Here for writing

Yesterday started with me feeling sad. Am taking a week long break from teaching yoga, which means I get extra 3-4 hours per day at my disposal. As usual, I started making too many plans, but somewhere, having learnt the lessons from past experiences, I forced myself to slow down with my crazy planning and reminded myself that this is a "BREAK WEEK" , which means I truly do have to take a break, rest, rejuvenate and refresh myself by doing  / not doing things as appropriate. Yesterday morning, I woke up with a head full of ideas and the mindset to actually go all out and execute them all...inspired, excited and thrilled...bright eyed and bushy tailed and what not. The darkened windows mislead me into thinking I was up early, but when I checked the time, it was already 7 am, which meant I don't have the time to actually execute all that I had in mind. Why you ask? Well, my little one, who is now 16 months, will wake up in another 45 mins to 1 hour and once she is up, there...

It has been quite a while since I had the luxury to sit in front of my laptop, opening the blogger page and tapping the keys to see my thoughts unfold into words. And it is such a gratifying feeling to be able to do this - without any agenda, without any expectations of what will flow out or whether it will be interesting or boring or relevant or irrelevant. Just the simple act of being able to articulating the thoughts is a reward unto itself. The recent events in my life has made me understand the magic that each moment holds. Whatever maybe the external situation, no matter the grief, frustration, anger etc etc, if I pause for a moment, there is pure magic waiting in that moment.  The beauty of this life is its uncertainty. Anything can happen to anyone at anytime. Yet, here we are, planning and securing our future. No doubt it is essential, but in all the doing, to loose sight of just being is the biggest tragedy!  It is so profound to experience every moment in its entire...

Mornings are my most productive times. Am not talking about pre-dawn times when everyone is still asleep. No no.... I am mostly leading a yoga session during those times. Am talking about the comfortable 7-7.30 am types when we wake up without the aid of the alarm. The body and mind refreshed by sleeping as long as it needs, but not so long that half the day is already gone. On such days, especially like this Sunday morning, when I am not already pulled in so many directions and not constantly checking the clock, I like to indulge. But the problem with indulging is, I have too many favourite things to indulge :) I Start with all enthusiasm...brewing a hot strong sweet coffee and opening the Sunday express. As I am half way through the coffee, my mind stops paying attention to the sweet aromatic warmth sliding into my soul and starts jumping... "Oh how lovely it will be to do some yoga now...maybe I should do my journaling now and digest some of what I have been feeling / going thr...

Leaving aside the social, economic, environmental, political and all other aspects of this Covid-19 pandemic, I just want to dwell and delve within for a moment. We can distract ourselves by looking at the screen of our smart phones and computers and other devices for only so long. With all other avenues of distraction out of our reach, there is no choice but to face the monsters within.  The monster that I had to face was guilt. The irony here is, I didn't even know that guilt monster was actually lurking in my sub conscious, waiting to surface up unawares, grab me by my throat and drag me under...choking me in its vicious grip. The reason it caught me unaware was that it has always disguised itself under various names and forms -the urge to be productive, to be constantly engaged in action, to be useful, to be successful, to excel in all that I do, to confirm to expectations of living a certain way, ticking off milestones, earning a certain amount of money, the ...

Stillness captured somewhere in Gudur, AP If I were to choose one word to describe my current state of being, it would be stillness. Complete and absolute stillness at the physical, mental and spiritual level. This stillness is profound and profane at the same time. Profound because it makes me loose all track of time and space. It is all so pure, full and complete, with no sense of division or distinction . Profane because in this stillness, there is nothing left. Absolutely nothing...making everything seem so pointless anyways. All this strife and struggle and stress -what for? There is indeed nothing else to do, no where else to go. What am I trying to do anyways? The beauty in this stillness is beyond explanation. This is indeed bliss absolute, because actually, there is nothing external that is giving raise to this bliss. And in case you are wondering what I am tripping on -well, again it is nothing external. Our own body, mind and breath, when it comes to complete...

Before we start, here are the quick links to Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 & Part 4 .  It has been slightly more than a year since I wrote about oneness. I ended part 4 by saying how to put the theory of oneness into practice. To be honest, I didn't know how to put into practice at that time. Ever since, this unwritten piece has been always in my mind. I became more observant of myself and was constantly seeing how I was putting the theory into practice, so that I can finally finish this series. There were many attempts at finishing this...more than 10 drafts that were ruthlessly discarded over the year. After all, it is so easy to intellectually dissect a topic and give convincing arguments, but applying it practically in our lives is a different ball game all together. However, being completely convinced on an intellectual level helped me put my heart & soul into this journey.  Once, during a Satsang, Guruji Swami Tejomayananda mentioned that being at eas...

It is frustrating to look around and see how much damage we are doing consciously to our environment. Now, more than ever, we are at a tipping point where unless we start cleaning up our act, there may not be a planet to give to our future generations. To even contemplate the current scenario is very depressing. Even more depressing is when we think we can't do anything about it. We have been brought up with the thought that an individual has no power and his act alone cannot bring about any change in the society. Well, if that is the case, the society is nothing but a collection of individuals. It is not like as if the society is an animal of its own with head and hands and legs. It is us, every one of us, who create the fabric called society.  Further, if we live under the illusion that as an individual or as a family, we are not contributing to environmental deterioration, well, we only have to take a look into our garbage bins to understand otherwise. Just look a...