Contemplations

  Every now and then, we will face things that we cannot control. The untrained person might feel an increase in heart-rate, faster breath rate, restlessness and irritation.  Irregularity and volatility in heart rate has a far more harmful effect than one imagines because heart along-with the mind controls all functions of the body. It is therefore wise to know methods to stay calm in stressful times.  A lot of people have overcome difficulties, but blessed is the man who can face them without falling prey to restless thoughts. At an age where humans are hungry for truth, it is best to study the divine teachings with a scientific mind.   The divine teachings say - center within yourself and you will be able to remain in joy amidst crashing worlds. I would like to write about instructions given by Krishna in the Gita, which can help deal with some difficult situations. He talks about surrender. Unfortunately, the concept of surrender is often clouded or confused ...

  I meant to write this yesterday, but my laptop got slow when I wanted to start writing. I want to write about my moments of peace and traces of joy I experienced at the beginning of this week. One morning this week, I felt peace took over me. I could perceive within myself complete absence of fear, jealousy, hatred, anger, grief, excessive pride and contempt towards another person. It was a complete state of equanimity in body and mind. It led to calmness. I was able to carry it into all my personal and professional activities throughout the week. The small joy felt like someone caressing the hair gently.  My sincere wish is that everyone experiences something similar because it is beautiful! It feels like everyone who will come in contact with you will experience joy and peace in their own time, there is no second guessing that.  Of-course these do not come without work. Just like flowers and fruits sprout from a plant after you sow the seed and water it regularly, exp...

  Astonishment - A poem From an ever expanding,  Glowing sphere of light,  are Emanating rectangular atoms,  of Beatific colors, Changing from golden to green,  then Moving through darkness to orange, back to golden,   Coming towards with a celestial aura so powerful that,  a perfect rainbow, the limitless sky,  and the poetic language,  be but mere imitation. 

 I was supposed to meet someone for lunch today; We had lunch, the food was very satisfying, and then the universe switched it up. We ended up watching one of the most peaceful sunsets!, which was completely unplanned.   From my perspective, this sunset was simple yet very, very different from any of the sunsets I have experienced before. The spot was at a perfect height from the horizon, no person or ships in the line of sight. The sight was uncluttered with just the beach, the waves, and the sun followed by phenomena of sunset and all the various colors that comes with it. Simple things that can light you up with joy! . The sunset was so peaceful because it gave me the experience of some minutes of complete thoughtlessness.  My lesson was -  when we live life in a simple way, everything is peaceful. Isn't that a beautiful way to live ? anything we feel complicated is essentially a bunch of simple things put together in a step by step manner. We can use our wil...

 This week I got stuck with some work in office that I couldn't figure out. After two full days of thinking, I kind of figured out but not completely. More importantly, now I know how to proceed without getting stuck at that point. The desire to write something today combined with the day's events is making me write something about "getting unstuck".   Why is getting unstuck important ? Because when we feel stuck, we can make incorrect decisions. We tend to make decisions based on moods. We forget to ask ourselves the simple questions. To start making good decisions, we can ask ourselves two simple questions - (1) Am I making these decisions out of my moods or am I making this out of logic and my true feelings ? - (2) Is it worth it to me ? In other words, if I succeed in my efforts in this, will life become better ? Why to we feel stuck ? It could be any reason! One of the common reasons is - we might do the same things and expect a different result (Einstein said - ...

 Long ago, when I heard about infinity first in school, I asked mom what is infinity - the symbol that looks something similar to a horizontal 8. She said it is something very large. The homework question in the book was - what is infinity + 1. Everyone (including that textbook) said infinity.  My first thought on hearing this was "what non-sense".  A google search gives conflicting answers. Something very large is just not satisfactory enough as an answer. I will attempt to answer my own question - what is infinity ?  To understand abstract concepts such as infinity, we must use logic as well as feel what it means. We often forget that a highly intellectual mind cannot absorb concepts correctly. Luckily, two tools can help us here - imagination and visualization. Visualization is not the same as hallucination. Visualization is a conscious process that involves effort.   You might have come across this as a visualization exercise elsewhere, but it is very u...

  Today, a song called "Vande Mataram" showed up on my you-tube feed. As I was listening, I had a unique experience of truly respecting the country I am in. (not where I was born and spent the first 20 years) We don't always have control with regard to which country we will live in. That is because our ambitions and inspirations often require us to travel to other countries and inhibiting our ambitions and inspirations is unhealthy. We are bombarded with concepts of homeland, motherland, etc. As a result we are unable to perceive that the land we are currently in is nourishing us just like a mother. Instead we will be pushed to think about missing our home! (the childhood one).   When we think of mother, comfort comes to our mind. A mother never wishes the child to be unhappy. If we are truly unhappy, sometimes just a change of home in the same country might make a huge difference!, or on some occasions we may go back to the place we were born, or even to a different coun...