Lessons of happiness from birds

One day Ratilal, the richest man in the village, asked his accountant, “Can you give me an approximate idea of my savings?”

“Let me see. After calculating all your investments and interest, I can tell you that you have enough savings such that your next three generations can live happily,” answered the accountant.

With some grave impressions on his face, he grumbled, “In that case, how is my fourth generation going to survive?” He started remaining worried. One day, his close friend Harichand, a kind and spiritual soul, visited him. When he revealed the cause of his worries to his friend, Harichand started laughing and then sang of the Saint Kabir’s verse:

Rejoice in the realization of golden Buddha

It was year 1957, in Thailand. A group of monks were asked to relocate their monastery, along with a huge clay Buddha, to a new location in order to make room for the development of a highway through Bangkok. When the monks tried to move the giant idol with a help of equipment, the idol developed a crack. The head monk, who was concerned about damage to the sacred Buddha, decided to lower the statue back to the ground and cover it with a large canvas tarp to protect it from the rain.

Later in the night, the head monk wanted to check the magnitude of the crack once again. He went to check on the Buddha, entrapped in the large canvas. He shined his flashlight under the tarp on the giant Buddha idol. He got curious as he saw the little gleam shining back. When he took a closer look at this gleam of light, he wondered if there might be something underneath the clay.

Romancing with life is happiness

Life is like all-knowing affectionate grandma. Sometimes life smiles at you and then, at other times, it makes faces. Sometimes life hugs you with love and then, at other times, it plays naughty pranks on you. Sometimes life kisses you on your cheeks and then, at other times, it pinches you softly and run away laughingly. Life just wants to play with you and wants to romance with you. It doesn’t want to spare you with any dull moments. Life wants you to teach the art of playing with it.

Don’t take life too seriously. Only when you start appreciating life, begin to love it and start playing with it, you will experience a deep and sweet connection with life. This is what I am referring as romance with life.

The spiritual significance of Kumbh Mela

A significant spiritual event is in progress in the land of the mystics and seers – India. This congregation is happening in Haridwar after twelve years. Situate on the banks of river Ganges, Haridwar is hosting the Kumbh Mela from 14th January to 28th April, 2010. The dates are calculated based on the special astrological combination of zodiacal positions of Sun, Moon, and Jupiter. The references of Kumbh Mela are found even in the Puranas. So, we can infer that this holy event has been celebrated in India since time immemorial, even before the Puranas were written four thousand years ago.

Spiritual secrets of your health

As per World Health Organization, health is defined as being a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The correlation of mental health with physical and social health has already been illustrated by various scientific studies all over the world. However, one more important component, your spiritual health and happiness, is missing from the WHO definition of health as well as from the focus of researches all over the world.

 The sages of the East, who were the pioneers of Ayurveda, inscribed about this important link between spirituality and health, thousands of years ago. The first great Ayurvedic teacher, Agnivesh, was a disciple of Atreya Punavarsu, one of that original body of thinkers who founded the Ayurveda. These holy men insisted that a man’s physical health is dependent on his ability to live in harmony with the external universe and the mental health depends on his ability to live in harmony with himself. Following is the summary of the secrets of health revealed by Atreya Muni to his disciple, Agnivesh:

Five shortcomings of the worldly pleasures

We spend most of our time and energy in the pursuit of material wealth which can enable us to enjoy sensual pleasures, be it in the form of good food to satisfy the sense of taste, good music to pacify the sense of hearing or bodily sensual pleasures to soothe the sense of touch. It seems that the only objective of life for the contemporary man is to enjoy sensual pleasures, bodily comforts and momentary gratification. Such never-ending pursuit tarnishes our heart and prevents us from enjoying the inner peace, divine love and inner happiness.

The worldly pleasures are inflicted with five shortcomings. Firstly, such pleasures do not last very long and come to an end very quickly.

Spiritual benefits of being a vegetarian

To eat whatever is served, to drink whatever is available and to act as per the wishes of mind are the signs of animalistic tendencies. Even animals do the same. If you act just like animals, then you won’t be able to claim the eternal inner joy, love and laughter that are only available to humans. For receiving the priceless gift of inner happiness, you are required to be the master of your mind, instead of being a slave. You can only become master of your mind when your intellect shines with the true wisdom and your acts are aligned with your consciousness.

Your intellect only makes decision based on the past impressions and the current knowledge. A true seeker of happiness should gain ample knowledge to illumine the intellect so that it can make right decisions that could bring you closer to inner joy.

The ancient secrets of sound sleep and Yoga Nidra

Human mind always remains in one of the three states i.e. the state of waking, dreaming or that of deep sleep. Even during the state of dreaming, your sub conscious mind remains active and hence, you don’t get complete rest. You get complete rest and feel recharged only after a deep, dreamless sleep, wherein your whole being, including our mind, gets relaxed. Such a profound dreamless sleep has wonderful affects on all the spheres of your existence- on the physical as well as our subtle body, which consists of the mind, the intellect, the mood and the ego.

The happy or the sad, the rich or the poor, the president or the citizen, the learned or the illiterate, all experience the same peace during deep sleep. During deep sleep,

True ever lasting happiness

A rich businessman went to a mystic and addressed him: ‘Dear Master, I tried a lot, but couldn’t attain long-lasting happiness. Please bless me with long-lasting happiness.’
The mystic thought that this man doesn’t have the patience to sit, listen and comprehend my teachings. He needs a practical lesson. He said, ‘Please bring me an old shoe of the happiest one, and I will bless you to be in the same state of happiness as the owner of the shoe.’

The businessman went to the wealthiest man in the city and knocked on his door. ‘Sir, can I have one of your old shoes, please?’ On being asked why, he told the whole story to the wealthy man. The wealthy man said, ‘Who told you that I am the happiest one?

How do I win over my impish mind?

Very often, seekers have a question: how can I win over this untamed mind? When I sit for meditation, my mind become engaged in vague thoughts – thoughts about unpaid bills, about some old reminiscence, about a scene from the movie or what not? The chattering of mind never stops.

Well… it is the tendency of the mind to hanker after the subject of interest or from where it thinks it can derive security, peace, pleasure or happiness. So far, your mind is only aware of the posible source of happiness in the outer world.  It is only aware of the outer peace, while remaining ignorant about the ocean of inner peace. Your mind has not tasted the joy of becoming aware of the awareness. So, it is natural for the mind to pull you in the outer world, even when you try to sit in the meditation to focus inward. Because of your ignoranance of the inner world and the inner joy, all your efforts become futile for focusing the mind inwardly.

Also, think about it... your mind is continuously inundated with the information

True wealth

Not one or two, but most of us are engaged only in piling up the material wealth, assuming it to be the source of happiness. But rare are those beings who have come to realize the truth and have truly searched for the true wealth, the wealth of inner contentment, peace and fulfillment.
Siddhartha, who later became known as Buddha, came to understand the reality of the material wealth in his early youth. He made up his mind to go to the forest in search of true happiness, leaving behind his magnificent palace, all the luxuries, his beautiful wife and his infant son. Around midnight, he asked his charioteer by the name Chann to pull out the chariot and requested him to drop him at the outskirts of the state.

Challenges: The means of elevation

The worldly hardships and troubles cannot harm you, unless and until you become week from inside and give up. If you have faith in your Self, if you are strong from inside, then outer troubles only helps you to elevate to higher state of equanimity and happiness. However, when you are fearful and discouraged, then you tend to take wrong decisions and in this manner help the troubles to win over you and suppress you.
If your outlook is positive and constructive, then you can step over all the troubles and obstacles of life easily. Not only that, with the right perspective, you can make proper use of these obstacles to

Only requirement for attaining inner happiness is passionate eagerness

Human Will is capable of achieving anything in the material world, as well as in the spiritual world, the inner world. It is not that we lack resources or we lack intellect to gain the knowledge of the Self. It is only that we lack the ardent eagerness required to gain the highest goal of human life – the true inner happiness. The true seeker of Self is rare. You can easily find the seeker of wealth, the seekers of eminence, the seekers of peace, the seekers of comforts or even the seekers of God, but it is very rare to find an ardent seeker of inner happiness, the inner wisdom of Self.

Let me tell you an ancient story of such a ardent seeker of true wisdom, Nachiketa.

“Nackiketa was son of a rich Brahmin, Vajashravasa. Vajashravasa, desiring worldly blessings from the Gods, made offerings of many cows.

Brakes and light in the life of a true seeker

“Stop…Stop right here,” shouted a policeman at the impish teenager riding a bicycle in the dark streets of Delhi. “Why are you riding so fast in the dark without any light on your bike?”
“Please move aside Sir….Lights…Ha ha…this bicycle is not even having the brakes,” replied the happy-go-lucky rider.
Well… you may laugh at him, but most of us are doing the same with our lives. We are also riding the bicycle of our lives without any brakes and light. We act indiscriminately as per the wishes of the mind, without putting any restraints on our senses. At the same time most of us are in dark, ignorant about the inner world of mind, intellect, heart, consciousness and the blissful soul.

Don’t be proud of your looks as you are not this body

Bimbisar, the king of Koshal, was a devotee of Buddha and would pay him a visit quite often. His wife, Kheema, was extremely beautiful and was very proud of her beautiful looks. Her motto in life was to ‘eat, drink and be merry.’ She would often say to the King, ‘Life is too short. Why don’t you spend it enjoying to the maximum? Why do you go to Buddha? What does the poor mendicant have and what can he give us?’

But the King had an earnest desire that Kheema too should realize the greatness of saints like Buddha. Once he tricked her and asked his ministers to bring Kheema to Venuvana, the forest where Buddha lived in those days. When Kheema got off her palanquin, she did not see the king and instead found a mendicant sitting under the tree.

Perturbed, she said, ‘Where is his majesty?’

Happiness Quotes from the Truly Happy Ones

To remain ever cheerful and equanimous is the greatest devotion to God. -Asaramji Bapu

Inner Contentment is the destroyer of all three - desires, anger and greed. -Swami Ramsukhdasji

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. -Gautam Budha

The earnest purpose of this blog

Last evening, I was writing one of the blog and my four year old son asked me, “Dad, why do you keep writing on the laptop?”

“I know, why...,” replied immediately my seven years old daughter.
“Tell me, why?”
“Dad, you might laugh at me,” replied my daughter while shying away from me.
“Come on Sanya, I won’t laugh. No one will laugh,” I tried to make her comfortable while holding her hands.
“Because you love God and you want to make Him popular. So you write and keep busy on your laptop.”

I hugged my daughter with tears in my eyes. My soul expanded in gratitude and appreciation of the divine power that resides in her heart and that inspired those words out of her mouth. How true! The only purpose of writing this blog is to introduce you to the supreme impersonal God that is omnipresent and also resides in our heart. I want to make that eternal-conscious-blissful God popular, so that those who know him find supreme peace and eternal joy within. I want to introduce everyone to that everlasting inner bliss.

The purpose of this blog, my friends, is to slowly introduce you to the inherent blissful Self.The Self realized mystics enlighten us that the true nature of our spirit is Sat-Chit-Anand, meaning Eternal-Conscious-Bliss. You cannot experience long lasting bliss in the enjoyments of worldly pleasures. The momentary joy, that you experience while engaging in the outer sensual pleasures, is just a glimpse of your true blissful nature.

Bliss is a wonderfully sublime experience that cannot be put in words. Those who have ever fallen in love would know that how difficult is it to describe love in words. The bliss of the Self is many times more profound and sublime than the love. As per the ancient scriptures of India, which are nothing but the sermon of the Self realized mystics, if you are able to calm your mind completely and if you manage to remain drowned in the sublime realization of inner bliss for even as short as three minutes, all your unhappiness is dissolved,  all your doubts are evaporated, you become blissful, you achieve liberation and in such doing, you fulfil the highest purpose of human life.

If bliss is our true nature then why don’t we remain blissful all the time? Why do we become inflicted with worries, tensions, sorrow and grief? Bliss, my friend, is your true nature, the essence of your spirit and the truth of your consciousness. However, it is only at the level of mind that all the sorrows and worries exist. Sorrows and worries are creations of your mind. These don’t belong to your true nature, or else you would have experienced such undesirable feelings even during your deep sleep. All the temptations and countless thoughts of your mind have formed a temporary cloudy veil over it. A child remains blissful because his mind is pure, not yet corrupted by all kind of impressions of the world. The veil of all the unnecessary worries and thoughts and missing and hence, the luminous blissful spirit shines through effortlessly on the face of the innocent child.

Bliss is present in every heart. However, those who have realized the ever present inherent bliss are very rare. The purpose of this blog is to introduce you with the wisdom of such blissful mystics of India who have realized the ever present bliss as their true nature. Each article will bring you closer to your own true Self. Come let’s rejoice in the true realization of the Self.


May you all realize the importance of Self knowledge, become the earnest seeker of inner bliss and rejoice in the Self !! Om... Om ... Om....!!