All posts filed under: Motivation and Inspiration

Will of The God-The Greatest Indian Short Story Ever

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It was the year end night. Some friends had come over to celebrate. I had also called my brother-in-law who is an Investigating officer and an entertaining storyteller but seemed not quite himself that night. He stood alone, in dark, looking down dreamily with a tilted glass, now empty. I walked over and asked playfully if he was regretting over missing a shot at a culprit. Thankfully, he had his wit intact. He beckoned me to come out of the room. “What’s the matter Rana? I asked.” We walked towards the balcony. Bhaiya, in the noontime today, a doctor came over to the office and he narrated a story, and ever since I have heard his tale, I do not know what to make of it. Really? What is it? What happened. Rana spoke with passion as he does and just like the doctor he spoke in first person; I started my first job at a hospital in Alibaug. Each case provided me with new knowledge more than my books. Every patient even now teaches …

Reset and Restart- 25 Lessons to Walk on In 2025

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And as I press on this note to myself, some lessons that i am carrying from previous years that are not goals, neither resolutions but some learnings that shall lead to better days, better moments and hopefully a better me. And hence I wish that 2025 becomes a year of clarity, of serving, teaching, uplifting and doing… Read more

The Cost of Attention A Powerful Story to Transform Children into Conscious Adults

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Its nearing four months of my grandfather’s death. He lived for 104 years and barely narrated any story in his later years but a few on insistence. And there was this one story, probably the most beautiful, the most essential one that can make any child into an attentive adult, that he had narrated when we used share a chemistry. This story had that power and possibly that is why I still remember it. As I have to choose a story a week for the Saturday Story Session at my school, I was reminded of one remarkable lore that I came across in my lifetime and I feel everyone can take something out of it. Once a king in South India had to send his son to a mystic, to a master, to learn awareness. The king was old. And he said to his son, “Put your total energy into it because unless you are aware, you are not going to succeed me. I will not give this kingdom to a man who is asleep …

What is Success and How Did the Great American Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson Describe Success after writing ‘Brahma’ ?

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I was surfing through the net reading out loud some classic poems by English writers when I came across a poem named ‘Brahma’- being Indian, which naturally fuelled my curiosity. Emerson wrote this poem in 1857. Furthermore, as I started reading about Emerson, essays on him gave me sweet surprises, in that era and time, Emerson was challenging the traditional thought. In 1835, he married his second wife, Lydia Jackson, and settled in Concord, Massachusetts. Known in the local literary circle as “The Sage of Concord,” Emerson became the chief spokesman for Transcendentalism, the American philosophic and literary movement. Centered in New England during the nineteenth century, Transcendentalism was a reaction against scientific rationalism. Emerson’s first book, Nature (1836), is perhaps the best expression of his Transcendentalism, the belief that everything in our world—even a drop of dew—is a microcosm of the universe. His concept of the Over-Soul—a Supreme Mind that every man and woman share—allowed Transcendentalists to disregard external authority and to rely instead on direct experience. “Trust thyself,” Emerson’s motto, became the code of Margaret …

Reset Restart- 25 Lessons to Walk On In 2024

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My dearest co-travellers, from Nara family to yours, Happy Happy Happy 2024. 2023 was a strange year for me that even carried some most memorable gifts too. And as I press on this note to myself, these lessons that are not goals, neither resolutions but something that shall lead to a better day, better moments. As I reflect on the year that is history, I feel the need to share some lessons I learned or that have been reinforced over thIe pasttwelve months, that I must focus on before I think of any achievements or that light. Here you go: 1. God first. God always. God alone! 2. That value is in to serve, to solve, to uplift the ones in need. 3. Pray. Reflect. Act. 4. That reading for at least an hour each evening is 1000x better than scrolling. 5. Owning my mornings. 6. That the quality of my habits will determines the caliber of my future. 7. That a good night’s sleep prevents bad decisions. 8. Read a little. Write more. Think most. Meditate …

40 Before Forty: My ‘Bucket List’ for Life

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Somehow, its not surprising that even after writing for last three years on this site, I never shared any kind of Bucket List with you. Rather strangely It never even occurred to me. Even when I keep a daily, weekly, monthly to-do list. But this time it felt that I must share what all is meaningful and going to move me for some years to come. To observe and record my own directions, to raise expectations even though I have worked hard to get all feelings of “expectations” out of my system in last some years; But to travel more, to be able to express from a point of stillness more, to vibe more with you, with whom i have shared my most valuable memories in these years in thought, and that you should know some deeper directions that my spirit is wishing to take. Last week, I completed an important and likely decisive life cycle on our planet Earth. Touching the other side of 35. And I felt responsible to open up with you …

Ten Hard Truths a Student Must Know For Life

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Last week while taking a round in school, I felt someone is sobbing somewhere. I tried to find the source of the sound. Up and below as it lead me to the basement. One student sat under stairs in darkness, his head down between his legs. He got scared the moment he saw me, stood straight and hit his head hard on the stair roof above him and went down again like a cloth falling from a string. Sobbing out loud. Pandemic fenced my travelling like anyone’s and it turned my attention towards my school. Taking Yoga classes, developing students skills around arts and photography, teaching conversation and language skills. Later when I asked Akshat, the crying boy, what he said took me by surprise. He told me that he fears his mother will die soon, that he cannot bear he will be all alone. His had already lost his father years ago. That evening back home, I decided that I will introduce my children to the wisdom of the ancients. Once a week I …

Mine Against the World of Elon Musk: Some Secrets on High Performance and Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence

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For most of us, our understanding of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) is drawn more from science fiction than from fact. But it is true that the world of intelligent machines is opening up. And as we approach this brave new world of human-level machine intelligence, we may need to reassess what it means to be human.

Turiya and RamaKrishna: Who Are You?- ११

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Nara commentates … First called is Svante, alittle five year old sannyas aspirant, and subodhi, his mother. Ramakrishna tells him to shut his eyes which he does, instantly, with full obedience, tight and very still, the little pouches strainingto do just right. His knees are held bytwo chubby-small intentful hands. We all lookwith breathless stillnesssurrounding an open rose as the little swami emerges, Love, Little Anando.  : ँ :Last seven days were work but nights kept leading me to the milk mountains. Full moon i.e the sharad purnima of October, kept revealing magic on one condition. That I must not close my eyes.  If I observe a graph of my inner self, it has been nothing less than hydrogen working its way towards the biggest star. Slowly but so intense, that being a writer becomes a curse because I cannot explain it.  : ँ : In Omkareshwar, a few years ago, on the banks of the river Narmada. A register found me; a life of a french yogi documented in images glued on its thin white pages. It was a real treat. Because they were not mere photographs, but codes, Sri Yantras, …

How I found my self ? And sooner my strength- I

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In the silence of the night, the only sound that started coming was of the rain drops dropping, infrequently from the leaves above. Soaking in as soon as they fell on the road I was walking. The darkness had intruded beyond the trees standing like guards on either side. Their canopies meeting above making a roof, even making the drizzle feel like a poem sailing through the air. Till then I had my phone in my hand. My priced possession, I had bought after two months of work at my first job as a photojournalist. As i neared an approaching lamppost that once looked far, my shadow stretching behind me. Without any sound or intuition a hand caught me by my neck from behind. For a second I really thought it must be somebody known, a friend’s prank yet still unlikely. Within another second I got a strong hit on my back. Falling flat on my chest on the wet road. And realized that I was being hit nowhere but only on my face, a …

9 Ancient Yogic Ways to fight Corona Pandemic

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When flood comes, the fish eat ants. But when water dries, the ants eat fish.  – Theory of Life, Virus will be defeated ! Humans started moving away from the natural ways when we began to wear clothes, started eating for pleasure and embraced temporarily practised norms over instinctive urges. And over the years this is what blind development has done. Among the “civilised”, right and wrong is determined by cultural conventions and rules, he continued, “There were times when polygamy was considered a solution when there was a shortage of men due to war”, instead it continued for centuries ever after. I was remembering my Guru Maharaj ji, who two years ago had initiated me towards divine love. For last few days as i was going through my diaries of the times when we both had found time to speak at length about life and laws, and how can discipline determine the direction and intensity of one’s journey. I found something that he had given me, a potion that i found useful in these times of isolation …

Born to Run

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The first half of Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography makes some things abundantly clear: He had no natural ability to play the guitar. In fact, after his first lessons, he quit, unable to play a note. He had no singing talent. Every group he was part of needed a lead singer, and it wasn’t him. And just about everyone dismissed him. Audiences walked out, his first agent simply stopped returning his calls and bandmates gave up and moved on. Yet today, we know him and not that agent. Talent is overrated. Skill is acquirable. Showing up is important and something almost every creative leader has in common. In business, in the arts, in society. Consistently shipping the work, despite the world’s reaction, despite the nascent nature of our skill, despite the doubts. Community is essential. The people we surround ourself with can reinforce our story, raise the bar and egg us on. Because, the community becomes an integral part of our story of success. But first, we have to commit to the journey. Working in the creative …

Technique, and how must, can we learn one ?

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Its amazing by how much we can get done simply by trying. Whether its writing, finishing a complex film, or building a better environment to educate children at school. Because when we show up and do our best, we can make things happen. But then, sometimes or many, our internal horsepower becomes insufficient. Many a times it snowballs into sitting idle, waiting for inspiration to arrive or simply the right time. Bhuvneshwari Devi is sitting at home with a black Wayfarer on. Her blood became so impure that it started affecting her eyes. Having no savings, or funds to go to a doctor, she turned to the roots, to an old technique; drinking turmeric and neem i.e Azadirachta indica powder with lukewarm water every morning on an empty stomach. Also read : A Traveller’s lessons from ten years on the ँ Road But for many others, as we seek to make bigger impact. we discover that powering our way through obstacles many a time becomes too difficult. And so comes handy the technique, a route that …

Conversations in a Dream

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Never stand and drink water, eat food or smoke.  Some one very important from the other world entered in my psychic system last night. The beautiful aspect of it all was that i behaved as well as I should have in real life, with utmost respect.  As I had to go up to his room using a lift, I pressed one bell, but it turned out to be of somebody’s home. A lady came, like a tortoise she put her neck out of the door and kept looking for a long time in the other direction. Finally when she found me as she turned her neck slowly like a mechanical toy, her eyes started blinking faster than our heartbeats. But what i found amusing was, in her eyes she had put enormous amount of kajal, the same one that my mother puts in my eyes every night. I knew it because it was leaving a smell of mustard. There’s a lot to be said for tradition, for stability and for the foundation that the status …

Tomorrow comes Daily

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Slowly slowly as good days passed, hardest ones arrived. Three deaths and earning a bagful of silence later, we started sleeping again, or may be not. But mind does not change as of yet. Because Ruts don’t dig themselves. Most of the time, we’re in a rut because that’s precisely where we put ourselves. Out of many, some actions become habits, and habits get repeated because they feel safe. The easiest way to make things more interesting is to simply stop repeating your habitual behavior. And that often comes from reacting to triggers. Remove the triggers and you can alter the habits. Tiny changes. Different ways to keep score. Tomorrow comes daily. But we don’t have to take the same route to get there.

In Life’s darkness. Mother is light.

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In these ongoing paralysing times of helplessness, while doing nothing; close your eyes. Think of water, a river. And if possible become it. Shiva was eyes wide open in all directions. Yet the destructive eye had to open, and took him inwards. Ujjain arrived in the morning. We went to pataloka to touch the equator in dim light and later ate potato spice. Darkness is the birth place of all creations. A child becomes in the dark. The lights glows the most in the dark. It is not that the darkness is wrong. It’s a part of life, a backdrop for the stars at night, the space between what you know. Darkness has a way of reminding you of the light. ExistING side by side. Sometimes overlapping, one explaining the other. And Mangla, the beautiful brown cow here in the village is pregnant. One big similarity, between a cow and a human mother is that both take nine months for their child to come out playing in the wild. Also one of many reasons, the oldest living civilisation …

Being the Light

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People in general have been generous with us through the years. A doctor who took the time to understand our pain. A server who didn’t hesitate and brought to us what we needed before we even knew we needed it. A client who gave us a project at just the right time. Gifts create connection and possibility, but not all gifts have monetary value. In fact, some of the most important gifts involve time, effort and care instead. Money was invented long after humans arrived on the scene, and commerce, as we have seen- cannot solve all problems. In this moment when we are disconnected and afraid, uncertain of the future, not only of us but of humanity altogether, the answer might not be a freebie. That might simply push us further apart. The answer might be showing and standing up to do the difficult work of smiling, connecting, of caring, of telling the other, I am and of extending ourselves where it’s not expected.

Towards Peace

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Peace might not mean getting everyone else to do what you want them to do. Instead, it may involve understanding that people don’t always want what we want and don’t often believe in what we believe. Everyone has their own narrative and is struggling with their own fears. We can begin there. Most of the time, people want to be seen, understood and appreciated. And if we can offer someone  dignity with respect, we give them a gift that is difficult to find. In these dire times when people are forced to push every other, further away, Share, Give; each day, some way. As there lies that one eternal way, to Peace.

Better than perfect ?

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Draw a perfect circle. Use a compass or a plotter. Now, zoom in. If you zoom in close enough, you’ll discover that it’s not a perfect circle at all. In fact, anything we create, at close enough magnification, isn’t perfect. It’s foolish to wait until you’ve made something that’s perfect, because you never will. The alternative is to continue to move toward your imaginary ideal, shipping as you iterate. Getter better is the path to better.

Ways to Grow

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  A checklist to get you started—you can either do the same thing or a different thing… More of the same Persist Get the word out Doing something different Change an element of what you do Raise your prices Lower your prices Make it better Tell a different story Serve a different customer Enter a new segment Change the downstream effects of your work Earn trust Make bigger promises Organize Get better clients Do work that matters to someone

Long work verses hard work

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Long work is what a lawyer who bills 14 hours a day filling in forms does. Hard work is what the insightful litigator does when she synthesizes four disparate ideas and comes up with an argument that wins the case–in less than five minutes. Long work has a storied history. Farmers, hunters, factory workers… Always there was long work required to succeed. For generations, there was a huge benefit that came to those with the stamina and fortitude to do long work. Hard work is frightening. We shy away from hard work because inherent in hard work is risk. Hard work is hard because you might fail. You can’t fail at long work, you merely show up. You fail at hard work when you don’t make an emotional connection, or when you don’t solve the problem or when you hesitate. I think it’s worth noting that long work often sets the stage for hard work. If you show up enough and practice enough and learn enough, it’s more likely you will find yourself in a …