Girish's Blog

  Where is our Attention Focused? The answer to this question will tell you whether you are in a good mental space or not. Just ask yourself this question and see what answer you get! Most of us go through life with our attention split between many wants and desires, loves and hates, friends and colleagues and so on! When we are studying, we focus on what we plan to do while not giving our 100% to what we are studying now, and as we go through life this kind of becomes a practice. There are people who can multi-task – they can focus on multiple activities at the same time and execute them efficiently too. These are the very few who have their entire attention on the now – the present moment. They live life to the fullest, enjoying every moment and also sharing their joy and energy with those who they come in contact with. Generally, we tend to get distracted by the smallest of things – and in today’s world we have got a whole lot of gadgets which can grab our attention and fo...

  Keep Practicing We are going through very difficult times – the corona pandemic has wreaked havoc globally. People have suffered tremendously – some have suffered financial losses, others have had mental and physical health issues, some have lost near and dear ones and so on. In India, the second wave has had extended lockdowns with the government desperately making efforts to fight an invisible enemy while facing negative vibes from the leftist-liberal and opposition parties. Instead of coming together to fight a common enemy people are playing politics. But never mind – that is not the purpose of this article. I got a small video in Marathi on whatsapp which has given rise to this post. It narrated a story. Once Lord Indra got angry on farmers and said that for the next 12 years there will be no rain. He said it will rain only when Lord Shiva plays his damru (small musical instrument like a two-sided drum). All the farmers were desperate so they went to Lord Shiva and comp...

  Sharing Selflessly To some of us sharing comes naturally and for some it is a bottleneck. Sharing is a quality which gets enhanced once we rise above our navel chakra, then this quality gets a kind of universal tone. As children it was easy for us to share, but even in childhood you would have noticed that some kids think that everything is theirs, even things that belong to their friends. This quality of possessiveness comes from observation of behaviour of elders in the house. Hence, it is extremely important to be very careful with our behaviour and words when in the presence of children. Children are like sponges – they absorb everything very fast; they are unable to distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and they will mimic the behaviour of the elders in and around them. With proper guidance children do learn to share, but sharing selflessly is a different ball game – having no expectations in return that is unique! Being selfless implies that one is not selfish, one is genero...

  Fearlessness In these times of untold stress and tension caused by the pandemic, fear is a natural emotion which preys on the minds of a lot of people all over the world. This fear is fanned by a lot of negative news which is spread by the media, some true, some motivated by ulterior motives; but this ultimately preys on the minds of the common man. What is fear? Isn’t it just a thought created in the mind through information gathered from other people and the media and then isn’t that painful fear felt in the heart? It is this thought which keeps whirling in the mind generating questions like what if this and what if that happens! Then with this negative emotion and the energy it creates pervading the earth how can we conquer this fear – how do we become fearless? If ever you feel overcome by dread of some illness or accident, you should inhale and exhale deeply, slowly, and rhythmically several times, relaxing with each exhalation. This helps the circulation to become norma...

  Digesting Success and Fame Many people have to strive hard throughout their lives to achieve a modicum of success, and for some people success comes very soon either by accident or because of their own skills and efforts. This is specially so for those who are sportspersons, singers, musicians, actors – where fame and money throw them completely off balance resulting into them going headlong into the fast lane – drugs, sex, gambling and high spending. In India two contrasting names come readily to mind – Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli. The more talented and skilled person could not handle the fame, and the other worked hard at his game and made a respected name for himself all over the world. Nowadays people do not like to work for their success – they want everything ‘yesterday’. Life has become so fast that people are going ahead of themselves and then falling. Once they fall, they realise their mistake, but then invariably by then it is too late. Those who come from a...

  Transition from the Material to the Spiritual As a child my mother used to tell me stories about various saints and I always found them fascinating and frankly a bit out of this world. As I grew up after my father passed away very early in our life, I got to stay with my uncle who was highly spiritual and while traveling around with him I actually got to stay in some remote ashrams in the proximity of saints. My uncle was also a scholar and avid reader, artist, etc. and in his library, I found books written by Tuesday Lobsang Rampa in which he spoke about astral travel. This got imprinted on my young mind and I invariably would wonder where all one could travel at the speed of thought if one could get out of one’s body!! Thereafter life happened and as I lived it, I also somehow had the spiritual buried deep in the subconscious. It just needed a nudge, which came in 2008 and my whole life changed. Frankly nothing changed and everything changed. Life went on as usual, but deep...

  Controlling the Mind Can we ever think about controlling the mind? The very fact that we are thinking about this is a conundrum – as the mind is thinking, so how do we control the thought which is in the mind. Classic case of duality – am I different from the mind? For thousands of years the ordinary person has thought about controlling the mind – but apart from the sages and the realised ones no one has ever controlled the mind – in fact it is the other way round – the mind controls you! We are aware that we both carry heaven and hell in our minds – whether we think positively or negatively – based on that we are mentally creating both heaven and hell in our minds. Believe me, after death it really does not matter because you don’t know what is there after death. So, the reality is that we either live in heaven or in hell, here on earth itself. We can choose to make our lives heaven or hell. If we decide to live honest lives full of compassion and integrity, we will manife...

  Being Proactive vs Reactive It is said that the way in which we react to any situation defines our personality. When we are proactive what we are actually doing is reacting in advance. Being proactive involves planning, assessing and creating an action plan to tackle any given situation. Reaction is always after the event happens – in such situations we always lose the first mover advantage and we keep reacting as the situation develops. In the corporate world there are many management lessons based on the above traits in an individual. But when we think about mindfulness, meditation, spirituality – what is better? Being proactive from this perspective means we are planning for the future – we foresee a situation that is likely to arise and think about all the variations and plan for an outcome that will be beneficial for us and which suits are requirements. Reaction is always based on the past – something happens and we base our actions on those events. In the spiritual worl...

  Remaining Balanced in an Imbalanced World These days the world is seeing a lot of upheaval – with the corona virus spreading all over the world and mutating and changing form – giving rise to questions on the efficacy of the available vaccines. Then we have cyclones causing their devastation, human beings adding their bit by going to war causing massive destruction. So, is this nature’s way of getting back at us? Or is the churn really on now (I had mentioned that the churn has begun in a March 2020 post) – because globally the intensity has gone up manifold. The poison in the system is slowly coming out – and as per tradition the poison has to completely come out before the nectar can be experienced. We are living in times of total stress, people very close to us are being affected, people are dying and there is a feeling of helplessness which is pervading in society, there is anger at the system failing its citizens. But if you sit back and witness whatever is happening you...

  Give and Leave or Leave and Go The reader will find this title a bit strange – but if you introspect on it you will realise that it has a far deeper meaning, a far greater significance than appears on a cursory reading! When we are born and as we grow up, we are receiving and giving all the time during our lifetime – as toddlers we give untold joy to the parents, we give them love, fear, tension, anger – all the gamut of positive and negative emotions play-out with our parents and close ones when we are small. This is all part of the joys of parenting. At that age we are just giving and what we receive is invariably unconditional love in far greater quantity than the other emotions. As adults too we are giving and receiving – but now it becomes more material than emotional – what we now experience is transactional – it is all about give and take! With the above background let me try and explain the nuance about ‘Give and Leave or Leave and Go’ with the help of a story whi...

  Peek into your Subconscious Mind Most of us know only about our mind and have no clue about the hidden subconscious mind. We are aware about our subconscious – it is sometimes called the sixth sense, instinct etc. – but the subconscious mind is far more powerful than this. As we are not aware of this we keep thinking and looking outside to find a solution to our life’s problems – we never ever look within! Just try to take a peek within, try to get a glimpse of your subconscious mind. Just imagine that you have to cross a river and you are swimming vigourously to reach the opposite shore. You have jumped into the water because you are fed-up of what you have received on this shore! While swimming, will you look behind, no because if you do so, the waves may take you elsewhere so you have complete focus on reaching the other shore. Just imagine that your Guru or Master is on the other shore waiting for you – with that prize in mind – dive within your own being, you need single...

  Being at Ease with Oneself There are two ways in which one can look at the saying – being at ease with oneself – for one there is the physical aspect. Here, if one is not comfortable with how one looks, one’s weight, skin texture, pigmentation, etc then one does not feel at ease with oneself. In such situations one is afraid to face others fearing nasty comments and so on. The other aspect is the spiritual one – lots of people have spoken on the physical aspect of being at ease with oneself and what one must do to achieve that mindset. When we speak about being at ease with oneself in this context, what we mean is that we are comfortable being ‘alone’, we are not lonely, we are absolutely at ease with our own solitude, with our own soul for company. How do we reach a state where we are spiritually at ease with our own self? We need to learn first to be comfortable with who we are both physically and emotionally. When we are comfortable with our own being then meditation hel...

  One’s Conscience We say a lot of stuff in pure innocence during our childhood which the adults usually ignore as the blabber of a kid. But it is said that till the age of five the child recollects a lot of stuff from his/her past life and usually utters it – which is ignored by the parents as gibberish! Actually, if we can train ourselves to listen to that voice and obey it then we will definitely enjoy a joyous life. What invariably happens is that we are admitted to school (at least during my childhood it was the age of five at which schools would admit children) – nowadays parents send their children to playschool (all a big business now, nothing to do with ‘education’) at the age of 1.5 to 2 years. In India, education is such a big thing for the parents that they push the child into school, tuitions etc leaving no time for the child to develop any alternative hobbies or interests. With all this additional information which is dumped down the child’s system, the child soon...

  Selfless like Nature It is said that we are all born for a purpose – basically to work out our karmas before progressing to higher vibrational levels. What about nature – does it exist for a purpose? No, nature is part of existence and it is just giving without any expectations. Living nature, existence is not there for any purpose – take for instance flowers – some of them are beautiful to look at, but there is no fragrance, some of them are beautiful and fragrant, some look ordinary but their fragrance is simply divine – they are only giving all the time. They bloom, they give their joy and beauty, their fragrance, we enjoy all this and by the end of the day or on the next day they wither away and merge with the earth before the cycle starts again. Similarly, rivers, waterfalls, the sun, the moon they are all just flowing, shining, giving light, giving radiance – they just exist in giving humanity life giving abundance. This is all a part of the divine created by the Almigh...

  Implications of Inaction The modern world is full of action, most of it is violence based on perceived wrongs, territorial ambition or plain and simple greed. We have this action taking place on a daily basis – both at the micro and the macro level. At the micro level we have physical violation of people’s dignity, violence if there is resistance, kidnapping and ransom, and a whole gamut of abuses rendered by man upon man. Even though this is bad, what is worse is the inaction by those who are witness to these violations of human dignity! Nowadays with the proliferation of smart phones people start shooting videos of such action and posting it on social media for their two minutes of fame rather than intervening and trying to go to the assistance of those being violated, or at least calling for help from others or the police – but no! The general nature of humans has fallen to such a low that shooting videos or taking photos is more important than helping another human! We ...

  Compassion and Wisdom Both compassion and wisdom are a very fundamental part of our ancient culture. These are intrinsically interlinked and perform best in tandem. We will try and understand both individually and then in tandem. For some, compassion comes naturally and to some it is not even a part of their personality. Compassion can also be called love, caring or in Buddhism it is called bodhichitta – these all mean the same thing. But - there is always a but isn’t it! It all comes down to practicing it – whether you put others before yourself in actions, speech and thought. Compassion can generally be awakened and you can achieve its understanding - if it is not already an inherent part of your personality - through meditation. But no matter how much you speak about compassion and how good it sounds it really boils down to practicing it. And no one understands this as well as you do. For doing this you need the wisdom to look inwards and to actually see who you are, what ...

  Taking Responsibility When we were growing up our parents always would tell us to be responsible for our actions. This is a very important lesson as currently what we observe, especially in politics – very few people take responsibility for their words and deeds. It is like a bunch of crooks acting like contortionists in a circus! They turn this way and that and try to escape from what they said or did by coming up with the most ridiculous explanations or more lies to hide the original lie. But with time all these people get exposed as subsequent events prove them not only to be wrong but show them up in an extremely poor light. Whatever we say or do we have to uphold the principle of responsibility as we cannot blame others for the consequences of our words or actions. If you ponder upon this a bit, you will realise that before you say or do anything, the actual process starts with your thinking. You first get a thought, then you ponder up on it, then you voice it and then y...

  Tackling the Past Most of us live in the past because the past has a massive influence on our minds, certain incidents get stuck so badly in our psyche that we just cannot forget them. This reawakening of the past and recollecting the trauma and grief of the past invariably causes us terrific stress. We just cannot get rid of those memories. Every memory recall is opening up the wound afresh and reliving the pain and the anguish! Yesterday is alive only in our minds. The way to tackle the past is to create a great mental distance between those incidents of the past and the present moment. You will most likely say – easier said than done! In a way you are right, but this is not a problem which cannot be solved. How will you create a mental distance between your past and your ‘now’? Every time some incident jogs distant memories, tell yourself – what has happened has happened, it cannot be undone, the only real moment is now – the present moment – and bring yourself mentally ba...

  Life is Short When we are young time just does not pass at all as the day seems to be never ending, but as you grow older you just don’t know how time flies. The busier we get the shorter the day appears to be. It is very funny how time flies when we are joyous and happy and how the day seems to stretch when things are tense and not so nice, isn’t it. Life is really short so it is best to dwell on the good things in life and focus on what is long lasting and permanent. When we compare our life span to that of the universe it is just like a micro second – in the universal time-space dimension that is just how long we live – life is really, really short! Be content, be happy, take life easy as life is short. There are always two sides to life – we see life in opposites actually – for example – love-hate, positive-negative, cry-joy, above-below, happy-angry, right-wrong, rich-poor, fail-pass and so on. Are these opposites coincidences? Have you asked yourself this? If you reflec...

  Be Humble Many people have vanity over their looks, their skin texture, etc from whence we get the saying that beauty should not be just skin deep. However beautiful or handsome you are and you make heads turn – just remember animals in zoos also attract tourists and make heads turn! You may have some phenomenal achievements in life, and no matter how big and strong you are please do not boast because in the end no one carries himself to the grave – you have to be carried by others! Therefore, it is of utmost importance to remain humble and rooted to the ground. However high you fly in life, however popular you are – stick to the basics, be humble, be kind, be loving – for you will be remembered for these qualities more than for your looks and achievements! No matter how tall you are, you can never ‘see’ tomorrow! Be patient with people who do not have your intelligence, be kind and explain things in a manner which they can understand – your kindness will go a long way in hel...