அன்பின் வெளிப்பாடுகள்

 எனது நினைவரிந்து 23 ஆண்டுகளாக உள்ள எனது குருவின் தொடர்பு, அதற்கு முன் எத்தனை கோடி ஆண்டுகளாக இருந்து வருகிறது என்பதை நான் அறியேன். அத்தகய அறியாமையும் ஒரு விதத்தில் நன்றே! ஏனெனில் இவ்வன்பு இந்த நாளில் தான் தொடங்கியது என்றால் அதற்கு காலம் என்ற ஒரு எல்லை அமைந்துவிடுகிறது. இக்கால வரையற்ற அன்பை எப்படித்தான் வர்ணனை செய்வது? அது யாராலும் முடியாது! அப்படி செய்ய முடிந்தாலும் அன்பிற்கு ஒரு முற்றுகை அமைந்துவிடும். இவ்வெல்லை அற்ற அன்பை சொல்லாலும் வர்ணனை செய்ய முடியாது, காலத்லும் அடக்க முடியாது மற்றும் எடையை கொண்டும் அளவிட முடியாது. ஏனெனில் அன்பு நமது ஐம்புலன்களால் அளவிட முடியாதது. அன்பின் வெளிப்பாட்டை மற்ருமே உணர முடியும். ஆனால் அன்பின் வெளிப்பாடு தூய அன்பிற்கு நிகர் அற்றது. மனிதன் ஆதி காலம் தொட்டு அன்பை வெளிப்பாடு செய்ய முடியாமல் திண்டாடி, தவித்து பலமுறை தோற்றத்தை அறியாதார் யார்? மேலும் வெளிப்பாடு என்ற வலையில் விழுந்ததே காரணம் பல சண்டைகளுக்கு! மனைவி ஒருவனை பார்க்கிறாள், அது காமத்தின் வெளிப்பாடாக இருக்குமோ என கணவன் மனது துடிக்கிறது. நண்பன் தன்னைவிட அதிகமாக சம்பாதிபதை கண்டு ஏற்படுகிறது பொறாமை என்ற வெளிப்பாடு. சரியான முறையில் எல்லா செயல்களையும் செய்யவேண்டும் என்ற ஆசையினால் ஏற்படுவது கோபம் என்ற வெளிப்பாடு. தனது குடும்பம் பல தலைமுறைகளுக்கு அமர்ந்து சாப்பிடவேண்டும் என்ற ஆசயினால் ஏற்படுவது பேராசை என்ற வெளிப்பாடு. தான் மட்டுமே எல்லோரை காட்டிலும் உயர்ந்தவன் என்ற எண்ணத்தால் ஏற்படும் வெளிப்பாடு அவனது அகந்தை ஆகும். இப்படி பல பல பெயர்களால் ஏற்படும் எல்லா வெளிப்பாட்டிற்கும் அடிப்படை காரணம் ஒன்றே, அது அன்புதான்!!!

Innaugral Ceremony of WCF by the NATURE

Three of us started on our foot from the Gate to witness something that had never happened before, but had no clue on what to expect especially this one from the NATURE. It was about a 3km  walk under the shining Sun, we did see the whether changing but we did not know what to expect. When we reached the venue, NATURE welcomed all of us with a thunderstorm. By now I got a clue that the NATURE was onto something. It poured so heavily and paused for a while as if to see how the crowd reciprocates the gesture of rain. The crowd did show its enthusiasm with all the dance and song. NATURE became even more happy and poured a little more. By now the Sun also had come out as it did not want itself to be left out from one of the rarest phenomenon. I knew there was something more coming along. And there it was - A perfect Rainbow! A perfect semicircle with all the 7 colors glowing. It was adding the "Light Effects" to the already rejoicing crowd. The Rainbow could not stop at it. It added to itself a second one - a light Rainbow, which was like a shadow to the first one. NATURE wanted to display all that it can as an innaugral ceremony to the Wolrd Culture festival. After some thought it started throwing Hailstones! Wow! It was a hailstorm - never heard of that happening in Delhi!!! It was a pure display of the NATURE's joy on what was going to start and continue for the next 3 days!!!

சங்கம் வைத்து தமிழ் வளர்த்த மன்னர்களின் ஆன்மீக பயணம்

சங்கம் வைத்து தமிழ் வளர்த்த மன்னர்களுக்கும் ஆன்மிகத்திற்க்கும் என்ன சம்பந்தம் என்ற கேள்வி எழலாம். அதை விளக்கவே மூணுள்லேன் இக்கட்டுரையில்.

தமிழ் வளர்த்தனர் என்கின்றனர், ஆனால் அவ்விதம் வளர்க்க பெற்ற தமிழ் மீது ஏற்பட்ட அன்பின் அடிப்படை காரணம் என்னவென்று யாரேனும் சிந்தித்ததுண்டோ? இந்நாளிலும் மக்கள் தமிழ் பயில்கின்றனர். ஆனால் சங்கம் வைத்து தமிழ் வளர்க்கும் அளவில் எல்லையற்ற தமிழ் பற்று உடையவர்கள் மிகச்சிலரே. வெறும் தமிழ் படிப்ததினால் ஏற்பட்டுவிடது தமிழ் பற்று. அதற்கு ஆன்மீகம் என்ற அடிப்படை ஆதாரம் வேண்டும். இங்கு ஆன்மீகம் என்பது எவ்வித மதத்தையும் குறிக்கவில்லை. எனது கருத்தின்படி மதம் என்பதை ஒரு வாழைப்பழ தோலொடு ஒப்பிட்டால் ஆன்மீகம் என்பது அதனுள் உள்ள உன்ணக்கூடிய பழமாகும். பழத்தை உண்ணும் பட்சத்தில் தோல் எந்த நிறத்தை சேர்ந்தது என்று யாரேனும் பார்ப்பது உண்டோ? அதே போல் தோல் எவ்வித நிராமாயினும் உள்ளே உள்ள பழம் ஒன்றுதானே. ஆன்மீகத்தின் அடிப்படையில் மட்டுமே எழகூடியது எதன் மீதும் ஏற்படும் பற்று. ஆன்மீகம் என்பது நம்முள் உள்ள பற்று என்ற ஆழ்ந்த உணர்வை தீவிரமாக எழ்ச்செயும் ஒரு சக்தி. இந்த சக்தியை ஒரு முறை உணர்ந்தால் போதும், அதன்பின்நர் செய்யக்கூடிய அத்தனை செயல்களிலும் அதன் தாக்கம் வெளிப்படும். செய்யும் ஒவ்வொரு செயலிலும் நமது முயற்சியின் பங்கு 100%மாக அமையும். இதனை திடமாக உணர்த்தவர்கள் நமது மன்னர்கள். மேலும் இந்த ஆன்மீக சக்தி ஒவ்வொரு நாளும் குறையாது இருக்க செய்வதே தியானம் என்ற தினப்யிற்சி. இந்த ஆன்மீக அடிப்படையில் ஏற்பட்ட பற்றினால் உண்டானதே பல தரப்பை சார்ந்த சங்கங்கங்கள். அவ்விதம் ஏற்பட்ட சங்கங்களில் தமிழ் சங்கமே முதன்மை பெற்றது. ஏனெனில் மொழி பற்றுக்கும் நாட்டு பற்றுக்கும் தெய்வப்பற்றுக்கும் எந்த வித வேறுபாடும் இல்லை. இக்காரணம் கருதியே தமிழ் அன்னையையும் தெய்வமாக வணங்கினர். தமிழண்னையை துதிப்பவநக்கும் தெய்வத்தை துதிக்கும் பக்தனுக்கும் எந்தவித வேறுபாடும் கிடையாது. தமிழ் மன்னர்கள் வளர்த்த சங்கத்தை சார்ந்தவர்கள் ஆன்மீகத்தினால் உந்தப்பட்டு பாடப்பட்டவையும் எழுதப்பட்டவையும்தான் இப்போதுள்ள களஞ்சியமாக மாறியது. மொழிபற்றை தெய்வப்பற்றுக்கு நிகராக போற்றபபட்டத்தின் காரணததால்தான் தமிழ் இன்றும் பல நாடுகளில் வாழ்ந்து கொண்டிருக்கிறது. எனவே ஆன்மீகம் என்ற உணர்வை புறக்கணிக்காது தியானம் என்ற பயிற்சியை தொழுது செயல்பட்டால் மட்டுமே நம்முள் உள்ள மொழிபற்ருக்கொ நாட்டுப்ற்ருக்கொ ஒரு உருவம் தர முடியும். நமது மன்னர்கள் கடைப்பிடித்த்தை நாமும் கடைப்பிடிப்போம், நமது மொழிக்கும் நமது நாட்டிற்கும் பெருமை சேர்ப்போம்.

Everywhere it is you!

You came into my world and the World changed!

The light of first sight still shines in my eyes,

The first few words still rings in my ears

That brought tears then, 

And it continues to bring tears even now!

Very few were the moments that brought us together physically

But the time you have spent in my heart is beyond my own life time!

You came to make me realize I am no different from you,

I came to realize I am an extended you!

Everything I do became an extension of your work!

When you are happy, I laugh aloud!

When you dissolve in meditation, I sing aloud!

When you swing, I dance around!

When you talk, I listen!

When you direct, I work!

When you plan, I execute!

I became an extension of you!

When I am enthusiastic, it is you!

When I am happy, it is you!

When I am grateful, it is you!

When I am in bliss, it is you!

It is you, you and you everywhere

And I don't see anything outside of you

Because everything exists as YOU ALONE!

Secrets of nostrils and Wealth of Knowledge

What is there in Nostrils? One would wonder, why write a blog on Nostrils?

I remember way back in 2008 when I went on a tour following Guruji to Atlanta, Austin, Dallas and Houston, At the Houston University there were a bunch of Scientists sitting on the stage and they were discussing about the effects of Sudharshan Kriya on mind and body. All were eminent scientists and Guruji was supposed to be the chairperson for that program. Unusually Guruji who was supposed to give an inaugural address was late by an hour and came right in time for a closing address! Nevertheless everybody was wondering what on earth a spiritual master can talk in front of a left-brain dominated set of intellectuals. Guruji came on stage and surprised the crowd by giving them a very simple question that left the entire audience confused and curious! The question was - "Have you ever wondered why do we have two Nostrils?". Nobody could answer that question. Then Guruji asked the researchers to do a research on this as this contains an enormous amount of secrets to be uncovered.

If anybody has even done a little bit of study on Nadis which is a subject in Ayurveda, one would appreciate the connection of the Right Nostril with the Surya (Sun) Nadi and Left Nostril with Chandra (Moon) Nadi. And there is a definite connection of right nostril with the left brain and left nostril with the right brain. With these facts at hand, an enormous wealth of knowledge can be derived and discovered. I would really leave it at that as this knowledge is purposely kept a secret and one has to explore it with proper guidance. I have already given out a plenty and I could be writing volumes on this knowledge alone, but I leave it to be discovered and cherished!!!

Abundance vs Excessiveness

The world is moving towards Abundance not knowing the real meaning of it. Abundance just like any other feelings like contentment and compassion is a quality and state of mind. But I want everybody to pause and think for a minute, is the world really moving towards Abundance or Excessiveness?

We earn more amount in currency now than 30-40 years ago, we eat more quantity than a few years ago, we weigh more than the generation before, we watch more movies than a few decades back, we are much busier than many years ago, we are more stressed than our last generation, we are more prone to lifestyle related diseases than our ancestors, we die early than our forefathers. Are these any indication of Abundance? Not at all. These are all the result of Excessiveness.

We accumulate more than what we need, we eat more than what we need, we work to satisfy our greed more than our need, we entertain ourselves much more than what our senses can take, we want to compete more with others than with ourselves. Excessiveness is killing us real fast.

Real Abundance is when we smile more, serve more, dance more, sing more, feel more compassionate, feel more gratitude, feel more devoted, feel more healthy, bless more, give more, share more, take care of people around us more and more. That is real Abundance. A person living with zero bank balance and still possessing all the above qualities is definitely more abundant than the people who are driven by Excessiveness! If we don't wake up soon and learn the Art of Living with Abundant state of mind, very soon the wave of Excessiveness will take over all of us!

Smile without fear!!!

How costly is your Smile? Asked my Guru! Is that a question to ask? I am not in the business of selling smiles, why should I even bother putting a tag on it? That is exactly the point! We have knowingly or unknowingly put a tag on our smile, that too a very costly one! And there is nobody to buy that and it is buried deep inside our storage! That is exactly the point of Guruji asking that question. Do you know that while a child smiles almost 400 times in a day, and an adolescent smiles about 17 times in a day, an adult hardly smiles even once in a day! How sad! Yes, it is indeed a very sad state. We think we are in a developed society.  What kind of a development is that which robs one off of the smile from the face? Let us think about is seriously! Even while thinking we tend to loose our smile :-) 

If we really think about it, we have built around us a society filled with mistrust, insecurity, fear and hatred. It is this constant fear of who is digging a grave for the other that makes one lose the smile. But in reality, who has got any time to even think about you? This is such an unfounded fear! Do I have any time to think about any other person? Same is true with everybody else. We have a bad habit of Generalizing and Eternalizing things. There may have been a few handful of cases where a person might have tried to bring you a bad name. That person might have been stressed out. But generalizing this behaviour and eternalizing this phenomenon is only affecting our own self. We are assuming everybody is bad and we look for good people. There has to be a fundamental shift in this tendency! Only then we can smile without Fear. Fear is kept in us by the nature just to protect us. Otherwise we might jump right down from the terrace. But it has to exist like a salt, not a pinch more, otherwise it can eat us away!

Having said all this, how do we eliminate fear and smile like a child? The key here is the "Breath". It is the grudges based on the past actions and the anxiety of the unknown future that prevents us from smiling. Mind as we know constantly vacillates between the past and future keeping us in the miserable state of guilt/grudge and anxiety. But mind can never be controlled at the realm of the mind. But with the help of breath, mind can be brought to the present moment which is when Smile can be brought in the faces. So Learn some breathing techniques like Sudarshan Kriya and distribute the smile free of cost without any fear whatsoever!!!

Creative Expression

Creative Expression - A Solution to the problem of Assaults on women

In a country like India where women are worshipped as Godesses, how is it that the assaults on women have increased so much recently? Understanding this requires a spiritual outlook. If someone is a true meditator, it is virtually impossible to commit such crimes. A true meditator can fathom clearly the movement of energy across various chakras and can very well understand the opposite values attached to each chakras with the upward and downward movement of the energy. The prime reason of such crimes is the fact that the energy is stuck around the first and the second chakras. The downward movement of energy in the second chakra is responsible for the Procreation and in the first chakra results in Inertia/Dullness. Whereas the upward movement of the same energy in the first chakra manifests as Interest and in the second chakra as Creativity. Clearly we can see the phenomenon in our country where more youths are turning away from any form of creative expression and are becoming duller. Children are stuck in front of TV or glued to ipod or busy with mobile phones. Where is the creative expression here? Even when children play, I see children are using everything ready-made. 30-40 years back, not much were available in the form of moulded plastic. Children had to make them up with available materials like sticks, papers, cardboard, etc. I even remember creating a mini-hut along with my friends as a game to simulate a village home and took the help of my mother to set the ground up using water mixed with cow-dung. Some people may not be even aware of how in a village the whole ground in front of houses is set using this method. The mini-hut was entirely made with sticks that were around my home tied together using Jute based threads/ropes. But these days, anything that the children look for is already available in a ready-made fashion. There is not much scope for the creativity to blossom. The right brain is becoming more and more useless. Also another phenomenon is that both at schools and at home so much of emphasis is on using the Logic - Science, Maths, etc. which also compounds to the above problem and children end up using mostly their left brain alone.

Creative expression alone can get the energy move upwards in the second chakra, thereby leaving no scope for any kind of assaults on women. As an addition to that if children start learning Meditation, they can clearly understand what is happening within them and that also helps a person remain centered. I consider the children who commit crimes are helpless at that point of time. They are themselves victims. I am not in any way justifying their actions. But punishing them is in no way a solution to the problem. The only solution is to catch them young, teach Meditation and create avenues for their creative expressions to blossom.

Marriage - A Sacred path to Liberation!!!

Marriage is a great institution in every culture. In India it is additionally considered as sacred as well. In most cultures it is a social arrangement that lets a man and a woman live together. But in India it is also considered one of the several means to attain liberation. In India there are only 2 options for living in the Society - one where you get married and be devoted to attending the needs of the partner and the family and other one where you grow beyond marriage and choose to serve the entire society. There is no 3rd option which would serve just oneself. It is not possible at all, but unfortunately many in the west make a futile attempt at it and fail miserably. Unfortunately while making this attempt, it might look flashy for an observer from outside and hence many countries even in the east have been recently trying this 3rd option and of course failing miserably as well.
Service is the very purpose of life and if somebody is not being in service, he/she is only being a burden to this mother earth. Even a tree which is way below in the chain of evolution is useful both alive and dead. Naturally it is only meaningful for a human who is the highest in the chain of evolution to be useful to the world. Whether one marries or not, it really does not matter, but being useful is the sole purpose of being a human. When we see marriage as a social arrangement which lets the couple serve each other, that is the supreme form of it. Of course over a period of time, the very nature of the couple transforms to one of service to the entire society. This is the real purpose of marriage.
I see a recent trend where young people are scared to get married. This is mainly because there is a sort of expectation out of the marriage and there is a fear of that expectation not being met. Expectations are natural, but one should also be aware that expectations keep changing over time. If we base the marriage on one's expectations that could be disastrous as nobody can keep pace with the changing expectations. That is the very reason why marriage is rather a commitment than a convenience. Both good and bad times are part of a marriage and that is the very basis for the learning to happen. If we only look for a cozy relationship, the relationship simply falls off. Unless the partner is truthful , the relationship cannot last longer and truth by definition is multi dimensional and it includes opposite values as part of it. All emotions being part of the marriage adds the real juice to the marriage. So my advice to the young people is to be open to marriage and never be afraid of it. Most importantly if you have a Guru with you and a strong faith that Guru will always be there to guide you in the evolutionary journey, fear simply falls off like a dry leaf from the tree.

Life is wonderful!

This post could be quite shocking, I don't really expect people to totally agree with me as it takes for all us to evolve over time to get this. Nevertheless what I am saying below is worth a read just to realize there could be a perspective like this.

Often we see people struggling with life always complaining and feeling miserable and discontented. When we talk to such people it would seem so big and we empathize with them, feel sorry for them. But there could be several questions here. First one is if the Life really is a struggle? If we assume it is, what could be the ways by which one can handle it? As a friend or an observer what could we do to help the person?

Is Life really a struggle? I would say it is an absurd idea to think it to be a struggle! I can confidently say this because I have a Guru who constantly guides me and even to take way any pain if there is any at all. How does that work? Is that a magic? No! Any which way you analyze this phenomenon, you can only be thoroughly convinced that it is true. The whole struggle is only till the time one finds a Guru. Beyond that you just need to rest and the Guru takes all the care to steer your life in a safe and sound manner. All that one is left to do is to be in absolute Gratitude! Life is wonderful! Every moment is filled with Wonder! I have only been in wonder ever since HE touched my heart. This might sound like being credulous.. But it is not so. Even if what I go through may appear to be a struggle some times to an external observer, it wouldn't cause even a slightest pain for me. As an instance, I have already narrated a story about my accident in my  previous blog. It was quite an accident, but dramatically I and my wife had such safe way of escape. I know it is hard to believe. But being in Gratitude by itself is such a blessing that it really does not matter to whom you feel grateful. Every experience in this life is both an effect of our previous actions and also a reason that propels us in the right direction of evolution. The experience by itself could result in super ecstatic bliss or an excruciating pain. It does not really matter. If we are in total gratitude we can only be grateful of whatever experience it is. There is no struggle. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar always says that Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. It is the suffering that causes one to declare that life is a struggle. But whatever may be the pain, if there is no suffering then Life is totally wonderful - Filled with Wonders!!!

If you look at a child's face you can very much appreciate what I am saying here. Child's world is full of wonders. Even though a child might ask questions, those questions do not arise out of anguish, they come from the space of wonder. They are perpetually awestruck and wonderstruck. Evolution is growing even beyond this state where questions completely stop and only wonder remains. Unfortunately as we grow into adulthood our questions seem to turn more sour and wonder seems to be completely absent. The secret to making the Life Wonderful is to have total faith in the unseen power and drop all the questions and celebrate every moment of Life!!! And the natural next step would be to just share the joy of this celebration to everybody around! And this really can bring in that real transformation in each person that will make their Life Wonderful too!!!

India - The land where sensitivity and sensibility prevails over everything else

India of course is the land of spiritual epicenter, but what exactly does that mean? It is worthwhile knowing about the land both for the people having traces to this land as well as for others.

Whatever I am about to say applies to a large extent to all native civilizations except that there is something more special about India that has made it sustain its culture and practices to the original best even today.

Take for example food that people eat. India has the most number of cuisines in the entire world. If you are a traveller who tastes the food around the world, an entire life is not sufficient enough to taste all the different cuisines in India. For all practical purposes everybody in India is a vegetarian. If at all some people eat non-vegetarian food, they hardly have one non-vegetarian meal in about 3 weeks time at an average and not more than that. I can tell this having a first hand experience growing up as a non-vegetarian until I left eating non-vegetarian food about 12 years ago. This shows the sensibility of Indians to keep the environment sustainable and sensitivity towards the life of animals. Today we hear about the German Environment Minister banning non-vegetarian food in all official functions. Still I bet the average meat consumption in that country would be several times more than that in India. 

If you talk about consumption of energy, India still consumes 500-1000 kg of oil equivalent per capita compared to close to 10000 kg of oil equivalent per capita by USA. Although several statisticians would attribute this difference to the economic development aspect of a country, I would question that. Do you consider burning the natural resources making it extinct which we still have no way to manufacture from nothing and clearly dependent on what is actually available as a limited quantity, any indication of a developed nation? This is totally absurd. India culturally has always been a pioneer in using renewable energy and using every opportunity to reuse than use and throw. This again shows the level of sensibility and sensitivity towards the natural resources that are available in limited quantities.

Let us take the behaviour of people. In spite of having such a big population, India remains a largely peaceful and the largest democracy in the world. Many developed countries in the world today are suffering from either the extremity of violence which they try to control by force,  or deep depression in spite of having quite a good economic condition. India on the other hand redefines the aspect of coexistence in spite of an enormously varied culture, language, religion, economic conditions, education and aspirations. This is fundamentally possible because of a deep rooted culture and wisdom of this land and nothing else. Whatever was done to this land from the last 600 years by the external rulers, nobody could take away this aspect of unity in diversity from the depth of every Indian. Sensibility towards family and society and emotional sensitivity are I would say trademarks of every Indian.

Take the case of scientific advancement and contribution to the subject of Mathematics. Indians have always known that earth is spherical several thousands of years before it was known to the rest of the world. The sanskrit name for earth is "Bhoogola" which literally means "Earth that is spherical" and this term has been in use for several thousands of years. Everybody quite well acknowledges now that Aryabhatta invented the number zero which is so fundamental to Mathematics. Talking about Technology, In the epic literature of Ramayana, there are several references to the Aeroplane (Pushpaka Vimana) and Vaimanika Shastra talks about technical details about fuel used, aeronautics, avionics, metallurgy and mentions about 120 different models of planes and this was written at least 10000 years ago. The ancient scientists (otherwise known as Rishis) were quite sensible as to who they can pass the deep knowledge to. It was passed on only to qualified students so that they can further expand the science and use the technology sensibly without causing any disastrous effect to the world. And of course the scientists were quite sensitive to the effects of technology on environment.

Let us take the advancements in the field of Architecture. In spite of the rulers from outside India having destroyed numerous Architectural marvels and tried side constructing along the walls of existing monuments (Ram Janmabhoomi and Krishna janmabhoomi for example), still India remains a land filled with most number of Architectural wonders. Thanjai Periya Kovil built during the Chola period is one of the largest temples in India. The Architectural excellence was so much that the Indian Kings built Ankor Wat in Cambodia which is at present the largest religious monument in the entire world! These huge religious monuments are also known to be the energy centers constructed in a manner to draw and direct the subtle cosmic energy into the structure so that people who visit benefit from that. This again shows the great intentions and sensibility of the Architects and a great sensitivity to even be able to sense the cosmic energy!

I want to talk about the History of India a little bit here. I feel a great injustice has been done in the last few centuries to completely distort and misrepresent the Historical heritage of India as a land. Unfortunately even the independent India embraced the same colonial narration without digging deeper into the History. But there are enough documented evidences pointing to the historical existence of India as a Land and Culture with a great and advanced civilization several thousands of years ago. It now is only a matter of the present day Historians and Indologists with the help of a willing government to unearth all these evidences and give a brand new narration which will tell the truth as it was. I am sure the whole world will benefit learning about the sensibility and the sensitivity with which the people of the past in this land lived and contributed.

Art is a form in India that was never separate from the General Living. It was an integral part of everybody's life be it singing, dancing, music, painting, carving, pottery, etc and it was never considered a property of the rich few unlike in other parts of the world. Every bit of the living included art as its expression. Art is a surely a way to measure the cultural growth of any country. In that respect it is always quite evident that India had reached its pinnacle in its artistic expression several thousands of years ago and has been continuing on that journey even until today. No country even today has these many forms of dances, music and singing. And the refinement in each of these is immeasurable. Clearly it requires an enormous sensitivity to even be able to perceive the art form. And the people in India have always been quite sensible even in selecting the materials used to create the art forms.

India had also reached the pinnacle of Culture and Language. These two were always connected in India. India has the largest number of dialects as a nation and surely every dialect is connected with a certain cultural marvel. Be it the way people dress, the food they eat and the societal norms they follow everything has a vocabulary in the Language they speak and write. The respect that was given to women was supreme and there are certain cultures in India even today who follow matriarchal system. The sensibility towards women power has been quite evident and sensitivity towards people's cultural expression is so powerfully celebrated and expressed in innumerable literatures.

Education is a field that India has always been number one throughout the history. It is an undeniable fact that various princes and princesses from around the world were sent to Indian universities of the past to learn from. Nalanda and Takshashila are great examples of this. The system of education was so perfect that whoever had gone through the system would always come out as an expert in their own field unlike in today's world where people coming out of the system still need to go through some amount of training from respective industry in order to be any productive. The faculty and the whole system of education was so sensible towards producing only experts and no mediocres. The sensitivity towards the cultural and religious differences within the universities were so great that supreme forms of debates had evolved. For example whole nation is aware of the way Sri Adi Sankara used to debate travelling throughout India The best part of these debates was that the audiences always enjoyed the feast of knowledge and however different their viewpoints were, people who debated always respected and celebrated their differences.

India's Wealth is the very reason for the number of external looters having occupied the land and exploiting it to the core. The rulers were so barbaric that for instance even while leaving the country the British is known to have taken back ships of gold from this land. At one point India's contribution was upto 40% to the world GDP. Even with this type of economical advantage, India never conquered any part of the world by force unlike several middle eastern and western countries. India always demonstrated a Great sensibility by leading the way on how to sustain growth and economic supremacy. At the same time, it was always sensitive to people around the world and it is very evident with the way even businesses were conducted in the past by Indian Business leaders.

Health is one area where India is THE LEADER even today. While every other systems of health science and medicine in the world revolves around curing a disease, Indian systems of medicine always looked at disease as just a symptom of a larger problem and always had a wholistic view in order to address the root cause of the problem. This is why it is very common to see that the medicines administered to the same disease might different from one subject to another which might puzzle people following other systems of medicine. Health is not just a state where the subject is experiencing an "absence of disease", but a measure of how close is the subject to his/her own self. The word for health in Sanskrit - Swastha - means exactly that. This clearly shows the amount of sensitivity towards attaining health and the sensibility of the Medical community towards bringing a wholistic system of medicine.

Religion in India has always been projected as a subject of controversy by certain elements within the country and abroad. This is very unfortunate. In reality India is the only nation in the whole world where there is representation of every religion of the world. There are even some religions which originated from outside India and now only practised in India as it was destroyed in its place of origin - an example is the religion of zoroastrianism. People have always celebrated the differences in religious practices and celebrations themselves! India is the only country where Hindus even celebrate Christmas and Christians celebrate Deepavali and the list goes on. One is astonished to hear the fact that the mortal remains of St Thomas who is one of the twelve disciples of the Jesus Christ who visited India still remains in the city of chennai. If only Jesus was born in India I can assure that his remains would have remained until today. It is also astonishing to note that all Religious practices that are done to this day in India are very well aligned to the nature - be it the timing of festivals with the seasonal changes and the methods of celebration with Havans that has caused immense benefits to the environment. The Indian ancestors were always sensitive to the effects of the religious practices and so sensible and intelligent to device such forms of worship that are never heard of in other parts of the world.

Lastly I don't want to leave out the area of Spirituality where India is overwhelmingly considered a clear leader and remains the land that guides anybody and everybody to attain their respective spiritual goals. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar always talks about the clear difference between Spirituality and Religion. Whereas the latter focusses on the outer rituals and traditions which are way different in different religions, the former which is considered the core part of any religion is something that is common across all religions of the world. Quite often people misunderstand Spirituality and end up building several concepts around it. Spirituality simply deals with upliftment of the Spirit that every individual is made up of. It is the spirit that drives anybody to achieve anything in the world which is why we often refer to an individual who is very enthusiastic as somebody having high spirit. All the human values like compassion, forgiveness, sincerity, etc are natural expressions of the spiritual wealth inside an individual. This is why one of the missions of the organization started by Sri Sri named "The Art of Living" is to bring a Transformation in the society by strengthening individuals by teaching them how to get rid of stress through breathing practices and Sudarshan kriya (One of the most powerful breathing practices that exists today). In essence, India as a land has always demonstrated the sensibility of guiding the entire world in the area of spirituality and has always been sensitive to the various states of one's mind and delivering the knowledge of spirituality accordingly to the individuals.

India has always remained and always will remain as a land where sensibility and sensitivity prevails over everything else in all walks of life. It is my sincere prayer that the whole world looks towards India not as a competition, but as an inspiration to learn and benefit from its historical richness and the spiritual wealth which is the very basis for the much needed human values in the present world.

Feminity is the Supreme Power!

Seeing the title, some of my male friends might wonder if I am writing against them! But this is one of my favourite ones ever since I came in contact with His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. My question to you is.- Do you think Feminity is present only in a female? If you thought so, I totally challenge that idea. Every human,  whether a male or a female is made up of both the qualities of masculinity and Feminity. I equate the quality of Feminity with motherhood, love and energy and masculinity with peace, potential and strength.  But I consider Feminity to be supreme and much more powerful than masculinity.

According to the Hindu belief, Shiva is considered a male and he represents the consciousness itself which pervades every particle of this creation and beyond. But Devi is considered a female who is the very reason for the creation to function. Devi is responsible for the movement of the subtle life force energy which brings all the liveliness in this creation. Without Devi energy Shiva remains only as a potential and there would be nothing tangible. Without the help of Devi, there is no way one can realize the truth that is Shiva.

If this is confusing, I can switch to science and try to explain this. According to the quantum physics, everything in this world is made up of quantum energy. The quantum is nothing but vibration. Essentially everything that we see, touch, hear, taste and smell are some kind of vibration which also means movement with different frequencies. I consider the movement to be even possible because of the Devi energy and the potential of this movement is called Shiva. In reality there is no difference between the two as the Silent form of the energy is called Shiva and the dynamic form of the same energy is called Devi or Shakti.

But in order to realize the Silent form one has to take the help of the dynamic form which is the very basis for every expression in this world. That is the reason why we see so many forms of Devi in Hindu worship. We see the serene form as well the dreadful form. We see the divine smile as well as the deadly anger. We see the mother divine that represents supreme love as well as the utmost devoted Radha (which means longing).

Every form of art is feminine and every beauty in the world is feminine. All Rivers are feminine in every native culture of the world. Life is born through women who represent Feminity in its pure form. Every person gets any kind of solace in this world only through feminine qualities of motherhood, compassion and Love. Joy be it physical or spiritual is possible only through Feminity. Any spiritual experience is essentially only the feminine energy moving upward all the way from the base of the spine to the top of the head. One remains grateful after that and the quality of gratitude itself is feminine. Out of gratitude one goes and serves people and serving as an expression of joy and Love itself again is feminine. All the blessings that get bestowed out of the service is again feminine. So as I mentioned earlier every possible expression and experience in this creation is possible only because of the Feminity and hence it is all supreme and all powerful!!!

Answer to loneliness!

In the growing world of nuclear family and 2 parents single child and even single parent single child, it is only quite common that one often feels lonely. Loneliness brings with itself all sorts of negative effects which in extreme cases lead to depression and even suicidal tendencies. But I would like to draw a striking difference between being alone and feeling lonely. One can be in the midst of a crowd and still feel lonely. On the other hand there are several people who personally prefer to be alone and not experience an iota of loneliness. Then what really is the reason for the loneliness? 

It is lack of awareness of ones own self. If anybody is feeling lonely it is because the person has always looked at oneself through the eyes of others and never really looked at oneself deep within experiencially being aware. They want other people to relate to and never got a chance to relate to oneself. What is our relationship to our own self? Have we ever wondered about that? Loneliness smply means craving for attention from others. We don't know who we are, and what we are capable of. We don't know what our life is all about and the purpose of being on this planet. The moment one starts enquiring about these precious questions, there is no time for being lonely. This life is a precious gift from nature. But it is so short that it is almost insignificant in contrast to the duration of the existence of this planet and the whole creation.In such a short span of life time on this planet it is such a waste of time to crave for attention from others. I am not saying not to relate to people at all. That is an other extreme viewpoint which leads to insensitivity and once again leads to depression. What I am saying is that there have been many people in our life who have given love starting from the mother, siblings, friends, etc. Let us feel grateful for their love. Have we ever taken some time to feel grateful and expressed the same to them? It is extremely rewarding just to feel the gratitude. It really does not matter to whom you are grateful for. You could be grateful for the comforts you have been provided with, nice people you have met, being able to breathe, to the life itself!!! But the very feeling of gratitude kindles a certain quality in us which is invaluable. Being grateful every moment makes you so alive and brings such an ecstasy in your life that anybody around gets attracted towards you and start celebrating just being around you. There is no question about being lonely. On the other hand you start relieving people of their loneliness and kindling that same fire of love and gratitude.

One more phenomenon is that when you meditate and go deep within, you first realize that you are nobody. You are not the body, you are not the breath, mind, intellect, memory nor ego and start realizing you are made of just love and subsequently you also realize that since everything in this creation is made of love you are also all that, you are everything that is around. The whole journey is about moving from somebody to nobody to everybody. When you realize you are no different from anybody else and you are in the company of everything around including your own body, its cells, the molecules and atoms, how can loneliness set in? You can be sitting all alone and still experience the liveliness of the creation. This can also only happen when the prana (subtle life force) level is high which is why every sipiritusl master emphasizes on practicing Pranayama (breathing techniques) that totally elevates the level of prana. I have definitely known this through experience and vouch for it. I have learnt the Sudharshan Kriya from His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and it has brought me such a clear awareness and enabled me to live life to its fullest potential. I would definitely recommend this to all. I have personally facilitated people to do this practice and have seen several who were in depression and loneliness totally coming out of it and fully living their life with such a great happiness!

 

Why do spouses fight?

Is there any family at all where the spouses don't fight? I have not seen or heard one! Interestingly you might have also observed that closer the spouses get, more the fight becomes. Spirituality uncovers a well kept secret that clearly explains the whole phenomenon!

We might have seen when a boy and a girl remain lovers, the fights are a little lesser than when they get married. What is essentially the difference? It is the distance!!! Love brings people together and does not like distance. But the moment they come together the element of respect starts decreasing. And the ego in the person gets hurt because of this and it rebels against the person and thereafter the fight starts. It is always the game of distance and respect. When there is  distance, respect is there, but love diminishes. When distance is reduced respect reduces and fight begins. This phenomenon was very well known in ancient India which is the very reason in India during the month of July the wife goes to her mother's home leaving the husband. This increases the distance and there is a depth of respect and longing that develops. They start exchanging letters. Sweet love flowers once again between them. It is always the longing that keeps the love alive. The moment longing stops, love also stops almost immediately.

Also His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar often gives valuable advise to a wife and a husband which has been so handy to several people. First advise is for the Husbands. He says it is so important that a husband be sensitive to the wife's emotion. For example a wife may be telling something bad about her brother or father or any relative of hers. But the moment husband joins hands, almost immediately the wife will switch sides! So never talk bad about her relatives. Also women are interested in visiting temples, performing some religious ceremonies. Never stop then from doing that! And if they go out for shopping, simply give your credit card to her, no questions to be asked! And here comes the advise for the wives! Never step on the Husband's ego! Keep pumping his ego. Even if the whole world says he is mindless and useless, a wife should never say so. She can say you have a great intellect, just because you don't use it does not make you brainless! Jokes apart, this is so much scientifically true. Normally women are predominantly right brained and that allows them to be more artistic and emotionally vulnerable whereas men are predominantly left brained and hence logic dominates with more sense of ego and taking pride in achievements.

But divine love has no such distinction of gender. It is something totally unconditional and very much above all the other forms of love put together - love between spouses, love for siblings, etc. When somebody experiences the divine love even for a few moments, understanding of the phenomenon described above is almost automatic and all other forms of love is sustained without any problems. Because in divine love there is both love and respect at the same time. However you go closer to the divine or a Guru, love and respect never diminishes and they only keep increasing day by day. At the same time longing is always there which sweetens the love for the divine. The sanskrit word "Radha" means longing and it is always referred to along with "Krishna which is pure love. Radha and Krishna can never be separated.

Being with a Guru and continuing with the practices learnt from the Guru and walking the path of the Guru enables one to be always soaked in the divine love. Then all the little fights between spouses are nothing to be worried about. In fact it's occurrences becomes quite infrequent and you start enjoying event moment together!!!

Family or No Family in spiritual journey?

This is a very common question in anybody's mind when he/she tries to walk the path of spirituality. Forget about even spiritual path, for that matter everybody who has not married goes through this question - whether to marry or not marry, whether to have family or not have family. There are several things going on in the mind. More so in the minds of the Millennials. 

Some think they will loose their freedom if they marry. Some are scared to take any family responsibility. Some think marriage will ruin their quest to achieve their goals be it material ones or spiritual ones. Some even want to be a celibate thinking that is going to take them deep in spiritual journey.  Some want to marry and have family to expand their progeny. Some want to marry just to be with that one person they always dreamt of being with. Some think marriage is part of the social system and whether they like it or not, it is one of those customs that they need to follow. Some marry just because their parents want them to get married. Some just want to be in a live-in relationship with no commitments. 

Most of these thinking arise out of misconceptions about life itself. Opportunities in life present themselves in various ways to experience Love in different forms. Yet instead of being in that space of love, we look forward for something special and we are also often afraid of getting entangled. There are deeper secrets as to why those moments present themselves which I will not talk about here. Instead let us look at what we do about those moments. For example let us take a situation when some boy looks at a girl and falls in love - Love at first sight. There are some sensations arising all over the body. A feeing of thousand flowers blooming within the heart, songs of romance playing all at once in the ears and uncontrollable smile! But right after, fear starts whether the other person will also love. What if the person rejects his love! So effectively the moment of Love got lost and all the focus got shifted to the future. But nobody bothered to see where this surge of love came from? No doubt the other person was responsible to create a spark, but what is the source of the feeling of that love in enormity? You will be amazed to realize that the actual source is deep within us and we are the source of Infinite Love! You may have noticed a happy person writes nice poem looking at the moon whereas a sad person looking at the same moon starts describing it as a depressing object with rashes all over! The moon is the same! But how one feels about it is entirely dependent on the state of the person looking at it. This clearly proves that though the external object/person may be a trigger, the source of the emotion is within the person experiencing that object/person. When you experience a sense of deep love looking at a person or an object try this - forget about the person/object who kindled it for a moment and go deep into yourself observing the sensations caused by that experience of love. You might notice the experience of love multiplies many times more! This is a natural phenomenon and that is why we often close our eyes when experiencing deep moments of love. When you regularly meditate, you can easily slip into the state of ecstatic love at will without even any object or a person having to trigger it.

When you don't know this truth, we keep wandering around searching for that experience of love thinking marriage might give that, family might give that, or being independent without a family might give that. And we end up going around in circles along with the moving target. The moment you know this truth, you soon realize it really does not matter what you do, but the bliss of love stays within you no matter what! When you experience the true love deep within, a natural tendency arises to share that love with everybody around. You cease to expect joy from some object or a person, but your very actions start becoming an expression of that pure Joy and Love from deep within. You start taking every opportunity that life presents with both hands happily accepting it and fulfilling them without any regrets, because you stop expecting joy out of the completion of the action. The action simply happens as an expression of the joy within. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar often says we are all made up of a substance called bliss or love and all other emotions are deformations of pure love itself. When we know this, it really does not matter - Family or No Family is not a question anymore! The whole world becomes your family - Vasudaiva Kutumbakam!!!

Why does Love hurt?

If there is something that cuts across all cultures, languages, all living beings and even non-living things (I will explain below why even non-living is included here), that is love. If it does not follow the step by step path of attraction, love and being grateful, it definitely hurts. As much as we long for love, it is also the very reason for all the negative emotional roller coaster that we go through including anger, jealousy, greed, lust, disinterest, hate, fear, sadness, etc. This may sound crazy at first. But love for perfection results in anger when things are not perfect. Loving only things/beings that belong to you makes you jealous when that/those which does not belong to you is doing better. Love for holding things beyond what one can handle make one greedy. Love that does not see beyond the object of love becomes lust. Love that does not have any direction becomes disinterest. Love in the opposite direction becomes hate. Love standing upside down is fear. Repeated thought of love for something makes you sad.
Having said all the above, why is still love being longed for and why people even die for love? Because everything in this creation is made up of love. Just like how protein is made up of amino acids, this entire creation is made up of a substance called love. Love is just not an emotion. It is the same force of love that binds all the planets to the Sun as the force that binds all the electrons to the nucleus. It is the glue that binds everything in this creation. And the feeling of longing is not necessarily bad. In fact it is the longing that makes love infinite. At any point if the longing dies, love also dies with it. Why does the love hurt then? Because we try to hold love that is infinite. In an effort to hold love, we constrict the expression of love causing suffocation. Putting a boundary to the expression of love in an effort to possess love is the cause of the hurt. Also demanding love destroys love. Love flows unlimited outward because each of us is a source of infinite love. Hence allowing it to find its expression in every manner makes one feel abundant and blissful. But the moment we look for getting love, possess love, hold love it completely destroys it. This is the biggest lesson of life. If there is just one thing that is worth realising in life it is this. That is the reason every religion in the world says Joy is in giving love and not in taking love.
At first this knowledge may sound impractical because we tend to naturally want to hold love. But on the other hand we also have practically seen that every time we have experienced some hurt it was because we were trying to posses love. What is the way out? This is where ancient practices of Pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditation comes handy. I will explain how. As a child, it has been so easy for us to give love without any inhibition. For an innocent child even non-living things exhibit life. Even Sun, Moon and stars are its friends and relatives! Because there is nothing stopping the flow of love from within and child remains the source of unlimited love. But over the years we started accumulating enormous toxins in the body and an enormous amount of emotional garbage in our mind. In the process of becoming intelligent, we started kissing our innocence. But we have remained ignorant of any method that can reverse this process and make us once again innocent in spite of our intelligence. The answer is Breathing techniques. It is a scientific fact that 80-90% of body toxins go out through breath. But it is also scientifically known that gradually out lung capacity has reduced to just 30% on an average. The only way out of this is to once again maximize the lung capacity. And Pranayama is most well known method for it. Also how to get rid of the emotional garbage? Again it can be done using breath. Because breath is the connecting link between our inner world of peace and outer world of dynamic expression. You might have noticed that every emotion we go through has a corresponding pattern of breath. But this has remained unidirectional. We feel a certain emotion and breath automatically changes. But it is also true that by changing the pattern of breath, one can have a greater hold on emotion. The world famous breathing technique called Sudarshan Kriya exactly works on this principle. This rhythmic breathing technique not only works on the level of emotion, it also affects and leaves a long lasting positive effect on all the levels of our existence - Body, Breath, Mind, Intellect, Memory, Ego and the Self. It thoroughly cleanses all the levels and thereby bringing back the child like innocence back to our life allowing the infinite love within us to find its expression in all possible ways it can. We become a perfect divine instrument to the expression of love. There is no question of any kind of distortion of love exhibiting itself nor of any kind of hurt!!! We become ever so grateful for the Love we have received and We become the True flawless Love itself!!!

Evolution means recognizing the subtle aspects of life

Often I have heard people ridiculing the worship of idols by Hindus saying it is a childish act! But I see it as completely opposite! It is so childish as to not recognize the subtle aspects in life which are represented by these idols! I ask a simple question, why do you hang photos of your loved ones in your home? Why do you keep a photo of your lover in your wallet? Just looking at a photo kindles all the great memories and you cherish them, don't you? You automatically get transported to a beautiful world of love and longing! That is the whole point of idols in Hindu worship! The moment you see an idol, you magically get transported to the world of recognition of the subtle aspects of life that it represents and you sing and dance in ecstasy with tears of gratitude rolling down your cheeks!

I agree that if this phenomenon does not happen, there may be little or no point in just paying some customary visit to a temple. That is where spirituality plays a vital role in experientially knowing things under the guidance of a Guru rather than intellectually trying to understand them. For example when you see an idol of a Devi (a female deity), if you have a superficial understanding of what a Devi represents, it may not kindle the bliss in you. But even once if you have had the experience of the scintillating energy that Devi represents, moving  through you from down all the way up to your head and above, then every time you see the idol of Devi, or even when you hear somebody uttering the name of Devi, you immediately start recognizing the aspect that it represents through your experience and you start cherishing the memory of your experience and you simply start dancing in ecstasy! You don't have to believe in what scriptures say, because you have to believe only in that which you don't know. But your experience has made you already know what is, what the Devi represents, and all the subtleties of the life itself!

Same is true with every idol that Hindus worship. The moment you hear the word Shiva, you immediately recognize the transcendental meditative state of your existence if you have even once experienced it through meditation. The moment somebody says Krishna, your presence automatically starts tuning to the playful, skillful, naughty, mischievous nature of Krishna and you start dancing swirling around with joy and ecstasy!

Recognizing the subtle aspects of life is what I call as Evolution! And that can only happen if you have a Guru in your life who guides you in each and every step of your life. And if you have a Guru, then indeed there is no real need to worship the idols because through the Guru you have started recognizing that all the aspects which the idols represent are already present within the self. You really don't need an idol to remind you of the experience, but the experience percolates and reflects in every action you perform in your life. Till that time, at least start recognizing and appreciating the intelligence of our ancestors in establishing the worship of idols and let us not ridicule the system of idol workshop just because we didn't get it! If you have not got a chance to experience what it means to be with a Guru like His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, I only can sincerely pray that your intellect opens up to that possibility sooner than later!