Girish's Blog

  Photo Credit: Tiny Buddha Dying to Live Everyone has twenty-four hours in a day to utilise the way they think is best for them. Some wake up early and try to maximise the available time to suit their lifestyle, while others wake up late, missing the glory of the early morning sunrise. We try to make ourselves capable of packing as much as we can in our daily schedule without becoming tired or exhausted. At work if we feel we are creating what we really care for, and in the course of doing that we get exhausted, that is okay; if we die of exhaustion just for trying to earn a living, that will be really stupid. Please understand, if we spend our lifetime trying to earn a living, it is tiring. Whether we work twenty hours, ten hours, eight hours or five hours a day, it will be tiring – whatever we do. However, when we do something that really matters to us, it may be physically exhausting, but life is not tiring because we are constantly doing what matters. If we work ...

  Photo Credit: Twitter Game of Comparison This is the most dangerous and self-defeating game anyone can get into. This comes out of a desire to be one up on the next guy. If so and so has this or that, I should have something that is much more superior. This kind of mental attitude leads to grief in the long run, giving rise to stress or making one turn to short cuts and illegal means to get what one wants. Just observe while driving in any upscale area of any city where many significant companies have their offices. We will invariably find around 150 to 200 men and women on the sidewalk, all well-dressed and obviously well-employed during lunchtime. We notice that they were not sitting in some nice place but buying hot dogs or any kind of available street fast food. While passing by we notice that no one is even talking to each other. All of them are holding something wrapped in paper and biting into it like hungry dogs. Human beings are supposed to eat with a little more aes...

  Photo Credit: Dreamstime Mortgaging One’s Life When human beings were hunters and gatherers, they were completely free. If they made a kill on one day, the next 15 days, they ate from it and just lived – maybe beat a drum that was made out of the skin of the animal and danced around a fire, or used their hands to create something else. But food was insecure then – these wild animals are quick. Many times, they did not get a kill and everyone went hungry. So, people developed agriculture. In agriculture, we have to do certain things on a particular day, not two days later. Some compulsions came with that, but it was still okay. In India, depending upon what food grains we grew – we are not talking about cash crops – we worked hard for 50 to 100 days in a year, and the rest of the time was a series of festivals. Every village had its own festivals to which people from the surrounding villages came. Every wedding was at least five days of celebration. Work for sustenance was onl...

  Photo Credit: Pinterest Frustrated with Life? Whether the world is going to rejig its life or not – it is time we rejig our life. The most valuable thing in our life is life itself – everything else is just accessories. Where I live, what I drive, what I wear, what I eat – these are all accessories. I am alive right now – this is the biggest joy. Whether we live like this or that is not the point – do we know the joy of being alive? If we do not know this, what is the point ? What is the point of living in a palace and being miserable? There is a story about a young boy from Andhra Pradesh who was sitting on the street and crying bitterly, like something serious was lost and this was the end of life. He was asked, “What happened?” It turned out he had applied for a visa to the United States and it got rejected. This was the end for him. He was imprisoned in this large country called India. He cannot go to the United States. Anyway, half of those who were born and who live the...

  Photo Credit: Pinterest Big Decisions – No Regret Before taking big decisions, we should ask ourselves what we should invest our life in. Do not think in terms of what job to take or what education to do. The important thing is this life. For everyone, their life is precious. Into what should we want to invest this precious life? If we look at it this way, we will find something truly worthwhile to do. If we think in terms of how to earn a living and how to get something, we will do something silly that we will regret for the rest of our life.  Most people are a regret, which is why they are going around joylessly – they are not doing what they want to do. Instead of creating what really matters to them, they are doing something for a living. Every creature, worm, insect, bird and animal are earning their living. Earning a living is not a big deal for a human being. Unfortunately, because of ten to twenty generations of poverty in this country, people have gotten into th...

  Photo Credit: Bliss Quote Struggle with Laziness Discipline is a very general term because discipline can be good, and discipline can be bad. Discipline can be a pain in the neck and discipline can be enjoyable. If we can turn discipline into an enjoyable thing, which means finding the reason why this discipline is going to help us improve or succeed, then discipline doesn’t become mechanical. Discipline becomes difficult when it becomes mechanical because the mind reacts by saying, ‘I don’t want this control. I don’t want this discipline. I just want to be free.’ The irony is that we are disciplining our mind so that ultimately it blasts and becomes free forever. So, if we understand this, then we won’t have a problem with discipline. If we have a problem with discipline in our work place, then we ourselves have to work it out in an appropriate manner – depending on whether we are employees or business owners. Implementing discipline in the workplace requires intelligence ...

Photo Credit: QuoteFancy   True Prayer For most people, if we look at what their prayer is, it is: “God give me this, give me that, God save me.” What we are seeking in prayer is not God. We are seeking security and happiness. Ultimately, what we want with prayer is wellbeing, but we are not willing to admit it. The first step is to be straight and honest with ourselves. Then we can see how to cross the threshold of limitations to true wellbeing. It is time we realised that looking to God will not help until we look at our own foolishness. If we sincerely look at our deepest motivation for religion, we will see we have never aspired for the Divine. Our aspiration was never for the ultimate. Our aspiration is for comfort, wealth, power and pleasure. But we think God is a tool to achieve all those things. When we seek protection or material things, greed and fear have become the basis of our prayer. This does not work. Ordinarily, we think prayer is a means to reach God, but wh...