gknm

South Sunset

2011-01-16T21:04:00.001+04:00

The Best... at Li Beirut

2011-01-16T21:01:00.001+04:00

Beirut Sunset

2011-01-16T20:59:00.000+04:00

I love Lara's Hanzalah!

2011-01-16T20:57:00.001+04:00

Weel of Light

2011-01-16T20:54:00.000+04:00

Cats Ride

2011-01-16T20:52:00.000+04:00

Luca... CHE GUEVARA cat version!

2011-01-16T20:51:00.000+04:00

2011 Greetings

2010-12-22T00:45:00.002+04:00

Beirut by Magnum Photos

2010-12-11T20:46:00.010+04:00

Fashion

2010-12-10T15:36:00.000+04:00

There is music everywhere, you just have to listen (August Rush)

2010-12-10T15:26:00.002+04:00

Trees

2010-12-10T15:23:00.001+04:00

Sunset in Musandam

2010-12-10T15:20:00.000+04:00

Sunset

2010-12-10T15:19:00.000+04:00

While driving

2010-12-10T15:07:00.003+04:00

Arabian Ranches - Dubai

2010-12-10T15:06:00.000+04:00

Burj Al Arab

2010-12-10T15:03:00.000+04:00

Symbolic Meaning of Numbers

2010-12-10T15:00:00.000+04:00

One: One primarily deasl with strong will, positivity, pure energy. The number One reflects new beginnings, and purity. The symbolic meaning of number One is further clarified when we understand One represents both kinds of action: physical and mental. This combined with Ones urgency for new beginnings, we begin to see Ones recurring in our lives indicates a time to exert our natural forces, take action, and start a new venture. One encourages us our action will be rewarded in kind.

Two: The symbolic meaning of number Two is kindness, balance, tact, equalization, and duality. The number Two reflects a quiet power of judgment, and the need for planning. Two beckons us to choose. The spiritual meaning of number Two also deals with exchanges made with others, partnerships (both in harmony and rivalry), and communication. Two urges us out of our indecision, calls us to unite with like-minds, and like-ideals. Two asks us to exert our natural flow of judgment to do what is best for our souls.

Three: The spiritual meaning of number Three deals with magic, intuition, fecundity, and advantage. The number Three invokes expression, versatility, and pure joy of creativity. Three is also a time identifier as it represents Past, Present and Future. Consecutive Threes in your life may symbolize the need to express yourself creatively, or consider your present directional path in relation to past events and future goals. Three may also represent promising new adventures, and assurance of cooperation from others whom you may require help. Three typically symbolizes reward and success in most undertakings.

Four: The symbolic meaning of number Four deals with stability and invokes the grounded nature of all things. Consider the four seasons, four directions, four elements all these amazingly powerful essences wrapped up in the nice square package of Four. Fours represent solidity, calmness, and home. A recurrence of Four in your life may signify the need to get back to your roots, center yourself, or even "plant" yourself. Fours also indicate a need for persistence and endurance.

Five: The spiritual meaning of number Five deals with travel, adventure, and motion. With the highs that come with these attributes, Fives also carry instability and unpredictability, and radical changes. The spiritual meaning of Five draws our attention to the wonder of life, and beckons us to appreciate the perception of chaos all around us. Five has wild vibrations: primitive and erratic. When Five continues to pop up in your life be prepared for some action, like a trip. Remember, trips aren't all necessarily taken physically. Some of the best journey's are taken in the mind and spirit.

Six: The symbolism behind number Six is legend. With Venus as its ruler, Six represents harmony, balance, sincerity, love, and truth. Six naturally reveals solutions for us in a calm, unfolding manner. We invoke the Six when we need delicate diplomacy when dealing with sensitive matters. The spiritual meaning of number Six also deals with enlightenment; specifically "lighting" our path in areas we require spiritual and mental balance. Sixes beckon us to administer compassion and consciously choose forgiveness in a situation.

Seven:Sevens, like Threes, deal with magical forces. Sevens deal with esoteric, scholarly aspects of magic. Representative of scholarly activities, mystery, and the focused search for esoteric meanings. Seven deals with the activation of imagination and manifesting results in our lives through the use of conscious thought and awareness. Ruled by Saturn, Seven can represent impractical dreaming, but with a deeper understanding of the aspects of Seven, you can quite deftly utilize its magical vibration to your own benefit.

Eight: The symbolism backing number Eight deals largely with business, success, and wealth. This is due to the fact that Eight represents continuation, repetition, and cycles. Such elements are seen in arenas where success is obtained simply because of dogged determination and repetition. Also, matters of business and wealth largely depend on cycles to fulfill their manifestation. It's like the snowball analogy: As it continues to roll, in gets bigger and bigger with each revolution. Eight represents that kind of momentum.

Nine: The spiritual meaning of number Nine bring us to the very height of vibrational frequencies in this number sequence. Nine represents attainment, satisfaction, accomplishment, and our success to achieve an influence in our circumstances. The spiritual meaning of number Nine deals with intellectual power, inventiveness, influence over situations and things. Nine beseeches us to recognize our own internal attributes, and extend these abilities out into the world to make a positive, influential difference.

roses

2010-12-03T21:31:00.003+04:00

Unleash your elephantine power by altering your response from one that binds you to one that free you!!! - Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia

2010-11-28T22:06:00.002+04:00

I was engaged in this extremely interesting conversation with a group of very close friends, who are the team behind this whole facebook exercise and they had this very interesting observation to share which was to do with their children.

It is so amazing to observe, children nowadays, who speak so very differently about their relationship with the divine. They are so confident that they are projections or extensions of the divine force. They are very sure that they are here to enjoy the best the life has to offer because they are god's children.

It really makes you feel very very fulfilled when you watch that. But it also opens up a different line of thinking which is, if our children can be like this and they are like this not because we have taught them to be like this, but it is just a consciousness they seem to be born with, then what are we looking at?

So if these children in the new age, are born with this awareness that they are friends of god, they are the children of god, or they are extensions and projections of the divine, then what in hell's name happened to us? Where did we lose the plot? Perhaps, it might be interesting to observe that if we go back into the way we have evolved over time. At the start of time, maybe in the golden age of mankind, humans on the earth did have an enormous amount of power. The power to manifest, the power to control the elements of the earth, the power to actually live the reality on earth the way their thoughts made them go through it. The power was all there and it was awesome. Perhaps so awesome, that we knew not the true extent of the magnificence that we were and as a result of that when we found ourselves unable, unable to take responsibility for actually being gods, we just decided that it might just be useful to forget a little bit about what is truth and thus began our descent into a self created barrier of consciousness. An awareness in which we chose to cover ourselves with amnesia forgetting the fact that we have it all because with absolute power comes absolute responsibility. Since we are not willing to handle that it becomes so very convenient to lay out all the blame, on the feet of the lord up there and say, "well this is what you have chosen, I am destined to do it, and so is my karma, is my destiny.", Crap !!!

You chose to forget, you chose that because you did not have to take the responsibility; and today you blame the system. It has nothing to do with the system.

Ironically, since the consciousness of the earth is changing you are now choosing back through your own created dramas, the power deep within you. That is how this whole video series is going on. Why do we need a facebook exercise? We need a facebook exercise simply because we have forgotten the fact that it was all with us in any case and so we need somebody like me who comes in like an idiot, week after week, provoking your amnesia into waking up and remembering the fact you were, you are and you will always be the divine. But we want proof and so how do we get this proof? We get this proof by planning once again to have an environment which will challenge our abilities. Such a fantastic plot! I will tell you if there were Oscars for movie making, for acting, for script writing, each one of us would bag these hands own. We execute this so beautifully because now, we are on an upward scale of consciousness where we are seeking to remember once again that we are the divine in motion. How do we remember this? By proving it! And how do we prove this? By inviting challenging situations in which eventually we discover the power to go beyond our programming. This is the most interesting aspect of the journey.

Once again, ironically, I was having a discussion with my friends and they were talking about what happens with the elephant. It is such a beautiful exercise. For all those of you, who have seen the elephant being trained, the exercise of the elephant being trained is one classical epitome of what happens to human consciousness. For those of you who are not aware of this, perhaps this might be a good time to understand it. So, when elephant is born, it is obviously not aware the sheer amount of power it is going to wield when it grows up and to train the elephant the people who capture it or people who keep it, tie the foot of the elephant with a chain and the elephant tries to break the chain but can't break it. and slowly the mindset of the elephant gets completely converted into a belief that if there is anything binding his foot he is unable to break it. To the extent that when the elephant grows up, probably weighs five tonnes and has the power of god knows what ! can uproot trees, can damage buildings and yet this same elephant, the moment there is even a rope touching the foot of the elephant the mindset of the elephant keeps it absolutely docile and still. That is exactly what happens to us. We choose in our programming, we choose in our parenting, we choose in our religion, we choose in our education, all those chains which will make us the bound elephant and then begins our journey with emotional pain. Because the power is there but the belief says that you are bound and that belief becomes your emotional jack till one fine day you break that mindset and you break that mindset simply by understanding that if you were that elephant who had the chain around your foot what would you love to feel. Ah! I would love to feel free. At the end of the day that is the only thing that the soul is desirous of experiencing. It's the desire to feel free and experience life for whatever it is.

So, the next time you have to change your response remember the response should be the response which frees you. Never binds you. If you can implement that, the massive elephantine power that lies within you is just ready to be unleashed. Enjoy!

Burj Khalifa

2010-11-28T21:57:00.005+04:00

Driving

2010-11-28T21:52:00.004+04:00

Rainy Sand Storm

2010-11-14T21:54:00.005+04:00

Morning Drive

2010-11-14T21:26:00.002+04:00

Playing With The Phone

2010-11-14T21:01:00.004+04:00

Candle

2010-11-14T20:55:00.000+04:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes

2010-11-14T20:44:00.003+04:00

Famous quotes by Krishnamurti on life love and truth

Truth is a pathless land.
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.
The Dissolution of the Order of the Star. 1929.
In obedience there is always fear, and fear darkens the mind.
I was supremely happy, for I had seen. Nothing could ever be the same. I have drunk at the clear and pure waters and my thirst was appeased. ...I have seen the Light. I have touched compassion which heals all sorrow and suffering; it is not for myself, but for the world. ...Love in all its glory has intoxicated my heart; my heart can never be closed. I have drunk at the fountain of Joy and eternal Beauty. I am God-intoxicated.
Beauty is complete order. But most of us have not that sense of beauty in our lives. We may be great artists, great painters, expert in various things, but in our own daily life, with all the anxieties and miseries, we live, unfortunately, a very disordered life. It is a fact. You may a great scientist, you may be a great expert in a subject, but you have your own problems, struggles, pain, anxieties and the rest of it. We are asking, is it possible to live in complete order within, not impose discipline, control, but to inquire into the nature of this disorder, what are the causes, and to dispel, move away, wash away the cause. Then there is a living order in the universe.
Jiddu Krishnamurti quotes.
Pain itself destroys pain. Suffering itself frees man from suffering.
Jiddu Krishnamurti: The Little Book on Living.
Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.
Hitler and Mussolini were only the primary spokesmen for the attitude of domination and craving for power that are in the heart of almost everyone. Until the source is cleared, there will always be confusion and hate, wars and class antagonisms.
The mind has to be empty to see clearly.
Jiddu Krishnamurti: The Little Book on Living.
When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely - the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears - when you give your whole attention to it.
When one loses the deep intimate relationship with nature, then temples, mosques and churches become important.
You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, "What did that man pick up?" "He picked up a piece of the truth," said the devil. "That is a very bad business for you, then," said his friend. "Oh, not at all," the devil replied, "I am going to help him organize it."
The flowering of love is meditation.
There is no need to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.
Only in relationship can you know yourself, not in abstraction and certainly not in isolation. The movement of behavior is the sure guide to yourself. It's the mirror of your consciousness: this mirror will reveal its content, the images, the attachments, the fears, the loneliness, the joys and sorrow. Poverty lies in running away from this, either in its sublimations or its identities.
The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.
Do not think about yourself, but be aware of the thought, emotion, or action that makes you think of yourself.
Jiddu Krishnamurti: The Little Book on Living.
Religion is the frozen thought of man out of which they build temples.
If you lose touch with nature you lose touch with humanity. If there's no relationship with nature then you become a killer; then you kill baby seals, whales, dolphins, and man either for gain, for sport, for food, or for knowledge. Then nature is frightened of you, withdrawing its beauty. You may take long walks in the woods or camp in lovely places but you are a killer and so lose their friendship. You probably are not related to anything to your wife or your husband
J.Krishnamurti, Krishanmurti's Journal 04 April 1975
We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.
Begin where you are. Read every word, every phrase, every paragraph of the mind, as it operates through thought.
Jiddu Krishnamurti to Jawaharlal Nehru when the later came to meet him after World War II
The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.
Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn't merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence.
If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.
By our pontifical assertions, our superior impatience, and our casual brushing aside of their curiosity, we do not encourage their inquiry, for we are rather apprehensive of what may be asked of us; we do not foster their discontent, for we ourselves have ceased to question.
What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.
If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.
Jiddu Krishnamurti: The Little Book on Living.
The description is not the described; I can describe the mountain, but the description is not the mountain, and if you are caught up in the description, as most people are, then you will never see the mountain
In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.
The fact is there is nothing that you can trust; and that is a terrible fact, whether you like it or not. Psychologically there is nothing in the world, that you can put your faith, your trust, or your belief in. Neither your gods, nor your science can save you, can bring you psychological certainty; and you have to accept that you can trust in absolutely nothing.
1962 2nd Public Talk, Bombay
A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.
To me, then, true criticism consists in trying to find out the intrinsic worth of the thing itself, and not in attributing a quality to that thing. You attribute a quality to an environment, to an experience, only when you want to derive something from it, when you want to gain or to have power or happiness. Now this destroys true criticism. Your desire is perverted through attributing values, and therefore you cannot see clearly. Instead of trying to see the flower in its original and entire beauty, you look at it through coloured glasses, and therefore you can never see it as it is.
1933-12-29 1st Public Talk, Adyar, Madras, India
This is no magnificent deed, because I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth. I am not concerned whether you pay attention to what I say or not. I want to do a certain thing in the world and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.
Order is virtue. And order isn’t a thing to be cultivated; you can’t say I will be orderly, I will do this and I won’t do that - then you are merely disciplining yourself, becoming more and more rigid, mechanical. Such a mind is totally incapable of coming upon this beauty that has no name, no expression. Order, like virtue, cannot be cultivated-if you cultivate humility you are obviously not humble; you can cultivate vanity, but to cultivate humility is not possible any more than to cultivate love. So order which is virtue cannot be practised. All that one can do is to see this total disorder within and outside oneself-see it! You can see this total disorder instantly and that is the only thing that matters-to see it instantly.
The observer is the observed.
Jiddu Krishnamurti in As the River Joins The Ocean (1998)
Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.
For the total development of the human being, solitude as a means of cultivating sensitivity becomes a necessity. One has to know what it means to be alone, what it is to meditate, what it is to die; and the implications of solitude, of meditation, of death, can be known only by seeking them out. These implications cannot be taught, they must be learnt. One can indicate, but learning by what is indicated is not the experiencing of solitude or meditation. To experience what is solitude and what is meditation, one must be in in a state of inquiry; only a mind that is in a state of inquiry is capable of learning. But when inquiry is suppressed by previous knowledge, or by the authority and experience of another, then learning becomes mere imitation, and imitation causes a human being to repeat what is learnt without experiencing it.
From the Book, Life Ahead by Krishnamurti
Without freedom from the past, there is no freedom at all, because the mind is never new, fresh, innocent.
Sorrow is not in death but in loneliness, and conflict comes when you seek consolation, forgetfullness, explanations, and illusions.
Jiddu Krishnamurti: The Little Book on Living.
So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.
And the point is, is it possible for the mind to be totally free from suffering and yet not become indifferent, callous, irresponsible, but to have that passion, the intensity, the energy that freedom brings, freedom from suffering.
3rd Public Talk, San Francisco, 1973
You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.
In our relationship with children and young people, we are not dealing with mechanical devices that can be quickly repaired, but with living beings who are impressionable, volatile, sensitive, afraid, affectionate; and to deal with them we have to have great understanding, the strength of patience and love.
All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.
In the space which thought creates around itself there is no love. This space divides man from man, and in it is all the becoming, the battle of life, the agony and fear. Meditation is the ending of this space, the ending of the me.
The ending of sorrow is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge is always within the shadow of ignorance. Meditation is freedom from thought and a movement in the ecstasy of truth. Meditation is explosion of intelligence.
If there is no order in your relationship with your wife, with your husband, with your children, with your neighbour - whether that neighbour is near or very far away - forget about meditation...
You are Christians; find out what is true and false in Christianity - and you will then find out what is true. Find out what is true and false in your environment with all its oppressions and cruelties, and then you will find out what is true. Why do you want philosophies?
1934-03-31-B Talk to Theosophists in New Zealand
Human beings, each one, right through the world, go through great agonies, the more sensitive, the more alert, the more observant, the greater the suffering, the anxiety, the extraordinary sense of insoluble problems.
Your belief in God is merely an escape from your monotonous, stupid and cruel life.
Why do you want to read others' books when there is the book of yourself?
Jiddu Krishnamurti: The Little Book on Living.
All authority of any kind, especially in the field of thought and understanding, is the most destructive, evil thing. Leaders destroy the followers and followers destroy the leaders. You have to be your own teacher and your own disciple. You have to question everything that man has accepted as valuable, as necessary.
Truth is more in the process than in the result.
Jiddu Krishnamurti: The Little Book on Living.
From these prejudices there arises conflict, transient joys and suffering. But we are unconscious of this, unconscious that we are slaves to certain forms of tradition, to social and political environment, to false values.
1933-09-12 4th Public Talk, Frognerseteren, Norway
It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
If you leave the pool you have dug for yourself and go out into the river of life then life has an astonishing way of taking care of you, because then there is no taking care on your part.
A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove.
The end is the beginning of all things, suppressed and hidden, awaiting to be released through the rhythm of pain and pleasure.
So let us decide whether you want a shelter, a safety zone, which will no longer yield conflict, whether you want to escape from the present conflict to enter a condition in which there shall be no conflict; or whether you are unaware, unconscious of this conflict in which you exist. If you are unconscious of the conflict, that is, the battle that is taking place between that self and the environment, if you are unconscious of that battle, then why do you seek further remedies? Remain unconscious.
1934 3rd Public Talk, Ojai, California
Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.

Awakening of Intelligence - Jiddu Krishnamurti

2010-11-14T20:37:00.000+04:00

Awakening of Intelligence

Longer, Unedited Versions

Saanen 1st Conversation with Swami Venkatesananda 25th July 1969

Swami Venkatesananda: Krishnaji, I come as a humble speaker to a guru, not in the sense of hero worship but in its literal sense, as the remover of darkness of ignorance, which the word guru stands for. 'Gu' stands for the darkness of ignorance and 'ru' stands for the remover, the dispeller. Hence guru is the light that dispels the darkness of ignorance and you are that light for me now. We sit in the tent listening to you, and I cannot help visualizing similar scenes. For instance, Buddha addressing the Bhikshus, or Vasishta instructing Rama in the royal court of Dasaratha. We have a few examples of these gurus in the Upanishads; first there was Varuna, the guru, he is very much like you. He merely prods his disciple with the words 'Tapasa Brahma... Tapo Brahmeti'. What is Brahman? Don't ask me. Tapo Brahman, tapas, austerity or discipline or as you yourself often say, 'Find out'. And the disciple himself discovers the truth, though by stages. Yajnyavalkya and Uddhalaka adopted a more direct approach. Yajnyavalkya instructing his wife Maitreyi, used the neti-neti method. You cannot describe Brahman positively, but when you eliminate al the others, it is there. As you said the other day, love cannot be described, "this is it", but only by eliminating what is not love. Uddhalaka used several analogies to enable his disciples to see the truth and then nailed it with the famous expression Tat-Twam-Asi. Dakshinamurti instructed his disciples by silence and Chinmudra. It is said that the Sanatkumaras went to him for instruction. When I read the descriptions of what Krishnamurti was when he was a young age, I am often reminded of that. These old sages went to him and Dakshinamurti just kept silent and showed the Chinmudra and the disciples looked at him and got enlightened. It is believed that one cannot realize the truth without the help, or whatever you call it, of a guru. Obviously even those people who regularly come to Saanen are greatly helped in their quest. Now, what according to you is the role of a guru, a preceptor or an awakener? Krishnaji: Sir, if you are using the word guru in the classical sense, which is the dispeller of darkness, of ignorance, can another, whatever he be, enlightened or stupid, really help to dispel this darkness in oneself? Suppose 'A' is ignorant and you are his guru - guru in the accepted sense, one who dispels darkness and one who carries the burden for another, one who points out - can such a guru help another? Or rather can the guru dispel the darkness of another? - not theoretically but actually. Can you, if you are the guru of so and so, can you dispel the darkness of another, for another? Knowing that he is unhappy, confused, has not enough brain matter, has not enough love, or sorrow, can you dispel that? Or has he to work tremendously on himself? You may point out, you may say, 'Look, go through that door,' but he has to do the work entirely from the beginning to the end. Therefore, you are not a guru in the accepted sense of that word, if you say that another cannot help. Swamiji: It is just this: the 'if' and 'but'. The door is there. I have to go through. But there is this ignorance of where the door is. You, by pointing out, remove that ignorance. Krishnaji: But I have to walk there. Sir, you are the guru and you point out the door. You have finished your job. Swamiji: So darkness of ignorance is removed. Krishnaji: No, your job is finished and it is now for me to get up, walk, and see what is involved in walking. I have to do all that. Swamiji: That is perfect. Krishnaji: Therefore you do not dispel my darkness. Swamiji: I am sorry. Now I do not know how to get out of this room. I am ignorant of the existence of a door in a certain direction and the guru removes the darkness of that ignorance. And then I take the necessary steps to get out. Krishnaji: Sir, let us be clear. Ignorance is lack of understanding, or the lack of understanding of oneself, not the big self or the little self. The door is the 'me' through which I have to go. It is not outside of 'me'. It is not a factual door as that painted door. It is a door in me through which I have to go. You say, 'Do that.' Swamiji: Exactly. Krishnaji: You, as a guru, have finished. You do not become important. I do not put garlands around your head. I have to do all the work, all the work. You have not dispelled the darkness of ignorance. You have, rather, pointed out to me that, "You are the door through which you yourself have to go." Swamiji: But would you, Krishnaji, accept that that pointing out was necessary? Krishnaji: Yes, of course. I point out, I do that. We all do that. I ask a man on the road, "Will you please tell me which is the way to Saanen", and he tells me; but I do not spend time and devotion and love and say, "My God, you are the greatest of men." That is too childish! Swamiji: Thank you, sir. Closely related to what the guru is, there is the question of what discipline is. The disciple is discipline which you defined as learning. Vedanta classifies the seekers according to their qualifications, or maturity, and prescribes suitable methods of learning. The disciple with the keenest perception is given instruction in silence, or a brief awakening word like Tat-Twam-Asi. He is called Uttamadhikari. The disciple with the mediocre ability is given more elaborate treatment; he is called Madhyamadhikari. The dull-witted is entertained with stories, rituals, etc., hoping for greater maturity; he is called Adhamadhikari. Perhaps you will comment on this? Krishnaji: Yes, the top, the middle and bottom. That implies, sir, that we have to find out what we mean by maturity. Swamiji: May I explain that? You said the other day, "The whole world is burning, you must realize the seriousness of it." And that hit me like a bolt - even to grasp that truth. But there may be millions who just do not bother; they are not interested. Those we shall call the Adhama, the lowest. There are others like the Hippies and so on who play with it, who may be entertained with stories and who say, "We are unhappy," or who tell you, "We know society is a mess, we will take L.S.D.", and so on. And there may be others who respond to that idea, that the world is burning, and that immediately sparks them. We find them everywhere. How does one handle them? Krishnaji: How to handle the people who are utterly immature, those who are partially mature, and those who consider themselves mature? Swamiji: Correct. Krishnaji: To do that, what do we mean by maturity? What do you think is maturity? Does it depend on age, time? Swamiji: No. Krishnaji: So we can remove that. Time, age is not an indication of maturity. Then there is the maturity of the very learned man, the man who is highly, intellectually capable. Swamiji: No he may twist and turn the words. Krishnaji: So we will consider him not mature. Whom would you consider as a mature, ripe man? Swamiji: The man who is able to observe. Krishnaji: Wait. Obviously the man who goes to churches, to temples, to mosques is not; the obvious things are not. So what would one consider a mature man? Not the intellectual, the religious and the emotional, not who plays intellectually and all the rest of it. We should say, if we eliminate all that, maturity consists in being not self-centred - not 'me' first and everybody else second, or my emotions first. So maturity implies the absence of the 'me'. Swamiji: Absence of fragmentation, to use a better word. Krishnaji: The 'me' which creates the fragments. Now, how would you appeal to that man? And to the man who is half one and half, 'me' and 'not me', who plays with both? And the other one who is completely 'me', who enjoys himself? How do you appeal to these three? Swamiji: How do you awaken these three in other words. That is the trouble. Krishnaji: Wait! The man who is completely 'me', there is no awakening in him. He is not interested. He won't even listen to you. He will listen to you if you promise him something, heaven, hell, fear or more profit in the world, more money; but he will do it in order to gain. So the man who wishes to gain, achieve, is immature. Swamiji: Quite right. Krishnaji: Whether Nirvana, Heaven, Moksha, attainment, or enlightenment, he is immature. Now, what will you do with such a man? Swamiji: Tell him stories. Krishnaji: No, why should I tell him stories, befuddle him more by my stories or by your stories? Why not leave him alone? He would not listen. Swamiji: It is cruel. Krishnaji: Cruel on whose part? He won't listen to you. Let us be factual. You come to me. I am the total 'me'. I am not concerned with anything but 'me', and you say "Look, you are making a mess of the world, you are creating such misery for man", and he says, please go away. Put it any way you like; put it in stories, cover it with pills, sweet pills, but he is not going to change the 'me'. If he does, he comes to the middle - the 'me' and the 'not me'. This is called evolution. The man who is the lowest reaches the middle. Swamiji: How? Krishnaji: By knocking. Life forces him, teaches him. There is war, hatred; he is destroyed. Or he goes into a church. The church is a trap to him. It does not enlighten him, it does not say, "For God's sake break through," but it says it will give him what he wants - entertainment, whether Jesus entertainment, or Hindu entertainment, or Buddhist, or Muslim or whatever it is - it will give him entertainment, only in the name of God. So they keep him at the same level, with little modifications, a little bit of polish, better culture, better clothes, eat properly, consider a little bit, not too much, others. That is what is happening. He probably makes up (as you said just now) eighty per cent of the world, more perhaps, ninety per cent. And you have the churches, the temples, the mosques, the shrines and so on. Swamiji: What can you do? Krishnaji: I won't add to it, I won't tell him stories, I won't entertain him; because there are others who are already entertaining him. Swamiji: Thank you. Krishnaji: So why should I join that group? Then there is the middle one, the 'me' and the 'not-me', who does social reforms, a little bit of good here and there, but always the 'me' operating. Socially, politically, religiously, in every way, the 'me' is operating. But a little more quietly, with a little more polish. Now to him you can talk a little bit, say, "Look, a social reform is all right in its place but it leads you nowhere," and so on. You can talk to him. Perhaps he will listen to you. The other one will not listen to you at all. This chap will listen to you, pay a little attention and say, well, this is too serious, this requires too much work, and slips back into his old pattern. We shall talk to him and leave him. What he wants to do is up to him. Now, there is the other one who is getting out of the 'me', who is stepping out of the circle of the 'me'. There, you can talk to him. He will pay attention to you. So one talks to all the three, not distinguishing between those who are mature and those who are not mature. We will talk to all the three categories, the three types, and leave it to them. Swamiji: The one who is not interested, he will walk out. Krishnaji: He will walk out of the tent, he will walk out of the room. That is his affair. He goes to his church, football, entertainment or whatever it is. But the moment you say "you are immature and I will teach you more", he becomes... Swamiji: Boosted up. Krishnaji: The seed of poison is always there. Sir, if the soil is right, the grain will take root. But to say, 'You are mature, and you are not mature', that is totally wrong. Who am I to tell somebody that he is immature? It is for him to find out. Swamiji: But can a fool find out that he is a fool? Krishnaji: If he is a fool he won't even listen to you. You see, sir, we start out with the idea of wanting to help. Swamiji: That is what we are basing our whole discussion upon. Krishnaji: I think that approach is not valid, except in the medical world or in the technological world it is necessary. I may go to the doctor to be cured. Here, psychologically, if I am asleep, I won't listen to you. If I am half awake, I will listen to you according to my vacant state, according to my moods. Therefore, to the one man who says, "I really want to keep awake, keep psychologically awake", to him you can talk. So we talk to all of them. Swamiji: Thank you. That clears up a big misunderstanding. When sitting alone, I reflected over what you had said earlier in the day. I cannot help the spontaneous feeling. "Ah, the Buddha said so", or "Vasishtha said so", though immediately I endeavour to cut through the imagery of the words to find the meaning. You help us find the meaning, though perhaps that is not your intention. So did Vasishtha and the Buddha. People come here as they went to those great ones. Why? What is there in human nature that seeks, that gropes and grasps for a crutch? Again, not to help them may be a cruelty, but to spoon-feed them may be greater cruelty. What does one do? Krishnaji: The question being, why do people need crutches? Swamiji: Yes, and whether to help them or not. Krishnaji: That is it: whether you should give them crutches to lean on. Two questions are involved. Why do people need crutches? And whether you are the person to give them the crutches? Swamiji: Should one or should one not? Krishnaji: Should one or should one not, and whether you are capable of giving them help? Those two questions are involved. Why do people want crutches, why do people want to depend on others, whether it is Jesus, Buddha, or ancient saints, why? Swamiji: First of all, there is something that is seeking. The seeking itself seems to be good. Krishnaji: Is it? Or is it their fear of not achieving something which the saints, the great people, have pointed out? Or the fear of going wrong, of not being happy, of not getting enlightenment, understanding, or whatever you call it? Swamiji: May I quote a beautiful expression from the Bhagvad-gita? Krishna said: four types of people come to me. The one who is in distress; he comes to me for the removal of distress. Then there is the one who is a curious man; he just wants to know what is this God, truth, and whether there is heaven and hell? The third one wants some money. He also comes to God and prays to get more money, let me become a millionaire, a multi millionaire. And the Gyani, the wise man, also comes. All of them are good, because they are all, somehow or the other, seeking God. But of all these, I think the Gyani is the best one. So the seeking may be due to all sorts of reasons. Krishnaji: Yes, sir. There are these two questions. First of all, why do we seek? Then, why does humanity demand crutches? Now, why does one seek, why should one seek at all? Swamiji: Why should one seek? Krishnaji: Why does one seek and why should one seek at all? Swamiji: Why should one seek? Because one finds something missing. Krishnaji: Which means what? I am unhappy and I want happiness. That is a form of seeking. I do not know what enlightenment is. I have read about it in books and it appeals to me and I seek it. Also I seek a better job, because there is more money, more profit, more enjoyment and so on. In all these there is seeking, searching, wanting. I can understand the man wanting a better job, because society is so monstrously arranged, as it is, that makes him seek more money, a better job. But psychologically, inwardly, what am I seeking? And when I do find it, in my search, how do I know that what I find is true? Swamiji: Perhaps the seeking drops. Krishnaji: Wait, sir. How do I know? In my search, how do I know that this is the truth? How do I know? Can I ever say "This is the truth"? Therefore why should I seek it? So what makes me seek? What makes one seek is a much more fundamental question than the search, and saying, "This is the truth." If I say, "This is the truth", I must know it already. If I know it already, it is not truth. It is something dead, past, which tells me that is the truth. A dead thing cannot tell me what is truth. So why do I seek? Because, deeply I am unhappy, deeply I am confused, deeply there is great sorrow in me and I want to find a way out of it. You come along as the guru, as an enlightened man, or as a professor and say, 'Look, this is the way out.' The basic reason for my search is to escape from this agony and I posit that I can escape, and that enlightenment is over there, or in myself. Can I escape from it? I cannot in the sense of avoiding it, resisting it, running away from it; it is there. Wherever I go, it is still there. So what I have to do is to find out in myself why sorrow has come into being, why I am suffering. Then, is that a search? No. When I want to find out why I am suffering, that is not searching. It is not even a quest. It is like going to a doctor and saying I have tummy ache, and he says you have eaten the wrong kind of food. So I will avoid wrong food. If the cause of my misery is in myself not necessarily created by the environment in which I live, then I have to find out how to be free from it for myself. You may, as the guru, point out that that is the door, but as soon as you have pointed it out, your job is over. Then I have to work, then I have to find out what to do, how to live, how to think, how to feel this way of living in which there is no suffering. Swamiji: Then to that extent the helping, the pointing out, is justified. Krishnaji: Not justified, but you do it naturally. Swamiji: Supposing the other man gets stuck somewhere, that as he goes there, in going there he knocks against this table... Krishnaji: He must learn that the table is there. He must learn that when he is going towards the door there is an obstacle in the way. If he is enquiring, he will find out. But if you come along and say, "There is the door, there is the table don't knock against it", you are treating him just like a child leading him to the door. There is no meaning to it. Swamiji: So that much of help, the pointing out, is justified? Krishnaji: Any decent man with a decent heart will say, look, don't go there, there is a precipice. I once met a very well-known guru in India. He came to see me. And it was quite an odd performance he put up. There was a mattress on the floor and we said to him politely, please sit on the mattress. He quietly sat on the mattress, assumed the position of the guru, put his stick in front of him and began to discuss. nd he said: we need gurus because we know better than the layman; why should he go through all the danger alone? We will help him. It was impossible to discuss with him because he had assumed that he knew and everybody else was in ignorance. At the end of ten minutes he left, rather annoyed. Swamiji: That is one of the things for which Krishnaji is famous in India! Next, while you rightly point out the utter futility of blindly accepting formulas and dogmas, you will not ask for their summary rejection. While tradition can be a deadly block, it is perhaps worth understanding it and its origin; else we might destroy one tradition and an equally pernicious one might spring up. Krishnaji: Quite right. Swamiji: Hence may I offer a few traditional beliefs for your scrutiny so that we may discover where and how what you called 'good intentions' veered towards hell - the shell that imprisons us? Each branch of Yoga prescribed its own disciplines in the firm conviction that if one pursued them in the right spirit one would end sorrow. I shall enumerate them for your comments. Karma Yoga: it demanded Dharma, or a virtuous life, which was often extended to include the much abused Varnashrama Dharma. Krishna's dictum 'Swadharme... Bhayavaha', seems to have indicated that if a man voluntarily submitted himself to certain rules of conduct, his mind would be free to observe and learn with the help of certain Bhavanas. Would you comment on this? The concept of Dharma and rules and regulations: 'do this', 'that is right', 'that is wrong....' Krishnaji: Which means really, you lay down what is right conduct. Swamiji: And I voluntarily adopt it. Krishnaji: There is a teacher who lays down what is righteous behaviour, and I come along and voluntarily, to use your word, take to it, accept it. Is there such a thing as voluntary acceptance? And should you lay down what is right conduct, should the teacher lay down what is right conduct, which means he has set the pattern, the mould, the conditioning? You follow the danger of it? He has laid down the conditioning which produces right behaviour, which will lead one to heaven. Swamiji: That is one aspect of it. The other aspect in which I am more interested, is if that is accepted, then the psychological apparatus is free to observe. Krishnaji: I understand. No, sir. Why should I accept it? You are the teacher. You lay down the mode of conduct. How do I know that you are right? You may be wrong. And I won't accept your authority. Because I see the authority of the gurus, the authority of the priest, the authority of the Church, they have all failed. Therefore, with a new teacher laying down a new law, I would say, "For God's sake you are playing the same game; I do not accept it." But if I voluntarily accept it, is there such a thing as voluntary acceptance, free acceptance? Or am I already influenced, because you are a teacher, you are the great one, and you promise me a reward at the end of it, unconsciously or consciously, which leads me to 'voluntarily' accept it? I do not accept it freely. If I am free, I do not accept it at all. I live. I live righteously. Swamiji: So righteousness must come from within? Krishnaji: Obviously, what else, sir? Look at what is going on in the study of behaviour. They say outward circumstances, environment, culture, produce certain types of behaviour. That is, if I live in a communist environment with its domination, with its threats, exposure, going to the concentration camps, all that will make me behave in a certain way; I put on a mask, frightened, and I behave in a certain way. In a society which is more or less free, where there are not so many rules, because nobody believes in rules, where everything is permitted, there I play. Swamiji: Now, which one is more acceptable from the spiritual point of view? Krishnaji: Neither. Because behaviour, virtue, is something which cannot be cultivated by me or by society. I have to find out how to live rightly. Virtue is something which is not an acceptance of patterns, or following a deadly pattern of routine. Goodness is not routine, surely? If I am good because my teacher says I am good, it is meaningless. Therefore there is no such thing as voluntary acceptance of the righteous behaviour which is laid down by a guru, by a teacher. Swamiji: One has to find it. Krishnaji: Therefore I have to begin to enquire. I begin to look, to find out how to live. I can only live when there is no fear. Swamiji: Perhaps I should have explained this. According to Sankara it is meant only for the lower. Krishnaji: What is low and high? The mature and the immature? Sankara or X Y Z says, "Lay down the rule for the low and for the high" and they don't do it. They read the books of Sankara, or some pundit reads it to them, and they say how marvellous it is and go back and live their own life. This is an obvious fact. You see it in Italy. They listen to the Pope, and nobody cares either - they listen earnestly for two or three minutes and then go on with their daily life; t does not make any difference. That is why I want to ask, why the so-called Sankaras, Gurus, lay down laws about what is behaviour. Swamiji: Otherwise they think there will be chaos. Krishnaji: There is chaos anyhow. There is terrible chaos. In India they have read Sankara and all the teachers for ten thousand, or five thousand years. Look at them! Swamiji: Perhaps, according to them, the alternative is impossible. Krishnaji: What is the alternative? Confusion? And that is what they are living in. Why not understand the confusion in which they are living instead of studying Sankara? If they understand confusion, they can change it. Swamiji: Perhaps that leads us on to this question of Bhavana where a bit of psychology is involved. Coming to the Sadhana of Karma Yoga, the Bhagavad Gita prescribes among other things a Nimitta Bhavana. Bhavana is undoubtedly Being and Nimitta Bhavana is being an egoless instrument in the hands of God or the Infinite Being. But it is also taken to mean an attitude or a feeling in the hope that it will help a beginner to observe himself and thus the Bhavana will fill his being. Perhaps it is indispensable for the people of little understanding; perhaps it will permanently distract them by self-deception. How shall we make this work? Krishnaji: What is the question you are asking, sir? Swamiji: There is the technique of Bkawana. Krishnaji: That implies a system, a method, by the practice of which, you ultimately reach enlightenment. You practise in order to come to God or whatever it is. The moment you practise a method, what happens? I practise day after day the method laid down by you. What happens to me? Swamiji: There is a famous saying, "As you think so you become". Krishnaji: I think that by the practice of this method I will reach enlightenment. So what do I do? Every day I practise it. I become more and more mechanical. Swamiji: But there is a feeling. Krishnaji: The mechanical routine is going on with the feeling added, "I like it", "I don"t like it", "it is a bore" - you know, there is a battle going on. So anything I practise, any discipline, any practice in the accepted sense of the word makes my mind more and more narrow, limited and dull, and you are promising at the end of it, heaven. So you are saying, become dull to achieve heaven. I say it is like soldiers being trained day after day - drill, drill - till they are nothing but instruments of the commanding officer or sergeant. Give them a little initiative. So I am questioning the whole approach of system and method towards enlightenment. Even in factories a man who merely moves a button or pushes this or that does not produce as much as the man who is free to learn as he goes along. Swamiji: Can you put that into Bhavana? Krishnaji: Why not? Swamiji: So it works? Krishnaji: This is the only way. That is real Bhavana: Learn as you go along. Therefore no method. Therefore keep awake. Learn as you go along, therefore be alert as you go along. If I take a walk and I have a system, a method of walking, that is all I am concerned with: I shall not see the birds, the trees, the marvellous light on the leaf, nothing. And why should I accept the teacher who gives me the method, the mode? He may be as peculiar as I am, and there are teachers who are very odd. So I reject all that. Swamiji: The problem again is that of the beginner. Krishnaji: Who is the beginner? The immature one? Swamiji: Probably. Krishnaji: Therefore you are giving him a toy to play with? Swamiji: Some sort of opening. Krishnaji: Yes a toy and he enjoys that toy. He says, I am practising all day, and his mind remains very small. Swamiji: Perhaps that is your answer to this Bhakti Yoga question too. Again, somehow they wanted these people to break through. Krishnaji: I am not at all sure, sir. Swamiji: I will discuss this Bhakti. Coming to Bhakti Yoga, the Bhakta is encouraged to worship God even in temples and images, feeling the Divine presence within. In quite a number of mantras, it is repeated again and again, "You are the All Pervading... you are the Omnipresent", etc. Krishna asks the devotees to see God in the objects of nature and then as the 'All'. At the same time through japa, or the repetition of mantra with the corresponding awareness of its significance, the devotee is asked to perceive that the divine presence outside is identical with the indwelling presence. Thus the individual realized his oneness with the collective. Is there anything fundamentally wrong with that system? Krishnaji: Oh! Yes, sir. The Communist block does not believe in God at all. They don't believe in that at all. They are selfish, they are frightened, but there is no God, no mantras, etc. Another does not believe in any of that, mantras, japa, repetition but he says, "I want to find out what truth is. I want to find out if there is a God at all. There may be no such thing." And the Gita and all of them assume that there is. They assume there is God. Who are they to tell me there is or there is not, including Krishna or X, Y, Z? I say it may be your own conditioning; you are born in that peculiar climate and with that peculiar tradition, with that peculiar attitude and you just believe in that. And then you lay down rules. But if I reject all authority, including the Communists, including the Western and the Asiatic authorities all authority, then where am I? Then I have to find out, because I am unhappy, I am miserable. Swamiji: But I might be free from conditioning. Krishnaji: That is my business, to be free. Otherwise I cannot learn. If I remain a Hindu for the rest of my life, I am finished. The Catholic remains a Catholic and the Communist is equally dead. But is it possible - that is really the question - to reject all conditioning which accepts authority? Can I really reject all authority and stand alone to find out? And I must be alone. Otherwise, if I am not alone in the deeper sense of that word, I am just repeating what Sankara, Buddha, or X, Y, Z said. What is the point of it, knowing very well that repetition is not the real? So, must not I - mature, or immature, or half mature - must not they all learn to stand alone? It is painful because they say, "My God, how can I stand alone?" - to be without the children, to be without God, to be without the Commissar? There is fear. Swamiji: Do you think that every one can work out this? Krishnaji: Why not, sir? If you cannot, then you are caught in it. Then no amount of Gods, and mantras, and tricks will help you. They may cover it up. They may bottle it up. They may suppress it and put it in the refrigerator. But it is always there. Swamiji: Now there is the other method, that of standing alone: Raja Yoga. The student here is again asked to cultivate certain virtuous qualities which, on the one hand, make of him a good citizen and on the other, remove possible psychological barriers. This Sadhana, which is mainly awareness of thought which includes memory, imagination and sleep, seems to be close to your own teaching. Asana and Pranayama are auxiliaries, perhaps. And even the Dhyana of Yoga is not intended to bring about self-realization, which is admittedly not the end product of a series of actions. Krishna clearly says that Yoga clarifies perception: 'Atma Shuddhaye'. Do you approve of this approach? There is not much of help involved here; even Iswara is only 'Purusha Visheshaha'. It is a sort of a guru, invisible in the indwelling process. Do you approve of this approach: there is this method of sitting in meditation and trying to delve deeper and deeper. Krishnaji: Now wait. One has to go into the question of meditation. Swamiji: And Patanjali defines meditation as, "The absence of all world idea or any extraneous idea." That is the 'Bhakti Sunyam'. Krishnaji: Look, sir, I have not read anything. Now here I am: I know nothing. I only know that I am in sorrow and that I have got a fairly good mind. I have no authority - Sankara, Krishna, Patanjali, nobody - I am absolutely alone. I have got to face my life and I have got to be a good citizen - not according to the Communists, Capitalists, or Socialists. Good citizenship means behaviour, which is not one thing in the office and different at home. First, I want to find out how to be free of this sorrow. Then being free, I shall find out if there is such a thing as God or whatever it is. So how am I to learn to be free of this enormous burden? That is my first question. I can only understand it in relationship with another. I cannot sit by myself and dig into it because I may pervert it; my mind is too silly, prejudiced. So, I have to find out in relationship - with nature, with human beings - what is this fear, this sorrow; in relationship only, because if I sit by myself I can deceive myself very well. But by being awake in relationship, I can spot it immediately. Swamiji: If you are alert. Krishnaji: That is the point. If I am alert, watchful, I shall find out; and that does not take time. Swamiji: But if one is not? Krishnaji: Therefore, the problem is to be awake, to be aware, alert. Is there a method for it? Follow it, sir. If there is a method which will help me to be aware, I shall practise it; but is that awareness? Because in that is involved routine, acceptance of authority, repeating, repeating, repeating, which is gradually making my alertness dull. So I reject that: the practice of alertness. I say I can only understand sorrow in relationship and that understanding comes only through alertness. Therefore, I must be alert. I am alert because my demand is to end sorrow. Therefore I must be alert. If I am hungry, I want food and I go after food. In the same way, I discover the enormous burden of sorrow in me and I discover it through relationship - how I behave with you, how I talk to people. In that process of relationship, this thing is revealed. Swamiji: In that relationship you are alI the time self-aware, if I may put it that way. Krishnaji: Yes I am aware, alert, watching. Swamiji: Is it so easy for an ordinary person? Krishnaji: It is, if the man is serious and says, "I want to find out." The ordinary man, eighty to ninety per cent of them, says, I am not really interested, what are you talking about. Go away, I want to be entertained, by the Gita, by the church, by Jesus, by Buddha. I want to be entertained, football. But the man who is serious, he says, "I shall find out - I want to see if the mind can be free from sorrow." And it is only possible to discover it in relationship. I cannot invent sorrow. In relationship sorrow comes. Swamiji: The sorrow is within. Krishnaji: Naturally, sir, it is a psychological phenomenon. Swamiji: You would not want man to sit and meditate and try to sharpen? Krishnaji: So let us come back to the question of meditation. What is meditation? - not according to what Patanjali and others say because they may be totally mistaken. And I might be mistaken when I say I know how to meditate. So I have to find out, I have to say, "Now what is meditation?" Is meditation sitting quiet, concentrating, controlling thought? Swamiji: Watching, perhaps. Krishnaji: You can watch when you are walking. Swamiji: It is difficult. Krishnaji: You watch while eating, when you are listening to people, when somebody says something that hurts you, flatters you. That means, you have to be alert all the time - when you are exaggerating, when you are telling half-truths. You follow? To watch, you need a very quiet mind. That is meditation. The whole of that is meditation. Swamiji: To me it looks as though Patanjali evolved an exercise for quietening the mind, not on the battlefield of life, but to start it when you are alone and then extend it to relationship. Krishnaji: But if you escape from the battle... Swamiji: For a little while... Krishnaji: If you escape from the battle you have not understood the battle. The battle is you. How can you escape from yourself? You can take a drug, you can pretend that you have escaped, you can repeat mantras, japas and do all kinds of things, but the battle is going on. You say, "Get away quietly from it and then come back to it." That is a fragmentation. We are suggesting: "Look at the battle you are involved in; you are caught in it: you are it." Swamiji: That leads us to the last discipline: you are it. Krishnaji: You are the battle. Swamiji: You are it, you are the battle, you are the fighter, you are away from it, you are everything. That is perhaps what is implied in Gnana Yoga. According to Gnana Yoga, the seeker is asked to equip himself with the four means: Viveka, seeking the real and discarding the false; Vairagya, not seeking pleasure; Shat Satsampath, which meant in effect living a life conducive to the practice of this yoga; and Mumukshutva, a total dedication to the search of Truth. The disciple then approached a guru and his Sadhana consisted of Shravana (hearing), Manana (reflection) and Nisyudhyajna (assimilation), which all of us do here. The guru adopted various means to enlighten the student, which usually implied the realization of the All or the Whole Being. Sankara describes it thus: "The infinite alone is real, the world is unreal. The individual is non-different from the infinite," So there is no fragmentation there. Sankara said that the world is Maya by which he meant that the world-appearance is not the real, which one has to investigate and discover. The Upanishads envisaged the Truth in the following: consciousness is the Infinite. I am the Infinite. Or, I is the Infinite. Thou are That, the self is Infinite. Even these should lead to Cosmic Consciousness, or Realization. Everything is the All, All is Infinite. The Infinite is Infinite. And its active manifestaion in daily life which Krishna describes thus in the Gita: "The yogi is then aware that the action, the doer of the action, the instruments involved, and the object towards which the action is directed, are all one whole and thus fragmentation is overcome." How do you react to this Gnana Yoga method? First there is this Sadhana Chaturdhyaya, for which the disciple prepares himself. Then he goes to the guru and sits and hears the Truth from the guru and reflects over it and assimilates the truth, till it becomes one with him; and the truth is usually said in terms of these formulas. But these formulas that we repeat are supposed to be realized. Has this perhaps some validity? Krishnaji: Sir, if you have read none of these - Patanjali, Sankara, Chan Upanishads, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Gnana Yoga, nothing - what would you do? Swamiji: I shall have to find out. Krishnaji: What would you do? Swamiji: Struggle. Krishnaji: Which you are doing anyhow. What would you do? Where would you start? - knowing nothing about what others have said, including what the Communist leaders have said - Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin. I haven't read a thing, I don't want to. I am here, an ordinary human being. Where am I to begin? I have to work, Karma Yoga, in a garden, as a cook, in a factory, an office, I have to work. And also there are the wife and children: I love, I hate, am a sexual addict, because that is the only escape offered to me in life. Here I am. That is my map of life and I start from here. I cannot start from over there; I start here and I ask myself what it is all about. I know nothing about God. They can invent, pretend: I have a horror of pretending. If I do not know, I do not know. I am not going to quote Sankara, Buddha, or anybody. So I say: this is where I start. Can I bring about order in my life? - order, not invented by me or by them, but order that is virtue. Can I bring it about? And to be virtuous there must be no battle, no conflict in me or outside. Therefore, there must be no aggressiveness, no violence, no hate, no animosity. I start from there. And I find out I am afraid. I must be free of fear. To be conscious of it is to be aware of all this, aware of where I am; from there I will move, I shall work. And then I find out I can be alone - not carry all the burdens of memory, of Sankaras, of Buddhas, Marx, Engels. You follow? I can be alone because I have understood order in my life; and I have understood order because I have denied disorder, because I have learnt about disorder. Disorder means conflict, acceptance of authority, complying, imitation, all that. That is disorder, the social morality is disorder. Out of that I will bring order in myself; not myself as a petty little human being in a backyard, but as a Human Being. Swamiji: How do you explain it? Krishnaji: It is a human being who is going through this hell. Every human being is going through this hell. So if I, as a human being, understand this, I have discovered something which all human beings can discover. Swamiji: But how does one know that one is not deceiving oneself? Krishnaji: Very simple. First, humility: I do not want to achieve anything. Swamiji: I do not know if you have come across people who say, "I am the humblest person in the world." Krishnaji: I know. That is all too silly. Not to desire achievement is not. Swamiji: When one is in it, in the soup, how does one know? Krishnaji: Of course you will know. When your desire says, "I must be like Mr Smith who is the Prime Minister, the General, or the Executive Officer", then there is the beginning of arrogance, pride, achievement. I know when I want to be like the hero, when I want to become like the Buddha, when I want to reach enlightenment, when desire says, "Be something." Desire says in being something there is tremendous pleasure. Swamiji: But have we still tackled the root of the problem in all this? Krishnaji: Of course we have. 'Me' is the root of the problem. Self-centredness is the root of the problem. Swamiji: But what is it? What does it mean? Krishnaji: Self-centredness? I am more important than you, my house, my property, my achievement, 'me' first. Swamiji: But the martyr may say, "I am nothing; I can be shot." Krishnaji: Who? No, they don't. They are silly to be shot. Swamiji: They may say they are completely unselfish, selfless. Krishnaji: No sir, I am not interested in what somebody else says. Swamiji: He may be bluffing himself. Krishnaji: As long as I am quite clear in myself, I am not deceiving myself. I can deceive myself the moment I have a measure. When I compare myself with the man with a Rolls-Royce, or with the Buddha, or with Marx. Comparing myself with somebody is the beginning of illusion. When I do not compare, why should I, I move from there. Swamiji: To be the Self? Krishnaji: Whatever I am; which is: I am ugly, I am full of anger, deception, fear, this and that. I start from there and see if it is at all possible to be free of all this. Without that my thinking about God is like thinking about climbing those hills, which I never will. Swamiji: But even so you said something very interesting the other day: the individual and the collective are one. How does the individual realize that unity with the collective? Krishnaji: But that is a fact. Here I am living in Gstaad; somebody is living in India, he has the same problem, the same anxiety, the same fear, only different expressions but the root of the thing is the same. That is one point. Second, the environment has produced this individuality and the individuality has created the environment. My greed has created this rotten society. My anger, my hatred, the fragmentation of my life has created the nation and all this mess. So I am the world, the world is me. Logically, intellectually, verbally, it is so. Swamiji: But how does one feel it? Krishnaji: That comes only when you change. When you change, you are no longer a national. You do not belong to anything. Swamiji: Mentally I may say I am not a Hindu, or I am not an Indian. Krishnaji: But, sir, that is just a trick. You must feel it in your blood. Swamiji: Please explain what that means. Krishnaji: It means, sir, when you see the danger of nationalism, you are out of it. When you see the danger of fragmentation, you no longer belong to the fragment. We do not see the danger of it. That is all.

Jiddu Krishnamurti in English

Awakening of Intelligence

Longer, Unedited Versions

Saanen 1st Conversation with Swami Venkatesananda 25th July 1969

Rain at the Arabian Ranches

2010-11-14T20:20:00.001+04:00

Rainy Day

2010-11-14T20:18:00.000+04:00

Bacon

2010-11-14T20:07:00.006+04:00

Nis Place

2010-11-07T00:02:00.000+04:00

Out

2010-11-06T23:59:00.000+04:00

Lovely Zoo

2010-11-06T22:46:00.003+04:00

Back into your nucleus, back into your core - getting in touch with who you are - Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia

2010-11-01T11:59:00.001+04:00

Continuing from where I left off in the last video, even if we look at this full story from a functional objective, which means, let's cut this metaphysical crap! Let's keep it straight, let's keep it simple, and let's keep it practical.
So you are living life, OK cool, and you are in a situation, which is bad! This bad situation is really making you upset. You have got pissed! Or you are very angry or you are very scared or you are just feeling very helpless. Reality check, yes, it happens to many people a hell of a lot of times.
So,the first golden rule of the process, when you are in the heat of the emotion, don't defy it, don't deny it, whatever that it is you are feeling, feel it. Be with it completely, because the mental thought of knowing that you shouldn't feel this way but you are feeling that way actually makes you feel more helpless. So when you are in the grip of it, live it out. You have a light side, you have a dark side, maybe you are reacting out of your dark side, that's fine, that's what you are, embrace it in totality. Be done with it. This is what you are and that is what it is.
This phase will die down, it might last a few minutes, it might last a few hours, in the worst situation a few days but after a while on its own, it will settle down. Here my friends is where I would ask you to be a little vigilant. So when you are in the grip of it, I am asking you to live it, don't criticise yourself for it, don't negate yourself for it, take responsibility for it. This is what you felt in that moment and you experienced it in totality.
Once the experience is over, as long as it takes, then you go back to the nucleus I spoke to you about in the previous video. Go back into your space and start thinking what do I need to do in my behavior so that I feel happy, that's all. Don't look at the logic of it, don't look at the morality of it, don't look at the ethics of it.
Social platitudes are what will keep you in the game of life and death for longer than you think, because the most pleasing truth of life is that the divine is in your heart and lives in the language of love which only means that the one focus that you should have in this life, should be that you will be happy. That is the only responsibility that you have.
Which now means that when you are checking back into your space neutrally looking at your emotions all you need to do is, figure out, so how should I have behaved in that moment for me to be at peace with myself. That's all, because, being at peace with yourself in the moment of crisis is exactly what life mastery is all about and that only you know the answer to.
So when I talk about going back into your nucleus, going back into your core and checking out the positive charge, the positive charge has nothing to do with people. The positive is you feeling good about yourself.
So all you need to do is, go back, and say ok, this time, this is what transpired, this was my reaction, and this reaction made me feel helpless, and then check how could I have behaved so that I could have felt very good about myself. Period! end of the story. That response will come, for sure. Sometimes, that response might appear antagonistic to other people, their choice. But for you that response is vital, for you to touch base with your core story.
And if the core story is being at peace with yourself, you need to focus on your own response and then, the next time that situation comes in front of your eyes just have the courage to respond differently; demonstrate that response which gives you peace, whether it is speaking up for yourself, or shouting back matters not. Demonstrate the response that gives you peace in your heart, because, the peace in your heart is the hallmark of being in the zone. The hallmark of being in the zone then lays out the framework for all the thoughts that you emanate out subsequently and those thoughts that you emanate out subsequently, then become the foundation of new reality which you are creating either advertently or inadvertently.
So even if you have to keep away all these philosophical statements, even if you had to keep away from every single thing, that you heard or read in the books or workshops or anywhere at all, You can just bring them down to this very simple exercise. When you are pissed off, get pissed off completely, when it is over, take charge of it, say, ok, I got pissed off, that is what I felt in that moment, then check how should you have behaved so that you didn't get pissed off and then no matter what the consequence, go ahead and behave differently. The moment this happens, the story starts changing, the reality starts changing, the manifestation starts changing.
It's a simple exercise; all it needs is a little bit of awareness, a little bit of courage.

Inspiration - EYEMAZING.com

2010-10-30T20:04:00.012+04:00

Inspiration - EYEMAZING.com

2010-10-30T18:59:00.038+04:00

Basic building block of the material world is an "atom", thru understanding interplay energies within it, let us understand life - Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia

2010-10-19T21:35:00.000+04:00

Interestingly, the other day, I was conducting a workshop in Mumbai. There was an old student of mine, who came up with a question on the model of the material world. Strangely, the question got me thinking.

What the student brought up was a very interesting insight into the way our material world is fashioned.

Let's get into this a little deeper. So if we could go back in time to the time we were at school, grappling and breaking our heads with this subjects called physics and chemistry, what you might still remember is that these material sciences told us, if you look at matter and you split matter up you will land up with a molecule and if you split the molecule you would land up with an atom. The atom to most of us became and even today probably is the most fundamental particle of existence. Now the amazing part of science is that by virtue of its very material nature you cannot deny what it presents. And locked within the structure of the atom is probably one of the world's profound and interesting secrets and much of it is what we keep saying. The basic dictum' its not out there, its all in here.' Let's apply the same philosophy to the atom.

Now if you break the atom up what you observe is an extremely interesting interplay of energies. At the heart of the atom is its core or the centre called the nucleus. It's a technical word, don't get pissed off, it is fine !

If you split this nucleus up, within the nucleus you would get sub-atomic particles called protons and neutrons and the protons are the dudes, which have a positive charge which means these are continuously emitting positive charge of energy. The neutrons as the name suggests are neutral and surrounding this nucleus all around it in concentric patterns are electrons, which are in the state of constant motion. These electrons carry a negative charge. The further one moves away from the nucleus of the atom the stronger of the negative charge of the electron gets. Now many of you will question, so what's the big secret here?

Well the answer is so close in your face that it is actually difficult to even see it ! So what the atom tells you is that if you start going back into your own core, your nucleus will only emanate positive energy. On the other hand, the moment you shift your focus with awareness to the outside and once you shift your awareness to the outside the further you go away from your central core the stronger the negative charge becomes. As the charge of the negative emotion becomes stronger and stronger you find yourself getting warped into the conundrum of negative emotions. The moment you are stuck in the conundrum of the negative emotions, these become your beliefs and that belief then starts spinning your fresh reality.

So, what's the take home here? I know you are in a physical world. In that physical world you have no option but to interact with the external world as well, True, we are social animals, by habit, by compulsion, by birth and by programming. But the take home from this particular video is, that whenever in life you find stuck with a major negative emotional charge, arising out an interplay in the environment, the only thing you need to do is to withdraw and go right back into your inner space. Go back into your nucleus and if you go back into your nucleus it is but natural by the law of nature by the law of physics by the law of the material world that you will start radiating positive energy. Try it out it is not so difficult. I do know, when you are in the grip of negative emotion it does become very difficult. Because as humans we are so programmed to react. To react instantly to the charge that is hitting us. But just focus a little on your breath at that time, live out the emotion, I am going to deal with that in the next video and just retreat back into your nucleus. The moment you retreat back into your nucleus, almost magically you will find your ability to connect back to the positive charge that you always were, are and will remain, getting activated straight away. How we do this, what is the process in real terms, because I know, this sounds maybe like a clichéd platitude but in the next video I am going to break this down into a very simple to do exercise which is completely logical, which is completely rational, which is something you can effortlessly implement into your day to day life.

We have made choices to indulge in exactly what we love to do... ripples are not to stay - if u choose to ! - Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia

2010-10-19T21:33:00.000+04:00

So, we have made choices and we have also understood how we have manifested situations in life, which are giving us the opportunity to indulge in exactly what we love to do.

Does that mean that life from here on is absolutely a smooth and straight road? Cruise Control?

So boring.if your life ever became perfect! It would be one of the most boring existences you would ever have. Believe me, perfection is very boring.

So, if perfection is very boring and life is all about moving towards that perfection where do we find that spice, that masala, that little bit of flavoring which gives you that kick, gives your creative juices a flow, the whole story of let's do it!

So, when you start doing anything that you love, you will periodically in that space still attract minor situations, minor episodes, small disturbances which are like the ripples that get created when a stone falls into an absolutely placid body of water. What is the psychology of the water when the stone hits the water? Is the water going to change its principle? The answer is no. Is the water going to change its constitution? The answer is still no. What will the water eventually do? After a period of time, the ripples that the stone created will die down and the water goes back to its original, normal pristine and placid state.

And so it is with love, when you are in love, with anything that it is, be it a person, be it a job, be it a relationship, be it anything at all in this world, there will periodically be a stone which will fall into the body of water and like a ripple will create a wave in your consciousness. At this moment, all you need to do, is to just check with yourself and take a decision what the hell, I love that person and if I love that person that small ripple created by the disturbance of the stone coming in becomes extremely small in comparison to the large magnitude of placidity that exists.

So, if you truly love a person, there will be so many magical moments in your life that you have spent with that person that are great and if you are continuing to love that person and in the moment that the ripple of consciousness in that flow occurs, remember that the ripple is probably mirroring some small fear that you still have, it is ok,the journey is like that. All you need to do is to just remind yourself, what the bloody hell, I just love this person and the moment you remind yourself with that one statement and your mind gets flooded with all fantastic moments that you have had and your ability to respond in that moment changes completely. The ripple disappears; the placidity returns back, life is one smooth party. This is a story and a situation that will remain with you till the end of your life. There is absolutely no person on this planet that even after hitting a very sweet spot that he loves would continue forever in that zone. Doesn't exist because life is about evolution, but the formula for evolution, my friends does not change. The formula for evolution remains, if you are grounded in love and you keep reminding yourself of that grounding, with your intellect you keep making those choice all the time, in that situation your ability to deal with the minor ripples of life will get greatly magnified. You are an ascended master.

Probably, most of us feel that attaining the Buddha state is a little boring, because, what is the point of living a life in which we don't judge anything! We just experience everything for what it is! It is a great state, it is a very divine state taking nothing away from that state. But for many of us, this life is an interesting journey, which we are looking to enjoy with a lot of fun. Learning with fun, that's my theme. Getting to the Buddha state, sure, inevitable. Nirvana is going to happen to all of us. The universe is not going to spare anyone, not me, not you. What truly matters I feel probably is the fun, the joy that you experience in that journey getting to where you need to get to.

So if you keep this one simple thing in mind. If I have to just summarize, the last four videos, give it back to you into one simple concise shot.

1 - You are where you are because of a choice you have made and because there is a wisdom waiting for you. Don't reject where you are right now.

2 - Use simple techniques to get out of the pain of what any moment is giving you. The moment you come to that neutrality the wisdom of where you are will start emerging out.

3 - The moment the wisdom emerges out, now start acting on it making the shift in your mind, start breathing out things that don't work for you, start spending more and more of your mental space in things which work for you and now you will gravitate from a fear based response in life to a love based response in life.

4 - As you start gravitating to a love based response in life you will greatly minimize the ripples that come into your life. And the moment you minimize the ripples in your life then your only job at any point of time is to remind yourself of the love that you are and that love is powerful enough to dissolve your own ego. Just remind yourself gently that I am love, and if I am the love and I have chosen to love then this ripple is here today will disappear tomorrow, going back to that original state of bliss and peace

Enjoy every experience, live every day as if it is the last day of your life Live every moment as if it is the last moment of your life and you are willing and you are happy to depart with a smile on your lips.

Remember this, today and for all times. You might have come into this world crying but you owe it to yourself to leave this world smiling. Not only smiling, leaving behind impressions, attitudes, memories and energies which encourage people around you to look at your life maybe mentally salute you and say, here is a man who walked the sands of time and converted time and space both into marbles in his pocket with whom he played effortlessly. Conquer space, conquer time, left the world much, much better place than what it was before you came in.

Enjoy the journey, all the best.

In a school of the universe which will make sure you graduate, Is Ignorance really a bliss?? - Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia

2010-09-05T12:44:00.002+04:00

A very very popular proverb in English is "Ignorance is Bliss". Brilliant! It truly is, actually because, when you are ignorant you are sleeping and when you are sleeping, you have no problem. Till of course if you are unlucky, you start getting bad dreams, you start getting nightmares and then even sleep is not blissful. Because the universe my friends is a loving school, but it is a school all the same and if you have come into this school, the school will make sure that you will graduate. So, if ignorance is not bliss, it definitely is not an excuse either. So once the bug bear of the knowledge, awareness and wisdom starts creeping into your life and starts making its own incredible experience in your space the next part of the story now begins with you showing the will, the courage, the gumption and the determination to apply that wisdom in your day to day life and this is where your transition from being a mortal human, a human who has succumbed to the vagaries of life, a human who is compelled by life's painful circumstances, a human who feels manipulated by the powers that be into an empowered being who is divinity in motion. This my friends is the critical junction, a junction where once the wisdom comes into your space you go deep into yourself, touch base with that infinite power that you have and start walking your talk. Because the action must follow the wisdom.

Now action does not mean taking a machine gun and disseminating everything in your universe which doesn't work for you. But action definitely means acknowledging knowledge truthfully what's not working in your space acknowledging very truthfully all those actions that you are basing on fear and start pro-actively spending time with what it is that you would love to have.

Let's do a simple exercise right now. Take a piece of paper and list out the five things that you are doing in your life purely because you are compelled to do it. Any five things, that could be right from saying good morning to your dad, or going to your job, or could be as mundane as cooking food, anything, any five things in your life which, if you had a choice you would very very happily give up. Five things, which bind you, list it out and then take up each one of those five things, think about those things, and start breathing differently. Just do this much, don't do anything radical, don't do anything path breaking, but start acknowledging your story, act on it. So if you have understood that these are the five things you are doing purely based out of fear, five things you are feeling very very horribly stuck, start doing something with yourself. I am telling you change the environment, change yourself. List out these five things, everyday in the morning spend one minute with it breathing differently. Just breathing differently till those five things no longer touch your heart. You will be surprised that the moment that happens, the moment you hit this beautiful space, where those five things no longer bind you, the wisdom of what those five things are giving you will come up and when that wisdom comes up, on its own those five things will disappear from your life because they are just there to give you that wisdom.

Flip side of the story, list out five things that you would love doing and you would love to do it for the joy it gives you when you are doing it and then, just check how much time in your day you are spending with those five things you love doing, against how much time you are spending in your day on the five things you are compelled to do. Strangely, as you are doing this exercise of just breathing out the toxic pain of the five things you are compelled to do you will realize, naturally, automatically that the universe now starts bending backwards and starts creating all those opportunities in your life in which you will get as much time as you want for doing the five things that you would love to do.

Life my friends is not an obligation, life my friends is not a challenge, life my friends is not a compromise, life my friends is not a settlement. The biggest disservice that you do to yourself, to your mind, to your soul is to be bonded, is to be stuck with things that don't resonate in your inner space. I am not for a moment saying you reject them, but if they don't resonate with your inner space, they are just here to teach you something rather than being stuck, breathe out the toxicity and the moment you breathe out the toxicity, the reasons for them being there become clear. That itself is your wisdom, the moment wisdom emerges, love follows story changes, the director, creator, actor within you is alive and you start naturally manifesting without doing anything a set of circumstances in which you will do exactly what it is that you love. When you start doing that, you start playing an extremely informed, aware and fantastic actor who has just made the job of his director very simple.

Now the choice is do you wish to make your director struggle or do you wish to make him sit back and enjoy life? If your director sits back and enjoys life, you will sit back and act effortlessly. If you make your director struggle, the director is definitely going to make you struggle. So the choice is once again yours, are you going to choose the route of struggle or are you going to choose the route of love, peace and equanimity.

Take your pencil and start right now, don't waste time, five things which compel you, which bind you, which are your bondage, five things which liberate your soul. Do it, right now.

Antique House

2010-08-16T20:38:00.005+04:00

Beirut

2010-08-16T20:28:00.003+04:00

Lebanon

2010-08-16T20:24:00.004+04:00

Flying Over Lebanon

2010-08-16T20:21:00.002+04:00

Feel the love in your space and then become life's best player, play with the colors of your life - by Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia

2010-08-16T18:34:00.005+04:00

Picking up the thread from the previous video, if you are lucky enough, empowered enough, happy enough or just sensible enough to keep responding with love for everything in your life then my friends you have reached your destination.

Though,my job isn't done as yet... I have a couple of other people to catch up with who are in the dual mode. If you are in the dual mode, nothing wrong, that is how life is. one of the crazy aspects of our life on earth is that where there is good there is bad, where there is nice there is pathetic, where there is joy there is sorrow, where there is pain there is pleasure, where there is light there is darkness, where there is love there is fear. That is one of those things that is!

When we talk of life being full of choices my friends, we always, always have this choice. Are you responding to a given situation in your life out of love or are you reacting out of fear?

Responses in life based on love are empowering responses, which liberate you; they give you an amazing sense of freedom. Responses based on fear give you insecurity, make you angry, makes you jealous, makes you feel that the ground below you is shifting.

So it is very easy to even understand for yourself, are you coming from love or are you coming from fear!

Let's assume we are coming from fear. Ok, no big deal we are coming from fear, let us acknowledge it, we are scared. We have all the rights to be scared because we have seen death, we have seen pain, we don't understand how this game works, perfectly natural response of "self preservation". Absolutely, fine, Ok, but the response of self-preservation will only preserve the "self"! It won't do anything else.

So, if you are in the circular circuit of constantly reacting with fear because you want to preserve yourself where ever you are, then good for you, you can continue your response from fear. But, you will never move anywhere in life, you will keep going round and round, round and round, coming back to the same point, absolutely every time to the same point. What will change is your job, the people in your life, monetary profile, but you will continue to react out of fear. If that is your reaction I would strongly recommend my friends, maybe focus on a couple of self help techniques.

Change your breathing, very simple. I am not a great proponent telling people to viciously pursue an educated therapist or viciously pursue a guru and so on. and so forth because you have within yourself all the tools.

The amazing aspect of life my friends is that the divine has empowered us with everything we need for our journey. Life is a planned event. You know even in these days of high technology if we have to travel from place A to place B how much planning we do. Have you ever thought of that? You sit on your net, select an airline, book your ticket, make sure you have a print out, you keep the PNR number, you have done all those things and then you have to plan, reaching the airport one and a half hour before the departure, plan your clothes, do so much of planning which is for a short trip maybe a couple of hours and come back. So can you imagine how much of planning you would have done for a journey which is going to last you a seventy years,or so? Think of it. Seventy years, eighty years, hundred years, even fifty years. How much of planning? So life is planned and you plan a lot of it and come. You also plan all the tools you would need on this journey. Like you take your clothes, you take your shaving kit, take your perfumes, take your make up box, all those things. so you have also brought down with yourselves simple tools which you have within your own space, to be able to make your own journey easy, loving and effortless and one of the most powerful tools you have is your own breathing.

So, the moment you conclude your reaction is based on fear, just change the way you breathe. Maybe breathing in through the nose and gently breathing out through the mouth for a couple of minutes will help you majorly. Try it out. Just think of the painful memory you have ever had and start breathing differently, breath in through the nose and gently breath out through the mouth as if you are blowing air into a balloon. Do that for a minute, two minutes, two and a half minutes. you will gradually realize, that you heart beat is settling down, your mind is becoming much calmer, you will be able to look at the same event with remarkable stoicism and a quiet mindset. It is in this beautiful space of nothingness that what it is to respond with love emerges. Response with love never can emerge if you are emotionally disturbed, which takes us back to probably the first fundamental response to life mastery, which is mastering your emotions.

So the moment you are faced with a situation which emotionally dis-empowers you, weakens you, scares you, accept that's there, then breath differently. The moment you breathe differently you will give yourself an opportunity to free yourself from the viciousness of that emotional pain. The moment you free yourself from the viciousness of the emotional pain, you will hit a calm, vacant, empty space in your mind. Love is what will naturally fill this up with because love is what you are, you don't have to seek it. It is just what you are. For most of us unfortunately, because we start our life journey with events which bring us pain, we then start responding to life hoping to match up people's expectations so that they may love us and the only reason which you are looking for love and belonging from other people is because you have lost that touch with it yourself. There is no human who comes on this planet alone, you always come with your divinity intact, but you forget that, and the day you forget that you start operating out a void, you start operating out a fear, and that fear now puts you on this compelling cycle of always trying to do what is expected of you rather than what it is that you would love to experience. If you followed what you would love to experience, probably all of you might have had your own fan pages, your own videos, distributing this to thousands of others because the wisdom of life is very simple. But most of us respond from fear then we land up always trying to match up expectation of what other people and the system expects, what our parents expects, what out education expects, what our spouses expect, and the more we do what is expected of us, and we are doing this so that we get love, which of course never comes because love from the external environment is one of the biggest illusions. You can never attract love from anywhere unless you love yourself to madness.

So breathe differently, emote differently, feel the love in your space and then become life's best player, play with the colors of your life

I never subscribe to the philosophy that you should leave everything and disappear into the mountains, yeah, maybe that is the route for some people, their choice, but life is a beautiful journey to be enjoyed, embraced, loved with all your heart and passion, starts with this slight shift in response. breathe your way into glory . enjoy it.

XC Barasti Beach Stadium Campaign

2010-08-14T20:28:00.001+04:00

Boom Boom

2010-08-07T13:09:00.001+04:00

The reformed prostitute is giving testimony with the Salvation Army on a street corner on a Saturday night, punctuating her discourse by beating on a big brass drum."I used to be a sinner!" she shouts (boom!) "Used to be a bad woman (boom!) I used to drink! (boom!) Gamble! (boom!) Whore! (boom! boom!) Used to go out Saturday nights and raise hell! (boom! boom! boom!) Now what do I do Saturday nights? I stand on this street corner, beating on this motherfucking drum!" - Osho

Tai Chi 24-form

2010-08-04T21:31:00.000+04:00

http://

Yang 40 Tai Chi

2010-08-04T21:28:00.002+04:00

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Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia: Accept where you are with love !!!

2010-08-04T21:26:00.000+04:00

A very pleasant,and a very warm, reconnecting Hi to all those of you who are on this journey with me.A major part of me somehow feels that life is so beautiful and simple. But if you ask this question to many people, I am not so sure that they would agree because so many of us spend hours, days, weeks, months fighting, running challenging, seeking to change things in our lives which are not working. Where is this basic premise coming from? Simply because we have forgotten the fact that we are all part of a universal system, a system, which is very wise. Our mandate being components of this wise system is to just understand how the system works and enjoy it. But that doesn't happen, just doesn't happen and then our journey with pain starts. What do we do when we have pain? We are constantly trying to change all those elements, which give us pain.You know one of the bizarre things about being human, is this one simple truth, that though we pride ourselves as being the most intelligent species on the planet, most of the times unfortunately most of the times we manifest very painful, very difficult lives, simply because of the inappropriate choices we have made. And now that we have made those choices which are not working, we are working over time to change, change, change, make things happen, change the people, change the job, change the city, change the country, change the profile, change. for how many people has it worked? Very few, because the basic intent we are working with is pain ! So when you change with pain, my friends,the only thing that you would get is more pain.I know many of you watching this video are probably maybe mentally very upset with me saying. here is this crazy dude talking all crazy things expecting us to waste our time listening to him, saying no, there is nothing to change. so what do we do? Ok, simple, very simple - You are where you are because that is the result of a choice you made somewhere, sometime. If you are where you are because,that is the choice that you made somewhere sometime, pls acknowledge it. Take responsibility for it. I am here because somewhere, sometime, I made the choice of being here and that is why I am here.Now, if you start acknowledging that and you start taking responsibility for being there you will naturally stop blaming others for what is happening in your space. If you stop blaming others for what is happening in your space, the universe smiles just that little bit and starts encouraging you and starts saying; Well for all the good children of the universe, good behaviour deserves a good chocolate. What does good behaviour come to and come from ? It comes from the understanding that if I have chosen to be here at this time, there has to be a benefit in this for me and if there has to be a benefit in it for me, instead of getting stuck with the emotional charge that this pain creates, can I just try and re-orient my mind to understand what is the benefit that is coming out of it. Remember, in any crisis my friends most of us have a basic preponderance to either fight our way out of our crisis and my limited experience working the humans and their minds has often suggested that whenever our response to our situation is fight, the only thing we keep inviting are greater and greater fights and more and more challenges. So if you come from that premise that life is a challenge and I have to fight my way and make it to the top, sure, the universe will keep conspiring overtime and will keep feeding your ego with more and more situations which will compel you to feel very good about the fact that you are fighting with glory, guts and gumption to claim the prize. Good for you. But it is an un-ending and vicious cycle my friends because an attitude of fight brings up another fight.Next response pattern. Accept. That is what it is! I am a miserable mongrel I have hurt people, god is angry is now looking down and saying suffer ! and so I am suffering !! Typically what many of us do when we resign ourselves to our fate. Acceptance because there is no choice. But my friends, the world's best kept secret, is, accept, but you have a lot of choice. So if I accept and I have a lot of choice, where does that get me? Acceptance of the fact that you are where you are, because of a choice you made and because the universe finds wisdom in you being there and if you can shake away the emotional pain that comes out of the story and look for the wisdom this situation has to offer, you will learn the value of acceptance with love. The day, the moment and the minute, you learn this value, this value of accepting your position with love because there is wisdom waiting for you to emerge, the very mindset of love starts giving you that wisdom. The moment the wisdom falls into place my friends, viola, it is time to make a different choice.So, success in life depends on two factors: accept where you are, with love and when can you do that? only when you have complete faith, complete faith that the dude up there, has you here because there is something you need to learn, accept that with love and faith, go for the learning, go for the wisdom, the moment you accept with love, the wisdom naturally emerges out. The moment wisdom emerges out, you have reclaimed the god power back in your hand to now make a different choice, again based on love. So, though change is fundamental to evolution in life only that change works which is based on love. Why? Because love is the language of creation, love is the language of evolution, love is the language of growth, love is the language of the divine. At no point of time in your life should you ever be disconnected from this one truth. So at any junction of your life, ask yourself this one question, am I reacting out of this moment out of fear or love? If you are reacting out of fear, the next video will tell you exactly what to do, if you are reacting out of love, you can probably stop seeing this series after this one !All the best !!!

Turkey - 2010 II

2010-07-27T21:49:00.022+04:00

إلى أمي .. مع التحية - بسّــام بــلّان

2010-07-27T12:17:00.001+04:00

"إلى أمي .. مع التحية"

تناقلت وسائل الإعلام الخبر التالي:
"أقدمت أم هندية على طعن ابنها البالغ من العمر ثماني سنوات بسكين في بطنه؛ طعنة جاءت بأحشائه الى أمامه، في مشهد درامي جعل والد الطفل في حالة هلع وفزع شديدين..أجّل كل شيء على أثرهما ، حتى محاسبة "الجانية" ليكسب الثواني لاسعاف "المجني عليه". وبصعوبة بالغة استطاع الفريق الطبي اسعاف الطفل وإعادة كل شيء الى مكانه.
وقبل أن يفيق الطفل من المخدر، كانت الأم في قبضة الشرطة ، واعترفت للمحقق أنها أقدمت على فعلتها هذه لأنها أنفقت أكثر من ساعة من الزمن في تعليم" فلذة كبدها" كيفية التفريق في اللفظ بين الحرفين(إي) و ( في ) باللغة اللاتينية ..ولكن من دون جدوى؛ الأمر الذي أخرجها عن طورها. ولم تجد وسيلة لمعاقبته سوى "بقر" بطنه بالسكين!"
هذا الخبر، على مأساويته وإثارته ولا انسانيته أيضا، أثار فيّ الكثير والكثير.. وحملني من فوره على جناح من الأفكارالغريبة.. وفي النهاية وجدت نفسي أقول: الحمد لله.. الشكر لله!
لقد حمدت الله وشكرته على أن الأمهات العربيات شفوقات رحيمات؛ نادراً ما تُـقدم واحدة منهن على إيذاء ولدها مهما اشتد غضبها منه.. فنحن العرب محظوظون جداً بقلوب أمهاتنا.. ولو كانت أمهاتنا مثل تلك الأم الهندية لامتلأت شوارع وساحات مدننا العربية بالأعضاء البشرية، ولأصبحت هذه الساحات أشبه ما تكون بمتاحف لعرض الأذان المقطوعة، والعيون المقلوعة، الكروش والأمعاء والطحالات والمررات والقلوب و(.......)؛ فالحمد لله إنه الرحمن الرحيم.
فالأم الهندية طعنت ابنها و فغرت كرشه لأنه لم يتمكن من التفريق بين حرفين في التهجية.. بينما أمهاتنا العربيات لم يصفعن أحداً من أبنائهن،ولو صفعة،على الرغم من أنهم نسوا التاريخ والجغرافيا..و باعوا واشتروا منساقين خلف أوهام ونزعات شخصية وحسب.
الحمد لله أن أمهات الكثير من المديرين في مواقع المسؤولية العربية، ومعاونيهم ونوابهم ومستشاريهم، رحيمات شفوقات، وإلاّ لكانت قد تحولت المؤسسات التي يقوم عليها هؤلاء الى مسالخ تفوح منها رائحة الدم ، بعدما أهملوا ما أهملوه، وبعدما تلاعبوا بمصالح الناس من دون أدنى رادع أو وخزة من ضمير.
الحمد لله أن أمهات الكثير من المدرسين و"المعلمين" العرب رحيمات شفوقات؛ وإلاّ لكنا استفقنا ذات يوم لنرى كروش هؤلاء وقد فصلت عن أجسادهم، بعدما جعلوا من أسمى المهن وأكثرها قداسة تجارة وشطارة.. ربح وخسارة.
الحمد لله أن أمهات الكثير من الأطباء العرب رحيمات شفوقات، وإلا لعجزت المستشفيات والمراكز الطبية التي يعملون فيها عن تقديم المساعدة الكافية إليهم وهم مطعونون طعنات خارقة حارقة في كروشهم، بعدما نسوا أوتناسوا أنهم مؤتمنون على أرواح خلق الله وصحتهم، وجعلوا من مهنتهم "بيزنس" فقط.. وعملهم خاضع لمنطق العرض والطلب!
الحمد لله أن أمهات الكثرة الكاثرة من المثقفين العرب رحيمات شفوقات، وإلاّ لوجدنا الأوراق التي يسطرون عليها كذبهم ودجلهم وشهادات الزور، التي يبيعونها بأرخص الأثمان، وقد امتزج حبرها بالأمعاء والدماء!
الحمد لله أن أمهات الكثير من السياسيين العرب رحيمات شفوقات، وإلاّ لوجدناهم أمام المصير الذي يستحقونه، بعدما تخلوا عن كل شيء وباعوا كل شيء وحوّلوا الأوطان الى مزارع وإقطاعات لهم ولمن معهم!
الحمدلله،وألف الحمدلله أن أمهات أغلب الحكام العرب ليس فيهن ولوجزء يسير من تلك الأم الهندية، وإلاّ لكانت أجسادهم إما متناثرة هنا وهناك، وإما كجسد "خالد بن الوليد" لا يخلو شبر منه من طعنة سيف أو رشقة رمح.. عقاباً لهم على ما فعلوه بشعوبهم..
الحمد لله وألف الحمدلله أن أمهاتنا لا تشبه تلك الأم الهندية، وكذلك أمي، لأن مصيري كان سيشبه، تماماً، مصير ذلك الطفل، بعدما تقرأ أو يقرأ لها أحد هذه السطور!
فهل من عربي يشك، بعد الآن، بأن الله قد سخر له من الأمهات ما لم يسخره للآخرين!
الحمد لله.. وليكن الله في عون كل مَنْ في أمه جزء مما في تلك الأم الهندية.
****
تنويه:
لم يذكر الخبر(مستهل الحديث) إن كان الأطباء الذين خاطوا بطن الطفل المبقور قد نسوا فيه قطناً أوشاشاً أو مقصاً.. أوغير ذلك!

بسّــام بــلّان

Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia: You can choose to experience whatever your heart chooses to experience, just don't get married to them!

2010-07-27T12:16:00.001+04:00

You can choose to experience whatever your heart chooses to experience. Wow! What a euphoric feeling. Just give yourself the luxury of closing your eyes and living this out. What is the deepest experience you would wish to go through? Feel it in your heart and see how fantastic it feels to experience that. Not that I want to play a party pooper at the moment but as I said, to win the game you must play the game by the rule. So though you have the inherent right to the experience and as I mentioned when the going is good our intellect tends to go to sleep and then we all know what happens to the train, the same experience can completely become your identification of it, which will then make it your ego.

So let's conclude this series with this thought that you have the right to the experience but not the right to marry the experience. Which means, the moment you experience, what ever it is, that you truly wish to experience, take some time out and completely surrender that experience back to the universe. Remember you are an expression of this universal consciousness that has come on this planet in a physical format for experiences to be felt through the paradigm of emotions.

One cannot feel emotions without a body. Every single emotion felt is throughout the body. Ask people who get their thrill when their car starts racing from 0 to 60 in 5 or 6 seconds because they have this fantastic horse power engine, it's a physical feeling, the thrill, the excitement, the fear, all emotions are felt in the body. So you are on this journey to experience whatever experience you wish and feel the emotions in your body but remember when the experience is done, if you surrender it back to the universe then you don't identify yourself with the experience and you remain a fresh slate and an open petal for a new experience, a different experience something you can embrace in a different format all over again.

Nature in its inherent wisdom teaches us the most amazing truths of life and nature does it purely because that is how nature is. So if you look at nature every morning a flower will bloom because that is the experience of that flower on that day. The very next day the same flower will not bloom in the same manner. It will choose a different experience. A bird may chirp at 6am in the morning and may not chirp the next day because that is the experience of chirping at that moment. So nature shows you in its infinite wisdom how every moment is following its own inherent experience of that moment. Have you seen nature doing everything in precise clockwork timing? No, that does not exist and nature does it because that is the evolution of nature. The day as humans we understand this completely that at a given point of time, whatever it is that your heart wishes to experience is what you should completely experience in that moment, surrender that experience to the universe, thank it with gratitude for having given you the luxury of the experience and open yourself up like a fresh slate, you shall walk this planet as a humble student of life who mastered its intricasies. Very much like nature, a different day a new way to fly up to the sun and you will realize that you will never ever get bored of life, because life is nothing but a series of beautiful experiences which you link segment by segment, piece by piece to eventually make a fantastic garland, a garland that you could call your own unique experience in life. However, no body gets married to the garland. You take it, experience it, surrender it.

This should be the last rule for this series. When I come back next time, it will be with a completely different mindset, a completely different pitch because I would presume all these things are already playing somewhere at the back of your mind. I do not know at this point in time what my next video is going to be. But suffice to say, this video concludes and extremely important, an extremely important junction. It is a major junction like the terminus where many trains come together and you kind of off load yourself and say alright this is where I am, life is good now let me see which new train I must board. So till we meet for a new train, even I don't know which train I am going to drive, because this was my chosen experience to date, that is what I have shared with you, to date. Next video, which experience, which thought, which emotion, I have no idea, but I am enjoying this moment, I suppose, you are enjoying it as well. Because it is your energies when you relate to this the feed back that we get which invariably tells us that life becomes so very beautiful when we understand that compassion in itself is not just a human emotion,it is a force that this entire universe is made of. It is that singular force, I feel that is binding me in my capacity and each one of you who is looking at this video.

So compassion is not what I am feeling purely for myself in the moment because my life has enriched me with whatever I went through but there is this part of me which also feels that I am alive in all your hearts. There is one part of me which is alive in each one of you who is watching this video and that part of me which is alive in you I suppose somewhere is god smiling at all of us Lets make life long and fruitfully enjoyable.

Best of luck.

Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia: One has a choice to the experience & not the route it takes to reach !!!

2010-07-27T12:15:00.001+04:00

Here we are with a absolutely empowering possibility, a possibility of choosing whatever we wish to experience. The question now is, we have the right to the experience... sure, but are we wiser than the universe in telling the universe in what format do we want the experience? This is where most of us get jacked!So, what we do not realize is that we incarnate in an environment that the universe has chosen for us to learn something or become wise and very often that environment if it is hostile, tends to make you to want to change the environment.

Strangely, believe it or not, you will expend the maximum energy of your life in trying to change that with absolutely zero result. So, what is that the universe is trying to communicate to you? The universe is trying to tell you that the environment is communicating, for you to accept the wisdom from it and change your response to yourself to experience a different experience. But most of us expect that the same environment will change and that is an absolute screw-ball !!!If you wish to experience abundance, you have a right to experience it, but does that mean that the abundance must come to you only through the stock market because you are a stockbroker? I have had innumerable cases of stock brokers who went through cycles and cycles of bankruptcy simply because, their ego got hurt when they lost money for the first time, me included, and they are desperate changing their response so that the same stocks which ate away their money will give them the money back. But that is an ego trip, you are not truly changing your response. It is the ego hitting back changing your response with a vested interest that the area from where you got the pain is what will give you pleasure. What we are not figuring out is the area which is giving you pain is the universe talking to you saying clearly that it is not your area. But we try even to change our response so that we can convert the same pain into pleasure. Can that happen? It can never happen, because if fire burns, it burns, there is no way under the sun that you can convert it into ice. It cannot happen, because, it is the property of fire to burn. If you are taking this knowledge with the hope that you will change the response so that your current painful environment will become pleasurable, forget it. You are wasting your time !!! Absolutely !!!You have the choice of experience but let the universe decide how it wants to give you that experience. You can experience whatever you want, you can experience money, you can experience love, you can experience any single abundance of resource which you would like to experience provided you submit that experience as a petition to the universe, understand you are the universe's favorite child. The universe will give you that experience but you must be open enough to let the experience come into your life the way the universe wishes to give it to you. And when the universe wishes to give it to you, the universe will bend backwards to make it happen for you !!!So, an absolutely easy way of understanding whether what you are asking for and what is being granted to you is a part of universal grace or not, is by checking how easily you are attracting the new experience. The more effortless the experience becomes the more the universe has a hand in giving you that experience.

I have in my career as a therapist experienced so many clients who are so very desperate for their husbands to love them or their wives to love them or their children to love them and my simple question is what is it that you want? Oh, we want to experience love, all right, so tell the universe I wish to experience love, and be prepared for it. You will never know who will come into your life to give you love. Does the love only need to come in a format "abc"? Is love so pathetic and so restrictive that it is the trademark policy of social norm for love to come only in one format? Especially when the format is giving you pain? Does not work dude! So just sit, think and have faith in yourself. A lot of people get stuck here.

One more thing, since you have the titular right to the experience, and since in the eyes of the universe there is no time and there is no space, the way to attract that experience in your universe is to feel it in your heart as if it is already happening. So, if you wish to experience love in your life, start behaving as if you are the universe's most loved child, because the way you will behave with yourself is exactly the way the universe will behave with you. So if you are harsh with yourself and you keep feeling that you the unluckiest person, then that is exactly what the universe will give you. If you wait for the universe to give you a series of lucky events to happen before you begin to believe that you are lucky, then sorry, doesn't work! So, start treating yourself as your top priority, you are the world's most loved person by yourself. So what if in this moment other people are not loving you! Love yourself, unconditionally, are you not your most important person? Believe you are the best for yourself, believe that you are luckiest for yourself, believe that you are God in motion who has come on this planet to experience its magnificence. Drop your programming and watch, how the universe bends backwards, in its own unique way to give you that experience and of course having got that experience don't get seduced by its permanency. There is no such thing on this planet as permanent. What starts will end, what is good today is bad tomorrow, the wisdom is to completely live every moment of your life. It lies in completely living every moment of your life perhaps as if it is the last moment or the last day of your life. This is a very ancient teaching that I got from a Buddhist monk, who would often tell me that Yuvraj, one of life's easiest ways is to put a placard in your pocket which simply says today is the last day of my life. Watch how your response to yourself will dramatically change with that. So, if you live every moment of your life assuming that it would be the last moment and you do only those things which gave you total, pure, undiluted self acceptance, go ahead and do it. Formula for winning, formula for enjoying the win, loosing comes in the way once in a while, how does it matter? End of the day, loosing is a format of winning differently! Ok?

So,

1. Accept what's happening in your life as a universal sign of change

.2. Become the change yourself for yourself

.3. Open yourself to the universe for the experience you so richly deserve.

Then perhaps, you will be sitting on a video like this talking to millions of people, who knows,

best of luck.

Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia: As Human, we have a choice to be happy & we are mostly unhappy !!! Isn't it bizarre?

2010-07-27T12:13:00.001+04:00

You know; one of the bizarre paradoxes of human existence is this awareness that we can choose to be happy and yet we are mostly unhappy. The reasons are not very far to look at. The biggest negative factor in this story is that when life starts running smooth, when life is beautiful, when life is in cruise control, our intellect tends to go to sleep. We tend to drop our vigilance to life. We tend to drop our attitude to keeping in mind that the rules do not have to be compromised when you are playing the game. Once again, quoting a very, very famous cricketer....( I am very fond of cricket so there are lots of examples of cricket.) there was a legendary Indian cricketer, who was known for his penchant to score hundreds and when he was asked how he could consistently score so many centuries in his career, his reply was an extremely intelligent and pertinent one. He said, every time I touch fifty runs, in my mind, I reset my score to zero. The moment I do that I am able to bring on my concentration back to peak level because when I am starting my innings, I am extremely vigilant.

This is true with all of us. When we want to accomplish something, we are vigilant with all the rules. We will do it right and of course doing it right gives you rewards. Then unfortunately, when the rewards of life start coming in, we drop that vigilance. We drop the guard and then invariably there is pain. This is not to berate you, the objective of sharing this thought is not to make you feel miserable, it is because this is a natural and normal human trend. So if there is pain, then the pain is nothing but a communication by the universe, which is telling you, mate, pay attention. Don't ever be scared of pain, in any format. Pain is simply the world talking to you and saying "jack, you have dropped your guard, you need to just pick it up again." Pain is nothing but the universe guiding you to take action. Move !!! Having understood that, the best way then of course is to negotiate this pain by being vigilant all the time. So if the going is good, don't drop your guard, keep your vigilance up, check the three golden rules of earth at the moment, which are, a) have you been consistently treating all things appropriately? B) Have you been accepting people for what they are? c) Have you been experiencing emotions and are you able to say bye, bye to them without getting married. If you have been doing this consistently correctly, even when the going is good, then obviously pain is not going to touch you at all. Remember emotions will come and go. But emotions are transient in nature, they will come, they will go, don't get married to them and keep your vigilance meter up. Should you keep your vigilance meter in place and then it is possible, it is completely possible to learn with pleasure.

In our human mindset we have all associated pain with learning and that is one of the reasons why if you note, that the first big pain, which came into your life has still not completely left you. I can guarantee that because you have made that pain into your own teacher because that pain has been perhaps responsible for your even listening to this video. I am sure, if you life was on cruise control, you are not going to take these ten minutes and listen to this boring character talking some shit !!! You are not going to do that. But if you are listening to this video, you are looking for an answer. And if you are looking for an answer undoubtedly there is some amount of pain somewhere in the system. Means what? Do you need pain to listen to me ? That is an erroneous association that we have made. We have always converted pain to a barometer, which will help us grow, learn, get detached, become wise and do all the nice, nice things that the great guys speak about but that is our fallacious association, we don't need the pain. So if we can commit to ourselves that on an ongoing continuous basis we will coach ourselves, actually, with these rules; then we can all be truly pain free. Just benchmark it all the time. Make sure you are sticking to the basics. You will never ever have a reason to make pain as your teacher. It is perfectly possible to learn with love and with pleasure, provided your intellect, your wisdom and your awareness, do not go to sleep.

I have always compared the human intellect with the "points man", a person who manages the platforms/lines in the station by changing the tracks for the incoming trains. So, if this person is caught napping exactly at the time the train comes it will keep going on the old track, similarly when our intellect going to sleep, which is like being off guard and we keep inviting repeated cycles of pain. Now, this pain is trying to communicate one story, wake up, become alert, change your response, pull the lever, and you will find the train will move on to a different platform. When the train will move to another track, remain alert because there will be another train coming and you do not want to repeat the same cycle and the same learning in a different format!!

I am sure we have seen this many times before, you have one chronic problem in your life the faces change, perhaps the situation changes but the problem does not change. Initially the problem was your father, now the problem is your boss. Basically none of these is the problem, the problem is your mind and the way you are looking at your life, the rest are personifications, which you are attracting to help you understand your game. So perhaps in life if you want to wake up from the snakes and the ladders that we are all playing all the time, be vigilant, be an aware player, become attuned to the rules, keep your mindset going, and then you will enjoy the snakes and ladder. Remember the snakes will still come. Inherently there is nothing wrong with the snakes because sliding down a snake can be a lot of fun. Remember climbing up a ladder can also be very painful. Understand that, go back to the basics, keep your intellect up and about and life will be an effortless game of snakes and ladder. You know many people have asked me that the guys who designed the snakes and ladder game are actually very sadistic people because invariably the fang of the snake is at 99 or 98, just when you need to go to hundred, but then, which of us stopped playing at hundred? Even when we cracked 100, it was nothing but an ego booster and we put the dice back to zero and started all over again. So why don't we see the snake as a great friend who takes you down before you reach 100 and never takes you back to zero!!! No snake takes you back to zero, just gives you opportunity to continue to play without your ego hitting your head. Relax, chill!!! Enjoy the slide, keep the vigilance, enjoy the game, life is a party, best of luck!!!

Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia: Take next step with FAITH leaving behind your past programming !!!

2010-07-27T12:12:00.000+04:00

Here i am, back with you, sharing my crazy thoughts..... crazy because, it might sound mad, but then i have often thought of myself as a mad maverick, who somehow accidentally or by some divine design understood a little bit about how life can be really good. My life is good,so I just thought...maybe I can share my mental musings...perhaps something will work for you.

So, continuing the whole response story, if we are moving away, from the concept of linearity which means, if i now start telling myself that, so what if my father beat me with a cane ! So what if mother did not find 10 minutes to hold me and say "I love you"!!! So what if i lost crores of rupees in a stock exchange scam, does that debar me in this moment from choosing afresh to participate in the joy of life? I don't think so. Because as part of our evolution, as we start completing our own games of duality, of rationality & linearity we understand that life is nothing but a series of opportunities that you have created for yourself to make a choice which works for you. You are always empowered to make that choice in the here and in the now. So, it is all about the here and the now.

If we look at the lives of most of the wise men, who have left behind absolutely incredible impressions on human consciousness,and here i am talking of the evolved people who walked the planet maybe people who we are praying to as gods and goddesses and if you look at their lives on earth you will note one huge issue...., that the environment was difficult yet what did they choose to demonstrate through their life ? They chose to demonstrate, the more hostile the environment, the greater is the opportunity for me to display my divinity. You can look at Jesus, you can look at Krishna and you can look at any ascended master who walked the earth. None of them sat back and said "OH!" because this happened to me in childhood, i am a screwed up nervous wreck. Each of them chose the childhood programming as the perfect setting for them to respond through the power of their divinity they carried. So, if they can do it, why can't you ??? What is separating you from them ? Why can't the god in you emerge right now ? Why can't the goddess in you emerge right now ? Why can't u see that all those events were nothing but opportunities that gave you the power to discover that you can choose, you can choose to be different.

You can make that choice now and if you make that choice now (i know it is easier said than done), remember any objective that you wish to accomplish or any experience that you wish to experience just needs to be appropriately broken down into a series of small and accomplishable tasks. One of the big mistake we often make in life is that we have a huge grandiose vision of where we would all love to go, what is that we would love to experience and yet since the route to that experience is not very clear we land up stagnating in our life where ever we are. In fact that becomes a perfect defence mechanism for us not to move our butt !!! Because we are so beautifully conditioned to be where we are and that any change is always difficult. So intellectually we would love to go there, we would love to make the shift, we would love to be different but since the road is obscure, since the path is not clear we land up doing nothing.

Let me ask you one simple question from where ever you are in your life in this moment right now! Is your immediate next step not always clear? So you may not have the entire sequence planned out till the end. You may have a rough idea of what your big vision is like but the immediate next step that you can take to move in that direction is always, always, always clear. All that life asks of you is to demonstrate the courage, the self belief and the self love to take the immediate next step. Because the moment you take the next step which of course will require immense amount of faith, the next step after that will also become clear at that moment.

So if you realize for all those of you who have been faithfully tracking these videos from the time we started talking you will find a lot of interwoven talk. You will find a lot of cross referencing happening because at the end of the day the universal truth is huge and my only attempt through this whole exercise is to show you that there are a million different ways to bring you to the same universal truth. So having said that take the immediate next step because that is always clear and have faith. Have faith that when you take the immediate next step and you have the power to take that step right now, have the power to choose right now it is all about the now, it is all about the now disconnecting from the toxic effect of the programming you have gone through and understanding that it has given you the strength and the courage to make that shift, take that step. Take that step with the belief that if you are at the edge of the cliff and you jump with faith either the big dude will hold you down there or you will learn to fly and if this is ephermaral and eternal wisdom which has survived time and space I would strongly advocate imbibing that wisdom in your life right now. Take the leap of faith, take the next step, don't wait for the environment to change. Don't wait for things to happen because they won't. You must make the next move. Let us meet at the next junction of the next move.

Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia: Our responses to situations

2010-07-27T11:50:00.000+04:00

We understand all about our response to situations and how our responses actually crack our life for us. Let me share with you an interesting insight...... you might not be aware but if you look at the three basic truths which govern our existence on this planet, they are as following:

1. Duality – where there is pleasure, there will be pain; where there is love there will be fear; where there is joy there will be sorrow; where there is right, there will be wrong; where there will be correct there will be in-correct; where there is fun there will be boredom; where there is nice there will be ugly; where there is white, there will be black; where there is light, there will be darkness. This isn’t a good thing or bad thing; it is one of those truths of our lives. Show me one person in this universe who has not faced this. You won’t find anybody. Every game has its own inherent set of rules. There isn’t a game that does not have its own set of rules. For example, if we talk of cricket, then it has a basic rule that there are two sides playing against each other. There is also a basic rule that one team will bat while the other will bowl and field and vice versa. So, if one has to enjoy the game, then one must know the rules and play by the rules. For example, if both teams want to bat first then, the game won’t be able to be played. Every game for the pure enjoyment of the game needs to be played with the right rules. One of rules on earth at the moment is duality. It exists, we can’t run away from it.

2. Linearity – as in linearity of time. So there is a past and that past has a definite impact on the present and what is being done in the present has a huge impact on the future. So, I am what I am today, because of a variety of things which happened to me, maybe when I was a child or while I was growing up and that has now fashioned my response and depending on how I am responding today, my tomorrow gets fashioned. No running away. This is why we are coming across to you so very powerfully with this concept: change your response, change your response… because you cannot change your past, but if you change your response today you will be almost certainly guarantee that you will be able to change your tomorrow & you would like that.

3. Rationality – this is uniformly true for everybody. For example, yesterday I went and touched a hot vessel and my hand got burnt so today, my rationality and logic tells me that I should not visit the fire again, because the fire will burn me. So, based on the experiences I go through in the past, I rationally come to conclusions that influence my present, which in turn becomes the yardstick for my future.

Now if these are the three rules of life, then to crack these rules and enjoy the game there are three suitable responses. So, what should be your response to these three things? If you were to make your life work and if you have understood that your life’s success is about your response, then for these three rules, there are three sets of responses.

So, response #1: Everything in this world has its own inherent value. If I were to ask a question to all of you, if I give you a stone or a chain of gold what would you select? I am sure, more than 90% of the people would select gold because; in their minds gold is value. Think for a while. Suppose you want to dig a hole in the ground, how valuable is that gold? Zero! You might sell it to buy a stone, but eventually the job is done only with the stone. So, the key take away is everything that exists on this universe has its own value and one’s wealth gets determined by the recourses one has, to execute what one needs. So if I want to build a house, then the resources for me are cement and stone and that is of value. Gold just becomes the means to getting that, gold itself is not the resource. I can have all the gold in the world, but if I cannot buy stone and cement with it, then I am very poor because I can’t have a house with it. So, everything has its value. If you keep that in mind, greed will disappear from your life.

Response #2: Every human is unique and you cannot change him or her. Every single person on this earth has come for his or her own unique experience which may or may not fall in line with your chosen paradigm of existence. Not necessary. You must understand that every soul has the inherent right to pursue its path leading to its fulfilment. So the moment you understand that, you will stop judging people as good and bad. You will stop judging their responses as right and wrong simply because it is their chosen experience and you are nobody to judge their chosen experience because, if God does not judge it, who are you to judge it?

Response #3: The doer in you must embrace the duality totally... the observer in you must watch the duality totally. This also means that as a human being, since you have come here to experience emotions there is no running away from emotions. So when you are experiencing joy, experience it fully, but don’t get married to it. It is the experience of that moment. Similarly, if there is a situation which gives you sorrow, which gives you fear, understand that in that moment you need to experience it, experience it and immediately change your mindset to the fact that there is a benefit and automatically the emotion will disappear and there is no need to get married to it.

If you keep these three things in mind all the time, consistently, #1 you will fulfil your basic aspiration of being a human who has come here to feel, #2, without taking away from the pleasure of the feelings, you will be empowered enough at every of point in time through your intellect and through your response to supersede that emotion and to seek the best response for yourself at a given point of time. Finally #3, becoming non-judgmental of people around you, will naturally have people becoming non-judgmental of you. That finally is what each one of us are looking for.

At core level we all wish to be loved and accepted for what we are and not what we have to become. Just think of it. How would your life be if you were loved for what you are … I love you … enjoy yourselves…

Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia: Problem can never be sorted out at the level at which you create it

2010-07-27T11:47:00.000+04:00

Hi, continuing our series on mastering our lives …through understanding our mind. Let us look at how our minds are working right now. At one level, we are all seeking peace, we are all seeking happiness, we are all seeking abundance. Which one of us is not! If that is what we are seeking, it is pretty obvious that perhaps we do not have it, because, if we had it, we would not be seeking it. So, if we are not happy, not peaceful, let us understand what makes us unhappy.

Broadly speaking everything that makes us feel unhappy falls only in one of the following two categories:
a) The way other people behave with us or the way the situation jacks us up!
b) Our own behaviour.

There is nothing in this world, which has the ability to make you feel upset, UNLESS YOU DECIDE TO FEEL THAT WAY

Ideally, we would all love to see other people change. How we would love it! How we would wish our boss becomes this kind, compassionate, benevolent character who will give us leave whenever our heart requires it. How we wish we could manifest a wife who would give us unconditional love and embrace us for whatever we are even though we may stink like a pack of shit and how we wish our friends would tolerate our worst habits. We would love for everybody to change and how we would love the destiny to smile at us and give us a lottery of a million US dollars! How we would love our business prospects to shoot up as India is growing at 8% … We would all love these things… idealistic solution........ bottom line truth.... very elusive. So for all those of us who are stuck in the rigmarole of waiting and waiting for people to change and situations to change are perhaps condemned to waiting… because that is the only thing they will do, wait.

Truly what is in your own capacity, my friends is your own behaviour. You cannot control anything in the universe other than yourself.

Then if it is your behaviour, let us figure out in your behaviour what makes you unhappy? One of the key things in our behaviour which makes us unhappy is our perceived failures of life. Every single human who has walked this planet has had a graph of duality, where there have been moments of ecstasy and moments which have been painful: there are moments of great joy & success and there are moments of pathos and sadness.

Yet lives biggest success stories revolve behind those who clearly understood that there is no such thing in life as failure. It is only feedback. Which means, if you have inherent faith in the director of this plot, in your own most empowered potential and you feel there is something in your life which is not working in your assessment (please remember whatever is happening is having an inherent wisdom in it, rather than looking at it as a failure and letting your mind spin out of control in a negative degrading spiral downwards, if you could start training yourself to understand that if it is happening, it is happening with divine sanction, which means there must be a benefit for me.

There is no situation in your life my friends that that will come into your life without an inherent benefit. Our problem is, we get so caught up in the emotional drama that follows our perceived failure that very often we fail to spot the inherent benefit in that moment. If you check most successful people in life, when they talk about their life stories and when they talk about their lives when they were very difficult, in retrospect they will tell you how those difficulties were hugely responsible for teaching them and training them and giving them those invaluable attributes that they so desperately required at that moment of their lives. So, if that is happening to you today my friends, if there is in your life that is not working right now, just ask yourself if this is happening for my benefit, let me try and find it. Cause there is a benefit for sure.

Always remember, as Einstein says, a problem can never be sorted out at the level at which you create it. For solving a problem, one needs to always rise about it. Problems are nothing but universal’s wisdom’s way of saying move up in life, there is a solution already there which you need to find and that solution or that benefit is what you need to spot and crack. Now if you get this very clear in your mind, that all your life’s stories is nothing but a sequence of events in which you were either learning, gaining, becoming wiser, becoming sharper, becoming more intelligent, becoming tougher maybe becoming smarter, then the inner programming of your magnet will get beautifully aligned into this absolutely one way street of positive outlook.

The day you manage, my friends, you have mastered your life. You have mastered your life simply because whether you believe it or not, it is not the environment which determines your success or failure, it is always the response you exhibit at that moment in time that will determine this.

So, right now, just take a deep breath and start talking to yourself that whatever is happening in your life at this moment of time is because somebody up there wants it to happen and if somebody up there wants it to happen, then it is in your own interest to allow it to happen and enjoy that and if it is in your interest to allow it and enjoy it then you also realize that you need to change the way you talk to your own god, because all this while your continuous communication with your god has been, Oh god, this is such a huge problem. From today let’s just change that, let’s talk to the problem and tell the problem I have a huge god, which is much bigger than you. The day you start doing this consistently my friends, you cracked it.

Be with it… it is difficult to digest… I am sure somewhere in your heart a little bulb is going to get lit up !!!

Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia: Human Behavior - await external environment sanctioning our happiness

2010-07-27T11:46:00.001+04:00

At one level most of us still depend on our environment to sanction our happiness; we depend on our loved ones to love us to make us feel loved . Let's unravel this game a little deeper.

A huge truth about human behaviour revolves around communication. The truth simply states that the meaning of the communication is the result that it gets. Most of us in life, especially when we are dependant on an environmental interaction are completely focused only on what we are saying and since we are dependant on the environment, if we disconnect from the result that the environment gives us we invite pain.

For example, this communication is happening in English and for this communication to be effective; all of you must understand English. But if all of you have no clue of this language, and then the meaning of my communication is entirely redundant, useless, and stupid, which is what is seen with many trainers in several workshops. We are all constantly showing the world what we know, which is fine provided we are operating out of self love, which we are not. so since we are looking for an approval from people, the only way you will get that approval is when you speak what they want to hear. So if you speak what the people want to hear, it is but natural that you will get exactly the result you wanted to get in the first place.

Making sense? Think about it? You want leave from work. Ok, so you go ahead and tell the boss, I need leave tomorrow. Boss is already thinking, Oh gosh, if this guy takes leave tomorrow, there is a deadline to be achieved for a certain project report which he was to submit and thanks to you taking leave perhaps he will not be able to make that submission,... chances of you being granted that leave are very poor. But the moment you tell the boss, I have made arrangements for the submission, don't worry, nothing for you will get stuck, the report will be delivered to you by so and so person,in that case can I take leave tomorrow? Rest assured my friends, the leave is guaranteed. You will get the result that you require.

This is true at every single juncture of life. So when you appreciate other people naturally in turn they land up appreciating you. You get exactly what you want. When you help other people succeed in life rest assured your own success is guaranteed. A lot of times in life when it comes to this communication, the reason we disconnect from the environment is because we get emotionally involved in what we are saying and the moment we get emotionally involved in what we are saying, we seek justification for the communication the way we are projecting it. And of course, since it does not bring the desired result, it keeps the flag of conflict continuing into perpetuity.

So just pause for a moment and put yourself into the shoes of the other person, and understand what is it that the other person wants to hear. If you figure that out and speak exactly that language, then whatever you want from that person gets delivered to you effortlessly. Sometimes following this requires you to challenge your own perception and belief. So if you have a boss who likes to be praised, if you have a boss who likes to control people, give him the control, praise the boss, no problems, give him exactly what he needs. If you deliver to him exactly what he needs whatever you want from him gets delivered to you effortlessly.

This is so true when it comes to dealing with our own children. Most of the time when it comes to our children we are constantly telling them what to do, all the time and we expect our children to listen to us round the clock. Have we ever paused to think how much do we listen to what the child wants to tell us? Without getting irritated, without pushing, what is the child is trying to tell us? Can we process this without our own filter of perception? Many parents say, of course we talk to the child all the time, we always want to know what is happening in the child's life. Sure, what they want to know is what happened at school, what is the homework that has to be done. that's the last thing the child wants to talk to the parents! The child probably may want to tell how he went on to the road and played cricket and scored a brilliant 50 runs !!! The child probably wants to tell you about what happened with his friend in school and how he managed to get two marbles extra in a game he was playing. Are we willing to listen to that? No, we are not and then we expect our children to listen to us all the time. So, if only you could take out ten or fifteen minutes in the day when you are just listening to what your child wants to tell you and listening carefully without interruptions making the child feel extremely important as if at that moment the only thing that exists for you is your child. Believe me my friends for the rest of the time in the day the child will listen to you completely.

Think about this. Do unto others what you want others to do to you !!If you want results, help people, achieve and get the results that they are looking for. The moment you crack that, it is another missing piece in your jigsaw puzzle. You can't find your own piece, no problem, just help arrange the other pieces that are obviously falling into place. That is easy because universe is talking to you the environment is talking to you it is telling you exactly what it wants from you. Help that fall into place, you get your result automatically & naturally as a corollary. Always remember this, you want the results? Give other people the result they want first. This challenges your belief, your perception, do it, you will get your result.

This of course since we are taking the entire module from the perception of the external environment talking to us for us to figure out what we want to do. Going back two videos, if you are already on the path of self-love, then you can just chill and watch the video without trying to apply any part of it. The choice is completely yours, but for those of us who are still looking at the environment as a feedback mechanism for self acceptance these are a few simple rules which will help your life become better, simpler, much more effective in turn polishing you for your Oscar of life.

Enjoy and have fun.

Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia: Understanding love through Human Behavior

2010-07-27T11:45:00.001+04:00

I am back with a very concrete action plan this time.

Since many of us find it difficult to make the journey inwards into what we truly love, fully and completely, which, ideally should be the approach, in reality, for many of us, it is not so simple. There is too much of pressure from the environment, from our own people and these are people we love, parents, children, spouse, colleagues, each one of them demanding a certain behavior… this could take one far away from whatever one would have love for oneself… so in case that route is a little difficult, another very simple approach is getting into the depth of human behavior.

So, from this segment onwards, I am going to share with you a few very simple truths, of how we all behave. Why am I sharing this with you? If you understand this, you will probably understand why people around you are behaving how they are behaving… because the principles of behavior don’t change… and if you can understand why people around you are behaving the way they are behaving… it obviously becomes very simple then to make peace with your own self. Most of us always conclude when things in our life especially things in our relationships are not going too well, we are right, we are hurt, people around us are mean, they are going out of their way to actually, literally jack us !!! But they are behaving the way they are, simply because they are programmed to behave that way …

So let’s begin this exercise of understanding how we all behave. The first very simple truth on this journey is starting with a postulate, which says, people always work perfectly… yes, the statement is bold and is subject to a lot of questioning instantly and is triggering a lot of questions in your mind and thinking what crap !!! How can this be justified!!! Hold it and think.

Every person doing whatever activity he or she is doing, is doing it based on his or her internal meter of perfection which may or may not match your own meter. So very often if you are in a company and if you believe that you are absolutely indispensable to the company, you need to be needed all the time, then my friends….u r in a jack…ask me why? Most of us have this as a vital belief as that is how we feed our bruised and battered egos… whenever we realize that we are absolutely indispensable to a system, or to another person, all that we are doing is using that as an excuse to shore up our own battered self esteem because the fact of the matter is no body is indispensable. Breathing is there today, it will stop tomorrow and things will go on… simple truth of life !!! Nothing stop !!! Things just go on!!!

It is our lack of self worth which makes us believe, that we are intrinsic to the successful existence of other people in our lives. The fact is… we are not!!! Having said that, if you still follow that belief, that you are absolutely indispensable, what are you going to manifest in your company? You are going to manifest people around you in your company who will make sure that some mistake or the other remains committed because that gives you a reason to justify your basic belief that you are indispensable. Where does this take you? You will keep hiring more and more people who will make silly mistakes and you will not only land up dishing out their salaries and supervising them too, just to hold the belief that you are indispensable.

Now, a very good way of flipping this model is, if your staff is making a silly mistake some where or the other and they are consistently making this one mistake, then are you able to spot a pattern that they are doing everything else absolutely correct. This basically means that they have perfected the art of executing your task with only one mistake. Who ever said that perfection was getting things 100% right? Perfection is simply mapping and delivering a consistent output to a certain belief, that is perfection; there is no other benchmark for perfection. So if your staff has mastered the art of making only one mistake and that too because you want to feel that you are indispensable, that is exactly what they would do. Shocking…is it not? Now, if your ego permits you to break this cycle, start focusing on the 99 things that they are doing correctly. Now, if this is done, I know for a short while, there might be turbulence in your organization, in your life, maybe a little disturbing, but by and large the love that you will start to feel in your heart, when you start appreciating the 99% of the things which are happening correctly, in your estimate, is what will actually transform that 99% into 100%.

Think about it, so the next time your servant makes a mistake at home just think of the ten other things the same servant is doing absolutely correctly. I am not for a moment saying that you must condone what is wrong or what doesn’t work, but since where ever your mind focuses is exactly what you will get, If you mind focuses in picking faults in others, then the only thing you will get in your universe will be people with more and more faults. Let us focus instead on the good things people are doing around you, appreciate that. That will make you feel love and the moment you will start feeling this love in an absolutely subtle and silent manner, this potent transformative power of love will make sure that whatever change is required to be introduced into the system happens painlessly, effortlessly, compassionately & lovingly.

Be the change you wish to see around you. So if people work perfectly start applying the same paradigm to yourself. You are also working perfectly. So wherever you are in life at this matter, no matter what you are doing, you are doing just fine. If this statement brings a smile on your face, I believe this exercise is absolutely worth the effort. Right here, right now, wherever you are, you are fine. Enjoy this...

Dr. Yuvraj Kapadia: Thought to Process - Step 1 - Love yourself & the world loves you...

2010-07-27T11:42:00.000+04:00

Thought to Process - Step 1 - Love yourself & the world loves you...

Welcome to the second segment of this journey. This journey in which, I am your friend, colleague, your co-traveller, looking for my own destinations, my own answers, just like you are, perhaps enjoying this journey the way you must be enjoying too.

I am going to share an extremely personal side of mine with all of you, perhaps these are shades of my being which are not very well known, for all of you who are not aware, I started my journey from a very different background. I was associated with financial markets for a long time. In the year 1993-94, I went through a devastating & shocking financial crisis, which absolutely wiped me and my family clean. Those were tough days when I probably saw death first hand, days in which I personally had become an object of ridicule, from so many people in the environment, people who I had thought were very close to me. and when people who are close to you hurt you.. It hurts, it really hurts and yet today Yuvraj Kapadia is sitting, walking this with you with love, joy and a lot of fun. Often when I think back on those times and I wonder, what is that I held on to for dear life ? What is that which helped me preserve my sanity, which helped this Yuvraj Kapadia emerge out of an absolute abyss of darkness... just one thing

Throughtout my journey, I never lost love for myself, never ever lost love for myself. Since we are the magnet which spins our reality around us, I held onto that love, I constantly told myself that I am unique and I am here for a purpose, something happening in my life is a drama I have chosen to play. I know it sounds difficult but I did that. Never lost my self respect, never lost my love, perhaps just lost a passage of time.

The world does to you exactly what you do to yourself. Always remember this.. the first golden rule of happy existence. You want to have fun in life ? You want to feel loved by people ? You want to be accepted by this universe ? It all starts with you doing the same thing to yourself. Make a list of all the things you would love doing, just for yourself, no matter how people perceive it, don't worry, do it, start working and moving to a state where your focus is joy, the joy of being, the love of living.. and as you start doing that my friends, you will naturally start seeing a major miracle unfolding.., it is a question of time and space. when the universe around you will start mirroring exactly the same story.

So, if for example, you keep doubting yourself. then the only thing you will see in the universe around you is greater and greater opportunities for greater and greater doubt !!!If you keep hating yourself. The only thing you will attract from this universe is hate and more hate from people. If you keep feeling miserable about yourself the only people whom you will attract in your universe are the ones who will make you feel more miserable. So the story, my friends is only YOU, YOU & ONLY YOU,... now that your awareness is getting ready to shift from being an absolutely unaware actor to an aware actor. Just check this out. All good actors at some point of time in their career start becoming very aware of how they are acting. they keep watching their own movies, why do they do that ? Well, because they love themselves. They just love themselves fully. It is the same with cricketers, all the good cricketers will keep watching their own innings. because as you keep watching yourself, you love yourself and you open yourself up to betterment, things just keeps getting better and better. Bottom line, you are moving from unaware actor to aware actor from aware actor to your own director and finally god willing and I am truly hoping for all of us, that this exercise we have launched together with my intent and your support and beyond that with universal consent and blessing, if this journey is pulled off right, I am extremely confident that each and every one of us will finally land up taking charge, dawning the mantle, of being our own producers as well. So, once again, choice. If you want to move, from being an unaware actor to becoming producer, director and lead actor of your movie with complete awareness, start loving yourself fully. Start treating yourself with complete respect. Become your own role model, admire yourself and as you start doing all these things to yourself, naturally you will start seeing your environment conspiring to mirror itself in your belief.

It is a very, very basic truth but it is very huge. Love yourself the world loves... you hate yourself the world hates you because the world around you my friends is nothing but an amplified mirror of your own attitude and your belief to yourself. Sounds simple, is very simple. Nothing difficult, nothing complicated.

We are now moving from the concept to the action.. we are now moving from thought to process. and the first step in the process again is love and accept yourself wherever you are, right now, 100%. Start doing that and then with a hawk's eye, just watch, what's happening in the environment, magic is just about to unfold.

TURKEY - JULY 2010

2010-07-20T01:09:00.019+04:00

PATHS

2010-07-19T19:22:00.001+04:00

FULLMOON NIGHT

2010-07-19T19:21:00.002+04:00

LUCA

2010-07-19T19:18:00.002+04:00

RAINY DAY

2010-07-19T19:16:00.001+04:00

UPSIDE DOWN

2010-07-19T19:09:00.003+04:00

Sometimes, that's how I see things in my life upside down like this water drop in rainy days, but, thanks God I kept seeing them at least in color.

TRAINING PROJECT

2010-05-23T23:39:00.003+04:00

MINA BAZAR - DUBAI...

2010-05-23T23:36:00.000+04:00

JALALUDDIN RUMI

2010-05-23T23:34:00.000+04:00

PANORAMA

2010-05-23T23:31:00.000+04:00

Beirut Taxi

2010-03-01T18:22:00.005+04:00

This happened maybe nine or 10 years ago. I was still working at NBN TV in Beirut. That morning my friends called me to get them Lahm Bi Ajin (minced meat with onion baked as pizza in the oven) breakfast on my way to work.
I got the breakfast and took a service (collective taxi).
I was the only passenger, when suddenly the young taxi driver asked me: Miss... Can I ask you what is your perfume?
Me, surprised, I answer proudly: Japanese Musk (it was my lastest perfume discovery and I used all the time)... why are you asking?
Taxi driver: Because it smells like Lahm Bi Ajin!
Shocked, I answered: well... yes, because I have Lahm Bi Ajin in my bag!

Weird Dream...

2010-03-01T18:02:00.003+04:00

I saw myself at the top of a spacious place, I can't define it. I was feeling as if I was on my way to be crucified. He took my left wrist ready to start a whole for crucifixion. He started cutting with a blade. I could see the blood getting out... but he couldn't continue...he was getting emotional... he wiped the blood and cleaned it and started kissing me with an unexpected passionate sweet kiss! Suddenly, a shadow of a man enters and we had to stop kissing and run away. I look at my wrist, my wound is healed!

Foot Prints

2010-02-16T11:30:00.003+04:00

The Flower and the Bold...

2010-02-16T11:25:00.004+04:00

G. Stupidities Updates... II

2010-02-16T10:39:00.012+04:00

It has been since December that I started the sharing experience in a villa with other 4 people. I have to admit that, till now, I am not used to the idea! Especially after 6 years living alone in my own apartment...
So, most of the time I am staying at my sister place. I love it there! I get very lazy! And I love Bacon! (her English bulldog)
10 days ago, in an attempt to get used to the sharing life, I decided to socialize more with my villa mates. I asked my friend if he would like to watch a movie and he said yeah why not...
There is a screen projection on the wall (preparations for the world cup) and it is nice to watch a movie with a surround system.
I went to my room, and... really... I don't know why, among all the movies I have, I picked a movie that I bought lately from Beirut called "Run Bitch Run"! I remember it was written Quentin Tarantino...
and I love this director!
I sat comfortably in my sofa... the movie started with a sexual scene... I said ok... maybe it is only the beginning! The movie is Tarantino style regarding the Killing spirit... but since it started and the first 15 mn... all the scenes (sex, drugs, killing...) filmed in cheap 70's style and with intended bad acting! My friend looked at me and asked: What is this movie???!!!
Me, confused, answering, Ehhh! I don't know! This is Tarantino!
I started faking sleeping in my sofa and after couple of minutes I said: Well, I am getting sleepy! Do you want me to leave the movie for you??
The answer came very quick: NO NO NO!
I have to admit, Good Socializing Start! Now I am the freak of the villa!
The day after, I googled the movie. The Director is not Tarantino! It is Joseph Guzman, 2009 production...
To have an idea about the movie, follow the link:

http://www.moviesonline.ca/TheFeed/index.php?id=run-bitch-run-trailer

I Loved this Experimental Jazzy video!

2010-02-14T18:58:00.001+04:00

http://vimeo.com/6753639

G. Stupidities Updates... I

2010-02-13T21:00:00.004+04:00

Yesterday, I was going to one of those spanish parties with a friend of mine who was visiting her boyfriend in Dubai for the week-end.
I ordered a taxi. After half and hour the taxi driver called me to check the address... and in minutes he was waiting for me at the gate.
I was supposed to meet my friends and after we go to the party. When I got close to their area, I texted them " Getting Close" in order to meet me at the main road. After pressing "Send" I noticed that my friend's boyfriend number (that was not saved on my phone) doesn't end with 98... it ends with 71! Well... I sent the sms to the taxi driver! the old taxi driver with his grey beard! Quickly I tell him "Oh Sorry! I texted you by mistake!"
He laughed and said with his indian accent "No Problem Madam!"

FIRST DIGITAL PAINTING ATTEMPT

2010-02-09T17:27:00.006+04:00

Right: sketch drawn with black ink. Left: Same sketch drawn with Photoshop

Inspiration source: Imagine FX mag.

جقّ حكي

2010-02-08T16:31:00.008+04:00

At the Top - Burj Khalifa

2010-02-01T21:46:00.000+04:00

Black & White

2010-01-29T22:18:00.008+04:00

Dubai... A Big Construction Site

2010-01-20T19:12:00.011+04:00

سهرة إيرانية

2010-01-20T19:05:00.004+04:00

الذهاب إلى سهرة إيرانية... هذا ما كنت أريده منذ أكثر من عام و لم أجد من يرافقني أو يدعوني, فقد كنت أشعر بالفضول إزاء هذه السهرات و خصوصا أنه عندما تلفظ كلمة إيران يتبادر إلى الذهن الثورة الإيرانية و ما رافقها من صور في الإعلام و أفكار مسبقة لمجتمع إسلامي محافظ ... أمنية أو رغبة تحققت البارحة و بمحض الصدف.كنا أنا و صديقتي الهندية المتزوجة من لبناني ذاهبتين إلى سهرة دعينا إليها. سهرة كانت من المتوقع أن تكون حدثاً وللأسف جاءت مخيبة للآمال! لذا كان علينا أن نجد بديلاً لهذه الأمسية ففكرة العودة إلى المنزل باكراً اختفت من أذهاننا! بعد أن تركنا مشروعنا الفاشل تبادر إلى ذهني السؤال عن احتمالات وجود سهرة إيرانية في المدينة ... و... نعم! هناك سهرة تجري كل أربعاء في ناد ليلي! التعليق كان عندما أجريت اتصالاتي أنه حتماً سنبدو غريبتين عن المكان و عن الحشد المتواجد! لماذا؟؟!!! ربما صديقتي الهندية ستبدو غريبة و لكنني لا أعتقد سأكون مختلفة بالشكل عن الإيرانيات ... فأينما ذهبت في دبي أسأل عما إذا كنت إيرانية... و لا أدري لماذا!أول مفاجأة كانت على الباب... الصبايا الإيرانيات... ماكياج, لا يُعلى عليه!أحمر الشفاه الأحمر القاني, الشعر المرفوع و خصوصاً الغرّة من الأمام بشكل ملفت للنظر! هذا بغض النظر عن الفساتين الضيقة البالغة القصر حتى أنها لا تصل تحت الأرداف بسنتمتر واحد...في الداخل، أكيد الأزياء كانت ملفتة للنظر أكثر و أكثر! الشعر الأشقر المصبوغ إلى درجة البياض... يبدو أنه آخر صيحة بين الإيرانيات. أما الموضة فكأنها توقفت عند الثمانينات و لم تتبدّل... وكل الصبايا اشترين ثيابهن من محل واحد و ذهبن إلى ذات الكوافير!لطالما سمعت بدبي عن الصبايا الإيرانيات و عن جمالهن و أنهن ينافسن اللبنانيات... أكيد... ينافسن اللبنانيات بالثياب الفاضحة... ليس لأن اللبنانيات قدّيسات, و لكنهن يلبسن بطريقة راقية أكثر و لا شك!أما الشباب... لا شيء يذكر, عاديين جداً مقارنة مع الصبايا و غير ملفتين للنظر, باستثناء رجل المافيا الخمسيني في بذلته البيضاء و وجهه العبوس و إلى جانبه صديقه العشريني الأنيق... و العابس أكيد.قرابة الواحدة و النصف بدأت السهرة تحمى و الرواد بازدياد...الأغاني 95% باللغة الفارسية. طبعاً كانت كاللغة الصينية بالنسبة لنا!توقعت أن أرى مثلا على الطريقة اللبنانية , في السهرات, كل فريق سياسي له أغنيته و شعاره الذي يمكن تمييزه من خلال حركات الأصابع. و بما أنه مؤخراً في إيران يوجد مؤيدو موسوي و نجاد, توقعت أن أرى أي شيء يدل على الاتجاهات السياسية... و لكن طبعاً مؤيدو نجاد لن يأتوا ليرقصوا... إضافة, أنه كما يقول البعض, أن أكثرية الإيرانيين المتواجدين في دبي هم من مؤيدي موسوي.بدأت الأجواء تزداد حماسة, أغاني الراب الانكليزية دبلجت للفارسي و حتى الرغيتون اللاتيني و أر أند بي ... كله بالفارسي. فجأة صدح صوت إليسا بأغنية "حبيت"! طبعاً انتعشت! أغنية لبنانية! بعد إليسا, أغنية "يا غالي" لفرقة كويتية لم أعد أذكر اسمها, ولكنها طبعاً كانت بالفارسي!لم نتوقف عن الضحك لا أنا و لا صديقتي, عوّض الإيقاع الموسيقي عن جهلنا للغة الفارسية! هي رقصت على الطريقة الهندية مع هزة الرأس ... و أنا طبعاً على الطريقة اللبنانية. كان شعورنا و كأننا قادمتين من كوكب آخر! توال طلب قناني الشمبانيا على الطريقة اللبنانية و بكميّات وافية إحتفاءاً بأعياد ميلاد عدد من الموجودين.في آخر السهرة كنت أنظر حولي فرأيت رجلاً أربعيني لحيته طويلة فيها شيب و قميص طويل منقوش بالمربعات. كان شكله غريب عن الباقين, و كأنه كان يراقب الجميع ليملأ مفكرته لاحقاً بتقارير وافية! نظرت إلى يده فأرى قنينة بيرة... احتمال كبير أنها للتمويه!

دبي - 14/08/09

Leaving Barcelona .......

2008-10-10T00:47:00.000+04:00

2008-10-10T00:24:00.000+04:00

2008-10-10T00:11:00.000+04:00

2008-10-09T23:44:00.003+04:00

2008-09-21T23:11:00.003+04:00

أنت بيروت لي...

2008-09-17T12:48:00.007+04:00

أنت بيروت لي, آه عانقيني ...فقت الصبح بكّير لروح مع ناديا عا أبو ظبي. الطريق كانت فاضية و أنا كتير قليل عادة لشوف شمس الصبح ... عطول بفيق مأخّرة يعني عال 11, 12 أو الواحدة الظهر!إلي فترة عم إسمع أغاني فيروز و زياد ... من لمّا جيت عا دبي, من خمس سنين و ما عم إسمع أغانيهم.كنت بحاجة ل ما إسمعهم حتى إتصالح مع حالي.حالي, مع حالي, مع لبنان, مع مراحل الحرب اللي عشناها و اللي اللبنانيين شكلهم ما قادرين يضهروا منها!بعد خمس سنين بسمع أغنية فيروز " لبيروت " صاروا كلمات الغنية يمرّوا قدّام عيوني:... من قلبي سلام لبيروت ...بس ما عدت أعرف بيروت لألي شو بتكون!من جهة حسّيت إنه إنقطعت الصلة معها و من جهة ثانية, بيروت عم تنحفر بقلبي كل يوم أكثر. ما حدا يسألني عن هالتناقض!... أنت بيروت لي ...أنا بقول: أنت بيروت لنا, أنت لنا!... أزهرت جراح شعبي ...صار وقت تزهر جراح شعب لبنان لتجمع الكل ع شي إسمه لبنان (صورة رمزية أكثر من واقعية!)وصلت عند ناديا و مشينا ع أبو ظبي. مشوار طويل. إيه ما حياتنا كلها مشاوير!أنا يمكن عم عيش حنين بلد عشت فيه, ربيت و كبرت فيه و عم حاول إفهم حبّي له, علاقة الانتماء و غير الانتماء.بس ناديا, أصلاً ما عرفت بلدها!فلسطينية, من أم و أب فلسطينيين تعرّفوا على بعضهم في بيروت أيام الدراسة. كان النضال و القضية الفلسطينية بدمهم.تزوجوا ... راحوا عالكويت ... الأردنحملت ناديا جرح أكبر من جرح فلسطين أو جرح كبّر من جرح فلسطين.ناديا و إخواتها الأثنين و أمهم, لقيوا حالهم عايشين بدون أبيهم لأنه بالنسبة له بدّه يموت ببلده فلسطين ... كان بفلسطين بزيارة و نتيجة أحداث صارت, ما عاد قدر يترك و يرجع عالأردن. و كان قرار بالبقاء بفلسطين بعد فترة, هيدا القرار كان أكبر من العائلة و الأولاد.سافرت ناديا لتدرس بنيويورك. بعد سنين من الدراسة قررت إنه لازم ترجع عالأردن, لأنه كمان ما بدها تبعد عن الأرض اللي ربيت و من هي و صغيرة بتسمع أنها منها!راحت زيارة عا فلسطين, بس حسّت بالإنتماء؟؟؟أهل فلسطين اعتبروها مش فلسطينية أصلية, ما عاشت اللي عاشوه و اللي عانوه!حاولت ناديا تفتّش ع أبوها اللي ما عادت سمعت عنه شي من لمّا راح ع فلسطين, ليوم كانت عم تصوّر مع فريق أجنبي, و من سؤال لسؤال (ناس بالمنطقة, أصحاب بيشتغلوا بسفارات ...) قدرت توصل لتشوفه ...اللقاء كان خمس دقائق!بلّش أبوها يلومهم أنهم تخلّوا عنه و كان لازم يلحقوه!" ما سألني إذا تزوجت ... كيف حياتي... كيف عشنا بدون حدا نتكّل عليه"بعد هالخمس دقائق... أخذها بجولة بمكتبه و عرفّها عالموظفين عنده.ناديا لهلّق عم تفتّش كل يوم و بتسأل حالها لوين بتنتمي...انا عندي بلد و بسأل حالي إذا عن جد أنتمي له! دبي 15/09/08

Beirut scenery...

2008-07-18T01:07:00.000+04:00

I was waiting at MEA office in Beirut to book my travel ticket to go to Cyprus.

I ask the hostess: Is there any number to follow to go for counters?

Hostess 1: la2 madame, wait ayya counter byifda, w rou7i 3leih.

Me: ok...

I waited for about 5 mn... there was a man sitting next to me, so i thought that i hav to wait for him and go for my turn. I saw one guy leaving a counter, but i couldn’t c the hostess coz she was behind a column. I said to myself she will call the clients to come.... i waited about 5 mn... no call... ok... i asked the man sitting next to me, is it ur turn?? So he said to me he’s waiting for something else.
I went to this desk, i saw the hostess talking on the phone.

Me: can i make booking?

Hostess 2 : (just signing for me to sit) .... 1 mn later .... Eh madame... shou bitridi???
Me: i want to book to go to Cyprus...

I gave her a reservation I did before... so she started working on my ticket... and... i had to listen to her interesting phone conversation!

Hostess 2: leiki... ask him about me.... does he like me??? Is he interested in me??? Please wlo... ask him... leiki... khabbarouni inno 3am yidhar ma3 wi7deh isma Nathalie... oulilo inno Pascal a7san... (meaning herself in a very dallou3a way) ... bisharafik ... ba3dein... ba3do el chalet 3indo??? Wil she22a??? Dakhlik shou wad3o ma3 ahlo??? (something said on the other line....) ... wlo bisharafik... ma ana bdalni binit inti bta3rfi... el shab gheir biydal... (here she was about to finish my booking and she had to bring a print out) leiki i will call u later... bass bi sharafik... dab2i 3lei w dallik oulilo pascal a7san! Please please please!

She finishes her phone call... i was expecting from her to say to me... sorry ... at least like i wasn’t obliged to hear the whole conversation... nothing said! She stands up restretch her mini skirt showing her tall legs... adjusting her body, moving her head higher flying her hair and .. her lips... like every Lebanese girl... double sized... she brings me my ticket and...

Hostess 2: tfaddali madame...

And me... completely shocked... i say thanks and I left!

Am I becoming... old fashionned person????!!!

My Artwork

2008-07-09T01:48:00.030+04:00

Dubai Lisbon Beirut Paris

2008-07-08T19:40:00.035+04:00

Where are you from?
Lebanon...
Oh! We are so sorry about what is happening in your country!
We heard this sentence probably 10 times!
The funny is we didn't know what was happening in Lebanon exactly...!
We knew the situation was very bad... at least for me... my brother told me that the situation calmed down within 24 hours.

Portuguese people impressed me; most of them were following Lebanon news.
The funny thing is that we were 4 Lebanese girls.
Lara living in Washington, zeina in London, dalal and me living in dubai.
After the "we are sorry for what is happening in your country..." comes OH! You are so lucky you live in Dubai! We heard it even in a small non touristic village. In a pharmacy where, the husband, the wife and everyone was interested to talk about Dubai. "El Dorado" of the Middle East. Even the old white hair woman who was dusting the pharmacy, and probably cleaned the counter many times, wanted to hear our conversation about Dubai.
Another city, Porto, where we met a group of Portuguese friends, sitting in the afternoon in a cafe waiting for the Benfica Setubal match to begin... Most of them were lawyers. Same reaction: Dubai! Oh! You are so lucky! You have Burj El Arab, Palm Island, Ski Dubai... it is quite amazing how Dubai marketing is very strong! I never imagined it could be that much!
Silvino, 29 years old lawyer, clever guy, forwarded to me an email showing the architectural achievements and the future projects too. The tallest tower, the desert ski dome, the Palm Islands...
As I understood from the group, Portugal is not a rich European country. The young generation is called the 600 Euros generation. Their salaries start with a minimum of 600 Euros! I guess it is quite few money comparing to the high cost of living. Lots of Portuguese go abroad to work as labours with very low salaries.
I tried to explain to Silvino that the grass is always green on the other side. I have been living in Dubai since 5 years; life in general is easy comparing with other countries. Lots of facilities are offered. On the other side as it is comes to "El Dorado" image, it is a bit exaggerated, maybe 5 years ago, situation was better, money wise. Prices increased in a dramatic way: rents, food, services, salik (toll gates), petrol... Except salaries! Most of Dubai expats are complaining about the cost of living.

Paris. Same idea! I wouldn't imagine French people loving Dubai, especially Parisians!
Ah... vous vivez a Doubai???!!! The smile is so big and they become friendlier!
I liked the fact of Europeans willing strongly to live here. At least Dubai booked its position on the world map.
Amina, a French forties old woman, who works in a socks shop, and who converted to Islam 20 years ago, thought we (Dalal and me) that we were Israelis when she heard us talking. She thought we were talking Hebrew. She wasn't the only person who thought that we were talking Hebrew... Do we look like Israelis?
I know lots of Lebanese people who came to Paris since 1975, but weird, she couldn't recognise your "Lebanese accent"! Amina said.
Jeremy, Air France counter employee at Charles De Gaulles airport was so happy to know we live in Dubai. I am going to resign from Air France and in July I will go to Dubai to find a job, he said with his very gay accent!

On the other side, lot of Dubai expats are living emptiness.
Roxana, 31 years old, emirates cabin crew, happy with her work, but after one year and a half, is living soul emptiness, complaining about superficial life and people here.
Jay, 35 years old yoga class mate, lives with her boyfriend, a musician, but working in a marketing magazine because he couldn't go for commercial music strongly appreciated here. Jay feels empty, she can't take a decision if she goes back to UK to do a Drama course, or to stay here with her boyfriend.
Utsav or Oz, a 28 years old financial consultant Bhutanese, likes Dubai. He has been to London, New York. He has the chance to meet lot of people from different nationalities, (as latest statistics confirm over than 200 nationalities live in UAE). Still, he feels empty too; he can't go in any deep relationship. "Why people are afraid to be open and close in relationships?"
why? Why? Why? I don't have answers, even me, I can't understand why?!
The problem I think is in our heads, we always see the grass is green on the other side! Is it true???