Karunya Marine Sea Foods Exports Pvt. Ltd. Staff Training

Hotel Pearl, Kolhapur - Staff Training

Training at IVRCL, Pune on 8th March, 2014.

Some of my photos at IVRCL, Pune. IVRCL is one of the leading Infrastructure companies that has been instrumental in building 2300 kms of canal system in the country and 25000 kms of pipelines. One of its major contribution is the desalination plant in Chennai which provides drinking water to million people per day.  I was training the HR Executive staff on Proactive Attitude Building, Time Management and Stress Management. 

7 Ways to control your Mental Life

Mind management with the following steps would enhance your life to a greater extent in all areas of your life be it personally, professionally, financially, spiritually or physically. You are supposed to practice the 7 techniques for a period of 3 weeks so that they are ingrained in your subconscious mind and manifest as reality in your life.

1.      Visualization: Our visual images become our reality. What we visualize, we actualize! Visual images intensify our desire and deepen our beliefs. They increase our willpower and build our persistence. When you visualize, you should be sure that you do it frequently, it should be very vivid and clear, it should be backed up by emotional intensity and finally it should the mental image should be held on for a longer period of duration.

2.      Affirmation: Affirmations should follow the 3 P rule. They should be Positive, in Present Tense and Personal. So instead of saying ‘I will be successful one day’ (future tense), you should say, ‘I am successful’ (Present tense). Remember the Subconscious mind doesn’t hear ‘no’. If you say, ‘I don’t want to be in debt’ the Subconscious takes it as, ‘I want to be in debt’.

3.      Verbalization: You should not just affirm but also verbalize or affirm loudly your goals. Anything we say loudly with conviction and enthusiasm has a greater impact on our thinking and subsequent behavior. Also keep your conversation consistent with what you are affirming throughout the day. Refuse to discuss your fears or misgivings.

4.      Acting the Talk: The fourth technique is acting the part. You should walk, talk and behave the person you wish to be. Behave as if you have already achieved the goals you’ve set for yourself. When you do this you are setting the Law of Reversibility in motion. It says that when you feel optimistic and happy you generate actions and behavior consistent with your feelings. If you don’t have the feeling but act and behave ‘as if’ you have them soon you will generate the consequent feelings.

5.      Feeding your Mind: Positive Mental Attitude diet is another essential ingredient to build up mental resilience. We should continuously feed our minds with words and images consistent with the direction we are growing in. We need to read books, magazines, watch videos and hear audios that are educational and uplift our spirits.

6.      Association with Positive People: You are an average of the five people you spend your most time with said Jim Rohn. It is a very true saying. A research tells that our reference group has a bigger say on our success or failure. Associate with people who lift up not tear down. Be selective and aware when you associate with people and make friends.

7.      Teaching Others: Remember you become what you teach and what you teach you are. When we attempt to articulate and teach someone something, we internalize it better ourselves. We really know something to the degree we are able to teach it to someone else.

Mastering our mind is the most essential factor that will decide our success or failure in life. May we all be the masters of our minds, lives and our destinies.

 

Why do we behave the way we do?

‘Change’ is the most sought word consciously or unconsciously by all of us. We all want to change for the better! It could be better person, habits, values, job, earnings, relations etc. But it is quite challenging for most of us to adapt to new practices and habits. We find ourselves as the chief ‘enemy’. Why do we behave the way we do?  Well, we need to be aware of:

1.      Homeostasis: The unconscious tendency to be drawn irresistibly towards doing what we have always done. It is the natural mechanism built in us to function automatically in many areas. It is this mechanism that keeps our body temperature at 98.6 Fahrenheit. It also maintains the chemical balance within our bodies. It has the tendency to keep us in the ‘comfort zone’ whenever we do something contrary to our current habits. It’s nature’s way to keep us consistent with the way we’ve been in the past. But we should remember, “Everything we want is out of our comfort zones.”

2.      Psycho sclerosis- This is can be termed as “hardening of attitudes.” It is the tendency to fall in love with our own ideas and to defend them against new ones. Many of us remain average because we fail to be open to new ideas. We become too rigid. The mark of superior people is that they are mentally flexible to accept new ideas.

3.      Power of Love: Much of what we do is to get love or compensate for the lack of love in our early childhood. This emotion exerts strong influence on our choices and decisions. Almost everything we do – the goals we set, the dreams we dream, the commitments are influenced by the power of love. When we want to change, everything we do must be consistent with the amount of love and respect we have for ourselves and that others have for us. We should start by loving ourselves.

4.      Power of Suggestion: Our mind is affected by everything that goes around us. The suggestive environment around us has an impact on everything we become or what happens to us. Much of the suggestive environment around us is negative The media, the people who whine and carp, the “ain’t it awful” talking etc. We need to have control over this suggestive environment around us purposefully. We should create our own positive world conducive to the person we want to become.

Knowledge and awareness of why we behave the way we do is the first step that we all can take towards bona fide change!

How to give ‘Constructive Feedback’?

“A great goal of life is lifting people up versus bringing people down.” Robin Sharma. Feedback is the breakfast of champions, and it is the most essential diet to improve individual, professional, organizational performance. But many times, our feedback can bring people down rather than lift them up. Whenever we give feedback, it should be constructive and not destructive. How can we ensure this? The following steps from Brian Tracy’s book, ‘Maximum Achievement’ can really help us:

1.      Protect Individual Self Esteem: Remember self esteem is like the balloon while words can be potential needles. Be gentle; let the person know that the feedback is being given in the best of his/her interest. You could even start with words like, “I like you” or better “I love you” and then go on with process of correction.

2.      Focus on Future: Don’t cry over the spilt milk! The focus should be ‘What do we do from here?’ Use words like, “Next time, why don’t you…” Energy flows where attention goes. If we focus on the wrong thing done too much, we will receive the same in the future. Focus on the corrections that need to be carried out. Don’t harp on the negative past and wrong doing which can discourage the person.

3.      Focus on the behavior or performance: Don’t focus on the person. Rather the behavior or the performance. Instead of saying, “You are not selling enough,” say, “Your sales figures are below expectations.” Many times we get into the tendency of generalizing things. We look at a wrong act and conclude that the person as a whole is wrong. We should be able to separate the person from his/her action and behavior which happened in a particular context.

4.      Use “I” to retain ownership of your feeling: Instead of saying, “You make me very angry,” say, “I feel very angry when you do that” or “I am not happy about the situation and I would like to discuss how we could change it.”  We should take the responsibility of our feeling or the reaction, not blame it on the other person.

5.      Clear agreement: Get clear agreement on what is to change, when and by how much. Be specific, solution oriented. Say things like, “In the future, it’s important that you keep accurate notes and double check things before the shipment.”

6.      Offer help: Ask, “What can I do to help you in this situation?” Show the person how to do and what to do. Be a leader who takes along his people and stoops down to serve and help.

7.      Assume that the person wants to do a good job: If a person has done a bad job or made a mistake the problem lies in the limited skill, incomplete information or misunderstanding. Be calm, patient, sensitive and supportive. Build rather than tear down.

The greatest favor we can do to someone is to build his/her self esteem and self efficacy. It will go on to exceptionally build our relationships at home, workplace and everywhere. Constructive Feedback is what we should be committed to. 

Memories that I cherish as an Anchor and Soft Skills Trainer.

Ask, Seek, Knock!

I have been always fascinated with the Biblical verse in the Gospel of Matthew 7:7 where Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given, seek and you will find and knock and it will be open to you." Here I intend to throw a light that can help us to grab the potential of this verse and apply it to our everyday situations to better our lives.

Ask and it will be given: You ask somebody for something and you get it. At the outset this is what the verse seems to be indicating. But let's have an inside-out approach. To be an effective person, the first step is to ask ourselves, our higher consciousness as to what exactly that we want in life. The answer to that will be our vision and purpose in life! This is what Stephen Covey in his '7 Habits of Highly Effective People' terms as 'Begin with an end in mind.' When you ask the question as to why are you here on the planet earth, you will experience an paradigm shift and start to devote your energies and life for a nobler, better and higher purpose. Ask and it will be given unto you!

Seek and you will find: The next clause asks us to seek. What do we seek? We seek the right perspective of  now achieving our vision and purpose in life. You got to visualize yourselves as already having reached that purpose and vision in life. Visualization will lead you to actualization. It will help you to find right people and resources that can help you achieve your dreams in life. See things in the right perspective. See with hope in you mind's eyes, be wise enough to know what to overlook and what to focus on! Seek and you will find!

Knock and will be opened unto you: The last clause is action oriented. The first one was a meditative oriented step. The next was again an inside out approach, a right brain activity which deals with creating your world and than seeing its fruition. But the bridge from visualization to its fruition in real life is the bridge of taking appropriate actions in tune with your vision and goals in life. When the right opportunities show up, the right connections come along your way, you got to grab them and take action. You got to be proactive. You got to organize and execute around your priorities. You got to probably write down your schedule and see that you are spending most of your time in activities in tune with your higher purpose in life. Knock and the door will be opened for you!

There it is Jesus is giving us the formula of effectiveness in life. Let's sum it up by saying, "Delve deeper, Design deliberately  and Do dedicatedly! 

Create your own day!

If you don’t be the creator and master over your today, somebody else or circumstance will create and master you. So how do you create your day? Here are a few tips:

1.      Pray to God: Knowing that the Universal force is backing you, God is on your side, will give you assurance and courage to face whatever comes in the day. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

2.      Visualize: What we visualize, we actualize! Imagination is the sole privilege of human beings. Use your imagination and visualize your perfect day. See your superiors happy with your work, see that you are giving your very best, see that you are smiling, happy and healthy. Once the sub conscious receives this visualized picture, it will start acting on your day and your actions will be guided to do and be the same.

3.      Exercise and eat a healthy breakfast: Your body is the temple that houses God. Keep it fit, nurture it with the best. Jog, run, or hit the tread-mill. Eat a wholesome, healthy breakfast. It will fuel your energy for the day.

4.      Step out with love: Love everything that comes across your day, people, circumstances, jobs etc. Love is the Midas touch that transforms ordinary things to extraordinary. Don’t judge, just love

5.      Give your best shot: Whatever you come across in the day, just give your best shot to it. It may be meeting clients, delivering a presentation, working on a project, listening to a lecture etc. However insignificant you think it is, give your best shot. Don’t think of yesterday with regret or anticipate trouble for future. Concentrate on the day and the work in your hands.

6.      Gratitude: Let your memories be filled with gratitude. Whenever you find time to contemplate, think how blessed you are to have a family who loves you, a job to provide for your needs, friends, opportunities. Many may be wishing to be in your place. Thank God and be grateful to everyone and everything that you come across.

7.      Better yourself: The best competition you can have is with yourself. Try to be a better person, a better family man or woman, a better employee or better boss, better student, better sportsman, artist etc. Read, undergo coaching, classes or other things that can help you to sharpen your skills. Remember what Edmund Hillary said, “It’s not about conquering mountains, it’s about conquering ourselves.”  

Attitude matters!

An angry dog decides to visit a unique house with thousand mirrors, It is very upset to find 1000 dogs staring in anger at him. Scared, he comes out and decides, 'This house in not a good place to be in, I will never comeback' Some other da

y, a smiling dog visits the same house and finds 1000 smiling dogs welcoming him in the house. He decides, "I love this place and will always return here". Friends, the disposition we carry about gives us a position of discomfort or comfort in life!

Faster, Higher, Stronger- London Olympics 2012

Citius, Altius, Fortius! The Latin words which is the perennial motto for Olympics means Faster, Higher Stronger. As the London Olympics kick off today with the grand opening ceremony and continue till 12th August, 2012, the motto are symbolic in reminding us of what life is all about!

"Great dreamers' dreams are never fulfilled, they are always transcended." This quote of Alfred Lord Whitehead, says it all. If you carefully analyse the motto, you will find that the words are comparative adjectives. It makes us think why not just adjectives or for that matter, why not the superlatives- fastest, highest and strongest? Life is all about growing continuously. It is about inching further from the place where you were yesterday. It can be compared to the river water that is continuously making its way and progressing to reach the vast stream of ocean. 

It cannot be fastest, highest, and strongest. If we had the record set for all times in events like the the 100 meters dash or for the high-jump and nobody had been able to break it, the games would have better discontinued. Every athlete and sportsperson competes dreaming to better the set world record. Last time Michael Phelps bettered the record of seven golds won by Mark Spitz in swimming events. He went to to win 8 gold medals for his country. This year you can expect some other swimmer better that! Once life is standstill it is no better than cold death! It has to go on. 

The lesson from the motto as we enjoy the games at London this year is this, first, if you have not done satisfactorily yesterday, you can better it today, so forget the past. Second, you can never reach a place where you say, 'this is it, I am now the best and there lies nothing to better'. Remember if you reach the pinnacle of the mountain, the next moment you have to retrace you steps downwards back. 

So friends, don't wallow in you laurels or failures of yesterday and keep on inching forward. Keep on reaching faster, higher, and stronger! That's what Olympics is all about and that's what life is all about too!

Joy be all yours.

Sohan. 

The Lost Keys!

A man was frantically searching for his lost keys on a road. Other passerby offered to help him. Both of them kept on looking for the keys for quite a long time but to no avail. At last, the passerby asked him, “Where exactly did you lose your keys?” “I lost them in my house actually”, replied the man to the surprise of the passerby. “But as there is good amount of street light here, I am searching for them here!

Well we all know this humorous story. But if we go behind the story, we will be able to know that it carries grains of truth that describes our lives. We usually look for happiness, success, God outside. We feel the key to success, happiness and knowing God is out there! We are lured by the attractions of the world, rituals, culture, gadgets, heroes and spiritual leaders. But the truth is that we need to look deeper in ourselves. Happiness, success and God is within us. We are made in the image of God. When we look closer, we will find that we have all the potential in ourselves despite the conditions without for being happier, enlightened and successful! So have you found the lost keys, yet? 

Holding on till success dawns!

‘Jacob’ means deceiver. Jacob has deceived his brother, Esau. He had fled to his maternal Uncle, Laban. He married his two daughters, made wealth for himself again deceiving his Uncle. Now he plans to return. As he returns, he is about to meet his brother, Esau whom he had earlier deceived by taking his birthright. He is afraid that Esau might do him harm. So he does what he feels is right at that moment, he sends lot of gifts ahead loaded on camel backs with his servants to his brother. He also sends his close family away to a safe place, so no harm should come to them if he is attacked. Now he alone near the ford of Jabbok alone, when he encounters a Man, whom he wrestles or strives (Hebrew- word) with whole night. At the break of the dawn the Man cannot overcome Jacob, so he dislocates his hip bone. Jacob is adamant that the Man should bless him and the Man does so and he disappears.

Now these Biblical turn of events in Genesis 32, have puzzled many, especially the wrestling with God. In this write-up, I am going to explain to unearth the hidden meaning behind this passage and how we can apply the same to our lives to be successful! In other words, I am going to encourage you to strive against and succeed or wrestle with God, till he blesses you!

1.      Your self-image has a power over you: How would you feel if everyday people around you call you a deceiver? You wouldn’t welcome it, would you? Jacob means ‘deceiver’ Jacob has been called a deceiver his whole life. Now words have power to create images in our minds. If I say the word, ‘ice-cream’ what comes your mind? Even, when I say don’t think of a monkey with a red face. You just imagined a monkey with red face, didn’t you? So when Jacob is called a deceiver his whole life, he goes on to behave in the same manner. He deceives his brother by stealing his birthright. He deceives his uncle but before that his uncle Laban had deceived him. So Jacob deceives or is being deceived and he is living in a world of deception! But aren’t we too deceived our whole lives by the culture, tradition, religious beliefs, people’s opinions etc. Somebody says to you, your family was never good at math, so it is impossible for you to make a career in the same field. Somebody says, you are just an average or below average guy or girl and you won’t make it big in life. So we hold on to such opinions and have the image of failures and start acting in the same manner. An eagle’s egg was accidently mixed up with the eggs of a hen. The eaglet was hatched and came out to be surrounded by chicks around it. Now it believed that it is a chick and would grow up to be a hen too. So it replicated the actions of the chickens around it. It hopped, pecked grains and ran around. It was oblivion to the fact that it was born to fly. One day, an eagle saw this eaglet and told it the truth, ‘you are not meant to hop around but fly, give up the deception’. The eagle carried it on its back and let it go and the eaglet first time soared freely in the sky and was free! So the problem that Jacob faces is the same that you and I face. We are all Jacobs in the sense that we go on deceiving not necessarily others, but ourselves our whole lives.

2.      Holding on the right image will free you: Now Jacob after all the turn of events is alone near the ford of Jabbok, here he encounters God with whom he strives against and overcomes and he is blessed, his name is now changed to ‘Israel’! I want you note down some significant points here. First, Jacob is alone near the ford of Jabbok. He has let go everything, his family, his belonging, the gifts he was to present to his brother, Esau. In his solitude, he finds an encounter with God. I want you to notice this strange incident carefully; Jacob is near the ford of Jabbok. The Hebrew meaning of Jabbok is ‘to empty itself’. The point I am making is, when you have an uncluttered mind, free from all baggage that you carry around, you will encounter God! We see this happen even in the case of Elijah, he is running away from the queen Jezebel, he is afraid, he flees! After a turn of events, Elijah reaches mount Horeb. Here he encounters an earthquake, storm and fire and the Bible says, God was not in the earthquake, storm or fire! When everything is quiet, he hears the voice of God.  Isaiah 30: 5 says, ‘In quietness and confidence shall be your strength!” Friends, to find God within yourself, you have to quieten your mind. Bring it to not, for your mind will always be hooked to the past or think ‘what will be?’ Meditate, quietly where no one disturbs you and you will find God. Jacob finds God when he has emptied himself, he is in solitude.

Second, note what Jacob does. He wrestles with God. Jacob the deceiver has found God and now he wrestles or strives against God whole night. What does this mean? When Jacob encounters God, he encounters his true self and finds the right image! No longer is he Jacob, the deceiver, but now he finds that he is free from this false image. He is an over- comer. In the end, Jacob asks the Man to bless him and what happens; his name is changed to Israel! The Hebrew meaning of Israel is Yi- He, Stra- strive against and El- God. When you strive against all odds to hold on to the image of God within you which is of freedom, joy, abundance and completeness you are blessed. The Bible tells that wrestling with God goes on till the dawn breaks. Friends, hold on to the true image that God gives you till the dawn of blessing breaks forth in your life. Don’t let it go, that is what Jacob does. He holds on, he wrestles and doesn’t let the Man go. Wrestling is done with holding each other tightly. We have to hold on tightly to the real image of ourselves. Till now people may have called you a fool but God says you are wise, you may have an image of defeat but God says you can overcome, you feel you are poor but God says you are abundant. Jacob holds on to God – the true image of himself so long that God has to distract him by dislocating his hip bone! Now his focused mind is again disturbed but he holds on till he is blessed and his name is changed to Israel. “Success is a matter of holding on after others have let go.” Hold on till you are prosperous, hold on till you are healed, hold on till your relations are restored, hold on till you are promoted, hold on till you are free! That is what Jacob does that night and becomes Israel, his name stands today as a witness of blessing of God that has continued generations from generations.

Friends, the Bible many times hides precious pearls of wisdom which need to be unearthed, so that we see the message, act on it and be blessed. Today it tells us from the story of Jacob that image has power over us so we need to know what kind of image we hold of ourselves. We also need to empty ourselves of all the labels that our surroundings have given us and hold on to the image God has in store for us, we need to hold on to it till we are blessed. May we experience blessings of God taking over our lives, may we hold on to the right image.

Joy be all yours.

Sohan. 

“Imagination is the preview of things to come”

I am having a hot cup of tea and enjoying every sip as I savor the taste. A few minutes ago, I had a thought in my mind, a vivid image of drinking a cup of tea to ward off my sluggishness so that I am rejuvenated to resume my work again. The image I held into my mind now is a reality as I go to the kitchen and ask the cook to serve me a cup and after a few minutes I am holding the cup in my hand. Let’s go reverse through this simple process to take a stock of how imagination works in our lives. I am holding a cup of tasty tea cup and savoring it. Before this I had told the cook to serve me a cup of tea. Before I told him, I had a image in my mind of drinking a cup of tea to ward off my sluggishness at work. Before the image, came the thought!

What I want to point to you is that everything actualizes when we take an appropriate action on the image and thought we hold in our minds. It’s true with simple things like drinking a cup of tea or with bigger things like building a big business empire or designing a space ship. God has bestowed humankind with this unique ability to imagine the outcome, take action by faith and see the blueprint of imagination actualize into veracity. Below are some tips, I am delineating that would help you to see your dreams turn into reality:

1.      Decide what you want. Describe your ideal life.

2.      Write down goals for every are of your life: Family, Professional, Health, Education, Spiritual etc.

3.      Paste some pictures on a vision board that would remind you of your goals all the time.

4.      Everyday spend some time visualizing your goals as achieved by silencing your mind.

5.      Feel the emotions of joy, exhilaration, satisfaction, love as you visualize.

6.      As you go through this exercise, work on any bright idea that pops up to take you towards your goal.

7.      Live and breathe gratitude for the past, present and things to come.

It’s my belief that if you follow these simple steps delineated above, you will experience the miracle of seeing your dreams turn into reality. In other words, from now your world will turn out to be magical! 

I found God today...

I found God today…

I found God this morning, I found him in the kiss of the sunshine

In my daughter’s sweet smile and my wife’s cuddly hug

I found him in my parent’s words of wisdom

 In that age when you’re so close to divine

I found God this morning, no; he wasn’t in temple with bells clanging

He wasn’t in the church where candles burnt and hands in prayers folding

But somewhere deep within, I felt the gentle nudge

That assured his presence simply overwhelming so charming.

I found God this morning in wind that blew over my face while riding

I found him in the hitchhikers on the road their thumbs waving

I found him in the farmer so busy with his land tilling

I found God today in the school buses and all those little faces shinning

I found God today within me taking challenges

I found him in the days work with me rejoicing

I found God today in the words that in my ears kept ringing

“All the search for truth starts without and ends within.”

Sohan. 

Advaita- Non-Dualism

A small boy accompanied by his father is on a hiking trip. As they approach a cliff, the boy suddenly trips a stone and falls down and is hurt. He shouts, ‘Ahh!’ Out of nowhere the same words are heard, ‘Ahh!’ The boy is perplexed, he shouts, ‘Who is it?’ Back come the same words, ‘Who is it?’ The boy is angry, he shouts, ‘You fool!’ The voice responds in the same words, ‘You fool!’ The father who is witnessing this tells his son, that it is his own echo that he is hearing. He asks his son, to say, ‘I love you!’ The boy does so and back comes, ‘I love you!’ The boy is surprised at this marvelous phenomenon of echo. The father explains, ‘That’s life in real, what you give out will always return to you in same measure, when you give out hate, anger, jealousy, you will be returned with same. When you give out love, joy, enthusiasm you will experience the world to be a beautiful place.’

The above story reminds me of Jesus’ words in the New Testament, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.” That verse is known as the golden verse. It almost sums up the message of all religious texts and teachings. When I start treating others as I treat myself, the world will be a better place. Imagine everyone living with that philosophy! Won’t we experience Utopian dream on this earth! This brings to the question why do human beings fail to follow this? Why do I hate others, have jealousy for someone or abuse and mistreat somebody? Is it not because of the illusion of Dualism? In simple words, our minds trick us into telling that the other person is different from me. It will go on to add physical evidences of color, caste, creed, culture, habits and so on and so forth. At physical level this may seem to be true. But truth many times eludes us when our perspective is limited to the physical. Let’s take the example of the horizon where you see the sky kissing the earth. Is it really so? When you go further the horizon runs farther. If you are travelling in the desert, you may notice a place of cool water few feet away from you, but as you go near you know it’s a mirage! So what I am advocating here is that we should not limit our perspective in life to the physical but graduate to the meta-physical, the spiritual to see the truth of life.

At the spiritual level we know that we come from the same source we all dearly refer to as God. God created this universe and everything in it, so the universe is not separate entity from God, nor are human beings who are the created ones! When you know that we all come from the same source and identify each other as brothers and sisters, we understand that harming anyone is, harming ourselves and loving others is, loving ourselves. Like the story above, it echoes back to us. What I do unto others comes back to me. I am reminded of another quote by Rabbi Hillel, he said, “Do not unto others what is hateful to thyself this is the whole of Torah the rest is commentary.”

In the world of today, we are so busy in segregating things, people, communities, nations. Our minds make us believe that the differences we see at the physical level should be the basis on which we separate one from the other. So we distinguish between  the rich and poor, the fair and the dark skinned, the intelligent from the average, the male child from the female, one race from the other, one nation from another and the list is endless. We separate God as a different being than we are. We put him in the holy of holies and fear to approach his presence. We have religious leaders who make a fortune in making us feel miserable about how separate we are from God and other fellow beings because they do not follow our religion or sects. What’s the result? We have hate, jealousy, wars, crimes, acts of terrorism all done all in the name of religion! At the time of this writing India is shocked by a father killing his own infant daughter because she was a born a girl and not a boy! Aren’t we fooling ourselves?

Some may object to my proposition by saying that this is blasphemy. We do need dualism when we separate the good from the bad, the evil form the righteous, the sinners from the holy and God from the human. My question is, are we by separating the above entities really hitting at the root of the problem or just hacking at the leaves? Why do people exist whom we are compelled to label as bad, evil, unrighteous and so on and so forth? Is it not because the crimes that these people committed were because of the illusion of duality? I mistreat others and commit crimes of hate because I am bent on believing that in some way he or she is separate from me and by harming him or her, I will be promoted in my ulterior motives. Is this not an illusion? Many of us regrettably realize of late that by harming others we have harmed ourselves.

So finally friends, it is time that we understand the importance of adhering to Advaita or Non-dualism. I am not advocating a religious philosophy. But being a student of philosophy and religion, I am using this philosophy to understand the truth. For ‘you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.’ Let us be in the driver’s seat and not run by the whims and fancies of our mind. Let us go beyond dualism and our habits and culture of segregation to understand the basic inherent unity in all. Dear God, ‘Lead us from darkness to light, from untruth to truth, from death to eternal life and from dualism to non-dualism! 

Celebrate Today- Celebrate your Resurrection!

Christ was called by two titles, Son of Man and Son of God. It tells us that he had the perfect combination of the human and the divine. When he was crucified on the cross, it refers to his humanity (the divine can never cease to be). His physical body died but then on the 3rd day the Bible says he was resurrected! Now watch, his physical body was transformed, it could transcend the limits of the physical, tangible world, it was not the same. What does this signify?
We all need to die to our tangible, physical realities (which are limited to 5 senses) and be resurrected to the awareness that we are divine, when we realize this we know we have a resurrection, a transformation from the limited to the unlimited, from the human to divine, from death to life eternal. That encourages us to celebrate Easter or the Resurrection in its true sense, Christ was our prototype in that sense. When you face some adverse condition today, remember don't limit your identity to only what is physical and tangible reality, proclaim your I am, you are divine being, realize this and once you realize this you can overcome any obstacle that you face now, that's resurrection in true sense!