Girish's Blog

  Healthy Body Needed to Nurture the Soul There are a lot of sayings with regards to ‘healthy body leads to a healthy mind’ and so on. All these sayings have come because of the experience and observations made by our ancestors. All such sayings ring true even today. With a healthy, physically fit body the chemical reactions created within you all lead to a state of alertness and general well-being – you feel good about yourself; it gives you the confidence to face the world with a smile. One of the best ways to keep fit is to follow the dictum of early to bed and early to rise. By following this routine, you let the body cycle into a comfortable rhythm – wake up, exercise, meditate, breakfast, work, lunch, work, family time, dinner, sleep and rest for the body to recover. While you do this one needs to remember that anything in excess is not good for the body – it could be sleep, work, exercise, food, etc – with a little bit of practice you will be able to find your own body’s r...

  Love and Anger – Same Energy – Different Manifestations Have you observed the energy which is generated when you love someone and when you are angry with someone? When you are in love - your heart starts racing, your breathing becomes shallow, your mind runs at breakneck speed thinking of all wonderful things and when you are angry, exactly the same thing happens but your mind is full of angry thoughts. That is because it is the same energy with different manifestations – one positive the other negative. When you become angry you are usually told to relax, breathe slowly, count to ten etc – this is primarily to slow down the flow of blood to the brain which is fueling the angry thoughts – the moment you slow down your breathing you will notice that you are actually becoming calmer and quieter. The root cause of anger is love – that is because when you care for someone or something deeply that is when you feel anger – it arises from the fear of losing it. Again, fear is just a...

  Do we ever Forgive and Forget? We have been told so many times in our life, in fact I remember since school days we were always told to forgive and forget. Many times, people say things without any intention to hurt anyone, people make fun of others, crack jokes at the expense of others and forget about it. Everybody has a good laugh, even the victim of the joke laughs along with the rest. But sometimes, the victim of the joke is hurt and does not forget the joke, it plays on in his subconscious and he keeps on digging up the perceived hurt. When he does this, he is actually opening up a mental wound, this can never heal, a physical hurt heals with time but a mental hurt is re-opened every time you think about it! I remember my mother remembered a hurt for more than 40 years and I could see the pain on her face every time she thought about it. I would tell her to forget about it and she would look at me crossly and say, “You have found a Guru, I am not you, I can never forget t...

  Nation First to Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam…… We are all aware of the current controversy in India over various groups of people trying to undermine the nation for political or personal gains! We, as a people have to first of all rise above all individual, caste, race, religion related issues and identify with the nation, then only will we have unity and progress as a collective force in the world. Swamiji always says that one has to rise above race, religion, gender, colour if one wants to progress spiritually – in the same way if the Nation has to grow to become a world leader then its citizens will have to rise above its petty, treacherous and dangerous politics. We, as a nation need to come together to take on all the negative forces attacking the country both from within and from outside. India has always historically been a leader and has accepted all religious denominations into its fold and has flourished in spite of that. It is probably the only country to have accepted and p...

  Be a Solution Provider… In my profession as a CA, I have always believed in the concept of being a solution provider. Clients will not approach you if they don’t have problems – so instead of giving long winded solutions, cut to the chase and provide a viable and workable solution. That helps. So, how does this apply to people who choose to walk on the spiritual path? You may well ask this!! It is all the more relevant, because once you start meditating regularly you will find that solutions start presenting themselves. Perceived problems are no longer problems, or their impact is reduced to such an extent that you do not see them as problems any longer! As we go through life we start maturing and with increasing maturity comes greater understanding and patience, this generally helps us in coping with life’s challenges. In India, we have a support system in the family and its values based on our ancient heritage, but that has reduced dramatically in modern times. Nuclear fa...

  He is Always Testing You! When you start walking on the spiritual path, mentally you start thinking – ‘Whooosshhh all will be fine now, He will take care of everything!’ This faith is of course not misplaced, but the process of life is often misunderstood after coming under the umbrella of a Satguru! It is my experience that one’s life gets completely transformed for the better, it becomes calm, it becomes peaceful, it becomes joyous – but that does not mean that everything is hunky dory! You will suddenly find obstacles coming in your life, difficulties in your job/profession, it is not smooth sailing. That is when you begin to have doubts – in fact I have heard several people say that their problems started after they commenced meditation! In several of His discourses, Swamiji has mentioned that if this is going to be your last birth then all your past karmas have to be extinguished, and if your past life has had upheavals then you end up facing those karmas on a high-spe...

  How do I get Peace? It is said that Gautam Buddha had asked this question – How does one get peace? Everyone loves to say ‘I want peace’ – but do not know how to find that peace. He had mentioned that the answer lies in the three-word statement itself! So, do you know the answer? I have mentioned this several times doing various talks in various fora. If you drop the first two words, then you are left with peace! What does this mean? Well, let’s take the second word first – ‘want’ represents the desire. First get rid of the desire and then you can tackle ‘I’ representing the ego. Easier said than done, right?!? Human beings have cravings and wants and they desire most things which are useless. This starts from a very young age, with modern day parents enticing children and promising them a whole gamut of goodies to get them out of their hair! The children cry or are making a nuisance of themselves – which is natural at that age – but parents start pampering them with stuff so...

  Journey from Highway to One's Home… I am sure all of you have heard Swamiji tell each one of us that he has taken you at great speed on the spiritual highway and dropped you off on the lane to your home! In this day and age, where a shift of consciousness is taking place, quite a few spiritual Gurus in India are shifting gears to ensure that their disciples are ready for the forthcoming new age. We can also see that a lot of foreigners are becoming a part of this movement and joining in the journey to inner peace. Swamiji plants the seed of self-realisation inside you when you attend one of his 8-days shibirs whether live or through video conferencing or through recorded videos – it does not matter. Swamiji has said many times that Guru Tattva has also upgraded itself from the earlier phase of having a one-on-one relationship between the Guru-disciple. This is the age of one-many relationships where there is one Guru and millions of disciples – all of them are being planted w...

  Actions have consequences – Don’t they? As human beings we all behave in varying manners when reacting to situations. Some people react positively and some in a contrary manner. Why does this happen? All of us come with baggage from our past births – this baggage is stuck in our subconscious and we are not even aware of this. Certain reactions to situations are because of this hidden baggage – and we have no clue as to why we reacted in this manner. Every action we take has consequences both for us as well as for those who are part of the given situation. If you observe the current global scenario, we have very responsible people in posts of power and responsibility indulging in semantics to avoid taking responsibility for their actions! Have you noticed this? Misinformation, disinformation, white lies, grey lies – humans have come up with various terms to shirk responsibility and misinform people – news is no longer news – it is just a marketing tool to get across a certain vi...

 Is anything ever ‘BAD’? We get educated in schools, colleges and universities – we are filled with information which helps us make a living. In today’s world that is called ‘knowledge’. But is that knowledge really useful other than for earning a livelihood? Throughout one’s life one learns through experience. The best teacher one can ever have is ‘life’ as it teaches you ‘lessons’ which you never forget! Most of us take these life’s lessons in the wrong spirit – I have heard this question so often – why does this have to happen to me only? I always say who do you say that – why should it not happen to you? Life is teaching you a lesson – don’t you want to learn it. Life is a very harsh teacher, because if you don’t learn your lesson, then the lesson keeps repeating with greater and greater intensity till you finally accept the lesson and move on in life!! Remember that life’s lessons are meant to be learnt – people believe that anything adverse which happens in their life is ...

We all practice Samarpan Meditation, but do we really understand the meaning of the word ‘Samarpan’? We translate it as ‘surrender’ – but is that the real meaning of the word? In English the word ‘surrender’ is related to wars, battles, where one army surrenders to another on the battlefield, or a criminal surrenders to the police or something similar! The word in this context has attributes of violence or refers to violence or violent action in some form or the other! Whereas ‘Samarpan’ is related to one soul’s surrender to another Master Soul. Here the word ‘Samarpan’ means a kind of submission to the Master. Complete, total, unconditional surrender to the Master is the nearest meaning to the word Samarpan. The next question is how does one surrender to the Master? This is not the military ‘surrender’ – this is more of an emotive feeling of submission to a realised Master. Many people have asked this question -   they have no clue on how to awaken this feeling. So what are ...

This lockdown was a bane for many and a boon for some! For the poor who had to go back to their towns/ villages because of lack of facilities in the states / cities in which they were working it was a particularly trying time. But they were not complaining – because their needs are limited to getting two square meals a day. But the well to do, so called ‘entitled’ class were complaining because they could not party, go out and have fun, no drinks, no dance, no picnics – all their avenues for enjoyment were shut. For them it was a particularly trying time and they were the ones who were complaining the most!  For many, it was a time to reconnect with their families as there was no pressure of leaving early for work, going through the stress of peak hour traffic / public transport rush. A new way of life was born - work from home where the work life balance was easier to maintain. For many people it was a time to exercise, do yoga, meditate, connect with their inner core....

I am responsible for what I say and not for your understanding of what I said. Many times conversations are taken out of context and one creates a perceived hurt in one’s mind when the other person says something which you understand in a totally wrong manner! It is best to ask for clarifications before jumping to wrong conclusions and thereby creating a mental illusion of hurt. Stay calm, stay peaceful, don’t overthink conversations and attribute meanings to it which exist only in your mind – the mind is a very funny thing! If you don’t control it, it will create havoc in your life.  The mind is your own battlefield ! The mind creates situations out of ordinary conversations into perceived hurt and insult. This results in mental agony. In life, you will face many such mental battles and how you tackle these battles will depend on the state of your mind. Your thoughts create the battlefield or the garden of peace. How you think and the company you keep determines your reactions to ...