Girish's Blog

  Become Joy What really gives us joy as opposed to what we think gives us joy? We have all been taught that we will be happy when we: find our soulmate, make money, work at something we love. Or, we will be happy and fulfilled when we have a house, have a child, do service. Yet there are people who have and do all of the above and are still not happy, and there are people who have little or none of the above and are frequently joyful (for example the urchins playing on Mumbai’s streets). Some of us would have faced severe hardships in life, not knowing joy at all and on hearing about joy tried to find it through intoxicants on advice of friends, only to find out that this leads us further down the sink hole! Such intoxicants drain us of our energy rather than energise us and fill us with joy. Some people try to find joy through service, through their work, making money and so on, but this is all transient and results are based on external circumstances. Joy is not a result o...

  Photo Credit:Shakhashree Mind Management In life we consider things as good or bad – this decision is made by the mind taking into account the fact that a certain result has taken place which is as per ‘my’ wish / expectation or not. Basically, it is the egoistic mind that takes the call on whether something is good or bad. The mind is the key to everything. Without the mind, we cannot accomplish anything. All our sense organs need the mind to complete the process of gathering of information or knowledge from the outside world. The human mind is indeed a fine instrument. But this is only the positive side. When one tries to use the mind effectively to carry out the tasks necessary to evolve in human life, there comes an obstacle that is as powerful as the instrument with which the task is being done: the mind. Many spiritual and philosophical traditions have found the answer to the problem of the mind, that the mind itself is the problem. Instead of waiting for it to displa...

  Photo Credit: Pinterest Thoughts are Energy Swamiji has been talking about thought pollution for a very long time. People in society are generally not aware of this kind of pollution. This is far more prevalent today because of the way society lives – we now live in concrete jungles and the less fortunate live in shanty colonies in which huts literally are built touching each other. What happens in such situations is that the thoughts which one gets, good, bad or ugly, there is very little chance of finding out if they are actually our own thoughts. This is simply because thought energy can’t be seen, you just catch the thought – haven’t people said, “I have caught your thought” – and yes this happens! When we think or say negative statements, criticisms or judgments of others, this energy is sent to those others. It affects their personal energy and is felt by them, even though they may not be consciously aware of it. When this occurs, there is an effect within our own energy fi...

  Photo Credit: Pinterest Spiritual Importance of Navratri Navratri is celebrated four times in a year in India. They are Sharad (sep/Oct), Chaitra (March/Apr), Magha (Jan/Feb) and Ashada (June/July). The last two Navratris are called gupta Navratris and are more significant for ascetics. Out of these four, Sharad Navratri is celebrated all over India and the nine avatars of Maa Durga are worshiped to remove obstacles from life and attain success effortlessly. During the Navratri period, the climate changes from one season to another. It is necessary for everyone to take care of his/her mental, emotional and physical well-being. It is advised to keep Upavasa which means maintaining your state of awareness in partial existence. The partial existence is needed to receive the cosmic energy which is flowing throughout the nine nights and harness it to modify your old mind or habits. At the end of Navratri, you are reborn with a new mind and ready to explore your opportunities. Thi...

  Photo Credit: YouTube| Meditation Vibes Guru’s Divine Energy My very first experience with the Guru’s Divine Energy was during my first 8-days video shibir at CIFE, Versova, Mumbai. On the day of awakening, which is the fourth day wherein Swamiji talks about the Navel chakra and then towards the end says he will give us spiritual experience of Shirdi Saibaba. He says – sit in a lotus position, shut your eyes, keep your hands palms up on your knees and meditate. Then he says – some of you will feel cold energy – the moment he said that, on each palm a kind of whirlpool of cool energy started flowing, this went on for about 3—45 seconds. He later explained that whoever felt cold energy their spiritual state was good! After that this divine energy has almost become a part of my life with progress in meditation over the past 13 years or so! The question is how does this happen? The kundalini energy lies curled and undisturbed at the base of our spine. It takes a living Guru to awaken...

  Photo Credit: Unsplash Tap into Nature If we look at ourselves in a deeply profound manner, we will realise that we are no different from nature – we are nature! Nature is our life; nature is our very source. Life on earth is sustained by nature, our abuse of nature is nothing but abuse of life on earth. When nature takes revenge against its destruction, we find ourselves so puny and helpless, that we resort to prayer to save ourselves! And who do we pray to – we pray to God, that is nothing but universal consciousness which is omnipresent and pervades in nature. So, basically, we are praying to be rescued and for mercy to be shown to nature that we ourselves have been destroying. We realise we are going around in circles! The trees are nature — are people not nature? The air is nature and the sun and moon are nature — are the eyes and the smiles and the tears not nature? Just as the earth goes on growing into trees, so it goes on growing into people too. It is the same natur...

  Photo Credit: PureLoveQuotes Love-Trust There can be no trust without love – only love creates trust. The mind is extremely frightened of love and trust. The mind is so used to control that when love and trust make an appearance, emotions take over and mind loses control. Specially on the spiritual path, when we are initiated and taken as a disciple of a living Guru – it implies implicit trust and trust cannot come without love. So, our complete unconditional surrender at the Guru’s lotus feet means that we have complete love and trust for our Guru. When we trust as part of our daily life means we have reached a stage where our love is overflowing and all our relationships flow through this love and trust. When we say love, we are not talking about the physical aspect, we are talking about love for all beings – sentient and non-sentient in nature. It is a state of our being that we are loving and trusting; that whatever happens our loving and trusting will remain the same….we m...

  Photo Credit: QuoteFancy | Pema Chodron Hope-Fear Hope and fear go hand in hand – where there is hope that something will happen, fear is not far behind – the fear that this same thing may not happen! When we hope and look forward to something happening, fear and frustration are just lurking behind in wait. One can also look at hope as an expectation. If a person does not have any hope, then such a person is truly blessed because he/she has no fear of failure. Such a person has absolutely no fear of missing out on something. How can a person not live without hope? For most people life depends on hope – we one needs to do something, one goes out and does it with the hope and expectation that the results will be those which he desired. There is always a lurking fear that things may not happen as desired. We all act based on whatever we are told to do – at home the family tells us what to do-not do, at school it is the teachers, in office it is the seniors, maybe friends are the...

  Photo Credit: Dreamstime.com Freedom in Learning As we set out on our life’s journey we come across many people, many situations, many problems all of which we have to deal with by ourselves. We meet people from all walks of life – and no meeting is accidental – each person we meet in our life is a part of a cosmic goal of which we are unaware. We meet such people to settle our past life karma. It is our ego and desire which instead of settling the karma end up in creating more karma for us. This is where the help of a Satguru is absolutely invaluable in showing us the path. A true Guru always acts as a guide. He does not tell us what to do and what not to do – that decision he always leaves to the Guru within us – our soul. We always have the freedom to choose to act the way we think is correct. A Guru’s guidance in such matter is always, “This is what I know, when I was faced with a similar situation, I had done this. If you feel that to be correct, you are welcome to follo...

  Photo Credit: Quotefancy Discipline is a Must Discipline is defined as the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behaviour, using punishment to correct disobedience. Now, we may well say how does this definition apply in spirituality! If you go to see, as Sadhguru says, “Discipline means having the sense to do exactly what is needed”. As we grow up, we are taught a whole lot of dos and don’ts in the name of discipline, this is good, this is bad, don’t do this, don’t do that – in fact, everything is about not doing something or saying something because it could hurt you or others. The basic objective is always to learn to be a good human being having good moral values and ethics and learn to obey or follow the law of the land. If these basics are taught early then it becomes easy to live life in a more or less organised manner. This is also true of those who get the wrong kind of upbringing and those who are on the wrong side of law – they too have to have d...

  Photo Credit: Dreamstime.com Head or Heart? We often hear about the head versus heart conflict – some people say they follow their heart and others say they follow the lead provided by the head. Some people say the head tells them to do one thing while they feel that the heart is telling them to do exactly the opposite. The fundamental rule of yoga is the body is one person, unified being. There is no separation of mind and heart, we are one whole. One usually assigns thoughts to the ‘head’ and emotions to the ‘heart’. When we turn introversive and observe we realise that the way we think is the way we actually feel. But it is also true that the way we feel is also the way we think. Yoga includes both thought and emotion as part of the same mental body. The ‘mind’ is associated with the thought process or one’s intellect. As a matter of fact, the mind has so many dimensions of which we are not even aware, but two that we definitely know are the logical mind and the deeper e...

  Photo Credit : Wisdom Quotes What Should I Do? We always have a choice as to what to do with our lives. The Sanatan way of life has divided human life span into four stages, first as a student, then as a householder, then retirement and finally renunciation. In each stage we are to guided to do what is best for that stage in life – so for the first 25 years we are learning, enjoying life as children and youth, then for the next 25 years we are householders, getting married, working, having children and in general taking care of our householder responsibilities. From the age of 50 onwards we are supposed to start withdrawing from active life but not denounce it completely. After 75 all our worldly responsibilities are taken care of and we can devote the rest of our time for attaining liberation or moksha. Very few people manage to stick to the guidelines as most get caught up in the fight for survival in a competitive world, the ego and our desires drive us and blind us to our...

Photo Credit: LoveThisPic Lessons from Pain All of us have suffered pain at some point or the other in our lives – the pain could be physical, emotional or mental. Pain and suffering remain with life, they are a part of it. One just needs a clarity to see everything in the right perspective, everything just where it belongs. Then it all falls in line; even pain, even suffering become a part of a greater harmony. Not that they change. They remain, they are a part of our life, but now they are not isolated facts – they have become a part of a greater whole. When we are clear in our perspective, we can see that the greater whole cannot exist without this part; it is a must. We accept it, because happiness cannot be without unhappiness – this is a fundamental rule about the duality in life – just as day cannot be without night. When everything falls in perspective, the total attitude changes. When we attain to a certain clarity, then we see one night between two days. Ordinarily when w...

  Photo Credit: Pinterest | Tinybuddha.com We All Change Change is constant, it is happening all the time, with every passing moment there is change – but because of the human ego we just don’t allow change to happen. We cling, we want things to be static. When we are young, we get used to certain technologies, over time technology changes and if we don’t keep pace, we become outdated and useless. We fall in love with someone in our youth, with the passage of time, the youth becomes old, he/she changes and now we don’t like how he/she looks/behaves – and we fall out of love! That’s how misery arises. Nobody can be certain about the next moment. A person of awareness knows that life is constantly changing. Life is change. There is only one thing permanent, and that is change. Except change, everything else changes. To accept this nature of life, to accept this changing existence with all its seasons and moods, this constant flow that never stops for a single moment, is to be bli...

  Photo Credit: Pinterest Real Peacemakers Yesterday we spoke about world peace, today we will try understand who the real peacemakers are. We know that world peace is not possible without the individual finding his own inner peace, so, today we will see how the individual can aspire to inner peace. Swamiji and a whole host of spiritual Masters have spoken on this subject. We celebrate June 21 as the International Yoga Day, and Swamiji keeps telling us that yoga is not only about physical exercise, but the eight-fold path of Patanjali, which talks about dhyan and samadhi - meditation and the state of union with the divine. Those who through willful effort start walking on the spiritual path invariably find their spiritual guides and masters, some are pulled on to the spiritual path by an unknown force, but all such people find that meditation under the guidance of a realised Master completely transforms their life for the better! Let us all resolve that we will love the wor...

  Photo Credit: Pinterest World Peace We hear talk about world peace all the time, but, let me ask you a question. Is world peace possible when each individual in the world is not at peace with him/herself? Is world peace possible when bodies of children wash up on shores, just because their parents are against the ideology of so-called ‘soldiers of God’? Is world peace possible when so-called missionaries are killing those poor people in the name of God, who refuse to convert to Abrahamic religions in spite of bribes and other so-called privileges being offered? (This is happening on a large scale in the tribal belts of India!) So, can peaceful co-existence ever become a reality? Can’t see it happening, at least in our lifetime! We can definitely give it a try! Like all the realised Masters have been saying in India since time immemorial – it is only possible if people find peace within themselves and thus become peaceful individuals. Becoming a peaceful individual is an inner...

  Photo Credit: Facebook | Sant Rajinder Singh Maharaj Welfare of Others In the modern world if we say that we should do something for others, pat comes the reply – “What’s in it for us?” Everything has become transactional – even doing good, which once upon a time was people’s nature, today – we ask, ‘what’s in it for us?’ It is important to understand that indeed there are physical and spiritual benefits of serving others, and these benefits are measurable. Swamiji keeps exhorting us to perform Guru-karya, because when we do Guru-karya we are serving our Guru who represents millions of people – so indirectly, we are selflessly working for the benefit of millions! When we give something to others selflessly – be it in the form of food, clothing, shelter, or any other good deed – happiness rebounds like a boomerang and we can immediately feel it in our heart. When we introduce someone to spirituality and convince such person to tread the path, when we introduce our friends an...

  Photo Credit: MyPositivityMatters Projecting Positivity Our whole outlook to life changes with meditation, we begin to develop a very positive and benevolent attitude to life. Specially for those of us who are lucky to have found our spiritual Master, the feeling of goodness and positivity become an inherent part of our life. Positive thinking is considered to be one of the most important spiritual tools of the day. My personal experience (I have always had a positive outlook since childhood) is that with meditation, the positivity in me has increased to such an extent that manifestation of such thoughts has started taking place. This has actually got nothing to do with me – it is all the Master’s Grace – without Him nothing happens, this is my personal feeling. Meditation and living in complete awareness help keep our mind very quiet and calm. A feeling of total serenity surrounds our being, and this is reflected in our aura, giving a sense of calm to all those who come in...