One Question That I Always Ask Myself

I hope you have realized that our world is constantly changing, and change is the nature of existence. This includes business procedures, technologies, the weather, and even our bodies are changing, isn’t it? Everything is in motion – we live in an ocean of motion. In addition, if you’ve attended any Change Management workshops you may have heard of the acronym PESTEL, which is an analysis tool that organizations use to decide in which area they need to change their business practices. PESTEL means Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal. Think about it, don’t these six factors affect your life and business?

If change is the nature of existence, why is it that we come across so many people and businesses that simply refuse to change? Many individuals would rather perish, than change. This is simply because they have cultivated a fixed mindset over time. They continuously do the same thing every day expecting a different result, and this is what Einstein defined as Insanity. This fixed mindset revolves around many factors such as fear, limiting beliefs, denial, or simply laziness. Of course, I cannot cover all these areas in this article, but I will discuss how to cultivate a growth mindset against all odds.

It is often observed that as we age, our behavior tends to become more fixed and structured. This simply means that our habits become deeply ingrained, and thus, we start operating on autopilot. Change, on the contrary, requires conscious effort, determination, and most of all a desire to change. Not a desire fueled by fear, rather fueled by enthusiasm and novelty (new experiences). 

The reason I’m sharing this article is because I want to bust the belief that we may be too old to change, or circumstances are not in our favor. This is absolutely BS. Of course, by BS, I mean Belief System. What were you thinking I meant by BS?

For example, when I lost partial vision, I was unable to read, or go for a walk alone, and I lost a lot of my independence, especially the ability to use the computer. And this set me off on a journey of depression fueled by an unfulfilled desire to learn and grow. However, after much introspection, I realized that this was just my own BS, again I mean Belief System.

After I cleared this BS, I realized something fascinating. The first insight was that to grow and learn, we don’t need to look outside. We can simply turn our gaze inwards, since all the universal knowledge is within us. Our mind is filled with memories of experiences, all we have to do is reflect upon them and ask ourselves, “What can I learn from that situation?” And this became my most important question for reflection.

You see, every moment of life offers us an opportunity to learn something, either about ourselves or the world around us. But we must be willing to see without judgment, without bias, and with a new perspective. If we observe carefully, both failure and success are wonderful teachers, so we must be grateful for every moment.

The second insight was that to learn and grow, we don’t need all our senses in working order. There are tons of audio books for individuals who cannot read due to loss of vision or age related vision conditions. We don’t need our hearing ability if we can read books, or closed caption on the TV. Even if we are on a wheel chair, we most likely have our other senses in order. Basically, as long as our hearts are beating and brains are pulsating, we can learn. We can Grow.

So, here are four practices that you can include in your life to continue learning and growing.

1. Meditation – Research has shown that meditation can heal the body and heal the brain. It can make you smarter, and it can make you younger.  Research also indicates that if you meditate for 30 minutes a day for 5 years, your biological age will become 12 years younger.  Meditation will also help you to adapt to change easily. So, practice meditation daily, even for a few minutes if possible.

2.  Invest in personal growth – Associate with people who are smarter than you and are willing to share their knowledge and experience. This is a great way to learn life lessons without having to go through the challenges yourself. Invest in personal development programs or connect with a Life Coach.  

3. Read more books – Leaders are readers. If you ask any leaders what is one of their most important keys to success, they will say that they read a lot. Reading improves your knowledge and enhances your creativity. So, make reading a daily practice. However, read less of the news and more content that inspires you. 

4. Sleep – You may be wondering how can sleep help you grow; it’s a waste of time isn’t it? But, if you ask any athlete what has helped them improve their performance they will tell you sleep and relaxation. The muscles can only grow when there is tension, and then relaxation and recovery. 

Sleep also helps the brain to process information that was learned. This is why it’s very important for students to get enough sleep, so that what they have learned stays in their memory.

So, there is absolutely no excuse for you to stop learning. Change your BS (Belief System), and always ask yourself this powerful question “What can I learn from this situation?”

Finally, one of the best ways to learn is by teaching. Share your knowledge and experiences with others and enhance their lives as well. This will definitely be a fulfilling experience for you.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Gandhi

Serve with Joy & Humility

The topic of my speech today was “service”, and I won the best speaker award. The following is a summary of the speech.

I have always been the type of person that would go out of my way to help others. Whether it may be repairing their computers, teaching them something, or even renovating their apartments. I would not help others because of any incentive, but simply because I enjoyed being of service.

A few years ago, after my eye surgeries, I felt like the tables had turned. I was no longer able to serve people; I was now on the receiving end of service. This situation tremendously hurt my ego, because I started to feel helpless and worthless. To make matters worse, people who would see me walking down the stairs with assistance would often ask if I was mentally challenged. This would pierce my heart like an arrow, and I would respond by saying, “No, I have low-vision, and by the way, I’m a network engineer”. I felt the need to justify myself by telling them about my successful career.

Fortunately, a few weeks later, an incident occurred that completely changed my perspective about being of service to others. One evening, once the elevator reached our floor, my mom assisted me to get on so that I would not trip on the step. There was an elderly man already in the elevator when we entered. He felt extremely sad when he looked at me, and asked my mom “What is wrong with this boy?”

I responded to him with a smile and said, “I have low-vision.”

I could feel the pain in his heart as he said to my mom again “but he is so young.”

We just smiled as the elevator continued to the ground floor, and my mom once again assisted me out of the elevator.

It was on that day that I realized one of my purposes in life – it’s to generate compassion within others. I would always feel offended when others would ask about my condition, or hold my hand while we walk. But today, I have realized that these individuals are not just doing me a favor, I’m also helping them by offering them an opportunity to serve. There have been many days during which it is bright enough for me to walk alone, but my friends or family members would still choose to hold my hand. Even when I would tell them that I’m fine walking, alone, they respond saying something like “why am I not allowed to hold you?” Sometimes there’s even a competition of who gets an opportunity to help me, from kids to elderly people.

It is the feeling of compassion that empowers a person to serve others. Compassion is a feeling of shared suffering for another form of life with the desire to alleviate that suffering. Compassion is often observed as a type of selfless service, generosity, or kindness.

Through my experience, I would like to emphasize that service is never a one-way street. If we serve others in some way, we are also receiving service in another form, whether it may be a sense of gratitude or a boost to our ego. Therefore, we must be humble when we are serving. We must remind ourselves that we are blessed to have the opportunity to serve others.

Similarly, if we are on the receiving end of service, we must also curb our pride. We must allow others to serve us. In addition, you may have noticed that many individuals who are on the receiving end of the service sometimes express a bitter or frustrated attitude. This is not because they do not appreciate the service they are receiving, it’s simply because they feel helpless in that situation and they do not know of any way to relieve that feeling. However, there is a way to calm this bitter and frustrated attitude. It is by practicing mindfulness such as meditation, which will enhance the person’s sense of gratitude as well as create inner peace and acceptance.

I invite you to start practicing compassion towards others, but most importantly towards yourself first. Simply observe your inner voice, is it critical or is it kind?

Compassionate individuals are those of us that have experienced our share of suffering, and feel empathy for others who are facing similar challenges. We realize that just like us, others are also seeking happiness and trying to avoid pain.

Finally, through compassion our hearts open and we experience oneness with all. The most elevated emotion radiated by the heart is compassion, and it benefits our health in addition to helping us develop spiritually.

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” – Tagore

Surrender to the Universe to Experience Miracles

In the material world, the act of surrender is usually considered as a weakness. One country surrenders to another, or a leader surrenders to another. But unfortunately, this happens by force. However, surrender on a spiritual level is a completely different proposition.

In 2009, when I lost partial vision, I was completely devastated and extremely angry at the Universe. After all, why did I lose my vision? I was a good human being, I had always helped people, healed people, and I was even a vegetarian. I considered my self a soldier of God, a light worker, and this was how God repaid me, by taking away my vision, and I felt betrayed by the Universe.

However, when we are in such a state of confusion and anger, it’s very difficult to hear the response of the Universe.  Was the Universe feeling sorry for me, was it trying to empower me, or was it laughing at my pain, I could not figure this out.

But, of course, we all know that when we ask the Universe a question, it is compelled to answer. And the Universe did just that. As I sat at the eye doctor’s office one morning, the doctor said to me, “I can perform another surgery on your eye, it would be great because I can make more money from you, but the fact is that your vision will not improve”. I responded to him saying that I was willing to pay him even a million dollars if he could help me recover my vision. It was at this time, I gained one of the greatest insights – and it was that all my money, status, or even relationships could not bring me out of this situation. I had no choice; I had to surrender to the Universe. Little did I know at that time, that this was the best decision I had ever made in my life.

It was from that day onwards that mysterious divine miracles started occurring in my life. Miracles in my waking state, as well as divine messages in my dreams, including visions of the future. It was mystical and unbelievable, and even though I have shared some of these mystical happenings with friends and family, there are many that I choose not to discuss because they’re unbelievable.

So, what really happens when we surrender to the Universe?

Grace – Grace is this force that all of us have experienced, but none of us can explain. Some consider it as good luck, others consider it as God answering their prayers, or even angels aligning situations in their favor. It could be one, or all of these explanations. In addition, many of us consider these acts of grace as miracles, because they don’t happen frequently and we cannot explain them. However, based on my personal experience, grace is always available, but many of us are not receptive to it.

After I surrendered to the Universe, I suddenly became super receptive to grace. According to me, grace is more powerful than any of my possessions or relationships. For example, it did not matter how much I was ready to pay to “buy” my vision back, it was not possible. Nor could any of my influential friends help me in any way. At that time grace was the only force that could help me. This grace came to me in the form of wisdom, strength, mental clarity, as well as aligning the right people and situations in my life. Grace is like a wildcard, it comes to use in situations when you are completely helpless, or you have surrendered. Today, grace is the most important thing in my life. I would rather work to earn grace, than to earn money, because as I mentioned grace has more value than money.

Grace is also like sunshine, shining upon everyone equally. It is up to us as to how much sunshine or grace we would like to absorb. Just the way we use an umbrella to shade ourselves from the sunlight or use sun block, in the same manner we block grace from being showered upon us.

So, now the question is – how do we become receptive to grace?

As many of you may be thinking, all you have to do is be a good person, isn’t it? No, that’s not the answer. As I mentioned, grace is like sunshine, it shines on everyone no matter how good or bad your intentions are. Although, it does help to have good intentions because that is related to the law of cause and effect (karma).

To be receptive to grace is very easy, simply surrender to the universe and remove your resistance. When you surrender, you give up control, and believe that everything is happening through divine will, and “there are NO mistakes in your life”. Once you believe this, you will not complain about the present moment, your mind will not regret the past, nor have any anxiety about the future. You will also believe that because you have surrendered every situation is a gift from the Universe. Ultimately, these two beliefs will clear all the stress from your body, as well as quiet your mind.

As I conclude, I would like to share a quick example of this belief. Most people would consider my situation (low-vision) as a tragedy. But, after I surrendered, I realized that it is more of a gift. I have gained such profound experiences in the past 6 years, that if I had a choice I would maintain the low-vision, simply for my consciousness to keep expanding, as well as actually feeling and “recognizing” the grace in my life. Whenever I do feel low or helpless, I ask myself, is it better to walk alone in the light, or walk with the Divine in the dark?

I invite you to ask yourself this question whenever you are facing challenges of any sort. I’m sure that you will choose to face your challenge with the support of the Universe (Divine) than to not have any challenges and maintain your consciousness at the same level.

Finally, once you surrender, you give the Universe an opportunity to work through you. You become the instrument, and the Universe plays its music through you. Honestly, this is how I operate and continuously inspire people. I am not saying this to impress you, but to simply express to you the power of Surrender and Grace.

Once again, I invite you to clear your resistance by surrendering to the Universe and becoming open to grace. Very soon the Universe will start to play its music through you, and you will start experiencing miracles.  

The Power of a Namaskar

I’m not really a fan of yoga because I find it extremely difficult to twist and turn my body, and I always end up feeling embarrassed because I cannot bend down and touch my toes. However, I was excited when I came across the easiest yoga pose, the Namaskar pose, also known as a hand gesture (mudra). 

Namaskar or Namaste is a Hindu greeting, which means “I acknowledge and respect the divinity within you”. I touch my hands together in a Namaskar pose whenever I pray or meet someone I respect. But, today I learned that this Namaskar gesture offers a great benefit for our bodies.

As we touch our hands together in the Namaskar gesture it balances the two polarities of our energy, such as the yin/yang, logical/creative brain, Shiva/Shakti energy etc. 

I practiced this for about 10 minutes this morning, and could really feel the energy balancing as well as felt more in harmony. 

I invite you to practice the Namaskar hand gesture for 10 minutes everyday and experience the harmonizing of your energies.

Upgrade your Spirituality to Experience Higher Dimensions

I was born and raised in a family that was extremely religious. I was taught that every morning I should go into the temple at our home and bow down to every single God and Goddess who either had a picture or a statue. I even had to touch every religious book that was kept in the temple. If I would not do this, one of the elders in the family would touch their hand on one of the statues and then place it on my head.

I was very young and did not question what was really happening. I simply accepted it as their habit and belief. I allowed them to touch my forehead, and then I returned to having fun.

I was taught that if I did not go into the temple every morning, I was dis-respecting the Gods, and I would not be blessed, on the contrary I may even be punished. Once again, I also accepted this belief as a fact; after all, it was coming from the elders in the family, wasn’t it? However, have you considered  the idea that someone without an ego cannot be disrespected? All these Gods have moved beyond their ego, and therefore cannot be dis-respected no matter how hard you try. Furthermore, these Gods are also considered as the ocean of compassion, so can punishment and forgiveness be part of the same value system?

You see, when we are young (between the ages of 0-7) we are like a clear slate, completely open, and anyone we encounter is able to write on this slate (which is our mind). Since we are completely open, we do not have the ability to discriminate whether the information that we hear is a fact or simply someone’s limiting belief.

Neuroscience defines the state of the brain during the ages of 1-7 as alpha, which is a state of complete receptivity. This is also the state that we experience when we meditate. This is the reason why we are able to re-program the mind during meditation, because once again the slate is clear.

After the age of 7 the brain shifts into beta phase. From this point onwards it becomes a little more difficult to influence an individual because he/she has already created a database of beliefs in their mind.

For example, I was raised with the belief that I should not eat meat on Mondays and Thursdays, and if I did, I may be punished. This belief was so ingrained within me, that even when I was in college (away from my parents), I could not break this rule. There would be times when I would have no access to vegetarian food, and would simply eat white rice. This belief was so strong within me, that I was willing to starve myself. I would feel really proud of this, as if I had done something really great by not breaking the rules. Even though, the entire time I was eating white rice, I was thinking about the delicious sweet n’ sour chicken. One of the reasons for being vegetarian on Mondays and Thursdays was that these days are more “pure” than the other days, and on these days we must keep ourselves pure by refraining from certain activities. However, let me ask you this simple question, was I truly being pure by eating white rice while I was thinking about the sweet n’ sour chicken, as well as being frustrated as to why I had gone to that restaurant on a vegetarian day? Also, is Monday and Thursday more pure than a Tuesday or Wednesday, just because my family believes it to be so?

Many people have such beliefs, and I truly respect it. My intention is not to change your beliefs. Although, I will share an article very soon on how to transform your beliefs to experience true freedom.

My intention of this article is to help some of you upgrade your spiritualty. You see, the family I was raised in considered themselves very spiritual, and even today many of them do. However, as I interact with many people who are so called “spiritual” I often feel repelled by their closed-mindset and spiritual pride.

By closed mindset, I mean that they are not open to any possibilities of existence besides what they have been taught. For example, X or Y organization is the only path to enlightenment. Many of these individuals define themselves as following the path of “bhakti” or devotion, which according to them is the only way to enlightenment. With this mindset, many of them are simply not open to the other paths such as “gyan” (wisdom), “karma” (action), or “kriya” (energy work such as meditation, yoga, etc.)

Without a combination of wisdom (gyan), action (karma), and kriya (energy), along with bhakti (devotion), we cannot shift to a higher vibration of spirituality. Devotion, action, or energy work without developing wisdom can be extremely dangerous. This is when people become religious fanatics because their devotion is so strong, yet their wisdom and compassion is so weak.

This closed mindset is also another reason that many of these individuals do not experience higher dimensions within themselves.

I would like to offer you a few simple tips to upgrade your spirituality to experience higher dimensions within yourself.

1. Cultivate gyan (wisdom) through meditation and self-reflection. Singing the same religious songs and reading the same religious texts everyday will not bring about transformation.

2. Cultivate bhakti (devotion) by not only talking to God everyday, but also truly connecting and listening to God for a change. Cultivate love for not only a specific God, but for the entire creation, including that which you may consider as “impure”. 

3. Cultivate karma (action) by practicing acts of kindness or generosity, and quit hoarding and preserving everything that you own.

4. Cultivate kriya (energy) by practicing some type of energy work such as reiki, acupressure, acupuncture, meditation, yoga, qi-kong, etc. This will open up the energy centers (chakras) so that you can be receptive to higher dimensions within yourself.

I assure you that if you start practicing these simple techniques, within a week you will experience shifts within yourself as well as synchronicities. Good luck, and I look forward to hearing your comments and experiences.