The Living Ganga
Recently back from a trip to the Himalayas, the birthplace of the river Ganga and on the occasion of World Water Day, I take the opportunity to write about the river Ganga, the life-giving Mother of India.
The Yoga of Playfulness
Today, on the festival of Holi, all of India celebrates the colour and playfulness of life by drenching each other with water and colour and singing, dancing and making merry throughout the day. As a child, I recall being excited beyond limits on the eve of this festival. Waking up early morning on Holi day, all…
It’s all in your hands, literally (Mudras and more)
In yogic practices, the hands are a very important part of the body. They are the part of the body where the inner energy field can usually be most easily felt. Let’s take a closer look at what makes the hands so special.
Be original, truly
Reflecting on what got me into exploring spirituality, one important aspect was not being able to take as a given, most ‘conventional wisdom’ doing the rounds. You know the witty poster quotations and the inspirational one-liners or often two-word-ers like ‘love yourself’, ‘be original’, yada, yada. Instead of readily accepting these exhortations, I wanted to know why? And moreover, I was a little annoyed at having to take advice from other people in the sense of, why don’t I know these things myself? This kind of questioning led me into a deeper understanding of human life and purpose.
In this post, I want to discuss one of the flighty aphorisms that many of us have grown up with and which, perhaps as in my case, makes you think of a sports-wear advertisement : ‘be original’. But instead of taking its casual, up-front meaning, I want to explore a more spiritual dimension.
Spring of possibilities
Spring is always pregnant with possibilities. We worship Goddess Saraswati at this time to bring out the best in us.
Lessons in trying to save the world
Yesterday, I tried to save the world. Well, just a little bit. Having nurtured a considerable passion for a while about wanting to contribute to a better world, I signed up with great enthusiasm for an event to help with an initiative for the education of underprivileged children. It was a rewarding day both for…
What 6 months of yoga and meditation has done for me
IT’s been about six months since I started practising yoga and meditation regularly. For most people, it’s something that has weaved in and out of their lives over many years and many actually got into it quite early in life. But for me, it was just something I got into quite all-of-a-sudden and that too in my early 30s and so far have consistently stuck with it. I thought that this milestone calls for some stock-taking to see what changes my practice has brought in me. Here’s the top 3 immediately obvious ones.
Effective ways to improve your yoga and meditation practice
You’ve proudly managed to find your ‘quiet time’ in the middle of a hectic schedule. You’ve changed into clothes with more zen-inspiring potential and maybe even lit a candle or two to set the mood. But as you settle in for your yoga or meditation, you can’t get your mind off that work problem, or how rude that cashier was or how you’ll manage to squeeze all your ‘to-do’s into the rest of the week. You know what a meaningful yoga/meditation practice is supposed to look like but your mind is not in a mood to cooperate. Here’s a few methods I use that can hopefully help to guide you back to attentiveness or if you’re having a good session already, to make it more effective.
The pressure to do what you love
Do what you love. We’ve all heard this advice and seriously contemplated it at some point or the other in our lives. Usually while we’re hunched at our office desks at 9 pm, eating a cold desk dinner or while reading stories about wildly successful people like Elon Musk doing exactly what they love or…
The most important reminder of all
Shuffling through the ‘to-do’s and ‘may-do’s, Letting some drop off the cluttered lists; Postponing smiles and laughter to the holidays, Squeezing contentment into corners, if it fits. ‘Why are we here?’ ‘What is the truth?’ We’d love to know, but maybe later. There’s so much to do today (and every day), We have problems right…
New Year, New Consciousness
January 1 does not embody an astrological or cosmic significance as such, but nonetheless, stepping into the New Year is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on life’s journey. 2016 has been a year of big changes on the global front – with Brexit in Europe, the Trump presidency in the US and closer to home,…
Christmas postcardÂ
Dear rose, You have bloomed for the first time For eons. ~~~Merry Christmas!
Nature and spirituality in South India
October is not a fallen month in South India. Unlike in temperate lands, there is no surrendering of the leaves first to non-verdant hues and eventually to the ground. The trees don’t avert their gaze like they do in Paris in autumn, embarrassed by their state of undress
Commercialisation of spirituality
Ever since the Beatles starting chanting Om and Madonna started doing yoga, eastern spirituality has been quite fashionable and has been becoming even more so in recent years. While it’s no doubt good that people are taking up positive spiritual practices like yoga-asanas, the commercialisation of spirituality is undesirable and even potentially dangerous. With the…
The one thing that grows the more you use it
We usually tend to associate use of something with its depletion. So our natural reflexes are to save, not expend beyond what we believe to be our means and to feel scared to use too much of a thing. But there’s one thing that only grows the more it is used and it’s intrinsic to meditation.