Habits are destiny creators. People usually surrender to the word ‘destiny’ considering it as pre-ordained. Well, to a great extent it is. However, the almighty power also gives us ‘free-will’ to steer ourselves to reach the full potential of the promised destiny.
Hippocrates once said, “The greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it." Doctors Day in India is celebrated on July 1st each year to commemorate the birth and death anniversary of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, one of India's most renowned physicians and statesmen. Let us acknowledge today the medical professionals’ tireless dedication, expertise, and compassion who work in long shifts to safeguard the nation's health.
Since my early childhood, I used to read about Tibet, its mysteries and their beloved religious head, His holiness Dalai Lama. I always nursed an ambition to meet him but never really knew how to. My dream to see him went into dormant mode but my enamourment of him never went away. When I started the SOUL - School Of UnLearning, I once even commented, "I have two ambitions after starting SOUL. One is to interview Dalai Lama and the second is ..."
Screens are our new normal. If you cannot wish them away, the best thing to do is restrict and ration their use. Steve Jobs didn't let his children use phones and iPads for very long. Bill Gates didn't allow his children to use gadgets until they were 14 years old. We often complain that children don't listen but we forget that they are watching us. They mirror what they see.
Women and men are the two wheels of the same cart. Just imagine, women account for half of humanity. Why is it that one wheel runs slower than the other? Is this the reason why humanity runs in circles? We have to balance the two. During my workshops with women, the one question that I am often asked is “How can I become a better woman?”
A new star has arisen in the horizon and its name is now Omicron. Did you know that Corona, Delta and Omicron are actual names of the islands in Antarctica? Worrying part is there are many other islands left yet to lend their names to the fiasco we are facing. Omicron has grabbed the attention, of the population already suffering from attention deficit, most of which is engaged in screens of various sizes.
Whilst packing for a family trip to the hills of Uttarakhand I, as is my wont, picked up a book randomly from my shelf and added it to my backpack. Was it destiny that the book turned out to be the celebrated autobiography of Swami Yogananda? I still recollect that sense of wonder, the goosebumps, the glowing feeling that I felt after I had finished the last couple of pages of a truly life-changing book.
The people who are positive are driven, focused, devoted and lit up from inside whereas the negative ones feel unhappy, distracted, burdened and their insides are overwhelmed with fretfulness, nervousness and unease. Wouldn’t it be great if the negative people moved over to the other side and became positive? How do you think it would be if their pessimism was replaced by optimism and a new surge of happiness and contentment pushed out the unease and anxiety from within?
Human body is a wonderful creation with its complex workings. It seems physical but it is capable of connecting with higher consciousness with it’s cells and tissues. Physical body that we see is the last link of creation. The one that can be seen and felt in the physical world. Behind this advanced creation is our Energy body or the Aura. The energy body is further mounted on the chassis of a Causal Body.
It is an appropriate time to discuss the topic of health and wellness. Understanding of disease and healing is very relevant in these times. Not only Covid but any disease can be dealt with, if one has a deeper insight into it’s causes and possible remedies. We will cover the physiological factors in this blog. In part two of the same blog we will discuss the role of mind and the energy body in healing.
Most of us, if truth be told, do not know who we really are? We live in our own egotistical worlds, listening to our self-beliefs that give us all the wrong ideas about ourselves. Yet, as we age and get older we start feeling that there is something missing in our lives, that we have not really achieved what we wanted to achieve.
Prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God. They both go hand in hand for interacting with Him. A prayer can be for love of God and love for His gifts. Prayer to love Him are well defined in every religion. But for his gifts one has to devise understanding.
The human mind is said to be one of the most complicated to understand. Not only is it detailed and very intricate but can also cause a lot of trouble if it gets imbalanced. Balancing the mind is like walking on a tight rope and juggling a lot of things while trying to maintain your balance and not fall off.
First and foremost we need to recognize the emotions that you are besieged with. You cannot fight an enemy that you cannot see. So the first step is that you accept it, recognize it and be ready to deal with it.
Most of us are constantly being weighed down by the burden of deadlines, people's expectations, responsibilities we have, personal ambitions, hurtful psychological scars, financial pressures, trust issues, personal complexes and the endless list of 'have to do' things.
In the spiritual life we are not supposed to overreact to pleasure and pain, pleasant and unpleasant. Sri Krishna teaches that the yogi should seek to be "even minded and cheerful" in all circumstances. But I must admit, over the years I sought to eat more sweet mangoes and avoid the sour ones.
When the fundamental mechanism of our existence and that our karma identifies with our self, our activities and everything that happens in our lives are nothing but divinely ordained karmic reactions. The, why do we see many vikarmis enjoying the opulence of life happily?
Karma is not just a belief or a cool concept but an accurate science, a science of consequences to be borne by each one of us. Also, karma stands for the accumulated account of our action over multiple births.
It is a human tendency to ‘belong somewhere'. It is an indelible need of all people. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to belong. It provides a sense of security and personal space. God does the initial set up of parents, children and siblings. The young child bases his identity as belonging to a particular family.
There are two most fundamental and inherent questions that everyone is encountered with. We must understand and answer diligently and prudently. They are (a) Who am I? (b) Why am I here? While answering the first question you must understand that you are the sacred child of the "Divine Infinite Being"...
The moment we get up in the morning, don't we first look at the messages? Isn't it common for each family member to be busy online in separate rooms? Some even messaging each other in adjoining rooms? Don't we fret at the thought that you may not be able to charge your phone for some reason?
How can we create our destiny? It is often believed that we need good education, good guidance, good parenting, good opportunities and good connections to succeed. Yes, maybe. They just give us advantages over others. Something others didn't have so you are ahead of them.
Is destiny predetermined or can we make it? What do saints say about it? Paramhansa Yogananda famously stated that, "It is not your passing thoughts or brilliant ideas so much as your plain everyday habits that control your life.... Live simply."
The world is a stage. We have all come here to play a role assigned to us. These roles were given to us based on what we have done in the past. There were lessons to be learnt, karmic debt to be squared off, desires to be fulfilled, the backlog of several lifetimes had to be accounted for and so on.
I hope by now no one is complaining that their spouse doesn't give them enough time. They are too busy with office and business. This is a common complaint heard especially from wives. In normal situations we all needed holidays or weekends to have a much touted family time. God arranged this opportunity without our asking. It is human nature to rebel against anything enforced however appealing it may be.
We always keep looking for happiness and wish the sorrows to stay away. Indian scriptures call it ‘Raag' and ‘Dwesh'. We want pleasant experiences only and dread the unpleasant ones. We spend an entire life resisting the sorrows and toiling for comforts. We work this way to the extent that we actually undergo a harrowing time to accumulate comforts.
In this fast age people's incentive to meditate has to be of some practical use. My experience from close quarters has been that most people who come to a formal meditative path, are there for the benefits God can give them rather than God himself. Nevertheless it is a good beginning and some day God will qualify on their agendas on His own merits.
