Girish's Blog

  Photo Credit: Zenful Spirit Introspection In modern times introspection is the need of the hour. In a spiritual context, it means the sincere examination of thoughts, feelings, words, actions and motivations in order to keep them uplifted and beneficial. When we introspect daily – the last thing before going to bed – it brings us closer to our soul. Introspection involves ruminating on the day’s events, one by one, not dwelling on any single event for any period of time, but just briefly reviewing all the activities – all the circumstances that you have faced, and most importantly how you faced them, your attitude in each situation as you tackled it – whether it helped you in taking care of your karma or adding to it! With daily introspection you will begin to notice your faults, you will also realise that you had virtues too, which you were not aware of! If possible, make a spiritual diary or if you are capable, them prepare a mental diary where everything is noted! Over t...

  Photo Credit: Spiritualify Inner Power Swamiji says – “It is inner power itself that is solely and only your own power”. We all know that we have physical and mental strength or otherwise. But what is our inner power – our atmabal ? How do we develop our inner power? Swamiji is talking about the power of intent or in other words ‘will power’ – though this may not actually fit the bill, but it comes closest. It is actually the power which you derive when your soul connects with universal consciousness. All other powers which are derived from our physical body dissipate and disappear with time, but our inner strength remains with us and we carry this to our next birth too. This is like banking our spiritual gains and putting them in a safe deposit locker. If we don’t attain liberation in this birth then whatever we have accumulated gets carried forward to our next birth. Inner power is the quiet force within you that knows when to act and when to move and gives you the stre...

  Photo Credit: Istockphoto-1181223997 Power of your Beauty Swamiji says – “The power of (your) beauty too is not your power, it remains only as long as the beauty lasts”. When one tries to understand this statement, one has to try and understand it from the point of external beauty – that is the beauty of the physical body and form and one’s inner beauty. When one is young and healthy one’s physical fitness and facial beauty is reflected in the confidence with which one carries oneself, knowing full well the magnetic attraction of your own beauty. This is reflected in how one carries oneself with confidence and how one interacts with others. But is this beauty permanent? No! With age the beauty starts to disappear, unless of course one is very particular about one’s health and diet, and even then, the beauty of youth never returns. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that one does not develop an ego about one’s health and beauty. What is left for us to interpret in Swami...

  Photo Credit : 123RF Power of Post & Position Swamiji says – “The power of (your) post is not your own power, it remains only until the post exists”. This statement is so true and we see the first part of the statement in action on a daily basis. In Maharashtra we have an NCB officer doing his job honestly using the power of his post to tackle the drug mafia and on the other hand we have a state minister abusing his power and position to defame and threaten the officer along with his family members, with the media supporting the minister. It appears that drug money is feeding both the government as well as the media! The statement ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ is on display in Maharashtra for the last two years or so. The post and the power being derived from the post by the individual is not ‘his’ power – it comes from the post and position – and has to be used for the benefit of the government in service of the citizens of the nation, the sam...

  Photo Credit: Intuition Cold Spring Harbor | Wealth is Ephemeral Swamiji says – “The power of wealth remains only till the wealth exists”. What kind of wealth is Swamiji talking about? To my understanding wealth could be – material, monetary, spiritual, it could literally be anything. One of the greatest driving forces in the world is the desire to acquire wealth – if you look at India’s history, we have been plundered by the Mughal, the British, the French and the Portuguese over the last 1000 years – why? Just for our wealth – they plundered our gold and jewelry, but in spite of destroying India’s universities and temples they could not destroy the sanatan dharma and the values which the dharma instills in all those who are born in this holy land. Our cultural and spiritual wealth continues to enrich us even today. We are still united as one nation in spite of the hell that we have gone through – that is principally because our cultural and spiritual wealth is timeless an...

  Photo Credit: DepositPhotos Inner Power / Strength Swamiji says – ‘No one can snatch your inner power from you’. The question is - what do you understand by inner power, inner strength? We are all over aware of mental strength, but is it the same as inner power? Many people think that they mean the same thing, actually there is a huge difference. Atmashakti or atmabal is the core strength of a person, it is the power of the soul – and we know that we, souls, are different from our minds. Our minds are used for feeling, thinking and willing. Inner power gives us great patience which we need at all times as we are essentially very small entities in the overall scheme of things – meaning in comparison to the whole of creation. We need courage for performing our duties and our inner power directly contributes to it. Our inner power gives us self-confidence along with determination, tolerance, compassion which are all required for leading a quality life. People with enormous inn...

  Photo Credit: Pinterest Unconditional Love Swamiji in the beginning of this month wrote a series of messages based on ‘love’. The long and short of those messages was that even if you do not get into a meditative state, an easier path is to ‘love’ selflessly and unconditionally. Love can also take you to the state of fulfilment and completeness. Let us try and see how this happens. When we talk of unconditional love – this implies that if there are conditions, then it is not love. Conditions turn love into selfish attachment. With attachment comes expectation and the problem with relationships is the huge gap between expectations and reality. If you notice your mind, you will realise that we judge people before we ‘love’ them. This judgement is based on their actions, words and qualities and so on. This is not love, this is simply attachment. Most shocking of all is we don’t even love our own selves unconditionally for who we are! We have inferiority complexes because we don’...

  Photo Credit: Divyatattva.in What can Yoga do? The common understanding of yoga is that it is good for getting into physical shape. Yoga has become more westernized today and there are far more corrupted forms of yoga with lots of people coming with their own variations of yoga. For instance – Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Ashtang Yoga, Power Yoga, Hot Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Forrest Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Kripalu Yoga, Jivamukti Yoga, Anusara Yoga, Sivananda Yoga, Viniyoga, Ananda Yoga, Dharma Yoga, Acro Yoga, Aerial Yoga – these are twenty forms and there are many more variations with music, dance and other creative forms of art mixed to create different asanas. Does this really help? The true form of Yoga – the pristine original form is Ashtang Yoga – the eight-fold path which helps one to clear all external and internal blockages to ultimately reach completeness and a state of void. If one has got the calling – then the subconscious throws ...

  Photo Credit: The Soul is Always Waiting | Mihaela The Soul’s Wisdom We are all aware that there is a great difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is something which one acquires through learning, reading books, studying various subjects – this is all information which one studies and absorbs into one’s memory. So, where does wisdom come from? Wisdom is the knowledge that one’s soul acquires as it transitions through several births – it is the experience of many lifetimes which lies buried in the soul. That is the wisdom emanating from the soul at the appropriate moment. Swamiji has said many times that once you obtain self-realisation your start getting tidbits of information or knowledge which you have not studied anywhere. This wisdom comes from connecting with universal consciousness, with the subtle energy of the Satguru – who is the medium of universal consciousness in the present time – this knowledge cannot be given, nor can it be received – it gets transf...

  Photo Credit: Lawrence Richardson Jr | Fine Art America  The Inner Sunrise The rising Sun always gives me goosebumps as it paints the sky in colours of crimson and orange as it rises over the horizon. It is one of the most beautiful sights and I can never tire of seeing nature’s beauty paint the sky in various hues of orange and red – the energy one receives on seeing this wondrous sight every morning is wonderful. Every day the sun rises without fail whether we see it or not; similarly, we too have to wake up every morning whether anyone sees us getting up or not. The universe does not want you to be in any other place than where you are at now – you are always where you have to be – that is nature’s law. The change with life begins with your present space and time if you work towards understanding the process of life. You need to open your body, mind, and heart to experiment in life. You leave all the laziness and lethargy behind. You stay fit and remain active to part...

  Photo Credit: Dreamstime.com Stick With What You Know It is said that experience teaches us everything we need to know – and life is the biggest teacher. But nevertheless, it is human tendency to explore the unknown and try to chart new waters. Nothing wrong with that either. It is just that when we step out into the unknown, the risks and pitfalls that one comes across could permanently put you down. Hence, it is best to stick to what we already know. This is true in all aspects of life, sports, ‘friends’, business, finance, stock markets, spirituality too. When one tries to take risks, one is basically leveraging one’s position to try and get an early advantage – when your stars are on the rise this may catapult you on to a higher trajectory giving you early success. This does happen, as the saying goes - when you ride the tide as it rises it takes you farther than you expect. Similarly, risks can give you 2x, 4x, 10x, 20x rewards but mathematically they can also bring your...

  Photo Credit: Medical News Today Delaying Gratification We live in a world where we want everything yesterday. Our wants and desires are so superficial and there is so much temptation out there along with money at our disposal that we fail to make any distinction between our desires and our needs! If we could just experiment with our will power and see if we can delay our desires and need for instant gratification – will this have a beneficial effect on my overall well-being? Just give it a shot and find out for yourself! As part of an experiment in Stanford University, psychologists had studied the impact of marshmallows on children. Those who could delay their urge to eat the marshmallow and who were rewarded with an additional one, were found to have better outcomes later in life – including academic success, physical, psychological health and social competence! The fact that you can delay your gratification by resisting the temptation of a smaller but more immediate rewar...

  Photo Credit: VectorStock Life is Like a Snowball We have all heard about the snowball effect – a small ball of snow starts rolling down the mountain and as it gathers speed it gathers more and more snow and other particles and keeps growing in size till it reaches a point of significance, and it could potentially become dangerous but could also be beneficial instead. Simply put it is something which increases in size or importance at a faster and faster rate. This concept has been applied to many things and it is also applicable to spirituality. Very early in life we set the snowball rolling in the direction we want our life to take. If we begin traveling in a certain direction – whether toward or away from spirituality – we will create a momentum that is difficult to stop. Most of us do not think about spirituality early in life – we are more concerned or interested in having a good life, earning income and creating wealth for a good and comfortable life-style. Absolutely n...

  Photo Credit: The American Rebirth Is Financial Strength Needed for Inner Growth? I have been told quite often that one need’s financial security to even think about treading the spiritual path. I have contemplated on this quite a bit – the question which kept cropping up in my mind was – were Swami Samarth, Shirdi Sai Baba, Gajanan Maharaj all from well to do and rich families? No! They were souls who came to earth to show the way to inner growth through devotion, faith and worship. Today, we all follow a path that takes us to financial independence – but one is never financially independent, isn’t it? Ask yourself – how much is enough? When do I stop? One never knows, till it is too late! In the race for a better life, a better tomorrow we completely forget our today and end up in a race we can never win. With cheap credit availability and credit card companies wooing you with mouth-watering temptations it is easy to fall prey and end up in a debt trap which eventually ties...

  Photo Credit: Spiritual Formation Centre It’s Okay to be Imperfect As we move through life trying to be perfect in an imperfect world, we end up getting hurt and scarred physically, emotionally as well as mentally. Life is such a huge rollercoaster ride and the situations, people, incidents which happen - some because of our fault, some because of someone else and many are just natural mishaps – but all of them leave scars on both the body and mind. In such a world trying to be perfect is madness – because it is something which is always within reach but never attainable! The better approach is to embrace one’s imperfections – how does a scar matter, it does not change your looks – and if anyone dislikes you because of how you look without looking at your heart, then such people are best left behind in your life’s journey! I remember reading in a book long ago – I forget the author – that a scarred heart healed after life’s hurt and experiences is far more beautiful and sensi...

  Photo Credit: xdPedia Don’t be too Serious in Life I am sure at some point or the other in your lives you have been told to take life seriously – either by your parents, relatives, friends, teachers, etc. My point is life is meant to be enjoyed – it has been said that life is a journey – enjoy it. Life takes you up and down the rollercoaster – just enjoy both the ups and the downs, that will definitely prolong your life. The more we stress on the quality of life, the more serious we get the more problems we face. We become serious at the smallest of things and start worrying, why did this happen, why me, will I be late and so on and so forth. Unless you learn to laugh – not at others but at yourself we will keep unnecessarily adding stress, pressure and negativity to situations with our attitude of ‘seriousness’. One of the best things we can do is laugh - at ourselves, at the situation or just for the heck of it. Nowadays you find ‘laughter clubs’ having a go at laughter therapy...

  Photo Credit: Dreamstime.com A Calm Ocean Contains Turbulence Below I am sure all of you have heard about Tiger Woods, the famous golfer. Tiger had everything going for him on the outside – fame, fortune, humongous skill, a loving wife and family, accomplishments and the world stopped to watch him at the top of his game! After more than ten years as the greatest golfer on the planet, the most famous athlete in history, he let it all fall away. Instead of being content with what he had, he started womanizing. He said later that he felt entitled after slogging it out to succeed for all these years, he felt he could get away with anything he wanted to. The temptations were too much and his resistance low – thanks to money and fame women were not too difficult to come by, I was wrong, I was foolish. By the time realisation dawned his life had gone down the drain – the endorsements stopped, his game fell away, everything just disintegrated – why? Apparently, even having everything w...

  Photo Credit: The Sentinel Assam What is True Freedom? When I was growing up through the seventies and early eighties, I was not dependent on gadgets to help me think. Today we have gadgets for everything – it has gone to the extent that information (information mind you, not knowledge) is available courtesy ‘Google Uncle’ at the click of a button! Whether that information is accurate, motivated, fake or otherwise is a matter for the seeker to decide. In those days we would play outdoors, read voraciously, play the mischief (harmless of course) and generally have a gala time. I had the names, phone numbers and addresses of more than 200 people stored in my brain – today that part of the brain has become useless as mobile devices have more or less taken over the role of the computer, telephone, entertainment – radio as well as video and so on. Life has literally become focused onto a small hand-held device. Children today do not want to read books – they prefer kindle or some di...