Practice or Sādhana साधन

Practice Sādhana साधन

What is Practice for a human being?

The practice of a human being has been so much corrupted in this modern world, that most of the times it is just placed on the surface of the materialistic world and if it goes deeper in some cases, it might go a little bit into the psychological realm and very rarely beyond that.

We also very intelligently try to bifurcate our life into different paths - materialistic or worldly path and spiritual path.

Now, if we genuinely and honestly ask a question - is there really something other than the spirit in this projected or manifested Cosmos and the un-projected or unmanifested cosmos? Then, the answer would be a bit startling which shows us that everything is spirit and the very famous Upanishad sentence says "सर्वं खल्विदम् ब्रह्म sarvaṃ khalvidam brahma" - everything is indeed Brahman! Hence, there is only one path and that is spiritual path. Just because we do not recognize the spirit in everything, it does not mean that it is not spiritual path. It is like - there is water in a jar and since you don't know what to call it as and you end up calling something else except water.

Most of the time (may be a 1000 life-times) for 99.9999% of human beings the practice is in the realm of mind and winning over, channelizing or regularizing it only. The rest 0.00001% will rarely go beyond the mind and when they go beyond the mind, then what? This is where the actual sādhana starts.

So, how long an individual can stay in the realms that are beyond the mind. Beyond the mind is beyond the thoughts. There is nothing, no identity. There is only a witness without any judgement or bias as there is no thought. It might appear like a zombie for the external world. This is where the most challenging aspect comes for the seer or practitioner or sādhak.

• When there is nothing except being a witness and the witnessing part, what is going to happen? 
• How long one is going to stay as a witness? For 1000 years or 10,000 years or a billion years?
• What is there in the witnessing and what is there in the witness?
• What is the significance of time or is there any significance of time in this state?
• If in this state a thought comes and if the witness gets entangled in the thought ,does the witness take birth again?
• And, if the witness does not get entangled in the thought, but continue to be a witness for how long this act will continue?
• What is there beyond the witness state?
• What is there beyond the nothingness state?
• Is the creation happening from this witness state or from this nothingness state just because there is an entanglement towards a thought?
• If so from where the thought is getting originated? Is it also being originated from the nothingness?

If so, then there is only nothingness, nothingness is coming out from nothingness and nothingness is merging into nothingness. What we see, perceive, and feel is a variation of that nothingness in the form of a wave and sometimes we are on the crest and sometimes we dive into the trough.

• So, who are we?
• Do we really exist?
• Does anything really exist?
• Or everything is just only a thought?

Thought coming from nothingness and merging back into nothingness!
It is that awareness, which is letting you to become aware of that awareness!

The Question,

Questioner,

Answer

And

The Answerer

Is All

One

Can I Live with Myself? Part 7 & Conclusion.

- contd from Part 6

The Burden of Choice

One day when I went to buy grocery in a grocery shop that is located in one of the Asia's largest mall, I stepped into the food section and was first amazed to see the list of varieties arranged in glaze packages - aisle after aisle with all kinds of things right from pasta, noodles, chips, etc, etc., extending to 10 aisles arranged on either side with 5 shelved, 6 racks. Each shelf has further a choice of 10 varieties of products. Thus, in total I have a choice of 10 x 5 x 6 x 20 = 6000 varieties to chose from to buy my grocery. I tried to do a little bit of statistics over there in looking at the possibilities of cooking a dish for a cook and ended up with an undefined value. For a while I was startled and my brain went into a freeze mode.

Next I walked into aisles of toiletries and detergents section and felt as if I am in a chemical factory and my mind questioned me - "is it really necessary to use so many different chemicals to keep yourself and your clothes clean and aromatic?" I was silent and could not answer my mind. Another question came from my mind as if Mother Earth is asking me - "do you know how many chemicals you are using and throwing onto land and polluting me?" Again, for the first time, I felt ashamed of being a human being and polluting the Mother Earth so much.

Later, instead of buying what I went for, I just bought about 4 items and left that which was more of a big chemical factory rather than a shop.

Simplicity is the key

Later after coming home, I started my research on how to live more nature friendly and less dependent on chemicals as much as possible. To my surprise, I could find many methods and highly nature friendly which slowly I started adopting in my life and slowly started convincing my partner who has agreed and started cooperating in most of the ways.

One of the outcomes of my learning was where I self reflected upon my way of living and started looking at the ways of Indian Rishis lived in ancient India. For them everything has to come from nature, least processed and has to go back to nature for its natural degradation.

How many choices we make in a day of 24 hours and how many of those choices we choose really wisely with a calm mind and do not regret in future is a very big question, and I don't think we get an affirmative answer for it. How many choices we make for our physical well-being and our mental well-being? And among those that we make, do they really promise our well-being both on physical and mental realms? Since, we were not able to choose wisely based upon the plethora of choices that were thrown in front of us by all kinds of marketing people, we ended up in a big confusion. Hence, the result is a more disturbed, stressful and highly complicated life which we are living as if there is no choice.

So it is high time we simplify our external life. Because if we don't simplify our external life and the choices that they are going to lure us with, we cannot and will not be able to take out some time to look within and reflect for the eternal Truth that is lying always within us, which is ready to show up and bless us eternally.

INTROSPECTION

Introspection means looking within. When we look into a mirror, it will tell us how we are physically - our physical body, the color of skin, the dress that we are wearing-how much well fitted they are, etc. Similarly when we introspect and look into our internal mirror and observe our reflection of self, then it will tell us how we have behaved, how much our actions were ego based and non-ego based, how much our actions with love and how many were with hatred and whether we are really living happy or not. The process of self-reflection will also enable to mend our ways so that we can take all those measures that enhance our overall well-being.

A proper introspection will provide us a detailed analysis of our various emotions that we are going through. The emotions are nothing but the extent or the intensity of our entanglement towards a particular phenomena or an incident or a perception that we have perceived through our senses and used our intellect to decipher that perception in the way our ego has directed it to understand. An unbiased and unprejudiced introspection will let us disentangle ourselves from all of our emotions. In this way we can become free from all entanglements. As each emotion also has it own effect on our physical bodies, by understanding and disentangling ourselves from our emotions we can also enhance our overall well-being.

One of the most important aspect of life that helps us in introspection is silence. While the process of introspection is happening it is always advisable to be in a safe and silent environment. We can also introspect in a busy street, or a busy cafe or may be in a local transport also. However, when we do this we may not be so much cognizant about the physiological changes that are happening within ourselves. And the physiological changes does influence to some extent on our introspection and the reverse also. Any psychological change will also influence our physiology. When this introspection is performed extensively with the help of some kind of breathing techniques or the scientific meditative techniques as mentioned in Vijnana Bhairava Tantra विज्ञान भैरव तन्त्र and merge into the meditative silence, then we can as well cauterize all of our innate habits or entanglements that which we have developed in this or from previous lives. Even one technique among the 112 available from this when practiced properly can lead us to liberation and freedom.

Most of us when we try to introspect and make an attempt to question ourselves, our behavior and the aspects that might be causing us pain, we do it on the surface and may not dive deeper. This is one of the reasons why we do not change much in our external behaviors or we do not change our habits. To change internally, we need to question why a particular activity is being done by us. Are we trying not to accept something in our lives and trying to mask it with something else? Because, as long as we are trying to mask consciously or unconsciously i.e., knowingly or unknowingly then we would never be able to truly change ourselves and we continue to suffer. Hence, our introspection has to be deeper and excavating so that we understand what exactly we are craving for in our lives and why? This will enable us to clearly see - what is there underlying? - which could be unfulfilled craving, need, want or desire. When we question this - in a way that:

• do we really need to have it?
• are we ready and prepared ourselves for the consequences it is going to result in - in terms of short term and long term? 

Then probably we may forego all those cravings, needs, wants, desires as they are not really going to enhance our overall well-being. Sometimes the knots in the psyche could be very deeper and they get freed only by excavating questioning and a highly unbiased, unprejudiced, non-judgmental introspection. As long as we do not free our deep seated knots, we cannot be free and cannot have our overall well-being. We have to let go all our masks, strip our psyche so naked and make it so transparent that it can transmit the Divine light and wisdom.

Another aspect of introspection can be in a way on questioning ourselves, as how we would like to remember ourselves? What is that identity that we would like to be identified with? What is that emotion that we would like to be in 99.999999% of the time? What actually we need from life? These questions will also reveal to us the reality of life and the priorities that we should be choosing at appropriate times in various stages of life.

If we have to introduce ourselves to someone are we going to introduce ourselves with a position, a designation, bank balance, social status - what? And, are these positions, designations, social status, bank balances really describe us as a human being? Or do they provide us masks that we have inadvertently created to hide the Truth so that we can live a life full of lies? How many times can we introduce ourselves truly that I am a human being or I am a Spirit living in this human body? Do we have that awareness? Have we made any attempts to create that awareness within us? Did we create that kind of environment within us and around us so that we can become aware of ? Are we creating such kind of environment so that our future generations can become aware of what the Truth is?

We cannot live with ourselves until and unless we get rid of our attachments and aversions towards the external world and the worldly objects. This can be done by cultivating dispassion towards all the unnecessary necessities.

Sage Patanjali mentions in his Yoga Sutras:
dṛṣṭānuśravikaviṣayavitṛṣṇasya vaśīkārasaṃjñā vairāgyam ॥ 1.15॥
दृष्टानुश्रविकविषयवितृष्णस्य वशीकारसंज्ञा वैराग्यम् ॥ १.१५॥
tatparaṃ puruṣakhyāterguṇavaitṛṣṇyam ॥ 1.16॥
तत्परं पुरुषख्यातेर्गुणवैतृष्ण्यम् ॥ १.१६॥

Dispassion cultivated and developed over a period of time will not only enable us to be detached, it will also enable us to go beyond the three attributes of nature (sattva, rajas and tamas), thus allowing us to become free from all entanglements to reach our real home of the Truth.

Introspection (antardarshana अन्तर्दर्शन ) along with study of Self (svādhyāya स्वाध्याय) will definitely lead us to the Truth.

Hence, it is the right time to wake up from our dreams of living the lies that society has impinged upon us. - Enough of it. Let us look into ourselves.

CONCLUSION

Hence, when we look into this process of life, introspect deep enough, we will understand clearly how much we got distracted from our true purpose of life and instead of actually living life and enjoying the life that is so much thriving within us, we make ourselves vulnerable to enter into a maze of mess of choices, things and what not all kinds of unnecessary necessities.

So, it is high time, we take a break from this nonsensical routine and instead of succumbing to the external non-meaningful temptations and end in messing up our lives further, we take the reins into our hands and walk the path of Truth with dignity, integrity, honesty, and Love Alone. Because, when I can live with Myself, I can live with any other self. Because every other thing, every other one is my own Self.

When we adapt the meditative or mindfulness practices they will give us the following benefits:

• to be less reactive and be more responsive
• to be more detached and be more loving
• to be less noisy and be more calm
• to be less complicated and be more clear
• to be less confused and to have a better clarity in everything
• to be less attached to things and to be more loving to life (whether in humans or any other animals)
• to live more a life that which is available as a blessing for us than just being an automaton.
• moderation in everything

There are few verses in Bhagavad Gita which emphasize on moderation. We will look at two verses from Chapter 6.

नात्यश्नतस्तु योगोऽस्ति न चैकान्तमनश्नत: |

न चाति स्वप्नशीलस्य जाग्रतो नैव चार्जुन || 16||

nātyaśhnatastu yogo ’sti na chaikāntamanaśhnataḥ |

na chāti-svapnaśhīlasya jāgrato naiva chārjuna || 16||

O Arjuna! those who eat too much or eat too little, sleep too much or too little, cannot attain success in Yoga.

युक्ताहारविहारस्य युक्तचेष्टस्य कर्मसु |

युक्तस्वप्नावबोधस्य योगो भवति दु:खहा || 17||

yuktāhāra-vihārasya yukta-cheṣhṭasya karmasu|

yuktasvapnāvabodhasya yogo bhavati duḥkhahā || 17||

He who is temperate in his habits of eating, sleeping, working and recreation can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.

Hence, let us take some time and reflect upon our true selves and then adapt: 

• a mode and way of conservation in everything instead of being on the spree of consumption; and 
• moderation in all of our day-to-day activities.

4 Approaches Towards Practice of Presence of Mind

The way I look at life is to have 4 approaches where we can practice the presence of mind and be conscious of every moment and maneuver ourselves in leading towards a more meaningful and harmonious life.

These are:

1. Having a regular morning and evening schedule for some structured Meditation or Mindfulness practices which inculcates self-discipline (anuśāsanam अनुशासनम् in Sage Patanjali's terms) into our life. 
2. Practicing presence of mind in daily activities by stealing some moments amidst of daily activities and focus on breath and just observing what is happening without the interference of ego or having without any identity. Just being a witness on the three - gross, subtle and causal realms.
3. Becoming a Witness towards all life's activities. Being in the world and not of it. Having a complete awareness of all life's activities while actively participating and acting with detachment on the three - gross, subtle and causal realms.
4. Contemplating and introspecting at the end of the day just a few moments before retiring to sleep on the day's activities and having an unbiased, unprejudiced, non-judgmental outlook on how we have behaved through out the day on the three - gross, subtle and causal realms, and accordingly amend and improvise for future to have a more meaningful, enhanced and harmonious life.

One of the ways of turning the outgoing mind inward is to remember this verse from Vivekacūḍāmaṇi विवेकचूडामणि written by Sri Adishankarāchārya:

लोकानुवर्तनं त्यक्त्वा त्यक्त्वा देहानुवर्तनम् ।

शास्त्रानुवर्तनं त्यक्त्वा स्वाध्यासापनयं कुरु ॥ २७०॥

lokānuvartanaṃ tyaktvā tyaktvā dehānuvartanam ।

śāstrānuvartanaṃ tyaktvā svādhyāsāpanayaṃ kuru ॥ 270॥

Control, resist yourselves and renounce your involvement regarding the various ways of the world,  give up regarding too much grooming about the body, leave aside unnecessarily pursuing the scriptures, and finally banish the superimposition which has crept up on your True Self. 

Thus leaving aside all the lies that the world like to superimpose upon us let us make an attempt to anchor ourselves in our True Self.

Let us understand the life that is thriving within us and around us. Let us live the Life that is our life and not someone else's lie.

Because, when we live our life truly we can support the life in everything else, and enhance the well-being, and the life itself thriving in everything.

Can I Live with Myself? - Part 6

Contd from Part 5

Understanding Emotion and its effects on body

Nature is prakriti प्रक्रुति and being away from nature is vikruti विक्रुति. Human beings should lead their life as close to their true nature as possible instead of living in the self created, or societal created life of environmental influences. Because, most of the societal created environment has given so many unnecessary fears that has led human beings away from their true-nature. We should utilize every opportunity to move close to our true nature of peace and tranquility.

In overcoming fear, one should be honest in accepting that there is fear and all kinds of fears are caused due to conflicts. Conflict is nothing but a difference of an opinion. Because of these differences of opinions, we as humans undergo through many emotions and these emotions effect our bodies in various ways.

In the Indian scriptures there is a lot of discussion on the mind - body relationship. Based upon our thoughts and the resulting emotions from those thoughts, our bodies get effected accordingly. The Vedic mantra from Rigveda 1.89.1 states about how one should have an attitude as far as thoughts are concerned. It says "May noble or auspicious thoughts come to us from all directions - Aano bhadrah krtavo yantu vishwatah -आ नो भद्राः क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वतः ." This clearly emphasizes the importance of thoughts and its effect on human bodies. This is also an indication that since we get various kinds of thoughts which can effect the human body in various ways, if selectively noble or auspicious thoughts come to us, then the human well-being becomes more of a possibility rather than by chance. Here, it is an indication that purposefully human beings should be able to selectively think or choose auspicious or noble thoughts so that the effects of those thoughts will lead to human well-being.

The invocation sloka or verse by Shri Vāgbhatāchārya श्री वाग्भटाचार्य in Sutra Sthāna of Ashtānga Hridayam is as follows:

rāgādirogān satatānuśaktā,
naśeṣakāyaprasṛtānaśeṣān,
autsukyamohāratidānjaghāna
yo'pūrvavaidyāya namostutasmai।

रागादिरोगान् सततानुशक्ता,
नशेषकायप्रसृतानशेषान्,
औत्सुक्यमोहारतिदान्जघान
योऽपूर्ववैद्याय नमोस्तुतस्मै।

This sloka even though is an invocation sloka clearly emphasizes the causes for diseases in the body. The one that creates suffering to mind will also create suffering to body. As ऋजन्ती इति रोगाः. ṛjantī iti rogāḥ - the one that creates disturbances in body and mind is roga or dis-ease. The one that creates suffering to mind are rāgadvesha (attachment and aversion). These can be further divided into arishadvarga – kāma (craving or longing), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (infatuation, delusion) mada (pride due to ignorance) and mātsarya (malice, jealousy).

Findings from one of the recent studies are agreeing to the eastern philosophy of influence of thought process on the human body. These studies have indicated that there are very close relationships between emotions and the bodily experiences. Emotions or feelings will give rise to changes in physiological reactions and vis-a-vie the physiological reactions such as the cardiovascular, skeletomuscular, neuroendocrine, and autonomic nervous systems and their somatosensory feedback mechanisms trigger emotional experiences.[1]

The royal physician Heo Jun (1539 – 1615) in his book Dongui Bogam categorized emotions into seven different groups:

1. anger, 
2. happiness, 
3. pensiveness / serious thoughtfulness, 
4. sadness, 
5. anxiety, 
6. fear, and 
7. surprise.

In an other study the subjects were asked to undergo visualization of certain emotions and the changes in their physiological organs have been observed and the studies revealed close evidences of the different kinds of emotions relating to different organs in the human body. These are as follows:

• anger relating to liver, 
• happiness to heart, 
• pensiveness / serious thoughtfulness to spleen, 
• anxiety to lungs, 
• fear to kidneys, and 
• surprise to gallbladder.

One of the heavy influences of the human system in today's civilized world is anxiety. We are anxious of everything. We are anxious of our achievements and non-achievements. We do not have any clarity on what to achieve and what not to achieve. We get so much influenced by the advertisements and the corporate, societal lies that we want everything that is being projected by these external influences and most of the individuals thought process has got corrupted so much that if these external influenced achievements are not achieved, then there is no life at all and they are not living life. But, in reality when we look at this whole scenario and reflect, it clearly shows that all these societal influences, things, objects are simply unnecessary and not at all required. Human beings have come to that extent that they have succumbed to nervousness because of all these fears and the anxiety that is born because of constant thought process of achieving the unnecessary necessities or achievements.

Nervousness is the disease of civilization. - Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, in "Journey to Self Realization."

Sattva, Rajas and Tamas (The Trigunas)

The Sānkhya Yoga divides the life's attributes into three qualities: sattva, rajas and tamas.

• The quality of Sattva is mainly balance. It represents the balance of both Rajas (activity) and Tamas (inertia). Hence, it provides the qualities of high and pure thinking, being compassionate, wise, enlivening and enlightening;
• The quality of Rajas is activity - being dynamic. Too much of activity will lead to various ailments both physiologically and psychologically. While the Rajas provides the energy for the metabolism, it also provides the heat and too much of activity makes an individual restless and selfish. Hence, one needs to have an appropriate amount of Rajas quality. Not too high which leads to restlessness and not too low which leads to lethargy. One of the beneficial quality of Rajas is learning and adapting to the wisdom driven activities;
• Tamas represents all that is inert, still, dull, unconscious, sluggish and ignorant. An individual with Tamas quality would be dull, lethargic and would like to perform mostly inauspicious activities.

A healthy person smiles and laughs, is cheerful and happy. Health is a gift from Mother Nature, the power behind life. Health is your birthright, not disease. It is as natural to be well as it is to be born.” - Swami Sivananda

Being a human being we should have a balance of the three attributes of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. It is up to us, how much we should have these three attributes and in what proportions. While the highly sattvic body and mind has its high well-being, the others have low well-being. Hence, it is very scientific and wise also to choose the appropriate attribute in leading our life towards our overall well-being.

We as human beings undergo through many emotions through out our whole life from birth to death. It is up to us to balance these emotions so that when we leave our bodies and this world we leave contented and fulfilled.

The word emotion has its Latin origin as emotere which means energy in motion. Hence, if we define energy in motion as emotion then that means we should be able to detect this motion of energy in its budding stage and choose to channelize it appropriately so that instead of resulting in unnecessary fears and anxiety, it can be used for our overall well-being.

Every emotion triggers a stimuli in brain which sends energy into the body's nerves or various energy channels and a constant trigger of these emotions will result in anxiety and nervousness which finally results into various other diseases.

The best way of dealing with these energies in motion is to self reflect and observe or introspection. One should have open-minded presence and open-heartedness in performing this exercise. Once we know the origin of our emotions then we can channelize it accordingly by regulating our breath and using some breathing exercises or by practice of prāṇāyāma प्राणायाम.

Introspection is the one activity that when properly performed and accomplished will help an individual on many aspects. Especially when it is done in a deeper way, it will bring out the deep rooted habits, attachments, aversions to the surface and the practitioner or individual can take a decision to let go most of them, there by getting rid of many unwanted emotions that might be disturbing both physical and mental health of the individual.

Now let us look into the three attributes (sattva, rajas and tamas) as mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita.

The Sāttivk attribute:

सर्वभूतेषु येनैकं भावमव्ययमीक्षते ।
अविभक्तं विभक्तेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि सात्त्विकम् ॥ १८-२०॥
sarvabhūteṣu yenaikaṃ bhāvamavyayamīkṣate ।
avibhaktaṃ vibhakteṣu tajjñānaṃ viddhi sāttvikam ॥ 18-20॥

That by which an individual perceives the one imperishable divine existence as undivided and equally present in all individual beings, know that knowledge to be Sāttvik.

नियतं सङ्गरहितमरागद्वेषतः कृतम् ।
अफलप्रेप्सुना कर्म यत्तत्सात्त्विकमुच्यते ॥ १८-२३॥
niyataṃ saṅgarahitamarāgadveṣataḥ kṛtam ।
aphalaprepsunā karma yattatsāttvikamucyate ॥ 18-23॥

That action which is ordained by the scriptures, and is not accompanied by the sense of doership, and has been done without any attachment or aversion by one who seeks no return, is called Sāttvik.

The Rājasik attribute:

पृथक्त्वेन तु यज्ज्ञानं नानाभावान्पृथग्विधान् ।
वेत्ति सर्वेषु भूतेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि राजसम् ॥ १८-२१॥
pṛthaktvena tu yajjñānaṃ nānābhāvānpṛthagvidhān ।
vetti sarveṣu bhūteṣu tajjñānaṃ viddhi rājasam ॥ 18-21॥

The knowledge by which individual cognizes many existences of various kinds, as apart from one another, in all beings, know that knowledge to be Rājasik.

यत्तु कामेप्सुना कर्म साहङ्कारेण वा पुनः ।
क्रियते बहुलायासं तद्राजसमुदाहृतम् ॥ १८-२४॥
yattu kāmepsunā karma sāhaṅkāreṇa vā punaḥ ।
kriyate bahulāyāsaṃ tadrājasamudāhṛtam ॥ 18-24॥

Action that is inspired by longing for satisfaction of desires, or performed with egotism and colossal effort, is said to be Rājasik.

The Tāmasik attribute:

यत्तु कृत्स्नवदेकस्मिन्कार्ये सक्तमहैतुकम् ।
अतत्त्वार्थवदल्पं च तत्तामसमुदाहृतम् ॥ १८-२२॥
yattu kṛtsnavadekasminkārye saktamahaitukam ।
atattvārthavadalpaṃ ca tattāmasamudāhṛtam ॥ 18-22॥

Again that knowledge by which individual clings to one body as if it were the whole, and which is irrational, has no real grasp of truth and is trivial, has been declared as Tāmasik.

अनुबन्धं क्षयं हिंसामनपेक्ष्य च पौरुषम् ।
मोहादारभ्यते कर्म यत्तत्तामसमुच्यते ॥ १८-२५॥
anubandhaṃ kṣayaṃ hiṃsāmanapekṣya ca pauruṣam ।
mohādārabhyate karma yattattāmasamucyate ॥ 18-25॥

The actions that are undertaken through sheer ignorance, without regard to the consequences or loss to oneself, injury to others and one's own resourcefulness is declared as Tāmasik.

Whilst the Sātvik attributes are close to the soul and result in peace, harmony, stillness and silence, the Rājasik and Tāmasik attributes take the individual away from the soul and results in disharmony, disturbance, restlessness and noise. Hence, it all depends upon an individual and the choices one makes on how much time one has to spend in each of these attributes.

Hence, an individual need to be balanced all the time and attain equanimity under all circumstances. Each individual has to develop the wise mind which is a balance of both the emotional and logical brains. Then, and then only an individual can live wisely, understand the purpose of life and fulfill the actual purpose of taking birth.

Concluded in Part 7.

Can I Live with Myself? - Part 5

- contd from Part 4

Courage to Walk the Path

In living the lies of the world and in the process of losing ourselves one of the most important factor that we have gained is fear. Fear has taken us for a toll in some of the following ways:

• Fear of losing money, job, possessions
• Fear of losing relationships,
• Fear of acceptance of truth
• Fear of being not in a group
• Fear of not being in a community
• Fear of not having a religion
• Fear of not belonging to any particular group
• Fear of missing out (FOMO) information
• Fear of losing importance
• Fear of not being prioritized
• Fear of not getting recognized
• Fear of not getting updated and able to use the most advanced gadgets
• Fear of not having the latest gadgets
• Fear of not using the right toiletries
• Fear of not eating the right food
• Fear of gaining weight
• Fear of not having a proper physique
• Fear of indigestion
• Fear of improper communication
• Fear of traffic jams
• Fear of unable to choose from the plethora of choices that are made available - whether it is various educational courses in schools, colleges or universities; foods - especially processed foods in a grocery store; varieties of fashioned clothes in a mall; myriad choices of all unnecessary necessitated items
• Fear of not having studied in premier institutions ('the B-Schools')
• Fear of not having premier education (where there teach how to successfully sell a lie, how to buy the lie once you are out of the Universities by working your asses out, and how to successfully (unhappily ever-after) live that lie that is being sold to you in anticipation of happiness which is promised to obtain in the so called "in/near future")
• Fear of inefficient networking (because no one has clarity what exactly they want in their lives to live the life truly)
• Fear of not having friendly colleagues at work (because of too transactional relationships)
• Fear of not having appropriate friends in life (again because of transactional relationships)
• Fear of not getting appreciation
• Fear of less performance at office or at home
• Fear of not able to meet partners requirements 
• Fear of disease
• Fear of insomnia
• Fear of losing news on what is happening in the world
• Fear of children's future, etc., etc.,
• Fear of not having or losing all kinds of unnecessary necessities. 

Apart from the psychological fears, we have created so many fears as above. The only reason why we got stuck or succumbed to so many fears is, because, we are not living our lives truly. We are living our lives always wearing some or the other kind of masks or living someone else's lie. We have developed so many fears purely based upon the influence of the advertisements which often sell a lie; or the influence of peers who have worked their asses out to achieve and possess the advertised products (most of them are not necessary). This way of living with masks or living someone's else's lie has not only spoiled our mental and physical health, in fact, it has also taken away from us our freedom of pure thinking and freedom of living truthfully. Here, I would like to quote words of Sri Jiddu Krishnamurti who says...

"Fear is the destructive energy in man. It withers the mind, it distorts thought, it leads to all kinds of extraordinarily clever and subtle theories, absurd superstitions, dogmas, and beliefs". - Jiddu Krishnamurti

How to live fearlessly?

The only way to live fearlessly is to face the fear. Look into its face straight.

There is an anecdote that Swami Sri Yukteswar ji shares with his disciple Paramahansa Yogananda ji during the latter's training in his ashram. The discussion from the book "Autobiography of a Yogi" goes as follows:

“My mother once tried to frighten me with an appalling story of a ghost in a dark chamber. I went there immediately, and expressed my disappointment at having missed the ghost. Mother never told me another horror tale. Moral: Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you".

To walk the path of Truth we have to get rid of all kinds of fears and then, and then only, we would be able to walk the path. Even if we have to walk the path alone, it just does not matter, we have to just walk.

Overcoming Fear

To walk the path of Truth, we need courage and to have courage, we need to get rid of fear. To get rid of fear, we need to have courage. So, what to do?

Breathing Technique

The first and foremost is, whenever we are afraid of something or the other, we have to observe for the location of fear. Generally 99.99% of the time, the fear starts in or from the heart region. We can sense the change in the palpitations and the variation in breath or in our breathing pattern. Instead of ignoring these variations in the heart palpitations, we should recognize them and accept them first. Then, by becoming a witness to them, we should practice deep breaths by which we become aware of the reduction in the fear as the breath becomes deeper and slower. This diminishing in fear will make us to look at the scenario with a different perspective. Then, over a period of time, we can develop our own strategies in overcoming the fear.

Self Reflection

Another method of overcoming fear is questioning ourselves and self-reflect. The most simple ways of questioning are:

• Is this fear necessary to me? 
• Do I need to have this fear? 
• Do I need to undergo through this situation with this fear?
• What if the situation would be if fear is not there?
• What is that which is creating in me this fear?
• What is that I would lose, in this situation, and what is the undercurrent for this fear?
• Do I need to live someone else's lie and what if I don't? Will I feel left out? What if I am alone? Can't I live with my true self?
• Can't I accept the way I am - pure, naked, stripped off of all external entanglements, attachments and labels?

One of the biggest factors of fear is illusion. We do not see the world, the way it is supposed to be seen. One of the truths that we forget about the world is its impermanence. We anticipate that everything has to be permanent and secured. And, in non-acceptance of impermanency of the world and its insecurity, we develop fear. One reason for this is the kind of ideas, opinions, and information that have been shared or tried to showcase on us by our peers (parents, grand parents, teachers, bosses, etc.) regarding their way of living, earning as if they are going to stay forever on this earth. Sometimes we mask one fear with a fear of another. One of the mask that we always try to wear is non-acceptance of a particular fear. With all the kinds of false ideas and opinions that we carry about our lives from our childhood, we have lost the ability of seeing the Truth. To see the Truth one need to enter into the realms of Stillness and Silence. Then one would be able to clearly discriminate what is necessary and what is unnecessary. From that discrimination, we can slowly start getting rid of all of our physical and psychological baggage thereby becoming free to be able to see the Truth.

Our minds have got so much corrupted by the external or worldly influences that we need to burn it off  mercilessly with great courage and persistence in meditation or mindfulness practices and purify it so that it can reflect the Truth.

As gold purified in a furnace loses its impurities and achieves its own true nature, the mind gets rid of the impurities of the attributes of delusion, attachment and purity through meditation and attains Reality. - Ādi Shankarāchārya.

Even if we fail in the beginning, it does not matter. We have to keep on trying it. What we require to try is courage. Once we walk the path courageously, then all fears will just leave us and we are face-to-face with the Truth and that Truth is eternal bliss.

Contd.. in Part 6.

Can I Live with Myself? - Part 4

- contd from Part 3

The Life of Masking

One of the aspect that I have observed in a lot of relationships is masking. This masking process is so much done that over a period of time, it has become a norm for individuals to live in this state and they have become so unconscious of this masking, and tend to continue to live in the lies that they have created for themselves or influenced upon.

In India and probably most of the other places, I have seen women doing most of the cooking process. And, during my interactions over lunch, dinner or casual talks, when I ask them how much do they like this process and 90% of the time the answer comes as: "it is inevitable" or "is there any other go." These answers have evidently shown that they are masking their acceptance of a process of cooking as their norm and since there is no other go, they are continuing this process. When I question working men, why they are working? They answer that "we have to run the family" and that is the main reason why they are working and they don't really like to slog so much. And, when I ask what is that you want to do with the money that you earn? The answer always comes as - I have to buy a house, car and spend on all those items that they have advertised (and promised me happiness when I use them), spend on children's education, etc. Sometimes, I ask myself and others also - is really spending hefty amounts on children's education going to make them smarter, intelligent and better human beings? Then answer is always biased and there is no certainty. There is no guarantee that we as parents are going to build a better future generation in fulfilling certain norms, duties or responsibilities.

If we question this, from where this norm has come that only women should cook at home or men should keep working for their families? (Now a days I see 70% of women working in offices and 40% of men cooking at homes) - the clear answer is culture. Have we ever questioned - is this culture true? In the process of accepting various norms of a culture, we inadvertently impinged upon us an inevitable acceptance of many lies. And, in this process of inevitable acceptance, we started masking our emotions with "relationship names" and almost perfected the art of masking and the act of lying. One of the most important masking that we have perfected is accepting a lie and renaming that lie as "responsibility." I have seen individuals suffering, abusing themselves in fulfilling these "responsibilities."

Women are not always happy in cooking or working in offices, men are not always happy in working. Eventually what we started in avoiding this suffering is, masking this non-acceptance of suffering with worldly enjoyment. The new definition or norm of enjoyment that the world has successfully sold us as a big lie, and has more or less provided tools for masking comprises the following:

• Watching TV programs (it just does not matter how much BS they might show) and accept that as a norm and discuss on those topics they telecast;
• Watching movies;
• Visiting malls and spending heftily on junk non-healthy food (even though we can make good and healthy food at home);
• Instead of working at home, spend hefty amounts and work-out in gyms; (working at home has become drudgery, because we have bought so many items that marketing people have successfully made us to buy, that we no longer have much space to move around in the house and all those bought items have occupied 90% of the space and we feel suffocated to stay longer in the same house);
• Visit various places that advertisers have advertised and promised discounts for X-days, X-nights stay;
• Buying all those latest gadgets and show-case them to friends, relatives or colleagues and indirectly telling them that how much updated we are (but actually not realizing the truth, that we have become fools, lost our wisdom and succumbed to the advertisers and believed ourselves that we are buying happiness from a lie, which we will never get and eventually lead us to suffering);
• Visiting pubs to drink and dance and forgetting ourselves and know not what we are doing and why we are doing? 
• Talking continuously either in person or on mobile phones on worldly matters and providing justifications on how hard we are trying, to live worldly lies while considering it as a metric for success and seeking validations from others;
• Succumbing to various other practices.

All of the above are being done just to escape from ourselves and avoiding the process of self acceptance and self-reflection.

• So, do we need to continue in the same way, generations after generations? or
• Is there a way that we stop this nonsensical and highly unreasonable life-style that we are living with us and change the DNA of the future generations?
• What is that we want to pass over to the future generations? - Suffering or freedom from all these unnecessary necessities?

It is high time for us to reflect within ourselves and find out what the Truth is about Life and its purpose.

Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon. - Rumi

- to be contd in Part 5.

Can I Live with Myself? - Part 3

-contd. from part 2

Avoiding boredom

One of the biggest block in accepting oneself or self-acceptance is boredom. In the means of avoiding boredom we accept all those lies that society impinges upon us.

Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda on a topic "Be a Smile Millionaire" in the book "Man's Eternal Quest" says "The average man is familiar with four states of mind. When a desire is fulfilled, he is happy. When a desire is denied, he is unhappy. When he is neither glad nor sorrowful, he is bored. When these three emotions, these three states of mind — pleasure, pain, and boredom — are sloughed off, he has peace."

So, we as human beings are trying to seek pleasure always and in this process of seeking pleasure, we end up most of the times in those activities that eventually lead us to frustration and misery. All of our seeking depends mainly upon our senses and we believe firmly that our senses do not mislead us. In gratifying our senses we become so much emotional that we will make all attempts to justify our emotions and eventually end up living our misbeliefs which will create more and more lies and make us to live a life sans contentment.

We as human beings are ending up in boredom because of non-understanding of the Truth and in avoiding boredom we are either seeking pleasure or pain unconsciously and searching for contentment in this process of seeking. In this process we end up most of the times in passing judgmental statements either against others or ourselves. Sometimes we might become so self-critical that we stop loving ourselves and our bodies.

When it comes to the aspect of our bodies, the main fuel for running this body is food and in satisfying the sense of taste and its corresponding sense organ tongue, we again live a big lie that of ourselves, cultural and societal. How many times we listen to our bodies and provide it the right nourishment that it requires to survive and to be healthy? In this aspect we get so much hypnotised by the advertisements that we end up consuming all types of heavily to moderate processed foods and end up into psychological and physiological uneasiness. It is very surprising that some of us just eat so unconsciously to avoid boredom and end up becoming obese.

One of the first steps that we need to question ourselves is:

• Why are we getting bored? 
• What is that which is leading us to boredom? 
• In the process of living someone else's lie, are we trying to avoid something which is genuine to us and ending up in boredom?

When we put these questions, it will reveal to us that we are avoiding Truth of what we are in reality in living the lie. We gave higher priority in living the lie rather than living the Truth.

Now to understand what the Truth is not an easy task, especially when we are so much surrounded by the information overload of lies.

Hence, the best way is to slow down and may be stop most of the activities and reflect on Self. This reflection on Self will lead us to peace and the best method for this is to meditate or practice mindfulness.

One of the easiest methods of escaping from the influence of information overload is to focus on the breath. Hence, whenever we are ending up in boredom and instead of trying to seek pleasure or pain, we should just focus on our breath and its movement. Probably play a while with breath in regulating (not manipulating) it. Become more and more aware of its movement and eventually it will lead us to stillness and silence and that would be the best moment for self-reflection.

This self-reflection when carried out in stillness and silence will provide a platform to live with ourselves.

Process of Self-reflection

The process of Self-reflection is not an easy process. One should be brave enough for all kinds of consequences it will result in. Many a times it surfaces so much of filth that we might get scared to accept and probably don't even want to attempt it.

When we get into stillness and silence by practicing mindfulness/meditation practices, mainly by focusing on breath, they make us to become non-judgmental and unbiased over a period of time. The more we practice them, the more sensible and courageous we become and we would increase our capability of accepting the Truth.

During these meditation/mindfulness practices, whenever we enter into some amount of stillness/silence, we should ask ourselves the following questions:

• Am I living the way I am supposed to be?
• What is the actual way of living?
• To what extent I am influenced by the external world or the people whom I come across in terms of various relationships (friends, relatives, spouse, children, peers, etc.)?
• In taking any decision, what is that aspect that I would rely on and to what extent that aspect is influenced by any of the external or worldly influences?
• Can I be completely unbiased and non-judgmental in my decisions?

When we put ourselves these questions and reflect upon the Self, it surfaces that most of our decisions and actions and the results based on those decisions are phenomenally judgmental, biased and ego-based.

People of the world don't look at themselves, and so they blame one another. - Rumi

- to be contd in part 4.

Can I Live with Myself? - Part 2

-contd from Part 1

Accepting Oneself / Self-acceptance

In terms of definition of "Self-acceptance" the Wikipedia mentions it as:

• being aware of one's strengths and weaknesses
• the realistic (yet subjective) appraisal of one's talents, capabilities, and general worth, and,
• feelings of satisfaction with one's self despite deficiencies and regardless of past behaviors and choices.

According to Shepard (1979), self-acceptance is an individual's satisfaction or happiness with oneself, and is thought to be necessary for good mental health. Self-acceptance involves self-understanding, a realistic, albeit subjective, awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses. It results in an individual's feeling about oneself, that they are of "unique worth".

If that is what the definition is - how many of us are really accepting ourselves?

When it comes to be aware of one's strengths and weaknesses, how are we going to define strength and weaknesses? Again it comes to the definitions what society has given us and which are made in such a way that it will be in comparison to someone or something and will eventually lead one to judge and make to live someone else's definition of a lie.

In satisfying someone's definition of strength and weakness we have humiliated ourselves so much that we lost our self-esteem. Some, succumb to this lie so much that when they cannot achieve this "someone else's lie" they make suicidal attempts. Now if we question again - how much it is wise to live someone's definition of a lie as a success, strength or a weakness?

Here I would like to quote Albert Einstein's words "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

So, in this game of life didn't our parents anticipated that we being a fish, they wanted us to climb a tree?, and are we also not doing the same thing with our children and then pass on the same lie to the next generation?

We need to stop this process of "passing the lies" generations-after-generations somewhere and make the next generation more evolved and make them responsible to define what is success, strength and weakness for themselves. We can help them in facilitating the journey of thinking being contemporaneous and wise as per their present needs and definitely not wants or desires or what the so called marketing people want to sell.

-to be contd in part 3

Can I Live with Myself? - Part 1

Can I Live with Myself?

One fine day during my morning meditation practices this is the question that I got and was rock still for few minutes. My mind tried to ask another question - "Can you live with yourself"?

How much time do I spend with myself?

In this whole life, how much time do we really spend with ourselves? Except for sleeping time where we would enter into the deep sleep where we live with ourselves unconsciously, otherwise are we living with ourselves?

We are living someone else's lie

When we deeply look into our life and the way we are living, we are constantly trying to live someone else's opinions which are excellently manipulated and marketed by various skilled advertisers and impinged or pressed upon us. Hence, a reality check will very clearly tell us and probably scare us that we are not living with ourselves (or our life), but constantly living someone else's lie that has been so much hypnotized upon us, that we almost lost the skill of how to live with ourselves (our actual life). In the process of civilization we have created so many lies and in the process of living all those lies that have been created and nurtured generations after generations, we have left the truth into oblivion.

One of the biggest blockhead in this scenario is accepting oneself. For most of the people on this earth self-acceptance is a huge bottleneck. The kind of external paraphernalia in terms of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.); movies, pubs, outings, picnics, parties, etc.; all are diverting our attention towards anything external and very rarely gives time to turn within. And, when our mind turns within and introspects, that introspection is so much influenced by the external information and the false belief systems that we have unconsciously built. And, most of the time we end up succumbing to someone else's opinion which will eventually lead us towards frustration at some time or the other in future, and further leads to depression and many psychological and psychosomatic disorders.

The kind of frustration I see most of the times on each individual's face whom I come across makes me bewildered and forces me to ask questions - why and what makes them so frustrated if they have chosen to live the way they want? I think, they rarely see themselves in the mirror and think about this question.

In my life whenever I made (and hopeful to make in future) an every attempt to ask this question and almost every time the answer comes out as - do you need to live someone else's lie?

In terms of marriage, bearing children, living in the society the way it runs, and it is supposed to be run, reveals to us that we all are living someone else's lie. Just because there are about 3000 years of history on how people lived does not mean that we need to live like them and make the same mistakes as they made. Some of the examples that would be suffice to share for the present generation are: a big house (may be a 2 or a 3 BHK), a car or one car for each member in the family, all kinds of insurance policies, working in fortune 500 companies, having a huge bank balance, having more physical assets, house with all latest gadgets, huge and costly furniture, various kinds of toiletries for physical grooming, various kinds of clothes, footwear, etc, etc,; all those so-called unnecessary necessities that have been hypnotized upon us by the highly skilled marketing people and to which we have succumbed to the advertiser's agenda and started feeling deprived of these external paraphernalia and rarely realized that we got lost ourselves, and in this journey of losing ourselves, the advertisers and the rule makers made us successfully to forget how to live with our selves (our true Self).

Avoiding further damage

To avoid further damage to our self, we need to take a step back, stop doing all those nonsensical activities that we have been doing or have done and reflect on what exactly we really need. For this to happen we should start spending time with ourselves. May be a silent walk alone to start with. May be a retreat for a couple of days where there is no external information being added into. May be just a reflection for 4 to 5 hours without any external aid also would suffice to start with. And, in this self-reflection we should ask one question and that is, "how much I am living someone else's lie"?

This self-reflection if done properly, will surface us to an enormous amount of revelation and probably will shit scare us, that in reality we are just living someone else's lie and somewhere in this journey convinced ourselves that, that lie is our life and our life's ambition.

If an individual can take this daring step, then the first step of accepting one's self happens.

- to be contd... in part 2

What is Light?

In reality everything is within us - the light also. There are our identities and concepts to which we are holding to, that are stopping us from seeing the light. Hence, we need to let go those identities and concepts. Then light is seen and we come to a realization that it was ever there and we are already that. Just because of our holding to identities and concepts is what is preventing us from seeing this light.

In school we are taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, we are given a test that teaches us a lesson. Life is full of learnings' and un-coverings. Till the last layer is uncovered, we don't know what we Truly are!

What is Krishna?

What is Krishna?

The word "Krishna (कृष्ण)" consists of two alphabets "kri" (कृ) and "shna" (ष्ण). When we utter the alphabet "kri" (कृ) the uvula gets opened and when we utter the alphabet "shna" (ष्ण) the tongue touches the upper palate. Now when we inhale and with inhalation if we start from moolaadhaara to aajnaa chakra and mentally chanting "kri" (कृ) and during exhalation from aajnaa chakra to moolaadhaara while mentally chanting "shna" (ष्ण); a kind of yogic technique called "Krishna Yoga" happens. This whole practice of Krishna Yoga is embedded in the word "Krishna (कृष्ण)" and that is what "Krishna (कृष्ण)" means. A saadhak (साधक) who can understand this, by practice that saadhak will reach "Krishna (कृष्ण)".

Now at the end of inhalation when the breath stops and then we become aware of where the focus of our consciousness moves. And if we are doing it consciously and become aware of it completely, then our focus gently moves to almost the top of the head towards Sahasraara.

The above practice means that with inhalation and mentally coinciding that inhalation with  "kri" (कृ) and having a pause there for whatever comfortable time we become aware of our focus moving to Sahasraara and then with exhalation and mentally coinciding that exhalation with "shna" (ष्ण) and by repeating this process we can slowly shift our consciousness to Sahasraara. Thus Krishna will take us to Shiva.

Same way Christ also. The word Christ Chri expands the uvula and the St makes the tongue touch the upper palate.

With every breath and in every moment of Stillness, affirm "I am the Eternal One"

With every breath and in every moment of Stillness, affirm "I am the Eternal One"

Significance of Lotus in Spiritual journey

What is the significance of lotus in Spiritual Journey?

First and foremost, one need to observe keenly how a lotus grows and understand each phenomenon of its growth process in a spiritual manner.

A lotus grows in a place where the soil turns into mud and it stinks. This stinky mud or soil holds the roots of lotus plant very firmly and stays at the bottom of the pond or container in which the lotus plant is growing. Above the surface of this muddy layer, about 1 feet to 4 feet water surface will be present through which the leaves that grow from the muddy soil, penetrate through this water layer and surface to the top. Once in a while the lotus flower comes out suddenly and creates joy to the onlookers by blooming so beautifully in presence of bright sunlight. The lotus leaves and the lotus flower grows well only when the muddy soil is still and do not reach the surface of water layer.

Generally the people who are on the spiritual journey turns away from the external world. Now, this external world is actually like the stinky soil or mud and from it we need to build strong roots and even though we stay in it, we should treat it as nutrition or obtain inspiration from that and grow away from it. It is like being in the world but not of the world. We should be still to the external world so that it does not interfere with our journey of passing through the water, that is passing through the mind or thoughts. We should travel through the mind or thoughts and surface out from that which means we should go beyond the mind. Then in the bright sunlight which means when we focus on the kutastha or space between the eyebrows on the forehead and start meditating, all of a sudden one fine day a lotus will blossom, that means any of the chakras gets activated.

So the growth of lotus tells us the following on our spiritual journey:

1. Be in the world, but not of the world. Do not treat the world as something unwanted, treat it like a nutrition for your life.
2. Always stay still in the world or else your vision can become muddy if you get ruffled up and will not be able to see clearly where and in which direction you have to travel.
3. You cannot avoid thoughts or mind. You have to pass through the thoughts or mind to go beyond it.
4. Take advantage of the light that appears at your kutastha and enable the lotuses located at various chakras to bloom 
5. Everything that blooms also will eventually vanish
6. Go beyond everything and become Nothing finally.

Thanks to the lotus (in the figure below grown in our house) that taught me this revelation.

Once the lotus blooms it will not declare that it has bloomed. The bees will automatically come to visit it. Once we achieve success in meditation our peace and stillness that we obtain from it itself is the recognition. We do not require any other recognition. People can see that stillness and peace and will come to us to understand how it is possible. Or the Cosmos will create opportunities wherein we can share the joy of meditation with others and show them a way how to achieve it. 

Meditation is the panacea for all challenges

Meditation is the panacea for all life's challenges.

As a human being we are more challenged today when compared to any other generation who have lived on this earth. We have created so many comforts and created so many wants and desires just to keep ourselves busy and anticipating that we also need those comforts. Instead of being conservative we are on the exploration spree of resources and got into so much consumerism that we don't have any more spaces in our houses to live without all those so called essentials.

We are facing challenges from a family point of view, on the financial aspects (which in fact it appears-as if it never ends), many challenges with personal and business partners and the relationships with them. In addition to the above the vehicles that we have invented for our speed of commute and comfort have become a menace by overcrowding and creating pollution. The offices or the work places that we have joined mainly to earn a livelihood have turned into places where we wanted to create so many false identities and get involved in the rat race comparing ourselves every time with others and either feel false pleasure or false deprivation. Because of the boredom that is created in these work places and the so called false competition, to meet the demands of the unwanted wants, unrealistic and non-environmental friendly targets are planned and in achieving them human being are becoming more and more stressful and succumb to unethical practices. Even though well laid down policies and governance are in place, individuals find unique ways of performing activities that completely violate these policies and all policies have turned into mere dogmas which are subjected to abuse openly and no one talks about them knowingly that it is a Pandora's box. With all these things happening in the background and don't know what to do, management or the so called governing bodies want to come out with unique or innovative methods so that the problems can be solved and invest a lot on innovation and create many pompous shows while the solutions are very simple and they do not want to implement them. One simple reason is that they want complicated solutions for simple problems and want to have a false satisfaction that they have arrived at a most simple solution for a highly complicated problem which in reality the complicated problem has never existed and has been created to showcase that there is one and they need a solution. In understanding all these aspects the whole time of the individual is lost and he/she is neither able to fulfill his/her life nor able to spend some time to make an attempt to understand why and what his/her life has in store for him/her. Many attempts are made in gathering information from various communication channels that the individual can place their hands on and create some kind of an identity and by the time they realize that, it gets proven that it is only a false identity and do not satisfy him/her in long run.

With so many challenges around, the individual need to take out some time, sit alone and spend time in interiorization and understand the realities of life. The best method for this is Meditation.

Before going into Meditation, we need to understand our mind also and what are we feeding it. In Upanishads there is a methodology for this and it is very simple. Hear, see perceive all that is good or that provides beneficence. Pray to all those who can provide you that beneficence. The verses are provided below along with the meaning.

ॐ भद्रं कर्णेभिः शृणुयाम देवाः ।

भद्रं पश्येमाक्षभिर्यजत्राः ।

स्थिरैरङ्गैस्तुष्टुवाग्‍ँसस्तनूभिः ।

व्यशेम देवहितं यदायूः ।

स्वस्ति न इन्द्रो वृद्धश्रवाः ।

स्वस्ति नः पूषा विश्ववेदाः ।

स्वस्ति नस्तार्क्ष्यो अरिष्टनेमिः ।

स्वस्ति नो बृहस्पतिर्दधातु ॥

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

oṃ bhadraṃ karṇebhiḥ śṛṇuyāma devāḥ ।

bhadraṃ paśyemākṣabhiryajatrāḥ ।

sthirairaṅgaistuṣṭuvāg‍m̐sastanūbhiḥ ।

vyaśema devahitaṃ yadāyūḥ ।

svasti na indro vṛddhaśravāḥ ।

svasti naḥ pūṣā viśvavedāḥ ।

svasti nastārkṣyo ariṣṭanemiḥ ।

svasti no bṛhaspatirdadhātu ॥

oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ ॥

Om, O Devas, May we Hear with our Ears what is Auspicious,

May we See with our Eyes what is Auspicious and Adorable,

May we be Prayerful (in Life) with Steadiness in our Bodies (and Minds),

May we Offer our Lifespan allotted by the Devas (for the Service of God),

May Indra  of great Wisdom and Glory grant us Well-Being (by bestowing wisdom),

May Pushan (The Sun God, The Nourisher) of great Knowledge grant us Well-Being (by nourishing us and granting knowledge),

May Tarksya of great Protective Power grant us Well-Being,

(And) May Brihaspati grant us Well-Being,

Om, Peace, Peace, Peace.

Having all noble thoughts and deeds the aspirant need to understand that he/she (the individual) is different from his/her emotions or feelings. One need to become aware of himself/herself on all the three aspects of Body, Mind (thought) and Emotion. Of course emotion could be a thought and it is releasing more chemicals from the brain based upon its intensity and the attachment that an individual is having towards that thought.

Whenever a feeling comes, we should be able to say that I am feeling so and so emotion. In this way we are not only becoming aware of the feeling, we are also separating the feeling from what we are in reality.

Going further deeper on this aspect, the witness or the seer can witness the emotion or feeling as a seen and develop a discrimination that he/she is not the one that is being experienced, rather is being witness of that and is aware of that experience.

Benefits of Meditation

As one keeps practicing meditation, there will be many changes on the peripheral and on the psychological level. Some benefits that one can one become aware of are:

It reduces stress, unhealthy behaviors, depression, anxiety, etc., and it increases focus, self-esteem, self actualization, autonomy, self-regulation, resilience, etc.

How to Meditate

Meditation is an aspect that which cannot be done as it is an undoing activity or a non-activity. One need to withdraw all the senses from external objects (pratyāhāra) and interiorize there by when there is no external information coming in, the mind tries to focus within and when further based upon the focus that one achieves on any of the breathing or pranayama techniques, the life force control can be achieved and further as the practitioner progresses and deepens his/her practice, then one can go beyond thought and that is the moment where meditation happens.

Remember the external world will keep on giving us information that will take us away from Truth and dictate our emotions. Hence, we have to go within to become one with Truth.

Slokam that is chanted while lighting a lamp

Slokam chanted while lighting a lamp

साज्यं त्रिवर्ति संयुक्तं - वह्निना योजितं प्रियं
गृहाण मंगळं दीपं - त्रैलोक्य तिमिरापहं
भक्त्या दीपं प्रयच्छामि - देवाय परमात्मने
त्राहिमान्नरकाद्घोरात् - दिव्य ज्योतिर्नमोस्तुते

సాజ్యం త్రివర్తి సంయుక్తం - వహ్నినా యోజితం ప్రియం
గృహాణ మంగళం దీపం - త్రైలోక్య తిమిరాపహం
భక్త్యా దీపం ప్రయచ్ఛామి - దేవాయ పరమాత్మనే
త్రాహిమాన్నరకాద్ఘోరాత్ - దివ్య జ్యోతిర్నమోస్తుతే

sājyaṃ trivarti saṃyuktaṃ - vahninā yojitaṃ priyaṃ
gṛhāṇa maṃgaḻaṃ dīpaṃ - trailokya timirāpahaṃ
bhaktyā dīpaṃ prayacchāmi - devāya paramātmane
trāhimānnarakādghorāt - divya jyotirnamostute

Word-to-word meaning:
साज्यं సాజ్యం = clarified butter or ghee; त्रिवर्ति త్రివర్తి = three wicks; संयुक्तं సంయుక్తం = joined together as the threads in a rope;  वह्निना వహ్నినా = fire; योजितं యోజితం = joined or connected; प्रियं  ప్రియం = pleasantness; गृहाण గృహాణ = in the house; मंगळं మంగళం = beneficence; दीपं దీపం = lamp or light; त्रैलोक्य త్రైలోక్య = three lokas (gross, subtle and causal); तिमिर తిమిర = darkness or ignorance; अपह అపహ = removing or destroying; भक्त्या భక్త్యా = by devotion; दीपं దీపం = lamp or light; प्रयच्छामि ప్రయచ్ఛామి = I give; देवाय దేవాయ = to the devas; परमात्मने పరమాత్మనే = to the paramatma; त्राहि త్రాహి = please protect; मां మాం = me; नरकात् నరకాత్= from hell; घोरात् ఘోరాత్ = terrible; दिव्य దివ్య = Divine; ज्योतिः జ్యోతిః = light; नमो నమో = my salutations; अस्तु అస్తు = be it so; ते తె = to you.

Meaning:
Oh Lord! I offer unto Thee this lamp lighted with three wicks and clarified butter. Please remove the darkness that is existing as ignorance from the three - gross, subtle and causal worlds and may this lamp take me away from the darkness of hell to the devas and the paramatma. May this light unite me with Thee.

దసరా రోజు చదవలసిన శమీ స్తోత్రం

శమీ శమయతే పాపం శమీ శత్రు వినాశనీ
అర్జునస్య ధనుర్ధారీ రామస్య ప్రియ దర్శినీ

Humble Wish

My Humble Wish

May the Eternity be thy abode;
May the Nothingness be thy friend;
May the will of Cosmic Nature,
Be thy will
May the ever shining
Kutastha Consciousness,
that is present in thy brow,
shine forever in thee.
(Let thee be ever, in the awareness of that everlasting, eternal, infinite consciousness)

నా వినయపూర్వక అభీష్టము

అనంత తత్త్వమే నీ ధామముగా

శూన్యమే నీ సన్నిహితగా

ఆ మహా ప్రకృతి యొక్క

సంకల్పములే నీ కంకణాలుగా

(అనగా నీ సంకల్పములుగా)

నీ భృకుటి లో నున్న

నిత్యమూ జ్వాజ్వల్యమైయున్న

ఆ కూటస్థ చైతన్యమే

నీ యందు సదా ప్రకాశిస్తూ ఉండుగాక.

(ఆ అనంతమైన, నిత్యమైన

అనంత తత్త్వపు ఎరుకలో సదా ఉండుగాక.)

సంక్రాంతి విశిష్టత - Specialty of sankranti,

సంక్రాంతి విశిష్టత

భగ భగ మండుతున్న మన తాపసాగ్ని అయినటువంటి భోగి మంటలలో మనకున్నటువంటి పంచ క్లేశములైనటువంటి అవిద్య, అస్మిత, రాగము, ద్వేషము, మరియు అభిమానములను వ్రేల్చి ఆభాస చైతన్యమైనటువంటి స్థూల భౌతిక ప్రకాశము నుండి, అనంతము, నిత్యము జ్వాజ్వల్యమానమైనటువంటి  ఆ అనంత చైతన్యము లోనికి సంక్రమణము జరిపి మానవుడి ప్రధానమైన జీవిత లక్ష్యమైనటువంటి ఆ భగవంతుని దివ్య ధామమును చేరుకొనుటకు, ఆ సర్వజ్ఞుడైన సర్వసాక్షి మనకు అందుకవసరమైనటువంటి ఆవరణమును ప్రసాదించుగాక అని సంక్రాంతిని జరుపుకొంటాము. ఇదియే సంక్రాంతి విశిష్టత.