Sri Krishna says: jitātmanaḥ praśhāntasya paramātmā samāhitaḥ śhītoṣhṇa-sukha-duḥkheṣhu tathā mānāpamānayoḥ (Bhagavad Gita: 6.7) Yogis who have conquered their mind rise above the dualities of hot and cold, joy and sorrow, honour and dishonour. Such yogis remain peaceful and steadfast in...
Is self-respect as important as it is made out to be? Let’s find out why self-respect or dignity is so essential to life and to our well-being. Self-respect is holding yourself in high esteem and considering yourself worthy of being...
For many years, my tiny curry patta tree grew in a pot, hidden from public view in a lonely corner of my garden in my home in Noida. It was about 3 feet in height and would grow just about...
If trees had souls, perhaps the quality most attributable to them would be gentleness. Gentleness is not a lack of strength, but a quality which doesn’t disturb, doesn’t push, yet knows its power and can provide shelter. Trees. Enormous structures...
It was our ninth grade creative writing teacher, who made us realise that each one of us was unique, with our singular way of looking at life and the world, if only we cared to observe ourselves in a moment...
Banish toxic relationships at once, for only love and compassion can bring harmony into our lives Conflicts in life give rise to painful memories. These memories build our perspectives on life that are based on our good or bad experiences....
What is positivity? It is a state of being happy and tolerant and looking at things in an optimistic way. Positivity is neither inherited nor something you are born with; it is a skill that you learn and practice just...
The world today manifests violence, hatred, cruelty, greed and hatred, and that is because there is lack of love. Property, land, money, position and power cannot give us peace, and love is the only thing which provides us peace and...
Dadi Janki’s consistent message to her spiritual friends is to pay attention to the quality of the thoughts in our minds and to create spaces of silence in order to inculcate our most elevated thoughts into our lives. The discipline...
The writer has been keeping a daily record of her days for the past thirty years. It’s a date she never misses….and she tells you why her diaries have been a focal point of her life for so long―her close...
There is one desire that is common in all beings, and that is the desire to succeed in all spheres of life, whether it is academics, work, sports or relationships. It is something that is instilled in us from childhood:...
The writer wonders about karma and destiny, those eternal, metaphysical concepts that hold sway over our lives Once in a small village lived a mother and her son. The son moved to the city to earn, promising to return after...
It is often said that we must hate the sin and not the sinner. So, we must forgive. But the question is: Is it so easy to forgive? The obvious answer is ‘No’. It takes a lot of courage to...
There is an old adage that says, “It is better to give than to receive.” Yet, how many of us actually live by this? How many of us would give to another before taking for ourselves? It is not simple sacrifice I am...
Just like Mother Nature replenishes herself, we must learn to do the same, says the writer Some years ago, I had been on a short residential retreat at a nature cure clinic about two hours’ drive from Bangalore. The three-acre...
This excerpt from the author’s book, ‘Lost and Found in Banaras’ paints the city as a breath-taking paradox that is incredibly diverse, chaotic, colourful, yet stark Banaras is not just the past revisited. Its enigma hits you instantly and takes...
Being a proud daughter of an infantry man, my father is my hero. He has the aura of a quintessential, no nonsense, straight-talking soldier which is (well you get the drift) larger than life. My childhood memories of my father...
The wise say that chanting a mantra is good for you. You take time to think of something positive spoken in Sanskrit which has vibrations of its own, or you can chant the name of the Lord. Mantras are usually...
