The way I see it

My friend Kathleen said a wonderful thing in one of our recent discussions. She was talking about the "evolution of consciousness". The real meaning behind our evolution is the development of our consciousness. And this keeps evolving for all of us until it ultimately merges into the universal consciousness. That is the most wonderful defnition of evolution I ever heard! It is not necessarily about the evolution of mankind from using stone tools to computers but how much are we unfolding the universal Truth within our minds. And everyone of us is at a different stage in this evolution. The earthworm is at a different level than what I am and further the sage is at a much higher level than me. My friend Kalyani always says that everybody's starting point is different as far as their spiritual endeavours go. And this difference I think is because we all are at different stages in this process of evolution. And it encompasses several generations or if I may say several lifet...

I was wondering about destiny. Is everything already planned out by Him and we are the mere instruments? Why does evil exist then? But how do we define evil? What might be evil for us might be a very good thing for someone else. These are just dualities and have no absolute existence. May be we do not have to worry too much about them. All we can do is play our part to the best of our abilities, keeping in mind that we are just the instruments and He is the doer. As Lord Krishna says to Arjuna: Therefore arise for battle, O Arjuna. You will gain fame by conquering the enemy and enjoy a flourishing kingdom. All these warriors have been slain already by Me due to a previous design. You are merely an instrument (nimitta-matra). [11.34] The path we choose in fulfiling our duties then becomes our karma.

Life is tuff, with so much of stuff. I am always stressed to make the right choice, everyone's advice is not my type. I try, try and try listening to my loved ones, yet there is no solace in my little world. Then why should I listen, why should I obey when nothing makes it to the foray. My confidence is weak, my dreams shattered, no one knows my heart is broken. He said, Oh my beloved! Life is wonderful and it is fair I love you my dear, and will take care of you Just open your heart and listen to my voice You will know its your own little voice listen to it, listen to it my dear Follow my path and believe in thy strength Oh Lord, everything unto thee You are the only thing that is mine, you are my final destination.

I am serious, I really do love cliches. And I realized that only recently...or you can say I started loving them only recently. Life kind of runs in circles they say, so did mine. Like most of us, I grew up listening to all the cliches like honesty, sacrifice, goodness, selflessness, etc. In every school, every household and in almost all those old hindi movies in India....these ideas are resounding. You will find them everywhere. But may be an overdose of anything kills it, so did these ideas reach their saturation points for me. I grew up with these values and in my late teens I kind of got irritated with them. They no longer made too much sense. I live for myself and to fulfil my dreams....I thought. It was "me" everywhere. Every step that I took was for pleasing this "I". And on a second thought, may be this building up of "I" is important till a certain point in our lives. But as I grew out of my college days, out of those career minded days, I felt d...

I came across an intersting book during my recent trip to Santa Barbara. It was about the history of world's different board games. While I was browsing through the book, I came across my favorite game as a kid....Snakes and Ladders! I found its history intersting and hence presenting it here for you all. The game was originated in India. The original name of the game was "Moksha Patum". The game is about the concepts of Hinduism like karma and reincarnation. The snakes represent our sins and the ladders represent our good deeds. The number "100" on the board represents moksha or salvation. All of us have to achieve salvation(square 100) and our good and unselfish deeds (ladders) help us in it while our sins(snakes) drag us down and we have to reincarnate to reach that final goal. Initially the game was played on a circular board but the Britishers most probably changed it into a square board and gave it the name snakes and ladders! It would have been intersting...

This blog is dedicated to my dear grandmother, whom we used to call "Mai". I have been thinking of her off late...what I really learnt from her. The three things that first pop up in my mind which summarize her character are: cleanliness, truthfulness and independence. She always taught me to speak the truth, come what may. And I never understood the importance of it until recently. How important this "truth" is in our lives. One obvious plus is peace of mind...you don't have to maintain two sides of the same story! But when a 22 year old talks about truth and a 80 year old talks about truth, the source of their knoweldge is different. When a 22 year old talks about truth he usually has gained that knowledge either from his elders or his books or may be his few experiences. But when a 80 year old woman speaks so passionately about her ideal: truth, that knowledge has come from her entire life experiences. Why would she talk about these high values if they have n...

This is an extract from "The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda-Volume 2". I really liked it and was inspired hence presenting it here for everyone's benefit. It is taken from a chapter where he explains 'Practical Vedanta'. To be able to use what we call Viveka(discrimination) to learn how in every moment of our lives, in every one of our actions, to discriminate between what is right and wrong, true and false, we shall have to know the test of truth, which is purity, oneness. Everything that makes for oneness is truth. Love is truth, and hatred is false, because hatred makes for multiplicity. It is hatred that separates man from man; therefore it is wrong and false. It is a disintegrating power; it separates and destroys. Love binds, love makes for that oneness. You become one, the mother with the child, families with their city, the whole world becomes one with the animals. For love is Existence, God Himself; and all this is the manifestation of that One Love,...