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Showing posts from March, 2023

Abhimanyu of a New Era

  तस्मादज्ञानसम्भूतं हृत्स्थं ज्ञानासिनात्मन: | छित्त्वैनं संशयं योगमातिष्ठोत्तिष्ठ भारत || 42|| Therefore, with the sword of knowledge, cut as under the doubts those have risen in your heart. O scion of Bharat, establish yourself in Karm Yog. Arise, stand, and take action. -The Bhagwat Gita ARISE, STAND and take ACTION The wisdom of Gita is all-encompassing and teaches us the nuggets of truth and way of living. Arise - we know we have to Stand - we will if we can arise Action - it happens if we are firm in our will power. We are aware of the fact that we ought to do things a certain way. We are aware of the fact that we ought to behave a certain way. We are aware of the fact that we ought to work a certain way. But does our MIND allow us this? We all have become the Abhimanyu of the new age where we know how to enter the Chakravyu but are oblivious of the exit route. Once we are in, we face the Dhronas, Bhismas, and Kauravas, and succumb due to our inability to fight the Big Sharks. I

Vastu Compliant Samosa

 When a vastu consultant makes a samosa it becomes a vastu compliant SAMOSA... (lol, just joking) Well, in my eight years of practice, the most common question asked is, “Madam, which direction our kitchen must be in?” They expect me to say Southeast, as it is the Agnisthan(fire zone). And if I say so, they have an instant adrenal rush, as I would validate their belief system. Do you think so? From where has this knowledge come to them? Social media? Google baba? what’s app university? Let me narrate a small story to you. Sarita (name changed to protect the identity), owned a flat in a beautiful multi-story building. They were facing a rough patch along with some financial issues. As a regular and common practice, a vastu consultant/ free astrologer was summoned. He took a detailed glance at the flat and said that their kitchen was in a northeast direction which was the cause for all their misery and the room in the southeast was giving a problem to the lady of the house. Immediately,

Scriptures- Myth or Reality

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 Yoga has been my childhood passion. I have tried many schools and spent way too much to understand the right way of doing a simple surya namaskar. Every school claim they are the best and the right one. Who to trust was a major problem? But after reading Hatha Yoga Pradipika (scripture on hatha yoga) I was sorted and now enjoy every asana with greater stability. This happens with every person in various fields. If we are not aware of the right knowledge, we become prey to many vultures sitting there just to feed on us. The same is with all other Vedic sciences; they are so simple but have been made very complicated by the ones who wish to take advantage of people's ignorance. Scriptures are very simple as sages wrote them for the benefit of the mankind. Knowledge floating in the market differs greatly from what is present in the scripture. They got highly manipulated by humans for humans. (funny). They are available to all who wish to read for the right knowledge. Many are now tra

The Miraculous Sun

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  Sun is the soul of all. As The Sun rises in its splendid glory, it lights up every cell in us; even the most minute living being gets rejuvenated. That's the reason I enjoy worshiping The Sun the most. I do a Surya Namaskar as a daily ritual to pay my tribute to the Sun God - an essential element of our solar system.  Sarvatma ch divanatho manah: kumudbandhav: | satvam kujo budhai: prokto budho vanipradayak: ||12|| devejyo jyansukhado bhraguviryapradayak: | rishibhi: praktanai: proktashchaayasrunushcha dhukahda: ||13|| The Sun is the soul of all.  The Moon is the mind. Mars is one's strength.  Mercury is the speech giver.  Jupiter confers knowledge and happiness.  Venus governs semen while Saturn indicates grief. Brihat Parasar Hora Shastra, ch 2 V12-13 I have taken this verse from Brihat Parasar Hora Shastra. Sage Parasar, father of the great Vyasa Muni, wrote this scripture to provide further insight into astrology. Sages, swamis, and munis have always fascinated me. I love

Sugar – The Sweetness We Can Do Without!

  Heyam Dhukham Anagatam Misery which has not yet come can be avoided. -Patanjali Yog Sutra-2.16 “Shiv Sir, I am possessed! The devil has taken over me yet again!”, saying this I slipped into a deep slumber. Shiv Sir my Vedic teacher would always be unruffled with my frantic calls. Nov 2018, Diwali vacation in my home town Chappar, I happened to pay a short visit to my cousins’ ancestral old Haveli (grand bungalow), a beauty built somewhere around the 19th century. Having spent a couple of fun-filled days with my maternal family, on my way home I dropped my son to Mayo college hostel. As a parting gift, we treated ourselves to red fudge and chocolate ice-cream!! By the time I reached home, it was around 9 p.m. Fatigued after a day-long journey, I hit the sack without even having dinner. The next morning to my surprise, I woke up with high temperature, cough, and cold. My family doctor asked me to undergo a couple of tests and put me on antibiotics as all reports were normal. The strong

Protein Balls

  Protein Deficiency and Malnutrition Terms almost as commonly used as breathe, live and let live! Unfortunate? Yes… The polluted environment we live in today, our unhealthy food patterns, adulterated milk, vegetables with pesticides and cell radiation are some of the reasons to making us victims of a delicate immune system. Our bodies have become very fragile. This current scenario demands that we make mindful food choices and healthy eating habits. More often than not, we eat the right quantity, but our body refuses to absorb due to malabsorption. I have struggled to get that right amount of protein in my diet…you too, right?! The general notion is that vegetarians face protein deficiency. Being a vegetarian myself, I make conscious efforts to include proteins in my daily diet. Consuming a lot of lentils is a winner dish for sure! The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 gms/kg. So, weigh less… less addition of protein in your diet!! Just joking ;-) On a serious not

Dejunk

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  तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम् ॥३॥ tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe-'vasthānam ॥3॥ Then (tadā), there is an abiding (avasthānam) in the essential nature (sva-rūpe) of the Seer (draṣṭuḥ). As soon as the waves stop, and the lake has become quiet, we see the ground below the lake. So with the mind; when it is calm, we see what our own nature is; we do not mix our self but remain our own selves. Patanjali Yog Sutra, Samadhi Pada||3|| Translation- Swami Vivekananda. The point is, how do we see the ground, the ground of our mind? How do we clear the clutter so that things are crystal clear? How do we still the lake of our thoughts!? Not all can become Yogis to reach this state. We ought to start from where we stand. We need to have clarity of thoughts so we can have better control over our minds. This leads us to visualize our life better. It's easy to walk on a single path than keeping our feet on various paths at the same time. Many such tools are there in our scriptures, which help us in cle

Black Lotus, the game changer

  मत्कर्मकृन्मत्परमो मद्भक्त: सङ्गवर्जित: | निर्वैर: सर्वभूतेषु य: स मामेति पाण्डव || 55|| Those who perform all their duties for my sake, who depend upon me and are devoted to me, who are free from attachment, and are without malice toward all beings, such devotees certainly come to me. -The Bhagavad Gita 11.55 This Verse is from Chapter 11 of Bhagavad Gita- The Viśhwarūp Darśhan Yog. In this chapter, Bhagawan shows His true form to Arjun, the Vishwaroopa.  Bhagawan has given us the easiest way to reach HIM. I have summed up the Gita verse below, point-wise. I can relate intensely to the verse as I feel that my devotion towards SwamiG is getting deeper as the days pass by. Briefly, I would like to state how He is helping me transform as a person: The Gita Verse point-wise: 1. They perform all their duties for My sake. Yes, we perform our duties for SwamiG coz we are constantly talking to HIM and feel that He is watching over us. 2.  They depend upon Me.  We depend on HIM for our spiri

HIS Grace

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  महर्षीणां भृगुरहं गिरामस्म्येकमक्षरम् | यज्ञानां जपयज्ञोऽस्मि स्थावराणां हिमालय: || 25|| I am Bhrigu amongst the great seers and the transcendental OM amongst sounds. Amongst chants know me to be the Holy Name; amongst immovable things I Am the Himalayas. The Bhagawad Gita- ch10v25 September 2017, while reading the National bestseller, "The Kundalini", Little did I know that I was reading my Future. Little did I know that HE had arrived. Little did I know that my life would change forever. - My Journey with my Guru started the moment I was born. While growing up, I would visit the Ganesha temple daily for my prayers. I would play games of temple making, plucking fresh flowers for puja, with my friends. Many saints would come for Bhiksha and I would happily give away my share of food. This is part of our religion, our tradition and our culture. Coming from a Jain terapanthi family, I was well aware of my spiritual duties from the very beginning. I would pray for hours at th

Yog Nidra

  A Practice that helped me sail through 2020 March 6th, after my return from Kolkata, Sid asked me to quarantine. This was the norm being followed after travel for the widespread pandemic. Initially, I felt good. It was a breather as my work makes me travel places. Treating myself by watching movies,  tv-series, and reading felt heavenly. Somewhere, deep down, my mind was craving for this moment. Partying with my gadgets made me feel young. Tv, iPad, laptop, smartphone, google home etc surrounded me. You name it and I had it!! After a few days, as the pandemic spread became worse, the fear crept in.  Our PMji announced our first lockdown, 25-03-2020. News, media, social media, all were flooded with news of covid-19. We had to stock up things as we could not step out of the house. Things got very tensed up and we kept following the number of cases along with death cases rise across the world. I got calls from clients for Vastu remedies to stay healthy, and if anything could be done to

Declutter Outside to Clear Up the Inside

 The shrill ring of the telephone shook me up from my reverie. Still groggy,  I walked across to the other end of the room to answer the call. On the other end, I heard my college buddy and best friend, Swe's familiar voice, "J," she screamed with excitement and with none of the formalities of a conversation. "I am coming over, please keep the Gol Gappe ready," she said before the phone line went dead. Thud! That was the end of the conversation!  Calls from Swe and hearing the thud on the other end of the phone was a norm, as was the standard of having disconnected calls via landlines in 2000, which were entirely at the mercy of long-wrung cables. However, on this particular day, Swe appeared at my door drenched in rainwater from head to toe, barely minutes after she called. Since pleasantries weren't necessary, she got right to the matter, which meant darting to my room to get changed — out of her wet clothes and into my dry ones so that we could get chatt

Nandi

 My Dearest Swamiji, Sadar Pranam and Merry Christmas! With Your blessings, we are all safe and sound. Just wanted to express my love for you through my limited understanding of Bhagavad Gita. You work so hard to help us discover our own truth. There is always a new insight, a new learning in every blog, course, books, discourses of Yours. "Kūpa-maṇḍūka-nyāya (the logic of a well-frog). I feel I am a like a frog in the well and know nothing about this universe. With my limited knowledge, I have been able to extract a few verses from the Bhagavad Gita on your glory. I have only read about this Universe through my science books and Brihad Parasar Hora Shastra. I realised that micro=macro. What is outside is also inside. I have heard that we carry the entire universe inside us, so my fascination for the planets has given me the purpose of my life, my vastu-astro vedic shastra. Translating them gives me immense pleasure, and it is secondary whether people will read the ancient scriptu

The Tigress

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 Finally she appeared!!! Roaming freely in the jungle without caring for anyone, anything...just she and her freedom... I am so jealous of her at times, but when I think of her struggle, it makes me happy to be where I am. She is a loner and marks her territory. Protecting her cubs is also pretty difficult from poachers, monkeys and many other ferocious animals. I am talking about none other than "The Tigress". My journey with her started since my childhood days.. I have walked the jungles of Chitwan, Bandipur, Nagarhole, Bannergetta, Jim Corbett, just to have a glimpse of her in the jungle, roaming freely. Finally, on my birthday 2021, I spotted her at the Jungles of Ranthambore, not once but twice.. Such is the grace of my guru.. He always sends me gifts..gifts which are precious to me and He fulfills every desire of mine.  His Grace is all I ask for. So coming back to my Tigress.. I have always loved this beautiful divine creature, not because of any conditioning, but due