March 3rd, 2014

" Desire is pure potentiality seeking manifestation."

I'm not too sure about the exact origination of this quote but I think the sources through which I came to it, leads me to believe its from one of the Upanishads.  The word desire is often seen as an obstacle on the spiritual path but this quote allows one to see desire through a different perspective.  I often talk about this with my daughters as I would really like them to understand the essence of these words and allow them to enrich their lives.

This is what I think this quote means....

Each of us is born with a seed of potential.  When you go to a greenhouse , you find many different kinds of seeds but each seed produces a different flower.  There's a process you must follow to allow each seed to blossom into the flower it was meant to be.  In a same way each of us has the potential to blossom into something magnificent.  Desire plays a key role in what we blossom into.  We all have different abilities and interests but we also have an innate urge to grow. Stagnation makes us feel frustrated but we often are unable to get to the root of our frustrations.  When we take time to cultivate the right attitude and work on purifying our intentions, we start to move towards the process of blossoming into our own magnificence.  

For a seed to grow into a flower, it must be planted in good soil and then taken care of by providing water, sunshine and protection when necessary.  In a same way our seed of potential requires an inner cultivation of love, gratitude, compassion etc. as your focus starts to shift from the negative to the positive you start to discover what it is that you truly desire.  

I think this is a good quote to set as a baseline when I tell them to always follow their heart.  

Your thoughts?

Feb 27th, 2014

A poem by my daughter Anjali......

Karma’s Journey

Karma’s journey began,

when she was young.

The path was paved,

her eyes shone

with a glint of innocence.

With every step she took,

daisies sprung

from where her feet had lain.

As she grew older,

her eyes dulled a bit,

but only to look like diamonds in the rough.

Her feet no longer sprouted daisies,

but only left a trail of buds.

She grew older still,

and with her flowers,

her innocence had gone. The path ahead was no longer clear,

with dust and debris filling the air.

A fog called corruption made her road hazy

and her eyes, in turn, had become dark gray.

Her footprints no longer left anything beautiful,

but cursed the ground

with sharp rooted cracks.

On Karma’s journey,

which she realized would ever end,

she discovered that she had only been

traveling in circles.

Feb 18th, 2014

I was at a receiving end of random acts of kindness by a few good men.  I was driving back from my yoga class and realized that I left my phone at the studio. The road was pretty empty so I thought I'd make a quick u-turn, as I was doing that my car slipped off the edge of the road and I ended up in more than a foot of snow.  My car was stuck so badly that I couldn't move it forward or backward.  I was thinking what I should do and just than a guy pulled up and tried to help push my car out and soon another one joined in, after a few minutes still I'm stuck and a police car drove by and said that he would send someone to help.   The two men that were helping me said sorry we tried as they left.  I thanked them and noticed that they were up to their knees in snow.  They had really tried but the car was badly stuck, as they drove away I realized I could have asked them to use their phone.  By now another gentleman pulls up and offers help, I asked to use his phone and before I could make a call a police car pulled up.  He offered to call the tow company and before he could do that three guys from across the street walked over with snow shovels. They cleared out some snow from the back and than pushed from the front and in less than ten minutes my car was out.  I'm so grateful to all those guys that helped me.

What I found most amazing through out this whole ordeal was that I didn't feel an ounce of panic at any time. I'm a firm believer that there's more good in the world than bad, and the universe confirms my belief from time to time.  I have faith that everything will be fine in the end.  If it is not fine than it is not the end.... 

 

 

Feb 11th, 2014

“You say that you love the rain, but you open your umbrella when it rains. You say that you love the sun, but you find a shadow spot when it shines. You say that you love the wind, but you close the windows when it blows. This is why I'm afraid, you said that you love me too.”

― William Shakespeare

This quote is a reminder of how out of synch we are with our own reality.  Self inquiry reveals to you your own disharmony of thoughts, words and actions.  And recognition is the first step to change. The wise advise us to live in the present moment but its a long journey to arrive at this point.  Internal detox is a process that can lead us to that moment, but how to do it? When we are looking for a physical detox, we go on a juice fast and reduce the intake of a lot of solid foods and drink a lot of water to flush our system.  In a same way internal detox is done by reducing mental stimulation that could be tv, computer or any gadgets that you tend to be too attached to  and observe silence.  When you take on this challenge you realize how difficult it is to be present to watch your own mental and emotional drama. Observing silence is very challenging because it requires you to be present, we are all so used to checking out with so many external stimulants that surround us.    

Feb 6th, 2014

"Faith is like a mountain and doubts are like clouds, Can any cloud anytime shake a mountain? It is impossible.~Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 

I think that faith is something I'm striving towards cultivating, as any inner practice cultivating faith is also a journey.  As I progress on this path I realize that faith and fear can not coexist.  As I learn to work through my fears and I  feel that the faith strengthens.  During our last trip to India, my girls noticed that there were a lot of temples and asked my why?  I didn't have an answer right away but as I started to shift my focus to see what role faith played in people's lives, I saw that behind the apparent chaos almost everyone's life had a clock like order.  Everyone from the maid of the house to the lady of the house had some kind of ritual of worship.  During one of our road trips from Ahmedabad to Baroda, the girls decided to count how many temples we would see on the way.  And we ended up counting around 235.  Most of the  drive was on a highway, so there would be a lot unpopulated areas(unlikely for India). Even then anytime there were a few huts or small homes there would be at least one or two temples around. So wondered, did the people go to the temple to express their gratitude for what they were given?or did they ask for all their troubles to be taken away? And I realized that it didn't matter because what mattered was that they BELIEVED that there was something bigger than themselves.  Maybe it is the Faith that sustains India in spite of all the corruption, chaos, population and pollution.  

As for my own practice I realize that cultivating faith is like waking up to a bright sunny day, everyday. My Aastha (faith) and Anjali (offering to the Devine), are my constant reminders of how I should live my life.

Feb 4th, 2014

"See a mistake as a mistake, not as "my" or "his" mistake.  "My" means guilt; "his" means anger.~Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that do not work.” - Thomas Edison

So anytime we are trying to invent or create something, it's a process of elimination.  This is what Mr. Edison and many other innovators exemplified.  So in a same way when we are working towards creating an inner atmosphere of love and joy, that also is a process of elimination. Just as a scientist calls his learning process experiments and not mistakes, we can retrain ourselves to refer to mistakes as life lessons.  It may seem unimportant but I think what happens is you're subconsciously incepting a certain idea that will lead you to create space between " stimulus and response".  Often we are very quick to respond, which keeps us from really tapping into the space.

Feb 3rd, 2014

"Life teaches you the art of letting go in every event.  When you have learnt to let go, you will be joyful, and as you start being joyful more will be given to you." ~Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

How is one to apply this into a daily life?

At some point in our lives we come to realize that we are all on our individual journey, because of how the society has conditioned our thought process we see the concept of "letting go" as being defeated, when in reality it's about expanding your awareness internally.  Each conflict you come into ( internally) is an opportunity to figure out what it is that you're holding onto.  So you are not surrendering to another but making an effort to gain a wider perspective, which leads to a state of joy.  Once you start to apply this idea into your life you see glimpses of what the wise call "joy" , and those glimpses slowly expand and permeate into all areas of our lives.