Category: Blog


This World is Magical !

Magic

For some reason, i have been hit by a deluge of “Magic” videos from you tube and some of them Demystifying magic tricks and illusions.

These videos showed me how magicians use hidden props to make it seems like something is levitating in air including humans. They also debunk how these illusionists make things disappear in thin air even of the likes of David Copperfield.

So, after watching those videos – the magic, the wonder if no longer wonder – its more like a puppet show where some force is controlling everything you see. There is always a hidden force behind everything and what meets the eye is different than what goes on.

Isn’t this world also like that – what you see is NOT the real thing. As if it’s one BIG fat magic show where you are shown something different than the reality. Just look into your life isn’t that exactly the case. Magic is happening every moment. Let’s take an example – lets say you meet someone who got angry at you or said something nasty. Well, it’s an unpleasant experience for sure but now lets look at it from a different perspective. A few possibilities – that person could be going through so much in his/her personal life, he could’ve had a bad day, he could’ve experience some loss in his or his loved ones life recently including his own health etc etc..the list can go on and on. And the truth is you may never be able to see whats going on behind the curtain. Nevertheless, his actions warrant a constructive feedback but it’s NOT worth losing your sleep like you don’t lose your sleep if someone shows you a card trick right ? Because now you know that behind every action or behavior there could be a story, a hidden force, an agenda, a motive (good or bad). Now you know the truth. Let’s ponder on this, can we ?

This is probably the reason why ancient sages said that this world is Maya – something that can be measured. And we know that anything measurable (limited) can not lead you to something which can’t be measured like Happiness, Joy, Peace. In other words limited stuff cannot give you unlimited stuff. If you have 100 bucks you can only buy a limited amount of potatoes, right ? This could be a bad example but i hope it send the message across.

I guess Shakespeare rightly said, “this world is a stage and we are merely players”.

 

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Haven’t we noticed in our life that when we crave for “Happiness”, we invite misery. Let me share an incident with you which just happened 2 days ago. I was craving for restaurant food and told my wife that we will eat out today. I am big foodie and as much as i can, i try to hog on Indian Food when we go outside. We went to this Indian place where i ordered ‘Malai Kofta‘ (curry of sweat cheese balls)- an indian delicacy.

We ate with tandoori rotis and came back home. After coming back i invariably felt heavy and sluggish and i immediately got reminded of my vow which i had made many times in the past. I had vowed not to eat indian food in a restaurant outside as usually it is not fresh and heavy on wheat. For the umpteenth time, i had broken the vow and again got reminded of the amazing knowledge by Sri Sri. I did feel lucky as at least we are beginning to realize very little as to how the mind functions.

Has such an incident happened with you as well ?

Such incidents remind us that ALL cravings leave wanting for more. They leave us empty and unhappy. Cravings may seem to give an ephemeral sense of pleasure but in the long run it brings misery. But we still keep cravings WHY ?

We will see that in the next blog post.

Surprisingly, haven’t we noticed this to be true. Its hard to believe when we hear this because in the mundane world of transactions, “giving” amounts to losing. When we give someone something, its a debit in our account and credit to the other person.  It’s simple, right ?

However, in the spiritual world, the laws work exactly the opposite. When we do something good (a random act of kindness) for others, we feel good. You helped someone cross the road and in return you are showered with blessings. You give a homeless some food, and you get to see the twinkle in their eyes which in turn brings one in your. Why is it like that, whats the science behind it ?

In my opinion, our innate nature, is giving. The spirit likes to give because the soul feels content when it does something good for the another soul. That’s our very nature. This is the reason why.

Think of all the ways  volunteers have helped the community grow in America:

  1. Volunteers help the neighborhood, parks, rivers etc
  2. Volunteers help coach, mentor people in need or in crisis
  3. Volunteers help in animal sheltor and rehabilitation centers
  4. Volunteers build houses, schools etc for the under-privileged

According to the Corporation for National Community Service :

  1. Last year 62.6 million Americans volunteered
  2. Last year 7.7 billion hours were volunteered
  3. Last year the estimated value of service was $173 billion

The above research shows that today more and more are awakened to realize the importance of selfless giving. Unfortunately, tse it here will be no gadget to measure the happiness they will get by doing so. That’s the beauty, because it cannot be measured !!!

If you are reading this, do a random act of kindness today and make someone’s day.

Best,

Rohit

Fear – Part 1

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What is the structure of FEAR ?

Look into people’s eyes these days, you’ll find many filled with fear. Why are we afraid so much ? 

It’s a simple strategy. If you want to rule over someone make him afraid. If someone commits a natural mistake, make that person believe that he has committed a sin and that if he/she does it again he will go to hell. 

Out of fear of hell, he will start denying something which is natural to him and in the process he has created a hell for him. It’s very easy to win over someone who deny’s himself. You have sown the seeds of guilt. And it is very difficult for a guilty person to win any battle. A person who is divided, he is always in a dilemma. He grows up confused since the seeds of creativity has been cut.

He grows up to be dull.  See when someone tells you so many things are bad, you naturally feel condemned. The reality is that still these things cannot be dropped by thinking they are wrong. At the most you can repress them – but in repressing them you become more and more ugly. Self-condemnation is the ugliest thing you can think of.

If you remain divided; if you remain split, Once you are split, anyone can dominate you.

In the next post, we will see how to deal with fear.

 

 

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The word selfish has been condemned by one and all. Let’s take a look at it from a different perspective.

Selfish is looking at yourself, loving yourself first. What’s wrong in that ? If you cannot love yourself, you cannot love anyone else. Charity begins at home. One who does not know anything about him/herself, how can he even dare to understand others.

So, in my opinion it is good to be selfish sometimes. Wanting everything for oneself is different than the sense i am using selfish for. All i am saying is when you are on a spiritual path, start by being selfish. Try to know yourself. A little glimpse inwards and you will become radiant and then your actions will become benevolent and you will automatically be of service to others.

Enough for the day !

Material world is charaterised by competetion, greed and power while the spiriual world is rest, bliss, peace and a better view of yourself.

The challenge is:

1. How to maintain that inner decorum while going through the vagaries of the outside world ?

2. How to be peaceful and unperturbed and still be competetive on a day-2-day basis ?

3. How to maintain your sanctity and still be able to handle the politics and unpleasant experiences that we face in the outside world for example at work ?

…and many more questions like this

The answer lies within. Its an attitude. Unpleasant events happenning outside can make you miserable or not. You have to chose whether to be in misery or not.

Lets look at it like this. There are and will be some unpleasant experiences that will happen around you in a day, no matter what, right ? Either you can attach yourself with these experiences and become miserable or you could see them as some karmic debts being burnt and move on unscathed or unperturbed.

In the second case the kindle dispassion inside you and will experience that the duration of negative events will keep reducing until a time will come that you will start attracting only positive energy.

This could be an application of “Dispassion” or “Vairagya”

In the ancient texts it is written that there is no such “Happiness” in the world that cannot be experienced by practicing vairagya.

Have a wonderful day !

 

In the general sense there are 5 reasons why we suffer in life:

1. Ignorance – This is 1st one. Misery is due to ignorance. What is ignorance? Ignorance is giving importance to something which is not worth giving importance to. For eg. Someone said something wrong or bad to you and you hold on to it as a permanent fixture. This will bring misery in your life. Second is thinking something to be permanent which is ever changing. A person’s mind, thoughts, body, intellect keep changing. Eg. if someone behaved with you in a particular fashion some time back he may be a different person NOW; his feelings thoughts might have changed. Labeling that person as bad for life is ignorance. Third, Imagining something to be joyful which is not joyful and something to be pure which is not pure is ignorance.

2. Asmita (Constant Thinking of the self)– Always thinking about ‘ME’ ‘ME’ ‘ME’ or ‘I’  ‘I’  ‘ I’ . When you become the center of your own thoughts, activities and actions, the problem starts. When your whole universe revolves around you, remember you are in trouble. Lets see why ?

This feeling of ‘I-ness’ disconnects you from the others. When that happens your energies get stuck and you feel miserable.

Another way to look at it is: When you think that i am sooo good, this means you have subconsciously discounted others as bad or not-good-enough; this also makes you miserable. On the other hand even if you think ‘I am not good enough for other’ then also you get disconnected and move into the trap of misery.

When you are natural like a child you will again feel connected to everyone around you. Just notice, do you ever know any child who suffers from misery or depression. It is impossible because children are very natural.

3. Fear – Fear is another reason why we feel miserable sometimes. Why ? Lets see. Fear is associated with the heart chakra. So when there is fear, love is absent. Have you noticed that ?  Lets go in detail – every emotion in the mind has a corresponding sensation in the body. The sensation of fear is felt in the heart. The sensation of love is also felt in the heart. Only one emotion can exist at a time either love or fear. Thats why people who are madly in love don’t fear anything.

How to increase love in life so that fear has no place ? Start giving more love to people around you. The only way to increase love is by giving. The only way to reduce love in your life is by asking. This is such an irony isn’t it ? When love fills your life there will be no room for fear.

4. Craving – It starts first with someone’s talent or with an appreciation of someone. The attraction then turns into craving. Watch out for that ! When this happens expectations arise in you. And when expectations are not met we feel sad and miserable.

5. Aversion – The other thing to watch out for is aversion. When you are averse to someone of something, that thing sticks to your mind and prevents you from seeing the BIG picture. We specially need to watch out for this because our mind has the tendency to stick to negative things faster than positive ones. Often our aversions reflect our own nature. Whatever we are averse to or avoid doing we will find those things coming back into our lives in some form or the other.

Kick out all the complaints from your head for if you keep them, then that head is not going to be very useful. This is so important. Because only then your consciousness which is like a flower is all blossomed, brilliant, blissful, peaceful, and full of love.

Cravings and aversions take over you because of three basic reasons.

1. One is when you are not focused.
2. The second is the time in your life – there is a certain time when these obsessions and cravings reach the peak and come down. However much you understand, read books and tell your mind to avoid them, these forces become so strong that they take over you.
3. The third thing is the nature in your body. When there is too much rajas or rajogun or too much energy that is not channeled properly, then there’s obsession. This can also happen because of lack of understanding about the obsession or lack of understanding about Truth, the Reality. But if you fail to conquer your obsession once, twice or even thrice, don’t lose heart.

Don’t start to blame the Knowledge and lose faith in it when it doesn’t work to control your obsession. Your weakness will enable you to pray deeper !!!

Thats all for today !

Love

Rohit

Honor the wisdom in your life….

We have all been wise many times in our lives. We have taken some wise decisions and some not-so wise decisions. Its time to look back and throw some light on the wise decisions you took in your life. And see why you made those decisions. What made you take those decisions. That is WISDOM. Honor that !!

Whatever you honor will grow in your life. If you honor wisdom, wisdom will grow. If you honor malicious intent, the same will grow. Take some time out everyday in retrospect and throw some light on what you did good and why you did it. This will bring more light in your life.

Perhaps this is the only time our PAST comes handy otherwise it is useless to dwell on the past. Its gone, its dead. But we can definitely learn something from history, right ?

One other thing, once you throw light on some success in the past more and more success will come your way. Rather will come knocking on your door.

Soon you will find you are moving from one success to another !

Thats all for today

love

@rohit

A mother of a small child called me once on my show and asked, ” Why the show is called ‘Celebrating Silence’ when i am talking all the time” ? Such innocent insights can only come from small children because they have such an unpolluted intellect. Kids are very intuitive and its hard to fool them sometimes. I am sure most parents would agree to this.

Since its asked so i have to answer.
The mere purpose of words is to bring communication or rather harmonious communication. If your words cannot bring harmony then it has no meaning. Lets look into our lives – how many times we say something to others which create turbulence in other people’s minds. That kind of communication is called dis-harmonious communication.

So harmony in the environment brings silence in the mind. Have you noticed when you are looking at a spectacular scenery all of a sudden you are filled with such awe and you can hardly speak anything. How many of you have experienced that ?
That is the silence is so beautiful.

So your words should be such that it felicitates harmony in others’ life and they can experience the silence. And this silence has a celebratory, joyful texture to it. That is the reason why the show is called ‘Celebrating Silence’.

More in the next post !

Love,

How desires get fulfilled ?

Fulfillment

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“Living in tune with nature” or living in Sattva is the key to a fulfillment of all desires.

What does living in tune with nature mean ?

It means what you need and what you want should not be in conflict.

Let me explain this.

All desires that arise in the human mind arise from a source or they arise as vibrations.

Lets see what a desire looks like from an atomic or quantum mechanical perspective.

A simple example: You are made up of 45 trillion cells. So for you to be thirsty all those 45 trillion cells must be thirsty. Right ? These 45 trillion cells sends a message to be decoded by special receptors in the hypothalamus gland.

What is a hypothalamus gland?  The hypothalamus is a portion of the brain which contains a number of small nuclei and one of the most important function is that is to link nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary gland.

In turn the hypothalamus makes the mind body connection by manufacturing the specific neurotransmitters, or messenger molecules that make you think, “I m thirsty

All natural desires follow the same path. What path ?

— >A need arises somewhere in the quantum mechanical body.

—> A mind-body connection is made

—>Then you experience an impulse to act.

As long as needs and desires match you are living in tune with nature. The path of desires is not blocked, its wide open and unlimited.

Unfortunately that does not always happen. We interfere with the natural instincts and needs.

–          We crave for too many sweets and junk foods

–          We compulsively overeat

–          Instead of the balanced body telling us what nutrients it needs we indiscriminately take vitamins.

As a result the body goes out of tune with nature. And when the body goes out of sync, the mind goes out of sync and when that happens you cultivate unhealthy desires which are not in sync with nature which almost never get fulfilled and give rise to frustrations.

Then we make all the unhealthy choices which lead our lives astray.

The question is: how to get the mind and body in sync with nature so that we can get out of the grip of unhealthy desires.

How can we stop wrestling with the wrong choices?

How can you be a point or state where the impulse that you have leads you to evolution and healthy desires that come out of you get fulfilled.

That impulse is called SATTVA.

 Sattva is the impulse to evolve, to grow in life to become successful.

Tamas is the second type of impulse which means to stay the same or to regress.

Rajas is the third type of impulse which dictates action.

All 3 impulses are necessary in life.

For eg: If you don’t have Tamas you will never be able to sleep, if you don’t have Rajas you will never be able to move or do any action.

If you don’t have Sattva, never ever anything you desire will be fulfilled.

When rajas and tamas are in balance, Sattva dawns.  When sattva dawns any desires that come to your mind gets fulfilled.

Before we look into how to get them in balance, lets see what happens when they are not in balance.

Some of the qualities associated when Rajas is out of balance:

Rajas out of balance:

  1. Restlessness
  2. Scattered
  3. Forgetful
  4. Disorganized
  5. Unreliable
  6. Agitated
  7. Undecisive
  8. Insecure

Tamas out of Balance:

  1. Exhausted
  2. Confused
  3. Unable to decide
  4. Dependent
  5. Fearful
  6. Anxious
  7. Depressed
  8. Suicidal
  9. Guilty

Sattva is never out of balance:

  1. Enthusiastic
  2. Creative
  3. Flexible
  4. Adaptable
  5. Clear and Calm Mind
  6. Joyful

The BIG question is how does the Rajas and Tamas become out of balance?

  1. Negative Emotions – anger, fear, greed, resentment
  2. Stress – work, home, financials etc
  3. Unhealthy surroundings
  4. Associations with negative people who drain your energy.
    1. How to judge whether someone is negative for you or not.
    2. If by talking to that person you feel energized, he is good for you
    3. If you feel your energy is being drained, he is not good for you.
    4. Unhealthy food

How to balance Rajas and Tamas ?

  1. Yoga
  2. Meditation
  3. Take time out everyday for play humor and relaxation
  4. Once in a while watch the sunset and occasionally stroll in the moonlight
  5. Eat light, natural foods
  6. Be generous to others in whatever way you can.
Thought of the day:
“Make others comfortable and nature will take care of your comfort.”
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