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Sunday, February 26, 2017

RIP Manju

Manju
Today we lost our beloved friend Manju(a.k.a Manja) , keeper of our flock, a binding force among us all and a close friend to everyone.There is no one in our group who was not touched by his friendship.

He lived his life fully as if it was his last. A child like enthusiasm in everything he does. Be it carefully accessorizing his bullet and showing off to all us friends with a child like glee to going all out to collect money for the school magazine.

He valued friendships like anything. He made it a point to be in touch with everyone of   us not only through social media, but also through in person meetings. He knew the current life situation of all of us and a simple 5 minute talk with him would update one of the happenings in every one of our lives. He made it a point to personally attend of of our friends weddings and other social occasions.

He was so close to everyone that anyone could say anything to him without bothering he would get hurt. Only when someone is close to your heart , that you take them for granted and say whatever you want. There is no end to the pranks he played and the endless messages he shared on our watsap group. Be it posting a photo of a baby and saying that he had adopted it to pulling everyone's leg. People had to say -" Manja please sleep. It's 12:30 in the night". He was the go to person in our gang for everything.

Behind all this child like innocence hid a mature person. He once said to me that he would not marry and would adopt a child and take care of it till the end. He said he has already convinced his mother for the same.On the same day he said, i might not have a family of my own, so friends are everything to me. That's when i realized why he was so in touch with everyone of us. I remember another instance i was talking to him on phone and sharing with him a felling of guilt of having let go of an important opportunity in life. He said a simple sentence - "You have seen the world enough. Let go. Its time to prioritize your family". That said a lot about the kind of person he was and it meant a lot to me at that point.

We will never get a friend like him. What breaks our heart is to know that God decided to take his life when he was distributing his own wedding card. It makes us realize impermanence of things in life and how cruel can God be sometimes.

"Manju . You were a free soul then and you are a free soul now" . May God give his family , especially his mother the strength to go through these difficult times. We will always miss you !!


Sunday, January 29, 2017

How to take the right decision ?

Success, they say is nothing but a series of right decisions taken at the right time. But, how do we know our decisions are right, let alone the time.
Here are a few leads that i have got through my personal experience :
  • Know what do you want from life : You need to be clear in what you want from life. Otherwise you might choose something that is  completely not aligned with your goals and might repent later.
  • Be clear on what you stand for : You must be clear on what are your values, ethics and what you consider right and wrong.This will tremendously help you make the right decisions.
  • Letting things go : You are where you are in life, because of the decisions that you have made in the past. There might be a few situations where you feel , you completely goofed up by making a choice. Do not carry the guilt of having made the decision for a long time. The negative feeling will go away with time. Learn from your mistakes and do not do them again.
  • When you are faced with difficult choices to make : There will be times when it is very hard to make a choice. It seems like you want everything. But you need to understand the hard truth that you cant have it all. You need to decide based on the priorities at that point in your life. You will always miss certain things and feel that your life would have been different , if you had made the other choice. 
  • Do not weigh in the options too much : Too much thinking will spoil your decisions. They must be somewhere between spontaneous and well though out.
  • The spiritual way of taking the right decision : As the famous spiritual thinker Deepak Chopra says in his book "7 Spiritual Laws for Success" : Firstly ask yourself -" Would this decision that i am taking bring happiness and fulfillment to me and my loved ones ?". If the answer is yes go ahead and take that decision. If you are still unclear on what to do, take a pause from your thoughts and ask yourself the question - " How would i feel , if i make this choice ?" and wait from the signals from your heart. It might be the faintest of the feeling , but you know its there. You will know what feels right and what is wrong. You might say the heart is emotional and mushy and does not use logic while making a decision. But , the heart is in direct touch with the cosmic supercomputer, which can make a series of  space time events to get you what you want.
Hope you find this was insightful and will make the right decisions leading to success.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Practicising Total Surrender in Life

“Something amazing happens when we surrender and just love. We melt into another world, a realm of power already within us. The world changes when we change. the world softens when we soften. The world loves us when we choose to love the world.” 

Surrender by its literal meaning has a negative connotation. It sounds like you need to give up doing what you are doing, nothing is under your control and you just need to fit into some one else's master plan. But, it's true meaning is the complete opposite of it.

They say in order to get what you want in life, you need to practice complete surrender. The first step in practicing this , is to accept your current life situation as it is. As famous spiritual thinker Eckhart Tolle says -" Accept the isness of the moment". Whether your life situation is good, bad or worse, just accept it as it is without judging it. Acceptance of things as it is stops the constant buzz in your head about your life. Once you pause this constant negative buzz in your head, there will be room for some positive things to come in.

You will be able to analyse your current situation better and start taking action. But, does surrender not mean that i should do nothing ? No. If you are stuck in mud, do you put up your hands and say ok i am stuck. No. you dont do that. Similarly by surrendering you are coming back to the present moment with a clear mind and with actionable insights. If any person is making you unhappy or any situation is irritating you, handle that by being vocal with your thoughts. If you cannot do that, just remove yourself from that place.

Surrender does not mean that you stop going behind your goals/dreams. You do whatever possible to achieve them. But, the only difference is you will stop worrying about things which can go wrong or stop running mental movies about possible future scenarios. Your energy is completely in the now. Like Krishna said -"Karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana". Just focus on your Karma/work , do not worry about the results.Develop a sense of detachment towards the end result. There is no point in thinking about things which are not under your control. Just do your job and get out. Results will follow.

Develop a sense of optimism in everything you do in life. Just remember Hope is the only thing that keeps us alive.It fills you with positive energy to go about some of the toughest situations in life. This will also add a magical touch to whatever you do, making sure you are ahead of others.

It  also removes the enormous burden you carry in your head, thinking that you are alone and are responsible for every decision you take. Always believe that there is a higher power that  always wants the best things for you in life. If you think you did not get what you wanted, it always means that God has something much better than what  you could have possibly imagined. But, you need to allow this higher power to come into your life.






Sunday, January 15, 2017

Religion in 21st century

Religion has slowly started creeping into every tiny little aspect of life recently. Everyone seems to wear religion on their sleeves. Even a person who does not even think about religion on a day to day basis is being forced to do a rethink and take an extreme position. Then there are those people whose very existence in based on taking extreme views on everything-reason religion.

It feels like people are taking extreme position and building walls around themselves. Take the social media for example where people are spewing venom against other religions and spreading the word that only my religion is right and the rest all are wrong.They want to throw muck at every other religion.

So, here are a few things that every religion must do to evolve , stay relevant and most important of all does not see other religions with hatred.

Stop building walls around yourselves in the name of religion : Every religion should follow an open door principle.  Open the doors of your places of worship for anyone and everyone who respects the sanctity of the place. A closed door always gives rise to suspicion that something is being cooked up inside the four walls. The overall mentality of the people should be welcoming and not see people of other religions with suspicion.

Stop thinking only your religion is right :  Respect other religions for god's sake. I have heard preachers who run famous television channels with peace in it's name doing the exact opposite. They are inciting people to think that all the other religions are wrong and only theirs is right. This is making people take a very narrow view of things and attack any other views that are not in alignment with theirs.

Propagate your religion :  Yes . There is nothing wrong in propagating one's religion. Strive to get more and more number of people into your faith. But, do not turn opportunists in the name of god, forcing people to come into your faith using a bait , be it financial assistance, curing a disease,etc

Stop committing crime in the name of God : Looks at what ISIS is doing in the name of God. No god would tolerate what they are doing to their own brothers and sisters. They have brought disgrace to Islam. People have started using the term "Islamic Terrorism" with ease. They have made the whole world look at Muslims with suspicion. They are normal people going about their life like anyone of us. It has given an opportunity for hypocrites like Donald trump to fuel this anti Islamic sentiment by talking rubbish.

Stop Minority appeasement : The majority of the country should take special care of the minorities in their country, so that they feel welcome and safe. But, its always a two way hand shake. Minorities have every right to practice their faith. But that does not mean that a few people in continuation of their appeasement politics can behave as if they are allergic to the majority community and their beliefs. Minority propagating their  faith is secular, but majority asserting their rights is communal. This is not right. Expecting dignity/respect from the majority community is right, but expecting them to lead an apologetic existence is wrong.

Consolidate people within your own religion: We have created divisions and sub divisions within our own religion and are fighting among ourselves. Be it Shias and Sunnis in Iraq, Catholic versus protestants in Ireland. In Hinduism we have a long list of people fighting among themselves, discriminating against one another. It has gone to such an extent that a few politicians are forming groups called -" Ahinda"(meaning not Hindu) among the Hindu community. We have a long history of caste discrimination, so much so that we fail to identify as one religion. This is detrimental to the cause of all people coming together under a religion. This should stop once in for all.

Stop wearing Religion on your sleeves :  It is recent phenomenon that people are bringing religion into everything. Take the Yoga for example , which has been accepted worldwide by millions of people. A few people back home have started seeing it through the prism of religion. Off course, no one can deny its roots to Hinduism. But does it mean that you have to kick it away saying it is an imposition on my faith and beliefs. Why do you have to behave as if you are allergic to other religions ?  Another example of this allergic syndrome is  the famous -" Bharat mata kin jai controversy".  I seriously fail to understand how chanting Bharat would demean one's religion. Thank god , such people did not exist during our freedom struggle. There would be no single country as India.

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