Category: spirituality

Most of us want to be really rich. Why? So that we can chill and be free, and do what we want without others having to tell us so.

That’s a far off dream for me at least, but someone smartly asked Elon Musk this question. With some $180 billion in wealth that is more than the GDP of many countries, what keeps him ticking? Why does he go to work daily? What is the driving force behind his pursuits?

He answers almost sheepishly in his interview. As a teenager, he tried his best to figure out the purpose of life. He read all sorts of philosophical books and could yet not figure anything out.

Finally he read Douglas Adams’ sci-fi novel The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. And what did he learn from that? Did he get the answer to his question?

Continued tomorrow!

Here’s a question that was raised recently. “What is the difference between a sanyasi and a tyaagi?”

Honestly, I had not a clue, even though I faintly remembered reading about it somewhere, or listening to it during some talk.

Lord Krishna discusses sanyaasa and tyaaga in the 18th chapter of the Gita.

According to some experts, sanyasi means one who renounces everything. While a tyaagi only renounces the doership of the action, and of course the fruits associated with it.

Some experts suggest sanyasis and tyagis are effectively the same.

Other experts find other variations.

Which is correct? Maybe it doesn’t matter. Many concepts of spirituality are incredibly esoteric, and can leave the mind spinning. Unless intellectual debate is one’s profession, it’s probably much better to begin giving up doership and the fruits. But maybe that is even harder than simply intellectualizing things!

Do we really own anything? All the money of the richest people in the world. Where will that go when they die? In today’s digital currency age, all that moolah can’t even be printed to take to the grave.

Do we really own anything then? Not in the least. We are merely temporary caretakers of Creation. Of what is already Created by God aka the Creator aka Divine Consciousness.

If we truly accept that we are only caretakers, then we would not stress so much about everything. We would be able to give to those deserving and destitute far more easily.

And whatever is left after we give, that too becomes blessed. Because there too it is the same caretaking principle. A branch when cut from the tree, dies in a few days. But a branch which continues to allow divine energy to flow through experiences the bliss of creation.

Every single thing we have is part of a larger cosmic canvas. If we train ourselves to recognize this, we will automatically see all our problems receding, and all the bliss of the Creator flowing unto us.

Each life unfolds like a rich tapestry of truths, some steadfast and others transient, reflecting our evolving understanding. Wisdom from the Rig Ved encapsulates this beautifully— ‘Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti’, implying the truth is singular, but the learned describe it in countless ways.

Life, in essence, showcases our judgments— floating like transient bubbles on water’s surface— as reality. Yet, with time, we discern the difference between our ephemeral judgments and enduring truth.

This understanding paves the way for ‘swadhyay’, a profound practice of self-study. It’s not just about immersing oneself in scriptures, but about diving deep within, studying our own ‘self’. As we throw light on our inner consciousness, we unlock our true essence, realizing the singular truth within us.

Swadhyay aids our transformation, shedding light on our evolution— from past notions to growing wisdom, from rigid patterns to adaptive behaviors, from a defined sense of belonging to its dynamic expansion. It facilitates our blossoming, guiding us towards an enlightened state of existence.

We watched the Bollywood movie Oh My God or OMG again today, just like that. The movie is a profound exploration of our relationship with divinity. It challenges us to rethink our understanding of religion and spirituality, using the protagonist, Kanji, as our guide.

One of the most powerful dialogues in the movie is when Kanji says, “I don’t reject God, I reject the God that you have created.”

This is a stark reminder that God is not a commodity to be bought and sold, but a divine presence to be felt and experienced, and available to all.

Kanji’s journey is a testament to the power of faith, not in rituals or idols, but in the goodness of our hearts. As he says, “God is everywhere, but people say he is only in the temple.” This dialogue underscores the message that God is not confined to places of worship, but resides in every act of kindness and love.

James Maxwell, renowned for his groundbreaking work in formulating the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, was not just a scientist but also a man of deep faith. He once crafted a model of the solar system, setting it in motion in his study room. A close friend and fellow scientist, who happened to be an atheist, was intrigued by the model. “This is amazing! Who made it?” he asked. Maxwell, with a twinkle in his eye, replied, “Nobody made it. I was working on my table when I heard an explosion. I turned around and saw this had been created.”

His friend scoffed, “How ridiculous! How can this be created by an explosion? Someone must have definitely made it.”

Maxwell, seizing the moment, retorted, “My friend, you are not willing to believe that a little model of the solar system could be created by itself. And you want me to believe that the real universe, consisting of many such solar systems, has come into existence without a Creator. If it is logical to believe that someone has created this model, it is also common-sensical to conclude that the real world must have a Creator too.”

This story serves as a reminder of the intricate design and order of the universe, pointing towards the existence of a Creator. It’s a tale that invites us to ponder on the grandeur of the cosmos and the divine intelligence that might be at play behind its creation. If even those who have deeply studied the laws of the universe, like Maxwell, can hold a space for faith and the divine, why shouldn’t we?

The world today only believes in what can be proven and replicated.

Several scientists and R&D experts perform countless experiments and these result in new discoveries and inventions and gadgets that ultimately end up in our homes and pockets.

The tech revolution is incredible, and it has helped humanity in unbelievable ways. What was meant only for the kings of yesteryear is now available to everyone.

All thanks to science. And scientists. No one scientist is responsible for everything, but collectively over the years, massive progress has been made.

But yet, there are many things science hasn’t fully understood, including the nature of life itself.

Spirituality has the answer, and maybe is itself the answer. But science appears to always be at loggerheads with spirituality.

This is not the case. The only difference is that technology can be outsourced to scientists. But in spirituality, we are each individually the scientist. The answer needs to be discovered by each one of us.

The ultimate spiritual teaching seems to focus on Nothingness. That nothing we see around us is real. Nothing is truly relevant, because in the long run, we are all reduced to nothing. The 3 gunas sattva rajas and tamas are great, but if you want to attain God you have to go beyond, to nothing. Ego is the root cause of all problems, so give up ego, and become one with nothing.

But is this practical? Not for me at least, nope. The flip side to nothing is everything. Instead of constantly being focused only on ourselves, we can focus on others around us, which will automatically drive down the ego. The Lord might be in nothing, but He sure is in everything as well. Gratitude for everything we have in life is much easier than gratitude in nothing. While creation might seem unreal in a spirituality textbook, everything is real enough to us inside this body.

So its perhaps not Nothingness, but Everythingness that is an easier answer.

For one who is spiritually immature, everything that happens in life is classified into either good or bad. Going through tough circumstances, not achieving what was expected, getting an earful from a senior, falling ill, having relationship issues… the list is endless, and all these would immediately go into the bad bucket.

Is life any different for one who is spiritually mature? No, they go through the same trials and tribulations. Or at least so it would seem to a neutral external observer.

But for a spiritually mature person, there is no good or bad to begin with. The two buckets do not even exist. All happenings are seen as is, as they are, with no human filter of good or bad. What seems bad today, might turn out to be a blessing in disguise, in the future. What seems amazing today might be a hidden devil.

Even for the seemingly very bad things which happen to them, the spiritually evolved souls realize that this is all a play of past karma and maya only. And hence they do not categorize those as good or bad either – simply as things that happen and nature taking its course. That’s what is meant by “witness consciousness”.

Einstein, the greatest scientist of all, had this to say about God:

Your question is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. I am not an Atheist. I do not know if I can define myself as a Pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. May I not reply with a parable? The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations.

Everyone wants to be the best. That’s what success is supposed to be, isn’t it?

That’s why it’s amazing when we watch parents revel in the joy of their child’s success. They are not directly responsible, but still are present in every moment of that revelry.

But success according to spirituality isn’t about being the best. It’s simply about trying your best.

The achievement is secondary. What matters is that we tried. And with full enthusiasm and vigor.

If success is redefined this way, and linked only to trying our best, imagine what failure would be redefined as! No more linked to the achievement of a goal, but simply a reference of whether we are doing our best within the given circumstances or not.

Even then, if we work with prasaddha-buddhi (results received as a blessing and gift from a higher power) and ishvara-arpana-buddhi (results surrendered to a higher power), success and failure become one and the same.

Why did we join the school we did?

Why did we join the college we did?

Why did we choose the subjects and majors we did?

Why did we choose the life partner we did?

Why did we choose the job we are in?

Why did we choose to have children?

All these Why’s are not to ask whether we chose right or wrong. There is no right or wrong. But the question is to know whether we thought about these things at all. Much of our lives are based on herd instinct. We do things because everyone else does them.

Surprisingly, in the only thing that truly matters in life, aka self-realization, the herd instinct doesn’t work, because there is no herd.

Have you ever had a feeling about something that turned out to be true, even though you couldn’t explain why? That’s your intuition speaking! In Vedic/Hindu spirituality, intuition is known as the directly perceiving faculty of the soul, and it is a powerful tool that allows us to know the truth about everything without relying on sensory experience or reason.

According to Paramhansa Yogananda, there are three stages of intuition awakening:

Crude intuition: This is the initial stage of intuition awakening. It often appears as a calm, haunting feeling that occasionally turns out to be true. However, this type of intuition can be clouded by distorted reasoning and emotional feelings.

Semi-developed intuition: This type of intuition comes from frequent exercise and using pure reason and calm feeling. It is important because it allows us to distinguish true intuition from false impulses, leading to better decision-making.

True intuition: This is the highest form of intuition, which comes from the soul. It is developed through regular meditation and practice. When our intuition is fully developed, we will stand firm in our knowledge and convictions, no matter what challenges may arise.

That’s the definition anyway. No personal experience to opine on, but concluded tomorrow!

There are auspicious times for everything in Hinduism.

Every God or Deity has a specific time or day of the week to get the best results.

There are auspicious foods as well. Modak for Ganesha for instance.

Specific clothes. Like black for Shani.

Specific food fasts to appease specific Gods.

It might appear that this is all for these Gods. Because God likes it this way, and this way only.

But this couldn’t be further from the truth. God doesn’t care about when and where we offer something to Him. He only cares about whether we are connected to Him, preferably always. By extension, all times then automatically become auspicious.

Everyone knows AA is where alcohol over-indulgers go for rehab. But is joining the program the end of all troubles? I don’t have any experience in this domain, and can’t say for sure – but I doubt it would be any different from most other programs or lessons or coaching or tutorials for anything. There is perhaps some stuff handed on a platter, but there would be no substitute for self-effort.

Why the sudden talk of AA? A podcast I was listening to recently had the guest mention a quote by Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Apparently Bill once said “You can’t think your way into right action, but you can act your way into right thinking”.

This seems very simple and intuitive, but it is quite profound. In today’s world, there is an alarmingly high number of armchair scientists, theorists, psychologists, doctors, therapists, and all sorts of other pseudo-professionals. Armed with degrees from FB-college and WA-university, no domain is out of reach.

Is ‘thinking’ important? Of course, without proper thought and planning, one cannot succeed. But action (aka karma yoga) is essential. Especially on the spiritual path, thinking too much can only get in our way. But, by taking small steps towards positive actions, such as being kind to others, practicing gratitude and mindfulness, we’ll find that our thoughts and desires start to align with our actions, leading to a more fulfilling life. And eventually we may just discover our deepest desire – to attain enlightenment – even if we do not consciously desire or realize it!

We’ve all heard about SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. This is goal setting 101.

But there’s also a SMART in the non-material realm, which I came across in the newspaper recently.

S for Spirituality.
M for Measurable.
A for Action oriented, like Karma Yoga.
R for Renunciation.
T for time, which is running out.

When do we begin to follow this SMART?

It’s quite hard to define a word such as meditation. It’s an experience, and surely everyone experiences it differently. A book I came across recently called Steps to Raja Yoga by Swami Atmatattwananda Saraswati has a full chapter devoted to meditation. Here is an excerpt that defines meditation:

Definition of meditation as per the Yoga Darśanam: The sanskrit word for meditation is known as 'Dhyana'. According to Maharşi Patanjali, the founder of Yoga philosophy, meditation is defined as (P.Y.S- 3:2) Tatra Pratyaya Ekat- anata Dhyanam'. Tatra 'there', or in a particular stage. Pratyaya means the content of consciousness or the modifications of the mind. Ekatanata means unbroken stream or uninterrupted thought. When the contents of the mind remain at one point or thought and continue for a long time, the experience is known as meditation. The Sanskrit word Dhyana is also derived from the root word 'Dhyai' which means Chinta' contemplation, or deep thinking in order to achieve the higher level of consciousness. A spontaneous and continued state of the mind focused on any particular process or object is described as meditation.

Was watching a podcast on YouTube where the guest was a tantric practitioner.

He spoke of the existence of a lot of extra-worldly things. All sorts of beings, many of which are mentioned in our mythological texts and which we take just to be stories or figments of someone’s fantastical imagination.

But this practitioner was convinced that all these are for real, and that he had had personal experiences with such beings as well.

It’s hard to know whether something like this is true or not, whether all these astral planes and 5th and 6th dimensions and such exist or not. But one of the things he said was intriguing. He was talking about a few very “negative energy” beings. The podcast host asked him if these beings were “bad”.

To which this gentleman said that it’s not about bad or good, but just about samskaras or tendencies. A tiger will bite, if you out your hand in its mouth. Does that make the tiger bad?

We all know that old example, where when we point out index fingers at someone else accusingly, three fingers are pointing back at us.

We know this, we understand it, and yet we find it hard to accept any sort of blame. If someone at home or at work says something to us, we instantly curl into a defensive ball like a porcupine.

We behave like Gods with those who are beneath us on the so-called social ladder. But one word of disagreement from anyone above, and poof, we get hurt, crying in our heads like a punctured social bladder.

If we crib and complain about the external world, all we are doing is to make that external world even more real. This is exactly the opposite of what spirituality teaches us about existence.

If we can take ownership of our problems, and look within, and make ourselves perfect, without looking for perfection outside, then all the problems will automatically get resolved.

PS here refers to Problem Solving.

Meditation PS? Yes, because most people, me first on the list, struggle with some important stuff.

Like how to keep the mind calm and focused? Answer: it’s not possible, because that is the nature of the mind. Advanced yogis can, but not without deliberate practice, which is what made them advanced yogis in the first place. For most others, even after brief meditative spells, they will crash right back into the plane of desires and attachments.

What to do? Catch hold of your Guru or Ishta Devata. Not physically, but mentally. And try to meditate on topics related to them, if not on them only. This gives some freedom to the monkey mind, while still keeping it on a leash. It helps if we truly recognize and believe that everything we are today, and everything we will be tomorrow, is entirely because of the Guru and/or the Ishta Devata. They are both the same at their core, so choosing one over the other doesn’t matter. If we feel deep down that everything is because of them, then where is the question of our ego, and hence our desires and attachments?

We hear all the time of the PPP or Public Private Partnership model in infrastructure development. And how this is the most efficient way of building for the future.

Another PPP model came to mind for our own development as I set out for a walk recently.

This PPP is Prayaas Prarabdha and Praarthana.

Prayaas is our own self effort, without which we cannot even wake up from the bed.

Prarabdha is whatever destiny we are born with. It can be changed at least to some extent through the first P, but still needs to be endured in good measure.

And finally Praarthana or prayer. We can put all our effort and more, but without the grace of God and the Guru, it all remains meaningless.

This is the PPP model for our own development. What do you think of it?

There’s always a lingering question about “experiences” that one might have on the spiritual path.

Some people say they have visions of various deities. Others get some siddhis? Some receive messages in their dreams. Others discern changes in their mental state – more angry, more heated.

Are such experiences good or bad? Is it even possible to classify them as such?

Came across a very nice analogy to think about this. It’s similar to being on a fighter jet for the very first time. As anyone who’s watched Top Gun will know, the force is so much, that one can quickly feel disoriented.

But is this force of gravity bad? Or is it good? There’s no clear answer, because this is not something that can be classified into good or bad. It just is what it is.

But if you have an experienced instructor pilot with you, they will teach you and prepare you for that moment. Ditto with a Guru for spiritual processes.

…heaven’s doo..oo..oooorr, was how the iconic Guns n Roses band crooned their super hit single many decades ago.

It would seem like getting into heaven is truly a difficult task. Just keep knocking and knocking, but when and whether the door would open, quite literally, “God only knows!”.

A quote from poet Rumi struck me as interesting hence:

I have lived on the tip of insanity wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens! I have been knocking from the inside!

Think about it. This is pretty much what each one of us on the spiritual path is doing. We are knocking on God’s door, but this God is already inside, so we too are knocking from the inside!

“Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration.

"I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced.

"I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, of adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet.

"This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable."

This is what was said by William Shatner who played an iconic character in the Sci fi TV series Star Trek. The Gita says that not only is space “outside”, but that even the earthly world is “outside” only. The true essence lies deep within each one of us.

Someone I know recently met someone else I know.

One of them took the efforts of finding out that the other person loves horses.

So he gifted him a horse encyclopedia. And that connection just skyrocketed, potentially opening future doors for collaboration.

All’s well that ends well!

And then I saw this quote now:

Just as a horse can be controlled by a bridle, the sensual pleasures and passions can be overcome by knowledge, meditation and power of penance. A well controlled horse that gallops fast reaches its destination safely. And sense organs well controlled by the reins of scriptural knowledge can help in realizing the Self.

After watching Kantara, everyone wonders the same thing. Are deities or Devatas really a thing? Do they exist around us, physically? Is there a way to experience them? Because our scriptures and mythological stories have tons of such examples. And when we pray, aren’t we praying to deities for their help? Why pray if they aren’t real?

PVR Narasimha Rao, a Vedic astrologer and Sanskrit scholar put up a nice video recently on YouTube where he addresses this question. He says that deities are indeed real, and can be experienced physically as well as internally.

How this is done is a different story – perhaps needing a lot of meditation.

But the question is, even if you experience something, how can you prove it? These are intensely personal incidents of course. But wouldn’t the Devatas themselves want to prove their existence?

Not at all, says PVR ji. Instead, they are like oxygen. Oxygen doesn’t care whether people know about it or not. And even if we don’t know about the oxygen around us, we are certainly breathing it, else life would be impossible. Only a scientist would try to study the air and evaluate oxygen, just like only a spiritual seeker will seek to study himself and his true nature.

All of creation is always struggling.

The deer wakes up and and starts to run, else it’ll be eaten by the lion. The lion wakes up and runs after the deer else it’ll starve

The deer and lion also have struggles within their own communities, for power, for mates, for kids, for food, for a home.

This is true of all animals, insects, plants, and all living organisms.

Humans are no different. But apart from all the external struggles, we also have internal enemies that we constantly struggle with. Insecurities, fears and weaknesses that prevent us from achieving our full potential.

Our scriptures recognize precisely this, and provide every conceivable solution to these struggles.

Our overarching struggle though? To even find the time or inclination to read the scriptures.

Notice how whenever someone who is a realized soul speaks about God, they only talk in a very generic ambiguous way?

Since I haven’t experienced anything myself, I have no clue how it will be. But this is where the analogy of the salt doll is appropriate.

Said salt doll wanted to test the depth of the ocean. Funny, no? So the salt doll jumped into the ocean, and instantly dissolved.

Can we say it reached the bottom?

Can we say it didn’t?

As Swami Chinmayananda once said, “to define God is to defile God”.

Well, well, congratulations are in order, aren’t they?

Who doesn’t want to hold two, or maybe even more, passports?

But I’m not alone. You’ve got dual citizenship too.

There’s two countries that we each keep traveling between. We belong to both. We always have. They are always with us, no matter what.

Our scriptures call them dwandvas. Dualities. Two sides of a coin. Pain-pleasure. Night-day. Sorry-Joy. Nothing is black or white, good or bad. Good leads to bad, and bad leads to good. That is nothing more than constant evolution.

For permanent ananda? We have to give up all passports. That will provide Universal Citizenship.

There’s 3 Gs we need to catch hold of very tightly for spiritual progress.

1. God

2. Guru

3. Gita, aka our scriptures

These in isolation won’t help much unless they are bound by our own self-effort. We will have to ourselves go through the Grind, which can be the fourth G in this package.

God-Guru-Gita-Grind

That’s about as clear as it gets!

If you believe in what our scriptures tell us, then we are not just an accumulation of body-mind-intellect, but rather are divine beings at the core. Not just this, but said divine beings are no different from God Himself/Herself.

If God is within us, then are we tapping into this infinite energy resource whenever things seem to be going south?

Like if we get angry, we might just shout and yell and become red and huffy puffy. Or maybe we can dip into our inner divinity, take a moment, think about our true purpose. What would that divine being inside us do? Is that divine being even concerned about whether someone else thinks less of you?

If we feel nervous about a new beginning, do we just sweat and worry? Or can we tap into that infinite reservoir inside, and calm ourselves down. Because what could possibly go wrong that a divine soul itself cannot see or fix?

While on a road trip recently, the group of us was commenting as to how nice the roads were. Very well maintained, and no potholes and rough surfaces, which meant the ride was super smooth.

As we rode on, a large sign on the highway caught my eye. It said, “Every day is Safety Day. This one gets no special day, or any holidays!”

Not only was it a critical message for drivers, but replace the word Safety with Spirituality, and it’d quickly be immediately relevant to each one of us as spiritual aspirants.

Spirituality isn’t about going to satsang on one given day, or attending a sermon one-off, or thinking about the Lord when we want something or meditating just because we want to reduce our stress levels. Rather, spirituality is a way of life. It has no special days, or any holidays!

In several of the larger more famous temples in India, there are long serpentine queues, often requiring many hours of waiting and jostling to reach the sanctum sanctorum. But almost paradoxically, the time allowed to be spent at the feet of the deity is usually between 3 and 5 seconds. Hardly worth the effort, one would think.

And yet, people do it year after year, religiously, maybe even mindlessly? Surely this must be more than just blind faith. If things do not work out the way you wished for, would you come back the following year?

Much of this has become commercial and business driven. Playing on people’s faiths is easy. Nobody wants to anger a God. But the question is this.

While it is good to go to the large temples, are we regularly visiting the temple down our home street or town? If the Lord is everywhere, are we seeing Him in our parents? Do we treat those around us (who are also His Creation) with respect and love? If we are doing these things, then visiting large temples once a year or whenever is probably not needed? And if we are not doing these basic things also, then what is the point of visiting such large shrines of love and devotion?

On a recent temple-hopping trip, there were some interesting experiences.

1. The priest at the inner sanctum sactorum of a large renknowned temple spoke very sweetly as we approached the deity. He gave us a 2 minute “extra” darshan, asked me to stand on the side, and then said in no uncertain words “take out your wallet and give me the big notes”. Despite literally being at the feet of the Lord, how much time did I get to really think about Him, versus trying to assess the situation after recovering from initial shock?

2. The priest at a small relatively unknown temple, explained the full history-geography of that deity – all without asking, gave extra blessings, and took no money.

3. After we paid for a special darshan queue at a famous temple, we were asked to pay the same amount again at the end, off-the-record, just in order to receive a few flowers and one coconut.

How to think about these things? Does money come in the way of spirituality? Is God really asking for cash from his devotees? Should we stop going to temples altogether?

Thoughts tomorrow!

One of the challenges with spirituality? It appears to make life, and living itself, quite boring.

Lord Krishna says the world is dukhaalayam (sorrow-filled) and ashashwatam (fleeting), and also to give up desires and attachments and what not.

So a new spiritual seeker could find all this very boring.

But that is not the intention at all. The only reason for all these mentions, is to be objective and realistic in the way we live our lives.

It is similar to a newly married couple. The first year pre and post marriage are the best. Why? Because the couple can only see the best in each other. Which is a great way to live, but is eventually replaced with reality. Smart parents, will advise their kids accordingly, not to deter them from marriage, but to prepare them for it. And so it is, with life, and spirituality.

Here is a simple Karmic truth.

Many people think that spirituality and materialism are poles apart.

But Lord Krishna in the Gita has given a way to make them both the same!

He asks us to perform karma yoga, so that our worldly work will continue on, as the body continues doing all the necessary actions.

And the mind? The mind is attached to God, because all work is done as a service to Him, and hence no karma is accrued.

Thus spirituality = materialism!

As someone who likes to drive, I’ve always been fascinated by car gears. Some have 4, some 5, some even 6. And there are those that have Reverse gears on the top left, and some on the bottom right. You know what I mean.

But I saw this crazy video recently of a long-haul truck, with wait for it, 18 gears! Eighteen! That is just insane.

But the number 18 is interesting. It is also the number of chapters in the Gita.

And regardless of the vehicle, just like we shift gears one to the next, once the destination has been reached, there is no alternative but to bring it to neutral.

Just as in the Gita, we can go from one chapter to the next and back, but ultimately, we’ve to reach nothing but the neutral state. One of permanent stability and everlasting peace.