AI with Absolute intelligence

A note on AI writing our emails and writing our lives quietly. (not AI Generated).

I was writing a long email to someone regarding a collaboration I wanted to do. I wrote how my skill sets, knowledge and expertise can align with the goals they are trying to achieve as an organization. I wrote a long note about how I bumped into their profile, how I bring my skill set, knowledge and most importantly my passion for their organization and their clients.  After writing, I asked AI chatbot to make it more polished and more sophisticated. AI is great at it and it did its job. After a quick check, I sent the email. After a quiet walk and went back and read both emails. I had some fundamental realizations which I thought you might appreciate. 

The mail I wrote with some slight imperfections, with some minor grammatical errors read far more personal, had far more passion, had far more authenticity and far more clarity. Dont get me wrong I am not here to bash AI and join the team bashing AI. there are two teams on AI especially on LinkedIn. one which is pushing how everyone is loser for not using and developing AI enough and other one bashing that its not a big of deal and causing productivity leaks and hype more than a solution. I dont fall in either camp but slowly realising that I am in the camp of my own 'Someone empowered with AI not led by AI'. 

Every now and then people keep asking my spiritual master Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar about AI and its implications (mostly worried about job losses). In most of his answers he is excited about AI and its application rather than worry about its negative impacts. He is surely happy about advancements and sees this mania nothing new especially as far as job losses and disruption it can cause. You can view his podcast with Andrew Ng and many replies to such questions on youtube and other platforms. He made a funny comment recently when someone asked about potential impacts. He funnily replied ' Artifical Intelligence will hurt you if you dont use your own intelligence :D'. In some more profound conversations, he emphasised the need to access Absolute intelligence (refering to deeper profound intelligence of universe that runs everything quietly). 

AI is productivity booster not your replacement. I want to highlight three major points

• Artificial intelligence with BASIC human intelligence

• Artificial intelligence with Absolute Intelligence

• Artificial intelligence with Human ingenuity and Empathy 

AI is meant to improve your emails, your content, your code not your true being. AI doesnt have the capacity to have access to our Basic intelligence, Absolute intelligence and human ingenuity.

Artificial intelligence with BASIC human intelligence 

 If you use AI without your Basic intelligence you will surely run into issues. you might have heard about millions of lines of code that is AI generated is already being refactored by humans who are trying to make sense of the code in first place. You would find hundreds such stories on the internet. why is this happening? because a human didnt use basic intelligence to begin with. If we are using AI to write code, it's a great tool but terrible if we see it as human replacement or replacement for objective Human intelligence. What really happened is that humans who gave the entire problem to AI without much context created such mess not AI. Now they are using AI to clean up the mess. You see you can not give vague prompts like ‘create a trading prop firm like Jane Street, create winning alpha strategies, write emails to all the potential funders, code those strategies and deploy them in cloud, run it in the real markets, put the profits in my swiss bank account as I am travelling to switzerland next week with my wife. I will see you with a billion dollar in my bank account next week. I am heading to play golf with my friends’. Obviously I am exaggerating it a little bit but many managers have started to believe that we can replace smart developers and architects if we learn to prompt properly and then we dont need them. In reality you need smart engineers who can use AI properly using prompts to do their work properly. Also an engineer cant prompt blindly and expect results. They have to ensure all the necessary architectural trade-offs are made, architecture has been reviewed both by AI and also passes through first principles thinking that humans have been trained to the job. He then needs to write all the test cases. Ask AI to help him write all the edge cases. After that he needs to review those test cases and add if they are good or not. I created high quality quant algorithms. There were thousands of prompts with AI. Vetting my ideas objectively with AI. Learning coding quant in a particular language. Every parameter and its value was deeply researched with the help of AI. AI coding agents were built in to solve some complex problems.  Blindly copying pasting the code is not AI. A lot of self help AI gurus might want to convince you that we dont need coders any more but thats surely not true. A lot of layoffs have happened because of AI but a lot more have been done in anticipation of productivity boost that AI can do. Its a mess we are going through and would need a year or so to stablise. So hang in there if you are having jitters. Its a transition phase not destiny written in stone.

Artificial intelligence with Absolute Intelligence

AI is a productivity booster not the way to have access to Absolute intelligence. This world where there are billions of stars, universes, galaxies which operate pretty much by themselves is sign of absolute universal intelligence. While suddenly prompting to chat bots might make you feel smarter but realising that the world is an eternal cosmic dance and we are just here for a limited time might make you grounded. With spiritual practices like Meditation and knowldege of self without religious dogmas, a deeper sense of curiosity opens up the possibilities that you cant prompt to a chatbot. While last 2 decades have witnessed unimaginable number of people taking up meditation to combat stress of their life, the next decade will see even more people taking up these practices not only to combat stress but to create a space within themselves that allows them to stand apart in this AI mania. I have been a volunteer with the art of living for more than 15 years, time during covid and the current AI disruption were the times where I am seeing most people developing an inclination towards the same. If you want to learn to begin your meditation journey, feel free to reach out to me.

Artificial intelligence with Human ingenuity and Empathy

Humans are the most intelligent species for a reason. While AI can generate code, write content, create content and even make full length feature films but it cant create bonds like human do. It cant be witty like humans. It can not have deep empathy. Mothers love will still be relevant, maybe a little more. We will form communities. Qualities are genuine human compassion cant be replaced by AI. We would need smart and compassionate people to run the countries, organisations, families. We would need humans to have an oversight on whatever is being done in the name of AI. Also human who think independently of AIwill be in demand. People who use AI to both work on idea or reject it will be appreciated. People would still go watch human perform in theaters, stand up acts, plays. In fact people would start craving human with human emotions in the world which is filled with people barking about AI. People need people to Laugh with humans, cry with humans, express deep emotions with humans. No AI can replace a loved one who cares and connects. No AI can replace the jumping with joy dog craving attention and showing love. Relax and reflect we are humans who created AI and other way round.

We have to empowered with tools of AI to make our lives productive but AI will not decide your future, you will. Your creativity will decide your destiny and not AI. Your empathy will decide how deeply you connect and not how well you know prompting. 

I will not watch Ind V/s Pak

This might surprise you that this is the topic which I don't speak much about. This blog is limited to share  wisdom, knowledge I have gained while being an art of living meditation practitioner and teacher  and some guru stories or some fun anecdotes with some wisdom. So I am sure this might surprise you why I am talking about this topic and is there any link to with main theme of this blog. Let me begin by saying that I enjoy watching cricket and I am watching current cricket world cup with lot of enthusiasm. I have been watching cricket since 1992 world cup. Obviously you cant watch all matches but you do watch some highlights and you keep a tab on what is happening in the world cup. I am sure I am pretty much like most cricket lovers in the country and across the world. You might wonder then why am I not interested in India vs Pakistan which is considered the most anticipated match in cricketing world. Also I would like to mention that I have loved all the cricket Ind vs Pak matches. I remember '92 match where Javed Miandad was trying to imitate Kiran more but India won anyways. '96 world cup and heroics of Ajay Jadeja against Legendary Waqar younis and in the same match the sohail and venkatesh prasad episode. 2003 where Tendulkar played as if Wasim, Waqar and Akhtar were some street cricketers of Pakistan. 2011 semifinal, 2019 Rohit Sharma special innings I have watched all and enjoyed them as well.  

Let me explain why I am not going to watch this match and Ind vs Pak world cup matches going forward. A dear cousin of mine called me up and asked me if he would like to join in Ahmedabad match live in the stadium as he has acquired a few passes. I very politely and respectfully denied. Ind vs Pak matches are played as if its not a sport but some civilizational war. Current and former Indian cricketers have always showed restraint while commenting on this topic. Pakistani cricketers on the other hand have always made bigoted and derogatory remarks about hindus, India and Indian civilization. Waqar Younis recently said that he was proud of the way Rizwan batted and the way he showed Indians their place by observing namaz on the cricketing field. Shoaib Akhtar has many a times mentioned that a holy war will be waged against Hindus, Christians' and other kafirs and they will establish Islam on the world. I can go on and on. Imran khan even once said that India vs Pakistan game for him is like a holy jihad. while I dont want to comment on Islam or the prophet, peace be on him but its important to mention this bigotry. This is bigoted mindset that many Pakistani cricketers carry and vast proportion of Pakistani population subscribe to. Sport is always for entertainment and should not go beyond that. It should help us unite and not divide. We should be happy or sad just as much as we would be against any other opposition. This visceral hatred need not be celebrated. Everyone watches a sport to see their country win but not foster any hatred for opposing team. This bigotry and hatred have always like that and probably will not change any time soon. 

While hatred during a match is one thing but there are several other reasons as well. Pakistan as a nation has an ideology of hatred towards Sanatana Dharma, India and Indians. Last 1200 years Indian subcontinent has seen bloodshed like no where else. Even the holocaust would pale in brutality that this land has suffered in the last millenia. Now as a meditator and meditation instructor I will never foster hate against the present generation of Pakistani Muslim or Muslims anywhere in the world or Islam. But it is important to that I will not forget the brutality that my ancestors have faced. What happens in these games is that it generates a tremendous amount of wealth for Pakistani broadcasters, Pakistani cricket board, Pakistani commentators at expense of billion plus eyeballs glued to their television set. Billions of dollars are generated owing to these incredibly popular matches. A proportion of  this wealth and taxes on this wealth is used to wage wars on India and every now and then you see visuals of martyred soldiers coming home while their mothers, wives, daughters grieve. I am sure you have seen those visuals. I don't want to be participating in pain for the people serving me selflessly on borders. While I genuinely wish love, peace and brotherhood between two countries, I know cricket and arts are not the ways to bring peace and love. You will never see any Pakistani cricketer or an actor condemning terrorist attacks in India or even Israel. I come from Mumbai and no other city has seen the wrath of terrorism than Mumbai. Dozens of attacks have shaken this city and taken innocent lives. Indirectly watching cricket is adding to pockets of these individuals. While enjoying cricket match might seem harmless entertainment but we have to be aware of our choices and its deeper consequences. It is not a conspiracy theory but a proven fact. You will not see Pakistani actors and cricketers condemning gruesome acts but they will quickly cite peace and brotherhood through arts and sports. We need not be dumb while being kind and compassionate. 

I as an Art of Living teacher and a sincere human being have the responsibility to live life not only with love, peace and have camaraderie with every human but I also have the responsibility of being a conscious and aware individual. I have to weigh my actions and my choices so that eventually its creating peace. I cant let my craving for some cheap entertainment be the reason for more violence and disturbances. I know this blog will reach a very limited audience and maybe a handful will change their opinion. In due course of time this will have some impact and that's what I am looking for. Maybe there will be a day in my lifetime that wisdom will prevail, love, compassion will thump hatred and bigotry. Till that day its not a wise decision to contribute to more chaos and problems. My grand parents left Todays Pakistan to come to India (their own country) and they become refugees here. My actions should create a more safer world for my children and not feed individuals who have dreams of their destruction. I will spend my time taking weekly meditation sessions, going for a peaceful walks and enjoy nature. 

Love and Peace to all. 

AI, Social Media, Technology v/s Freedom, Independence and Consciousness

 A very Happy Independence day to all of you. Tricolor fluttering in air is one of the greatest symbol of freedom we Indians can think of. Freedom from not just 200 year odd colonial rule but more than 1200 year old invasion, conquest, loot and subjugation. We are lucky to be living and breathing in this great country and being free. Now whether we have complete independence or not, challenges to integrity of our nation, different conspiracies to bring this nation down are subject worth discussing but I am here to discuss a bigger issue which today might look small but probably is going to be a bigger challenge. While I discuss AI and technology and its implication on independence and integrity of nation and on human consciousness, I am not going discuss whether AI can acquire human emotions, can they conquer us, can AI have consciousness  etc. These are juicy topics but I don't see much value in these topics for various reasons we will discuss some other day. Here is the sequence of my argument and a possible solution.

1) AI, Social media and its impact on Integrity of elections

2) Moronisation of human mind by social media its impact on Consciousness

3) Effects of AI on Consciousness 

4) Meditation as a solution for Independence of human mind and hence humanity at large.

  

AI, Social media and its impact on Integrity of elections

Donald trumps election shook not just America but the entire world when he won 2016 elections. Now I am not contesting whether he is good, bad or ugly and I dont want to make topic divisive by taking one side or another. It was probably the first election where both sides (Trump and Clinton) tried to manipulate will of the people in an very organized way. Now polling on issues is not new and politicians all over the world use it to come to power. Obama was against gay sex to finally ending his presidency with legalizing same sex marriage. I can give examples from whole spectrum of politicians all across the world who shift their policy position to demands of the day. Modi and Shah successfully used opinion poll to win elections. Polling and influencing is as old as humanity. Various feudal lords have used many divisive tools to change public opinion or to shape it in their favour. Ashoka legacy is full of hatred, power grabbing tactics, fighting brutal wars but he was a master manipulator that even today we read in history  that he became a pacifist after Kalinga war. All of this is a pure lie. 2016 was a special elections because Donald trump used Cambridge Analytica to successfully  use various loopholes within Facebook to compromise and steal large volumes of their data. Data was then used to run targeted ads in certain demographics to successfully make sizeable change in preferences of public. In the same election it was very clear that Big tech was supporting Clinton campaign and were trying to manipulate elections by hiding many controversial topics from public. So it became very clear that democracies are not just under threat of coups by dictators, Technology can create a much greater damage. 2020 elections were no different. Many stories were censored by Big tech especially to manipulate elections and there were attempts to manipulate elections from both sides in unfair ways. Jan 6 became one of the biggest blots on legacy of democracy of US. Now which side you are on is not a matter of concern here, much bigger concern is the integrity of the election process and human will. 

Social media is already being used in a negative ways to manipulate outcomes of elections. As I said its not about who comes to power but how they come to power. AI can increase this problem many folds. Many bots can be created on social media and using NLP models articles, comments can be planted by bots giving a false illusion of larger will of people. Its already being done to some extent. All political parties are thinking of ways to use AI, technology to influence elections. those who have AI models and tools can effect human psyche and possibly destiny of nation. Its not far fetched at all. All of us have some duty at our hand. Do use social media to express your opinions, give genuine feedbacks for restaurants, movies, products, political parties. Greater human participation with wisdom is required so that we are not manipulated by either our political lords or technocrats.   

Moronisation of human mind by social media its impact on Consciousness

This term I am borrowing from well known author, philanthropist Shri Rajiv Malhotra. Rajivji came up with this term to refer to dumbing down of human mind, intellectual capacity, rational thinking. Now its not very hard to understand that mindless use of social media is creating massive problems. people wasting time on social media to watch teenage girls dance video on tiktok to getting drowned in sea while capturing perfect selfie with rising waves. To some effect all of us are guilty of mindless use of social media. Now we might say its just another addiction and we have to deal it like an addiction. Its ok to say its an addiction but its consequences go far beyond wasting time. It is making us less smart, less creative and prompting us to think less. When we let go of many such faculties of human mind, manipulation and subjugation becomes very easy. While you can definitely use social media judiciously for leisure, progressing your own cause, your thoughts, being connected etc but mindless use is not just waste of time but a tool employed to capture human mind and all influence its action. 

Apart from all these negative impacts overuse of social media is such an impediment to meditation and accessing greater depth of human mind and in turn reducing our various human capacities like intellect, reasoning and more importantly be at ease and calm with your own self leading to depression and anxiety. This demands an extensive article on its own and I will publish it soon.

Effects of AI on Consciousness 

Now we understand that overuse of social media is a menace but what about people who are fairly judicious and intelligent. AI is the biggest tool to humanity to increase and democratize education. It makes learning intuitive and fun. AI runs on models which run on huge dataset either some well know data sources or scrapping information through internet. Now these data set are generated by colonizing powers to keep themselves in power. If this data is being used to generate outputs  then we are perpetuating more of wrong than right. We are making an already powerful entity, organization or  nation  even more powerful and snapping away power from already disadvantaged societies. For e.g british colonised india. To keep themselves in power they not only used might of military, arms and ammunition. They extremely thoughtfully designed curriculum to disrespect India, Indian civilisation, perpetuate divisions instead of building bridges within communities etc. Even after independence they kept these institutions, organization alive to keep producing content to let these divisions foster and tensions to continue. These data sets are highly biased, inaccurate and written purely to keep the british power in place. Now if these data sets are fed to models, models are bound to produce biased results. Hence not only the parts of societies which are less enlightened but parts of population who want to make fair judgements are at risk of getting influenced in a wrong, misinformed ways. Control and subjugation becomes even easier. tools which are designed to educate and enlighten human mind are being used to control and influence in favour of people who build models and datasets. 

Meditation as a solution for Independence of human mind and hence humanity at large.

Yoga, breathing exercises and meditation have become very popular in todays time due to prevalent stress and anxiety in general population. No tools, medication, techniques come close to its efficacy and safety as these ancient Indian techniques do. Now I have written extensively on that and you can read several blogs of mine and even a quick google search or chatgpt question is good enough to understand its relevance and importance. Apart from the role of stress relief its an important tool for freedom of human mind, access to correct authentic intuition and raising collective consciousness to freer and more just world. When your mind is free of prejudices and preconceived notions and mind also has deep connect to inner source of strength and wisdom, we can keep enjoy our freedom and cherish them for long term and safely give it our future generations. So next time when you enroll yourself to a meditation class or breathing exercises dont think its just for stress relief, it has a big role to play in freedom not just of nations but humanity at large. Happy independence day again. 

To book a spot to learn meditation and breathing exercises call me or whatsapp me on +91 8104971780

A deeper perspective on Ramayana this Hanuman Jayanti

 My Salutations to Lord Hanuman on his Jayanti. As the great poet Tulsidasji aptly described in his glory in hanuman Chalisa  और देवता चित्त ना धरई, हनुमत सेई सर्व सुख करई... Remembrance of lord Hanuman is good enough to bring all kinds of happiness in life. Happy Hanuman Jayanti.

We all have heard the great epic of Ramayana. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar has shared a very interesting perspective on the epic story that makes it so relevant and impactful in our day to day life. This perspective is truly life transforming. Gurudev says that Ram is Soul (loose translation for aatman), Sita is mind, Lakshmana is awareness, Ravana is Ego, Hanuman is Prana shakti. When Sita (representation of mind) is engaged in sensory pleasure (possessing a beautiful dear), It engages our soul in meaningless things. When our awareness drops (Sita maa crossing lakshman rekha)  that is when your ego kidnaps your mind (Ravana catching Sita maa).  Using Prana ( Hanumanji reaching lanka and destroying it) the soul can connect with mind and reach bliss and sustained Happiness. 

 Ramayana story is an extremely engaging story but it is depiction of what happens in our day to day life. In our life we are usually engaged in activities of sensory pleasure and grabbing as many things and experiences we can, Our connection to our soul (aatman) is lost. I am not belittling ambition or passion here but senseless engagement of our body and mind in pleasures that deplete our Prana (subtle life force energy). Then our awareness drops, ego takes over and brings misery. Only through raising your prana can you increase your awareness and check your ego and burn it if necessary. There are many ways to increase Prana and we will have discussion on this topic on some other day but one of the easiest way is to Practice Yoga, Breathing Exercises, Meditation and chanting. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar devised a course to address this need which teaches all these techniques and gives you a glimpse of your own self. 

If you are interested in having a free meditation workshop or registering for next Happiness Program, reach out to me at +91 - 8104971780.

Jai Shree Ram. Jai Gurudev.

  

 

New Year but no Resolutions?

New Year but no Resolutions?

Most Hindus and Dharma traditions celebrate New Year that falls either in March or April as per the lunar calendar. Many Hindus celebrate with some festivities at home and some in group in some social gatherings. Its called with different Names Gudi Padva by people of Maharashtra, Ugadi in Andhra and Telangana,  Chetichand for Sindhis etc. There are prayers, festivities and food. While we celebrate and pray, Resolutions are usually reserved for Jan 1. Yes those same resolutions which don't last for more than a week. Busiest week in the entire year in Gyms, parks etc. People chasing their fitness goals, career goals, relationship goals and even spiritual goals. They don't last long that's a different story. There is a philosophy that is prescribed in Yoga sutras on how to cultivate habits but that is for some other day. Today I would like to stress on why Jan 1 is not be your ideal choice to start cultivating a habit and why Hindu new year is a better choice to do the same. The idea is not hurt any sentiments but to make our life better and richer.

December, January fall in winter season where nature is hibernating. Very little grows. Days are very short and Nights are very long. In some parts of Russia, Iceland and artic countries you hardly see any sun during these months. Birds migrate to either towards equator or somewhere warm like Rajasthan in India. Even most parts of India there is extreme cold and days are much shorter than summer or spring months. Its time that leaves from trees have fallen and merged with mother earth. There is either snow or extreme cold in most of the Northen hemisphere (where most of the world population lives, more than 85%). Most people living in Europe, North America treat this time to be in quiet and contemplation rather than in dynamism and activity. Most IT offices, Corporate offices have hiring freeze, code freeze. People plan their family gatherings and Christmas holidays. By any strech of imagination do you think its a good time to kickstart any new habit. Do you think nature will support you. Is the atmosphere right to start anything that you want to keep it for life. It has to be worst dates to start a hobby or resolutions. No wonder they dont last. You want to be in sheets rather than gym or start journaling or do any major change to your life.

On the contrary March is the month where Spring begins. Nature is rejoicing. Fruits, flowers, colours, Sun everything is shining. Your moods are uplifted. No wonder March is named so because that is when we are suppose to March. March Ahead in every aspect of life be it your material, spiritual, personal. You see September (9th month), October (10th Month), November (11th Month) and December (12th and last month) are taken from Sanskrit words which means Sapt Ambar (7th Sky meaning month) and so on with Ashta Ambar, Nav Ambar and Dash Ambar. But September is 9th instead of 7th. Even the Gregorian calendar thinks that Jan and Feb are the last month of the year and not the starting.

In eastern traditions (not just in India) this is considered auspicious time. If you make your resolutions in the month of March or April closer to Hindu new year, chances that your resolutions will stick longer is very high. Its possible that they will have a long lasting impact rather than hitting a snooze button. 

In my opinion the best resolution is to learn Yoga, breathing exercises, Meditation and start taking interest in knowledge of self. All other aspects of your life will follow. You will have more energy and enthusiasm for everything. You will be able to attend all aspects of life with much better ease. 

For a free Introductory Meditation session for yourself or for your loved ones or to register for Happiness workshop, contact me on +91- 8104971780

What has changed for Virat Kolhi

Since last 3 years Virat Kolhi's form has been a discussion for almost all of us. It is an issue from selection board of BCCI to commoner chewing paan at local paan shop. Everyone knows that his form has suffered. He was once a century making machine but hasn't hit one century in last 3 years. Last 3 matches have been a relief for Virat Kolhi and his fans (myself included). He has 30+ score in 3 matches with more than 130 strike rate. He is still away from his vintage best but still there is a lot to cheer. At the very least there is some relief. Now even though I have interest in cricket and I know a bit about it to speak on it but this discussion is not about that. I am not an authority on the subject of technicalities of cricket so I will not speak on whether he is working on backfoot or front foot shots or he is doing some specialized training. I am an Art of Living teacher and have a few observations which can have a positive impact on your life so I am going to discuss them.

Before we begin this discussion I want you to watch this video of Virat Kolhi discussing something candid, some intimate things about his game, mental health with Jatin Sapru (A popular sports presenter). This video was shot before the start of Asia cup. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FmB5bT5h5k  (thanks to Star Sports

Now in this 3 min video there is a lot to unpack here. Even though he has condensed a few things here, I will elaborate on them a little bit

1. Importance of taking a break to do nothing.

This scares most of us. He himself said that he didn't touch his bat for a full month. How many of us would be willing to ask our bosses to take one month break to assess things in life. Do you think we contemplate why we are doing what we are doing. Very rarely. Maybe thoughts on how we can improve efficiency of what we are doing might be there but we dont make time to contemplate deeper questions of life. Our bodies and minds tell us something which we don't want to hear. We feel the burnout but we dont want to admit it. Sometimes when a friend talks to you about making time for an Art of living weekend meditation program to learn breathing exercise, yoga and meditation or any other meditation or well-being program, We brush it off saying I dont need one. I dont need break, I am mentally strong or I will do it when I retire. I need to chase the next promotion. 

Take that break. It will be absolutely worth it. This time don't go to Goa to drink beer, or a fancy exotic location. Try diving deep into yourself. You would gain perspective on life which you would have never imagined. Link is there to learn more on the Silence program

2. Importance of being a Witness. 

Virat said that he had to step away from the game, from this hustle to gain a right perspective. He said he was not excited as before and hence he thought of taking a break. It has been one of core principle of Indian philosophy, we know it as Sakshi Bhaav. Importance of knowing the seer and moving away from the scene. Its important to have the concept of seer and scene being different. Meditation, Silence and knowledge of self help you do that. If you taken an art of living basic program, take a Silence program which will help your meditation become deeper and bring serenity and calm in your life. Your life will be much more productive, fulfilling and enriching. When witness consciousness grows in you, your anxiety drops, your anger subsides, your health and physical wellbeing improves. Make Breathing exercise, yoga, meditations, long walks part of your life. Also indulge in long drive with less talking, nature walks, hiking, meditating in nature will all add that witness mode. Also limit your social media consumption because its terrible for your over all well being.

3. Lying to yourself about your mental health

He clearly said somewhere down the line he was lying to himself about his own mental and physical capabilities. I have seen this happen to so many people around me. There is a façade outside and inside people are sick and broken. Virat is lucky that he has resources to deal with mental health and maybe some mentors who guiding him well. Dont wait for Depression to hit you hard or some life altering things to bring you to spiritual pursuits. Instead be proactive to practice wellness (both physical and mental). Take time to do whatever needs to be done. All this will improve your productivity and not hamper it.

I hope you found some interesting perspective and some learnings. Simple advice is not to sit over it but to do something with learning and knowledge you gained.

To learn more about The Art of living programs and to attend a free meditation workshop call me on +91 8104971780.

Ganpati is an opportunity to Dive Deeper

 Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all celebrating across the world. 

I come from Mumbai. It was Bal Gangadhar Tilak who started this festival with a primary objective of uniting people for freedom struggle. As he hailed from Maharashtra, people from Maharashtra celebrated this festival with maximum fervor but today its not just a pan India festival but global one. Growing up this is one festival everyone looked forward to celebrating. Food, Festivities, Laughter, Togetherness, Colors, Arts and so much more was there to look forward to. Just going out to see Deities and see work of different artists in different pandals are cherished memories. Every year there is similar excitement to do the same. But as I age, as my grey hairs increase, festival is more about going inside than looking for stuff outside. My interest and love for Pujas, Rituals has increased because I have been meditating for sometime now. More importantly I am excited about meditations after chanting, Pujas and Rituals. You go deep within yourself and celebration acquires new meaning and new dimension. 

As the economy grows, people are becoming richer there is a tendency to celebrate with bigger Idols, bigger pandals, fancier decoration, Louder and louder music and so much more. I am not necessarily against the spending more. It should be the time which should be utilized more to meditate and resolve to making finer and subtler aspects of life, a part of lifestyle. There is no richness greater than deep meditative state of minds. Everything can be achieved gracefully with those higher states. Ganpati is know as lord of Muladhar chakra. When your Muladhar chakra is active then there is Enthusiasm and Dynamism in life else there is Inertia. When there is Inertia, forget about spiritual pursuits, even worldly pursuits and duties becoming stressful and difficult. One of the best ways to activate Muladhar chakra is having Exercise, Yoga and Meditation part of life.

Few tips you can use during these festivities to make your celebration deeper and richer.

1. Take time for meditation.

2. After sacred rituals and Pujas, dont just sit up and start talking and get into chores. Instead sit there for 10-15 mins to soak in the energy and meditate deeper. You will see slipping in meditation is pretty easy after that.

3. Don't use phone too much. Instead spend time talking to family and friends and connect deeper with them.

4. Meditate on sacred chants of Ganesh Strotam, beautiful chants given by Adi Shanakar. Link is here. These are beautiful chants which highlight deeper and finer aspects of lord Ganesha. In these chants Adi Shankara describes Ganesha not as elephant headed god but one without form, without any gunas but present in each atom of creation.

Make sure this festival is not just an external celebration but something that reignites and rekindle your connect to your inner core which is source of eternal celebration. 

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi. Celebrate Festival. Celebrate Life.

For Free Meditation and to know more about Art of living Programs contact me on +91 8104971780 (whatsapp number is same).