Leadership is an Expression of Effortlessly living the Opposites

Bold and Sensitive, Win & Fail, Direct and Inclusive, Together & Compete, Own and Delegate, Consistent and Take Risks, Prioritize and Let go, Passionate and Dispassionate…

It is evident that one cannot be on one side or have a preference to stay on one side of the opposite forever. Entrepreneurs, Business owners & Leaders are always surrounded by these opposites and the success is the resultant of leaders awareness for these opposites and putting them to its best use.

Lets take an example of how success looks in opposite situation –

when one Wins – receive recognition, share the credit, celebrate, feel grateful… 

and when one Fails – learning experience, look for best practices, build a special bonding & purpose in team, prayers… It is the lens we wear at different situations.

We are living in a great time to acknowledge many leadership styles and their profound comprehension of life skills. I would like to consider following two current evident facts around us

• Data or Information explosion – Social Media, Internet, Mobile applications, Internet of things, Satellites…
• People with extra ordinary capabilities – Entrepreneurship, Technology, Academics, Medicine, Sports, Adventure…

Technology makes lives simpler & easier while adding complexity & challenges to build & grow it.

Everything around us is getting connected to internet for us to make best use of things & situations. There is an outburst of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, building on logical & augmented algorithms to collect huge data & make interpretations and decisions.

Technology and tools helps to raise human expectations and in parallel we witness extreme human capabilities is growing over science. Humans have a very special subtle capability, Awareness & Intuition (A&I), that has enormous potential and either it manifests naturally or blossoms in presence of a Guru (Teacher or a Master). A&I is a necessary leadership quality that also works on infinite variables to derive decisions, which may not have the logical reasoning and yet these intuitive decisions has recognized many great leaders.

The worst of ideas manifest as radical industry trends eg Mobile front camera to click Selfie.

There is a direct & strong correlation of A&I with one’s perceiving capability. Perception happens from external world – what one see, hear, feel, smell or taste. And as it is influenced externally, it has a higher probability to be blurred. Compared to any gross skill like technical, communication… which needs effort for one to grow its capability, A&I is a subtle human faculty and it manifests in calm and clear minds.

The time on your clock has static intervals yet time observed is stretchable.

Our body is a brilliantly engineered machine ever created. It has a finite form yet infinite potential. Looking back few decades, it is unimaginable to witness the technology we are surrounded by today (Smart phones, Televisions, Internet, Satellites etc) . A&I is a vital phenomenon to bring these imaginations to life.

When I look up to my mentor, teacher or a Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of Art of Living, he aims to spread the knowledge & techniques for effortlessly living the opposites. Yoga, Breathing exercises & Meditation helps to remove the blur and clear ones perception to observe & balance the opposites. These opposites manifest and coexist seamlessly as one enjoys its complete awareness and appreciates the outcomes.

We are responsible for both our  actions & inactions

Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoyed this article. Please feel free to share your comments. For any references to knowledge and techniques, drop me a message.. !!

Title picture is from Pixabay by Johnhain.

A Teacher & A Guru

Every teacher’s day it reminds me of this comparison of teacher & Guru published in a newspaper article (below). Both roles are important in life.

A teacher takes responsibility for your growth.

A Guru makes you responsible for your growth

A teacher gives you things you do not have and require.

A Guru takes away things you have and do not require.

A teacher answers your questions

A Guru questions your answers

A teacher helps you get out of the maze

A Guru destroys the maze

A teacher requires obedience and discipline from the pupil

A Guru requires trust and humility from the pupil

A teacher clothes you and prepares you for the outer journey

A Guru strips you naked and prepares you for the inner journey

A teacher is a guide on the path

A Guru is a pointer to the way

A teacher sends you on the road of success

A Guru sends you on the road to freedom

A teacher explains the world and its nature to you

A Guru explains yourself and your nature to you

A teacher makes you understand how to move about in the world

A Guru shows you where you stand in relation to the world

A teacher gives you knowledge and boosts your ego

A Guru takes away your knowledge and punctures your ego

A teacher instructs you

A Guru constructs you

A teacher sharpens your mind

A Guru opens your mind

A teacher shows you the way to prosperity

A Guru shows the way to serenity

A teacher reaches your mind

A Guru touches your soul

A teacher gives you knowledge

A Guru makes you wise

A teacher gives you maturity

A Guru returns you to innocence

A teacher instructs you on how to solve problems

A Guru shows you how to resolve issues

A teacher is a systematic thinker

A Guru is a lateral thinker

A teacher will punish you with a stick

A Guru will punish you with compassion

A teacher is to pupil what a father is to son

A Guru is to pupil what a mother is to her child

One can always find a teacher

But a Guru has to find and accept you

A teacher leads you by the hand

A Guru leads you by example

When a teacher finishes with you, you graduate

When a Guru finishes with you, you celebrate

When the course is over you are thankful to the teacher

When the discourse is over you are grateful to the Guru

Colour your life

Every leader is a seeker & a student to recognize, learn and grow new skills. This is the most evident and easily witnessed quality of any leader. Diving a little deeper, there is another important aspect of a great leader that compliments their seeking – Their Undying Enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm is that fountain of positive energy which helps turn the biggest of obstacles into opportunities, gives the confidence to deal with risks and an attitude of a ‘YES mind’. It is the enthusiasm of the leader that becomes contagious and catches up in the organization.

In our quest of learning, knowing, growing & creating identity WE ARE LOOSING SOMETHING. Enthusiasm is the colour of life and is the biggest differentiator. The good part is that this enthusiasm stays within, hidden under the sheath of ignorance.

Since the beginning of life, we were gifted with high level of undying enthusiasm. Most parents/guardians/teachers reading would agree to this. As adults many times we fall short of our energy to match-up with kids.

In our busy schedules one can use few tips to keep enthusiasm live at all times:

Checklist: As a smart leader one should know & be observant of ‘What drains you & what uplifts you’.

NOTE: the kick that one gets from doing things that hurt self or others is not enthusiasm. That is only lack of sensitivity and fooling oneself.

Company you keep: We are surrounded by people – customers, employees, stakeholders… and family. As leader you have a choice to lend your ears to those who bring larger perspectives and inspire you.

Health: Body is a bundle of emotions and feelings. This is evident when we fall sick. Follow a heath regime.

State of Mind: Calm and clear mind help to drop any prejudice. Practice few minutes of meditation, music & dance each day. Learn few breathing techniques (Pranayam)

Service: Being thankful for receiving this beautiful life and praying for others. Being in innocence & develop compassion.

Wish you all a very happy Holi – The festival of colours

How to think ? !

This sounds abstract ‘How to think?’ and is this a question or a wonder.

This creation is entirely the manifestation of thoughts being actioned. In one life we get billions of opportunity to manifest our thoughts but only a few clicks us and gets manifested. And there are many that comes to us but are manifested elsewhere 🙂

Today our reservoir of thoughts – think tank, think bank, is overflowing and while we have network of road, rail and air traffic, there is no network that organizes the traffic of thoughts. Interesting, Isn’t it? A situation where our thoughts are constantly stacked and based on an intention it reaches the right mind for its manifestation. WOW!

I hope some of you may think of buying the best thoughts 🙂

If we look at current social networks, to some extent they have a very similar purpose. We capture emotions, locations, preferences, dialogs, search trends, browsing history… and call it as BIG DATA

The perspective that I am seeing is to build a correlation between the two variables – Thoughts and Intention. The thrive is to find the right match.

Intention is the ‘You’, the container, and based on the size, strength and material, the relevant thoughts would pour in. There are three ‘S’ to sharpen the ‘Intention’ which pulls the appropriate thought for manifestation

Singing – Being in the state of fullness

Service (Self less giving) – Experience the compassion

Silence.- Knowing the bigger self.

Hope you enjoyed reading!

Living the fear of risk

Lot of time when we have opportunities and miss grabbing them and the primary reason being Fear of Risk (Risk of failure).

For few weeks I was helping my kids to learn rolling skates. And as the nature of this sport, one is bound to fall while learning. My daughter after falling few times, started enjoying to fall. And on the other hand my son after falling became too careful to move ahead. When I asked my daughter, she understood that every time she falls, she is gaining the experience to handle herself better at different moves.

We live this story each day in our Corporate world. As leaders when we can start seeing the long term growth and success of our organisation, we start enjoying the small failures to move forward. With this definition, there is nothing as fear, it’s the play of moving towards our vision and celebrating failures for the larger success.

In an organisation, the fear is not limited to one person and it becomes very important for a leader to percolate his vision to everyone in the organisation. Any organisation is one organism and we need to move together to hold hands & enjoy the game!

Picture reference from Flick collection of Iliyan Yankov

Go with your Gut Feel!

 

‘Gut feel’ here is not about gastronomical symptom instead it’s the feeling that that one experience when making a bold decisions.

What are decisions?

..making a choice. And we have been doing that since our childhood, which toy to buy, which dress to choose, which friend to chat, which ice-cream to eat, which college to go, which job ….

If we all have an experience of our life time then what makes ‘decision making’ so important in the world around us.

Decisions can be rational – ones that have limited related variables to evaluate and can be evident. This can be related to what breakfast you choose to eat from the stuff laid on the breakfast table.

Decisions can be intuitive – ones that either are made on brink of time with high stakes or with no evident history/experience or involves numerous unrelated variables.

Reflection: Bring your attention to the former or latter situations and observe the quality of decisions that you made in your past. Important is NOT to relate your decisions to the situation instead relate it to your state of mind at that time.

The former decision making is based on your awareness and the latter is where ‘how your gut feels’, matters.

Being aware is like watching the sky and witnessing the passing clouds, birds and yet not getting disturbed by them.

Today we are exposed to so many options for everything and this is leading to growing mental disorders like ‘Dependent Personality Disorder’ or ‘Disorder of Diminished Motivation’ in our newer generation. In such a situation the person is not able to make decisions independently, lack awareness and loses motivation. He or she may choose to do what is ‘comfortable or easy’ than what is ‘important or needs courage’. Though these are extreme situations but they are not far from us. It is time for us to filter what we want to see, hear, taste, smell & touch.

Let me spend few minutes on the phrase ‘Gut feel’ and how it plays an important role in our decision making.

As the word says, it’s the sensation in the stomach or belly region at the time of making some bold decision. The same region in our body is where we have our Solar Plexus or Celiac Plexus* or Manipur Chakra. There are four types of energies* or feeling associated with this region – Greed, Jealousy, Generosity and Joy.

Greed & Jealousy is due to low energy (life force energy or Prana) and Generosity and Joy is due to high energy. The decisions made when Greed & Jealousy are dominant are short sighted and would lead to negative consequences like corruption, lack of innovation, lack of environmental and social responsibility and more. And the decisions made when Generosity & Joy are dominant are broad minded and would lead to long term benefits like innovation, winning together, social and environmental responsibility, culture of inclusion and more.

As both Awareness and Gut feel are subtle aspect of life, one cannot grow them with any physical effort. There is a need to go effortless, there is a need to sit with oneself and practice observation. Few minutes of meditation everyday makes one more aware and intuitive.

Ponder: 1. The decision is never between good and bad.  2. There are no right or wrong decisions.

I hope this article was of some relevance to you and I look forward for your comments and inputs for this article. There are more finer details to this topic and I would be happy to engage in specific discussion based on your interest. Also, please share if you would like me to write on any topic of your choice. Happy Reading!

*References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celiac_plexus

http://www.artofliving.org/seven-centers-energy-chakras

Spheres of life

Thought of spending some time to reflect on how many lives or roles I/we live each day and how does it matter? Most times I see myself playing multiple roles in a situation (Father/Husband/Son, Manager/Coworker/Friend, Community work/Friend/Leader..) and I am sure you too would observe the same in your life. And imagine the acts/roles we play throughout the day/week/year or this lifetime.. without effort, no trainings, real life drama ..The Best Actor Award Nominee 🙂

We live is multi sphere life – Professional, Personal (Family/Friends/Facebook..), Spritual/Religious, Hobby .. or may be lonely. Just reflect on what makes or can make us master these roles, switch gears across spheres, keeping ourselves in the focus and include others.. is it our intelligence, experience, social status, family background, attitude, emotions or feelings? I would say none of these…..

Observe your past and you would see the more relaxed was your state of mind the more you mastered the situation. This is a fine balance and need clarity in mind. Over our life and going through various experiences, we have created opinions, judgments, and perceptions about people, situation or objects in our Mind. This is the damn garbage we keep carrying through our lives. Just knowing this fact or truth brings a major shift in how you move through the spheres of your life.

Just know that the world outside is finite and the universe inside is infinite. Are you meditating?

Wish you a very Happy & Meditative 2013!!

I belong to you!

YES!+ with Bawa & Dinesh

Jai Gurudev!!

I got this amazing opportunity to be part of the YES!+ workshop from 27th Nov till 2nd Dec 2012. If you hear YES!+, it means high enthusiasm, wave of positive energy, bigger outlook to life, go do it attitude, ready to serve… getting short of words.

I was introduced to YES!+ a few months back during my TTC program at Art of Living Ashram. Post TTC, I wanted to start working with the YES!+ team and strangely something or other keeps coming in between and there is always a right time to start things . And nothing better than being part of YES!+ by Bawa & Dinesh, who have the excellence of knowledge & the simplicity of a saint and much more.

These 6 days were like a new journey in my life. There were more than 200 young participants from colleges, office going, waiting for jobs.. from across Bangalore. The crowd were young and I felt younger, even with my grey hair

The volunteers were completely charged and there was lot of pre-work done by them – Booking the college hall, intro talks to get hundreds of registrations, hall decor, acoustics, stage décor, issuing ID cards.. ideally everything seemed perfectly planned and executed. Some volunteers that I know – Anshul, Dilip, Sakshi and may be more..

Bawa and Dinesh kept the workshop very live with lots of games, activities and sharing life experiences. The engagement and the energy is this spiritual journey was entirely full of joy, fun & enthusiasm. There were other YES+ teachers which kept the momentum high. Gunjan, Vinod, Farrah, Aman and many more

The last day was at Bangalore Ashram and while I packed my bags, I could see my wife (Vandana) keen to come along. With no delay I took my family along to Ashram.

There was an appointment of all Bangalore YES+ teachers with Guruji and I was waiting for that time. And as the moment came I met him from very close and spent lot of time being in his presence. Though later Guruji asked as to leave before the mosquitoes could make the place a blood donation camp

Pratibha, is another dynamic YES+ teacher and I was really impressed with the time she spent talking about our culture and how the youth of India can make a difference to the society. Dinesh also talked about Volunteer for a Better India initiative and how beautifully its shaping in our country.

This event and workshop helped me go deeper in my commitment towards Seva, Sadhana & Satsang.

PC vs Mind

Today 17th Apr 2012, the search for ‘Processor Speed’ in Bing® gives you 52,000,000 results and in Google® gives you 55,000,000 results. In this era of computing and devices, there are billions & zillions getting invested to make things smaller, faster and better than the best. The question to ask is : Have we reached an end of improving processor speed or I should use the word ‘Performance’, of a computing device?

The quick answer that pops-up and it is ‘No’. There is more to go 🙂 New Generations of Processors are getting born each day.

Let me ask you one more question: Why do we need to improve Performance?

Few things that you may think of or may be more:

• Do more in less time – Faster
• Multitasking, multi threading…. – Efficiency
• Accuracy to a high degree – Reliable

Now why am I talking about Processor Speed or Performance and how is it related to You?

I would like you to sincerely close your eyes for few seconds & observer your mind..

S s s s h h h h h ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

What did you see or observe?? Be with your experience.

Lets repeat this again and this time you observe Your mind as Your Processor, yes a processor that is processing thoughts, emotions, feeling ….  Again close your eyes and observe your mind for few seconds…

Quick questions for your quest 🙂

• Is My mind really My processor?
• The input or the information processed in my mind, was what I wanted or desired or its Malware?
• Do I have control over the information getting processed or its Hacked?
• Am I able to processes a task/s Faster with high efficiency & reliability or its slow & vague?
• Do I have the right cooling & energy for My processor to function at its best or it is dull & lack enthusiasm?

You may have to sincerely practice few times to get closer to above questions and hopefully answers 🙂

These questions may sound philosophical and of-course they are. The intent here is bring your awareness on how you invest your time to improve Your Processor Speed – Your Mind. And I am sure I may not tell why we need to do this :), may be its not as obvious. If you don’t get this, please visit my blog sometime later 🙂

I have been part of Art of living which has brought tremendous change in how I look at life. This is not only me however anyone who is part of Art of living, experiences the magnitude of continuous excellence with peace of mind. I would love to see each of my friend/family to be in this wonderful state of well being.

If you want to learn or know more please visit www.artofliving.org. Please do leave a comment if you need to know more or have questions.

Patatanjali Yoga Sutras

Attended the discourse by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Patanjali Yoga Sutras

Day 1 – Senses

Senses are a bridge between Self and the Objects. The senses are shaking everyday – the mere reason being, we look for joy in Objects. When senses are shaken we are not able to hold the God within us.

Senses give you knowledge of the world and at the same time they give the knowledge of you to the world.

When things are steady around us, there is peace. The same is with the senses and when they are in harmony Meditation happens (Eyes Stable, Breath Steady, Senses are steady – The soul/consciousness becomes still)

The steadiness brings strength, dispassion and dignity in life. The time stops – this is when death stops and immortality rises. Like refrigeration of life – preserve it beyond time.

All senses have a degree to distraction towards self. Bringing steadiness to senses bring steadiness to Pranas. This can be related to the Crystals – they ways light pass through them.. the same way the life should pass through you and you are steady and centered – This can be called as Samadhi.

Sabeej Samadhi – The Samadhi in Action. This can be considered as the combination of the expanded state (relaxed) and high degree of awareness (focused). This happens when the consciousness, the object and the senses are in harmony

Nirvetark Samadhi – The state where you experience that ‘you are’. Eyes closed, thoughtless state. It is said that in this state the Divinity dawn. The knowledge that one experience in this Samadhi is very different from the one you read or hear. This wipes all past impressions in the Mind and renew the self.

You become what you see/hear/feel/taste/smell.. One can observe such Samadhi when you look at Sunset, Ocean… The mind is calm. If the mind is on some trip – using judgement, comparisions etc.. its not Samadhi eg. this is better, that was good

 

Day 2 – The Discipline of Yoga

Shasan & Anushasan

Shasan – Rule that are put by others (King, Government .. ) on you & Anushasana – Rules that are put by self (discipline)

When one gets enjoyment while doing a any task – there the discipline is not required. Then why do we need discipline? When the first steps are not enjoyable and the end result/state is joyful, blissful – there the discipline is required.

Pleasures that we experience in life –

Satvik pleasures – The pleasures experienced after discipline in life.

Rajsik pleasures – The pleasures where the beginning is good but end is not so good.

Tamsik pleasures – The pleasures that appear to be good but are miserable from start to end.

The discipline in yoga is required to abide by the nature of seer (one who is seeing – that is you). It is very important to know the modes of our Mind or Consciousness.

• Pramana – Want of Proof
• Pratyaksha – Proof out of Obvious or Experienced or Senses
• Anumana – Proof out of Guess or Inference
• Aryamana – Proof out of Text or Scriptures or Groups (Sabda Pramana)

One does not need proof for ‘You are’ and anything that can be proven can be disproven. The truth is beyond proof as Proof is connected to logics and logics are limited.

• Vipajaya – Imposing ones ideas on others

This is the state when you impose your thoughts on others – They don’t like, he is rude… and are judgmental of others. One can consider this as Wrong Knowledge and this stands in front of all logics and inferences.

• Vikalpa – Joyful fantasies or Baseless fears

This is a type of Hallucination state – imaginary, unfounded, baseless..

• Smriti – Remembering the experiences of past
• Nidra – Sleep

Yoga is to drop the active states of mind and coming back to self. Abhyasa & Vairagya play a key role. Abhyasa – Knowing the modes of mind and observing it. Vairagya – dispassion and be ‘Here’ in the moment.

 

Day 3 – Honoring the Practice

Mind plays an important role and at the same time mind cannot be ‘You’. One can relate this as – the waves cannot go to the depth of the ocean. The mere thought that it’s the mind and observing it, bring the stillness or steadiness and the effort to be still or steady is practice – to be in ‘Now’ and understanding that now is not linear – its infinite.

To get firmly established and mastering anything it is very important to know what is Practice – Abhyasa

The practice takes Long, Without gap and With honor and respect.

What is honor – It is the total attentiveness to present moment with gratefulness.

Honor should happen every moment and should be independent of time – relate it to instance when you honor someone with high gratitude the first time and the same honor dies or fades over period of time. And the practice to honor or honoring the practice is Abhyasa.

As we talked earlier on the modes of mind – it move towards the senses (sense of sight, smell, taste, touch and heard). This build desires or cravings (the wanted to have more) in life – move you away from being in the present moment.

The moment of retrieving the mind from the cravings or desires is Vairagya (Dispassion).

Caution of the desire  of not having a desire is another desire – Fear of temptation.

The mind looks for unlimited happiness and the senses are not able to give the same. The desires or pleasures can be characterized as Styrofoam.

 

Day 4 – Samadhi

It is very important for one to know how divided or centered one is. Just observe that when you are with the world what all divides you (family, friends, office, TV soaps, facebook….. ). At the same time it is very important to be with the world. The skill to be centered and being with the world can be brought by Dispassion. This may not come to you by just reading this text, but its very important to observe and retrospect in your life.

Few aspects of Dispassion that can be applied

Samadhi [Sama – Equality/Equanimity & Dhi – Intellect] This is a state of intellect where you move from Tarka to Vitarka [Tarka – Logic which can be proven and disproven too, Vitarka – Special logic, which cannot be reverted. There is another form of tarka, Kutarka – which is the ill intellect or logic]. If the above sounds tough to understand, just relate this to dispassion.

Vichara [Observe or Think] This state is where you observe your thoughts and the experiences of your senses. This is a Meditative state with experiences and thoughts – you are the observer.

Ananda [Blissful] This is a Meditative state of ecstasy and bliss.

Asmita – Meditative state of just ‘you are’ and nothing else.

While you read this, the next question you may have is how to apply this in life. At the same time its important to note that these aspects cannot be applied in action… these are done while Resting – Practice rest.. Conscious rest.

It is said that while one practice samadhi or meditation, it impacts various subtle level of creations and not only does it elevate the present being, but also the existence in past and future.

While you retrospect, you can observe the following state of mind, which is reflective of Samadhi..

Prakriti Lay Samadhi [Dissolving/Merging in the object] – You may have observed this when you keep watching sunset, beach, mountain…. or any such creation and the mind is very still.

Shradha [Faith] – This consolidates the energy in the being and makes the consciousness stable/solid. Doubt is the reverse of this where your consciousness is scattered and you become weak.

Virya [Courage/Vitality/Valor] – This is the burst of energy and the defense system in you comes to its peak.

Smriti [Memory] – Remembering the good memories of the past. Memory of samadhi, love, joy… in past, brings you back to yourself.

Pragya [Heightened Awareness] – This is the output/resultant of samadhi, which is the equanimous state of mind.

It is very important to note that every thing in the existence is for you to enjoy and not get caught up with. To enjoy the world around you, dispassion & samadhi is the key. Give 1st preference to your spiritual practices – Jai Gurudev!

 

Day 5 – Who is GOD?

Another set of questions that come along with this is .. What is lordship? What rules the world?

To derive the answer one must observe all levels of existence.. atoms to insects to animals to oceans to planets to universe… and you may observe that Love is the core every existence/consciousness. Every activity in universe is because of Love. Atoms are attracted and form molecules, planets are moving around Sun as they follow the Gravitation and much more….

The pure consciousness is free of miseries/suffering (Kalesha). God is devoid of all sufferings. Sufferings in life are: Avidya [Ignorance] – Giving importance to something that is not worth. The mere thought of words, objects as permanent, is complete ignorance. Asmita [Me & I] – Thinking about ‘I’ and ‘Me’, not being one with existence and seperated from everyone. Other types being Raga – Desires/Cravings, Aversions & Abhinivesha – Fear/Caution.

Karma [actions] – types of karmas are the ones which give merits or give demerits or mix of merits and demerits or devoid of merits and demerits.

Vipaka [fruit of action] – can be joy, suffering..

Ashya [Latent impression/desires]

GOD is free from Kalesha, Karma, Vipaka & Ashya. This is within everyone. Every event or happening in life is virgin and when you worship, this act help you dissolve mind into its being. Every master that came to existence has said the same in different words – who ever you pray, it comes to ME and this ME is free. This is Guru Principle, which is beyond time. God/Guru/Yourself is same.

The seed of all knowing is present in this moment/this consciousness. OM is the sound that denotes this consciousness.

Types of Obstacles:

Vyadi – Illness in body, Sthyana – Illness in mind, Samshya – Doubt, Pramada – Knowingly doing wrong, Carelessness, Alasya – Laziness, Avirati – engaged in any of sense object – craving, desires or obsession, Bhranti Dasrshan – Halicunation, No attainment/progress for long time, Instability – don’t stay for long in any state.

Signs of Obstacles:

Bitterness, Sadness, Lack of coordintation in body, Restlessness, Irregular breathing

 

Day 6 – Overcoming Obstacles

Just do one thing – One pointed attention [Eak Tatva Abhyasa]

Mind is in trouble because of duality/divided mind – divided mind is misery & one pointed mind is joy. Applying the One principle in everyone….

People – Friendliness with people who are Happy, Compassionate with people who are Unhappy [understand the difference between pity and compassion], Feel happy with Meritous people and drop jealously [don’t find fault for people doing good job] & Educate and ignore the people doing Sinful acts.

Breath – Breaking the rhythms of the breath and performing conscious rhythms.

Senses – Being with one object of senses and be with it.

Mind – Train the mind on Happiness and Unhappiness as same. Don’t compare yourself with anybody. See your mind/consciousness as a flame (Jyothismati): Mind – Flame, Wick – Body, Wax – Food & Oxygen – Oxygen

Engage mind in thoughts of enlightenment – Mind develops the qualities of, where ever applied. Perform any form of Meditation you like

Knowledge of Sleep & Dreams – Sleep is where you ‘Let go’ and loose your identity. The dreams can be either unfulfilled/latent desires, stress from past, intuitive, mixed and related to the place you are in.Ignorance is converting dreams to reality and enlightenment is know reality as dreams.

Signs of Progress in awakening:

The nature starts supporting you. Smaller than smallest and bigger than biggest comes in preview of your life.

 

Day 7 – Kriya Yoga [Yoga of action]

Moving from anxious mind (focused on event/object) to time, is yoga (Union with time). The art of moving from ‘Waiting for something’ to ‘Wait for the moment’ – Observe time…. very subtle knowledge.

Kriya, the activity – there is activity in everything in the whole creation. There is infinite activity at this moment (people talking, cars moving, raining, draught, night, day, birth, death……. ). There is activity in silence and silence in activity. The skill to observe this is Kriya Yoga.

When we talk of Kriya Yoga, there are following associations: Tapaha (endurance and acceptance), Svadhyaya (Observing the self) & Ishvara Pranidhana (Devotion to divine).

While we talk to Kriya, its important to talk of types of fire that sustains life – Physical fire, fire of desire, fire of hunger/digestion, fire of criticism & fire of knowledge.

In general routine we keep pushing the fire down, eg: feel fever, eat paracetamol. feel hot, turn on airconditioner. feel hungry, eat fast food… If we keep pushing the fire down early, it raises inertia (dullness and lack of enthusiasm).

Eating and Sex are two activities that happen with every existence – is called Sanskara.

Fasting helps cleanse your digestive system and touches the ages long sanskara of eating.

Tapas – Being burnt in the fire of existence. Satvik tapas is about doing, Rajsik tapas is doing for a purpose and Tamsik tapas is about torture yourself. We have tapas of body, words (speech) and mind.

Tapas of body is like physical hygine, say on your senses…

Tapas of words is speaking such words that does not excite others and their minds. Know how your words effects others mind. As one grows in spirituality, words make lot of sense and can make lot of difference.

Tapas of mind is being pleasant in the mind, contentment, back to oneself. Its is important to obseve that ones body is within mind

Body—-10x—- Prana—-10x—-Mind—-10x—-Bliss

 

Day 8 – Veils of Misery

Tapas alone may lead to ego and its not the completion. Tapas is followed by Svadhyaya (Self study). There is always a storm inside of thoughts, emotions, desires.. Svadhyaya is to observe sensation, mind and your nature – leads to universe which is unknown. And finally surrender to divine (love)

Tapas + Svadhyaya + Love = Samadhi

Offer everything to divine and feel close. If you offer –ve, you become free & clean and if you offer +ve you become free from virtues & ego.

Comparison brings weeds in life. Stop comparing and start feeling close to divine – its like sowing useful plants and cleaning the weeds.

We already talked about sufferings (Kaleshas) in Day 5. The miseries are menifested in following modes – Sleepy (dormant/subtle, Feable (little), One of them is predominant (others dormant) and all in action. Samadhi is to move towards the state of sleeping kaleshas.

If you relate to earlier talk now, miseries are also form of karmas and if it is not cleared, it forms karma bank -  which would lead to more miseries that will follow not only in this life time but in future life times too. Every karma would result in fruit, the time for the fruit to come may vary.

This is very well said by our ancestors –Bliss is getting away from the cycle (chakra) of karma.

 

Day 9 – Eliminating the cause of Pain

What is pain and where does it originate? You may observe pain as… longing for a result, memory of pleasure, when in joy the fear to loose it, love, separation, wishes…. the pain may vary and is very important to observe it. From the eyes of wisdom everything is associated with Pain

Viveka – wisdom to discriminate, everything is manifestation of consciousness and is dynamic.

The skill or Viveka to separate the Seer (one who is seeing) from the Scene, eliminates pain

Human life is the only existence where the conciousness can blossom for freedom to menifest. Yoga helps shines the Viveka.

Eight Limbs of Yoga – Limbs signify that they grow together and are connected to the whole.

Yama:

• Ahimsa – non violence (no harm to others and even to one’s ownself)
• Satya – Truth, something which is not changing.
• Brahmacharya – Barahma [Infinite] & Charya [Move]. When one see everything as consciousness, beyond body.

Niyama:

• Shaucha – Cleanliness of Body & Soul.
• Santosha – Satisfaction, contentment.
• Svadhaya – Knowledge of self
• Ishvara Pranidhana – Surrender to divine or worship divine

Asana: Discipline of body, Pranayama: Prana [life force] + ayama [expansion], Pratyahara: Say on senses as sensory organs move one from inside to outside, Dharana, Dhyana & Samadhi.

Jai Gurudev!!