Why wrinkled skin matters so much!

Sorry for the title. This isn’t a beauty post but just an observation. 🙂

I think one of the best things we young people could do is simply spend time with our older relatives. Drop by once in a while, say hello or just listen to their stories. Our grandparents (and the older generation in general) have so much wisdom to share but we are too busy with our mundane lives to receive the knowledge.

I believe our grandparents are the best antidepressants! They stand by our choices. They certainly can help us avoid the same human mistakes or direct us to the remedies that they achieved after a greater sacrifice. They can prove to be kind counsellors. And all they want in return is to listen to their stories. Their experiences are solutions to our problems.

Spending time with the older generation help us face the reality of life. It makes us think, distinguish between distraction and the absolute truth. We realise and register the things that matter in the end and are able to discard the illusions. Nonetheless these old souls teach us gratitude, compassion and patience in the most loving way preparing us to take better decisions ahead 🙂

Sanskrit even heals!

If there’s one language I would have chosen to learn from heart, then that would be the sacred sanskrit. I have come to believe that the words pronounced in sanskrit essentially create certain vibrations that further exemplifies in energies beneficial to our body, mind and soul. Like for example the Gayatri Mantra!

I am taken a back by the wisdom found in the sanskrit stotrams. Most of them are finest composition of metaphors, that have the potential to resonate with each one of us at different phases of our lives and with different meanings at same time. They are absolutely filled with astute wit.

I have been learning nirvana shatakam and several others. In there, If one observes the magnified impressions upon each given word in the verses, it certainly provokes our consciousness to reflect upon the universal truth.  Its a divine poem infused with grace and wisdom.

Nirvana Shatakam

I feel so disappointed sometimes thinking that I could never fully learn the essence of sanskrit language due to lack of time and discipline required. At this moment of life, there are thousand other things knocking at my door, things that are mundane, commercial and promise basic survival.

However, if not learning the language itself, it is still convenient to take one strotra at a time, or per week, study it, reflect upon it and embrace all that it delivers to nourish our souls. The spiritual appetite is never left unattended by the universe. 🙂

Love to feed

My pasta dish

#mydiarywish
One of my favourites 🙂 I don’t know but there’s something about pasta that I truly enjoy savouring!! I would prefer every other healthy option as food yet when it comes to a hot spicy bowl of pasta filled with lots of vegetables I am just not able to resist it.

On a second note every time I pick up a morsel there’s an innate feeling of gratitude within. I wonder how often do we take our plate of food for granted while in reality it is only for that plate we all are running in circles and apparently there’s no escape from it until our last breath.

In Sanskrit it’s written as Annam Brahma which means Food is God. Anna that is food embodies nourishment and survival and in little humble corner it only expects our love and respect back.

I feel pleased to cook for others. A sincere wish of mine is to be able to serve free self cooked food to the needy. I know I cannot do it alone to reach out to people, and in reality I would need few more years to mature and become stable. But I hone by this dream of mine every time and I hope it gets fulfilled. 🙂

The stars above know it all

I’m little lunatic when it comes to watching stars 🙂 At the moment there are 5/planets aligning across skies and I’m so excited to have a glimpse of it though I’m not able to spot them correctly among hundreds other shining stars but its a fun exercise to do so. I could also see Orion right outside my window after midnight and I hopelessly await them to present their show.

I have always lived in cities; away from country charm and open skies, yet even in a busy street whenever I spot a full moon or a beautiful constellation I stand aside for few moments and enjoy the wonder. 😀 My star fascination goes back to my childhood when as a young girl I loved spending time in my balcony right before dawn. I find it therapeutic. Even today, given a choice I would always pick star gazing over a kooky night out.

I believe the stars above know our entire story. They know who we are and from where we’ve come from and how far we would go. They have existed in this infinite universe since eons and have known our soul in every incarnation. When I look at them in awe, I find them mysterious, all knowing, and something close to my heart. I feel a part of me is out there watching me back from above.

I have learned that there are birth constellation in Vedic literature. Our own can help us decode our spiritual DNA.  The information associated with each of these constellation is astonishing to know how well it can resonate with our individual personalities.  it’s an enormous tool to understand one’s identity, the reasons for actions and the psyche. This universe is a mammoth in its essence.  It speaks for our constitution. The truth is that we have been beautifully designed like those constellations. Our composition is so perplexed and intense and we all are equally struggling to complete the unfinished lessons from our karmic lives. We need to accept this bigger picture to fuel our compassion and kindness toward each other.

I believe that We all are evolving/ transiting between our own spiritual tapestry. And that there is always a room for learning. It is not so easy. It is not what we see. There is “lot” that goes beneath that is beyond our comprehension in one lifetime. I cradle these thoughts along the distance that float between me those stars. You feel protected if you only listen to their whispers in solitude. They have lot to say if only we are ready to sneak out from our busy lives. They too desire to reach out for us the way we want to dive in their absolute infinity. 🙂

The power of “I love you”

Has your prayer become a wishlist?

Mine certainly was! until I realized how ignorantly I have been approaching The Divine Power.

I explored deeper to understand the pattern and found out a very hideous trail that has been programmed inside all of us probably since childhood.

I was trained to pray for wisdom and strength (i.e to achieve good grades) throughout my school life, then eventually to seek good job, further claiming success and recognition. My apologies if it sounds ghastly materialistic.
I have seen others praying miserably to get the best partner, healthy child, lush homes and comfort cars.

I knew in my gut this isn’t the right way of approaching the Supreme Power and gradually I discovered the power of Gratitude. I started counting being thankful to the plate of meal or even an ounce of free water as a humble prayer. However, my wishlist continued to exist.

Running through my twenties I have lot of dreams and desires that I wished, needed, hoped to be fulfilled, and I discussed all of them in my private prayers with God. Its a pity how vehemently sometimes I claimed for the things I felt I deserve against a good conduct and at times how I would like to receive them.

This continued for few years but I loved God and all of his angels anyway. I wouldn’t hesitate to say I believed my relationship with him is that of cousins. I share, I fight and patch up immediately.

But then came a moment, where I realized to my utmost distress that how far I have allowed God to count on me when HE needs me!
I surely wanted to be loved by him but how much sincerely I have loved him back or expressed the same?

Simply following rules and morals isn’t enough. I bitterly observe that we hardly approach God without any agendas.

             that’s my handwriting above 🙂

I was saddened thinking that I have hardly whispered ” I love you” to God, that Supreme power, to the same Universe.  I contemplated upon this new found feeling over several days and finally decided to make that I say “I love you” accompanied with gratitude whenever I thought of God or every time I felt thankful toward him 🙂

My heart believes that this power of “I love you” is as significant as the power of Gratitude.

So these days, when I am done watching the stars and I hit the bed with a prayer of gratitude, I also quietly carve “I love you” in my mind and say it back to the Divine. It makes you feel content, humble, mature and responsible (I don’t know of what yet. I am still discovering) but certainly nothing lesser than above

I share this personal experience of healing with a hope if it resonates with anyone. I would be glad if our beloved Universe, the divine power receives more ” I love yous” from all of us 🙂

Questioning the stars

When you pause in the middle of your road.

Recently, I am not able to make sense out of anything around me. I am digging deep into the world history, scrolling through pages that speak of a future world only to find clues if somehow I or anyone could find the logic of all the parallel events happening around the world.

They are good, bad, some are heartwarming and most of them heart-wrenching. I find myself sinking into a deep sorrow as I read more, know more the stories of our ancestors. They promised us with an enormous intellect, but they weren’t spared either from suffering. We all get stunned to see the mammoth architecture from the ancient era, the classic lifestyle of many who lived in harmony with arts, music and astronomy. But on the other hand, there were still those floods, famines, age old crude politics and conspiracies. I don’t understand why and how it all started. Where things went wrong? What could have been fixed then? How can we fix things now? Why everything is such an illusion? Sigh.

I’m baffled with this suffering of life (human, animals and birds).How erratic it is to find out how we all (human, animals and birds) are interdependent on each other. Was there even a plan at first place? Sigh.

Maybe I am thinking too much as my friends say and It’s not healthy. But I am not able to just turn a blind eye. It hurts me now. I’m just not able to take a moment of pleasure even when at times I am served with good things before me.  I have cut down all my unnecessary expenses and prefer a simple lifestyle and instead donate more but I feel sad. I’ve become introvert. I still have to read a lot of literature that supports humanity.

Most of the nights, I look above into skies, in solitude and silently fight with those stars that have been shining since eternity and will continue to do so.

They have witnessed the great ancient civilizations and they even know the birth of the future ones. From a confused heart, my broken voice repeats itself that If and if only, these glorious stars could speak to us, guide us, to join the fallen pieces of this great big world!

The “Why Me?” phase – Beginning of our spiritual journey :)

I am sure all of us might have been through a period when nothing made sense, when all the logic failed and no matter how hard we tried we were still not able to join the dots

We then activate the best of our defensive mode and question the universe back to find the answers. We list out all the good we have done and sometimes we list out the bad we think others have done. So why me?

Why must I suffer? Why must I go through this? We quote the mantras, shlokas, the law of karma or the law of attraction. yet, we feel we are moving in circles and not coming onto one destination. Afterall, we want to claim the best of everything that we invest in our lives. 🙂

Surely, our memory will serve us the best for our actions in this lifetime, it can help us claim the good we think we deserve now. But how can we guarantee knowing fully the account of our past lives? We don’t have the events, the reference points from all the lives we have lived before.

Our mind, body and soul have been greatly influenced by the sun, moon and the constellations above. And we know that these magnificent celestial bodies exist since billions of years. This confirms our eternal essence. Maybe our stories go as far as these billion years. All the planets and stars are so beautifully interconnected with sacred alignments and we have been living through these energies.

We are not what we see, we are not what we think and we are certainly not what we remember now. The truth is unknown but it exist and it can be discovered only through our personal experiences.

Accepting the above makes a person humble. I have walked myself for the past decade through disasters, destruction, disappointments, frustration, defending myself, questioning the authority, the logic, the universe and everything that I saw around, until I reached to a point realizing that I am trying to make sense of this big universe that not only exists outside me but also lives within me. My inquisitive heart is trying to decode a secret of billion years old. 🙂

And to my amusement I figured out that it is not that easy. I cannot claim what I think I deserve based on the accounts of this lifetime. I need to look within. I need to continue the journey with an open heart. and most importantly I need to be as humble as I can along this path. Every event has its own time for the reasons again known to our universe.

I believe my frustration could have also led me to a path of being an atheist or agnostic. Few of my friends have switched to that path 🙂 But one thing helped me so far and that is my will to always accept a humble attitude. Even though I challenged the universe I knew deep in my heart that something that exists for so long and have been functioning for eternity with its rules will always be superior to my understanding of events 🙂

I affirmed the above each and every time I failed. Instead I then began to claim my right to learn and prayed to the energies I believe in to guide me through my misunderstandings and hold my strong even when things fall apart.

The – Why me? phase is certainly not the end of everything. Trust your heart, you will see it is in fact a beginning of a beautiful chapter that we have been wanting to learn or master and now is the time. Every accident surely has a reason. Its okay to vent out, to feel the hurt, to mourn but it is important to surrender our logic to the higher reason. Have faith that we have been part of an very ancient and a sacred constitution and that there shall never be injustice done to us. 🙂

The – Why me? phase is certainly not the end of everything. Trust your heart, you will see it is in fact a beginning of a beautiful chapter that we have been wanting to learn or master and now is the time. Every accident surely has a reason. Its okay to vent out, to feel the hurt, to mourn but it is important to surrender our logic to the higher reason. Have faith that we have been part of an very ancient and a sacred constitution and that there shall never be injustice done to us. 🙂

My apologies for writing this long, but I wanted to share with a hope that it would bring peace to some hearts ❤

Why is it so hard every time to Let Go

(The above picture of exora flowers is from my gallery)

Two days back I was watching a TV soap that I have been following since a year considering it has a sweet romantic love story in it. The other day they claim to air a special screening for an hour for that episode. 20 mins down the line, I was bored to death as there was no logic in the content and it seemed that the producers just dragged to fill in the hour or rather get the audience hooked to their TV sets.

I was annoyed thinking how could people in this era can take their audience for granted. How can they waste their audience’s time or think that people are less intelligent to even figure out these fillers. I was frustrated at the content writers, producers and the directors and questioning their school of logic.

I wonder how many of us have faced such a similar situation?

Even though the Tv soap has been losing its focus from the main story since past six months, nevertheless I have been still there. And why?

Well I wouldn’t agree that I am a big fan of it for I have missed out many episodes in between due to its insincerity. I am not in love with the story or characters anymore but I carried this HOPE in my heart that things will come back to its place, the story will bloom with emotions again. It will all start making sense. It will be real again and that they will live happily ever after. And because I gave my one year to it and somewhere I am not willing to accept that it didn’t turn out the way I expected. I come back watching the episodes with THIS hope

Our relationship work the same way sometimes, don’t they? We adjust and compromise to make things work. Even though I agree that both are required to sustain a healthy relationship. However one must not take it to an extent where one ends up facing abuse and insults.

Its hard for us to let go, because of THIS hope we carry in our hearts. We aren’t fond of the other person anymore, of their habits or the things they put on us or themselves. However we still hope that they would change. Those emotions will be back. Things will be real again. Our way of loving can’t fail even though none of the ways come in perfection. And somewhere we feel that because we have involved our feelings into the other person for so long and so wholeheartedly we deserve the affection in return. 🙂

But does it happen that way? Everybody will have their own experiences and opinions to this question

With regards to that TV soap, things won’t change unless the team behind it is willing to change, willing to make its audience feel better, unless it realizes that the audience have put their trust in the team and that it is responsible for their emotions.

But until it reaches to that point, I am left with two options. Either I keep betting my heart upon the story or pick up the remote and switch to browse the shows that would enrich my soul.

And if we think again, maybe we all have these two choices even in our relationships. To let go is not easy. Its not some magic but its the way of our lives. The sooner we acknowledge the faster we can act upon it  🙂

And the world keeps spinning around!

Recently I came across to a quote in one of my Google plus feed and was delighted by its positive message but only to be disheartened to find out the message is just too optimistic to be achieved in truth.

The following was the quote

When the mind of each person in this world knows true peace, the world will know peace. When the mind is peaceful it will start to see the true cause of peace, and at the same time the true cause of war.

 With this clarity, we can finally put an end conflict, greed, and anger and usher in an era of peace. Once we know peace for ourselves, it will be reflected in our thoughts, our speech and in our actions. Love and good intention for mankind will arise and we will become the center of peace for people around like the sun shining warm light to big and small stars, both near and far. – 
Luang Phaw Dhammajayo

Although the message is full of truth I feel it is too nice to be realistic. History says that there was never a world with no problems or miseries. Our births have been a shuffle between the best and the worst. Even the ying-yang represents that there’s always good in bad and bad in the good. Even the Cherokee proverb confirms that it’s upto us which wolf we choose to feed. 

It’s depressing to realise that there never will be total eradication of conflict, greed, anger, hurt, darkness but there’s always a hope to reduce this darker side that exists. That’s the reason we are gifted with a brighter moon and stars even in darkest night so that we can survive on patience and faith.

This in return gives us the hope to choose to stand by the good, to encourage others and preserve the same for the future generations. Something which we must indeed pursue consciously. History has also assured that the good always ahead and so we can have enough reasons to live to sustain the same. 🙂

My apologies I didn’t mean to challenge the beauty of the message but the objective is very illusionary. We are tightly interconnected and interdependent with our past karma that there will no complete escape for planet earth (bhuloka) from this cycle (samsara)

Justifying the gaps in Resume

No, there are no real tips here to solve the problem. I wonder if it is such a problem at first place. Well, for the great HR team it always is!

So here I am with a bachelors in business degree and masters in marketing with a scholarship. My discomfort is that I come with many irregular gaps in my CV.

Now when I go for the interviews, it is like going on a battlefield to fight the HR scrutiny and irrelevant questions that has nothing to do with the correlation of my skills to the requirements of the job. I sit there like a puppet trying to justify this genuine gap that they think is the mammoth sin of my life and that I have no right to exist in any company!

One one hand I film situations that would still portray me as responsible person for falling into this gap, on the other hand I believe that my real reasons would prove me not only more responsible but also a conscious citizen of this universe.

I am a woman in my late twenties. Since my masters I have been walking through heavy transitional phases. Common, admit that twenties is a life changing graph for many of us. In this phase we are exposed to life’s ultimate truth. To the curious minds, this phase is an extensive quest for all the events happening around.

To be a better human being is more important to me than becoming the best business professional. It disappoints me that the highly qualified HR groups (at least this is how I would like to believe) simply fail to take note that a person holding credible degrees with scholarship wouldn’t be frivolous In her attitude. Her gaps wouldn’t be simply the reasons of her lack of her sincerity toward her career or life.

While I was living abroad to finish my masters I was exposed to the international events and crises. I was exposed to the deadly quake news, flood news, political downfall, near death experiences of other people, different race, culture and faith. These events tore me apart but also opened my soul toward first learning, accepting and finally embracing the variety of our planet, our world.

I began questioning to an extent that I broke down when I didn’t find answers to the satisfaction of my soul. There were only why and how dilemmas for every wrong thing that happened in the world. I just couldn’t ignore the misery. I felt a strong need to make a difference if not change the world entirely. I wish to light a small corner at least the corner I would be leaving in

I struggled hard with ideas. I brainstormed to find out a way where I could apply the knowledge of my degree to make a difference back to the society. Meanwhile I worked for few companies. however, I didn’t like the idea of being stuck to a cubicle but I had to work to clear my pending student loan to pay off other expenses.

My entire energy went in researching and reading material from books and internet. I read about psychology, philosophy, arts, business, crises etc. As soon as I felt i was little better financially I ended up quitting my jobs. However with my health taking a toll I felt the need again to earn only to pay to the doctors. Thanks to the polluted world we live and the toxins we are exposed to that no one can dare escape from the side effects!

I am nervous thinking how many people are suffering due the gaps in their resume in spite of their reasons being as genuine as they could be. We have been living in a great economic depression since past few years and there is a long time until everything will start falling into place. Sigh

No recruiter has to the time to listen to the above and so most of the people end up making short stores which offer only pieces of humor to the other party. I choose not to present anything that is not truth. I haven’t reached my destination yet. I am still carving my niche, making a place for myself but it certainly wasn’t a candy ride how the recruiters might be thinking otherwise 🙂 I am content at the things that I have discovered for myself which makes me stand at a better position to take actions and decisions. If I get to be a part of any organization, I know I would be as responsible as I can be boosting its primary goals toward the society with my conscious skills.

I would also like to add that I am aware of the costs that a company has to bear during the selection and replacing an employee process and so any recruiter would think twice before hiring someone who got doesn’t have a consistent employment history. However the red flags would should only be counted if the individual has changed 10-20 companies within a short period of time.

With all due respect, my request to recruiters is that please broaden your own mindset before judging candidates as inefficient simply on their work gaps in the first round itself. Let the selection process be fair. Let it judge on what the candidate can bring on the table for the company. Put him to the test. Ask him to present his ideas that would benefit the company. and then pick one who you think would really make a difference to your company’s profits in a positive way

Not many come with finest demonstration of their Resumes. Some might even fail to beat the aptitude/skills test. But sometimes a philanthropic, conscious and a revolutionary attitude can help the company achieve a great corporate image in the business. Haven’t the great scholars affirmed that it is not the sales that ranks the company to the top but it is a consistent employee retention and customer loyalty makes the company rule over many hearts 🙂

I strongly believe that being the best person at work is not the ultimate goal of life. To have brighter soul is important than having a higher degree or work experience.