence, using the total awareness in our cells, and cosmic intelligence that creation had bestowed on us, as tools to cross the hurdles of Desires, Anger, Miser ness, Attachment, Pride, and Jealousy.
He ultimately requests us to experience the truth "I am Pure bliss, awareness and existence", not the feelings, sensations, thoughts and actions.

Also he brings to every one's attention to a very beautiful fact, with a great sense of humor that "Our birth is our choice and that we choose our parents and enter into the divine womb of a mother that we feel comfortable with" and we are all what our thoughts are and that we transform them into actions, and these actions carry our souls in the boat of life crossing us the worldly matters to join the source after the journey.

Dr. Lad then dives into the science of Ayurveda and details the different character traits of life, that evolve from the Ego, The three ‘Gunas’ as mentioned in Vedic literature, 'Satwa' associated with Clarity, 'Rajas' with Movement and 'Tamas' with Inertia. These form the basis of our personality at Mental/Emotional levels and physical constitution at physiological level.
Everything in this universe is made up of five elements: Fire, Air, Ether, Water and Earth. At a cellular level, he gives an example of how a simple cell is made up of five elements, the cell membrane formed from Earth element, spaces inside the cell representing Ether element, Air pockets of cell the Air element, Nucleic acids forming the Fire element and finally the cytoplasm of cell made with Water.
From this evolves the backbone of the Ayurveda, the three properties of the forces that these 5 elements create within a human body. Vatha - Energy of movement, Pitha - Energy of Digestion and Kapha - Energy of Lubrication. He explains how life is made up of these and each individual is predominantly characterized by one of these dominant than the rest.
The imbalance or disease caused in the body is because of the change in any of these energies caused by many factors from Diet, seasonal changes, Environment, Jobs, Goals, Relationships, Ageing, Nature of mind and emotional changes.

But he also clarifies that Body and Mind can be kept in the state of balance by four goals as defined in Vedic system, Dharma - Righteous Duty, Artha - Wealth, Kama -Fulfillment of desire and finally the Moksha - Enlightenment or Self Realization.
Dr. Vasant with his divine and melodious voice sings the glory of God from the famous Bhaja Govindam of Adi Sankaracharya, " punarapi jananam punarapi maranampunarapi jananii jathare shayanam" meaning that "we all take so many births and deaths and our actions (Karmic deeds) create our destiny and it is very hard to liberate from this ocean of samsara or family". Even though we all set our goals to something materialistic, our ultimate vision should always be to attain Liberation and that is possible only through understanding our selves, following certain righteous ways of life, in harmony with nature and aligning our body, mind and soul to the dynamics of energies defined in Ayurveda.
He warns that our faulty life styles, creates leakages in our own bodies and minds, the impurities (doshas) start accumulating in our life bucket and carry the deposits to the next birth manifesting them in form of psychosomatic disorders.
Whatever is manifesting in this birth is simply a reflection of the accumulation of actions from the previous life. Disease is caused by our own ignorance most of the times. So he says, that Ayurveda plays a major role in not just treating a disease, but defining and setting standards for body and mind to transcend the faulty life styles and walk towards the Pure bliss and Joy.

He creates a beautiful bridge between the science, philosophy and religion, by declaring that "Science is an Experimentation of Truth", and "Philosophy is the Love of Truth" and finally "Spirituality or Religion is Experiencing of the Love". Ayurveda is a communion of Science, Philosophy and Religion.
He also regrets that, the moment Religion/Spirituality falls into the hands of fanatics, the experience of love is crushed and exploitation of human mind begins in the name of God.

The turmoil that exists in humanity is the outcome of the Brains' perception of the information and its responses. To streamline the response in an appropriate way, Dr.Lad suggests that we all should learn to "Watch the Watcher". He says the moment we become the watcher, we start witnessing everything and we just become the witness to our own existence. The witnessing is, Silence and this gives birth to "Unconditional Love" which is the only solution for ending human turmoil and pain. In the process of watching the watcher, one experiences Compassion and Love, because at this point we enter the Heart. Then he suggests that we move down slowly to the Belly button. It is the center of connection to our source of life, the Mother, from which we are created. This point is our existence through which we breathe life. He simplifies that, Life is a Journey from Brain to Heart to Belly Button which is our ultimate beginning and end.

Dr.Vasant Lad also digs into the details of the treatment management, also called "Chikitsa" which encompasses different subtle approaches in diagnosing, managing and treating any kind of dysfunction in body or mind. In this regard, he explains how powerful Ayurvedic system is, in reading thousands of different pulses (72,000) in diagnosing any malfunction. He also enlightens the participants about an experience he had in a conference, where, a scientist from NASA had challenged the pulse diagnosis and Dr.Vasant was asked to check the pulse and explain any problems that exist.
Dr.Vasant had to begin his meditative diagnoses and found that the man was having Prostate cancer. He also read other vitals like body temperature, blood sugar and cholesterol. The scientist was shocked to see the truth.
Dr.Lad uses this personal experience among many more, to very humbly confess, that he is not here to take pride in his diagnosis, but to share the magic of the creation and Ayurveda’s insight into it and what it has to offer the humanity.
He also had an opportunity to take a number of cases from the audience and instantly provide them with diagnosis, treatment and management of life style for them.

He very rightly chose half a day to explain the importance of Pranayama, The regulation and control of Life force i.e. Prana. Prana forms a basic element of our existence and we ignore that completely in our day to day life. He explains that regulating the breath can not only cure all kind of chronic and malignant problems, but also form a foundation of our life to be complete, fulfilling and beautiful. The auditorium reverberated with joy and happiness as all the 100 or more participants joined the Breathing Divinity, and the sounds of "SoHam", mellowing cosmic music, 'Om', revealing the God. He teaches the Mantra or secret of simple, joyous life, the song of 'Soham', the sound of inhalation and exhalation.
"SO" representing God and "HAM" the Ego. Every breath takes the God inside and throws Ego out. He made aware of the most important part of human existence, The Breath.

His divine words of wisdom transforming into a soulful music many a times, accompanied by accomplished musician Sunita Bapooji, another woman of divine unconditional love, who is an exponent in Indian classical music, and heals and cleans the impurities of humanity with her Yogic and ancient ways of living, loving and Caring. At many a times the auditorium would vibrate with contrasts of silence and music both originating from the twin souls of Vasant and Sunita.

The program would not have been possible without coordination, commitment and love of some elite in Vancouver like Jayashree, Neelam, Oma, Gayathri, including every single soul in the spiritual congregation.

The moment finally arrived in the form of, he taking a breath away, but leaving the Silence of Joy, and Souls filled with tranquility and ecstasy. His movement, like a breeze in the spring, carrying the fragrance of perfumed soul, and dropping a few tender petals of heart for the humanity to softly walk on them and feel the beauty of divine creation.

It took a spring like Vasant, to remind that the Ayurveda, science of self healing, is Us, the nectar of life flowing within, in form of Prana and it just takes a breath to find the treasure.

Warrior of Soul

2007-03-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

Living a life at peace is a very simple and hard thing too. Peace is right here within in our heart. The moment we loose our place from the heart, and get into mind, the outside things come and bother. So always bring the mind into the heart.

That is where all these meditations and yoga help. They bring back attention to breath which comes from within between the chest in the heart and lungs. You are no more influenced by the changing external world like people’s moods, emotions, attitudes and actions. You will smile at everything that passes by.

The senses are always perceiving outside environment and giving feedback to Brain. The brain processes that information based on information inside, called “Experiences”. If an experience is not present, brain will create a new row in the database, based on a new animal instinct. And then it sends the signal back into the environment in form of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. This process is extremely fast and happens in a flash of a nano-second. If we keep reacting to every situation outside, we are to get tired one day, and this causes fatigue and we start falling apart. Because we have become too external, every change in the external environment effects us. And we all know very well, that, everything is changing every moment. So how can we depend on something that is changing and depend our life on it.

We humans have to be smart to let that information be gauged and not write any thing it wants in brain. That is where the weapon called “SOUL” comes in. Soul acts as a filter to what we are sending into us and how we respond to circumstances. Intially We have to be aware and quick in being watchful. But as we make this a habit of being aware, it becomes quite natural. Slowing down and watching, without any judgement helps a lot in this process. This non-judgemental attitude awakens the soul.

The strength of Soul is amazing, because it is a drop of Universal energy or so called Supreme consciousness that moves the whole universe and maintains the harmony. The Soul is made up of same material that holds the Earth in it’s proper place, that created Sun and that keeps the whole creation intact. Soul is Indestructible, untouchable and imperishable. It can act like a shield of a warrior, The way a warrior holds his shield and fights the war, same way we can hold our SOUL out there and deflect back any arrows and ammunition coming from all sides in form of Desires, Greed, jealousy and Anger (basically kama, krodha, lobha, moha, madha and maathscharyas), some arrows come from outside and some from within.

So my dears, awaken your SOUL. Build life on a strong foundation of Soul. It is the same soul that is in you, me and everyone around. So take advantage of that special skill Creation had given you, the most powerful shield called “SOUL”.
Many are fighting with the shields of Ego, Jealousy, Insecurity and Greed. Those shields do not live long, They perish within no time.
But the SOUL is self sustaining. It lived ages back, it is living now and it will live forever. You do not know how many births you have taken till now. You do not know how many births you will take in future. It is just like a tree creating a flower, fruit and then a seed within. Same with us. We are the fruits of this Universal tree. The body outside is the flesh of the fruit and will perish after some time, but the seed of us, the SOUL is ETERNAL. Soul, just like a seed of the tree, keeps going back to source and comes back again in different forms and ways. So use the Body of Fruit for giving service to others, just like plants and trees give us the delicacy of fruit and let the Soul liberate and go back to source.

But how do we elevate that soul, how do we bring that soul for our use. Well, It IS.
It is so close but so far.
The pranayama, art of living, meditations or any other way of Yoga has one and same goal. To bring back to center and awaken the soul and live with SOUL. This is rise of divinity. That is when we all become Gods or One with the Creation.

So my dears, practice pranayama, meditate every day for 30 minutes, find a nice Guru who can guide you, not in religion, but in spirit, in soul journey and embark on this beautiful journey called “Life on Earth”.

You might have traveled millions of light years, millions of planets, suns and moons and Earth is just another platform and you will catch another train from here and move to another universe soon. Before you board another train, walk around, wander around, look around the beauty of this planet, Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Sun and Moon. You are actually on a vacation on this planet. Our insane human brains do not realize that, because our mind is trapped in EGO and unending desires. Caught in the desires and Ego we are chasing a never ending dream of illusion and in that Illusion we laugh and cry. We do not have ever lasting happiness. But when we liberate the Mind from EGO and Desires, the Lotus like Soul opens up and everything is eternally beautiful and happy. It is very subtle process. It is so simple but so hard.
Dears, All you have to do is, just let go and enjoy your vacation. What do you do when you go on vacation? You do not look around and get bothered by other people’s attitudes, you are eager to discover more, you are eager to adventure more, you want to take another hike, may be go to another beach, go take pictures of the place, eat good food at some nice place and rest. This planet Earth is like that. We are on a nice vacation, we can make every day a beautiful holiday. There is only Joy in here. You, Me and Everyone in this world have the ability to make this vacation beautiful.

Breathe deep, focus on your center, in your heart, and bring out the Atman (Soul) in you, Make it the Mahatma, because you are one too, Dear. Peace is your nature and nature of everyone. Everyone is on this journey. They are all trying to figure out the world. But some are able to identify it earlier than many more living at a lower level of consciousness. Like in a school, different people are at different classes, different grades and ranks. By hard work they all evolve, we all evolve. It is a communion of souls. As kids we do not get affected by others ranks or attitudes in class. Right! Because we do not have our Ego affecting us. All the kids in the class want to play and have fun, First rank and last rank, does not matter.

Same with school called “Life”, we are all in different classes, some with better rank, some understanding things in a better and faster way and some of them taking time. But we all are here to graduate in some form or the other and evolve into better beings and take off from this planet to other horizons.

Live with Soul and Love with Soul. Enjoy every moment of your stay in this universe. Become a lamp in life, the light is very small, but serves a bigger purpose.
We are all Warriors of Soul.

Changeless Change

2007-03-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

We all in our lives at some point or the other, look around and want some change in the situations, surroundings and people. Either we do not like the surroundings, OR the situations are too hard to deal with OR people whom we work with or live with, are not up to our expectations.

Wow! Right there is a key word “Expectations”. That is the core reason for wanting something to change, because there is a big gap between what we want and what we really see and perceive.

This more often happens with people around us, to be more specific with whom we live with or work with, because we spend most of our lifetime doing either of these two.
No two people in this universe are same. Each has their own brought up issues, environments, people and situations they have ran in to. Their experiences form a major part of their mental framework. Spiritually we are all same, but to understand humanity at that level takes quite a bit of evolution and to get there should be the purpose of life.

Anyways, when two people with completely different levels of experience come together, it is very hard to see them behaving the same way. So, the conflicts of opinions do come about ideologies, habits and approach towards life. This results in trying to work out a common ground for their co-existence. Obviously that needs a lot of adjustment from both sides. But how many of the people in this world are willing to accept that adjustment? Some do, and some do not.
The ones that do, continue to be associated, and the others, depart from each other.

This problem typically arises in a family (wife and husband, parents and kids), where one of them is not happy with the other’s habits, ways of life and approaches. In such scenarios, we want the other person to be better, or like us. This is where things can go wrong completely. In some situations where a wife is not clean in her habits, she does not keep her clothes properly, she does not clean the kitchen well, but the husband is a Mr.Clean and he does not accept that life style. Who is correct here? The wife who has always been used to living her life that way or Mr.Clean? Obviously from the little observation, we know, that it would be ideal if Wife changes and they work out something in common.

But in real life scenario how many wives and husbands are willing to change. Is it even acceptable to ask the other person to change? Mahatma Gandhi, like many other greatest philosophers, saints and Humanitarians, mentioned once “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. Yes, that is a very non-violent and peaceful approach to the world and family problems.
In a situation like the above one, there are only 2 possibilities:
The parties involved, can continue living or working together and Accept each other the way they are.
Or they call it quits and move on with their own lives.

The first option is probably the best if there is not a very big gap between the habits and ways of life. But again neither one of them can influence each other by asking them to change. You accept the person the way he or she is and keep giving Love and Care the same way, immaterial of any change in the other person.

People change when they really feel like changing from inside OR some strong event triggers the change from within. When they decide to change, they will change. Trying to change some one by preaching, instructing and pestering will never ever bring change in people. In fact, change in people who are stuck in habits that are detrimental to their life, is possible, only by Acceptance.
Especially in case of people who are addicted to dangerous ways of living like, alcoholism, drugs, psychological issues or any other ways of life, change comes only in sharing, caring and acceptance. Acceptance of the people as they are, with a cheerful smile, with welcoming arms, no matter who they are, no matter what they do, Blind and Unbiased Acceptance is the only solution.

Acceptance can actually bring a potential change, because, every human has some thing deeper in them called “Consciousness”. That conscience knows what is correct and what is not. People get in touch with that consciousness, only in silence. When we are complaining about the people, it is causing more and more turbulence within the person complaining and also the target.
But, Acceptance of people the way they are, creates a sense of peace inside. It generates a beautiful feeling of being loved. In that silence the other person actually gets to go deeper and love him/her again for what they are.

Once Dr. Wayne Dyer, a spiritual seeker and healer, shared a personal experience. His daughter was going through a serious drug addiction, he tried taking her to many psychiatrists, healers, saints and rehabilitation centers, but none of them brought any change in her. He was almost tired of the whole process. Here we have a person who is transforming lives of millions of people all across the world, and his own daughter going through the addictions. He could do nothing about it.
One day she told her Dad,
“Dad, I will change when I want to and when I feel like. I know what I am doing is wrong, but I have to make that decision”. So she knew inside her.
After a point, he just let go the whole situation and started accepting her the way she is. He never questioned her, lectured her nor took her any where for counseling. She kept loving her without any expectations. And one day she changed, she stopped it all.

We all think we have to change people around and we develop attachment towards them and we want them to be so called “PERFECT” beings. We are all perfect in our own ways. We all have impurities and filth in us in our own ways. Everything is very relative in this world. Good and Bad are relative terms. Read my article “Theory of relativity” to delve deeper into this issue.

Most of the people go through agony and say, “She/he is not changing, Oh God, Help me to change that person, or situations”, just an emotional and anxious reaction to perception of how things are. Rather, a gentle approach is to let the person be the way, because each person is different to start with, and some are totally different to the extent that even gentle approach is hard, In such cases call it quits. But none of the trauma, pain, and lectures asking the other person to change is going to do any good.

Like some one said, “Change is the only constant thing in this world”. So everything and everyone changes forms, attitudes and behaviors. But do we have patience, time and ability to accept the situations and people as they are during the period of turbulence. There is no prescribed formula for anything in this world. Acceptance of situations, people and circumstances is the key to peace.
As discussed earlier, In any given circumstance and at any moment of time, we have two choices, we can either move on to another state or remain in the same state, but learn to completely accept and be in harmony with the situations and people around.

The assumption, that we have control over issues outside us, is a MYTH. Anything we can do is only inside. All of us in this world, look and yearn for Acceptance, by people and world around, Of course ultimately we realize that accepting ourselves to begin with, is the key, because universe is constantly changing. Accept yourself and let other person Accept themselves.

Definitely, this article is not intended to change anyone, just a few perceptions :-)

Theory of Relativity

2007-03-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

Societies form, they thrive and they flourish for a while and then the degeneration takes place. Past is a period of degeneration from which the seeds of future sprout to grow into a new tree of society. During this process of regeneration, there is something interesting happens which we do not care to give importance to. There is always a change in the way we look at terms called Good and Bad. The Good of Today is Bad of tomorrow and the Bad of Today is Good of tomorrow.

We can analyze certain traits of day to day lives and compare it way back to half a century from now and then correlate to see that certain things that were considered Evil at that time are taken for granted and certain things that were pretty common at that time are considered inhuman and come under the Criminal Jurisdiction today. For these variations between certain periods of time we frame a word called "Generation Gap" and Kids keep blaming parents for valuably invaluable customs and traditions and Elders keep saying that Kids are totally spoilt based on the trend and changes in the Society. But there are very few sensible and critical thinkers who feel that changes in Society are pretty common and that we need to go with the change. Change is the Law of Nature.

Yes, it is and we have a tough time facing and accepting that change. With this change, the definitions of Good and Bad keep changing too. The way we dress changed, the way we work changed, the way we travel changed. We become so attached to the deeply rooted traditions and customs that we do not want to be moved from the so-called normal trend. We tend to forget that even the Mother Nature follows the same pattern. The branches and stems of culture outside are happily branching out with new leaves and blooms every year with a greater and greater energy. Probably some one would say that well the roots are the same, so why change? But the roots that we do not see with our eyes also keep forming new and tertiary roots for the existence, They do not depend on the one and only same root, they take the best from the original root and keep going forward to explore and discover new arenas of earth and give more strength to the existing tree to bloom better and better than ever. If a tree can do that, how different are we from being part of nature. People build a wall of Ignorance around themselves and blind folded run in the darkness of their mental weakness and use the culture to defend and cover themselves against the mistakes they do in their day-to-day lives. In this process we keep coining phrases called Good and Bad.

A few more thoughts to prove this, Women was never considered to work outside the house in 18th century. If someone did that, they were called revolutionaries at that time. But today it is the way of life. In the past Man was the only one to earn bread and butter for the family. But today, every Guy wants to marry women who would get a paycheck home to add to the luxury of life and it is perfectly normal. But the same thing a century back was considered Bad. We people wait for some one to change first and then follow. And the people who begin the process become revolutionary leaders, social reformers or anti social elements some times.

Let's take a view about Love marriages vs. Arranged marriages. Love!! What is that? Did it exist in the past or is it new HiTech term we coined in the process of Industrial and IT revolution recently. Go talk to your grandparents and you are sure to listen a comment "In our days, we used to listen to what parents said, their word was the law for us, that is why we did not have any marriage break ups at our time." There was no term like "Love marriage" in the past, but today, yes it is a way of life. So in this race of Globalized Economy and world, which culture is the best, who is right, Is an arranged marriage performed in an Asian Culture good or a Love marriage performed in a Western culture.

Well, today we are so busy that we do not even have time to pause for a second and think to see if there is truth and reality in what others say. We frame our thoughts, ideologies and anything against those is considered Bad and anyone who is with it is Good. We tend to forget that what is good for me in a certain circumstance might be bad for the other person and vice versa. We never take a deeper look and say what was the circumstance, the dynamics of changes in the society and the causes of those events. As long as we keep doing that we will keep listening to the word "Generation Gap", more and more.

We keep living in the state of ignorance and keep framing rules for useless things and keep wasting time, instead of thinking for a second, what difference am I making in my day to day life for the benefit of the people living around me. We keep wasting time and arguing about what is Good and Bad. If we all could one day stop this Relative comparisons and tagging every act of ours "Good" and calling the acts of others "Bad" for a selfish/ego reasons, we will have a better world to live. Don't we feel at the end that these two are the terms that we coined for our selfish expression and exploitation of invincible aspect of nature, the TIME.

Yes, Einstein came up with the greatest theory one could have ever come up in the Scientific, Philosophical and Social arena. Everything in this world is quite relative. As Einstein himself quoted once about the Theory of Relativity "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."

A weird analogy

2007-02-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Those were the days when we used to sit on the terrace of our house, under the cold night sky with stars and the moon. It was the same pattern for every night, the night falls in, stars come out and then the Mother used to come to the roof with us to tell stories of great warriors, great saints, freedom fighters, and the epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana (Epics from Indian Sub-continent). Those stories were the anesthetics to put is to sleep every night, dozing into dreams thinking that one day we would be the warriors of the new millennium.

Later after a few years all the Film and TV industry was flooded by these epics in to movies and Television programs that explain Indian culture's strong roots in their history, epics and belief in Gods, Demo-Gods, etc. at least during child hood. Later we start reading Biology, Physics and Chemistry and come to conclusions that these epics and stories about great heroes, saints and Gods who have these great powers are just some stories written by writers and do not have any scientific explanation nor logic. Then we move slowly into the age of radical and rational attitude, where we ask questions about existence of God, start contradicting customs, traditions and sometimes call them Superstitions and make fun of our Grand parents and parents for their ignorance and blind beliefs. Exactly at this turning point of life, I felt the same way as many of us have probably felt, started to think about the validity of these epics and stories that Mom told us. It was after this blood boiling and scientific proof stage of life where contemplation starts playing a role. It is exactly then, I felt like doing some analysis and try to correlate Epics with Science.

As a kid it always amazed me, The class of Zoology, where we read about animals, their development and how a single cell organism like Amoeba has evolved into a class of multi-cellular organisms called Mammals that includes us, the Homo sapiens. We are definitely not going to the learn the development of a human form in this article, but for sure try to bring a little bit of epics from Indian sub continent and try to see its significance in explaining the facts of science. These epics have their roots even before the development of the class of science called Zoology, for that matter even before the existence of Binomial Nomenclature, the way of naming animals and plants by classifying these living organisms into different families, classes, genera and species.

As a kid I was taught an epic that most of the people with Indian origin listened to for as long as Indian Civilization existed and will continue to exist as long as the human race is non perishable. The epic has some strong roots in Hindu way of life. Definitely the intentions are not to talk about a certain religion or promote the significance of a religion, but to see how science and faith blend well together when it comes to the presentation of facts of/about nature and development. The epic starts explaining that the Supreme power, whatever you want to call, let’s say God, came in to existence millions and millions of years back and then there were all these problems faced by the mother Earth, that God decided to come down in many different forms once like Ram, Krishna etc. to save the humanity.

The epics say that God decided to come down to the face of the humanity, to save the Mother Earth from evil at 10 different periods of time in 10 different forms. I will definitely not go in to the details of these Gods/Forms that saved the earth but will sure give an introductory note about a few which are going to play an important role in the analogy further down. The first and foremost form that came in to existence was that God came in the form of a Fish(Matsya) and save the humanity from some devil/evil. Then the second form of God is the form of Tortoise (Koorma) and protected the whole world. Later the third form that came in to existence is that of a half human (Nara in Indian language) and half Lion (Simha, in Indian language). The next form (fourth) is the form of a very small man (Lilliputian - Vamana) and that is the form of a complete man who could talk, walk and do lots of little things as today’s human. The fifth form was that of a complete Man called Rama who is considered very important form of God/role model in the Indian Sub continent, and then later there are a few more forms that came into like Parasurama, Krishna, etc.,

Now let us jump in to the world of Zoology and see the science behind the development of the most complicated organism on the earth, The Human. The first interesting classification is based on the presence or absence of a spinal cord, Vertebrata and Non- vertebrata. Under Non vertebrata we have all the forms of water based organisms without back bone like amoeba, lots of disease causing organisms called parasites, starfish, earthworm, cockroaches etc., The other important sub classification is the Vertebrata, the ones with spinal cord and the one’s that have brain, well developed and smart enough to do some tricks and amuse others. This class Vertebrata is divided into 5 classes and the first one includes Fish(Pisces), the second include Frogs(Amphibians), the third includes Snakes and Tortoises(Reptiles), the fourth includes Birds(Aves) and the last one includes us The Humans( Mammals). If we compare this one with the epic we just talked and read about, doesn't something common strike to our minds? Can’t we compare the family of Fishes to the first form of God who came like a fish (matsya avatara)and rescued the world, the second form of God who came like a Tortoise(koorma avatara) that could be compared to the Family of Snakes and Tortoises and the transition of organism’s living place from water to the land, the third form of God who is a mixture of Human and Lion (narasimha avatar) and then the slow transition of this mixed form to the small human Lilliputian(vamana avatara) form and then to the completely developed form of Human (Rama avatara, Krishna avatara)who is mature and smart to study, grow, marry and lead a life like us.

So, the conclusion, I do not really know, whether to give the credit for the Indian Epic or the science of Charles Darwin. Does Epic come first or the science? Did Science come into existence first or the Epic. Well, let’s put it this way, The Science and the Epic coexisted all the time and were created by none other than we the master-minds, the invincible Humans.

As the ages pass we try to find different ways of reasoning out things around us. From the Stone Age till today, there have been theories about birth of the first form of life, Life started in Water and then came to Land, formation of universe, existence of other galaxies, presence of life in other planets, and questions about existence of God. As the ages advance we hear new theories about these and for that age that particular theory seems to be appropriate and people go with that theory or belief. Meanwhile a scientific explanation comes out that contradicts the old theory and that takes a while to form a good foundation for us to believe in it and we keep moving forward as a Humanity. It is for the convenience of the complicated human mind we develop these theories, to satisfy our thirst for finding answers to this mystical cosmos.

The truth is the same "It all came from some where and we do not know from where". The only thing we could do is "To Contemplate" or "Meditate" to find the truth.

Event analysis

2007-01-25T18:00:00.000-08:00

In life we have many events happening and passing by. The first even of course starts with us forming an embryo in the mother's womb. The first 9 months of the life, is completely revolving around Mommy's activities and the baby is fed automatically by the system. Mother has no control over it. She is just physically eating food and automatically by some divine energy that food and energy is being transmitted into the baby. The baby is born and after that many events happen too. Parents raise the baby to become an adult. As far as my memory goes, I did not have any control over the events till certain phase of life, I would rather say till my adult hormones started flowing in my system. So until then life went on irrespective of I knew to control it or not. The events keep happening around us, even after that. But now, the EGO created by these hormones, forms a layer of cloud called "I did it, this is mine, That is mine". From this point on till the hormones fade off again and till the clouds of maya is gone, is the stage of samsara, where we are struggling and fighting for everything, in the name of "I". We totally forget the fundamental fact that events around us happen irrespective of the intervention from human side. The Judgment attitude prevails and people are pointing fingers at everyone and fighting in the name of right and wrong.

How can something change from not being under our control for a few years, to something under our control after few years? Isn’t it foolish to claim the responsibility for success and failure in the life’s events. Isn’t that Krishna says in the famous Indian Spiritual text “Bhagavadgita” – Do not claim sense of ownership towards anything in life.

But we suddenly start falling into Maya and keep judging situations, events and facts. Reasoning takes us all only a little far. A true Yogi is one who watches everything coming and going, but is still in every moment.

In an interesting perspective, the parents also need to learn a lot from this simple logic, the baby that had formed by the miraculous divine grace and grown into a 9 month old precious life, becomes an object of ownership to the extent that their control on the kids is seen at every level. They forget the simple fact that baby was very well taken by the same divine source for such a long time and shall be taken care even further, with or without interference from the parents. I just took parenting as an example here, but it applies to every single event occurring in this universe. We claim the responsibility and happy when successful and sad when fails. The one who stands all, is the perfect YOGI.

Meditation

2006-11-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a subject to write upon. It is one of those Hot subjects in this world, after International Space Station, and flashy break up of Hollywood stars and USA finding where Bin laden is and having an party.

Yes, Meditation is one of those very simple , but yet very complex states and all the more research and curiosity to find out what it is all about. Even more interesting is, the evolution of the so called "New Age" way of life, with marriage of Yoga and Meditation, sipping chai from East and eating vegetarian food and chanting the universal vibration "OM", wearing a pashmina shawl from Kashmir and attending one of those very expensive spiritual retreats in India, or in USA, or in some really exotic locations of Hawaii and Bahamas. Sometimes I feel these groups are ripping people apart in the name of 'New Age' concept of life. Whatever we all call "New Age", had existed a few thousands of years ago and it could be as old as the universe itself. The Age Old Universe, tries to maintain the perfect balance with this "Old Age" way of life style and Meditation.

Meditation, as we all know in the western world, is mostly related to Buddha, who is shown to be sitting in a very simple yogic posture called "Padma asana", like a lotus flower, with his closed eyes, and his mood, seems to reflect the one of the cosmic silence, a deep contemplation and that of acceptance and letting things come and go. No attachment to anything.
Is that Meditation? How does one achieve that? Can every one become Buddha? Should every one try to attain the Buddha state? Is Meditation, Celibacy? Is Meditation, Vegetarianism? Is Meditation, Nonviolence? What would happen to world, If everyone is meditating like Buddha, and there would be no procreation, For, Buddha, had gone into the meditation after he had enjoyed all riches in the world and had created progeny. So, Is Meditation, something that one has to adopt after one finishes the procreation process? Is it something where you go to Jungles and sit in silence away from society? If the whole world is filled with Buddhas, then what about Bill Gates, what about Tom Cruises, what about Aishwarya Rais and what about Tiger Woods.

Before we go any deeper, let's check the meaning of Meditation in the famous Oxford or Webster Dictionary, it means "To Contemplate". Wow! that sounds simple, to contemplate, anyone can do it. True it is, anyone can do it.
Infact we are all born in that perfectly meditative state. When we are in Mother's womb, we are meditating, just happy with the food that Mommy provides through the umbilical cord.
Even until a few years after the birth, we are in that meditative state, just observing everything around and silently watching everything come and go.
So seems like, we have this skill in all of us. Yes, we are, We all have it within us. We do not have to run to Himalayas, or we do not have to practice celibacy, nor we do not have to turn vegetarians to be meditative. Meditation is just a state of mind.

As we grow up, in this material world, there are lot of distractions, that some times can put us through a roller coaster ride, We tend to loose control over ourselves, our emotions and our own thought process. This can lead to the miseries of the life. It is like a Train traveling on the track, as long as Train is traveling at a certain speed limit we all enjoy the ride, but the moment the speed crosses a certain limit, it looses track and derails and Boom! Damage happens.

Why is Meditation stressed upon so much these days, of all the times in the history of mankind. Because, with the advent of science and technology, life has fast paced quite a bit. Interestingly the end means of Science and Technology revolution should help mankind to perform better and live more comfortably and happily, helping us manage our body and mind better, in tough situations and in accomplishing our day to day tasks. But contrary to that, Life has become for many of us, a vicious circle, because we started to become slaves to the speed. Speed is essential, but too much speed can cause the Train of Human Life derail. The speed at which these thoughts come and bog down the mind, body and soul can be pretty detrimental to the health, both physical and mental.

So what does Meditation do in such cases? It helps us to slow down and observe. It helps us to watch everything around us. It helps us to watch without becoming victim of our own thoughts. It helps us not to fall into the vicious circle of Speed. It helps us to choose our thoughts. It helps us to be very selective about which thoughts we want to put into action. It is natural that we humans based on the environment and circumstances are subject to myriad thoughts, and probably because of Karma too. More to do with the modernization of world with TV, Cinema, Print Media, Internet and free access to everything from information about how to reach moon, how to fire a nuclear missile, to availability of drugs, to open sex, to free access to individuals and groups of all kinds. With so much information going across human mind, it can be pretty strenuous and hard to process and digest all that data. Like a computer that is overloaded with too many processes and threads running, it can crash.

Apart from the speed, we all go through both Negative and Positive thoughts and emotions. Even Buddha or Gandhi was no exception to this. Everyone is a human. But when we slow down and observe, there is a good possibility for us to choose the positive thoughts over the negative ones that can bog us down.

Meditation is letting your inner self be in control, rather than some external force or environment control us. It gives more control, to make better decisions. So how do we achieve this? How do we get to control thoughts? Simple, sitting and closing your eyes for a short time, may be 30 minutes in the morning after you wake up and 30 minutes in the night before hitting bed. Simple it is. But we hear many people saying "Oh, I do not have that time. I am too busy for that". Well, that is a sign of trouble, People who say that they are too busy for simple things are actually on the path to derail. Busy to the extent that it does not give time to sit for 30 min . a day for your well being is a very bad state of affairs to be in.

Alright, so what happens in the process of this sitting for 30 minutes? Not much actually. God is not going to come and bless you with a Benz car or a vacation in exotic location. But sure at the end of 30 min, you would feel the comfort of driving in the most comfortable car in the world and relaxing in the most exotic location in the world. Wow! Not a bad deal, every day we get to experience this even without going and doing these in reality.
Initially the 30 minutes might feel like a decade, because we are not used to doing this, we feel like opening our eyes and going and doing something, that is Anxiety. But slowly, day after day, we get better control. There is no need to imagine a light, no need to think of an angel or a God, Just close eyes and let all the thoughts come and go. Just, become an observer of your own thoughts. Interestingly after a few minutes all the thoughts fade off. That is It!! This is a state of Nirvana, or Samadhi as they call it in ancient texts. The state where we become one with the universe. This state is very addictive, more addictive than your chocolate cake or Steak or Butter Chicken.

In this process, we are letting ourselves get in touch with inner self, the so called "Soul". This does not mean that Mind is bad. I hear many people saying Mind is vicious and Soul is pure. Everything in this universal creation is pure and beautiful. From Amoeba, to AIDS virus, to a Rose flower, to Human Mind, everything is part of this creation and has a reason for their existence.
The process of meditation just helps to keep this beautiful mind in good control. It is like recharging the mind, Every day we brush our teeth, we take bath, clean our bowls and wash our clothes. But are we doing anything for cleaning our minds, NO. Meditation is a process that helps in removing that stagnated crap in the folds of brain.

Have u ever heard that the most melodious music is actually the silence between the nodes, It is the pauses and silence between 2 nodes that gives the music a soothening and melodious effect. Take a guitar and string it continuously for 5 minutes without any gap between the strokes. And now take the same guitar and string it slowly with short gaps between each stroke, there comes the melody. You will notice it yourself. Same with Mind, when it is continuously bombarded by thoughts it becomes jarring, but when the thoughts are controlled and spaced, we hear the song of mind, the silence between those thoughts is where the 'song of soul' is. That song is the connection between the physical body on earth and the universal energy that spins this universe. Taking time to get in touch with Soul is Meditation. What is Soul? That is pretty big word suddenly? Well, we shall dive deep into it in the next article. Till then keep meditating.

Once we start doing this every day, the mind starts seeing things slowly and observes everything, and chooses the right thing and makes correct decisions, correct decisions in the sense, the decisions for the benefit of mankind, to make a positive difference in this world.
Meditation, is a way of life, It is something that has to become part of life. There is no need to run away from the material world to meditate. Sitting in the comfort of your own bed and couch, this can be done. Yes, the reason people want to be got to jungles and mountains, is, there is less disturbance there, there are few things to distract the process, we are more close to nature, so these places help and make it easier. But we cannot expect all of us to live in Forest rest of the life time.
The same state can be achieved by sitting calmly by closing the eyes for 30 min every morning and night.

In the beginning not every one can do this. It is hard to sit for 30 min with eyes closed. So we have developed other ways of meditating like, focusing on candle light, listening to music, repeating chants, and using idol worship, all these just some supporting elements to draw us inside and see ourselves. Over a period of time, it is better to remove these crutches and take support from within our inner self.

Meditation helps us to see everything very clearly, without bias and sometimes extremely judgmental attitude. It creates the space within ourselves to create what we want. It is a backbone for visualization process through which we can plan and create everything we want in life. It is a process of developing compassion towards this universe, the universe inside and outside. Over a period of time we realize that "We are Universe". The Soul is just a drop of the universal spirit with a structure around in form of blood and flesh. This is what we call "Spiritual Beings". Yes, we all are. Spirituality is not about wearing an orange, white or a black robe, or abandoning samsaric (family life) life, or becoming vegetarian or practicing celibacy or preaching religion. Religion has nothing to do with Meditation. Religion is about saying,"I belong to such and such group of people who practise these things". But, Meditation is about becoming one with nature, with everything and everyone around. It is about being in touch with that universe within and outside.

Meditation is the only solution to the chaos happening this world. Meditation, is something that should be incorporated and make it a practice in schools and education institutions. Along with other subjects every day there should be a class for 30min, "Meditation class". This definitely will strengthen the kids as they grow up to handle the changes in their emotional states and also the outside world very well. It develops in them, Acceptance for themselves and everyone else. Parents should start cultivating this habit from the childhood to prepare their kids for the challenges of future.

Meditate and be in touch with your inner self. Buddha is within all of us. Buddha is a state of mind. Calm, quite and serene. Then, we all end up seeing the world through the same lens, Lens of Meditation.

Cosmic Purification

2006-11-10T22:32:00.000-08:00

A seed sown in soil after interacting with the elements of nature and then going through Darwin’s check “Survival of the fittest”, and then starts to grow as a little plant, into a shrub and finally a tree. This tree takes all the brunt of nature in form of floods, earthquakes, fires, and human intervention. Apart from reaping the benefits of nature like getting air for free, water for free, soil for free it produces a beautiful flower, a tasty fruit or a nice and magnificent landscape.

If Trees had brains, they would have questioned a million times during their life time, during this endurance, during this “Suffering”, a very deceptive word coined by humans “Why is it me that has to undergo so much?”, “Why is it me to take all the brunt of nature and still produce the best for the other children of Mother Nature?” But see, the Tree, never ever thinks, why it has to go through the so-called ‘Suffering’.

An embryo is formed in the mother’s womb, from a single cell, multiple cells are formed and then from there a fetus and then a complete form, just like we all call them “babies”. How much did that mother endure to create a baby? How much did the baby suffer through to grow in the minimal space available hardly enough for it to move across, hardly enough to stretch in the evenings? The same baby after going through a process of changes comes out into this world after a process rightly named as “Labor”. The same baby when it is ready to eat, talk, walk, run, goes through so many tough stages, falls many times and gets up and again walks. But never ever complains about the falls, never see these things as sufferings. It views those sufferings as foot steps of its survival, as a process through which it reaches next level in life, to become better and do better. But we adults as we grow up, start using our mind in a way that we start viewing this process of evolution and learning in a negative manner, cribbing and complaining about life.

The most precious metal in this world for which every human soul on every corner of earth had waged wars, destroyed kingdoms, crossed the toughest nature barriers, The Gold, was and is never available as Pure Gold in nature. It’s original form called, “Ore”, has to undergo so many transformations to reach its final destiny to beautify people and places. It undergoes and suffers through temperatures beyond imagination, the hurdles it has to cross, the hits it had to take to mould and finally shine and glow to glorify the beauty of many things.

Every element in the lap of Mother Nature has to go through the so called “suffering”, which we better call “Purification”.
There is nothing called "suffering" in this world. Every element in this world has to undergo purification to reach the stage where one is being useful for many more and more and more around in the nature and then at the end of the life to liberate themselves, to rest in peace when we leave this planet, to liberate the indomitable human soul, to reach the gates of heaven if one exists. Some people attain this purification very earlier in life, some people take time to attain that state, and some people wait a life-time to get there, but every soul that is born gets there at some point or the other. It has to indeed, that is how cosmic energy designed this universe and its elements.

Take another example, Birth of a Star, it forms from particles of dust, it takes millions of years to grow to a size and start liberating the purity in form of light and energy for other elements of universe. These stars before falling back into the nature, or before dying and exploding shine and shine and finally serve their purpose of giving light to this cosmos.The secrets of creation are many, not understood by many, but we all are subject to the processes involved in creation, we all are just another element, part of this universe, that need to go through the same process of purification like a Star, a Plant, and Gold.

We all are born as human beings with very less intelligence. Babies are pure and innocent; there is no mental process in them. Is there a baby in this world that is not innocent? That is an un-defying fact. But can it serve any one, can it reach another element in nature, Can it be of use to some one. It is like a little plant just sprouting out of a seed. It has a lot do as it grows up. Babies grow up to be Adults, and finally to Old age. Nature has designed these stages to go through what we called “Purification”, not suffering. The interesting part is that once the purification process is done and the human elements that survive this process reach a state of innocence again. Remember last time some one saying “Kids and Old People are very similar”. Yes, humans come innocent and leave innocent. Nature brings every baby into this universe with innocence to serve a purpose by becoming pure and spread the light and finally ripen and fall back into its lap.Every purification process is different, like different metal ores need different levels of temperatures and temperament to undergo purification. We all go through different forms of purification too.

When a human is going through this process of purification there is not much other humans can do, like giving suggestions, advices and teachings. In fact they can only disrupt the process of purification and lead to unwanted results like hatred, anger, frustration and in some severe cases depression and leading to end their lives. This does not serve any purpose.It stops the purification that one has to go through. These advices and lessons from others can only be hurdle for that soul going through purification. The only thing other humans can do as part of this process of purification is to stand up and say “I am there for you”, because in the process of purification, human mind is churned, and the soul undergoes the process of transformation. Provide a support system for the people who are going through purification process. Pat on the back and give them a shoulder to lean on.

Purification process is a self evolving process, the purification has to happen from within, not from outside, not by force, not by repeating some religious chants a million times with thoughts some where else, not by reading a religious text, not by visiting a religious place every day with worries, But, by surrendering ourselves, our egos to the supreme and getting in touch with our souls. By bowing down in front of mother nature and immersing our souls like a metal ore that goes back into the core of the furnace to get purified. The moment we surrender to the Supreme, and just become observers, we attain the state of eternal peace. A prayer with pure love does that. A person who reaches the top of Mount Everest bows kneels down and bows down to the Mother Nature and surrenders everything.

Every human element takes their time, to surrender the ego, the anger, the anxiety, the materialistic views, and the negative thoughts. The moment we do that, we become conscious of everything. The judgment of good and bad, pain and joy disappears. The sense of attachment is lost. We become on with the universe. We start to glow bright as a star, as luminous as Gold and can bear only the sweetest of the sweet fruits like a Tree, for serving the humanity. Then humans realize the purpose of their life, serving the fellow humans with Love, and giving care, spreading peace to everyone and everything in nature.

Isn’t it time to remove the word “Suffer” from Emotional Dictionary? For sure, Nature would give that call when human intelligence crosses limits to destroy themselves. Nature is more powerful than any of the elements that are part of their creation.

Doesn’t the mother know how to handle its kids better, than any one in this world, for there is nothing more powerful in this universe than the Process of Creation and Creator itself, it is self contained, it is self generating and it is self dependent. Our minds are as dangerous, and beautiful as they are.
Let's start using this positive word called “Purification”, rather than a depressing and negative word “Suffering”.

We are all part of a positive evolutionary process. Universe wants all of its elements to grow, shine and give light. We are all the stars of the universe.

At last No Mother ever wants its kids to suffer, it only wants them to get better and better and purer and purer.

Are Marriages made in Heaven?

2006-11-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

Marriage is just a simple word that we have created for social convenience. In its true sense, it is just 2 people living together for a good company and possibly learn and discover life and be there for each other to lean on in tough times in the adventure. These 2 people lived happily and fine even before the marriage.
If we see a little more deeply into this, a person was living with positive attitude and reached pinnacle in terms of career and personality and he or she is already contributing to family and system before marriage. But why do most of the people complain about marriage.

So when 2 people come together under one roof, Happiness and Joy probably should multiply and become more positive, and in turn more contribution to the society. Everything should double up. But in most of the cases, why do we end up seeing it going in the negative direction, people struggling and losing peace of mind, ending up in turmoil and pain, forcing each other into their erroneous zones, domination and finger pointing.

One quick solution to avoid some of these issues, is to know the person a litle bit more before entering into a relationship. Because, some times, when two people are coming from 2 totally different, cultural, habitual and idealogical background and who are not willing to understand each other's perspectives, it can pretty much become a War Zone. Frankly, no two individuals are the same. Each of them is unique in a certain way. So we got to have some other way of making marriages work then. What is that Magic?

Marriage is a simple equation, "1 + 1 = 2". So when we add 2 things it should increase every thing in a positive way. Infact let's take a deeper look into the equation itself.
The first '1' in the equation represents "Space" and the second '1' represents "Acceptance". These 2 elements are crucial in a relationship. We keep talking about Love and other values, they are all important too, But more importantly Love should lead to the inner feel of Acceptance.
Of course it has to be from both sides. One side Acceptance leads to frustration at some point. That becomes only Adjustment. Marriage is not an adjustment, it is Acceptance.

Giving Space for each other is also very essential. As changes are natural in one's personality and situations, Space allows the other person to adjust to those new personality changes and circumstances outside home. We also have inherent fears and insecurities and these need lot of space and time to dissolve. In an ideal relationship we tenderly allow them to disappear and all this happens with the 2 magic words "Space and Acceptance". We need people doing more self introspection and go a little more deeper into the sense of marriage. Marriage is a Privelege, it is not a Right.

Marriages can be "Heaven on Earth", but it needs understanding and a positive approach from both sides. The people involved need simple things like lot of listening, silence, and observation skills with a compassionate apparoach.

And finally to conclude, Once Swami Vivekananda was siting near a pond and a woman came next to him and asked him, "Swami, what is a marriage?"
Swami took some water in his palm and held it delicately trying to not let the water go away from palm and replied to her "This is marriage".
The woman laughed and asked "what do you mean this marriage? just that water".
Swami replied "If u hold the water too tight by closing your fingers, it will go away. If you keep your fingers loose, the water will drip off. But u need to hold it so sensibly and delicately that it stays" .

Polarities of Life

2006-11-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

We all at some point or the other, go through this phase where we are trying to judge, some thing as Good and Bad. We say this person is nice and the other is not nice. We also tend to judge everything around us, beautiful and ugly, tasty and disgusting, fragrant and stinky. But the fact is that Polarities are just the result of human analysis and conclusions, nor do they really exist, nor they are a standard. Go to Japan or some Eastern country, and check the menu, people eat snakes and dogs. Well, for a person going from America or Europe, that might look really nasty, But then, it is just merely a perception of mind. It is just that this person is not used to it and cannot take the smell of it.

We hate the person whom we love, and again we love the person we hate some times.
Judgments are mere superficial perceptions of people's minds.
So, Do Polarities really exist?

The fact is, North and South poles are just mere creations of a Human mind, in reality they do not exist, we defined it for ourselves. Is there a North or South for Universe?
Do we know if Universe has dimensions, like a Square or a circle, or a Rectangle?
All these are our perceptions?

Love and Hatred, North and South, Good and Bad, are two different sides of the same coin. They origin from the same place and they are part if the same thing.

It is like Saddam Hussain was a friend of USA long time back and an enemy now. It is like India and Pakistan were together as one country in the history, but they are in war in recent times. All created by the human mind.

Polarity is a Myth. Universe is the Truth.

Change your Lens

2006-11-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

Life was and is an interesting journey. It teaches so many things as long as we are ready to slow down, observe and learn.

Many times there is conflict between us and the world around. That turmoil is actually within and, all the problems are in us. We see the world through those problems and experiences and form our own image of the world. If a person actually loves himself a lot, there is lot of love flowing through the thoughts. Everything around also looks loving and beautiful. Once he is accepting everything of himself completely, he accepts everything outside.

We have good and bad in all of us, But this person is accepting completely everything inside that exists. The Bad can be fixed once we are aware of that. How can one be aware of them? Only when we look inside and find them, both Good and Bad. Retain the Good and strengthen it and throw the bad. The moment we accept ourselves completely, BANG! We have no problems and painful experiences in us. When that happens, The Magic begins. Because, we are actually in love with our selves and our inner self. The feeling of Love and acceptance is what we are going to see the world with.

So we are now using the Lens of "Love and Acceptance" to see the world. We start accepting everyone around. You look at them and smile and walk. So, ACCEPT YOURSELF first, Fall in Love with your own creation and that feeling of Love lingers in the mind and soul which can be extended to the rest of the world.

Most of the times, we are in conflict with the world, people and circumstances around us. We hate some things and some people, and do not like their presence and we want to get away from them. Natural. But also to realize that world is made up of variety is also very essential. Just look at the whole food chain and natural evolution. We cannot say, “Only Lions can exist in the forest”, or “only beautiful Peacocks should be in the forest”. Nor we can say, 'we do not want Foxes and Hyenas and Vultures'. They all exist together and serve their purpose. Deer, cannot say "I hate lions". In such case, Lions would perish. That is Nature's creation, We accept it. Of course the Deer try to run and some survive and some perish. All part of the game of Life and Nature.

Most of us who say "I am suffering" actually are referring to lack of happiness and peace. The other day when I watched a Program on Dalai Lama, he was agreeing to the fact that the happiest people are the ones who are coming from poor classes of society. So the other people who are suffering around are actually not suffering because of lack of food, shelter or clothing. They are suffering because they are not happy, they are not at peace.

They are not at peace with themselves, with their minds and the vicious circle of meaningless desires
Interestingly, Peace is inherent in us. Every human is born in peace. Every child is considered a descendant of God’s blessing. As we grow up, we ignore that tender soul in us, and we are fighting with ourselves. Instead of going inside and finding our inner self and be in touch with our soul, we are looking for answers every where and pointing fingers and saying, "I do not like this, I hate them, I cannot stand this group. I cannot live with this person" and keep creating frustration or so called Negation state of mind and energy. In this process we have created a lens of negativity in front of our minds and anything we see in this world appears with the color of lens.

All our perceptions are just the experiences through which we watch the world. At least, most of the time, that is what we do. But the moment we get away from those experiences, we see things clearly not only outside, more importantly inside ourselves. Once we clearly see our inner self, accept that soul within all of us, we see that outside world also becomes beautiful, it is serene, calm and peaceful. Once we feel good about ourselves, we feel good every where, because our lenses are clean and clear now. No more influences. We start becoming immune to the surroundings and circumstances. This is typically a state of Yogi or a Saint, who can go beyond any polarities of life.

But, How does one accept oneself amidst, all the environmental influences, chaos from home, school, society. Everyone is trying to rub their philosophy on you. They want you to be their way, They like u only if u do things their way. That is where all the toughness is, that is the BIGGEST BARRIER, It is like a huge pile of mountain and u need to melt that mountain to find your real self and then you get to accept yourself.
But how do you find your real self and face it.
The secret for this is "MEDITATION".

The people who are happy, are the ones, who accept themselves first. That does not mean that they are correct. Right or Wrong are relative. For Deer, A Lion is wrong. For a Lion, Elephant can be wrong. But whatever they are, they are all part of creation. The same creation created me, you, and them too. So No Questions about existence. It is the Law of Nature.
The moment we accept ourselves, we are at peace and the moment we are at peace, we smile at everything. But it is a very easy and hard journey. It takes time and effort. Search for happiness and peace is within, never outside. So, Change the Lens now.

Next article we shall see what truly is Meditation. Until then keep accepting yourself...and see the world through a new lens.

Universe - Was Is Will

2006-10-30T15:43:00.000-08:00

Universe is Non Judgmental. Till now, no human was ever able to find its origin, nor will ever find it. If there is something that is IMPOSSIBLE , it is IT, everything else is possible. All the science experiments to find out about it and the origins of it, is just a small drop in the ocean out there. Science would probably never ever get us there. But understanding can help. It can help us to an extent to see what Universe is. Even the experiences in life can help us broaden our vision and perspective about the mysteries of ways it work.
From time immemorial, Universe has been a self manifesting and self sustaining structure. It has been there, is there and will exist for time unknown. It is infact, beyond the space and time. It does not have any track of time, Time is just an understanding of us creatures to handle the our life in this universe well.

Universe is also a very self correcting machine, in the sense, it knows when to correct and when to let go, when to move, and when to demolish, when to abolish and when to create.
At a miniscule level, we all see the day to day events happening around us and get overwhelmed by those events and some times, stress out and that leads us into all kinds of dysfunctional dimensions. But the moment we start seeing things at a broader level, the understanding changes, and we figure out that there is some thing we all call “Bigger Picture”, to all these events happening in life and around us and at a universal level.

There are so many religious theories about origin of universe, and when the earth is going to perish and when the humanity is going to come to an end. But, those are just the ideas of the people who are spreading them, we ignorant humans blindly accepting those theories without doing any further inspection. Infact the answer for this is, "Introspection", like the famous spiritualists and philosophers say “It is all in the mind”. Yes, it is infact. The answers are their in the understanding of the mind. If we contemplate and go inside, we will find the answers.

But coming back to the Universal manifestations, the evolutionary theories, religious theories are pretty close to each other. This is reflected in another article that I had written “A Weird Analogy”. Both the sides come together and say that over a period of time, Earth goes through phases and evolutions. In the Hindu Mythology, they are called “Yugas” each yuga is associated with a God and Goddess called Avathar. So people believe that each of these yugas, start and as the bad keeps piling and growing up in the material world, the God comes down in a human form and resurrect the humanity. The similar theories exist in Islam, Christianity, Budhism, Sikhism, and so on. But the ultimate pointer is that, over a period of time, as the filth piles up, there is some form of energy that comes and does the cleanup.

The evolutionists come up with a very similar theory, that there were all kinds of creatures like Dinosaurs, and in the due course of time, there was a Volcanic eruption or a meteor hitting the earth and killed all the creatures and then new life started again and the evolution took place.

All the theories point to the same fundamental phenomenon, that universe knows, how and when it needs correction. It has its way of life, It is Intelligent, Far more intelligent than we humans. If we small specks of Flesh and blood are so smart to lead our lives and take care of ourselves, Don’t we think that Universe should be much more smarter than all of us together here, and the one force that has brought all of us here. Universe not only takes care of earth, but many more planets and galaxies, and stars out there. There is a reason for the formation of a new star, for a black hole and for our existence here. Like biological process in our human body, the universe is much larger process.

The answers to life and death, the pains and happiness, the sorrow and joy, all these are within the system. I once asked one of my spiritual friends “Why is there so much chaos in the world, created by us and by nature, For example, why did the people in Tsunami have to take the brunt, why did so many people suffer in an earthquake that hit Indonesia, AIDS in Africa, Drugs in America, Poverty in Asian countries, what sin did they do to suffer?”

The answer opened up my eyes, “Just like in a human body, all the cells are together performing so many functions and at the same time millions of cells are dying and a million are born, each one based on the situation and circumstance performing their duties and perishing.
In a similar manner, the Universe has a process running within, and we all are just small cells or even smaller than that contributing to something larger than life here on Earth. Our existance is beyond the flash of life on this planet."

Yes, this goes down deeper than what the above answer is at a logical level. It is about Acceptance of the events that happen around us. Just observing and keep doing our work. We all are performing our duties at any given moment of time and we switch roles and move on. Just the way cells are performing their duties and moving on, either dying, or transforming into something else. Accept everything that happens around us, and that each of us are performing what is programmed into us by the Universe. Universe is perfect and so we all are who are a subset of universe.

Understanding of the Universal Process, teaches us Acceptance, and in turn can make us lead better lives. Acceptance comes from Awareness, comes from observation, watching things slowly and being non- judgmental about events.

All these start making sense, when we go inside and look for answers, because we ourselves are manifestations of this Universal spirit covered with blood and flesh. Infact Acceptance and Understanding the nature of universal events go hand in hand.

Universe is absolute, It WAS, IS AND WILL.

Song of Allah!!

2006-10-29T01:00:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful and divine experience. One of the best spiritual retreats of my life. The soul sang, danced, and reached heaven, touched the home and bent down in love and joy, with all the due respect to the mother of all, the creator of all, the sustainer of this space, the Universal Spirit, the Cosmic Center from where all the souls arrive and depart. In that moment, the allah, the jesus, the krishna, everything is one and the same. "The Omen", "Allah oh Akbar", "Hare Krishna Hare Rama", they all mean the same, they all vibe the same energy and it is a point of convergence of all the souls in this material world.

Today my soul sang the song of Allah for the first time in my life, the soul probably in its past existences had opportunities to associate or be part of the groups of the messiah, but today to my knowledge, this soul that had been thirsty and curious to chant the name of Allah, had finally been quenched. Also this soul, had been wanting to be part of another marvel of creation of this universe, "Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi", the Poet of heart. This person came into my life at various points when I was trying to understand love, but today it is so special that destiny finally brought me close to him, to his soul and other souls that live and love his life and ways of expressing and sanctifying soul.

Today is momentous in my life, that finally I am seeing what I have been vibing inside for a long time. The Mirabhai's bhajans and poems were recited as we all souls were dancing to the lyrics of Rumi, and sounds of Mowlana on silent drums and the bands that are as subtle and tender as a baby's touch of skin. The sensitive sounds emergin of the skin of these drums along with the voices of soul, echoed at RoundHouse, Vancouver to lift the spirits of the land to the heavens. The material disappeared into the silence of the night, the bodies melted into their spirits and the minds vaporized into the plasma state of universal medium. At this moment Rumi's soul probably wavered around us and became part of all the souls dancing around. The 45 minute nirvanic dance and music, pulled many a soul to be part and energize their inner self and liberate and shed the skins of materialism and egos. For a moment, all the souls hand in hand, heart in heart, the energy forming a continuous strands of love and joy, encircled the painting of the chakra.

The unforgettable event with words of Allah, Il-ilahi, Bismillah, moving on everyone's lips of heart, as Leslie Stanick, depicted on the paintings she had done as a tribute to Rumi’s work, displayed in the Sacred space in RoundHouse, and my soul completely drenched in joy and mist of Pure Spirit.

Silence

2006-10-11T19:11:00.000-07:00

Silence is the most powerful of languages. It communicates a million things in a zillion ways to everyone in the world. It is the Universal language of this Universe.

Lack and Abundance

2006-10-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

Lack and Abundance
Frustration is caused by the feeling of Lacking in us, The root cause of all problems in our lives. The moment we feel that "I do not have this" and then start attributing reasons for the sense of lack, causes severe anxiety. This anxiety causes frustration and depression.

But as humans we all go through the peer pressure, or we end up getting something when we want something else in life,. This mis-match of the expectations vs results causes the sense of lacking and ultimately the pain in life.

How do we solve it?

First knowing ourselves, helps us in finding out what we want. Most of the times in life, we tend to not realise what we are, what we like and just keep doing something, Then when we look back, we realise that it is not what we wanted to do or have. This feeling causes frustration. So knowing ourselves clarifies what we want. Once any person is clear about what they want , life becomes easy. Things infact fall in place naturally as we do not have to strive for them. They come naturally to us. But this fundamental aspect of knowing ourselves is a big challenge. How do we know what we like, unless we try something? Unless as a child we tried different sweets, or desserts, how do we know what is our favorite.
How do we know what to order when we go to a restraunt next time.

But life is not as easy or simple as choosing a dessert. We have years of education, careers we build, relationships we emotionally get involved. So, it is not easy to change these and jump into a new one, especially with so much of peer and societal pressures. It becomes even harder to get what we want. Society creates many hurdles in finding out our true selves. The real self is hidden, by the layers of conditioning, parenting, teaching and social pressures. But, we all end up realising at some point or the other, To be our real self, find our real self and ask what I really want.
The moment the answer is clear, we pretty much start our dreams coming true. There is no more starvation, there is no more feeling of Lacking.

The feeling of lacking also comes from peer pressure. I might not necessarily want a big house in the Manhattan downown, but because my friend has it, I some times can get pressured, and cause the sense of lacking. To overcome this, I need to be clear. What I like is a small beautiful home on an island and swing in the backyard. That is me, and the moment I realise that, I go about in creating that and no more worry about what I do not have, compared to my friend. So to be aware of whether the want or need is from within or induced by some external force is very essential. The only way to avoid peer pressure is to become Aware of thoughts that run in our mind. Always check and see if the thought is original or induced.

So Life's challenge is to keep eliminating these forces that influence us at a material level and cover up the peaceful inner self. To keep the inner self always active and watchful is the trick of the trade. Life becomes easier. Many times, the sense of not having comes and causes pain. But truly we all are gifted and we live in a universe of abundance. The universe has so much to offer us. But we forget that and keep sulking in the lacuna between what we have and what we do not have.
Again deeply seeing, that gap is nothing but illusive. It actually does not exist. It is created by the conditioning of the society. That gap is illusionary. So always, always be in touch with your inner self. It is very easy to get distracted. But try to be on track, on the track of life's journey.
Well, some times we do get off track, it is ok to do that, because they count as life's experiences. These life experiences are knowledge and we become better individuals. Knowledge is powerful. It is like, we end up trying out different sweets in a tray, but at the end the knowledge about all of them helps next time someone offers a tray of sweets, we know what to exactly pick.

Eliminate Lacking and Life is Full...just like the Nature and Universe live in thoughts of abundance.

New SOul

2006-10-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

A new Soul is born now, at this moment...