Here for writing

If this was a place to dream, what are my dreams? No filter, no second guessing. Just jotting down all that comes to my mind, without any judgement, without any rational thinking, without logic and without self-criticism. Here it goes To make people kinder. Where all interactions are based on kindness and respect No division in the name of religion. Faith to unite, than divide -where we all bow down with respect to other religions, knowing that it is one God and She is in us, as us. For every tree that is cut- 4 more trees spring up in its place! The earth and its elements are pure again -no plastic, no pollution -the planet pure and pristine Humans no longer feel that they are the superior creations -but understand that they are a part of the ecosystem and treat all creatures with love Where every life is safe and secure -no rapes, no murders, no execution, no prison A society that is devoid of greed!  A world without fear -even fear of death -because w

A smile a laugh- a flash of joy and a fleeting moment of happiness. The same joy curdles into sorrow, the same laugh morphs into tears. The drama goes on and on –day and night, without a pause. I wake up, brush, bath, eat, work, eat, work, eat and sleep and thus, another day starts. I may fool myself that by taking away the “work” part, my life may become more fun, but who can ever remain, even for a moment, without doing any activity –physical or mental? In this framework, infused are the little twists and turns in life. No matter where I am or what I do, I still follow this rhythm of life. Along comes the friends and lovers, and just as they come, they leave too. Parents, spouse, siblings, relatives, in-laws, together we all tumble along the merciless path of time –now here and now no more. Set goals, they say. Achieve something, they say. Make money, build a house, decorate it with baubles and paint your way into good cheer, travel, have kids, raise them, fill yo

To recap, ( part1 , part 2 and part 3 ) let us quickly revisit what is called as the "Law of Cause and Effect", in Vedanta. The Rishis and Sages -the great subjective scientists, have put forth this law after a deep study of this world and the self. You can click here to hear Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda explain the law in detail (highly recommend this short 7 minute video) 1. There can be no effect without a cause - (Eg., no waves without ocean) 2. The effect is nothing but the cause itself in a different form -(Eg., the waves, bubbles, foams, whirlpools are nothing but the ocean itself) 3. When cause is removed from the effect, nothing remains (Eg., no waves, bubbles, foam etc when there is no ocean) Now, applying this to ourselves, it is evident that this entire universe of names and forms, including this physical human body, is nothing but the effect. The cause of all these names and forms is the One Supreme Truth. It is this One Cause that is manifesting

No matter how many examples are given, no matter in how many different ways this Truth is repeated over and over again by different Masters from times immemorial, we still can't accept that we are one -WE ALL ARE ONE, encompassing the entire universe. Even after exhaustive inquiry into the nature of things, we may come to intellectually understand that we are one, but since we lack experiential understanding, we struggle to accept this. Listed below are some thoughts on this struggle. What are the practical difficulties that we face in bringing about this acceptance? The God and the Devil: Most of us are convinced that there is only one God. However, our religions talk about the eternal struggle between good and evil and how God, who is all good, fights and conquers the demons / rakshasa / satan etc, who is evil incarnate. So automatically, there comes this mental image (at least I had this for a long time, thanks to all the pauranic movies and serials that I sa

We all intuitively know about this oneness . However, our identification with our own body, mind and intellect creates a strong and distinct feeling of “me and everything else that is not me” . And this me is so so so small and tiny that it extends only upto the boundary of our own body. So we identify with this small part of Our whole and struggle through this life, being tossed up and down in the waves of joys and sorrows. However, when we slowly expand our sense of identification with All That Is, then our individual ego disappears and we become our True Self –the glorious infinite and absolute. All this is fine, but it seems very wild to even begin to imagine us as something other than this body. The attachment to the body is so strong that even though we can intellectually and to some extent intuitively understand that we all are one, we cannot but shake off the feeling of I ness and my ness that is associated with the body. The Masters, in all their kindne

The most difficult thing as a student of Vedanta is that, it asks the us to walk the talk...and the talk itself is so lofty and high that sometimes, it almost makes me whish that I didn't have this knowledge, so that I could have continued living as I was. The one thing that kind of blew my mind when I finally understood and comprehended is the vision of oneness. It is so simple and evident that it made me smack my forehead for missing something so obvious that was right in front of my eyes. Before I write about what is the difficulty in this, let me quickly run through what this oneness is all about. I, with my limited understanding, come to completely believe and live with the conviction that I am this body. I + body gives raise to the feelings of me and mine -My house, my clothes, my father, my children, my husband, my money and so on. Life, as we know it revolves around this "I". It is this "I" that makes us believe that we are separate entitie

This new year, I have a confession to make. A freak injury has me sitting out of any forms of exercise for 3 weeks. The doctor's advice of not sitting down cross legged and not exercising for three whole weeks was a complete shocker. I have never gone without exercising for three whole weeks ever since 2008! While it is only day 5 of 21, this no exercise rule has left me with more than one and half hours of extra time every day and has also got me thinking about my lifestyle in general and my weight in particular.  I have never been a skinny person. Broad shoulders, long limbs and wide hips, I have a frame that will make me look like a skinny buffalo even if I lose weight. While in the final year of my UG, it finally dawned on me that maybe I have to lose some weight, as I started sporting a nice round small paunch that slightly stuck out of my dress. I started walking in my terrace for one hour every day and cut down on curd and viola, within 4 to 5 months, I