The Swaroopa Blog

Happy Vishu!!

2022-04-15T05:30:00.002-04:00

Namaste ! Wishing all a very Happy Vishu, the Malayalam New Year and a Tamil New Year as well! May this New Year bring every one, every kind of happiness, joy and prosperity! Tadasthu! So, it is!

Best
Swaroopa🌺


Happy Vishu Image credits - Pixabay.com

From now onwards, I planning to write every now and then, when inspiration strikes, so that I can concentrate more on my store, business, and spiritual mentoring/ astrological services. No, I am not stopping the blog. But the next leg in my journey of business and entrepreneurship is demanding my attention.

As all of you may have guessed by now, I do have some spiritual gifts that I want to share with clients and customers. Order a reading and see how I can help to transform or transmute your thoughts and mental aspirations to newer and more wider panoramic perspectives. You and I will together figure out newer paths, perspectives and idea forms.

Once more, wishing all a Very Happy Vishu - Best, Swaroopa🌺

Next post: Lunar mansions - Effect on the mind!
Image Credits - Image Credits - Pixabay.com

Ardra nakshatra - The inconsolable human!

2022-03-18T05:30:00.785-04:00

In this new year to help people, I am putting a sale on my readings. I have reduced the prices drastically 70-80%. Hope people take advantage of this price reduction.

As life was interfering, I was not able to write for the last three weeks. Also, the personal readings on my store are catching up slowly. That also keeps me away from writing. But I decided this week, I need to write and post a blog. As per the amazing response and comments I got for Moola, a Kethu ruled nakshatra, this time I thought I would tackle Ardra or Thiruvathira(i) in Malayalam/ Tamil, a Rahu ruled nakshatra. And today of all the days, the nakshatra under which I am writing this blog post is exactly Thiruvathirai or Ardra in the lagna of the current place chart where I am. Lagna is the physical form taking shape of the Ardra blog.

Numerology: We have discussed Rahu many times. According to my perspective, Rahu is the grand illusion of the material world or Maya. Every human and even celestial beings get tied in this rope. We all have heard the sage Narada in Hindu mythology. There is a story even he got duped by the illusion of the material world and found himself in tremendous hassles. So think about us, mere humans. But Rahu is not bad as well. He can be the greatest healer as Dhanwantiri himself. The nakshatra Sathabhishek ruled by Rahu is 100 healers in its highest energy. But in the lower form Rahu can be a cheat and takes action with deceit. Rahu behaves according to the mind he is associated with. The mind decides, a cheat or the highest healer. From this, we can realize how important Moon or mind is in Vedic astrology.


Betelgeuse, tenth brightest star in the sky and the second brightest star in the Orion constellation Image credits - Adam Block/Steward Observatory/ University of Arizona, via Wikimedia Commons

Ardra or Thiruvathira nakshatra, comes sixth from Ashwini in the house of Gemini or Mithuna. Let us look at the numerology. Six according to Vedic astrology is the house of Virgo. As Gemini, Virgo is also ruled by Mercury. Mercury is logic, rationality or Buddhi. Sixth house is the house of every day activity, debts, diseases and sickness. But the same Virgo also rules writing, logic, inner wisdom of a sage. In tarot, Virgo is signified by the card - Hermit. A hermit is someone who does a lot of inner query and inner exploration, so that they can later teach or guide others.

Without a good Virgo house, it is pretty much impossible to write with deep logic and rationality. Therefore, many scientists, doctors, healers and writers have placements in Virgo. As Ardra is the sixth nakshatra, this Virgo energy can have an underlying say with this lunar mansion. Due to the debts and diseases angle, the person can have a feeling that they may fall victim to debt or diseases. This constant worry and stress may bring eventually the physical manifestations as well. We will come back to this worry/ stress nature later.

In the ancient system of numbering from Krithika, this nakshatra comes as the fourth. Four is solid foundation, four legs of a table or the four pillars of a house. But many times, the six energy of worry overtakes this foundation energy of four. From the number four to six, including the number four, it is three numbers- 4, 5 and 6. Four being the foundation number of home, the worry and stress the person would communicate to their family members, as Ardra comes three nakshatras later. Three is the number of communications. Above stressing themselves, they would unfortunately stress others as well.

As Mercury is logic and Rahu works very well with the logical energy, they would come across as very logical in their concept and ideas. But the concept itself would be stress or worry invoking. Later we would discuss, the energy of Ardra is of chaos and confusion. Due to this truth, the person would like to talk about current politics (6 energy of every day), hassles in the family (4 energy), current politics (chaos) or about wars going on like the Ukraine war or the pandemic news (confusion).

Orion Constellation Map -
Image credits - Torsten Bronger
derivative work: Kxx,via Wikimedia Commons

Constellation, house and symbolism: Ardra comes from 6'40° to 20° Mithuna or Gemini in the star Betelgeuse. It is the tenth brightest star in the sky and the second brightest star in the constellation of Orion. As the star itself is bright, the Ardra people can be the central attraction of a pleasant chat in a huge group of people and can talk up a storm (the storm God Rudra). The brightness of the star makes sure Ardra folks are known by the people in the community and they have a persona of brightest among a lot of people. But due to the worrisome/ stress bringing nature of Ardra, Rahu, the lord of confusion being the ruler, they would have no clue about this innate brightness.

Rahu is a charmer and a magician. As the nakshatra comes in the third house of communication with Mercury as the ruler of the house, they can use words and logic ruled by Mercury to talk and charm their way into other people's hearts. People would accept the person as very friendly and very jovial. But this is for the sixth house of every day job and matter. For the home folks of four, it may not be always the charm and joviality. It can be stress or worry. But the unfortunate part is the person themselves are two hundred times more stressed. Only the overflow stress finds others.

There is another reason for this. Gemini is the sign of twins. The dual nature is inborn and inherent. If the outer twin is calm, the inner twin is flustered. If the inner twin is calm, the outer twin is flustered. According to the graha that gets placed in this nakshatra these dynamics plays out. Moon getting placed here, the mind brings two natures. If it is the Sun, the personality or ego brings this double nature. If Mercury gets placed in this star the communication and logic would have two very different flavors. When one twin is conducting the business or talk, the other twin can create play or ruckus. The person would flip-flop between the twins.

Rahu, the dragon head eating the Moon (mind) with a gusto
Image credits - សុខគឹមហេង, via Wikimedia Commons

In truth, this asks for the strong will power of the person. That is Mars. But according to Vedic astrology Mars is inimical to Mercury. This upholding of the will power won't happen because being in Gemini the effect of logic with Mercury as the ruling lord is extremely strong. The question Mars would ask is "Can you transcend your logic - Mercury to take charge of the will of the heart- Mars?" Instead, due to the strong influence of Mercury they would choose logic and rationality more. If they could choose the will power then things Mars brings would be much different.

The same Ardra is symbolized by a tear drop as well as a diamond. The tear drop shows the pain and the stress they have in their mind or life due to this star. Inside the person is very pained and crying about something and that inconsolable tears are manifesting as stress on themselves and others. I know Ardra people who due to this stress eating them are not able to sleep or exist calmly. But if they can overcome this pain, capture the will power of Mars (Kuja) the person from a flimsy teardrop would transform into diamond of a person- strong, sharp, tough and not flustered by simple every day happenings of the sixth house energy of Virgo. Virgo energy is there due to the sixth star.

But as the star is ruled by Rahu, the Maya or illusion part becomes a constant friend in their life. Only when that Rahu's head can be cut by the inner truth as Vishnu, the person can find deep inner peace and calm stance in their truth. The diamond or will power (Kuja) also brings another aspect. Kuja is Kumara (the youth) whose another form is Karthikeya. The spear of victory, Vetrivel of Karthikeya was given to him by his mother Parvathi, whose another form is Durga. Rahu, the energy is ruled by Durga. This shows using the will power as tough as a diamond laden spear, the person needs to cut through the illusion of Maya to reach their inner truth of the heart. This inner truth would bring the blessings of Durga whose another name is Vishnumaya. Vishnumaya is the illusion or yoganidra (meditational sleep) the person has that is covering their inner truth - Vishnu.

Mythology: Now why the person is stressed and worried? The answer to this comes in Hindu mythology. Sathi, Daksha's daughter married God Shiva, which was against the wishes of her father. Even though Shiva was God, Daksha's who was very rich thought otherwise. In his perspective Shiva was penniless living in the icy peak of Mount Kailasa within the mountains of Himalayas with deer skin for his dress, ash for accessory and demons (Bhootaganas) for company. Daksha didn't consider that Shiva was a God, enlightened and deeply aware about the workings of the Universe itself. In his eyes, Shiva had no value and was irrelevant.

But Sathi was deeply in love with her consort and thought otherwise. Once Daksha decided to do a yaga or fire sacrifice. Sathi, wanted to go to meet her sisters and mother. But Shiva or Sathi had no invitation due to the bitterness Daksha had for Shiva. Shiva chided Sathi not to go. Sathi kept on insisting to Shiva about her wish to attend the ritual. Finally with deep and heavy heart Shiva agreed to her wish and said she can go without him. But he also forewarned her about her father and what could ensue. Finally, Sathi with the demons went to the ritual on Shiva's bull Nandi.

Shiva roaming the worlds carrying the body of Sathi
Image credits - See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

Seeing Sathi coming on a bull with the demons (Bhootaganas) accompanying her, all the invitees started laughing at her. To add insult to injury Daksha started scolding Shiva saying how incompetent and worthless his son-in-law was. Sathi already upset she was getting laughed at further insulting her husband by Daksha became salt being rubbed on the injury. She became angry, bold and blazing. Remember this is the same energy of Shakthi who in Sanga period took birth as Kannaki. I have written a blog on it. First, she communicated she was not the daughter of Daksha any more. Even though she loved her dad nothing was going to stop her from defending her consort. She became angry like a wildfire, started standing up for her consort and gave a piece of her mind. As Shiva had already forewarned her and due to the truth, that she didn't listen to that loving advice, she was also hesitant to go back to Kailasa. In that anger and pain, she created a fire through meditation and self-immolated herself.

The question can come, she too was a Goddess and could have charred the whole yagna hall using her meditational power. Most probably there are back stories to back up this act. But I do have a few points that poke the head of patriarchy here. Did Sathi needed permission to see her father from her spouse? Didn't she have her own inner power and was she a will-less person between two loving males in her family? Sathi herself is Shakthi or energy incarnate. Couldn't have she changed the outcome of the story with her meditational power? But it is a mythological story and questions may be irrelevant.

Anyway, as soon as Sathi died in the meditaional pyre, the bull - Nandi and the other demons ran to Kailasa to inform Shiva this information. Shiva who was heartbroken, enraged and fuming as a wild-fire rushed to the yaga hall with his Bhoothaganas. There he started doing the Thandava or the dance of death of an enraged and angry human of a husband. His demons started to kill the invitees, poke the eyes out or maim the limbs. Heads rolled, eyes popped and trunks got detached from limbs. In that angry dance Shiva plucked a lock of hair from his head and beat it on the floor. From that the terrible, angry dark Goddess Kali (here, Kali becomes the daughter of Shiva as he created her) and the terror of an asura, demon Veerabhadra took form. They started devouring on the invitees, sages and humans.

This Thandava dance and the chaos in the ritual hall is the underlying energy of Ardra. Here Shiva was so strong he created two personalities Kali and Veerabhadra. Shiva was raging like wildfire and angry, from a meditative Shiva he transformed into the ferocious and fear invoking storm God, Rudra. This is another aspect of Ardra that the person becomes angry and volatile like Rudra, if they are flustered. This is the energy space of the nakshatra. But that anger and rage can be controlled by the person if Durga as well as Karthikeya are invoked. Remember, Shiva accepted wisdom or jnana from Karthikeya later.

Urdhav Tandava by Shiva, Tanjore temple
Image credits - tommy, via Wikimedia Commons

Once the people were killed and the ritual hall itself was demolished, with inconsolable sadness Shiva started roaming around the fourteen worlds carrying the dead body of his dear wife on his shoulders. This symbolizes the tear drop of Ardra nakshatra. Nobody could console or pacify him. Anyone coming in front of him was destroyed by the might of his third eye (Trikannu). For eons and eternities, Shiva roamed around with the dead body on his shoulder. It took eons for Parvathy to come into the picture and marry Shiva. The foundational energy of home (four provided by Parvathy) came much later compared to the chaos of the lower form of number six. This chaotic nature of the ritual hall, Thandava and the deep sadness and inconsolable energy of Shiva is the energy of this nakshatra.

How to tackle this energy? The first point we need to keep in mind is that the person is extremely powerful wherever and whichever planet gets placed in Thiruvathira. Shiva is a very powerful God - the masculine incarnate. Above this he is enraged and very angry. So, only a powerful Soul who can handle this energy would take birth in this star. But the person themselves may have no realization about this truth. This is due to the fact, Rahu rules this nakshatra. The inner and personal truth of Vishnu is kept hidden under a veil of the illusion or Rahu. Others could feel this underlying power and energy while the person themselves would have zero idea or clue. Rahu would mask it.

The person would feel they are a victim of circumstances as the energy is the chaos of the ritual hall. A lot of people have been invited to watch the yagya or show in the physical life. All have some complaints, hassles or worry. Remember some invitees have no limbs, some no eyes and some no life itself. So, all the people who bring experiences into their life would have complaints or worries of their own. As Shiva also came with Bhootaganas, some friends or acquaintances could bring the cheat or deceiver energy. If the person is deeply unaware, they themselves can embrace the lower energy of Rahu.

Many can be highly wise or knowledgeable as Rahu in his highest form is a magician of a healer. But in lower energies Rahu is the wheeler dealer of a gambling pit or Black Jack table. Rahu is already a very volatile shadow energy and above that Shiva is another terror of an energy. Think of both the energies and that of the anger of Sathi, the anger of Daksha and the making fun of Sathi by others. All these once a while would poke their heads in the person's life. They can hurt others by their comments, digs or devaluation in an unaware state. Daksha poked at Shiva and his perceived incompetence. But in truth the same Shiva also is a yoga or meditation incarnate. This again brings the dualism of the twins of Gemini. One twin behaving like one way and the other twin behaving the other way.

Head of Rahu cut by Vishnu as Mohini
Image credits - Unknown author, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

Above this, the nakshatra also has the energy of Shiva roaming around the world carrying a dead body. What is the energy of a dead body? It is the energy of the past. The body is dead and has no life. The situation or circumstance symbolized by the dead body is no more and has transformed into a new situation. Shiva is sad about a situation that no longer exists but he very much would have preferred that previous situation and is craving for it. But before the sadness the angry situation happened. The anger and rage of complaint or confusion comes first. Then, comes the energy of regrets, sadness or lost situations. Basically, due to their unawareness they become an angry puppet in the hands of the Mayavi (illusionist) Rahu.

Usually, the person brings some deep sadness or pain from a past life. The root cause of this pain is kept in the heart or the subconscious mind. The person themselves may have no clue about this or may not even have access to this information in this lifetime. The access to this information many times is tied up to the grace we bring from previous lifetimes - Purvapunya. According to the fifth lord and Ganesha who rules the body of the snake - Kethu, the person may get access or not, to transform the situation. As this energy sits within the subconscious mind or DNA, it attracts similar experience to the person.

They would try to fix the situation but may get more and more entrenched in it. Because the root energy of some long-lost dynamics is sitting within the core of the person in the DNA or the subconscious mind. The person must realize this is an energy from a past life, start to do self-work, take the spear of a will power, cut the head of confusion, chaos, anger, illusion and rage - Rahu. Then through thorough self-reflection go deep within to the ancestral/ spiritual realm of Kethu with the help of Ganesha - wisdom, Karthikeya - will power, Durga - inner intention and find the inner or personal truth for oneself - Vishnu. All these divine energies can be used as per one feel to cut out the confusion of the Rahu ensnared mind (Moon) or another graha.

The chaos and confusion they feel others are bringing to them is not outside, but the deep root cause sitting within. The energy of being made valueless or devaluation either happened in a past life or in the very early childhood. In the above story the energy of devaluation comes. Daksha devalued Sathi as well as Shiva. Somehow and somewhere the Soul would get devalued and they would start to feel they are powerless and valueless. But remember this is a very powerful Soul - A Shiva as storm God Rudra who is doing a Thandava.

They may feel they are powerless, are getting devalued and being taken to task. In truth, it is the ancestral and spiritual guides who are taking them to task to make them realize their own truth of how powerful of a Soul they are. This work of finding their inner power is cut out for them by the ancestors. Until they themselves realize this, people loads and loads would come to complain, bring hassle and even put them down. The answer to their deep pain lies not outside but deep within their core. Because of the devaluation they feel, they also devalue people who try to bring value to them. A person who feels no value can't accept the value another gives. Unfortunate truth.

Rudra Shiva Temple Statue, Tala
Image credits - Post of India, GODL-India,
via Wikimedia Commons

The truth is that they are not a flimsy tear drop that is getting thrashed but a diamond of a Soul who has some innate wisdom to share. Shiva as Rudra is the energy. Shiva in meditative pose is the first teacher - Dakshinamoorthy. The wisdom and knowledge lie not with Rahu, but with Kethu. Wherever Kethu gets placed in the chart, there they have deep inner wisdom. But the access is not going to be easy as the anger, rage, ego and chaos of Rahu first needs to be transcended and transformed. Until then the person would flow between Sathi asking permission, Sathi going to the ritual hall with companions, there she as well as Shiva getting devalued, a previous situation (Sathi) coming to an end, Shiva enraged doing Thandava, creating terror of circumstances or worries as Veerabhadra or Kali, destruction of the yaga and finally roaming around the worlds with a previously finished situation (the dead body). It is not necessary these energies have to be outside as physical experiences. They can also be inside eating up the person keeping them away from calmness, peace as well as sleep.

This is just a small snap shot of Rahu ruled Ardra nakshatra. The key of truth to their peace and calmness lies within the ancestral and spiritual realm with Kethu. If we truly want to see an inconsolable Soul who is deeply pained, angry and always finding chaos/ confusion as their guest for life, find an Ardra ruled human. We can get a glimpse of the angry Thandava of Shiva as the storm God Rudra with Veerabhadra, Kali and Bhootagana for an ensemble. It is indeed a tough energy to tackle and only a very strong Soul could handle it. Hope, Ardra realizes this and becomes humble/ effective to work at this. Ego, arrogance and selfish rides would propitiate the lower energy of Rahu.

Wishing every Ardra to find the deep joy and peace their Kethu can provide. I can just wish. The inner work is theirs to do. That is always a personal choice and free will!

Thank you for reading! Hope all of you are doing great and keeping your loved ones and yourself safe. As previously discussed, we are not yet out of the woods regarding the pandemic or the many different variants. We may have to live with the virus as any other diseases like flu, malaria, cholera or the common cold. Eventually hopefully every human would develop immunity against it. We may have to find ways to boost our immunity, improve our physical, mental, emotional health and live with the pandemic as another every day happening. I wish you good and safe weekend, and I'll see you in two weeks! 😉

Next post: Lunar mansions - Effect on the mind!
Image Credits - Image Credits - Swaroopa website, Pixabay.com, Wikimedia Commons

The Swaroopa Website!

2022-02-25T05:30:00.542-05:00

In this new year to help people, I am putting a sale on my readings. I have reduced the price of my readings drastically 70-80%. Hope people take advantage of this price reduction.

Last week, we discussed what are the true intentions behind my Swaroopa Store. The concept called Swaroopa or 'Authentic Self' itself started from an epiphany I was graced to have in late 2016. Before that I was living a life where my mind was saying something and my heart was prodding to do another thing. When we have two entirely different realities existing within us there is always an inner tussle and ensuing inner fights. But the person would have absolutely no clue about this truth. Only the mind becomes a jumbled mess where the person is not able to figure out the head or tail of who they are.

I have lived a reality of knowing only a very small sliver of myself for 45 years. It took me seven to eight years of internal work and self-reflection to figure out this dynamic. When I started my inner journey any time I used to contemplate on the question, "Who am I", a sinking feeling used to embrace me. At that time, I used to feel fearful of this feeling of shifting sands beneath my legs, as if there was no solid foundation.

Because that was the truth. The identity I had built until then was from my rational mind, the scientist, a person who loves biology. This was the truth and a fact as the time for the deeper reality to emerge was not ripe yet. If we realize, a person becomes aware of their true nature only when the exact time arrives. Before that they would have no awareness and no experience would be provided as well. But there would be a deep feeling that something is missing. This surface reality is known as the illusion or Maya in Vedic Philosophy.

Maya or the Cave: Greek philosopher Plato has described this as the Allegory of the Cave where humans are chained to a wall their whole life. From here they are watching moving images projected onto the wall by the shadow of a fire behind them and give these images life. In this scenario, the humans have no clue they are within the cave or chained. This is the exact concept I perceive as Maya in Vedic philosophy. The everyday human is living a life within a cave of their physical existence chained to smaller perspectives and watching the everyday happenings on walls of their minds. The greater truth of their reality is outside this mental cave within the heart.


The Swaroopa Website Image credits - Swaroopa

The sinking feeling, I had was the truth as there was only a foundation of surface level sand in this reality. It was imperative to go fully within that quick sand (of course metaphorical) and get immersed until we hit the true reality of our heart - the solid foundation of our inner truth to build upon. It is almost impossible to understand our own deeper truth without mindfulness and inner contemplation. When our own mind as logic and rationality puts a thick veil on our awareness how can we know our deeper truths?

I was always under the impression there was a very separate reality than what we are living. That is a wrong perception. I had to uproot this notion. The true reality is not different from what we live. It is just deeper. From the logic or rational mind, we live only 20% of what we are meant to live. The remaining 75-80% is kept within our heart and emotions. According to my perspective, a person living from the mind is only able to access 20% of what they are meant to experience. The remaining 80% is locked within their feelings and emotions.

In the late 18th and early 19th century logic and rational thought process were given much importance, the 20-25% rational mind saw amazing growth as science, rationality and facts. Yes, this logic is very important. Because without the logic, the mushy realm of emotions cannot be made sense of. But when we embrace logic alone, we are also losing 75-80% of our essence tied up within our heart and emotions. Now, we would be able to understand the march of humans to the psychologists and mental health providers. When humans are functioning from 20% of their mental capacity, it is a given that the person becomes mentally tired and confused very fast.

Vedic philosophy: Therefore, in the ancient Indian philosophy the mind and its total capacity was given much importance. The mind and mindset build as well as breaks lives. Mind is the bridge between the inner spiritual realm and the outer material realm. If we have noticed, why are some people able to use their minds to terrific extents like Nikola Tesla or Abraham Lincoln and others can't even figure themselves out or their lives? Mind you, Tesla or Lincoln didn't come from rich families, they didn't have the support of wealthy parents or uncles. I have read when Tesla alighted the ship in New York harbor he had four cents in his pocket and few of his poems. Same way Lincoln had to do hard labor throughout his childhood and youth.


The illusion or Maya Image credits - Pixabay.com

How were they able to achieve what many of us only can dream of? This is because they found a way to use their minds to a much higher potential. But then we could ask, if they can use their minds so well, maybe we can as well. But if we are keeping eighty percent of our emotions locked up within our hearts and using only twenty percent of the logic, how can we ever get to that greater potential? This is the cave of the material reality we as humans are living.

Once a while in a moment of quietude or reverie we feel there is something much greater that we are missing. This leads to that innate longing every human is doing. A search for that unending happiness or joy all through our life. If we can perceive it, everyone is doing this search for some long-lost moment of joy. But the mistake is we are searching outside for that kept deep within. This cave and its reality are our logical mind and the outer reality. The Sun outside the inner cave is deep within in our heart. The concept of the inner cave outside and the Sun within. The concept needs to be looked from an inside out perspective.

But if the mind is littered with unwanted thoughts, ideas and emotions, the human never figures out the inner cave as well as the inner Sun. For this task, the mind, the logic as well as a clear thought process is needed. Unfortunately, after some unsuccessful search people take comfort in material things that ranges from alcohol, drugs to shopping and foods. Anything that keeps our mind addicted and takes away its sharpness is a block to finding the deeper inner potential.

A sharp mind is needed to unravel this greater potential that is stored in the spiritual dimension above and beyond space and time. First to access this realm we need a clear mind and thoughts. Above that to take an idea, capture, process and bring it into the reality of the three-dimensional material world ruled by space and time; the mind and thoughts must be ever clearer. For such deep inner work a large amount of time, energy, effort and mind is needed. In this rush for making something out of our lives who has the time to rest, contemplate and relax?

Plato's Allegory of the Cave
Image credits - 4edges, via Wikimedia Commons

Many of these great men and women found themselves in their lives with a lot of quiet time in their hands. At that time, they allowed their minds to wander to the possibilities that may be there for their grasp. The question arises, if they were able to capture such a huge potential for themselves, why can't we who are also fitted with a mind and thought process?

The reality of a custom-built mind: As humans we find ourselves getting educated in schools, universities and group settings. From around four years onwards we are finding ourselves within groups of humans. For a society to function well such groups and educational methods are needed. Within each school or college, we can give individual attention, but with 7B+ humans and a lot of young people in this world, individual education impossible.

But the truth is each mind and thought process is custom built for that person. An artistic person would have a creative mind and a logical person, a rational mind. But every book, concept or idea in this world is written by another mind. If we keep on reading ideas, books and concepts of other minds/ leaders, which mind is there to read ours. See the paradox each human is living? We as a human race are busy reading other minds whether as spiritual books like Bhagavad Gita, Bible or Quran or other self-help books.

For myself, I did the same thing. From 2001 to 2015, I was on a self-help book reading trip. I read so many self-improvement books, all the concepts started to become a mush in my head. Which idea to follow, which concept to embrace and what action to take? There are a billion ideas and concepts out there. But every single one of them is an idea or thought that came out of another mind. Suddenly one day it dawned on me. If I am meant to always embrace ideas or thoughts from other people, why have I been given my own mind and thought process? A very valid question, correct?

Isha Upanishad, Verses 1-3
Image credits - Ms Sarah Welch, via Wikimedia Commons

This was the thought that started my inner search and thought process. If we are meant to absorb ideas and perspectives from all other outer leaders and teachers, why are we given our own minds and intellects? It is enough for a few leaders to have their brains and minds in that case. All of us could follow those leaders and just keep our minds/ brains locked away in safe deposit boxes.

Instead, the truth is every person is born with a custom-built mind that would work perfectly for their life. That mind may not work for another life, but it is going to work for them as they were born with it. Now, there are some Souls who find themselves with a challenged or broken mind. Unfortunately for them they have other struggles or experiences to go through. This blog post is for that ordinary human being who is trying to make a good life on this Earth plane. If the person is not meant to use their mind, why were they fitted with such a mind. This is a very apt question to ask.

The Swaroopa Website: When such a thought arose in my mind, I was brought to the realization a lot of people in this world are living lives not capturing their full potential. Many have no idea who they are and what their mind like. My question to myself in late 2016 was why have not anyone thought about it? Why are people living their lives reading books written around 1500 or 2000 years ago? Yes, many of the concepts are beautiful and very worthy. But how can books or concepts written a thousand years ago work for this very modern, digital age. Why are young people always trying to look up to another outer leader instead of deeply trusting and following their minds and ideas?

Isn't there something wrong here. Aren't we keeping our minds and brains locked up within and using another's thoughts and ideas? Who is going to write about this? Suddenly it came to my mind- "Yes, these thoughts are given to you because you are meant to write about it". That is how I took up my pen to write a blog. But the blog is one side of the puzzle. Not everyone is ready to sit, read a blog and self-analyze. Some people may be interested in getting a personal Vedic horoscope analysis. So, I need to open a store and Swaroopa Store was born.

A peaceful mind of innate joy
Image credits - Pixabay.com

There should be a place where people can access both. That is how I started The Swaroopa Website. The website I can later use to expand more when I get other avenues to highlight my perspectives. The underlying intentions are to share my spiritual gifts and talents to help other humans, one at a time. We as humanity are sitting with treasure chests of inner wisdom, knowledge and spiritual guidance that we must turn within and access. But majority of humans don't think about using their own minds to do something for themselves. Only a very small percentage of spiritual people, entrepreneurs or innovators try to search this realm to bring out some new perspectives and ideas. What about a whole lot of others?

Is humanity as a whole deemed to be turned outside and wile away their time when in truth they were always meant to use their mind and thought process. Is it enough to sit and read outer books that were written thousands of years ago? What about the inner book sitting within each one of us? If we don't realize this truth today in 2022, then when? Isn't it high time to access our own in-built capabilities, minds and brains, so that our lives work for us? Within the society, community and family shouldn't we live exactly as ourselves? Authentic? Swaroopa website is a very tiny attempt to make people aware of these deep truths sitting within each human. An extremely tiny attempt at that - My Swaroopa website! 😊🙏

Thank you for reading! Hope all of you are doing great and keeping your loved ones and yourself safe. As previously discussed we are not yet out of the woods regarding the pandemic or the many different variants. We may have to live with the virus as any other diseases like flu, malaria, cholera or the common cold. Eventually hopefully every human would develop immunity against it. We may have to find ways to boost our immunity, improve our physical, mental, emotional health and live with the pandemic as another every day happening.

I wish you good and safe weekend, and I'll see you in two weeks! 😉

Next post: Ardra nakshatra - The inconsolable human!
Image Credits - Image Credits - Swaroopa website, Pixabay.com, Wikimedia Commons

The Swaroopa Store!

2022-02-11T05:30:00.595-05:00

In this new year to help people, I am putting a sale on my readings. I have reduced the price of my readings drastically 70-80%. Hope people take advantage of this price reduction. I would write a post about this on my Facebook page, profile, Instagram and other groups soon.

Today I am writing about my Swaroopa store and the intentions behind creating it. Even though I created the company three years ago and the store two years back, I never wrote about it here or discussed my intentions. This post is about that. Let me elaborate on my thoughts and perspectives on my store.

True potential: As all of you know, I started this blog four years ago. This career and creativity came as an afterthought of an epiphany I was given after the disastrous crash of my previous career and a subsequent midlife identity crisis. The one and only thought that bubbled up - "Have you ever considered your spiritual gifts?" Just a one-pointed question and nothing else. I had to figure out everything from scratch, the blog, where to blog, what to blog, how to blog and what topics to discuss. I was terrified and fearful. But in the last four years, a procession of concepts came through my mind and fingertips, I have deeply realized humans as a whole have not even scratched the surface of their true potential.

This true potential for all humans doesn't fully exist in the physical or even the mental realm. So, from a logical mind accessing the physical resources provided, we can never access this total potential. This has to be accessed from the spiritual dimension through our emotions. The blessing or the curse of this concept is, the potential and ideas have to come through the mind. The mind has to become a crystal clear and smooth channel with deepest clarity for thoughts.

As you all may know, I intuitively feel that a higher Self or a Soul exists and most probably each Soul has spent many lifetimes (again my intuition, cannot prove) before coming into this current one. From those lifetimes most probably, we have carried essences of those experiences into this lifetime. In Vedic- Indian philosophy these essences are called Vasanas- tendencies or patterns we carry from other lifetimes. Above this, we also find ourselves prisoners to patterns, habits and behaviors our ancestors or family carried. So, basically a human above being prisoner to physical or mental patterns, is prisoner to even emotional or spiritual tendencies. This is the Allegory of the Cave, Plato has elaborated according to my perspective. As long as we are not aware of these patterns or tendencies, we are prisoner to them, without self- knowledge or in a dark light-less cave and are not even aware of it. In a cave and not aware of it.

Astrologers, those who deeply understand astrology can understand this spiritual or emotional hang ups. These are hang-ups or knots or thought processes that is keeping the human stuck, stagnant in an essence or energy that is not working for their current life. The current moment leads to the future moment yet to come, which also would not work. That essence could have worked for a previous lifetime or past. But may not be for the present time, day or age. The human is stuck in a stagnant pool of energy or essence. They could only feel, something is not right and life is not flowing. But why or what or how, they would have no idea. Now, the astrologers who don't fully understand these dynamics, use their knowledge of astrology to their advantage, make the individual fearful of Karma, bad energy or the doom and gloom that is going to fall upon the querent's head.

The Swaroopa Store
Image credits - Swaroopa

Personal human reality: My perspective is a person has their free will for correct thought and to take corresponding intentions and actions to change their life. But to take correct intentions and actions, a free mind and a clear intuition is needed, the channel through which the original ideas and thought process can come. What if the person is hung up on energies, perspectives and behaviors of previous lifetimes or ancestral patterns/ behaviors or tough experiences of the past. These behaviors or patterns may have stopped working long back and is actually a block to their truest potential of ancestral and spiritual inner gifts, how can they access the inner spiritual guidance? The quagmire many humans are finding themselves in. A surface level mental and physical reality and a deeper emotional and spiritual reality.

As long as the deeper emotional and spiritual reality is not worked out to make it lighter and easier, the true potential and inner gifts are blocked. In other words, the person is just living from a 20-30% of their true potential. The remaining 70-80% is stuck within the emotional and even more in the spiritual dimensions. Let me take my example. I was stuck in a career that gave me a lot of science knowledge and rational thoughts, but never truly worked for me. The surface level physical and mental reality.

But there was a deeper emotional and spiritual reality of astrology, spirituality, philosophy, metaphysics, mythology and the tons of inner masters and guides whom I never listened to, for around forty-seven years of my life. Astrology was just a random chart analysis for a friend or family member, spirituality was the mantras I used to pray every evening, mythology was the beautiful temple visits I used to enjoy and philosophy was the random book or website I used to read. My deeper reality sitting untouched. When 70-80% of the energy of my ideas and thoughts were stuck in this deeper reality, how can the science and the logical mind work fully to its true potential? It didn't. I was always stuck and stagnant with my career/ creativity and finally everything came crashing down in my late forties. This led to inner work and this very different career.

Now, let me write the following concept. As all of us know, we live in a three-dimensional physical reality. In this reality everything has a form and occupies a space. We have a physical body, that occupies a space. The car moving through the road occupies a space. This is the reality of the physical world. This world also is ruled by another dimension- time. The physical body has a time of maximum hundred to hundred and ten years. Same way everything has the dimension of time attached to it within this physical body and world. Meetings, collaborations, engagements all have the time criteria. Same way, all physical things like phones, computers, milk, bread, animals, trees all have the essence of time attached to it. Limitedness! The limit kept by our physical body and the time attached to it.

The physical reality I consider as the third dimension. Fourth is the aspect of time. But once a person from the physical body goes back to a Soul state or spirit state after death, there is no limit of time or space. What if, this is the spiritual realm of ascended masters, spirit guides, ancestral fathers/ mothers, Gods and Goddesses. The concepts I write or that comes in Bible, Bhagavad Gita, Quran or Guru Granth Sahib most probably comes from there. According to me, this is the reality from an inner fifth dimension that can bring limitless potential to each human. Of course, my thought process and idea.


Swaroopa.net website Image credits - Swaroopa

To access these truths each human is fitted with a mind, intuition and a clear inner channel of communication. But this potential is the reality beyond time and space. The hassle is to take these concepts or ideas and make it workable within the three-dimensional physical reality that is governed by time and space. But even to do that first a clear mind, clarity of thoughts and a smooth inner channel for spiritual communication is needed. If as humans we are totally bogged down by our everyday stress, worry and smaller aspects, how can we ever pull ourselves back a lot from our own life and look at greater aspects and concepts. The concept of seeing only the trees, but totally missing the forest.

Seeing the trees as well as the forest: Now, give this a thought. What if a human can live a very physical life of "seeing the trees" but also a very spiritual life of seeing the forest as well? In other words, having a full physical life with utmost potential with the help of a very vibrant inner spiritual life. Mind you, the life is still lived by the person. But instead of randomly seeking the opinions and thoughts of hundred outer persons, seeking the opinion and thoughts of the one single person - You for you and I for me. But these thoughts and ideas are not just from a shallow 20% of a surface level mind but from such a depth, it traverses the third dimension of space, the fourth dimension of time and gets the guidance from the fifth or a higher dimension where the person is provided with a set of guides and teachers. Inner teachers, guides and masters.

These spiritual beings most probably are much mightier and lighter beings compared to the heavy three -dimensional realities we live in. The guidance they give many times we may not capture or understand. In other words, when they are speaking Latin, we are speaking Greek. So, the first point is the person needs to reconcile any unresolved baggage of emotional, mental or spiritual hassles they had in this life or brought from other lifetimes. (As I mentioned before, I intuitively feel, there are other lifetimes.) Because a very clear channel of inner communication is needed. For this inner work, becoming okay and free of heavy emotions, mental or spiritual hang-ups is a must. Otherwise, it is positive the person cannot understand the incoming concepts or ideas.

Once the channel is clear, then, the next hassle is learning the language of the ascended beings. Even if the person is sixty or seventy years old, without learning the language, which many times is extremely specific to the mind of the person that is communicated to, the channel is broken. This language and idea exchange also happens through the bridge, which the human has to create within their mind called Antahkaranah. I have discussed the concept of antahkaranah before in my mind series. There are many steps and many rungs in the spiritual path.

It is not easy or a walk in the park. Spiritual work is the most difficult work there is, as no other person can do it on our behalf. A robot or an AI cannot be employed to do the work. A computer cannot do it as there is no precedence or how to go about it. None. Each day, each minute and second, the person is opened to new concepts, thoughts and doors. It is a constant evolution. Hence in Hinduism and Buddhism, the process is symbolized as the gentle, continuous opening of the thousand petal lotus, the highest chakra in the physical body- Sahasrara. Towards these intentions of helping people to access their highest potential, I write my blog, has my website connected to the blog and in the last two years opened my store. The same purpose of helping people to achieve their Swaroopa, authentic Self and capturing their highest potential. It beautifully aligns with my own Dharma of using my spiritual gifts and insights to help people.

The Swaroopa Blog
Image credits - Swaroopa

The part played by Swaroopa store: As mentioned spiritual path is the most difficult path any human would ever walk because to even take the first step into this path, the person has to clear every baggage of mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual hang ups they have accrued in this lifetime or brought from previous lifetimes. Patterns, behaviors, hangups, hassles and every conundrum they ever had has to be looked at, felt deeply, cleared and reconciled. Because without that there is no clear channel for the personal inner spiritual guidance to come about. This itself is a huge load of work to do. Above this one has to learn the language their masters and guides speak.

It is a truth, the potential that the three-dimensional mind brings is much limited compared to the potential that is enshrined for each one of us in the spiritual dimension. If we again take my experience, I was happy just to have a regular, ordinary biotechnology job, which my mind helped me to pursue. A good career, but a very limited one. I would just gradually progress in the rungs of my career, if I am lucky enough to have good bosses. A mirage many times. But in this current career, I cannot perceive any limits except my own energy, battery or bandwidth of my mind, and the time I need to do something. Above that time to engage and interact with other human beings. This of course is part of the physical reality.

As this area of life and life guidance is very tough, many people don't want to take it up or are hesitant to take up. But it is a truth, the potential each one can have is unlimited, if the spiritual channels are helped to be cleared and opened. What if there is a person who can mentor, guide and be a torch while the person is trying to capture their own unlimited potential? Instead of the person walking the tough forest of the spiritual path alone, a hand that has a torch that shines some bright lights so that the person is able to walk without worry or fear about inner demons or dragons. (Carl Jung as well as Joseph Campbell has elaborated on killing the inner demons or dragons.)

This is where I can use my spiritual gifts to help clients, so that they can above capturing their three -dimensional reality of a mind can even capture the reality of the limitless potential of their own spiritual reality. For this I use a mixture of my intuition, insights and astrological knowledge. I even use Hindu mythology, Vedic philosophy and my own spiritual guidance. I am not a coach, but a spiritual mentor and guide. The client or the person getting my astrological readings would have to walk the path, take charge of their purpose and bring in their will power. The inner work and path are supposed to be walked by the client. But I would use all my spiritual gifts and insights to help them to unravel their own emotional and spiritual hassles, so that they are able to access their own clear channel of inner communication.

Swaroopa - Authentic Self that leads to the highest potential
Image credits - Pixabay.com

This work I have done for the last ten to fifteen years for many of my family and friends. Two years back, I was guided to open a business and share it with the public as well. I was very hesitant to write about my business and store here for a pretty long time. This week realized that is an inner mental block I have to overcome. Finally holding the rod of my inner courage, I am writing about my store and the underlying purpose and intention.

I deeply feel the freedom and joy of walking my own authentic and original path. I would like a lot many people to enjoy the same deep inner freedom, joy and bliss of being an authentic human here, now in this physical life walking their own path. Why wait for that bliss -Ananda in the afterlife or in another life? But here, in this life, as early as possible by working on and reconciling all the inner emotional or spiritual issues. As I write this, Sunlight is pouring into my room through the window. The symbolic sign of the bright and light inner Sun shining brilliantly. My Swaroopa store is an attempt to help a lot of people to capture their own brightest inner Sun to become their own most authentic Self- Swaroopa! Hope people would use this service and my spiritual knowledge/ insights to make their own life and path brighter, lighter and joyful. To embrace your own deepest Swaroopa!🌺

Thank you for reading! Hope all of you are doing great and keeping your loved ones and yourself safe. As previously discussed we are not yet out of the woods regarding the pandemic or the many different variants. We may have to live with the virus as any other diseases like flu, malaria, cholera or the common cold. Eventually hopefully every human would develop immunity against it. Just yesterday read an article that Israeli research has found that Vitamin D deficiency affects how severe the disease is. Like this we may have to find ways to boost our immunity, improve our physical, mental, emotional health and live with the pandemic as another every day happening.

I wish you good and safe weekend, and I'll see you in two weeks! 😉

Next post: The Swaroopa Website!
Image Credits - Image Credits - Swaroopa Store, Swaroopa website, Swaroopa blog, Pixabay.com

The masks we wear!

2022-01-21T05:30:00.542-05:00

In this New Year of 2022, I want to wish all my blog readers a fantastic and wonderful 2022. May our every wish, desire, aspirations and intentions take root, grow to a massive Oak or Banyan tree, bloom and produce every kind of fruit to its fullest potential. Tadasthu! So, it is!🌹

Happy New Year, all!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

As I had mentioned in my previous post, from this year onwards, I would be publishing once every two weeks, so that I give ample time for my online enterprise and business. That way along with the gift of the word through my blog, I can also help people with my spiritual guidance and mentor-ship. In my personal life, I have guided and helped people for the last fifteen to twenty years. Now, my spiritual team is guiding me to open up my gifts to the public. My shop -Swaroopa is online and running.

Newer doors and newer aspirations: We as humanity are in the middle of a pandemic with newer variants, vaccines, regulations, dynamics and newer status quo every day. Every new year is a burst of fresh energy that we can use towards our advantage. We can ask that the humans have set the calendar and a new year is going to come around every January. True. The calendar was set by the humans. But thousands or millions of minds at the same time are thinking about a new year. That is a huge ball of energy.

Every mind when it thinks is bringing in a thought form into the Universe. This remains as a thought or mental form until the person intends, plans and takes actions on that particular thought or idea. That is the difference between a mental thought and a physical action. As long as the person doesn't intend and act, it stays as a mental form. For example, it was in early 2017, an idea for a blog or writing struck my mind. I had to think, intend, chart out the steps and take up the pen. Otherwise, it would have just gone back into the ether as yet another random idea.

Today when I stand at the point of four years and 230+ posts, I realize every step was a challenge to fight against my inner demons of self-doubts, fear, worry and low self-confidence. Every new step is indeed a tussle to find our footing in a brand-new area outside our comfort zone. But as humans we have a choice, either to stay stuck in some old energy dynamics or move our life towards newer vistas. Life is always presenting us with opportunities. But when we are deeply bogged down by everyday life of worry, struggles or rat race, many times opportunities get missed that life presents to us.

What makes a human different from a cat or a bird or a squirrel? They are living in the moment just trying to live that very second. Their brain is equipped for that. But a human has a well-developed mind and brain. That points towards the truth that more is expected from the humans. We also come equipped with many different talents and interests. If we are not meant to use them to our advantage, why are we provided with those gifts, talents or interests in the first place? Logical question, right?

New doors to fresh ideas, perspectives and aspirations!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

For example, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were provided with brilliant, logical minds. If they were not using it towards science or some other logical fields, why were they given such minds, correct? Same way, Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela were equipped with deep compassion and humanitarian tendencies. If they were not meant to use it towards people and their upliftment, why those talents were provided in the first place? This modern 2000s run on logic and rationality. But doesn't this feel deeply logical and rational? In such a case, why are humans with musical talents going for computer programming? Innate computer programmers doing medicine or a person who is cut out to be a surgeon ending up being a graphics designer?

Authenticity and deep awareness: This lead to the concept of deeply knowing and being aware of oneself and one's talents. This knowledge is stored in the inner sanctums of our heart. To access this, we need deep quietude or calmness of our mind, as the metaphorical heart lies behind the mind. But humans have always looked outside for guidance as that is how we have lived for the last 10,000 years. Guidance always came from outside through parents, teachers, guides and leaders. For a young child, this is a must.

But in-between we also need to make effort to know who we are for ourselves. Otherwise, there comes a point where we would be actually living two realities. An outer reality from the logical mind and an inner reality from the heart. Many times, the person themselves have no clue about this deep inner reality because this knowledge is stored deep within, normal thought process may not unlock this door. For example, I was a research scientist for around forty-seven years of my life. The reality from my mind, as I had spent around twenty-five to twenty-seven years getting an education in science and biotechnology.

My parents are always very supportive of my aspirations. My mind was deeply interested in science and logic. Considering that as my truth, I went for science and biotechnology, never realizing there was a deeper inner truth locked within my heart. All through my young age my head was immersed in Hindu mythological stories, temple history and fantastical concepts. The clue that there was a deeper reality existent within me. It took almost four decades for it to come out.

Awareness about our Self, truth
and innate reality!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Only deep self-awareness can take the two inner realities, one from the mind and the other from the heart, meld it together and live an authentic and innate, true reality. Unfortunately, as the modern human is very outside focused, this deep self-contemplation and inner reflection is never pursued. This leads to the person living two different realities, many times. One, the mental reality that leads to actions and the physical life. The second, a deeper reality about which the person has regrets, disappointments or a could-have, would-have nostalgia. This is the inner reality of the heart and the real truth of the person.

What happens, when a person is living from the mind and not the heart? The outer world has seen the person through their mind. This is the identity the person has developed and shown to the world. Many times, they may be afraid or even ashamed to show the truth or the reality of their heart. This was I in the early 2000s. I was terrified even ashamed to speak about my interest in mythology, abstract philosophy, Vedic astrology or spirituality. Remember, I was the proverbial scientist with my logic, laboratory data and experimental analysis. How can a very logical person that too a scientist talks about God/Goddess energy, Soul, energy dynamics or abstract concepts that cannot be experimentally proven, but only be experientially felt?

The masks, we wear: This is what leads us to hide our true reality with a shallower mental reality of a mask. Unfortunately, in the modern world, many humans are forced to live such two realities- one of a mental or more outer reality and another of a deeper, truer reality. I have lived such a life for about forty-five years and I deeply understand the feeling of something is not completely real. Because the true reality is vying to come outside and show its face. No, it is not easy. In my case, I struggled with the decision to leave my twenty-five years of biotechnology education behind. It actually led to an almost identity-less state for me for around four to five years. A deeply painful state of not knowing who you are. Many times, the outside world and even close loved ones would have no idea, as all the work is within. In such cases, many instead of doing inner work take the help of pills, medicines or other avenues.

All through those years every other movie or serial or an advertisement would have a part where someone is removing their mask. It took me around six months to contemplate on this mask business to understand, my own higher Self was asking me to remove my mask of a scientist/logical person and start to live as myself- the truest person who has grown up with a deeply spiritual heart, but a very logical mind. To live our life as a very true and authentic being! Is it easy? No, not at all. Because until then, people have seen the masked version. A new identity wants to emanate. Not at all an easy task.

Many times, we have lived a life that has upheld very different perspectives, values and opinions. An overnight 180-degree transformation is practically impossible. This is because our behaviors, attitudes and habits are deeply wired within our subconscious through rote, everyday repetitions. Also, change especially of habits and behaviors are innately difficult. Above this, people around us may feel deeply irritated and uncomfortable to interact with this new person. They will feel like, who is this stranger within a very familiar physical body. This also lead people not to speak up and embrace this true authentic reality. Trust me, I have had my battles. 😅

The masks or personas, we wear! (Note, the color of the mask -maroon, here! 😊)
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Change any day is tough. That too when it pushes us to step out of our comfort zone. Many times, people even if their intuition pushes them to embrace their deep reality, due to this innate difficulty end up not taking that challenge. But then we need to ask ourselves, do we want to live a joyful and authentic life? Shouldn't our own life fully work for us? If we don't do this for ourselves, in this life time, when would we? Do we truly know whether we have another chance at a lifetime? No. So, if we don't deeply embrace who we truly are, we may not find another chance maybe ever again. It was these questions and thoughts that finally made me to have that leap of faith and take up my pen.

Another year of newer vistas: Therefore, every year is yet another chance to move more towards our own authenticity. What is authentic Self or Swaroopa? Each of us is born with an innate underlying nature. Living in a society or community, we start to wear a persona that is agreeable to all around us. When we start to operate always according to what others desire, we start to slowly lose our own innate desires, aspirations and ideas. Finally, we end up living a life others want.

But whenever we start to live truly as who we are, those who deeply love and care about us would respect our decision, support our newer perspectives and paths. Because they are loving the human we are, not the persona or the support/ help we provide. Being authentic we are also extending our innate true nature to others. We are not masking our true intentions or aspirations. For example, anywhere in this world or to any person I can say, yes my intentions are to write a blog, share my perspectives/ ideas and then develop a business where I can share my spiritual gifts for a fee. No masks, no hidden agenda or hidden costs. Just plain, pure, simple and true.

This is the energy of true spirituality. Spirituality, if practiced properly is very simple and elegant. There is no need for tassels, masks, decorations, toppings or agendas. The truth comes out as plain and simple. There is also a deep freedom in being true. The person starts to feel a lightness of being. If we realize, maintaining a mask or persona is hard work. Above maintaining the mask, we also have to suppress our true, authentic Self to the deepest layers of our being, lest it jumps out at very inappropriate places or moments. This brings in heavy lower energies that keeps a person tied to their persona or mask. Inner bondage from the heart and Soul.

Remember, being authentic, doesn't mean arrogant and egotistic. It also means while we respect our inner truth, we also respect the inner truth another person brings along. As our inner truth has a right to exist in this world, so does the inner truth of another. When we extend this respect to another's inner truth, we start to accept the person exactly as they are - religion, political party, perspectives and concepts included. Isn't it high time to get to that perspective in this chaotic, warring and highly divisive current world?

Lightness of being (actually a soap bubble)!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Open the newspaper, switch on the TV or browse the internet. What do we see? Humans who cannot tolerate or exist with another humans. But the laughing matter is, everyone is living within a human body that needs air, water and food as the basic necessities. Take away even one of them, we are dead. Last two years showed us the importance of our simple breath and air. Many humans had to go to the ICU and get connected to the ventilator to have a breath of fresh air. Only today heard on the news, the three other suspects in the George Floyd case were going to be tried in the court of law soon.

The beautiful and very simple concept of Live and let live - where we give respect and value to another's life, voice, perspectives, religion, party, and concepts as long as they are ready to respect and give value to ours. Reciprocity of give and take. If a human as a police officer had realized this concept and deeply understood that it is their duty and responsibility to protect another human. A human being a vulnerable individual who deserves to be protected, even today George Floyd would have lived. So, let us all strive to be authentic and true, while respecting and valuing the authenticity and truth of another. Rest in Peace, George Floyd! 🙏🌷

Thank you for reading! Hope all of you are keeping yourself hale and healthy. The appearance of yet another variant of the virus called O-Micron doesn't help a bit this scenario though. But when the Universe gives us surf waves of life, it is better to keep a surf board handy and surf through the waves of life, rather than getting bogged down by the small details of life. Any way all of us have to live. So, why not live joyfully surfing with a tune on our lips rather than carrying life as a heavy burden on our backs. Humming a tune is better than a load too heavy to carry, right?

I have another announcement to make. From 2022 onwards, I am planning to write the blog once every two weeks. My intuition and spiritual guides are insisting it is high time I put more attention to my business and store. I am not stopping the blog, but instead of every week, I will be publishing a blog every other week. That way, I get ample time to concentrate on my business as well as the blog. Of course, life as Self, kids, parents, spouse, siblings, family, home, pets, friends, acquaintances and all the other aspects of living are always there. Just slightly shifting my focus to bring a newer aspect to the front and center. Definitely, I am continuing the blog and would write more concepts. For sure!

Now, the next post will be on February 4th, 2022 after two weeks. That way I am able to focus on my store and business as well. The idea of moving ahead with the store, business as well as the blog. All avenues covered. Thank you for being a regular reader of my blog. I write for you, that reader who wants to improve, find motivation and become the most authentic version of yourself. Highly motivated and taking responsibility for your own awesome life. Best!🌺

I wish you good and safe holidays, and I'll see you in two weeks! 😉

Next post: The Swaroopa Store!
Image Credits - Image Credits - Pixabay.com

Truth! The Whole Truth!

2021-12-17T05:30:00.475-05:00

We as humanity are finding again at yet another year end, a time to think on all that we set forth or achieved in the last twelve months. A time of self-reflection and contemplation. As a group we are at the end of two years of very tough days of a pandemic. In truth, hasn't the pandemic forced us to concentrate on what is truly important in and for our life? I can see family and friends who are looking at their own life and dropping all the extraneous frills and tassels they have been carrying. Before proceeding any further, I want to wish all Happy holidays and a Merry Christmas! 🎅🎄 Most probably I won't be able to put another post this year. So, wishing every one a very happy and fantastic New year! Happy 2022! 🎈🎊

Wishing all holidays of joy, health and abundance!Image credits - Pixabay.com

For myself, I got introduced to this concept or thought of what is truly important in my own life in the early winter days of 2017. Until then, I was chasing a mirage of a fantastic job and a career. I only knew I wanted a good career in the science field. I had no clue which particular field, area of subject matter would work.

I even have the experience of choosing an area called bio-process, in which I had minimal knowledge dropping the subject I deeply loved, molecular Biology. This was during my MTech days. I used to get great marks in Molecular Biology. But my thought was I already get good marks in molecular Biology. Instead, why don't I choose an area I don't have much knowledge about, bio-process for my six months of project work. That was a huge mistake and the next six months I struggled to my very limit. The result of a deep non-awareness of oneself and what one truly wants.

This was mid-1995. Those days I was operating from a very logical point of view. I had zero idea about the spiritual gifts or insights, I had. It took another twenty more years even to realize that there is a whole another layer that was sitting deep within my heart until then never opened or realized. The deep non-awareness of a human being about themselves.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Self-awareness: What is the one thing that differentiates top leaders from others. I am not talking about the leaders who are full of themselves, arrogant and egoistic. But those leaders who are ready to listen, guide or lead others to a better position in their lives. What sets them apart from other ordinary beings? It is the truth or fact that they deeply know themselves. Someone else doesn't have to tell them who they are or what their interests are.

Self-awareness to know the talents or skills they bring and above that the weaknesses or flaws they have. If we realize, to know deeply ourselves first we have to work with our weaknesses, and rectify them, so that later the same weaknesses develop as our strength. For example, for a pretty long time in my life, I was a people-pleaser. In my younger days or thirties, even if I didn't agree with a concept or perspective, not to make a conflict, I used to align my viewpoints according to others. Soon enough in this aligning, I slowly started to lose bits and pieces of myself. This is because as we are not giving value for ourselves and our perspectives, energetically we start to lose ourselves.

By early 2010s, I had moved so far away from my own core, I lost myself in aligning to anyone or everyone who came into my life. It became a literal dance to please and get approval of everybody. I was twisting myself into a pretzel and even then, people used to find fault with me. My question then became- What even am I doing wrong? To make matters worse, my previous career of biotechnology stopped working and people at my work place was finding faults with me for pretty much everything.

Now, when I look back, I realize, I was deeply non-aware of myself or my deeper heart. My logical mind was all about biology and science. But my heart was craving for the younger girl days of me who used to read about moral stories, Hindu mythological stories or the fantasies of an Arabian story happening in Baghdad or Basra. I was known as a Pusthakapuzhu or book-worm within my family (😅). Many even used to think I was wasting my time immersing my head into books.

The awareness of our inner truth!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

What happened to that girl who used to love books, concepts and perspectives? In my chase to make a career and have a great job, I had left everything the heart wanted and who I was at my core. People pleasing and total pursuit of rational mind finally brought me to a place where my career was not working anymore. I had to place myself at square one and start my career and life truths from scratch. Deep non-awareness of oneself and what they desire.

Inner truth: As humans, we come into this Earth with an innate nature- a base personality- who truly we are. This is the foundational space of the heart on which we have to build everything whether our values, education, career or life. This foundation has to be taken into account for everything. If this is not taken into account, eventually somewhere the faulty foundation would give away and whatever we have built on top of that comes crumbling down.

For example, think of someone who basically is an introvert or likes to have a quiet space always. This person if due to their rational thoughts pursue a career of stage and acting, they may have to put on a mask to maintain the persona of a star. Here the person starts to live two realities. One a personal quieter nature and the other a glitzy starry form. Remember, the basal personality is of a quieter nature. Such a person most probably would have a nervous system that does fantastic job at a life of calmness and peace.

Now, put this person in the middle of Hollywood, in the city of Los-Angeles. A very vibrant but a movie town. It is going to be personal or film galas, production sites and celebrity space. A lot of color, noise and chaos. Think about the nervous system this person has that is top class for a fine, elegant, but quiet nature. The nervous system is going to be so much stimulated and fired, the person would feel constant energy loss or lethargy. To fix this deep tiredness, they would start to roam around the neighborhood doctors and psychologists.

The problem here is not the person, but the space they have placed themselves in. This is the struggle many empaths find themselves in. Their nervous system or nature is wired for quiet, contemplative nature and the constant barrage of noise and chaos takes a toll on their body, mind and the nervous system. We as humans know a lot about the physical world, mental world and even the emotional world. What about the spiritual and the energetic world?

The deepest of our inner dynamics. As we all know, human body is made of atoms and ions. Pure energy and the flow of it. As per our constitution, each of us enfold a particular level of energy, some with very high energy and some low. For instance, a sports personality especially Sagittarius or Aries or Leo ascendant would have a body that has a lot of fire or energy. Such a person would be fantastic for sports- as the fire of the body can be transformed into physical activity of the sports. But according to the sign, the sports would differ. An Aries thrives in spurts of energy, which would be terrific for a sprint or short-term sports like swimming. But a Leo is a fixed energy and can be used by a test cricketer or a marathon runner.

Now, think this Leo/ Aries person lives near a lake where book writing is the name of the game. They are going to become upset and angry as the enormous amount of energy is pushing them to do something more. Instead of looking at the lake, they should do scuba diving or boat steering. Because the energy constitution is asking to do more physical work. Like this the energy as well as the spiritual world has a big say on who we are and what we are meant to become. But without a clue of this aspect, we go and take the career or life our logical mind perceives to be the best.

The boldness of inner total truth!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Who are you? So, to understand this deepest essence we need to know who we are. From my own life, I can give example. Until forty seventh year, I had only awareness about my mental, logical as well as physical reality. Even though I used to pray, loved to go to temples or other worship centers and read upon mythological stories, I had no clue about my own energy or spiritual dynamics. In temples or while chanting mantras, I used to feel deep peace and joyfulness. But that is how you usually feel during praying, right?

But what if, in reality during the prayers I was very aligned with my inner nature and found the deepest inner joy. In such a case, instead of going back and forth between logical and spiritual mind, shouldn't I try to make my whole life peaceful and joyful by embracing the deepest truest nature of myself? If I can have peace and joy always, why should I go for chaos and confusion within my logical mind? The concept is extremely logical, right?

Again, back to the question of self-awareness. The question of Who am I? Only after knowing the answer to this question from a very deep sense of Self, we can stand confidently in our true nature and embrace our whole potential. I have written many times, as per my perception nowadays the logical mind is just twenty percent of the whole. Without knowing deeply, the other eighty percent how are we going to capture our total potential. For example, consider this. We know which University to go to. But we have zero clue what course we are going to take. In such a case, how are we ever going to finish our degree, right?

This is how it would be if we deeply know our logical mind and are totally clueless of our emotions and heart. The carburetor of the engine is damaged. But the body of the car is perfect and gleaming. Would we be able to take a spin of the car? Most probably no. Even if we did, the ride is going to be bumpy with every now and then, damage control. Now, extrapolate it to our life. Aren't many of us always having a bumpy ride with constant damage control? Why?

Because we are driving our car in the dark forest of life called Maya-illusion without headlights. The headlights or the torch is the knowledge of self-illumination to the question of "Who am I"? Without that knowledge of who we are, we would always be living a life lesser than what we were meant to be. Because as we don't fully know ourselves, we would always be choosing options that are lesser in value for ourselves. We don't know what our heart's desire is, so we will choose with the twenty percent knowledge of the logical mind. With such choices, the heart may be taken into account or not. If the heart is taken into account, the decision would go well. If the choice is against the heart, eventually the foundation would start to crack.

Who am I?
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Our truth-our reality! I am writing this, after living both ways. Until late forties, I was just listening to my logical mind. From the last five years I first take my heart into account for the why and then take the mind into account for the how. Both are extremely important. But the truth of our heart is the torch for our life. This is the truth that the heart or the inner Soul desires.

As the Soul is going to vibrate at a particular energy, it is going to attract experiences that many times obstruct the reality of the logical mind. That is what happened in my life. My logical mind was saying science and biotech. But after my education life placed me in a position of no work visa to work or study, but a beautiful and elegant home where I had computer and more than ample time to pursue my hobby- spirituality, philosophy and Vedic astrology. The truth about science and biotech was my half-truth. My full truth was I was a deeply spiritual person who had accumulated most probably truckloads of spiritual gifts and insights through my previous lifetimes.

The Soul made sure the person is not wasting this lifetime just pursuing science and biotech alone, instead turn towards the true purpose or Dharma, I came into this life for. Mentoring, guiding and helping people using my spiritual gifts and insights. In between I, the person also has the freedom to write about a science or biotech post or blog. Not the twenty percent potential of a human, but the whole hundred percent.

The Soul guidance would be, stand in this whole hundred percent of truth and now expand our life in every direction- the whole 360 degrees of expansion. My thought, if I was guided to do this, so can you or another person. The choice every single human has to make. To live our half-truths from our twenty percent of a logical mind or live the whole truth of the heart. The whole hundred percent of our inner truth. The truth, nothing, but the whole truth!

The Soul or heart always prods us through intuition or a gnawing undercurrent of a deep feeling. The person who is aware of their emotions notice that, become aware and takes step towards that. Others just discard it as a random feeling and go about their logical life, of course truth, but partial. The Soul sits within patiently waiting for the day the person takes notice. Until then, living the partial truths, we can agree, ignorance is indeed a bliss. Whether to be lightened of our truth or not- always a free will and personal choice, right?

The current global reality of Christmas and holidays!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

I am taking two weeks off for the year end. Wishing all a very Merry Christmas, a very Happy New Year of 2022 and Happy holidays! Stay safe and well, while enjoying the holidays and celebrations!

I wish you good and safe holidays, and I'll see you in the New Year 2022! 😉

Next week: The masks we wear!
Image Credits - Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.com

Spirituality - the question of free will and personal choice!

2021-12-10T05:30:00.503-05:00

This week let us take a stab at the topic of spiritual Hinduism. It has been trying to escape me and giving a chase for the last few weeks. This week, I am keeping it in the very middle of my bull's eye of intuition. Before that first, spirituality. We tried to elaborate on true spirituality last week. According to my dictionary, spirituality is to live according to the guidance and way of the spirit or our own higher selves. Further, nowadays I differentiate between the spirit and Soul. For example, I or you have this essence that gives us life. Without this essence we would find ourselves in a casket or underneath the ground. This we call as the spirit or life.

Spirit and Soul: But as a toddler, teenager or youth, we don't have much idea about this spirit. We just have a feeling something greater may be at play here. Many times, even adults have no clue about this realm of spirit world. I also don't have much clue except some intuition and inklings. This unawareness of that greater essence I consider as spirit. The personality of the person has no idea, what this essence that gives life is or does it play a part in the person's life. A deep non-awareness. This non-awareness is the Maya of the person about themselves. I have to differentiate here.

There is the personal Maya as well as the collective Maya or illusion. The personal Maya is when a person is deeply non-aware of themselves. The person may definitely know who they are from their logical mind. This is the family, education, the relatives, career and all other factors that decide who they are for this life. For example, from eighteen years I knew I was pursuing Biology and by twenty-five, I definitely knew I was a scientist following a path of research. This is the logical mind. But the same I had zero clue about a spiritual underground that was sitting beneath this logical structure. Such a person who is deeply non-aware of many parts of themselves, that greater essence, I consider as a spirit.

Awareness that brings out our Soul out of a spiritual practice
Image credits - Pixabay.com

When this person through inner contemplation, self-study and mindfulness deeply knows and understands themselves, such a person's higher essence becomes his/her Soul. Because till the person is non-aware of themselves, the spirit cannot guide the person. Due to the non-awareness, the person won't listen to his/her own feelings. So, even if the spirit has its wisdom, the person has no way to access this or the spirit has no way to impart this. The person as well as the higher essence sits on either side of a huge barrier. It is only when the person with deepest inner thought process and contemplation makes a bridge, Antahkaranah, and becomes aware of this higher aspect, works with it and starts to listen to it, the spirit gets transformed to the Soul. Now the person can walk the path of the spirit or more properly the Soul.

Take for example, Sun in astrology. Sun is self-illuminating and is considered the truth of the person. But this truth sits within the chart veiled by layers of aspect the person has. The Sun behaves very differently according to the mind and mindset of the person whose chart it is. In a lower vibratory level of energy, the Sun is the ego, arrogance and dominance. But in the chart of a person who is Self-aware and truthful, the same Sun comes out as truth, light and wisdom. Sun with same energy, but very different manifestations. All of that is decided by the tool the human is fitted with - their mind.

This can be elaborated with a concept. Take the king of Lanka who comes in Hindu mythology. Ravana! He was a scholar and highly educated person. Terrific in astrology, Vedas/ Sastras and in music. In astrology, he has written a treatise called RavanaSamhita (No, I have not read it.) and was a terrific Veena player. There is a story of him making Shiva happy with his Veena playing and getting boons from the lord. To depict his amazing knowledge, he was shown with ten heads. But the arrogance and ego of those ten heads brought him and his kingdom down. Being such a knowledgeable person shouldn't he have realized it was morally and ethically wrong to kidnap another's wife, keep her a prisoner and insisting her to marry him? Did all the knowledge help him to make the best decision for himself and his kingdom? No!

Ravana with his ten heads
Image credits -Scan/photo by: User:Henryart
(who is owner of the original painting/object/photo),
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Now, there is another thousand headed personality who comes in Hindu mythology. Viswaroopa! In Mahabharata, Krishna the guide shows Arjuna the warrior, his God form with many heads and many personalities. Same way as Ravana. But here the difference was Krishna even though king of Mathura was ready to become a charioteer for his cousin friend Arjuna. At the behest of Arjuna's elder brother Yudhishtira, he was ready to go as a messenger to the Kaurava court. (This blog is more about philosophy and spirituality. Even though a lot of Hindu mythology would be discussed, a basic knowledge of Hindu mythological stories is expected.) He didn't consider it below him to become a charioteer or messenger. A very knowledgeable king of a person who was ready to help another person in the time of need.

Modern life: That was the difference between the heads. One even though brimming with knowledge, was full of arrogance, ego and selfishness. The second one with abundant knowledge but having a heart to help another in the time of need. We can extrapolate all these stories into our current reality of modern world. Both Ravana and Sri Krishna were kings of their own countries, but the behavior that came out was very different. Same way, today countries, cities and communities have leaders. The question is what is the mind and mindsets of those leaders? Ravana with ten heads full of ego or Viswaroopa, having thousand heads but having a mind to be everywhere helping and supporting others.

Both of these personalities, as they were kings, can be signified by Sun in the horoscope. Sun is considered the king as well as the truth of the chart. But how is the Sun coming into manifestation? As a dictator or a people's leader? We can see this difference in the case of our physical star called the Sun also. Think about the early morning Sun in a temperate country during the spring- mild, refreshing and inspirational. Think about the same Sun in the middle of the day in the Sahara Desert among the sand dunes. Very different, isn't it? One gives life and Vitamin D as early morning Sun and the other would take away life, if we found ourselves with no place to rest in shade or a bottle of water. Same energy, but very different realities and manifestation.

Let us take this concept further. Think about two leaders, one, Ravana beating down as hate, anger, arrogance and selfishness. By the way, Ravana was a great king to his own people of Lanka, the rakshasas. His anger and evil deeds were towards others who were humans or kings of other places. We can relate this aspect to leaders who only help or encourage their own party or political group and use every evil and immoral deeds to choke the air out of the opposition through vulgar words, poisonous deeds (sometimes literal poison of words or needle). What kind of a leadership is it to bring oneself up by dragging the opposition through mud and dirt? What kind of a leader is that? Is that even leadership?


Krishna showing Arjuna, his Universal form, Viswaroopa Image credits - Konddiah Raja, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Take Krishna, now. He also went as a messenger of Pandavas to Kauravas. As per the rule of the messenger, he just went to talk and discuss the need to give Pandavas their kingdoms or if not five villages or five houses. He was the king of Mathura. He above a king was also an incarnate of the divine. Krishna could have very well brought the other side down, devalued or dragged them through the mud. He didn't choose to and instead maintained his higher stance of elegance, truth and integrity. This shows the difference the minds of Ravana and Krishna.

Knowledge and wisdom: This also show it is not enough to have abundant amounts of knowledge or information. Above that it is necessary to know how to use this knowledge towards our own upliftment or and of others. Let me, take an example from my own life. I have three Masters in Biology. A nice amount of knowledge and information about a subject area. But these degrees even though gave me knowledge, didn't much work towards my career. I actually wasted around twenty years trying to find a position in Biotechnology. If I hadn't changed my mindset, I could have very well wasted another thirty more years in this area.

But I realized that I had another option of going a very different direction where above spirituality, philosophy, astrology and mythology, I can even use my science and biotechnology knowledge to guide, mentor and inspire others. This blog post is about spiritual Hinduism, for that matter any religion or spiritual practice. Let me come back to that. Krishna, Ravana, Jesus or Allah, the stories and mythology happened thousands of years back. In this twenty first century modern world humans are still wasting their life in the name of religion and fights.

Don't mistake me. I am every bit of a Hindu. But my practice of Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma is very confident to stand on its own two legs with integrity and character, and it doesn't need the crutch of bringing down, devaluing or putting down another person, religion or spiritual practice or any way of life, for that matter. When I have deepest confidence in my own way of life or practice, why should I be afraid of another's way of life or practice? When one is confident, how can be they fearful of another and their practice, right?

So, what is actually the driving force of Hindutva or any fundamentalist movements for that matter, whether it is Islamic or another one? It is the fear that is the driving force. Fear that their way of life or religion would be destroyed or decimated. But if we are confident, very confident in our own practice, who can really topple us? For example, I have a very personal connection with the God Ganesha, Goddess Lalitha Tripurasundari and God Vishnu in the form of my manasaguru, Poornathrayeesa. A personal connection.

No amount of any one saying or debating with me is going to change that. No! Because my faith comes from my own personal experiences. I don't need any stories or mythology or boasting for that. I know these energies from my own personal experiences. But these experiences are mine and I cannot go and paste it on another. But to stand confidently in my spiritual practice, I need to know deeply these concepts and should have the intention of making it work for my life, career and creativity. Instead of taking these concepts whether from Hinduism, Christianity or Islam for oneself, whichever religion they are from, and making it work for one's life and bringing it out brilliantly for ourselves, what are humans doing? We are blindly believing our own personal religion/concepts and fighting with others for it. For myself, I will very much use any concept from any religion, if it works for me ethically, for my Dharma and my life. But I have zero intention of making another do what I am doing.

Co-existence of world religions
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Spiritual Hinduism-not Hindutva: My personal Gods within my heart, Krishna, Vishnu, Lalitha or Ganesha are not afraid that if I say a prayer to Mother Mary or Jesus Christ or to a Sufi Master, they would vanish into thin air. I have discussed this concept before of faith and belief. Belief as a concept is given to us by a book or religion or someone and we blindly take it. But faith is to have our own personal experiences where we are given a first-hand experience with that particular energy.

So, in such a case if we truly understand all the help, we can get to traverse this journey of life, why just keep it only with Hindu Gods. If at any juncture Mother Mary, Jesus or Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer, Rajastan, India can extend their help, why not? Right? That is the difference between spiritual Hinduism and Hindutva or Hinduism as a religion. Spiritual Hinduism or for that matter any true spiritual practice is open and deeply accepting of another. This concept is not for Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma alone. But for any religion with deep spiritual practice where the spirit or Soul comes as energy to lead the person.

This Soul or the Soul guidance come as the Gods we choose from whichever religion or practice we choose. For example, being a Hindu I know the energies of the Hindu Gods deeply. But as a spiritual person I would visit with as much reverence and respect, whether it is the Mahalakshmi temple of Kolhapure, Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai, India or St.Patrick's Cathedral in NewYork, USA. Because from my perspective, the religion or spiritual practice should and must work for the human and not the other way around.

Take any fundamentalist movements for religion, power or politics, killing or hurting another human in the name of God or religion or politics is not okay. But removing every concept and becoming a person who just embraces the logical mind also is not okay. My question, then would be if I remove every experience, pooja, festival, rituals or get together my family or my group celebrated and stopped it, who am I? What is my identity? See, the difficulty people are having when they are asked to throw away everything because some leader decided to write some thoughts down in a book or a dairy.

This is where the concept of free will and personal choice comes into the picture. The freedom of will and choice for a person to choose how they want to live and lead their life as long as they are not hurting, killing or obstructing anyone. So, in my thoughts a Hindu has as much right to practice their religion, as a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, a Sikh or an atheist or an agnostic to practice their concepts. Then, nobody is wrong and everyone is right.

It is when standing in our religion or concepts and telling another is wrong, we also become wrong. Because we are choosing to embrace our own concepts and asking another to drop theirs? So, in such a case, we can have our free will and personal choice and another cannot have theirs? From this standpoint if we look at the world, anything that is not being allowed because another group thought it is not okay is totally wrong - whether it is Uighurs in China, Rohingya in Burma, Yezidis in Syria or Hindus or Muslims in many places of India. Because due to regional conflicts people are not allowed to live and thrive as they are and they want to be.

Co-existence of religions and humans
Image credits - Pixabay.com

It is high time, humans change their concepts of co-existence and living together, as day by day regional and global conflicts about religions, politics, parties and policies are increasing. We as humans have fought for thousands of years for these concepts and above that for regions, power, women and money. If still we don't get, that politics, parties, religions and concepts exist for humans and their best life, we as humanity would fight for another ten thousand more years.

In between those fights we would glaze over real global issues like climate change, world hunger and poverty, disappearing resources and increasing population. The fights we are having now for religion and politics then would transform into fights for resources like Earth, water and air! And those fights would be much more bitter and violent! So, let humanity try to find common grounds to work together to negate our issues and problems. My thoughts - Better late than never!

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Truth! The whole truth!
Image Credits - Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.com

True spiritual practice!

2021-12-03T05:30:00.652-05:00

I was planning to write a post on 'spiritual Hinduism' for around two to three months now. But every time a newer idea or concept would pop up in my head and I would push this post to the next week. Hopefully today it is the turn for the post of Spiritual Hinduism, I guess. If the title is different, we can be sure the flow of ideas took a different direction. The fact is every time I sit to write a blog, I keep my logical mind aside and become a vessel or pure channel for my subconscious mind, spiritual team and the Divine as aspects to come through.

Logical mind: The truth is, the blog, as well as what topics emanate, what type of ideas decide to present itself into my blog and where or how the words flow are not decided by me. The first time I tried to write my blog, once or twice I sat with a blank screen trying to logically present ideas, facts and aspects. It didn't work. With this technique, I had previously tried to start a blog on science and regulatory affairs when I was in the field of Biotechnology. I used to sit with a blank screen for around 20 minutes to one hour and finally discarded the idea itself. If you look at my blogger profile, it would say blogger from 2011. But this blog I actually started writing only in 2017. For six years, this blogger account sat there untouched. Because first I had to figure myself, my heart and mind out. Of course, that was an extremely long six years. Phew! 😅

Logic is very much needed. But logic alone, removing emotions is a death trap of stagnancy for life
Image credits - Pixabay.com

When I started, as I was not sure about this new gig and idea, I realized I should not try to make sense of it, jump head first and then try to figure out my footing. That is what I did with my writing and blog. I had tried to figure out my career for twenty to twenty-five years before and it didn't work. This time I had to take a leap of faith and stop figuring out my career. With every blog post, I stop thinking, remove the logical mind from the picture and give free reins to my subconscious or emotional mind. Whatever knowledge, idea or thoughts need to come, they present themselves through my fingertips.

Just before sitting to write, I do Namaskarams (prostrations) to around 7-10 deities/Masters and start writing. From this we can realize, I have no control over what idea or concept presents itself. This also shows how little the logical mind or logic has a say in deeply creative process. From my own research and exploration, I have come to the conclusion, the logical part of the mind is just around 15-20%. The remaining humongous 80-85% is the subconscious mind and emotions. From this we can also realize why even after having every kind of luxury in the world, many humans still feel sad, lonely and desperate. Because for any and every human, the 'why' should lead and the 'how' should follow.

How- is the logical mind. There is an idea or thought. How can I put it to work or into practice? What actions do I need to take? The logical mind is ruled by Mercury in Vedic astrology. But Mercury or Budha is the teenager in Vedic astrology. A young boy of seventeen or nineteen years of age. He can figure out the way, how to do it. But he should or must not decide what and why to do it. That is why when humans are led by the logical mind, they become confused and totally clueless how to go about and more than that what to do in life.

Subconscious mind: So, here comes the huge subconscious mind or emotions. Even though mind is ruled by the Moon, the logic or the communicative aspects of the mind is ruled by Mercury. It has been proven that a person who has damaged his/her logical side of the mind would try to really speak. The face would even get contorted with emotions. But no words would come out. Because Mercury or Budha or the logical mind is needed to figure out the how- the words, communication and the way to do the living in this world.

The total mind is ruled by Moon, the subconscious mind and emotions. This itself shows how dominant the Moon or emotions are in Astrology. According to my perspective nowadays, any energy that wants to come into our life first appears through the mind. Take anything- an idea, a career, a house or even a relationship. The thought or the idea should first come into the mind. Let us take the example of a career.

Emotions without logic? It is a rag doll of nerves without a structure or skeleton
Image credits - Pixabay.com

We want to take a particular field. We first get an interest or idea about a field within our mind. We start to explore and investigate about the area and decide whether it is apt for us. Then, we search for the college, courses, apply, write the exams, join and then study. Later these thoughts and actions develop into a career. But before any physical aspect come about, the career or field of study first come as an idea or thought within our mind. This thought could have come from our own subconscious mind or further going deeper could have come from the ancestors, spiritual Masters or further from the higher realms of the Divine energies of Gods and Goddesses.

The funny part is, as humans we pray to a deity outside. But the energy of the deities truly accesses us through our minds. To elaborate more on this, think of the mind as a filter or antenna that captures particular energies that resonate with the make-up of the mind. If the mind has positivity and positive thoughts, the energy that are captured by the mind are of higher vibrations. Let us again take an example. Think, we are praying to the Goddess Durga. The energy of Durga as divinity exists in the ether of the Universe. But when we start to pray to Durga with intentions, deep respect and truthfulness, our inner subconscious mind starts to resonate with the bold, brave and courageous version of energy of the Universe. Durga- the courageous lady who killed the asura Durgama using her boldness and ferociousness according to Hindu mythology.

As we are praying to a brave, but positive energy, we start to become bold and courageous. (Mind you, there is no judgement as positive or negative. The positive energies make us more evolved as a Soul, while the negative energies make us more devolved. It is the choice and free will of the person.) We take that energy within our mind and using our intentions and actions make bold moves towards our life, career, and loved ones. Humans many times don't realize, if we are not deeply aware of our own subconscious mind, we get into an auto-pilot mode and the emotions rule and run our life. Emotions are very important as they constitute 80% of our mind. That is the 'Why or What'. But to bring it to the correct and elegant way of 'How', we need our logical mind.

Remember, we are praying to Durga- a bold and ferocious energy. But unfortunately, we have no awareness about what we want or desire for ourselves or our loved ones. What happens? This amazing, but very courageous energy is sitting within our emotions. The Why or What. But as the person is not aware themselves, they have no clue of why or how to use it. What happens now? As they have no idea how to use it or the logical mind is not plugged in, this energy has no channel to come out. It sits within, broils and seethes. Any time anyone or any situation comes to trouble this person, this bold energy comes out as anger, arrogance or ego with volcano like eruptions. The after effects of non-awareness.

Awareness: We explored when the person is praying to an energy. What if the person was born with those energies? Then? Can we see the danger of people being unaware of their own emotions and the subconscious mind? Let us elaborate more on this person who was born with bold and courageous gene of a subconscious mind. Just now we elaborated on a positive energy like Durga. But as per my intuition, the Universe also is filled with big, bad wolves of energies.

Everything starts within the mind as an idea or thought
Image credits - Pixabay.com

A subconscious mind that is deeply unaware of itself resonates to a particular vibration, positive or negative. If it is positive mindset then the energies that are positive are captured. But if the mindset is negative then the mind becomes a channel for particular negative energies. The famous Swiss psychologist Carl Jung elaborated on archetypes. The same archetypes, if we take and put to our God, Goddess, divine or demon energies, it works amazingly. The psychologists come and explore till the subconscious mind. The spiritual seeker goes further deeper than the subconscious mind or the mental realm to the spiritual realm of energies, ascended Masters, archangels, Gods and Goddesses. But here along with positive energies there are deeper and darker energies as well. Whether we are a seeker or not, many of these energies influence us. A seeker or a shaman or a mystic is deeply aware of the existence of energies and others are not, that is all.

A person aware less of themselves becomes a puppet in the hands of their emotional or subconscious mind. The energies as ancestors, or other deity, divinity or demon comes through them. In the modern times these energies don't take human forms. Instead, due to the deep non-awareness the humans do the work of the divine or the devil. A doctor or nurse who without a thought for their own safety helping thousands of Covid patients are indeed the divine in human form while the Sandy Hook Elementary shooter or the police officer who killed George Floyd were doing the work of the devil.

We see the fundamental movements of Hinduism or Islam or Christianity overtaking the world. The people involved in such movements have enormous emotions and energies. Even though these may be many different religions, the actions, loudness, chaos and confusion of the minds are the same. A lot of energy from the subconscious, emotional mind. But no clue, how to put it to use for the wellness, peace and prosperity of all. Here, the logical mind of 'how to put it to everyone's use' is missing.

The Bhagavad Gita, Quran or Bible becomes the 'word' that can be twisted or flexed or molded to fit only that particular group. Some religions say, we first came into existence in this Earth, while others say we have more people practicing it. Now, another group says it doesn't matter. We got the 'word' directly from the God himself. But the point we have to note, what is the after-effect truly? A humanity that is fighting with itself and bent upon destroying itself through these internal fights. Remember, this is the twenty-first century and still we are shouting at another at the top of our voice and if they don't listen, we wield and finish off the matter with a gun or knife or machete. Are we truly in the twenty first century in the realm of our mind and emotions? Worth a thought.

We discussed about the religions and now let us discuss atheism or agnosticism or pure logic. Remember logical mind is just 20% of the spectrum. The remaining 80% is the humongous emotional mind. No, we don't need any religion that is organized religion as they say. Okay. But if we are only taking the 20% of our logical mind into consideration and neglecting the humongous 80% of our mind, are we truly progressing in our life? That too when we use logic and atheism or agnosticism to fight against religions that have been in existence for thousands of years, are we truly gaining anything in the battle field? Because these religions or cultures have been wired into the human collective psyche with continuous repeated rote, intentions and actions. Repeated actions, thought patterns and intentions wire the subconscious mind. Fighting such deeply wired thought patterns with mere opposite arguments, what logic is actually in that?

Just reading and discussing about concepts is not going to rewire the psyche or the subconscious minds. Any person who needs to change their life has to first contemplate on the concepts, meditate on them, peruse whether it would work for them. Then, with the deepest intentions and determination should start to act on them. That is how the subconscious mind gets rewired. This is how I reconfigured my whole career within a span of seven years. Thinking and reading concepts were not enough. I had to intend and start to act to rewire my own subconscious mind. Now, another bigger question comes into the picture.

Awareness about ourselves and our mind- logic as well as the emotional
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Free will and personal choice: We were discussing about the deepest spiritual realms. When six years ago, I met with my own subconscious mind and spiritual practice, the first question that came to front and center was, who am I to tell another person - What they are doing is right or wrong? The question of the will of any person and personal choice. We, humans almost always neglect this deeply spiritual idea. We are magicians in interfering, bothering and interrupting another's free will and choice. Look around. We see human after human who are upset about another person's behavior, thoughts or actions or are always more interested in another's stuff than their own.

As per my understanding the first tenet that rules the Universal energies and the spiritual realms are of free will and personal choice. In such a case, anyone who says they are right and all others are wrong is first wrong themselves, right? This is the question anyone and everyone who finds fault with others should ask themselves. The question- If we have the choice and free will to say another is wrong, can't they themselves have the right, free will and choice to say they are right? Here the second person is actually more correct, as they are not saying the other is wrong. Instead, they are just saying- What they are doing for themselves is correct.

But remember, this tenet also only works if the person is not hurting or destroying themselves or others in the process. In such a case, drug abuse, other abuse or alcoholism, other vices become bad as the process or practice involves either destroying or hurting themselves or others. The spiritual practice should and must empower the person who practices it and a whole lot of others. Only then it is a true spiritual or for that matter a religious practice. Now, standing from this point let us look at many of the movements or concepts that are happening in this world.

Are they correct? It is always pointed out- I am correct and you are wrong. The second the person has negated the free will and choice of a person; they are wrong from a spiritual aspect. It doesn't matter what religion, concept, perspective, propaganda, idea or thought, it is. If through any religion, practice, political thought or idea, we are suppressing or repressing another, it is wrong. It doesn't matter whether the person finds themselves in upper, lower or lowest strata of the society.

So, the best way is to find the practice or way of life that brings deep awareness to the person about their total mind, rational and emotional included and from here capture the best possible potential and outcomes for their life. In this space, mind you, they never put another down or devalue them, but then they also don't allow others to devalue them. If we look at the animal kingdom, a competitor even gets killed when they are challenged. So, in such a case, we the humans who are so highly evolved, how can we allow ourselves to be devalued and put down by another?

Live and let live or co-existence should be the mantra
Image credits = Pixabay.com

Here comes the point of first- Give respect and then, take respect. Without disrespecting another's free will and choice to practice what we desire, while others practice what they want as long as we or they are not hurting others, is the best way to go forward for humanity. The concept of Live and let live or Co-existence, where we practice what is best suited for us and allow others to practice what they want. But the practice or way of life should and must not devalue, put down, or make another valueless or worthless. The concept of secularism where everyone is able to practice what they want. This includes even the choices others have within a deeply spiritual or religious community, group or practice.

We read story after story of people deflecting to other countries, out of religions, groups or communities. Why? Because many times they lose the right to practice and live as they desire. The freedom and right to exist as empowered and enlightened human beings who live and practice religion, spirituality or perspectives as they wish to embrace. Any religion or group or practice that shows and has this openness of religious, spiritual or thought secularism is going to thrive and grow in the centuries to come.

So, my question to all- Being in this very modern, progressive twenty first century, isn't it high time to embrace the concept of Live and let live or peaceful co-existence? Or is it better to lead our globe with in-fights and eventual self-destruction of humanity? Let us all think, contemplate, then intend and act. Would be great for us- humanity! (By the way, I guess 'Spiritual Hinduism' may be for the next week. 😅)

Thank you for reading! Hope all of you are keeping yourself hale and healthy. As I was mentioning, last week was Thanksgiving in the United States. A break of one week gave me a much-needed rest to my thoughts, mind and concepts towards the blog. Unfortunately, I have a mind that almost never takes a break and is always thinking about concepts and ideas. Sometimes a mind that doesn't give the human a break can also be a curse above the blessing. Any way, it was a good break.

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Spiritual Hinduism!
Image Credits - Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.com

A dance of Astrology, Mythology, Philosophy and Spirituality!

2021-11-19T05:30:00.518-05:00

Today and tomorrow (Thursday and Friday- November 18 and 19) is Karthikai Deepam where lamps are lighted in Hindu homes to ward off the ignorance of the mind to bring in the knowledge and wisdom of the heart. This festival is famous as Thiruvannamalai Deepam of the God Shiva, Arunachaleswarar in Tamilnadu. At this moment, let us all pray to God Shiva and his consort Parvathi - Arunachaleswarar and Apitakuchambal to remove the darkness and ignorance from our minds and bring in the light of spiritual knowledge and wisdom of the heart. Happy Karthigai, all!!🙏🙏

Happy Karthigai Deepam!
Image credits - Photo by Sash Sriganesh on Unsplash

Next week, (Nov 21-27, 2021) in the USA is the Thanksgiving weekend. I would be taking a week off to spend time with my own family and friends. I also at this time would like to wish all my blog readers an amazing weekend of Thanksgiving. May this week find us and our mind in deep gratitude and Thankfulness for the life, breath, spirit, Soul, mind, body, health, family, friends, prosperity and joy all of us have. Let us deeply appreciate the magnificence of this Earthly life all of us have been bestowed upon. A grace and a blessing, many times we take granted for. Let us take a moment to appreciate ourselves, our family, friends and our life. Wishing all of my blog readers a wonderful Happy Thanksgiving and terrific holiday season! 😊🦃 !! (Btw, I am a vegetarian. No Turkey for me! 😂)

Happy Thanksgiving!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Last week, we discussed how a purpose greater than ourselves should lead us through our life. A golden rod of value, ethics, integrity, character and morality. These aspects and another thousand more together is called Dharma in Hinduism. Instead of Hinduism, I like to perceive the spiritual practice I do as Sanatana Dharma- A way of life! The religion as such called Hinduism emanated much later. But as all of you know, this blog is not about history, facts or what happened before.

This blog is about how to take many spiritual and philosophical concepts and use it towards our life, so that we live our life with a gleaming mind, intelligence and intellect. Practical spirituality and philosophy! How to use our mind in a sharp, focused spear like manner, so that it pierces the goal and we can move our life more towards that goal. Like this we keep on throwing the spear of focus at our own life that cuts through the darkness of confusion, chaos and ignorance. In Hinduism, we call this darkness as Maya- the grand illusion!

Maya - The Grand Illusion: I have written many posts on Maya- the illusion of the material world. There is the Maya of the collective consciousness as well as the Maya of the personal consciousness. In 2021, the Maya of the collective is the chaos and confusion, especially the electronic one we can feel and perceive. Can you feel it? The noise and the chaos - whether of the elections, religious movements, politics, uproar for rights, internet, social-media, bitcoins, meta, big or whatever data, ethnic movements, climate change, movements for freedom, rights and equality.

Yes, all of these are important, extremely important and are the truths and facts of our modern twenty first century. But the fear, scare and the worry that accompanies it, is it necessary? Let us think for a second. At this moment, the very second, I am writing and you are reading this, are we in danger? Are we? That one moment called "The Present". As a human we only have this one second to do anything. But thinking about fear or death that may be years and even decades away, we live in fear for the rest of our life. Think about the moment after moment that is getting wasted by our fear, worry and stress. The Maya of fear and worry and the truth that at this one moment or second- we are okay. Why worry about next moment and the next and waste this one precious moment? The concept of living in the "NOW"!

The illusion or Maya that rules our material life!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

In this fear, worry and stress what do we neglect? Our life itself. A mind that is bogged down with fear, worry and stress, can do nothing. The life, the moments as well as our Dharma- purpose is thrown to the wayside and we live every second of our life stressed out. So, what truly is happening? Each one of us live in fear and stress within our own life and then collaborate and talk to each other, sharing our stress and worry with each other. Like this when a whole lot of people are interacting with each other, these small snippets of fear we contribute to the collective coffers of our global mind. So, the personal fear and stress feed the collective conscious and in turn the collective consciousness feed the personal consciousness these snippets of information of fear, worry, stress and chaos through media, TV, newspaper and internet. Back and forth and back and forth!

Rahu, the magician!
A sculpture from Thailand!
Image credits - LigerCommon,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This whole information and data drive, then sits within each of our mind and the subconscious psyche as a humongous dragon of fear, worry, stress and strain. Another name for it, Swayambharu- the snake whose mouth is Rahu and tail is Kethu. Rahu brings up worry, stress, anger and rage and Kethu brings up fear, confusion, thoughtlessness and ignorance. Remember, Kethu has huge knowledge, but no head. So, the knowledge and wisdom of our ancestors, lineages and even previous Soul lives, sit within us untouched.

The mind needs to be under our control to access this wisdom. But if the mind is grasped by fear, worry, stress, anger and rage- lower forms of Rahu and Kethu, the mind is not free to do the purpose. So, the human as well as the collective conscious sits within the fear and worry- the Maya and everyone's life except for a few, slips away one second at a time. Later at old age, all of us look back at our lives with regrets of the opportunities we missed or the chances we never took.

Saturn: Into this mix of Rahu and Kethu, throw in a third player, Saturn. Now, the team is complete. Lol! Saturn in Vedic astrology is the lord of the material realm. His sole agenda is - check whether the Soul is doing their Dharma or purpose. Are they using their mind, intentions and actions- Karma, to do something towards their Dharma? He is the Karmakaraka- significator of Karma in the natural chart of the Kaalapurusha. As he is the lord of the material world, he is also the ruler of Kaala- time. He is not interested in money, material wealth, pomp or pride. He is not. His one and only question- Are you using your Karma- actions to do your Dharma- purpose!

Remember, he is the king or the ruler of the material world. He has everything in his chest of drawers, even the Earth itself. So, in Vedic astrology, if Saturn is well placed, that person won't shy away from work- whether mental or physical work. We, humans have a notion that only physical, bodily work is Karma, not the mental or emotional work of teaching, guiding, designing or learning. I would have to laugh at that perspective. This is another Maya or illusion. It is!

The mind as well as our emotions are still within us, in our physical body. In such a case, how can we consider only physical work as important? Even mental and emotional works are ruled by Saturn. That is why Capricorn, the sign of Saturn signifies the physical work of building, organization and structure. The same Saturn lords another sign, Aquarius, which rules the realm of the mind, but not the emotions. But in astrology there is a concept called Bhavat-bhavam, where the sign who is exactly the equal places from the first sign rules a higher aspect of the previous sign.

Shani - Saturn, the lord of material
world in astrology
Image credits - Suraj Belbase,
Naksaal Bagwati Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal
via Wikimedia Commons

Can we take an example? Think of the sign Capricorn (Makara), the tenth in the natural chart from Aries (Mesha-1). Now, start counting from Capricorn to the tenth sign, Libra (Thula). Capricorn is the physical realm in this case, Libra becomes the next inner one, of mind, as it is an airy sign. Next, count ten houses from Libra and we come to the sign of Cancer (Karkitaka)- the emotions, which sits below the mind or mental realm. Again, ten houses from Cancer, Aries (2)- the sign of leadership, but here, the leadership is from the inside- spiritual realm or spiritual leadership, that sits behind the emotions. Now, this Aries would guide the Capricorn, ten houses away towards its career and material prosperity- tenth house. The next cycle again starts. In the first cycle, the first time Aries (1) that comes from which we initially started counting becomes the house of the previous life or ancestors as it is ten houses previous to the physical realm we started counting from. Bhavat bhavam. Each cycle becomes higher and higher evolution of the being.

All realms within: So, the perception that the human is just the physical body is wrong. Within the human body and even six inches protruding from our body is the Soul. These six inches is the aura, which many people are able to perceive. But what has happened in the modern world? We have thrown the mental, emotional and spiritual realms under the bus. This is why even with every modern gadget ever invented, people are still sad, worried and stressed. Because modernity has only happened to the physical world. The mind as well as emotions are still living in the dark ages or the nineteenth century.

Even today humans in many parts of the world believe that God is an outer entity that brings miracles into our life. If someone else, always decides for us, why are we having our own mind, intelligence and intellect? Yes, governments are needed for smooth workings of a society, people and organizations. But for our personal decisions like what to pursue for our life, how to live our life and what values to uphold, should we give the reins to just a book whether Bhagavath Gita, Bible or Quran? All these books were written around 1500-2000 years ago.

Using our mind, intelligence and intellect shouldn't we contemplate whether all the rules and regulations should be put into practice exactly as it was written? In Mahabharata, people used to travel by chariots. Today would we prefer to travel by a chariot or a car? So, in the physical world, we prefer change. Then, what about mental and emotional worlds? Should a mind that of an authoritarian or a dictator be allowed to rule another million minds? This is where the question of free will and choice comes - the difference between a true Democracy and Authoritarianism. In a Democracy, the free will of the single person is given a voice. In authoritarianism, there is no voice for the individual. It is twenty first century, right?

Kethu- The wisdom from the
past lives and ancestors
Image credits - Arjuncm3,
via Wikimedia Commons

What about the free will and choice of the people? All those who are supporting authoritarianism or dictatorship, don't realize. They are actually writing off their free will and choice for an illusion that they would be taken care of. But the first premise itself is - you have no vote- in other words- you have no voice! So, then without even a voice, what free will or choice, you are getting? I actually started writing about Hinduism which slowly went into Astrology and now, it is solidly in the very middle of voice, value and worth - philosophy.

We can see how spirituality, astrology, mythology and philosophy are intricately connected. A true and deep astrologer would be able to grasp all the four areas as well as the physical realm, mental realm, emotional realm and the spiritual realm. Many different angles and directions of an issue or a problem. This is called spiritual astrology or spiritual philosophy where higher questions and ideals get asked and contemplated upon. Nowadays, many may feel I am confusing everything. Actually, I am not.

Instead of dividing things as astrology, mythology, philosophy, spirituality or science, I am able to see and perceive the interconnections. Above this, I am also able to perceive the different levels of depth- physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. I am clear about the ideas and thoughts. But to make another understand and make it very simple- that is where I struggle. Because these concepts many times are other worldly and at the present moment, non-existent in the Earth.

An example: Let me elaborate this interconnection with an example. As we all know, MahaVishnu took the form of a lady called Mohini- the charming vixen to divide the celestial nectar Amrit among Rakshasas and Devas. As per my research, MahaVishnu many times has the nakshatra of Shravana (Thiruvonam). He dealt with the snake or dragon, Swayambharu. Now, count the star that is exactly opposite to Shravana, which is Aslesha (Ayilyam) - the star of the Nagas- serpents. Swayambharu was a serpent, who was cut into two pieces by MahaVishnu. Swayambharu became Rahu and Kethu- the trunkless head and headless tail, respectively.

The above story already dealt with mythology as well as astrology. Now, MahaVishnu was very ethical, moral, giving value to truth and honesty, while Swayambharu was unethical. He tried to sit in-between the Devas to get the nectar. Here, now philosophy has poked its head. The nectar or Amrit is the celestial knowledge of immortality. How can a person become immortal? By inner contemplation and meditation to understand, we are not just the physical body, but we are the Soul that is a small spark of the Universe called Brahman.

Viswaroopa -
The Universal form of Brahman
Image credits - Nomu420,
via Wikimedia Commons

If we remove the metaphor, who are the Devas, truly? The humans who have done inner contemplation and meditations to understand their true Self- Swaroopa🌺, who have become aware of their true purpose and Dharma, so that they can start working towards that. Rakshasas metaphorically are people who are unaware and due to their actions are kept away from their own path and purpose. Due to the value and other details, philosophy has come into the picture and inner contemplation and meditations has brought spirituality also to the mix. In truth all the above said disciplines are deeply interconnected and looking at just one thing is looking at one direction from a small angle.

Another important point is, every human who is born in Sravana nakshatra does not have the energy of MahaVishnu or every human born in Aslesha is not Swayambharu. Sravana nakshatra person can exist in a lower vibratory state, a person who instead of being a leader and helping in preservation of the organization - energy of MahaVishnu, use all the goodies and leadership to make themselves authoritative and arrogant. Examples- people like Hitler, Pol Pot or Stalin. Energy of a selfish leader. Same way Aslesha in the highest form is the energy of Vasuki - the king of Nagas or Serpents, truthful, honest and very authentic.

This post was to show that mythology, spirituality, philosophy and astrology exists for the humans. To help the humans to make the journey as a human Soul to be easier, with intelligence, intellect and integrity. To make a human of the higher caliber, ideals and perspectives. Instead, as usual in the Rahu or the rakshasa way, we take everything, turn it, bend it, mold it or meld it to our advantage and use it. Rahu in the lower energy is the thief, cheat, deceiver and the magician who takes everything and uses it for selfish reasons. The same thing or anything always can be taken and used for a great purpose, something greater and grander than ourselves and our tiny lives!

So, the question finally comes down to the human and their mind- Rahu or MahaVishnu? Rakshasa or Deva? Human or Inhuman? Always our free will and personal choice! Finally, if we realize, MahaVishnu also is Viswaroopa with everything existing in him - Brahman or the Universe and all of us a speck of that star dust⭐🌟!

Thank you for reading! Hope all of you are doing well and vibrant. Finally, the end of 2021 is fast approaching. What a ride of two years it had been, was it a roller-coaster or a hamster wheel? Whatever it was, it took a toll on humanity and made a huge mess of things. Hopefully 2022 would have something very different for us. Let us hope for the very best.

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Spiritual Hinduism!
Image Credits - Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.com, Unsplash.com

Dharma - Something greater than ourselves!

2021-11-12T05:30:00.351-05:00

Hello all,

Namaste! Hope all of you are doing well and vibrant. First of all, I want to Thank the Veterans who went and fought for their country the USA in many wars. Thank you! 🙏🌻🌻. Yesterday was the Veterans Day in the US. I wished everyone on Navaratri. Ten days back, the week started with Halloween and ended with Diwali. One celebrated in the US as homage to ancestors and the other celebrated to remove the darkness of ignorance and bring light into everyone's hearts. Both celebrations are now in the past. The next one knocking at the door is Thanksgiving, to show gratitude to the native Americans from whose land the country called USA was born.

Let us look at all these celebrations. Can we see an underlying theme or pattern? In all the three festivals we are celebrating and respecting something outside or greater than ourselves, whether it is the Universal energy as Diwali, the ancestors as the Halloween or the other group who gave the early explorers a warm welcome to their native land and country. In all the festivals it was never about that single human or just the immediate group alone. It was always about the greater group or the grander ideal. But how come we find the modern human dynamics so different?

Ancient social systems: After all these beautiful celebrations, still the humans are in the mode of I, me and myself with a very tiny group that we embrace, people who look very much like us. Why are there all these nationalistic or fundamental movements, that we can see whether ISIS in the Middle East, Hindutva in India or the nationalist movements of the USA. When we look at the past, India was formed as a secular nation, is a secular country. USA always welcomed the immigrants and is a nation of immigrants and the Middle East was a major hub for trade and used to welcome travelers from India and other parts of the world during the era of Thousand and one Arabian nights and later. The poet Jalal-Uddin-Rumi and his mysticism of the thirteenth century is an underline to that. Basra, Damascus and Baghdad were thriving trade centers.

Cover of the Arabian Nights
Image credits - Author: Anonymous
Illustrator: Milo Winter, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

By the way, I am not a historian and I only have a surface knowledge of world as well as regional history. But from whatever I have read, even though there were wars and chaos, there was also an underlying theme of treating another with respect, kindness and compassion. How come it has transformed into anger, hate, war, chaos, rage, confusion and more? What happened to the human, the simple human with blood and bones underneath everything?

As all of you know, I am very much a Hindu deeply loving my culture, temples, mythological stories and perspectives. But being very much a Hindu, I deeply enjoyed reading Thousand and one Arabian nights (of course in my native tongue, Malayalam) and now enjoy Rumi poetry. In the Arabian nights there comes a story of two Jinns from Arabia as well as China meeting at night and discussing the beauty of an Arabian prince and a Chinese princess in their care. The Jinns decided to bring the Arabian prince to China and put both the prince and princess together and compare their beauty and the story proceeds from there with the prince making sure he goes to China, finds his princess and marries her.

The story aside, when I contemplate, it was the trade between China and Arabia that made the story teller to write such a story. Without the trade, how would Arabians know about a region in those days called China and Chinese vice-versa. At that time one culture didn't try to destroy the other. The Arabians were happy to trade with the Chinese who were a very different culture and the Arabians same way welcomed Chinese pottery and porcelain to the Middle East. Then, how come today the Uighurs cannot have their religion in China or nobody other than Muslims are allowed freely into the Middle Eastern regions like Syria, Iran, Iraq or Yemen. The same way why Hindus, Christians and Muslims being within their own culture cannot find a common ground to work with one another?

Of course, definitely there were wars, chaos and different perspectives. I am not putting rose colored glasses and trying to romanticize history. No. My question, how did doing trade and being nice with each other, transform into conquering the other, the trade partner and decimate their culture? When did this blood thirst to destroy the other and even remove the signs of the culture or people emanate within our DNA? I come from India, where the traders East India Company and the British Empire instead of being the traders became the rulers. I have studied enough where the regional kings were threatened -"Either become our allies or die". Traders later transformed into rulers.

Warring humanity: Whether we like it or not, every single thing humans have made from computers to rocket ships to airplanes to airplane carriers to mercantile vessels to automobiles or home appliances have come from this Earth. This very Earth. We never went to Mars, Venus or Jupiter to bring anything. Everything came from here, our home. When we go outside this Earth to say around two hundred or five hundred miles above Earth, what do we see? A warring humanity within a very beautiful, green and verdant planet.

The wars to put flags or religion, land, culture, politics and boundaries. The Earth has seen nationalistic movements in the past. The ethnic cleansing of the Middle Ages, the mercenaries called Knight Templars, the Mongols lead by Genghis Khan, conquers led by the Greek emperor, Alexander the Great, later in the 1930s the nationalistic Nazi movement of Third Reich of Hitler to name a few. Every single one of them was marked by blood sheds, mutilated bodies, and beheaded trunks. Do we even remember or care about who fought for what and against what? Diligent history buffs may know the answers.

Battle of liege belgium vs germany empire
Image credits - in don;t know, via Wikimedia Commons

Today in 2021, we boast as modern, awareful (Prabuddha) and progressive humans. Are we truly progressive? If we are so progressive, why can we only see the person as a believer, atheist, agnostic, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Democrat, Republican, Secularist, Libertarian, scientist or non-scientist. Why can't we see the person as human, yes, human- who chose to practice Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, atheism, agnosticism, nihilism, or a human who chose to be a Democrat, Republican, Communist or Congress. Do we have to decimate the other to uphold our ideals and values? Do we?

Can't I be a Sanathani- spiritual, Hindu, but very much a human following esoterism or mysticism; enjoy Rumi poetry, read Thousand and one Arabian nights, learn Mandarin, ask questions to Jesus who is a mentor and enjoy the glass painting/art work of another religion or even discuss atheistic concepts with an atheist? I could and I should. If I can find such a perspective and live my own life as I am, can't another be able to do the same thing without trying to change, convert, improve or fix another? My question always is why are we trying to fix another, instead of fixing ourselves?

Our question should be, for example, I am a spiritual Hindu who is deeply interested in mysticism and esoterism. As I like to live my life as authentic as I can be, shouldn't I be able to tolerate another as they wish to live. But remember, this concept or perspective is only true as long as we or another human is allowed to live and exist as they are without hurt, abuse or killing. The second there is violence or abuse all these niceties are off. We cannot speak nicely and try to understand another's viewpoint if that person is keeping a knife to our throat or pointing a gun at our chest. From that second on wards it is not about perspectives, values or truth points any more. Then it becomes saving ourselves so that we can exist as a human here for another decade or few more years. With anyone who uses violence as a means, the time for deliberation, diplomacy or dialogue is over.

War cannot bring peace: People who choose war, how can they bring peace? I guess after two thousand years people have still not understood it. Humanity has been fighting for 2000-5000 years. Still why are we not able to coexist or thrive? Because to bring peace, we are choosing battles and wars. The act of war has the energy of tussle or war. How can it bring peace? Before any chance at peace, we have already taken the weapon in our hands. How can peace come when we are trying to bring peace with bayonet, lathis, guns or nuclear war heads? Nuclear war heads would keep the other from acting due to fear. But fear is not peace. Fear is fear and peace is peace.

Fear is powerlessness. But peace is being at peace when one feels strong and confident. As they are finding the power and confidence within themselves, they don't go and fight with another to bring in peace. They are having power and confidence within themselves and that truth brings them a state of joy and peace. So, peace cannot coexist with fear, war and powerlessness. Peace is a by-product of calmness, power and confidence. Hence, we see, truly powerful and confident leaders are more peaceful. They don't have to thump chest, call out as Tarzan and show their might to others. Confident and powerful leaders won't do that. It is the fearful and powerless leaders who roar and if others don't heed take to underhanded means.

Coexistence - Live and let live
Image credits - Pixabay.com

This concept we can see with five leaders who had to toughen it up in their own life- Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Dalai Lama. (Still I wonder, why there is not a very powerful woman in that list. Why?) Why we feel a deep calmness and peace when we think of these five leaders? Even with the historical leader like Jesus or the mythological leader like Sri Krishna. Why do we feel that calmness and an underlying emotion of joy? Because war was never their ultimate aim, but peace was. They found that fount of peace within themselves and made that peace to flow outside.

I have read Abraham Lincoln was one of the kindest person there ever was. Even though he was very tough during the war to the other side, as a person he always gave respect, honor and value to any person whom he came across. Can we say that about many of the leaders today, who are just about the next election, the round of cabinet positions and the next five years. It is when a leader above their immediate desires, party, funding authorities, find a vision for their country for the next hundred years and take steps to initiate or put in place the starting steps, from a politician or leader becomes a statesman or a visionary.

For example, when George Washington won the war against the British empire, he never would have had any idea that his vision called the United States of America would be standing as a jewel of Democracy on this side of almost two hundred and fifty years later. The same way Abraham Lincoln could not have known that his simple signature on the Emancipation Proclamation would still be lauded as one of the best accomplishments of the nineteenth century. Mahatma Gandhi could not have understood the number of Indians who went outside the country of India and exist in this world as free and self-willed individuals or Martin Luther King Jr., could not have totally captured the gratitude African Americans and other sidelined communities feel today due to the Civil Rights Movement.

But that didn't stop them from trying or put in the first stone or pillar of effort towards something greater than themselves. All of them worked in their life towards something greater than themselves or magnificent than the smaller human life they were living. A purpose or Dharma much greater than themselves. That deep purpose became a shining rod of torch that led them on a path of value, worth and purpose. How many leaders can we count today who are led by a sense of purpose or Dharma?

Dharma or purpose: When a human gets plugged into their purpose that sense of focus brings them a confidence within themselves, which makes them peaceful, calm and joyful. To know the purpose, the first step is to deeply know oneself. Without deeply knowing and understanding oneself it is pretty much impossible to know the Dharma. The first step is to answer the question Who am I and then that later takes to the next question of What am I doing here or What am I meant to do here on the Earth?

Peace and coexistence. Not wars and battles
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Without even knowing Who we are, how can we know the question of What we are supposed to do here? Take an example. Think about Michael Jackson. He had to first realize he could sing and perform, so that later he took it up, sang and performed. If he himself didn't know he could sing and perform in a way he could capture the audience, he could have never had that career. Same way, for every human the first thing they need to know is the answer to - Who am I? Not from the mind or the conscious mind, which is only 20% of the equation. But from the subconscious mind, heart and even the Soul (I intuitively understand about the Soul), who truly we are. That is the very first step of inner work waiting for anyone who wants to live a very authentic life.

But in a twenty first century where busyness is running the lives of everyone where no one has enough seconds or minutes to spend on such deeper questions, who is ever going to take up the task of inner work and awareness. Have we ever wondered what made Washington, Lincoln, Gandhi, King or Mandela stand apart? Each one of them were self-aware humans who deeply knew themselves and who they were. That is what is missing in this "so called modern and very progressive" twenty-first century. People only have time to do rat-race behind social media, fame, glam, glitter, and duck faced selfies. Let us finish with a phrase-

Majority of the humans are chasing fool's gold, while the real gold is sitting within their hearts untouched and unrealized! Unfortunate and sad!

Anyway,

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

All of you, my dear blog readers, know about my website - swaroopa.net. I have started my business, Swaroopa store, which can be accessed from the Shop tab on my website, for those who are interested in a personal reading. There is also the Swaroopa Store link, on my blog's left side. Now, to the post!

Next week: A dance of Astrology and Mythology!
Image Credits - Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.com

Deepavali - The Festival of lights!

2021-11-05T05:30:00.047-04:00

Hello all,

Namaste! Hope all of you are doing well, keeping yourself safe, socially distanced, and availing the vaccines whenever you are able to. As many of you know, yesterday was Diwali, the festival of the lights! I already wrote a post on the significance of the lamp and that of Diwali. Republishing the same once again. The same, I previously published on October 27, 2017. Time flies, isn't it??

Wishing all my lovely blog readers a Happy Diwali, 2021!! We as humanity has been through a lot on the last two years. But still we are standing strong, resilient and powerful despite unfortunately many had to leave this physical realm. May all of those Souls find peace and joy wherever they are. For all others who are still here toughening it out- may this festival of lights bring health, wealth, happiness, prosperity, abundance, joy and deep inner wisdom. Indeed the light signifies the inner light that is within us as a divine spark that is always there to give us guidance, support, joy and a golden rod of integrity. Let us all have the courage, power and dedication to access that. Happy Diwali!! Here is the previous post......


Diwali - The Festival of the lamps Image credits - Photo by Jyoti Singh on Unsplash

Happy Diwali! Wishing the 'Festival of lights' to bring happiness, light, and love into all of our life. Many of us are happy to light the lamps and feel very happy celebrating Diwali with the family and friends. Hope all of you celebrated too, last week. But did we anytime think about the underlying significance of the lamp? Let us discuss today, how we can interpret it from a mythological and philosophical sense.

Narakasura: The previous day of Diwali is celebrated as 'Naraka Chaturdashi". The mythology is Naraka was born to the earth mother or Bhudevi (Bhu- Earth, Devi-Goddess) and Vishnu or Hiranyaksha (both versions have been narrated in mythology). Anyway mother Bhudevi wanted her son to be very powerful and prayed to Vishnu; Vishnu, in turn, blessed her with that boon. Now Naraka was a very powerful king, learned in all tantras and mantras and ruled over his kingdom very well. But later he became friends with another asura called Bana. Now Banasura was not that good in character.

Remember when we select friends we have to be utmost careful, they can bring us up or down. Unfortunately, Naraka chose Banasura and because he started doing bad activities along with Bana, he was started being called Narakasura. Once he felt he was very powerful, he became egoistic and arrogant. Every time an asura becomes egoistic the first thing he does is to go and attack the heavens or Indra Loka. Now this one also did the same. He went and attacked the heavens and defeated Indra and the Devas and started ruling from the heavens.

Now Devas usually what do they do? They rush to Vishnu, our strategist to ask for help; this time also they did the same. Vishnu said as Narakasura's mother Bhudevi has got a boon from him, Naraka has to rule the earth and heaven for a very long time and when he, Vishnu takes the avatar (another form to save the world) as Krishna he will kill Naraka.

Anyway, Naraka ruled a long time and later Krishna was born as an avatar. At this time Naraka, not satisfied with his shenanigans, went and stole the earrings of Aditi, the mother of the Devas and captured a lot of deva ladies as well. Because Aditi became very upset about this she came to Sathyabhama, wife of Krishna and asked for help. Now hearing this, Sathyabhama also became very upset and asked Krishna to help her in the war.

Remember in those days the ladies especially queens and princesses were very well trained in the strategy of war, leadership and how to fight a war. So along with Krishna, Sathyabhama went to war and in the war, after a well-fought battle, Narakasura was killed by Krishna using his disc (Sudarshana chakra).Now before dying, Sathyabhama gave Naraka a boon that everyone will celebrate his death with beautiful lights and the day before Diwali is celebrated as 'Naraka Chathurdasi' to symbolize the victory of good over evil.

Diwali lamps

In many houses before Diwali, people clean the house, remove all the old clothes and things and buy new clothes and amenities. This is to remove the old energy from our life and bring in new energy in the form of fresh ideas, perspectives, and prosperity into our lives. Many sweetmeats are made for the kids and all the people, young as well as old light firecrackers, light lamps and have a lot of fun. Many light the lamps as part of Diwali, what is its significance?

Deepa: Now Deepa in Sanskrit means lamp. The Deepa signifies light, which removes darkness. The darkness here can be thought of as ignorance or lack of knowledge or wisdom. The Deepa symbolically removes our ignorance while showing the way to the light or wisdom. Now, this is the most simplest of the interpretation.

Interpretation 1: The Deepa is made of the lamp body, the oil or ghee, the wick, and the flame. Here let us go deep into the symbolism! Consider your body as the lamp. The lamp usually has to be kept polished and shiny. The same way we need to keep our physical and emotional body healthy and well maintained without diseases, lower emotions and ego. Once we are successful in that, let us turn our focus onto the oil or ghee.

A traditional 'Deepa' called 'Nilavilakku'

The oil or ghee can be considered as our Vasanas or Sanskaras. These are the the internal tendencies/ cultural conditioning we get being part of the society in this life. If we take the previous lives, then these are the inherent tendencies we bring into our this life from our past rendezvous of lifetimes. Vasana is mainly the cellular memory we bring into this life from our previous ones and we ourselves may not be aware of it. Samskaras are our cultural conditioning of this life or the previous life.

Now think about a quality, we have never worked on in this life, but we are so good at it, we ourselves become amazed by it; this quality may be we worked on in another lifetime (this only for people who believe in the past life theory) or somehow we inherited from our ancestors (for people who don't believe in past lives). The above-said scenario will be about a good quality in a societal sense; in a bad sense, it can be something like uncontrollable anger or jealousy, which we ourselves are not able to manage. These are our previous lifetime Vasanas (inherent tendencies) or Samskaras (cultural conditioning). Anyway, these Vasanas and Samskaras, many times get in our way of being wise to know that we are 'Tat Twam Asi'.

The wick of the lamp can be considered as the focus or intention we have to come out or destroy these Vasanas or Samskaras. Any action if we want to do, first we should have the intention and focus to do it. Otherwise, we end up not doing it. So, the wick is considered as our focused intentions, which absorb our Vasanas and Samskaras as the wick is absorbing the oil or the ghee.

Finally, the flame is our undying devotion towards the divine, God, Universal source, infinite wisdom or any name we call it. The flame is the deep devotion and through the wick of our focused intentions, absorbs and burns up all the Vasanas or Samskaras in the form of oil, we carry around in our cellular memory (or maybe DNA, who knows) as baggage from various lifetimes or conditioning of this lifetime.

Only after burning up all these Vasanas and Samskaras we can be clear about our path towards our highest purpose. Otherwise, the Vasanas and Samskaras do and will interfere with our spiritual progress as a soul. So symbolically a Deepa is showing us the way towards our highest purpose, but never material and always spiritual and this is the real symbolism of a lamp. The same can be said about a candle where the oil or ghee takes the form of the wax. But to burn up or work on our baggage we always need the grace of the Universal wisdom or Brahman. Otherwise we stagger as a blind person in the darkness of our ignorance.

Diwali- The festival of the lights

Interpretation 2: As we previously discussed, it can also be the removal darkness of ignorance and lighting the lamp of the wisdom. Now we can light any number of lamps from one lamp and the light of the first lamp never gets reduced even after lighting a thousand lamps.

Let us consider the first lamp as a teacher or Guru who is removing the darkness of ignorance from the minds of students and lighting up their lives through the wisdom of knowledge. Even after teaching 100,000 kids, the knowledge of the Guru is only increasing and as bright as the first flame as ever, never decreasing and the lamp lighting can be continued through the students and their students. Thus the light of wisdom or knowledge helps in the removal of the darkness of a whole society, country or even the world.

Lighting the lamp: So, by lighting the lamp, we are asking the Universal wisdom to show us our pathway towards our highest good, while removing all the baggage of Vasanas and Samskaras we have been carrying from many previous lifetimes or just this current lifetime. Isn't it an amazing symbolism to make us aware of our true purpose in case we have forgotten?

Because of the aspect of symbolically removing the darkness, lighting a lamp during any function is considered auspicious or sacred. In Diwali, we light thousands of such lamps to symbolically show that we are removing all our darkness and proceeding as a group towards the light of wisdom and knowledge. Once more a very Happy Diwali all!

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Dharma- Something greater than ourselves!
Image Credits - Swaroopa, Wikimedia Commons, Unsplash.com

The Yang Principle!

2021-10-29T05:30:00.504-04:00

Hello all,

Namaste! All of you, my dear blog readers, know about my website - swaroopa.net. I have started my business, Swaroopa store, which can be accessed from the Shop tab on my website, for those who are interested in a personal reading. There is also the Swaroopa Store link, on my blog's left side. Now, to the post!

Hope all of you are doing well, keeping yourself safe, socially distanced, and availing the vaccines whenever you are able to. Last week, we discussed about the feminine energy and how the Universal female needs to find her solid place in the society and the globe. I never like to leave anyone or anybody out in the cold. This globe or Earth is home to all and everyone. So, today why don't we discuss the other part- the yang energy, divine masculine or Shiva or as in Sanatana Dharma, Purusha.

But before proceeding with the post, let us elaborate a bit on yin as well as the yang energy. This is the ancient Chinese concept where every person has the yin- the feminine, receptive or fixed energy, the passive element as well as the active, masculine, ambitious energy- the yang. According to the gender the person finds themselves in this life, the percentage of energy can be more or less. But whatever the gender, the receptive, passive element if becomes equal to the active, ambitious element, the person becomes very balanced. This is not in the outer body, but within the mind and the emotions.

Yes, as all of us are living a human, material life, we can be thrown into one side or the other if stressful, tough or painful circumstances shows up. At that time, we would act in a very human, passionate and emotional way. That is absolutely okay. Remember we are humans, not artificial intelligence or robots. So, it is a must to express emotions, sometimes even to stand up courageously for one's values, principles and perspectives. But to be in a constant fight or flight mode is not good.


The Yin-Yang symbol of balance and harmony. We can see a small part of the other within each. So, yin has yang and yang has yin Image credits - Pixabay.com

This shows the person is not balanced or has some root cause either they don't like, don't want to look at, won't acknowledge or is unaware of. There was a time in my own life where I used to feel deep anger and frustrations. The cause, a stuck, stagnant and good for nothing career. Until I looked at it and started to take steps to change, improve, fix or transform it, I felt deep inner anger and frustrations. Nowadays, instead of feeling angry and frustrated, I intend and take actions; sometimes would stand up and defend my values, principles, interests, purpose and career. So, if something is not working as per the intentions of the Soul or heart, the person feels deep anger and may not even know the reason for it. It is the way, body and emotions letting them know, something is not okay.

It is human to become upset or emotional and give two cents of our mind. But when we are alone and just with ourselves, do we feel joyful, balanced and at peace? Because it is at this equality of the masculine and the feminine energy within our mind and emotions, we can feel peaceful and utterly creative. Chaos and confusion obstruct creativity. For our deepest passions, creativity and emotions to flow, our mind and its energies- both yin, the feminine and the masculine, yang should be aligned, harmonious and at peace with each other. This yin-yang coexisting and interacting with each other brings balance and peace.

The masculine energy of humanity: This post is not about the masculine gender. Nope. This post is about the masculine side or the yang principle within each individual. (But now a slight difference of concept arose in my mind, the difference between Sanatana Dharma and Chinese principles. In Shiva-Shakthi concept, Shiva is the passive element or the potential and Shakthi is the active element, the one who takes the Shiva energy and gives it a form. So, in that concept the clay is Shiva and the hands that uses the clay to mold it into a pot is Shakthi. But in the yin-yang concept, the yang (Shiva in Hinduism) is considered the active element. This shows how some cultures used to look at concepts differently. But today the post is about masculine or yang as the ambitious, active essence. So, let us discuss from that perspective. If we have clarity in our mind and thought process, even with very different concepts, we don't get confused. 😊)

So, back to yang or the masculine energy. This world has been ruled by the masculine energy for thousands of years. That was a necessity as the humans first appeared as cave men and later evolved to become the form we see today. The passive or docile feminine energy was not effective when humans had to fight with elements or wild animals or nature. So, the physical strength was needed to ride a horse, wield a sword, build a town or protect the tribe or oneself from the wild animals. The physical strength was very much needed for protection as well as sustenance.

In the cave men or hunter/gatherer days humans especially men had to walk for days or even months to find food or a good place for shelter. At that time, physical strength helped to keep them safe as well as build the facilities and amenities. Same way, strength helped humans to make agricultural towns and dwellings. So, the physical and muscle strength were given more importance. The emotional needs of the home and hearth were taken care by the females or the ladies of the group. So, in these dynamics the human males slowly started to lose touch with their own emotions and the ladies started becoming more physically weak. So, in these dynamics males became more and more physically driven to achieve, conquer or dominate.

Shiva, the masculine form in Hinduism
Image credits - nImAdestiny from Bangalore, India, via Wikimedia Commons

What have we seen in the last five-thousand-year history of the human race? This aggressive conquest of land, other kingdoms, regions or ladies became the norm of the ancient times. As physical and logical mind was given more weight, the emotions took a back seat. We can see the effects and ramifications of the same even in the current modern society. Even though many regions have a good government, there are still many parts of the world where an outcome is decided using wars, battles, guns and terrorism.

Has the masculine side of the humans fully lost the kind, compassionate and emotional side that the feminine brings to the table? As we discussed in the first paragraphs, the balance and harmony within a society, human or culture is brought about only when the feminine as well as the masculine sides are equal. One side should not overtake the other. In such a case, balance is lost.

War hungry masculine: We have to wonder, the way the world was governed for the last five thousand years, have humans become war mongering, not able to resolve issues through dialogue, diplomacy and in compassionate ways? Let me, share a few links, Contemplate on it. Isn't it the same dynamics and actions we were taking as cave men and has anything really changed? The current societal climate of Afghanistan, the political issue in Russia, the eastern dynamics, the news under Associated press about Middle East and Africa. In almost all of the links it is to conquer, strong-arm or annihilate the other. But we have to wonder, isn't the Earth very much ours and theirs? Who is this us and them?

Whomever we see as the other, they, alien or foreign didn't come from another planet but from this very same planet called the Earth. So, as humans aren't we short and shallow sighted? Sharing a video of the American astronomer Carl Sagan who shows how in the Universe or outer space terms Earth is just a dust particle among innumerable other dust particles. It is all about perspective and perception. This blog is about seeing the same Universal energy weaved in another human, a different vessel of a body that the Soul chose to live this life. Are we allowing the world to become a man's world making it a war or ego hungry humanity?

Isn't that the truth? As cave men we were fighting, as Middle Ages people we were fighting and as modern age humans we are still fighting. As cavemen, the masculine was using branches or rocks, in the Middle Ages swords or spears and now it has become guns and nuclear weapons. Even now we are giving the clarion calls, ego boasting and chest thumping tactics calling the enemy to come and fight. Only, in the modern times we do it in suits, coats and with handshakes. For true diplomacy and dialogues, do we need guns and nuclear war heads?

But if one side is using guns or poisons or underhanded tactics, the other side cannot be naive and all welcoming. The first rule whether it is a human, society or country is to protect oneself or itself. But that protecting oneself also should not overtake and negate the other side. Here, let us look at the Great Seal of the United States of America. An Eagle is depicted with outstretched wings, a bundle of thirteen arrows in the left claw and an olive branch in the right, where there is supposed to be thirteen leaves and thirteen olives. Thirteen was the number of states that first joined the union called the United States. Even with it holding the arrows in one claw, the head is turned towards the olive branch signaling, the country even though has war capabilities (arrows) is always turned towards peace and diplomacy. (But I have to wonder, are the 70+ million people who voted for the other candidate than the current President ever checked the Great Seal of the United States? Probably not!) The Eagle in its beak holds the banner that portrays E Pluribum Unum - Out of many, One!

Great Seal of the United States. Note the olive branch as well as the arrows
Image credits - U.S. Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The same concept can be extrapolated to think as out of the seven billion humans, one Earth has been formed. This concept comes in Sanatana Dharma as well- Vasudha Eva Kudumbakam- Earth is "the" family! The concept comes again and again in many religious scriptures and philosophies. So, why as humans especially the masculine who has been ruling this world for around five thousand years cannot accept this point of view? Even today many of the females or other genders are suppressed and repressed. I am not trying to put the masculine under a spot light. I am only pointing that we as humans can live a more compassionate, kind and nurturing life towards the other. That may be where the answers for a more peaceful and prosperous life or globe lies.

The compassionate masculine: Let us discuss the compassionate masculine. The masculine energy in the human form that takes pride in protecting and taking care of those who depend or exist under their care. Let us take a genuine and honest police officer. As a very common man or woman, don't we feel deep comfort, safety and peace, when such a police officer comes to assist us in case we got involved in a mishap or an accident? Why do we feel that deep comfort and peace? Not so with another egotistic, arrogant or know it all person. The kind person above accessing their masculine through the logic also is accessing the emotions or the divine feminine, their nurturing and caring side. The side that comes when a father is taking care of his baby son or daughter. The deeply emotional and loving nature of the masculine.

Every male was a baby or toddler with emotions and compassion. How does it get lost when they become adults? Is it necessary to lose that deeply caring side and become all macho when the person becomes an adult? Every lady I have talked to always opens up and elaborates on the kindness and compassion they felt from their father or spouse or son or cousin brother. For that matter, I have come across a lot of females in my fifty years of my life. The particular feminine eyes become all shiny, sparkly and joyful when they talk about such a masculine in their life- whether the grandfather, father, husband or son. So, the feminine is not looking for a macho personality of a male.

So, why the global masculine has to put on that egoistic or chest thumping male attitude? By putting on that mask or persona aren't they actually rejecting or suppressing their own caring side that is going to earn them more respect in the eyes of the others? Let us take the examples of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Dalai Lama. What sets them apart from others? What was so different about them? All of them above being leaders and males were deeply caring and compassionate. Very compassionate beings.

The compassionate masculine
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Under their guidance, whole countries or group of people felt nurtured, comforted or deeply cared for. The African Americans who until then were treated like useless felt valued and cared for under President Lincoln. In scores they signed up to fight with the northern Union territories. It was the value and care they felt coming from a President. The same was the case with Gandhi or King. All of them were very ordinary human beings, males to start with. What set them apart was the deep compassion, nurturing attitude and care they felt for other humans who were struggling.

Why only look at political personalities? Think about Jesus from Christianity or the Mughal emperor Akbar. They instead of fighting wars used compassion and love to conquer and put victory flags on the minds and hearts of people. Jesus became a movement in the eyes of the Romans. The Hindus deeply respected and listened to Akbar, a Muslim king. To show his solidarity with all of his people he even married a Hindu princess Jodha Bhai. It was his compassionate attitude that made him the greatest Mughal emperor among four to five others. Where fight or wars cannot win, kindness and compassion always win. But that also asks not to become doormats. Kind and compassionate doesn't mean weak and meek.

The Yang Principle: So, from the above points it can be seen that the masculine acquires more beauty and elegance when above the masculine, also embraces the feminine or emotional side. The pride in protecting and taking care of the other beings under their care. Not an arrogant, macho, selfish pride, but the deep, caring and nurturing pride of doing something the masculine is extremely good at- protecting, providing and taking care, but in a very compassionate way. If all these leaders can do it, can't the everyday ordinary masculine? Sure, they definitely can.

But here it is not enough for the masculine to be physically strong, but it asks for mental as well as emotional maturity. If we open any business or leadership magazine, it declares above intellectual quotient about emotional intelligence. What is this emotional intelligence? It is to understand above logic the emotions of others. Any major decisions or enterprise never happened with mere logic alone. No. Above logic, the emotions of the people, or followers or country men need to be captured whether it was with Indian Independence, Civil war of America, bringing down the Apartheid regime of South Africa or the Civil Rights movement. It was never logic alone, but deep mature emotional intelligence.

Remember many males have tasted the nurturance and care of their parents. Why it should get lost in the middle or why it should be only for just the immediate family? Isn't the heart of every human big enough to hold love and compassion for seven billion humans? If such leaders, humans and males occur in this society, would there be a knee on the neck, a snake bite victim in Kerala, a dowry death in Kerala, a rape murder in India, silencing of Uighurs in China, female sex slaves in Iraq or Syria, women made voiceless in many households, Alexei Navalny sitting in the prison cell in Russia or seventy million people not protecting themselves against a virus and all ready to do a Capitol Insurrection?

The compassionate Yang principle
Image credits - Pixabay.com

The world in the twenty first century doesn't need arrogant, egotistic, macho and selfish masculine. Instead it needs caring, compassionate, nurturing, mentally and emotionally mature masculine that within a human above embracing the side of masculine also has the courage to access the caring, nurturing side of the feminine. The Yang working in tandem with the Yin to bring a beautiful, harmonious, peaceful and elegant human, society or globe. Would it happen, soon? Isn't it always better to have hope and trust? So, let us hope and have faith that such a masculine would walk the Earth and we would find such leaders amongst us soon. Until then, let us keep our fingers crossed and wait!

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Spiritual Hinduism!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.com, AZ Quotes.

The Yin Principle!

2021-10-22T05:30:00.502-04:00

Hello all,

Wishing all a very Happy Vijayadashami. The day that brings Vijaya- victory in every endeavor one starts. Today I am putting the deep intentions to bring up my store and business- my next area of my spiritual exploration. Last four years were about writing and making my own concepts and value points more polished. Yes, I will continue to write. But I will also start putting more focus into my store and business. According to my understanding the spiritual concept is -"Where we put our focus expands in our life". So, without my intentional focus how will my store and business take solid roots, right? So, on this Vijayadashami day, I am taking the deepest intentions of bringing up my store and business.

Same way, I wish every single one in this seven billion of ocean of people every victory in any endeavor that is to better oneself, one's people, one's group, humanity or Earth without devaluing, putting down, taking advantage or using even a single soul. To such endeavors, I deeply invoke the grace and blessings of the Universal Intelligence! Tadasthu! So, it is!!

Hope all of you are doing well, keeping yourself safe, socially distanced, and availing the vaccines whenever you are able to. Last week, ten days were the days of the Goddess- Navarathri according to Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism). Nava- nine, rathri- nights of the Goddess. On these days, the Goddesses are celebrated and respected. As we know, Hinduism has thousands of Goddesses. Durga or Kali, the ferocious or terrible forms and Lakshmi or Saraswathi, the calm, compassionate forms. Why do Hinduism have so many different Goddesses? I had previously written a perspective about the Goddesses of Hinduism.

Goddess Saraswathi
Image credits - Raja Ravi Varma,
Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

Navarathri just finished last week. Therefore, thought it would be appropriate to write about the feminine side of humanity. In Hinduism, it is named as Shakthi. In further Eastern cultures like Chinese, Shakthi is Yin- the feminine or the emotional side of the energy. (It skipped my mind that many may not know what Yin is. My dad reminded me of this point.😊 So, adding the same.) I also feel in the second decade of the twenty first century we have another million more miles to go in the realm of accepting our own feminine side. If we realize, the feminine has almost been left in the dust while the world is rushing to progress to the twenty first century. My question is, why the female or the feminine has to fight for her every right? Why she has to stand on her head to make her voice heard, have a career, get to the top of the business or corporate world? Why if she slightly raises her voice, it is considered arrogance and when a man raises his voice, it is considered confidence?

Can we see double standards here, even in the dawn of the twenty first century? Only few months back from my home state of Kerala in India, I heard a beautiful girl who just got married was abused and put to death. Two years before another girl died by being bitten by a snake. Same way, we hear Afghanistan going back to Taliban rule, which brings a very different reality for the ladies and the girls. In the US, in the 19th century, ladies had to fight with tooth, nail and claws to get their voting rights. Ladies were considered objects to possess. This mentality still exists in many parts of the world.

In many places, women are not allowed to go alone outside whether to the market, or bank or to drive. In some countries, women are asked to stop their education, help with the household activities and take care of the younger siblings. In the rural villages of India many times it is -"Ladki padke kya karegi? Usko baad mein ek ghar sambhalna hein". Meaning- "What is the point of a girl getting educated? She is meant to take care of the household." Really? Are we truly in the twenty first century?

Current dynamics of women in the society: Here, I would like to Thank my parents who gave me a book at 3.5- 4 years of age. My dad guides and helps me with my doubts and my mom pushes me to break the boundaries. Both of them supports me to go for the highest potential I can ever achieve. Hence today, you are reading my blog. 😊🌸 It is not easy for a girl to achieve or further take up something very different from what the ordinary, everyday society routes for. I was born in the seventies and was a young girl in the nineties. There were other voices in the family who thought instead of giving education to a girl, she should be married off. So, I know the dynamics and I understand it deeply.

In an alternate world, if I had been born to another set of parents, I would have been married off at 17 or 18 years of age. At the time of my marriage, I had already taken two Masters and was ready to go into the work world. Later, I took another Masters. Even after three Masters, being in the modern country of the USA, I still found tons of circumstances, perspectives and mindsets stacked against me. In India- an interviewer in the 1990s had literally told me- "If you had been a man, I could have given you the job", employment as a scientist. In the USA, I had been asked, "You are on dependent visa. Why do you need a driver's license?" So, I deeply understand the stack of cards kept against a girl or a woman.

Women- Equal voice and opportunities in the society
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Nope, I am not saying men have no struggles. Of course, they very much do. But women in a still current, man's world has to put in double, triple and even four times the effort to get to the same positions or top layers a man gets to with more ease. Above this the society, also doesn't make it easy with the attitude of a woman's place is in the home and she just needs to take care of the kids. Yes, taking care of the kids is indeed first and foremost a mother's job. But a bright mother who is educated, confident and holds her own position is an excellent model to the young ones.

Before proceeding further let me comeback to the last day of Navarathri- Vijayadashami. This day in South India, the Goddess Saraswathi is prayed to, who is the Goddess of knowledge and wisdom. In Hindu mythology, Saraswathi is the consort of Brahma. Brahma is the creator God and according to mythology, Brahma first created Saraswathi. (Then, technically isn't she the daughter of Brahma? A question to be pondered upon. But this is mythology- no questions should be asked! 😅) Brahma made Saraswathi, so beautiful, he fell in love with her and wanted to marry her.

But as it was his first creation, he had given her abundant knowledge and wisdom. She could think, will and take decisions for herself. She looked at Brahma, who was old, with beard and double her age. It seems first she was not ready to marry him and tried to run away. Brahma chased her and put forth his request again. Finally, she obliged, but said- "I am not going to have kids. The four Vedas are my kids. I will live, reading, studying and interpreting them, being the Goddess of wisdom and knowledge". Remember, according to Hindu mythology, this is the first woman- totally self-willed, having a voice and standing up for herself. This is the Goddess to whom we as Hindus pray to on Vijayadashami - the day that gives victory.

Now, let me take up Christianity. In that before Eve comes into the picture, there is mention of a first wife to Adam called Lilith. She like Saraswathi was confident enough to say she cannot be just a home maker but have her own will, word as well as career. Later, Lilith was considered an evil woman who managed to have her voice and will power. So, ladies who were powerful in their own will and voice has happened in mythology. Saraswathi, Savithri who fought with the God of death itself to keep her husband alive, Lilith in Christianity and in Islam, Khadija who was the wife of Prophet Muhammed, who was a very powerful lady with a voice. To start with it seems, she used to guide and teach the prophet. Then, how come today in the twenty first century, women need to be afraid to speak up, have a voice, are getting killed due to dowry, acid being thrown at their face, honor killed or raped and left to die??

Education of women is a must for a great society
Image credits - Pixabay.com

If a girl is educated....: All of us as humans are trying to bring innovation and progress to the society. Open the internet, switch on the TV or read the newspaper. It is all about information, education, knowledge and how to bring change to society or humanity- infrastructure development, innovation, science and technology, information technology, how to leapfrog the society to twenty second or twenty third century. But in between this, many times we forget the one sure-fire way this can be achieved.

Women, women and women! Education of women!

Let me explain. Even in the twenty first century the first job of a mother is considered bringing up the kids. So, many times ladies take a break to be with the kids for 2-3 years or in economically backward countries stays at home with the kids. So, from birth to around five to seven years of age, who is the baby seeing, the most? The mother or the women folks. Only after sixteen or eighteen, the kid as a male or female goes outside the house to conquer the world as well as their destiny. The first five years is when the brain and the mind of the baby develops at rocket speed. So, at that time who is better to be around? A well-educated woman who takes the kids to the library, read stories to them, watch Discovery/ Science/ National Geographic channel with them or a lady who stopped her education at second or third grade who cannot read and is illiterate?? Think! Even an illiterate mother who deeply values the education of her kids, daughters included brings great change in the lives of the kids and later society.

We are trying to tinker and fix the outer circumstances as society or family and don't give a second glance to the inner reality of the mind, emotions and intellect of the humans. The ladies are forced to stop education, are kept away from education and asked to become robots doing physical work. My question- if ladies were meant to be brainless or mindless robots, why so many are given brilliant minds, intellect, interests, ideas and passions? This shows Earth was never meant to be a man's world. It happened like that because men found themselves with more physical strength and women were thought to be protected.

The knight in shining armor had to protect the damsel in distress. But after rescuing her, she was tied up in a castle away from the crowd who could harm her. This concept is weaved into the psyche of the humanity from time immemorial and it still continues to this day. Many bright women end up tied at home and kitchen with very less opportunities. Otherwise, why in many places or countries, women are not able to interact, live and thrive freely. My question to all of humanity- Should respect be given only to one's own mother, family member or lady of the community or group? Shouldn't that respect, honor, worth and value be extended to any girl or lady or how about the other gender or others, whoever they are- blind of caste, race, skin color, religion, political party or ethnicity? Isn't the human mind and heart big enough to embrace all?

Why these fights, arrogance, entitlements and one upping another, even today in the so called "modern times"? Doesn't an animal coexist with another? Yes, of course they bare teeth to an intruder or someone attacking their boundaries. But we humans are not animals. We have a well-developed fore-brain and logical mind that makes us humans compared to the animalistic behavior. Okay, as it is a blog post about ladies, back to Yin principle. My question is - Is it enough to pray and respect the Goddess in the stone form? How about respecting the feminine in the human form or in one's own Self- the intuitive, emotional and many times deeply repressed feminine side? How about acknowledging that side within oneself?

Goddess Durga - The all powerful one!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

The Vamabhagah: The left side, the feminine according to Sanskrit and Hindu mythology. The Divine feminine, or the Yin principle! The intuitive, emotional and feeling aspect of the humanity. The last two thousand to five thousand years humans had to fight and toughen it out with nature, wild animals and other tribes or groups. Humans started as cavemen. At that time, it would have been pointless to argue with logic, emotions or feelings. In those days physical strength or the Yang- masculine principle was a must to tackle nature, wild elements of it and animals or other predatory species.

In Malayalam, there is a proverb- "Don't preach Veda to a wild animal". At that time a spear or sword or good physique to run or fight out a wild animal was a must. Thus, the masculine side of humanity blossomed and bloomed. But that doesn't mean the intuitive, emotional or the feminine side should be suppressed and not given a voice, value or worth. That is what unfortunately has happened in the last two thousand to five thousand years. While the masculine side had a gala time, the feminine side of humanity was suppressed.

Let us take an example. Say a person is a terrific entrepreneur, business person or a great executive. They achieved a lot in life, earned and is a terrific person in the society. They were helped in this venture by their ambitions, go-getter attitude and leadership- all of masculine side. Now, every evening they come home to a huge, expansive and enormous house- empty and very silent. Are they going to feel at the top of their world? Most definitely or most probably, no. Every achievement or effort becomes worth-while, if there are people to share, take part and give company in our success.

That loving, kind, compassionate and nurturing side is the divine feminine- the yin principle or the Goddess energy. (If she is suppressed, she can become bitter and passive aggressive as well. But my blog will be only about positivity and positive mindset.) But Goddess doesn't mean humble, docile, weak and meek energy. Nope. Kind and compassionate, but can bare the teeth or cut the head, if boundaries are crossed or their kith and kin are endangered. Think about a lioness or tigress. Such strong feminine figures who if given a chance with education, value and voice can bring up genuine, authentic, strong and powerful humans, leaders as well as change agents, who bring progress and transformation to humanity.

It is high time, humanity start to give more power and voice to its own feminine side- intuitive, nurturing and emotional, whether within the person, in the family or society. Each household within their folds keep ladies or mother figures who if they understand their own power or value can bring up terrific, strong, sensitive and compassionate humans- a rare commodity even in this twenty first century where it is fights, ego clashes, agenda pushing as well as arrogance taking charge of situations. What about compassionate leadership or kind leadership or peaceful leadership? All of us read about Jesus and how he was kind, compassionate and peaceful. Is it enough for that Jesus aspect to remain within the pages of Bible or should that aspect take physical form as males and females who bring kind, compassionate, but go-getter, ambitious leadership so that a whole lot of people feel nurtured, valued and appreciated?

Woman entrepreneurship (Btw, my favorite color)
Image credits - Pixabay.com

The Yin Principle: It is not enough to talk, debate and pray to the Goddess. Instead as humans, each person should start to embrace both sides of their own nature- masculine as well as feminine. Masculine is needed so that the person is courageous or bold enough to take charge and be a leader. But the feminine also is important where above caring just about themselves and their particular group alone, humans start caring about a whole lot of people- care, concern and nurturance. The Divine feminine!

For myself, from 2016, I had to access my own masculine side to become courageous and bold to put out my thoughts and ideas out there. Same way, it is not easy for humanity to access the feminine side. It was suppressed and repressed for last 2000 to 4000 years. In the USA, in the 1940s or 50s, girl child or ladies where meant to be "Only seen, not heard". Be nicely bedecked and sit pretty. That is about it. But don't you open your mouth or say your opinion or value point.

Last week, I saw the documentary called "Self-made" on Netflix about Madam C.J. Walker- a woman, black entrepreneur, political and social activist in the late nineteenth century. The amount of shaming, put downs, guilt tripping and devaluing she had to go through, was heart wrenching and paining. But the unfortunate fact is even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, it has not become a walk in the park for ladies or girls. Ladies are silenced, raped, murdered, acid thrown on face, not respected, given value or listened to. So, even though outer physical progress is there, has the real, inner change of the mind and perspectives happened?

My question- if a male leader is welcomed, shouldn't a female leader also be appreciated? Why should men as well as women feel intimidated if the dress that Soul for this particular lifetime chose to wear happened to be of a female? Does it matter? If we can pray to Goddess Saraswathi or have Lilith or Khadija in the stories of thousand years before shouldn't such female leaders become everyday happening in this twenty first century? Even today should women have to fight for equal opportunities, equal pay, equal voice and equal value?

Why ladies have to fight for education, to have a career, speak their mind through a vote or go to the market alone in their own car driving themselves? Remember ladies in many parts of the world can only dream or imagine this. That status quo has to change. Brilliant female leaders also should walk this Earth. It is not enough to pray to Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Durga, Kali, Mother Mary or to Wife of Prophet Muhammad. Such nurturing, powerful and valued females should come in the real life and lead others in a kind, compassionate, peaceful, but with strong and powerful voice, leadership skills and mindset. That day the Yin Principle also would find her rightful place in this world.

Finishing with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi on this Vijayadashami time who had high aspirations for the Indian female. Give it a thought and meditate on the same!

Mahatma Gandhi quote
Image credits - AZ Quotes

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: The Yang Principle!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.com, AZ Quotes.

India, the idea.....

2021-10-08T05:30:00.853-04:00

Hello all,

Wishing all a very Happy Vijayadashami. The day that brings Vijaya- victory in every endeavor one starts. Today I am putting the deep intentions to bring up my store and business- my next area of my spiritual exploration. Last four years were about writing and making my own concepts and value points more polished. Yes, I will continue to write. But I will also start putting more focus into my store and business. According to my understanding the spiritual concept is -"Where we put our focus expands in our life". So, without my intentional focus how will my store and business takes solid roots, right? So, on this Vijayadashami day, I am taking the deepest intentions of bringing up my store and business.

Hope all of you are doing well, keeping yourself safe, socially distanced, and receiving the vaccines, single or both doses at your earliest convenience. As many of you have read, those who are not vaccinated have a very high chance of getting very severe infections, possibly even going to the ICU or being attached to a ventilator to breathe. Why undergo such struggles, when a simple half or one hour of effort will protect us for quite a long time?

Unfortunately, the Internet and social media have made many prisoners to negative news, misinformation and conspiracy theories. Don't fall for it.

World governments cannot co-ordinate at such a global scale, that of a pandemic. Yes, mistakes were made by many governments. They are not infallible. They are run by humans who make mistakes, take foolish decisions, and suppress or ignore things. That is what happened here as well. Many measures that could have saved the world from a pandemic were not put in place, were ignored, or were not heeded. Regardless, after a solid two years, we are still figuring out in the middle of a dire pandemic. So, as a human being with family and friends, our best bet is to wear a mask, keep ourselves safe, and take the vaccine as early as possible.

COVID-19 vaccines save lives and protect the individual.
Image credits - United States Census, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I have written many times: Intelligence is to be smart about our own lives and intellect is to cut away any dead branches or stagnant choices for our own life so that our tree of life grows, blossoms and fruits at every opportunity. So, being bogged down by misinformation and mired in conspiracy theories are a fast ticket out of our own physical existence. Remember that! Are my words tough? Tougher are the facts of the pandemic - one that can take a human to the ER, or worse the ICU with a ventilator connected to their face, struggling to breathe and counting their remaining minutes on Earth. So, beware both Covid and the conspiracies, and let's protect ourselves with the best tools we can get our hands on to be here on the Earth- the vaccines! GET IT and BE WELL!

Sanatana Dharma: Last week, I wrote about my view of Sanatana Dharma and how, in its true core, it is very open hearted and all-embracing. According to Ramakrishna Paramahansa and many other spiritual masters, all religions in their very core uphold the sacredness of life and the need to embrace another human with all their quirks, religions, viewpoints, and perspectives as part the universal fabric - Brahman, but bedecked with another physical vessel for this lifetime. However, this embrace must also be only as long as they are not hurting, killing, devaluing, or debasing another. Since the latter people are not respectful and not giving others value, the bets are off and we can stand up and defend our boundaries. It is not necessary! To paraphrase Paramahansa Yogananda: To stand tall, we need to cut another's head!

But nowadays, we see that with nearly every religion or other group ideas and ideologies, other humans are hurt, killed, put down, devalued, or debased. That is not okay. That shows the insecurities that are bogging down the human mind. My question is thus. For this life I care to be a Sanatani. And I have no intentions, thoughts or ideas to put down, devalue or debase another human, religion, group, ideology or concept. Why should I worry whether another person chooses to practice Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, be an atheist/ agnostic,or any other form of belief? I have no problem with that. In the same way, others should not have any problem that I choose to practice the spiritual way of Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma.

My question is thus. Isn't the globe wide and expansive enough to accept the viewpoints of more than seven billion humans? So, why the tussles, arguments, debates, warmongering and fights? Why? If humans are craving for peace, how can they focus on wars and fights? I am writing this regarding the concepts of a universal tenet: Whatever we put our focus on increases in our life! It is a deep truth. I have seen it many times working in my own life. So, as an example, while putting the focus on war, how can we expect to have peace in our life?

India - an ancient land where many religions coexist
The Wheel of Dharma - duty and purpose! A symbol of Sanatana Dharma as well as Buddhism
Image credits - Manojkumar.gopanap, via Wikimedia Commons

By putting our focus on war, fights, chaos and confusion, we are sending our inner intentions into the ether: "Dear Universe, I am interested in chaos and war. But please send me peace." The Universe would ask - "How? My child! By putting your focus and intentions on war and fights, you are from your deepest heart asking me for more chaos and confusion. How can I send you peace? I cannot. But as per your wish, here, have some more of chaos and confusion. Enjoy!" This is where humanity is finding itself. Is it pathetic or unfortunate? Both.

Drowning in a mind space of war, chaos, confusion, and battle, we cannot ask for peace. When our human mind itself is not peaceful, how can it create peace for itself all around? A chaotic and confused human mind cannot create peace, only war. Indeed, we just had a twenty-year experiment in democracy where people rule people in Afghanistan. Did it happen? No. Why? Because the minds of the people in that region have not embraced the concept of self-rule through elections. For centuries, they (and us) have existed by solving problems using the methods of war and battle. Therefore, the minds, especially our subconscious minds, are wired with the concept of sorting a problem using conflict. Then here comes another country that tries its experiment in democracy for twenty years. Once that experiment is over, it becomes business as usual, sorting problems using war and battles and village gatherings called jirga. Of course, any assembly of humans, if it can bring peace without war, arguments, tussle, or bloodshed, is good. If not, it is still chaos and confusion. Not peace.

Spirituality: As you may suspect (😉), this blog is about spirituality, philosophy, and many related avenues. My questions turn to the following: why many are enchanted by India or the United States. I was born and brought up in India until the age of twenty-eight and now live in the U.S., having done so for the last twenty-two years. Any time to any non-Indian person I say that I was born and brought up in India, their eyes take on a glazed, mystical look. They either start elaborating on the trip they took to India or how they have plans to visit India at least once. This is the foreigner's perspective on India.

Now, let us cross the globe, and go to India. Any time I go to India and a fellow Indian anywhere asks me where I live and I say U.S., now their eyes take on a magical look, "The U.S.? Wow! How are the people? Streets? Culture? How do people interact? How is the life? The attitudes and perspectives of Americans?" I sit enchanted seeing the same reaction but about a very different country on either side of the globe. What is the underlying emotions of this enchantment? What are the underlying theme that makes someone get a glazed, mystical look on their eyes and face?

If we dig deeper, we realize both these lands are very ancient. India has an unbroken heritage of more than five thousand years, and while Columbus came to the U.S. only five hundred years ago, the land has always been inhabited by the Native Americans for ages. They also have deep cultures and rituals. with some of the deepest roots in the land. So, as with India, the land of the U.S. is very ancient.

India - an ancient land where many religions coexist - Golden Temple, Amritsar
Image credits - Pixabay.com

A human heart beats to the deep vibrations of ancient cultures and lands, because both are made of the same essence, the universal element. As such, any human who taps into their heart starts to capture the deep energy of ancient cultures and align with those ancient ancestral vibrations and energy streams.

Remember, these are my intuitive inklings and perspectives. I was a small girl and teenager who grew up on ancient mythological stories, idols, art work, and culture. In those days, I also used to sit enchanted reading the stories of gods and goddesses walking the earth. This very same enchantment I used to feel when I read the Arabian Nights. Instead of the Yakshas or Yakshis of Hindu mythological stories, we have the Jinns of the Arabian folklore. The same enchantment, but only for a different land or culture.

Likewise, what about the amazing success of Harry Potter or Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast or Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? It is the same enchantment when a heart captures the ancient theme of mystical or magical lands or ideas or cultures. In that space, there is no division or differentiation of gender, religion, skin color, political perspectives or idea differences. It is simply the human heart, made of stardust, vibrating to the energy of an ancient culture. It has nothing to do with the current conflicts of gender, politics, ethnicities, cultures, religions, castes, creeds, or race.

Mystique: In that space, the human heart transcends the divisions to capture the underlying "oneness" that weaves through everything in this universe. The poet Rumi, the painter Leonardo da Vinci, the philosopher Socrates, and the composer Beethoven were all able to capture these mystical landscapes within their hearts as poems, paintings, ideas, and compositions. That was their success. They were able to transcend the smaller human mind to capture the greater mind of the universe, but through their own human mind. If they can do it, why can't we? We can.

Another example was Mahatma Gandhi. How could he unite very disparate groups of 340 million people under the one umbrella of Indian independence? It was not that there were not other leaders, since there were. But why could Mahatma Gandhi do what others failed to achieve? What was the magic pill behind his success? Remember that Gandhi used to read and refer to the Bhagavad Gita. It was the book that he used to guide his decisions and values. Through the Bhagavad Gita, Gandhi was able to capture this ancient wisdom of the oneness of the universe. The same is true of anybody who deeply go into any spiritual practice whether it be with the Bible, Torah, Quran or Guru Granth Sahib.

It doesn't matter, which book we use. It matters whether we can transcend our own smaller human mind to capture the greater universal mind and heart. That is what Mahatma Gandhi did. He was able to transcend his ego mind to capture Universal mind where his vision of his purpose was kept. He realized this at the Pietermaritzburg train station near Durban and later history was made. The moment he was pushed out of the train, the anger upset him so much, most probably his logical mind shut down and the greater Universal mind came through to give him a vision of what his life can be. This made a changed man of Gandhi.

India - an ancient land where many religions coexist
Ibrahim Rauza Tomb - Bijapur
Image credits - Pixabay.com

To further get connected with this greater mind he started using Bhagavad Gita as a guide book for his life. This opened up the mystique of India that ancient land to him. That deeper essence started to bring truck and train loads of humans to him. By accessing the deep power inherent in the ancient land called India or Bharatha, he was able to unite very different people with different languages, ethnicity and culture under one umbrella of Indian Independence. It was this alignment with a greater Universal will that kept the purpose of Gandhi apart from others. That doesn't mean the contributions of other leaders were minimal. They also had their purpose to do, and together every thing led to the freedom of India.

It is this energy of ancient land and wisdom that brings the glazed look on people's eyes when they talk about their trip to India or their wish to visit India. It was this deep patriotism people feel towards this ancient majestic land that brought a huge group of people together to acquire the freedom of their land.

India as an idea: India and its mystery tends to grow on people. The greatest emperor of Mughal dynasty to keep India the land as one and to portray his love towards whole of his people accepted the Rajput princess Jodha Bhai as his wife. Same way his great grandson Dara Shukoh assembled a cohort of very talented Hindu Pundits to translate Upanishads to Persian, which was later re-translated to French and later English. The western countries got a taste of the Upanishads.

India got its independence because the idea of India as a land of disparate culture, people, languages and tongues was kept together by the idea of oneness of the hearts that transcended the divisions among the people. From a smaller ego mind perspective India would have never got the freedom. The idea of a united India had to transcend the disparate differences that would have been brought up by the people. The unity of the hearts rather than the divisions of the mind. The hearts had to unite and beat in tandem towards a greater bigger purpose- the freedom of India.

Once that freedom was achieved the united heart of India was replaced by a smaller thinking, individualistic logical mind. The selflessness of a greater ideal of the Universal mind was replaced with the objective, logical, "What is in it for me" perspective of the individual and group mindset. At that moment the Hindu-Muslim divisions and battles erupted. Even though Mahatma Gandhi tried to unite the warring factions it was not meant to be and the country got divided into India and Pakistan. Those seeds of divisions, which was sowed in those days still produce loads and loads of crops as divisions, wars, hartals, fights and killings. Today India is more divided than ever.

India - an ancient land where many religions coexist
Basilica of Our Lady of Good health, Velankanni, Tamilnadu, India
Image credits - Manojz Kumar, via Wikimedia Commons

This shows that India as a United idea can never be captured from a lower egotistical - "What is in it for me" mind. Because the divisions of language, cultures, barriers, ethnicity, religions and divisions are many. Rifts are deep and long lasting. From this space a collective group is just an illusion as divisions of the minds would stare at our face. We would have to transcend these divisions to capture a higher ideal. The ideal of the mystique, greater wisdom and the beautiful nature of an ancient land that had kept her heritage as an unbroken chain of 2000-2500 years.

Why do we feel a mystery and other worldiness with Himalayas, the mountain range. The same glassy layer that falls over one's eyes and sight? That has nothing to do with the religion as Hinduism or Hindutva or Islam or Christianity or Sikh or another group idea. It has everything to do with the heart of the humans that has for centuries and millennia have been involved themselves in rituals, cultures, traditions, festivals and ways of life- whether it is Sanatana Dharma, Dravidian culture, Islam or Jainism or Buddhism.

It is the human minds that separate and divide individuals as - us/ them, other/we and alien or natural. The human minds that are bent upon dividing the Earth into pieces, bits, acres and hectares. Yes, in a society for normal, realistic existence that may be needed. For the physical world. But should we bring that divided mindset into our minds, hearts and divide ourselves further more? The idea of a United India from the heart through the human spirit that is what made Mahatma Gandhi successful in his Indian freedom struggle. Not a perspective from the mind, but from the human heart.

The spirit of freedom, joy and creativity that every human heart craves for. The Indians at that time for two hundred had been ruled by the British and were vying to have freedom of thoughts, minds, hearts, spirits and expression. The British had suppressed their natural human emotions and perspectives to the fullest making them almost colonial slaves. Only a spark of that innate human spirit and freedom had to be lighted by Mahatma Gandhi by capturing the deep energy and essence of an ancient land and people. It caught on as wild fire and within around fifty years India tasted her freedom and free days.

So, from the mind the idea of India as a united nation can never be captured. We, very well can see the divisions that are bogging down current Indian society and political spectrum. The operation of concepts from the mind that divides. Instead, leaders of every kind should make an effort to capture the Indian human heart. The heart of a group of around 1.2 billion people who consider this ancient land as their home. Leaders should try to capture that essence, mystique, magic of an ancient land where rituals, traditions, cultures, values, ideas, festivals and fares made a mark on the minds and hearts of the people who feel 'at home' there.


Indian flag fluttering in the background of the mighty Himalayas Image credits - Pixabay.com

For those leaders who inspire, encourage and unite the people should appear who can capture the hearts of this ancient land and people. Not leaders whose first question is -"What is there in it for me", but leaders who want the progress, innovation and welfare of the people of whole of India, not just their particular group alone. India has produced such leaders as Gandhi, Nehru, Vallabhai Patel, Ambetkar, Maoulana Abdul Kalam Azar, Dr. Zakir Husain, Rajendra Prasad, S. Radhakrishnan and more. Hope she will produce such leaders who are interested in the progress and welfare of the whole of India than bits, pieces and groups of India. That is the idea on which India should move forward not for this decade, but for centuries and eons to come.

Is India having such leaders for the current societal, political and economic spectrum? That is food for thought! Why don't we contemplate on it and take a break till next week? Until next Friday- let us chew on it, shall we?

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: The Yin Principle!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.com

Sanatana Dharma - My view......

2021-10-01T05:30:00.545-04:00

Hello all,

Namaste! All of you, my dear blog readers, know about my website-swaroopa.net. I have started my business, Swaroopa store, which can be accessed from Shop tab on my website, for beings who are interested in a personal reading. There is also the Swaroopa Store link, on my blog's left side. Now to the post.

Hope, all of you are doing well, staying safe and taking care of yourself and your loved ones. This has been my mantra for the last three years, I feel. As I understand, humans accrue Karma- cause and effect, Bhoomidevi or Gaia or Earth also as an energetic entity, accrues her Karma. May be this is the time of Karma release for her by making her energetic residents go through hassles, struggles, and energy transformations.

Why do I consider Earth as an energetic, living, breathing entity? Because Earth has 7B+ living and thriving beings. Above that there are numerous animals, trees, and inanimate objects. Below all the physical matter we see, every single thing is ions and atoms. When those ions and atoms are taken into account, they transform as energy, the power that is hidden underneath everything. This makes Earth a huge ball of energy that due to bad or evil thoughts, intentions and acts of humans can bring down the vibrations of these ions and atoms to a lower state or heavier slower vibrations.

It is at these lower vibrations, diseases, sickness and eventual death occurs. So, from this point we can understand why negativity brings diseases and deaths. How were we doing for the last 100 years? Wasn't there a lot of wars, fights, chaos and confusion? It was only a matter of time, before a very negative energy like the pandemic got attracted to our midst. When the whole Earth got bogged with negativity of humans, it attracted an even more negative thing- a pandemic.

Now, we can understand why it is necessary to maintain a positive mindset and outlook. Health, healing and wellness are a feature of higher vibrations or near to bright light. Hence in energy perspective, the Universal energy or divine is considered the brightest light of a thousand Suns. In Laltha Sahasranama there comes a name- Udyatbhanu Sahasrabha- Udyatbhanu - Rising Sun, Sahastrabha- 1000 brilliance. If we read it correctly, it can also be the brilliance of a thousand rising Suns. Lalitha Devi is said to have the color of the orangish pink morning sky, the hue of the rose gold color of the morning rising Sun. But as brilliant as thousands of them.

So, it is at such high vibrations, the cells of the body work efficiently and optimally. Such a person having high vibrations would find themselves in good, positive thoughts/ intentions and by virtue of that good health and wellness. How can we expect to have good health and wellness, if our mind is bogged down with negative thoughts and perspectives? The mind is sitting within us, not outside with others. In that scenario, the matter- the body follow the mind. If that mind is very sharp and smart, the person's negative thoughts would manifest as sickness in their body- negativity of the body. You can understand why I got deeply hooked to the mind and philosophy. Mind has the capacity to create- whether positivity or negativity according to the thoughts, intentions and actions of the person.

Isha Upanishad
Image credits - See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

Mind and the Soul: I own a copy of the Upanishads translated in English by Sri Eknath Eswaran. No, I don't know every sentence or phrase or quatrain (four lines). Usually, when a concept or idea strikes, I actually check with my Upanishad copy to verify whether that thought or idea can be correct and true. Reverse analysis. Not reading the Upanishads and later analyzing my mind. But checking when I feel doubtful about something.

This Upanishads from this end to that end explains the power of the mind and its ability to create. The concept of the mind and it's creative abilities are sitting in the very middle of the Upanishads which comes as later addition of Vedas, called Vedantha- end of Vedas. Nowadays, I even consider it as Vedanga- a limb of the Vedas. Any way Upanishads deal only with mind, Self, their manifestations, alignment/non-alignment and creation. A mind that is open and smart enough to understand gets it, knows it and uses it. Others who just look at it from intellectual point of view, argue, debate and intellectualize it. Debating and arguing is still mind and there is no heart involved. Creativity comes in the realm of heart, emotions and then mind. Without emotions and heart, a person cannot create, build life or abundance.

This the gist sitting within Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism. Now, to reach this point of living, a person has to remove a lot of gunk or negative perspectives and thought process they have accumulated through lifetimes of Soul life. People can come and fight with me, saying there is no Soul, it is all apparitions from your mind. Okay, let us explore. Shall we? Let me take the example from my own life. This is my life and experiences. I cannot prove it to anybody as a movie, video, cassette or song. I cannot. Also, I write about spirituality and truth, from my insights and intuition. Anytime I speak or write untruths away from my own truths, the flow of my intuition and insights would eventually stop. So, I am required to maintain the highest of my personal truths and integrity. I should and I must.

So, example. From eighteen to forty-seven years of my life, I studied science and biotechnology. Was a scientist and a researcher. So, am I not supposed to know more about science and biotech? The amount of spiritual or philosophy books I read can be counted on fingers. May be a few temple mythology and Puranic stories. But I am writing a blog on philosophy and spirituality with majority of the posts on philosophy, spirituality and the mind. How? How can I write so many concepts, ideas and perspectives without really learning anything in this life? Same way why do I have this deep passion and a burning drive to pursue this field to the end of the Universe? Why I never pursued science with this passion? I gave up my science career. But here I even stand up to to others and defend my point of thoughts or view.

The inner being or the Soul of a person!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

So, this shows, the knowledge I have not acquired in this lifetime. I have brought it with me from another lifetime, which was sitting dormant or sleeping for 47 years. When it was time for it to wake up, it woke up. That shows there is something deeper than just the body or the mind. My mind never learnt so much of knowledge on spirituality in my 47 years of life. It was more of science and the subconscious mind should have more of science knowledge. But what if there was already 1000 layers of spirituality and philosophy within my subconscious mind that I brought with me as a Soul when I came into this lifetime and another layer of science was just added to it. Can happen, isn't it? So, from my own life, I have signs that such a Soul exists and it knows much more than the human mind of that person can ever grasp.

Upanishads: This is the central theme of the Upanishads. How to differentiate Self from ego. Then, how to use the mind to access the gifts of the Soul through the heart and emotions to create a life of beauty for oneself and others. The path of Dharma whose key is held by the Soul. Access through the heart and emotions. But this is high level of spirituality and philosophy. A normal ordinary mind of a human cannot digest these higher ideals and concepts. To reach these realms of higher thought process first the human needs help and guidance. So, for such a simple every day human the Vedas, Puranas and the mythological stories are written.

For example the Rig Veda is about mantras/ chants and the Yajur Veda is about the fire rituals. When a person starts to practice the rituals and mantras, his/her mind becomes focused and starts to move away from the lower vibrations of chaos and confusion. A mind that too a very smart mind when not given a worthwhile task starts to become a monkey and creates ruckus on the human having that mind. Nelson Mandela has written about this. He was kept for twenty seven years almost always in solitary confinement in Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. So, it is the task of the human to first bring his/ her own mind to focus and intention. If the mind is not giving support to the human, the Soul knowledge or wisdom can never be accessed.

So, to bring the mind into track, focus, keep the ego in check and to live a good, fulfilling life, the Vedas, Puranas and other mythological stories of Sanatana Dharma are provided. But instead of understanding and using these perspectives, humans read and interpret these concepts without understanding, realizing or using it. Think this. You have a screwdriver. Do you sit, and elaborate on the screwdriver, it is green in color, it has a handle? the end is star shaped with a steel shaft or use it to tighten a screw or open a plug point? Of course, use it.

Nelson Mandela quote
Image credits - AZ quotes

Whoever is reading and intellectualizing the Vedas or Upanishads is sitting and describing the screw driver rather than using it. I have had people who come and argue with me, this paragraph says this, this mantra says that etc. Great! But is the mantra or the stanza being put to use in our life. When we say a Durga mantra, does our body feel electrified with the positive physical energy that mantra brings? Using the screw driver. Durga as a Goddess is physically very active. Chanting her mantra should make us do something, take actions towards our Dharma for our life. The energy working in our life. Not sitting and describing the screw driver.

Same way, when we say Ganesha Ashtakam, the eight slokas for Ganesha, does our buddhi- intellect and manah- intelligence open to see the hidden opportunities sitting within our lives, presenting themselves to us? This is how truly the mantras; concepts and the ideas should be used. The spiritual practice of Sanatana Dharma. Every time I sit to write my blog, first I bow to a Ganesha idol and then to my other Gods/ Goddesses for the flow of words to start. Keeping our mind to the side and surrendering our heart to a higher divine objective and will. The true way "the way of life"- Sanatana Dharma must be practiced. My life and this career of creativity provides me ample proof.

Current reality: Ramakrishna Paramahansa was an 18th century mystic who lived in Dakshneswar praying to his mother Goddess Kali. In his early days, for a couple of years he tried to live as a Muslim to understand the religion called Islam. He finally concluded every religion in its inner most core upholds the oneness of life, hearts and the humans. This was to mention, other religions may have highest of ideals within their folds and the way humans are interpreting may not be correct way to live and embrace those religions. But as I am not from those ways of life- I would leave that analysis for those scholars. But even there a question do come up in my mind- Doesn't every human has the right to pursue their free will and personal choice? Is everyone able to pursue that? A question many leaders of organized religion need to ask themselves and wonder about.

In the last few paragraphs, I mentioned how a mantra or chant should speak to us, when we truly surrender to that mantra. Instead of trying to reach this level of surrender what are many Hindus doing now? They are trying to deliberately force others to accept the religion of Hinduism and its royal stature. If we are forcing others to accept our religion as the one and only religion- Hindutva, what is the difference of Sanatana Dharma from other religions? It also has fallen culprit to the same closed mindset. Any religion, if we are forcing another to accept our way as the only right way- then we are closing the door on free will and choice of that person.

If a person is not meant to use free will and choice, why are they given such thoughts on their interests and passions? Then, the whole Hindus should have the same interests and aspirations, right? Why are when some people feel closer to Durga, some are feeling the vibe with Ganesha, Vishnu or Shiva? These Gods are able to coexist in many temples. So, why us Hindus who boast we are very open minded nowadays cannot accept other religions and cultures. Same question, I have for other religions. If you feel your religion has a right to exist, don't the other religions have the same right? The globe is for all- not for just Hindus, just Muslims, just Christians, just Jews or just atheists.

All are ready to debate, argue and make a tussle in the name of religions. But what about living according to the guidance provided by those concepts? Why try to force others when we are not ready to live our own highest personal truths written within ourselves? We read the stories of Krishna, Jesus or Prophet Mohammad. What is the first truth we need to realize? They didn't go and try to change others. The first thing they did was to live their truths. Standing and operating from their truths they guided others. First and foremost, they upheld their truths.

The free will to pursue our personal choice!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Personal truths and duty: If we are not ready to live from our personal truths, what else can we really uphold? So many of the humans are ready to fight a war or make a tussle for their religion. But shouldn't we realize our religion may not be a truth for another. For example, I feel deep devotion towards Krishna and Lalitha Tripurasundari. That is because I was born and raised a Hindu. But a Muslim or Christian may not be able to feel the same devotion towards a Hindu God. Same way I was not born or raised a Muslim or Christian. So, I may not feel the same devotion towards Allah or the Christian God. But I can definitely respect the devotion a Muslim feels for Allah or a Christian feel for their God or Mother Mary. Same way a Muslim or Christian or even an atheist should respect my right to practice my religion or my spirituality the way I want. The concept of LIVE and LET LIVE!

This is the truth as long as we are not hurting, killing, blocking, devaluing or debasing anyone. This is the true gist and respect Sanatana Dharma has, the openness to respect another exactly as they are, not as "what we think" they must or need to be. This openness is being lost in all religions nowadays, even with Hinduism. The movement Hindutva doesn't have this openness. According to Hindutva, it is an ancient and the first religion, which suddenly gives it a super status for a religion. Okay, the religion is super terrific. But what about the humans practicing the religion?

The same question, I have about other religions, as well. If our religion- take any religion is super terrific and awesome, we who practice that religion should also uphold gleaming and brilliant values of those religions, shouldn't we? If we are ready to butcher or humiliate others because we consider our own religion or values terrific, are we really upholding the golden values we profess about our religion? Every religion preaches about the kind and compassionate Gods or deities they have that are very honest and truthful. Same way atheists speak about treating every person as human. Then my question becomes- can't you find that same compassion for another human who chose to practice another religion or way of life or for an atheist, can't you see the human underneath the attire of a believer they chose to wear for this life?

If we cannot even see a human underneath all that perspective and only see that value/ perspective/ mindset/ religious attire they chose to wear, are we really practicing the concepts or values we preach? A true believer or an atheist should first and foremost uphold those values and perspectives in their own life, find the holes in themselves and fix it, rather than trying to fix the whole of humanity who they perceive as at fault. Before talking the talk, walking the walk. It is so easy to preach to others about the values we find as important. But are we making an effort to practice those values before preaching in our own lives? For myself, everything I write, first I would have practiced it for more than one or two years. I write only about those concepts that work for my own life. Period!

In Sanatana Dharma a huge tenet is -"Satyam Vada, Dharmam Charah"! Satyam Vada- speak the truth, which comes in Taittireeya Upanishad. What kind of truth? Our personal truth. Not what is written in the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita or Mahabharatha. That we always can read to help us towards our living. Most definitely. But the truth that must be spoken is the truth written in our heart and Soul. My truth is I am a Sanatani upholding my spiritual truths living from a spiritual way of Sanatana Dharma- Hinduism in the current lingo. Not the Hindutva.

Now, Dharmam Charah! Walk your duty! What is that duty? Not something written in the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita or Mahabharatha, but the purpose or duty written within our heart. If a Hindu heart comes with duty or Dharma written there, the same way being a human a Muslim or Christian heart also must come with a duty written within their hearts. If the person is not ready to take up that personal truth as well as duty written in their heart and live according to that guidance, who else would come to do that duty?

The inner Sun of the personal truths! Let it arise!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Now, can we realize what is happening to humanity? Instead of accessing, upholding and living the personal truths and Dharma (duty) written within their own heart and Soul, every human is going and fighting for an outer organized religion or a concept or value they think is important. If it is important to us, let us practice it in our life to the glowing brilliance. Seeing its outer manifestations in our life, getting inspired, let others turn within themselves and practice their truths and Dharma to the glowing edge in their life. In that space where is going, fighting, arguing and debating with anyone? If we are not meant to uphold and practice, why are we given personal truths or duty of purpose or Dharma for each one of us? To self- reflect and find it, even that comes under our duty.

That is why I like the spiritual practice of "Sanatana Dharma- The eternal way of life". Not Hindutva. In this space of spiritual practice, there is no chaos, confusion, noise, arguments, debates, putting down, devaluation, conversion, diversions or anything. There is only deep self-reflection, contemplation, self-evaluation and rectifying any brokenness we may have within ourselves. If we are not even ready to look at ourselves and fix our own weaknesses, who are we to go and preach about our truths to others. A person who is not ready to self-reflect, analyze, walk the walk, and then talk the talk has not earned the right to guide, or preach to others.

So, let us first do - Saytam Vada and Dharmam Charah! Walk the Walk and then, Talk the Talk! Otherwise, let us be silent and hold our peace for eternity! At least the globe would see better days with peace and prosperity! Tadasthu- So be it!!🙏

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: India as an idea.....
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.com, AZ Quotes.

Mangalik in the spiritual house! (Kuja Dosha)- Part 6!

2021-09-24T05:30:00.380-04:00

Hello all,

This post is for any beautiful Soul out there who is struggling with the stamp of "Mangalik" stamped on their forehead! Read the posts. You would later congratulate yourself that you are indeed a Mangalik! I will be writing four to five posts in this series, hopefully! Fingers crossed!

Hope, all of you are hale and healthy. Above keeping oneself physically healthy, we should also keep ourselves mentally and emotionally healthy. This mental and emotional part because that is the realm we are going to discuss today. Kuja or Mars in the spiritual house, the twelfth. This is the one area that make humans go through roller-coasters, fire loops, cry baby syndromes and every other shenanigan humans show and perceive. The emotions! The whole world is ruled by the emotions of the humans and many don't even have a clue of it.

For myself, I realized this hidden world only in the year of 2016 to 2017. Before that I used to be proud of my intellect and logic. I was a scientist and researcher. We cannot understand science and technology without having a smart and logical mind. As I was able to understand science very well, I used to feel very proud of myself. But now in the last four years I realize, we as humans know only so much of the Universe. May be ten percent. Anyway, humans, let us keep ourselves safe. Today, it is the last part of the Mangalik series- Kuja in the twelfth house.

Twelfth house: This house in the natural chart belongs to Pisces, whose ruler is Jupiter. As we know, Jupiter is one of the biggest planets of the Solar system. Same way Pisces rules spirituality, other worldly perspectives and above the realm of physics or metaphysics. So, the lord as well as the house is vast and expansive. From an elemental perspective, it is a water house. As we know, in Vedic astrology houses are divided into four elements- air, water, fire and earth. Pisces being water element and vast, it has the emotional energy almost as wide as the Pacific ocean.

As it is expansive many times planets or their energies can get drowned in other worldly perspectives and concepts. This is why people with Pisces heavy chart have the energy of always lost in some other worldly day dream. The energy of a mermaid in some long lost other worldly ocean. If by any chance the mind- Moon falls in Pisces and strong, they always escape into an inner world where they find themselves in the ocean with mermaids, sea shells, conchs, under water palaces and corals.

Pacific ocean
Image credits - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

They escape into their dream world anytime the circumstances of physical life becomes tough and excruciatingly painful. That is why Pisces heavy chart people have a dreamy, other worldly kind of look and attitude. This water heavy chart also bestows them with high creativity. Painters, artists and musicians come in this house. It is not the creativity and emotions that becomes the problem, but their hesitation to take actions on that. They love their water palace so much many times they don't realize; it is the actions that make the dream a reality. So, many times the creativity and emotions never find expression in the real physical life.

Let us take an example of a painter. The painter has a festival of colors within their mind. But to find expression the painter has to make the easel ready, take up the paint/colors and need to paint. Bringing the divine spark of creativity alive. Here is where actions and the lord of actions matter. Who is the one ruling actions or Karma? Kuja or Mangala. He is the leader, the red one- blood who gives oxygen to every cell as energy, so that the cells and by virtue of that faculties of action, can act. But what is the problem? Kuja is a fiery planet or Agni and the house of Pisces is water. The dynamics of water and fire.

Fire in water: We have discussed these dynamics of water and fire before in the post of Gandamoola. Here also such a situation emanates. Kuja or Mangala is a very fiery planet. It is anger in a low vibratory state; pure passion and will power in a higher idealistic state. Kuja is the graha that rules blood-red in color. The blood carries the oxygen that gives energy to each cell. This energy later the cells transform as functions for the upkeep, maintenance and actions of the body. A well placed Kuja in the chart helps the person to have will power, passion and energy to take towards their goals.

But what if that same ball of fire is placed in the very middle of a Pacific ocean. Can it still act naturally as a fire ball? Mangala finds himself in the very middle of water works in the sign of Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces. Kuja likes to be in dry land, even a slight desert like Aries, Leo or Sagittarius, where he can act, rather than sitting, wondering, planning (Mercury) and do something towards his Dharma. Remember, Kuja has the same energy of Karthikeya, son of Shiva- the army chief.

Image credits - Vasukrishnan57,
via Wikimedia Commons)

Karthikeya explained the meaning of the sound OM to his own father Shiva who is considered wisdom incarnate. He also has the spear of mental focus Shakthi, which was given by his mother Shakthi or Parvathi. Shakthi in esoterism is pure energy. So, in such a case, Kuja becomes the son of energy itself. In other words, energy and will power (Shakthi) is needed to take actions. But in the 12th house, (here we are discussing the natural chart and any place the 12th house energy comes, the underlying energy of Pisces manifests), it is the Jupiterian essence of knowledge, thought and wisdom. Jupiter wants to ideate, think, while Mars wants to act.

Jupiter is the guru. Shiva is the first Guru- Dakshinamoorthy. Son in the house of the father. Kuja in Kailasa. We already know the story where Karthikeya fought with his dad for giving the mango of wisdom to Ganesha, rather than him. So, in the 12th house, Kuja or Karthikeya is finding himself in Kailasa. Already we have discussed the house of Pisces as Pacific ocean. Now, think of this Pacific ocean frozen as ice of the Himalayas- Kailasa!

What would people do in Kailasa? Do they lead an army and wage a war or meditate and think about the higher concepts of life? This is the exact energy of Kuja in the twelfth house. Kuja feels very uncomfortable in the ocean like Pacific or frozen Kailasa. He wants to act, do something, make a change in his life. But the environment of the 12th house would not be suitable to take actions. A ball of fire being placed in the widest of the ocean or the coldest of the mountain.

The outer 12th house dynamics: Many times, the Kuja person would be like a sportsman born into the family of people who are deeply involved in rituals, mantras or studies. Even though Sagittarius by virtue of being the 9th house is the Dharma sthana, 12th house is also about wisdom, knowledge and beyond the physical world- metaphysical. The Mangala person would try to go for activities like sports, games, action-oriented tasks and activities. But the lord of Pisces, Meena would say - No, try to acquire higher ideals, knowledge, and wisdom.

The Kuja person most probably would become upset and angry. Remember Kuja in lower manifestations are anger, and temper tantrums . How the anger appears would be according to the specific placement of the house in the chart. If it is Scorpio, it would be hidden anger, if Cancer, passive aggression (Oh, and you thought Cancer is the ever-nourishing sign. It also is the most passive aggressive sign in the whole twelve houses. Aggression to acquire energy as love) and if Aquarius, not caring a bit whether another feel angry and going for what they want.

The dreamy magical world of Pisces. Moon depicts the emotions
Image credits - Pixabay.com

We should truly ask here, why did the fiery ball of Kuja got placed in this twelfth house? Why? Many times, a dynamic the normal eye cannot see, a spiritual eye can see. This Soul has an enormous energy and passion, which needs to be used for spiritual purposes. Jupiter or the Guru here is saying to Kuja, instead of wasting your time on sports or games, translate an ancient book, read and write your thoughts. Study the higher idealistic concepts and later use it in such a way that others can find use with them in their life.

I have not analyzed the chart of Vivekananda. But for energy elaboration, the same energy. Swami Vivekananda was a very passionate advocate of spiritual wisdom. So much of passion towards knowledge and wisdom, he acted to popularize the eastern wisdom to the west. For that he had to cross the Atlantic Ocean (Pisces energy of the ocean) to spread the knowledge as a Guru-12th house of spirituality to the world. I just checked his chart. Pisces has no planets. The energy is that of Jupiter- Sagittarius. But from the life of Swami Vivekananda, we can get a glimpse of the energy dynamics in case Kuja gets placed in Pisces,

Kuja in the 12th house: In short, the energy of Kuja in the 12th is similar to a cricket player who finds himself in the hermitage of Vyasa, the Guru. Another fire brand person we can discuss is Lakshmana, brother of Rama. He during his lifetime found himself in the forest along with Rama and Sita. Kuja also signifies the brother. A perfect brother who helps his older sibling in every which way possible during his days of stress and heart ache.

Lakshmana was never a very soft, calm and peaceful person. He was always ready to fight, take up the arms, but deeply honest, duty bound and focused on a higher cause of helping his brother. He was close to his brother; he didn't think twice to leave his wife for fourteen years to go to the forest. Here also the ocean comes as Indian ocean that needs to be crossed. Lakshmana in the forest within the peaceful arms of nature, where Gurus used to impart wisdom to their students. A perfect example of Kuja in the twelfth house. (Image below, credits - Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Twelfth house also is far away space. Lanka and Kishkinta were very far from Ayodhya which comes in UttarPradesh (north India). Even though Seetha and Rama used to sleep, many days Lakshmana without sleep had to keep watch and be vigilant to protect his brother and wife. An energetic, higher idealistic Kuja finds itself "at home" in the sign of Jupiter if it finds a way to do its duty and Dharma. And to do such a duty the whole environment of the forest or ocean would support as well. Any time Kuja person decides to take up the agenda of the twelfth house Jupiter, they would find the whole Universal energy supporting and aligning behind them.

Most probably their spiritual guides or ancestral family- signification of the 12th house, wants them to take up actions towards spirituality and do something for it. As Kuja as a planet is very small compared to Jupiter, Kuja cannot win a war against Jupiter in energy coins. But Kuja may be able to take the Jupiterian concepts, mold it, change it to fit an active form and use it towards a higher purpose of Dharma. Until then, the surrounding environment would not support the person to take actions. They may feel blocked, obstructed, not having the energy to overcome the Jupiter sized hassles.

Any day they decide to take up the agenda of the 12th house of spirituality, they find they are blessed with the expansive energy of Jupiter that brings the blessings of Sagittarius, the Dharma/duty as well as the Piscean energy of spirituality, higher wisdom and metaphysical knowledge. Now whether to take up the Jupiter agenda or not by the Kuja person? That is always a personal free will and choice!

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Sanatana Dharma- My view......
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay.

Vande Gurubhyo Namah!

2021-09-17T05:30:00.670-04:00

Hello all,

Hope, all of you are hale and healthy. Above keeping oneself physically healthy, mentally and emotionally as well. This mental and emotional part because that is the realm we are going to discuss today. Kuja or Mars in the spiritual house, the twelfth. This is the one area that make humans go through roller-coasters, fire loops, cry baby syndromes and all other shenanigan humans show and perceive. The emotions! The whole world is ruled by the emotions of the humans and many don't even have a clue of it.

I was planning to continue with this post. But my Google Blogger or internet was acting up and I was not able to save many times. I don't want to type a 3000 worded blog to later realize, everything got lost. So, the next Mars- Mangalik post, I will do next week. Instead, today why don't I just share a few images of the deities of Sanathana Dharma starting with Ganesha. Then, my Manasa guru, Lalitha Tripurasundari, other Goddesses and then, the Navagraha.

They have helped me thoroughly in my blog journey for the last four years. So,may be they want a slight recognition. By sharing their images, along with all of you my lovely blog readers, I will also find my own deepest grace and blessings. So, let us enjoy together a few images- all from Wikimedia Commons, most probably. Also, this week was Ganesh Chathurthi. What better week to share all these images? Happy Ganesh Chathurthi,🌸🌸 all - though slightly belated! 😊🌹

Here, I want to give out a shout out to Wikimedia Commons. Due to the way they have made these ancient images accessible, I am able to use them on my blog. Thank you, Wikimedia Commons! You actually have made my blog very vibrant and with an ancient feel. Same way Pixabay has given a very modern touch and essence to my blog. Thank you, Pixabay! Indeed, the very best from both the worlds. Thank you! 🙏

So, let us peruse some images for today. Shall we? 😊

Addendum: I have to add a small note. As long as, I didn't depict all the Navagrahas in their Golden spelendid, splendorous, brilliant, form, yesterday onwards the images just won't align, It just won't. I sat till 12.30pm and tried to make them align. Usually until now, never on a Friday I have tinkered with the blog. I finish on Thursday to publish on Friday. Today, it was different.

To align them, I sat from morning 9.45am onwards, today-Friday. Now, it is 11.45 am. Until and unless, I decided to put the nine- Nava grahas in their Golden shining form, they said- "No, don't expect any co-operation from us. We want to be seen in our true, highest energy and idealistic form. Either you put us as Golden or have a non-aligned blog." Finally, internally flabbergasted and bowing mentally, individually to each of them, I have put each one of these amazing energy beings in their Golden, immense and amazing form, with a few words of their significations in paranthesis in the title of each image. 🌸🌸🌸😊🙏 Best, Swaroopa.🌺

Ganesha: The scribe:

Image credits - Dancing Ganesha,
Natarajanganesan, via Wikimedia Commons

Lalitha Tripurasundari - The mother Goddess of the world and other Goddesses:
( According to Sanatana Dharma, especially Shakthism)

Lalitha TripuraSundari
Image credits - Arjunkrishna90, via Wikimedia Commons


Saraswathi, Goddess of knowledge and wisdom; consort of Brahma Image credits - Ranjithpk0302, via Wikimedia Commons


Lakshmi- Goddess of wealth and prosperity; consort of Vishnu Image credits - Michael Gunther, via Wikimedia Commons


Parvathi with Shiva- Goddess of strength and energy; consort of Shiva Image credits -Vasukrishnan57, via Wikimedia Commons

Navagrahas:

Surya, The Sun (the Soul-inner wisdom, truth) with Sanjna and Chaya
Image credits - E. A. Rodrigues, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Chandra, Moon (the mind-logical as well as emotional) with his wives
(27 nakshatras, two depicted here)
Image credits - E. A. Rodrigues, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Budha, Mercury (intelligence and intellect)
Image credits - E. A. Rodrigues, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Shukra, Venus (value, beauty)
Image credits - E. A. Rodrigues, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mangala, Mars (will power, leadership)
Image credits - E. A. Rodrigues, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Brihaspathi-Guru, Jupiter (higher ideals, spirituality, philosophy)
Image credits - E. A. Rodrigues, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Shani, Kaal- Saturn (boundaries, structure, organization)
Image credits - E. A. Rodrigues, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rahu, The North node (purpose, path, Maya, illusion)
Image credits - E. A. Rodrigues, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons


Kethu, The South node (ancestors, past life, subconscious knowledge) Image credits - E. A. Rodrigues, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Mangalik in the spiritual house! (Kuja Dosha)- Part 6!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons,

Mangalik in the hidden house! (Kuja Dosha)- Part 5!

2021-09-10T05:30:00.372-04:00

Hello all,

Hope, all of you are keeping yourself hale and healthy. Yes, it is a season of pandemic in our lives and we just have to put on the essence of a gritty and resilient human and traverse this tough time, we as humans are going through. This week is my birthday. I have been in this physical plane for now fifty-one years. This idea of a blog showed up in my life just like that some four years ago.

As we are continuing together this blogging, concepts, and perspective journey towards more value, worth and authenticity for all, I want to extend my deep gratitude to of all my blog readers from the bottom of my heart. It is your eyes, mind and later contemplation/self-reflection that gives my words life and an emotional sense. No eyes, there are no words and no mind to think, there are no concepts as well. Thank you, for reading, thinking, reflecting and commenting on my blog posts. I deeply appreciate it. Thank you! 😊🌺🙏 Now, to the blog post.

Last week, we discussed the effects of Kuja in the seventh house of the other. This week, let us take it further to the next house, that of the eighth house. Before that, I would have to write some paragraphs about the eighth house itself- mysterious, mystique, occult and esoteric. This is a house everybody gets wrong. Most humans judge this house so very badly the signification almost always tend to feel dark and shadowy. But is it really so? I have before discussed few blog post on the house of Scorpio. Reading that also would shine light on the energy of the eighth house.

Eighth house: Let us do some deep astrology. In Vedic astrology, the natural chart that starts from Aries (Mesha) is the horoscope of Kaala Purusha-Time as a being. In my mind, the Vedic astrology term Purusha is not a male, but a being. Many astrologers say, the Pancha mahapurusha yogas work only in the chart of males. I differ in my opinion. Here also I feel that the purusha depicted is that of a "be"ing. To "be"- as authentic and true as you are. Now, take this concept and bring it into the current physical world.

Who in this world as of now has more freedom "to be" themselves? Females or males? Now, a disclosure- I, being a female who was born in the seventies have come through my cup of struggles, hassles and blocks in a male dominated world. Of course! But I was brought up by parents who gave deep importance to an independent, authentic and original voice. So, this part, I upheld always and even used claws and fangs/ teeth if I needed to.

Mangala or Angaraka
Image credits- E. A. Rodrigues,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Back to the concept. In a male dominated world who has more freedom, voice and will to exist as themselves? To be? Of course, males. Definitely. Many females in many parts of the world are existing within the four wall as voiceless, identity-less beings. Do you differ? How about this story and this story? There are umpteen number of examples around the world. So, in such a case a female is disallowed to exist, live and thrive as they are. They are asked to live according to the wishes, perspective and values of others in their life.

How can any blessing or grace that is tied deeply with the "be"ing appear in their life if they are not allowed to live and thrive as they are. The energy of the Mahapurusha yogas (Maha- great, purusha- yoga) gets blocked and the person does not enjoy the fruits of the yoga. Then, the astrologers sit and just opine, the yogas are not manifesting because it is the chart of a female. Nope. The yogas are not manifesting because the person is not able to or not allowed to exist as they are. Because females have always carried a subordinate role, many ladies are terrified to even speak up and voice their opinion, wish or desires. The Mahapurusha yoga just stays in the chart never to manifest in the physical life. We humans always tend to read concepts in a rather round about way. Unfortunate!

In the process of describing the term purusha, I just took a detour. Anyway, the horoscope of Kalapurusha starts from Aries and the eighth house becomes Scorpio. Eighth house is the house of hidden things. This house is the scorpion that sits in the darkness of a rock in lower vibrations. But in higher vibrations, this emanates the energy of the Phoenix bird that burns itself in fire and later regenerates. If the Scorpio house is placed well, the person finds themselves at a cross-roads, dies metaphorically and transforms to take an entirely new form.

So, this also points towards the energy of death. Due to this death aspect, people are terrified of this house. But what a foolishness! The death is many times not of the physical body but of the metaphysical energy. Another point, Scorpio is the eighth house. Eight is the energy of Saturn that prolongs and slows everything. This house may make the metaphorical death at a snail's pace so that the person feels the brunt of the transformation energy to the minutest detail, but won't take the person physically from life. Without knowing these finer points, people who read about astrology are terrified about this house. So, this is the rough energy of the eighth house.

Scorpio: Scorpio, the deepest house. This is the lake that stays so silent that nobody can even guess the depths of this person. This can be sensed from the intense and almost soul-searching eyes they possess. But the problem with Scorpio is it brings a lot of subconscious hang ups and emotional mess-ups. The person in an aware state is able to handle the deep emotional world. But in a non-aware, clueless state they are like a broken boat that is tossed up and down in the emotional chaos of a material ocean.

Due to these aspects of emotional depth, a capacity to understand emotions, keen perception for intuition and insights, a lot of astrologers, psychologists and psychiatrists come under the purvey of this house. As we have discussed before, the house can be represented by the flower Lotus that from the mud of emotional, ensnaring and deeply muddled energies can bring out the brilliant flower of Atmajnana or Self-realization. Nowadays, the spiritual community gives an aura of "Ahhhh" with an other worldly mystique for self-realization.

The sign of Scorpio- scorpion
Image credits - AnotherGypsy, via Wikimedia Commons

But what is truly self-realization? To know oneself deeply, their life, mind, basal energies, purpose and desires. The answer to the question- Who am I? Scorpio is "the" sign that can unravel this puzzle and understand themselves deeply. Whether they would use that knowledge and information with a higher idealistic perspective or use it to their advantage is anyone's guess. Scorpio definitely has the capacity to untie the puzzle of their own inner most perspectives, desires and interests.

Now, here is where our hero, Mars is going to come. There is also another point I need to ponder. Scorpio is co-ruled by two planets, Kethu as well as Kuja. Kuja doesn't have the full say in this house. Kethu also puts in his word. As Kethu, the spiritual planet is involved, the sign gets the spiritual grace of the ancestors and lineage. But Kethu in lower energy is deep fear of the unknown. The person can feel terrified of unknown circumstances, dynamics and situations. This is the deep subconscious fear signified by the mud of the lotus swamp. There are a lot of gems and treasures within this mud. But it is deep, thick mud of lifetimes of subconscious knowledge and experiences.

Kuja in the eighth house: The above said is the energy of the eighth house. This can slightly change according to the house Mars gets placed in. For example, say, Mars is in the eighth house of Libra. Libra is the natural sign of Venus. In Vedic astrology Venus and Mars are considered very opposite energies. In Libra, a person is meant to act with grace and elegance having a deep conviction for truth, justice and equality. But a person bringing Mars, the male planet may not show elegance or beauty but a warrior like physical agility and may be aggression if the Mars has other aspects. But Libra is meant to generate grace and creativity. The person behaves in an opposite manner. Think how an aggressive monkey would be in a crystal shop? The person loses finesse and etiquette and the energy dissipates in a chaotic fashion.

Above this, the fear of Kethu may drive the person to be more aggressive. There is even a saying, 'it is the fearful dog that bites'. So, the fear can drive the person to bring boundaries, keep people under control or become aggressive in maintaining their stance. Scorpio is not an easy sign. It takes deep willpower and courage to tackle this subconscious emotional and familial patterns. Here is where the planet of Mars comes.

Hidden house of Scorpio (A hidden cat)
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Due to the Kethu energy, that is intense, Mars is not that comfortable in the eighth-house or Scorpio, Sure, it is also a sign of Mars. But due to the eight house energy of Saturn, which is considered an enemy of Mars along with the Kethu dynamics, Mars feels uncomfortable here. Now, eighth house is the family of the closest relationship one has. Second house from the other, the seventh house we discussed last week. Second is the family and ancestral home. The closest relationship can become a very deep friend, spouse, partner, or even a business partner. Even business or partnership is the seventh house.

As Kethu is involved in the mix, the person with Mars in the eighth house deals with the ancestral karma, familial patterns and behaviors of the family of the spouse or partner. This eighth house Mars person is placed exactly in a situation where the whole subconscious, ancestral and familial patterns of the spousal family is to be dealt with. Most probably the person would have been having any normal, everyday life. In case, the person is also running a Mars or Kethu dasa or even a Saturn dasha, lo and behold! They are asked the question, how are you going to overcome the mud and swamp of this energy that too not of your family, but of the other's- second from the seventh house.

As the person has only dealt with their family, this is a totally new cup of tea. It is not necessary it has to be the spouse or partner itself. It can be a paying guest, a renter, a business partner or a government official who comes to check your business. Because eighth is also taxes, governmental affairs, debts and liens. So, the person who brings such energy themselves are frazzled and our Kuja person has the duty to figure it out. Kuja is also the lord of Aries- leadership, but also the sign of anger and passion. This eighth house energy can bring anger and passion issues. Mars is uncomfortable deeply with Saturn as well as the Kethu energy. It is a mush of emotional swampy energy and the planet Mars- the lord of will power is asked to figure it out.

Overcoming the challenge: Remember, as the eighth house has the energy of Saturn, Mars and Kethu, it has a swampy feel and essence. What is the best animal that can tolerate and even overcome a swamp like situation? What can cut through the mud and get to the place it wants? A crocodile. In truth, the sign of Capricorn-Makara is a crocodile with a fish like tail. An animal that can overcome the swamp and reach its destination. The eighth house energy as it has Saturn energy, the crocodile, swamp of Kethu and the will power to cut through the swamp- Kuja, every condition becomes true.

So, in the case of the eighth house energy, Kuja should take the energy of the will power, access the intention to cut through the swamp of the deepest subconscious mess or hassle and come up to the top as a beautiful and brilliant lotus of self-knowledge, Atma jnana. The person with their will power would have to dive to the deepest of the subconscious mind, find the answer to the dynamics of whatever subconscious hassle the person is placed in.

The knowledge as brilliant as a lotus our of the mud
Image credits - Pixabay.com

The eighth house energy is not comfortable for the warrior Mars. But he also has the will power to overcome any situation and take charge of the situation. Mars has the energy of Karthikeya, the army chief of Gods. Only in the eighth house, he is placed in the middle of a swamp and asked to fight a war. Should he concentrate on the war or be fearful he may lose his footing and start drowning in the marsh? This is the energy dynamics.

As Mars is the will-power, he has to develop his Mercury, another enemy planet of Mars, use the intelligence to fight the war and at the same time may be build a supporting infrastructure of rods that would keep the individual from drowning in this swampy energy dynamics. The support infrastructure can be family, career, art, good friends, a thriving business or whatever is needed to give the person a solid footing to survive the marsh and get into a much solid foundation.

Here, it is the emotions and fear of Kethu and Saturn that stands against the Kuja of 8th house. Instead of considering the other planets as enemies, the spiritual knowledge of Kethu, the structural support of Saturn and the intelligence of Mercury should be used to transcend the marshy dynamics and find the best footing for will power the querent can get. Then, bloom as a brilliant lotus. Is it doable? Of course. The deepest will power needs to be employed. Then the dynamics can be overcome.

The person needs to realize the enormous will power of Mars and use to their advantage. Whether to use it or not, is always the free will and choice of the person.

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Mangalik in the spiritual house! (Kuja Dosha)- Part 6!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay

Mangalik in the opposite house! (Kuja Dosha)- Part 4!

2021-09-03T05:30:00.411-04:00

Hello all,

Hope all of you are keeping yourself safe, following the health requirements, washing your hands, wearing masks, socially distancing and whenever possible accessing the vaccines. I cannot emphasize it again and again- Vaccines save you and allows you to live breathe and thrive! Don't make it insignificant! It is a valuable tool for humanity at this current social scenario!

Last three weeks, we have been discussing the role of Kuja in general, the second, as well as the fourth house placement. How about the next house today? The seventh house. We have been discussing the placement from the lagna- the ascendant. Ascendant is the physical vehicle that carry us through the life- the body. There is also the placement of the Moon- the mind. Whatever we desire, wish or intend in the mind, taking actions brings results in our physical life. Mind also is extremely important in Vedic astrology.

It is actually much more important than the lagna, because a mind can actually bring up or down a person. We have discussed this again and again. Abraham Lincoln just had his mind, that is it. Dirt poor and no way to go to school or college. It was his mind and single-minded pursuit of what he wanted brought him to the chair of the sixteenth President of the United States. Same way it was the mind of Hitler who took ulterior ways and modes to keep himself at power that later brought him to the point where he had no way out, but to commit suicide.

Mind is very important in a human life. So, all the above said positions can be looked from the mind, lagna, Venus, or even Mercury as well- intelligence. How is the mind ruling the intelligence? Is it bringing the person towards their Dharma or moving them away from it? At this juncture, I want to mention, the personal truth is represented by Sun in higher evolved states, but at lower vibrations it is ego. But if Mercury becomes very closely placed to the Sun, the intelligence of the mind can mask the personal truths. The person would be much more interested in education and knowledge than what to do with them towards their personal truths. Just felt like mentioning it here. Back to Mars.

The placement of Mars can be looked from all these planets. The placement of Mars from the lagna shows how the body responds to the placement and from the Moon, the mind. This post would be from the point of lagna, the physical reality. The next placement is in the seventh house, which comes exactly opposite to the lagna or the ascendant.

Seventh house: Seventh house is the exact other end of the lagna. If the lagna is Sagittarius, the seventh house is Gemini, and if the lagna is Libra, the seventh house is Aries. According to Vedic astrology, the main weight is given to it as the house of the spouse. But nowadays, I feel that is a very tiny interpretation. Yes, spouse is one of the most important relationships anyone would have in their life. But the seventh house also signifies every kind of relationship, whether it is spousal, personal, professional or business related. Seventh house shows all of these relationships. Image credits-Redtigerxyz, via Wikimedia Commons

Seventh house is the reflection the outside world brings to us of our reality of the lagna. There also comes another concept where the seventh from any house has the exact opposite characters of the first house. For example, Aries is the sign of oneself- the essence of I am. Myself and my confidence. But the exact opposite house of Libra is always about the other. So, while an Aries is almost always interested in helping oneself and this can many times lead to deep selfishness if the mind of the person is not aware, Libra is always about the other. Above helping themselves, they can leave everything and help the other, if the Libra person is not aware.

Let us, take another sign pair. Aquarius and Leo. Aquarius is a very detached sign. As it is an air-sign, they are all about communications, the airy nature of ideas, concepts and perspectives. That too Aquarius also is the highest manifestation of air out of the three air signs. Any time during a debate or exchange of ideas, if the other person becomes emotional, Aquarius can cut the talk and just go away. A strong Aquarius person would not tolerate an emotional mush of a person.

But take the exact opposite sign of Leo. They love their drama and can show their love in a very emotional and loyal way. They are all about loving their family/friends and showing it as well. They won't run away from emotions as an Aquarius if there is a fight or argument happening. They would jump into the middle of the drama, access their stage to show off their talents and roar like a lion. A very different and exact opposite sign to Aquarius. Like this the seventh sign is opposite to what our lagna symbolizes. Lagna is us in our body and the physical reality.

In Vedic astrology many times a non-aware person would behave as the opposite sign. Even though the person is Aries, their actions would others perceive as Libra. Or in other words, every other person is standing in the opposite sign and looking through those filters. An Aries person would come across as a Libra, a Cancer person as a Capricorn and a Capricorn as a Cancer. Think about the shock people may feel, when the first half of the life, a Capricorn lagna who behaved as a gentle, soft and loving Cancer, in the second half of the life starts to act as themselves- Capricorn- solitary, leader and traversing their mountains of achievements, but many times alone.

Karthikeya, Meenakshi temple, Madurai, India
Image credits - Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,via Wikimedia Commons

A person who understands Vedic astrology can analyze human life as well as mind. But even to become an astrologer there have to be placements that bring about interest in deep research, occult and a very critical, analyzing mind. So, like this seventh house is the true reflection of the lagna, the person and their physical body/ reality.

Mangal in the seventh house: Now, here comes the person with Mars in the seventh house. Think for a Cancer person a Mars in Capricorn person and for a Virgo lagna, a Mars in Pisces. As we know, Mars is the warrior with will power, army chief- Karthikeya. So, the house becomes very strong except in case of Cancer where Mars is debilitated. In Cancer, which is a very soft sign, Mars the warrior feels uncomfortable. Think it is Karthikeya who wants to go and fight in the battle and in Cancer, he is asked to sit on the lap of Parvathi- his mom. Will a teenager like to sit on his mother's lap? No. The dynamics of Mars in Cancer.

So, here, except in Cancer where Mars is debilitated, in all others, Mars is either okay or very comfortable. So, a sign that has taken the mask of will power, grit, dedication and determination. In such a case. the person would act at the strongest capacity that sign can give. Now, the other person comes who actually is the seventh house. Let us take Aries. The person has Mars in Libra, the seventh house. Even though Libra is all about others, as here Mars is placed, it would act with more strength. So, along with taking care of others, they would take care of themselves as well. So, this is the first person. Now, the second person comes, who according to astrology is already seventh house, the other from the lagna,

So, one person acts as seventh house due to the Mars placed there and the other as they are seventh house with virtue of Vedic astrology would act as the exact seventh house. What happens? Think like this. You have a huge mirror in one side and you place an exact same mirror on the opposite side. The reflection from the first would hit the other one, then back to the first mirror, then back again to the second. Like this the reflection or any perspective/ thought would go back and forth and a long inner reflection would happen - mirror hallway in both mirrors. (Try it).

Video credits - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGTWmrnPdgk

The exact same way, here by virtue of the seventh house, both people would reflect each other. So, any concept, idea or thought would go back and forth with each other. I would share a video, where a bird asks the other, in Jungle book, "What do you want to do"? Then the second bird asks, "What do you want to do"? Like this it keeps on proceeding. Each thought either finishes in argument or both keep on discussing until they never take any decisions. Think an unending debate or planning for the next fifty years. How it would be? The dynamics of the seventh house Mars.

How to come out of this problem? There should be an exact and equal placement that balances these dynamics out. If there is a Saturn placed somewhere, he can cut the debates and ask to take dedicated, disciplined actions. Vedic astrology considers Saturn as enemy to Mars. But a strong Saturn-Mars combination would bring a planner-doer. A person who plans with their Saturn and takes action through their Mars. An innovator/visionary who also acts.

Also, the person who has a seventh Mars from lagna should understand these dynamics and use it to their advantage. This person is getting enormous will power to use towards relationships. Why not build a business, that needs enormous energy or take one's own career to the limits of achievement? The person gets enormous energy towards building something. Mars is the builder or person who takes actions. Instead of acting out anger, frustrations and energy on others- seventh house, use it towards business, career, or some professional avenues-same seventh house. When the energy is spent, the person calms down and the remaining energy can be used towards building beautiful relationships and friendships.

Seventh house is the other side of the coin of who we are
Image credits - Pixabay.com

The problem here is the person takes all that energy and showers it as attitude, energy, anger and frustration towards the other, which brings tussles and wars. Instead, the same energy at higher vibrations is deepest will power and creativity. I have discussed this before. The same Agni-passion represented by Mars is anger at lower vibrations and deepest creativity in higher vibrations. Think about putting all that energy into creation of art, music, business, entrepreneurship or a hobby? That is an amazing amount of action and creativity.

But we as humans with this Kuja dosha bull, make the person upset and the poor Soul sits and cribs about a seventh house Mars- Mangalik that is bringing the whole sky down onto their head. A quack in medical profession can kill the body of the person. A quack astrologer can kill and decimate the mind of a person. The person sits the whole life in things which they perceive is never able to be rectified or fixed. Except for physical handicap, diseases-mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual, many things can be rectified in astrology by simple behavioral and thought pattern changes.

Many times, deepest thought and perspective changes can even scratch at the mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual issues many people face. But astrology can be only learned if the person has deepest interests in occult, research, analysis and critical thinking. Above that spiritual grace as well. The perception or a third eye is needed to perceive things that are hidden or lying under the surface, unspoken. Same way, a seventh house Kuja is not a curse for life. But it is an added dose of energy the person is getting to use towards the "other"- spouse, business, entrepreneurship or art/creativity. Once the person uses the extra energy towards what they deeply desire for life, they can use the remaining energy towards building solid, thriving and deep relationships. Best of both worlds!

Agni, God of fire
Image credits - British Museum, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

Only humans in their half-knowledge and stupidity finds things to worry, cry and crib about that are even non-existent. For a fearful mind, the rope would become snakes, the moving leaves would become ghost and eyes through two railings would feel like the eyes of the lady ghost- Manichitrathazhu, Malayalam movie. But the same Mars, who manifests as anger in lower vibration is courage and boldness of a leader in higher evolved states.

Why not we finish the post with a mantra towards Agni-the fire, which also manifests as fire of passion, creation, will power and grit towards achievements. Namaste, Agni Bhagavan!

      Om Maha Jwalaya Vidhmahe
       Agni Devaya Dheemahe
      Thanno Agni Prachodayath

Meaning: Om, I meditate on that great spark, the Deva of fire, the provider of a greater intellect and such an Agni, may he enlighten my mind!

What a great mantra to finish a post on Mangala- the auspicious one who exists as the fire of passion and creativity in every single one of us. Only we should be enlightened and aware to use his energy towards our advantage, actions and deeds.

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Mangalik in the eighth house! (Kuja Dosha)- Part 5!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay

Mangalik in the home (Kuja Dosha)- Part 3!

2021-08-27T05:30:00.400-04:00

Hello all,

Yesterday only, I was reading a news of how people in many states are using cow/ horse deworming medicine to treat their own Covid, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking Americans to stop taking that medicine and harming themselves saying, "You are not a horse". Instead of taking the horse de-wormer, why not take the actual medicine, which is the vaccine that saves lives? All of us have been given a good mind, intelligence and intellect. We are meant to use it-first to keep ourselves safe, then our loved ones and later to work towards our purpose, career, creativity and life. If there is no life and health, what career, creativity or voicing our opinion on any issue?


Vaccination poster Image credits - cdc.gov/coronavirus

Remember life is the first gift! Only if it is there, as a human we can do anything. If no life, no body and no time in this Earth realm. Many are not getting this concept staying within this political, religious and mental chaos. What else is Maya? It is this chaos, the illusory world of mental chatter where real things are getting ignored and not taken into account. For a second, I thought of starting to write about Maya and the grand illusion? I would have to write about the pandemic and the way people are getting disillusioned. That would be more pandemic news. So, moving away from that topic and writing about Mars. Something to keep our focus away from the pandemic, so that we can have an inspired and encouraged mind.

Home: Last week, we discussed how Mangala affects the family house. Family is the one we are born into and live. Not just the immediate, but the family that we are as part of the lineage or the link we are in an unbroken chain of human Souls. That is the second house. But the fourth house is the dwelling we are in the physical world. The home or the space we live in. It can be with immediate family, extended family, alone or with different groups of people,

Example, for a student, the dormitory room or hostel can be the home for some four to six or even ten years. The dwelling we find ourselves in at any time, or space. This is the home or the fourth house. Our personal space we occupy through the years. The physical space is what we occupy outside. But there is also the mental space of inner home and the emotional space of esoterism and the spiritual space of metaphors. People usually only consider the physical space. That is not enough. There is also the mental, emotional as well as the spiritual space.

How is that space within our life? Is it great, good, bad or even ugly? What is the energy of that space? Is it nourishing us or bringing us down? Many times, people think astrology is a waste of time. But astrology can reveal things about a person and their life. Even things they themselves may have no clue about. To an astrologer who can really read the chart. it starts to speak through houses, signs, mythology, aspects, stories, purpose, life, mind, intuition, insights, grace and everything.

In the chart of the Kaalpurusha, time as the being, the home is represented by the sign of Cancer or Karkataka. Cancer is the fourth sign and here we are discussing the effect of Mars placed in the home or the fourth sign. In a chart, wherever the lagna or Moon is placed, the fourth from it becomes the home. For example, for a Leo (Simha) lagna, Scorpio (Vrishchika) is home, while for a Libra lagna, the fourth house of Capricorn (Makara) is the home. But whatever is the sign, an undercurrent of Cancer or Karka would flow through. Like a physical home is there above the ground, but underneath the soil there is an underground river of emotions or Cancer.

The fourth house of home!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Cancer along with home is also mother's love. But mother is different for each person and accordingly the underground river of emotions also differs. Some may have grown up in a country side while another in urban life. Some other would have been shuttling between homes of parents and another would have grown up as an orphan without parents. Some would have had a fantastic home and childhood. But whatever is the real sign of the chart, the energy of Cancer always appears in this placement. The home in the natural chart is Cancer.

Mind and actions: Already we have come across two dynamics, the real placement of the chart and the undercurrent of Cancer. Let us throw in a few more hurdles. Cancer is ruled by the Moon (Chandra) and in this particular case Mars is getting placed in the fourth house- Mangala. In a chart if the houses are aligned like Mars is placed in Aries and Moon in Leo; both fire signs or Mars is placed in Aquarius and Moon in Gemini; both air signs, then many times the mind Moon is able to take the energy of Mars, fire and passion and able to work with it.

Even then, the energy is tough, because Mars is a fiery planet of passion and Moon is the planet of emotions- water. Mars asks the person to take charge and act with will power, while the undercurrent of Moon would ask to chill out, be at home and watch some entertainment. This is the tussle. The will power would ask the person to act or the person has lot of will power and passion. But zero mind to act. They want to rest and relax- at home, Cancer. The effect of Mars in the fourth house.

But this person has a lot of energy and will power as Mars. This energy is sitting as untapped potential. They are not using it towards anything. What happens? Any energy that if not used towards our life, career and creativity, it starts to poke it's head as anger and frustration. The person is sitting at home. What happens? They would fight with others who are sharing the same space. Mars in the fourth house of home- Mangalik!😄 This person has a lot of energy and the mind is not willing to do anything with that energy.

This becomes totally true if the Moon or mind gets placed in a water sign like Scorpio or Pisces. Moon is the water element. It is sitting in its own element of water in Scorpio as well as Pisces. Doubly comfortable at home. Such a person would love to chill out at home. Who wants to use the will power and act, when we can have a nice couch, TV and zombie-land? This is the tussle between Mars and Moon. Mars is the planet of will power and actions, but Moon is the graha of coziness, home and hearth. This water house Moon person with Mars in the fourth house many times would love to chill out, even though if they put focused effort, they could scale the mountains of achievement.

Mars is the planet of action
Image credits - Pixabay.com

As, Mars is in the fourth house, the whole Mars energy comes into the private space of home. They feel energized when at home, but this Mars may not be fully available at a public space. As soon as they go out to the public square, they may feel like a deflated balloon, because the person's mind is always craving for their cozy home. So, at home, Mars due to energy won't allow them to chill out, but outside, mind would be always thinking about home. Always caught in the wrong energy at the wrong place. A person who does not realize this dynamics, may become trapped into this non-functional energy cycle.

In marriage: Into these dynamics, we are bringing another person. So now, above the first person's energy the second person or another group, family's energies appear in the closed space. The first person wants to chill out at home, but they are not able to and this energy comes out as anger or frustration. But the home has more members and it is not necessary all would tolerate it or even realize it. What happens? Big tussle and fights, as the total Mars- passions and then, the Moon-emotions of the mind mix and match to form an energy riddle, in which all the people become mired. If the people are not aware, the emotions and angers are going to fly.

Now, in case Mars gets placed in a very fiery place like Leo or Sagittarius and the Moon in deeply watery sign like Scorpio or Pisces, it becomes passions as wild-fire and emotions as deluge or oceans. The person is getting caught between their will power and a very emotional mind. (This is the same dynamic of Gandantha knot of Moola, which we discussed in a previous post, only here with two very different planets). But as others may not understand the frustration of the being, they may add oil into that fire with words, actions or intentions. Remember as soon as the person becomes very angry the very emotional mind brings its water and pours over the fire.

So, the person gets caught between the anger and crying. One minute they may be shouting with deepest of anger and another second, they are on the floor heaving like a rag doll. The person themselves may not understand anything, as the mind that has to make sense of all this is caught between the anger and the emotions. Like this there can be many different dynamics based on the placement of Moon, Mars and where the placement of the fourth house happens. Let us discuss another scenario.

Think, Mars is placed in a water sign say Cancer, its debilitation, weak position. This fiery planet is now in the middle of a lake and a lot of water. Mars is the planet of action, Karthikeya and he is asked to sit still in a nice home in the middle of a lake. Another point, Cancer is also the sign of mother, here Karthikeya's mother, Parvathi. But in mythology Karthikeya had tussle with Parvathi as well. He wanted to go and conquer the world, then sitting at the feet of his mother. This is again the dynamics. This Mars due to the load of emotions may lose courage.

Mars in fourth house in marriage
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Above this, think the Moon, mind is placed in Gemini, the sign of Mercury; the person would intellectualize and find reasons why he or she is not acting. Already the person wants to chill out (Moon), has a lot of passion they are not using (Mars) and above this they will sit and intellectualize and reason (Mercury) why they are not able to do anything. These are all different outcomes. But if the mind is aware, the same person would use the very intellectual mind - Mercury to figure out a way to use the Mars energy to make something of themselves with home being a big part of the package. Like an interior designer who designs home and has their own home near the side of a lake. Here, they are using all the three planets to their own advantage.

It is these dynamics of Mars and Moon - home that is playing out in the chart. A Mangalik spouse would have similar energy and if they have a high emotional mind, they would be supportive and encouraging of the other person. In any situation, if the two minds are aligned, they overcome the energy eventually. That is why Vedic astrologers say if there is match of the minds, it is not even necessary to see the horoscope. Both of them will together overcome the challenges.

Mangal in the fourth house: The above were some of the scenarios that can take place. How to overcome these dynamics? The mind of the person needs to realize, they have amazing energy or will power in the private space of home. Mars is always actions and will power. What are you going to do as Karthikeya at home? Are you going to become leader of a war in the home or a leader of a project or creative gig? Both scenarios are available for you. A clueless person would wage a war in the home fighting with everyone and bringing the Mars as chaos into the situation.

Whether they realize or not, the energy of Mars is there at their disposal and that is how the chart has been created. The home and comfort brings them a lot of energy and passion. Outside the home they may not feel that much energy. They can even access the same energy if they make their work as cozy and comfortable as home. Because in the fourth house, the undercurrent of Moon or emotions is always going to be there. The first thing is the person to realize this dynamic as information is power. Once they become aware, they can change their mindset and behaviors so that the Mars energy becomes fully available.

This is why in Vedic astrology; the Moon or mind is given a central position. Almost always our own mind has a big say in how the energy flows into our life. It is our choice whether to wage a battle or use that energy as will power towards our life, career and creativity. The person has the energy, will power as well as the mind at their disposal. Only the mind is very unaware. It has to develop awareness to see they have the mind, as well as the energy of Mars to work with their life within their own home.

This energy they should use towards their own life, career and creativity. When they realize this, the energy as well as the mind along with intelligence (Mercury) would start to work for their life. As soon as intelligence starts to work all other planets one by one starts to glow up and move towards their own potential. With every chart the midpoint comes back again and again to the same concept. The Moon or mind of the person. What is the energy, the mindset and the value system (Venus) of the mind?

Using Mars energy from the comfort of the home
Image credits - Pixabay.com

That was a small write-up on Mars or Mangala in the fourth house. The reins are truly in the hands of the person. Only question whether the mind of the person is aware or not. A non-aware person can get deeply mired in this explosive energy many times. If they are not aware and careful this very powerful energy can bring down the person, their home (fourth house), others involved, family, career, creativity and even life itself. But the same person develops awareness can use the energy dynamics towards their own life.

Now, whether to develop awareness or not- always a free will and personal choice decision!

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Mangalik in the opposite house! (Kuja Dosha)- Part 4!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay

Mangalik in the family house (Kuja Dosha)- Part 2!

2021-08-20T05:30:00.004-04:00

Hello all,

Wishing all my blog readers a very Happy Onam! May this Onam bring all health, wealth, happiness and prosperity, 🌺⭐️🌺

Image credits-https://www.wishsquotes.in/2021/07/happy-onam-wishes--quotes-messages-images.html?m=1

Hope all of you are doing well and keeping yourself safe during this pandemic. As all of you know, there has been new developments in Afghanistan and the people there are finding a very new reality staring in their face, whatever they knew as a fledgling democratic government has gone by the way side. They are looking at very dark days again. This is what happens when anything religion, politics, family or cultural values overtakes every aspect of life and the people become puppets in the hands of the so-called propaganda or concepts. In such cases the individual self-will of the person is negated or even decimated. The concept or propaganda or agenda of the greater party, organization. politics or religion takes charge. Let us wait and watch.

Last week, we discussed how a Mangalik is a very compassionate and kind hearted Soul, as they are not able to stand strong on their will power, they sway according to every person who comes into their life. It becomes all about the other and their self-will/energy gets negated from the picture. As long as they don't realize these dynamics, their life and energy are not working for them, when they are not taking decisions from their will, where are they in the picture? Even though the body is there, energetically they are not in the picture.

Karthikeya or Skanda-
Mars energy of army chief
Image credits - H Krishna Sastri,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

It is a huge spiritual rule. One needs to own their will power, make intentions on that will power, stand true from their Soul, heart, mind and later those intentions should come out through their words and actions. Only then, one's own life would work to the cent percent. But how many are doing that nowadays? Within the mind the intentions are different. Outside the words are different and above that the actions are totally different. This is why nowadays many are not able to capture their own full potential. The inner intentions and the outer words/actions are utterly different. Whether it was Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi or Ralph Waldo Emerson, they used to treat their words and intentions as Golden. The power of the Word! Why I had to write a 10-12 blog series on the subject of the Word? Because awareness needs to dawn on all. New, whole realities form from the inner words we speak to ourselves.

Will power: Here, with the Mangalik that is missing. They want to do something. But due to weak will power they are not able to speak or act on their desires, intentions or perspectives. Due to the fear of backlash from others, they align, and align. Soon enough, the person wants to do something and they end up doing another thing based on the perspectives of the others. First it would be which dress to wear or how to act. Soon, it would be how to live, whether to go for a career or have a say in the decisions of their own life.

As a current scenario of the world goes very well with this theme, I am going to discuss it here. Think about the ladies and girls of Afghanistan and Syria. Last week, in the blog, we saw how a weak Mars would eventually affects every other planet and the person is energetically negated. Think about all the ladies and girls who are tied up at home or in another place doing things against their wishes, desires, aspirations and dreams. As many of you know, the males have more testosterone. Remember this post is not against any religion, political parties, groups, ideas, concepts or thought process. But just how many things play into the dynamics. This blog is about the truth - "as I see it". Another Soul definitely can have very different ideas. As long as we are not hurting ourselves and anyone else, the ideas can exist and even thrive.

So, the hormone testosterone is as if a shot of pure energy, but very physical aspect of it. As males have more testosterone definitely, they are going to have more physical power, compared to females. But females have more estrogen, the hormone of compassion and nurturing. So, the males are going to have physical power for sure. But how will a mature adult male behave? Would they use their natural gift of physical power to over-rule other beings who have lesser power or would they above protecting themselves protect the beings who by nature have less physical power?

Here is where it should be understood whether the same Mars- Karthikeya or the army chief is working from the higher vibrations or lower vibrations. A higher vibrational Mars is a leader/protector. Karthikeya was the army chief of the Gods. Above protecting the Gods, he even has the job to protect gandharvas (celestial singers), kinnaras (celestial nymphs), apsaras (celestial dancers) and the humans. Mars working through the higher vibrations and ideals. Such a Mars has to control the physical power, channel it towards the support, betterment of others, societies and less powerful beings. So, in that case how many leaders are doing the jobs? Are they taking care of their flocks?

Yesterday read a lady journalist was killed in Afghanistan by stone throwing. Who gave another person right to throw stones at an innocent being who was courageous enough to stand with the truth? Shouldn't the lady be protected and given more chances to write the truth? Same way, is a female meant to be used as a commodity? What about her thoughts, ideas and aspirations? Now, many in Afghanistan and Syria are being used and tortured. The name of the religion or propaganda is just a mask. What is the underlying energy? The lower aspects of Mars are running amok.

Taliban offensive 2021
Image credits - Abdulbasir Ilgor (VOA), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A powerful Mars would have deepest of will power; above taking care of themselves they take deep pride in taking care of others. How to take care of others? The others should have the right and will power to exist as full beings, not as half or quarter beings. (My dad had shared a story where his mom, my grand-ma once asked it seems- That is about 1/2 and 1/4 kids. But what about this full kid. I guess she got the concept,) In many places of the globe, people are being made voiceless, especially ladies and girls. Every human is a full being with voice, value and worth- whether society, others or their own religions, political parties accept it or not.

Yes, it is the 21st century. But humanity has a very long way to understand the true concept of free will, will power and choices. Many times in the name of religion, propaganda, ideas, concepts, politics and parties, humans are being made voice-less, will less beings with no value and worth. An idea if it suffocates another and doesn't allow them to live as they are, that idea is just wrong and is an intellectual bu🔅🔅. Humans even go to the level of brain washing another in the name of religion, party propaganda and cultural rituals and many times the human that is being brainwashed cannot think outside this very small boundary of a concept. To keep them very aligned, we bring sin, paap (Hinduism), haraam and all. Actually, humans are free beings. Only they themselves have zero clue about it and keep themselves tied up to non-working concepts, ideas and thoughts for their own life.

Second house: Second house is the close home or the family house. The family that we stay within every day is the family house. The place that we call home. This second house is not just the physical house alone, but the metaphorical relationships also that give us that feeling of a home. So, this house spans the whole entire physical life. The body that is us, the first house- lagna (ascendant) that is getting placed within the second house of our dwelling. In truth, this dwelling is also our mind. Mind is the Moon; so second house to the Moon also becomes important.

Even if the first house is terrific, if the second house is damaged, that is going to affect the first house of the body. If a person cannot stay within their own house with peace and joy, how can their body or mind work well? If the second house is damaged, the next house of third- voice and communication becomes damaged. Let us bring the Mars here. Mars is a fiery planet. May be for this particular chart owner the planet Mars is not a friendly planet. There are friends and enemies in Vedic astrology among planets. Suppose a weak Mars is getting placed in the second house.

What happens? The family environment of the person gets damaged. Also, if this Mars is sitting in an enemy house, the will power of the person becomes low. As we know, all of us are born as babies. Any time this baby tries to use his/ her will power to do or say something, may be other kids or other adults chide them not to. As we all know, these dramas of family and society have been playing in the world from time immemorial. This baby or toddler or youth may think sharing his/ her opinions or thoughts are not okay. They start to swallow their opinions and suggestions.

How is the family - Is it chaotic energy?
Image credits - Pixabay.com

This person already has less will power, they just keep quiet. They won't over-ride that chide and try to put in their two cents. Like this without opening their mouth and being quiet, they slowly allow others to over-take their will power. Any time our will power is not used to stand on our truth, our energy and Soul pieces start to melt away. The person slowly starts to lose their heart or inner essences. Every Soul who has come here has a natural state of balance, harmony, peace and their inner truths. If we are not forthright to accept and embrace our own inner truths, we are actually deceiving ourselves. Self- deception!

This particular person as they have to align to the ideas, value points and thought processes of others and are not upholding their own truths, slowly their energetic signature starts to fade away. In other words, even though the person is there in the body, they would feel less energy and weak, the energetic value of the person is slowly disappearing. They are thinking they are not valuable enough to speak, share or stand up for their truths. If they themselves think they are not valuable enough and act in that way, think about the others. They also treat this person the same way.

Back to the ladies and girls who have less physical power. If they don't listen, align or do as they are being told, they can be hit, hurt, threatened, verbally abused or even killed. In this scenario, the home which is meant to be a safe haven takes the form of a prison or control camp. Here comes the Mars who is damaged. Many times, this Mars may try to fume and even try to overpower the other due to the deep voicelessness or worthlessness they feel. Such a Mars who feels deep fear can bring in fights and arguments. They are actually trying to retake the lost power they feel.

This is another area that we come to know. The power of the innate being to exist as who they are. This is being over-ridden by others. People many times only look at the physical abuse that happen. But the mental and emotional toll is enormous. Remember this family can also be the school dorm, hostel or the convent where the kids grew up. It is not necessary home should be just the home. It can even be the cult or organization or religious order the kid or the human stays or dwells. The person starts to lose themselves.

The curse: The curse really is the deep fear, voicelessness or the worthlessness the person with the second house Mars may feel. The energy of the Soul itself is getting removed from the picture. Now, bring into mind someone who even though in a body feels like a very energy less being. This can be from the mind where the person thinks they are not good enough or they have been put down or side-lined so many times, they have started losing Soul essences and aspects within themselves.

Until now, we just discussed the effect for this one life time. Now, extend it to other lifetimes. What if the person has carried this deep essence of valueless-ness or voicelessness from another lifetime? Such a person whatever they feel or achieved in this lifetime, in another lifetime they have lost so many pieces they always are feeling afraid and weak. This state of less Soul value, beings can bring from other lifetimes. In this lifetime as they brought those previous dynamics within them, their Soul attracts that previous scenario into this lifetime. Then, the decree becomes start working to overcome this challenge.

The energy of the will powerlessness may have become so entrenched in the Soul; the Soul may not even remember a fearless state. When we meet a person, it is better not to judge them. They may be carrying burdens of other lifetimes. As a spiritual being we should and must try to encourage and empower any being as much as possible. We don't know what kind of cross they are carrying. So, for such a person, the will power of another person in this lifetime becomes another cross they have to carry or decimate to come out.

How is the family - Is it beautiful energy?
Image credits - Pixabay.com

The second house is a very private house. It is very close to the first, the being. In many cases others or public may not even know such abuse is happening. Read a story last year about an eight or nine year old boy who became a victim to his mom and boyfriend's abuse; later died. The police report said the poor Soul had not an inch on his body where a cut or a cigarette burn or a beating mark had not happened. An eight-year-old boy, what even does that child know. Nobody knew about the abuse, and the police and other relatives came to know about it by virtue of the boy's death.

Here, the others become the strong-willed Mars and the boy becomes the damaged second house of Mars placement, the Mangalik. This kid didn't even know how to ask for anything. He was locked many days under the cabinet of his kitchen sink with no food or water and only to be brought out for abuse. The home and haven becoming the prison and concentration camp. May be for this poor Soul, death itself was the way out.

Strong will: So, it is utterly necessary to help a baby or encourage an adult/kid to develop a strong will. A strong willed and mature person never intimidates and abuse another. The Mars in its highest vibration is a leader and protector. Sometime I even feel sad for no fault of Mars, he is being judged and devalued. Hope you have heard the proverb- "A fearful dog bites". Many times, the anger and the rage a second house Mars shows is to protect themselves, self-defense or self-preservation. Self- preservation is an act where the Soul or being tries to maintain his or her integrity as a being. If there is no energy, then where is the being? The being is not there anymore.

This person instead of tussling with others should find value within themselves. Our value comes from us, not from how others perceive us. Anyone who is trying to fix another's perception is actually wasting their time, energy, effort and mind. Because as long as a being doesn't feel the power within, in their Soul. heart and mind, nobody is going to accept their innate power. Trying to fix another's perception, this being is still not helping themselves. Whatever others feel or perceive about them, they are feeling they are not good enough.

Karthikeya on a peacock
Image credits - Vasukrishnan57,
via Wikimedia Commons

So, this person needs to work on their Mars and develop a strong will, where they don't put down others, but they also don't allow others to devalue or judge them. A true friend or being is someone who is always applauding another but when a tough truth has to be spoken has the guts to standup and speak as well. Only with such a person the will power or Mars starts to shine in their life. This is going to be easy with strangers, but going to be very tough with family, friends and acquaintances. Especially family- the second house.

But then remember, second house is our family- the closest. If they don't get pure value, honesty and integrity from us, who else deserves that more. Many times, people are ready to preach to the whole world, but don't extend the same truths and ideas to their own family and inner circle. I stand to differ. The family or the second house needs even more honesty, truth, integrity and value system, especially of glowing standards. Because the greater friends and acquaintances are once a while life visitor. But the family visits our life every day.

This write up is not from a space of lord/servant, bourgeois/ proletarian or owner/ tenant. But from a human, energy and emotions perspective. Because whether we like it or not, every single Soul is a renter in this Earth. When the time comes the renter has to give away the body and leave this place. So, why not take care of the true being? A human who has found himself/ herself in a beautiful green planet (Who knows, if we are not careful from green it can become desert planet due to climate change) for a short time with value, worth and will power in their private space- Mars in the second house of family and home! Should it be a Mangalik- voiceless or Mangala- auspicious? Always the person's free will and choice!

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Mangalik in the home (Kuja Dosha)- Part 3!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay

The terror called Mangalik (Kuja Dosha)- Part1!

2021-08-13T05:30:00.557-04:00

Hello all,

Hope all of you had a great weekend and more focus towards safety and wellness of yourself and your loved ones. In the USA, many states are again facing the tough circumstances of a rising pandemic. I cannot emphasize enough. The perspectives or viewpoints as Republican/Democrat/ Libertarian, atheist/believer/agnostic or Hindu/Muslim/Sikh or Christian is the mental and emotional world. It has effect on the physical body.

But above that, all of us are made up of the physical body which is a human body. That human can and will be affected by the virus if vaccination is not done. If there is "no body (nobody within the body to live", then, what atheism/ agnosticism/believer, Republican/Democrat or any of the political parties or religion? If the person themselves are removed from the picture by a virus, what perspective, concept, idea or thought process?

First the person has to be living in this world to do something. Take the first step towards that living. Take your total vaccination, protect yourself. Then, go for the protests, or silent sit-ins, write, blog, make YouTube videos, scroll through social media, educate yourself, study, go to college, job, career or entrepreneurship or whatever you want to do. But first do the duty towards yourself- Protect yourself from the virus and live! The vaccine would help you towards that!

Unknown author, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

Kuja or Mangala: As I have written a lot of concepts and philosophy in the last six months, thought of writing a slightly different topic, Vedic astrology. As many of you know, I have already written a few posts on Kuja or Mangala. One is Kuja dosha (Mangalik)-Who is the real victim. Another is, Kuja- The army chief-Part 1 and Part 2. So, I won't be elaborating too much on the simple points of Kuja again. Readers who are interested to know more about the graha can access the links and read it. Those links would give a good background on the planet itself. Also, remember, this post is from the perspective of Vedic astrology. Nothing to do with the physical planet of Mars. But everything to do with the inner metaphorical Vedic planet of Kuja,

Kuja is considered the son of the Earth- Dharani garbha sambhootham- Born from the womb of the Earth. So, a strong Mars in the chart actually would give a very down to Earth personality, because his mother is the Earth- Dharani. Not as the popular culture portrays as an ego, raging and arrogant maniac of a person. But the question is always what is the state of Kuja in the person's chart. whether it is working with full strength or damaged. Also the placement and other details of the planet. What are the aspects that are watching this planet? Is there aspect of Rahu, Saturn or Mercury?

The biggest question. How is the mind? Even if every planet is of top-notch quality, if the Moon or the mind has no strength, then the deal of all that awesomeness of other planets is pretty much off. Because it is the mind that has to focus, lead the person and take actions through the Karmendriyas- organs of actions on behalf of the person. If the mind has no clue what it is doing, then the person is pretty much stuck. They would take actions that work against their own life. Anyway, this post is about Mars and not about Moon- the mind.

Mars is the will power and the innate strength of a person. How strong are you? Are you strong enough to make something out of your life, not about putting or keeping another down? Mars is always about the will and strength to go after your own life, purpose and making something out of it. Also, as Mars is the son of Earth, a person with a strong Mars is very grounded and of the Earth, being very much part of this world. That is why people who have strong Mars go into sports. They need to use their energy towards sports and make something in this world- whether Mohammed Ali, Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. Using the strength and power of Mars with their body to make something creative for their sports.

A damaged Mars: Now, in some cases, this Mars gets damaged due to very close to the graha Sun or in other placements. Such people many times through their life didn't develop the capacity to access their will power or strength. When a person doesn't have enough will power, they cannot use their own agency or desires for their own life. Others would start to exert their will power over the damaged Mars person. This person as they are never accessing their own strength or power to live or in other words agency, they slowly start to lose their own energy to live or slowly fades away. Such a person who has a damaged Mars soon enough becomes a shell of themselves.

Let us go deeper into the emotional realm. If we truly realize, it is the emotions that bring color to our life, which keeps our life joyous. Emotions, that deeply connect with others like love, kindness, compassion, virtues and more are what keep us alive and vibrant. But a person who cannot live according to their will or wish slowly starts to not live as themselves. Every person is most optimally efficient at their most natural stage. The state where we are comfortable in our own skin. It is in this state we can access the best of our emotions, mind and live as exactly as ourselves -authentic. But a person who has a damaged Mars won't be able to access this strength and as they are not in their optimal natural state, a lesser state or a more fearful state takes over. What will others say if I say my opinion, viewpoint or perspective?

Who do you see yourself as-the cat or the lion?
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Here, the personal will of the person gives way to fear of how and what people perceive of them. The realm of Saturn, which thus is considered enemy or against Mars. Thus, in Vedic astrology, Mars is considered inimical to Saturn - organization and structure. But what is the real truth? As the person has no will power or agency - Mars, they are not able to organize or bring structure to their own life. If you cannot even speak your will or wish, how can you do anything to organize or even capture your life. Instead of just Mars alone damaged, this leads to Saturn or organizational power of the person to be damaged.

See, how it progressively worsens? Already the person has no will power or strength to access their innate power to live exactly as they want. Above this, as the person due to a weak will, to be in the good books of others starts to listen to other's wishes and perspective. Instead of living as them in their life, they are living the life as another, family or friends wishes. The person even more gets deleted energetically. You are not doing anything for yourself- so, where is your energy as "You"?

I have written this perspective before. A person who does not 'own his/her will' is energetically saying- "Don't consider me, I am to be ignored. I don't matter. Please don't heed to my thought process, perspectives or value points, I own no value". The person is energetically non-existent. They are not there, only the body is there. But zero energy to live. Without energy what is the point of a body. Here, the body becomes Shiva (matter) and there is no Shakthi (energy).

Let us, go deeper. Shakthi in Hinduism is always depicted as Devi, female- the Divine feminine. The masculine -Shiva is there. But energy less as Shakthi is not there. So, what happens? The Son, Karthikeya, the army chief- Kuja is missing. See, how it plays into the dynamics? The person has again no energy to do their creativity or live their life. It doesn't stop there. Devi or Shakthi is the Divine Feminine- Venus- value of the person.

As energy- Sakthi is not there, no Venus- the value of the person for their life. Someone who doesn't find value for themselves, what can they do anything for their life? They treat their own life, mind, thoughts, aspirations and desires as "not worthy of pursuance". Now, the other aspect of Venus gets damaged-wealth and money. Energy is needed to create anything of value for one's own life - whether education, career, money, wealth, family, kids or anything. For this person both Mars as well as Venus is now damaged. So, wealth, career and a way to live well has become damaged.

Will power the son of energy and matter!
Image credits - Keijona,
via Wikimedia Commons

Moon- The mind: Let us come to the mind. This person doesn't value themselves or their thoughts or desires. No value. So, now the mind thinks- "I am not good enough. But others are great. Let me listen to them and align deeply to them", So, instead of living from their will-they align to another's will. So, now, here comes another person with a very strong Mars-placed so powerfully, instead of helping another, for them it is always how to capture their own life. Mars that is very strong and not well placed is highly egotistic and selfish. Here, they are getting a free supporter- remember our Mars damaged person? The supporter, the servant. (The dynamics if a Kuja dosha- damaged person marries a non- Kuja dosha person.) And the world has totally toppled the concept on its head and is criticizing the poor and helpful Kuja dosha person.

Another dynamic as Venus is the value of Shakthi, in Vedic astrology- Moon or the mind is the energy or Shakthi herself. So, now the mind of the powerfully placed Mars person, their Shakthi is leading their own mind and the supporter's mind. The grace of Shakthi or mind is fully removed from the second person. Only Shiva now. But no Shakthi- energy/value (Venus), Moon (Mind), Karthikeya-will power (Mars), very weak Shiva- matter (Saturn) and this leads to no Ganesha- his intelligence (Jupiter) to communicate (Mercury). So, if none of this is there, then, what about his/her purpose -Rahu or his/her grace/ancestral/ spiritual gifts- Kethu? The whole chart is damaged. Done!

The person with the damaged Mars becomes a zombie in their own life, listening to others, cursing themselves and cribbing they are a "cursed human". This thought process makes the vicious cycle of negative self-talk more and more bitter. Also, in case they have a very strong-willed Mars person in their life as any loved one, that strong Mars takes care of the second person's wishes, desires, by virtue of the damaged Mars person. This person has their nice Mars and another body with no mind (mind is not working for their own life, remember) that aligns deeply with them to make their wishes a reality. The strong person is having a cake and eating a second cake too. Damaged Mars person gets nothing,

The damaged Mars person is seeing the other achieving, going after their aspirations elegantly and beautifully. But remember, "I am cursed" as per their negative mindset. They are not capable of achieving anything at this point. Because the whole gamut of planets is energetically not there as the "mind" of the person is in the dark-ignorance about the will they can access through their own mind.

Many times, family and extended societal groups plays a big role in this making of a Kuja dosha person. The second a baby is born, the time is calculated and taken to an astrologer who just knows to read the chart, but has no clue about the esoteric manifestations or subconscious perspectives. They just put the stamp on the head of the baby-"Mangalik! Cursed for this life"!

Now, the family by constant reaffirmation of that negative mindset brings this baby or youth up. "You are a Mangalik. You are doomed for this life. You cannot take good decisions for your life. You are a damaged product". This poor Soul after listening this for thousand or million times starts to deeply believe in this negative mask the mind wears. "I am a Mangalik. I cannot do anything. My Mars is bringing all this trouble for me". Poor Mars! In this particular chart, the Mars is slightly weak. So, the person was born with a slightly less will power, that is all!

Compassionate Mars: As this Mars is slightly damaged, this person is ego-less, more compassionate and deeply care about others. The true elegance of this Mars. As Mars has not overtaken the chart, the mind has the capacity to consider others along with themselves. Here, it is the "themselves" part, that is damaged by the constant negative affirmations. Already Mars or Karthikeya is damaged. The constant negative mindset damages the mind as well. Devi or the energy to live and love one's own life- gone. Poof!

A person with a very strong Mars would have a strong will power to live their life to the fullest! They would capture life as the leader of a marching army. But here our weak-willed person brings every other perspective, even the viewpoint of a random person going on the streets, but not their own. Now, instead of the family, friends or society they have taken up the duty on themselves- Self-fulfilling prophecy or curse! (Same dynamics you can think from the Moola star point of view as well. 😉)

Sculpture of the god Skanda,
from Kannauj,
North India, circa 8th century
Image credits - Zippymarmalade,
via Wikimedia Commons

The way our own family, friends or even society is creating this self-loathing Mangalik of a poor Soul. (I have a slight dosha in my Mars. Slight! But being an astrologer, I realized, it is my mind and my parents/ family's deep support that matter in my education, career and creativity. I overcame/ am overcoming that slight less will power. Remember, the compassionate Mars? Otherwise, why should I write a free blog with 200+ posts? 😉) The Mangalik is a deeply compassionate Soul. The whole world, society and people have already struck them so many times with words, curses and angry looks, they are literally sitting within their mind and punishing themselves to their very core. Self-hatred and dislike!

Such a mind, how can it work for their own life? We are taking some small step towards our own life and then criticizing ourselves million times - "You are not good enough! You are cursed!" Remember I have written here- Our Inner reality reflects outside! What is the inner reality of this person as of now? I am cursed! I am cursed! I am cursed! So, what are the vibratory thoughts they send into the Universe? What would be the experiences the Brahman is sending or rather they are attracting into their own life? The Soul- I am cursed! The Brahman- Tadasthu! Tadasthu! Tadasthu! So, be it! So, be it! So, be it!

The person starts to become roiled in experiences that bring them to total first hand proofs of experiences. "You are cursed". True, isn't it? They are literally demanding from the Universe to curse them by this negative self-talk with deepest of heart-felt emotions. Any time you ask with deep heart felt emotions Universe just says -"Your wish is my command!"😅

For this person, as the first 25-30 years of curses and people's negative attitude towards them have taken a toll on their mind, they have deep compassion and kindness for everyone, even the humanity. They deeply understand another human's struggles, sadness, life troubles and more. This person with the damaged Mars is so compassionate, to get that slight recognition, value, acknowledgement and respect would even move mountain for others, especially loved ones. But still others would curse them- You are a Mangalik! First, they should also remember to move their own mountains- Self-trust to have faith in themselves! Their very personal mountain to climb!

How to fix this? What is needed here? A slight change of perspective, that is all. The person should start saying to themselves- "Yes, I have slightly less will power. But then who is perfect in this world? Nobody! But the great Universe has given me a tough and gritty mind to overcome my challenges. Where, another person may need two tries, I may need five tries. But what the heck, if there is a will, there is a way! I will find a way to bring my life up to the very best of my potential with the tools, I have- my mind, body and other faculties."

Self- trust in oneself to start taking a vicious cycle of a negative mindset and turning it into the virtuous cycle of a positive mindset. Come on, people. No other graha in Astrology is given the name- Mangala- auspicious! This planet has the name itself as Mangala- sacred! Then, we sit and curse the poor planet (Remember astrological Graha, not the physical planet) for everything. Realize- he (a male planet) is the will power you need to live and capture your life to the fullest! The significator of blood itself - the life giving, oxygen and energy providing blood in a human body. Another beautiful signification- our siblings. Mars is the significator of siblings. This planet provides the joy of having siblings, our fellow travelers for this life!

Our life is the physical reality of our thoughts, mind and actions. Action = Mars
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Another significator, Karthikeya or Skanda- the tough and strong one! His mother, the Adiparasakthi- Universal energy, his dad- Easwara- the Universe, his brother- Ganesha, the intelligence as huge as an elephant. Mangala or Mars- is he so small and insignificant? Think again, sacredness incarnate in the form of Karthikeya- the chief of the army of Gods, themselves. Only the mind of the slightly damaged Mars person needs to realize, the very compassionate mind they have been provided and use it first for themselves with deepest of self-trust and then use it to help others. Then, the same Mangalik Mars would start to become stronger and their life itself shines with the name tag- Chief of the Army, Gods! 😊

Finishing with a sloka to Mangala:

Dharani garbha sambhootham Vidyut kanthi samaprabham |
Kumaram sakthi hastam tham Mangalam Pranamamyaham ||

Meaning: The one who is born out of the womb of the Earth, who is as ebullient as the lightning itself, who is always young, and has energy (Sakthi - remember, she is his mom) in his hands, to such a sacred person, I give my bows (Pranams)! 🙏

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Mangalik in the family house (Kuja Dosha)- Part 2!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay

The Word - Our life is our Creativity!

2021-08-06T05:30:00.423-04:00

Hello all,

It is joyful again to come and say Hi to my blog readers. I feel more rested and refreshed in the realm of thoughts, ideas and perspectives. I only took a break from the blog, I was active on Quora, with my family/friend's group and with normal life happenings. But a small break from the constant deluge of concepts even though only with the blog was a welcome change. How are you all doing?

Nothing changed within one month, isn't it? Actually, things may have become tougher with the Delta variant on a sickness rampage. The feature of the Delta variant, if no vaccine is taken, it can almost certainly kill the patient. That is how much it is contagious and inflammatory. Sometimes I feel angry and upset that due to human negligence that too of highly trained individuals the world is reeling with a pandemic.

In one country it started and was not quickly informed to the global community and international travel was not curbed, in another country, as the propaganda of a previous administration was to uphold Coronavirus disease as a hoax, correct vaccine logistics and organization was not enforced. In a third country as the first wave came mildly, it was taken as easy and a second wave came to wipe out the joy of a curbed first wave. So many mistakes were made and the world is sitting with a self- created mess in our hands. This shows awareful, true and ethical leaders are needed for the world. Anyway, that is not the topic of this blog post. But I may write about science and ethics in another post.

We were in the series -word when I took a break. To not break the continuity, let me put one more blog post on the "Word" and most probably would write about another topic, next. There are so many concepts underlying Logos, the Word, who knows after another year I may write a few more posts on it, People have zero clue or idea about the word. Zero. Nowadays, due to the Internet and Social-media words fly out of our mouth, pen or computer without a care in the world. But a person who understands deeply the concept called the World would be deeply aware and thoughtful of what kind of words they use.

Bible - John 1:1
Image credits - John Snyder, via Wikimedia Commons

In the beginning was the Word: Bible, the New Testament starts with this phrase. According to the phrase, everything started with a Word. The same concept comes in Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism). In the story Shiva, the destroyer and new world maker danced by drumming his small drum, Damaru. The sound that came from the drum created the Universe and later Brahma started making the Souls. It is the same concept Bible also says.

Before everything there was the word. Can we look deeper into that concept and analyze what it is really saying? To make the concept easy, let us take an example. Think about a kid who has just finished their high school. Now, they have to go to the college. Before going to the college, they are exploring their different options. Think they wanted to take Science (I was a science undergrad). So, the kid decided on science. They went and joined the college. Before joining the college, they are saying to their parents- "I wish to take science" - the word has been spoken. The first nail of the new reality that is going to appear in their life. "I wish or I want to take science."

Before that word was uttered, there was nothing and no sign of the new reality. The kid has just finished his/her school. The old reality of school days has come to an end. The new reality has not yet appeared. The energy dynamics is in a limbo- the old one has almost finished. But the new one has not come yet. It is only after a lot of thought and contemplation, when the kid utters their wish or want, the first step of the new reality has started to take baby steps. Until then, the old reality has ended, but the energy is in a dormant state till the spark for the new reality has been ignited.

The spark is the word or wish spoken by the kid that starts the engine of the new reality. Now, when the kid keeps on taking action, the engine of the new reality starts to chug along. I have discussed this concept before. What is the difference between a desire/wish and an intention? The desire or wish is just a wish. The wishing person is not taking any effort towards it. But intentions are different. The person above desiring starts to take actions towards it. So, here the kid first says his/her wish or desire. The Brahman or the Universal energy listens. "Okay, cool- you have a wish. What are you going to do?"

Word, the first brick of the new reality!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Taking actions: To make the Universal energy to get plugged into the dynamics, the person should take actions. Start applying to colleges, study and write great essays, prepare for interviews, take up entrance exams. All actions are one more piece of the puzzle to show the Brahman or Universe, yes, I want this. I want this. But to make you question yourself, so that your intentions are as solid as diamond, the questions and self-doubts always creeps up- "Are you sure? Do you really want this? Are you positive?"

Many times, what happens? Due to these self-doubts, the person starts to doubt themselves and takes mediocre choices for themselves. The Soul has to think the other way around. The self-doubts are to make their intentions solid, strong and gleaming. Think about a sculpture. The sculptor keeps on chipping the extra pieces, so that finally the potential of an elegant and beautiful sculpture, which was sitting as potential within comes out. It is the same with humans as well. All of us have deep untapped potential within us. But to take it, sculpt it, mold it and finally make something of it is within our hands.

This is where we as humans topple. As humans, we have gone through huge struggles all through our lives. Cave man, dark ages, plagues, medieval persecutions, world wars, other religious, cultural, socioeconomic persecutions, the world was a very dark place. In those days doubts on one's own aspirations and actions kept one safe. For example, a Jew in a 1930s Poland went to his piano work without a care in the world, he would be killed, gassed or sent to a concentration camp. This is depicted very beautifully in the film- The Pianist.

The main character was a very celebrated piano player. The Nazi regime of Hitler was sweeping through Germany and Poland. He was a piano player in Warsaw, capital of Poland. The movie is the struggles he had to go through to save himself. His whole family, around 3-4 siblings, parents are sent to the gas chamber and incinerated. Gone as smoke. There is a scene in the movie where after not having any food for two or three weeks, he gets a loaf of bread and he eats. Also, the kind German officer, if the Nazi regime found out could get killed, gives the Pianist a coat to wear. A simple, pure human who has been stripped off every kind of identification he had- the very raw human. If I am able to find that movie clip on YouTube, I will share it here. That is the kind of concepts I am trying to write here- the pure humanity and living as a human -from the heart. Above that let us have the culture and other trappings. Of course, as I am a Hindu, I share concepts more through Hindu mythology and stories.

Video credits - YouTube- https://youtu.be/K1gXeqdspc0

In such cases, the doubts used to save a human being and keep them alive as proceeding with blind over-confidence can take the life of a person- a Jew in the Nazi days or a scientist in the days of the medieval church. That doubt whether to proceed or not into an unknown territory kept them alive. But that is not the case of the modern times. Today in many countries we have freedom to live as we are, freedom to express and freedom to share our thoughts. Thank God, I was born in such a country (but things are changing there) and living in another country giving value to freedom of expression and thoughts.

So, it is the Self-doubt and not trusting oneself many times that obstructs the deep inner aspirations and with will power a being to go after what they want. But then, we have one life. If we bind ourselves into numerous invisible ropes of "getting in line", when will we live for ourselves and our loved ones. Yes, society and community are needed. But that societal pressure or of other humans also should not be stifling, a human is not able to breathe the air of freedom and joyfulness. So, in such cases, we have a duty or Dharma towards ourselves to exist as a free spiritual being who is having a physical human experience. It is our duty towards ourselves to decimate the obstructions or voices that stand against us, or even if it comes from within us.

Co-creation: Here, as the student keeps on taking actions towards their desires and wishes, the other part of the equation starts to operate. The Universal energy- Brahman starts to find and bring opportunities to the person as ideas, thought processes, random advertisements on TV, or a comment here or there. The untapped potential is being brought to the awareness of the smaller being.

Every being has come into this world with a Dharma- true purpose. That purpose only that particular being can do. Nobody else. They need to be made aware of their purpose first. Only then they can take actions towards it. (Now, why this drama and other shenanigans from the higher powers? I have no clue. That is how it is. If I get a thought, I will share it later.) It is in the path of Dharma or purpose; the person gets the highest authentic expression of oneself and the deepest fulfillment of heart and life. So, it is a given that the Soul needs to take actions towards their own life, career and creativity. They are not meant to sit on the sidelines of their own life and see life pass them by.

The hidden potential of the being
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Unfortunately, that is what most human beings do. We don't take charge of our life by it's horns. We sit passively allowing every circumstance, toxic people or situations to take a toll on us. We are that surfer who is drowning in the material ocean with surf on one side and the board on the other side and we in the middle frantically swimming to make the ends meet. Is this how we are meant to live? Unfortunately, no. But we do it. We live as fearful, insignificant and weak beings.

Instead, we are always meant to live as powerful, strong and authentic beings who on the physical side operate as humans and in the emotional side has deep connections with the inner spirit and the spiritual realm. This gives a solid connection with ourselves and from that inner core of the being we can lead our best creative life. The spiritual team can only give insights and intuition, But the faculties that can take action are with the physical body- Karma (action) angas (organs). Karmangas.

It is the human who has to take actions for their life. If we don't take actions for our own life with intent, purpose and determination, who else will? So, any desire or wish becomes intentions and outcomes only when we put our focus on the goal and take dedicated actions towards it. Otherwise, every desire and wish stays as a desire and wish. For example, I was given awareness about my spiritual gifts by my spiritual guides. That is all they did. But it was my duty whether to take actions or not on it. As long as I didn't act, it would have been just a random thought that crossed my mind.

Only after writing for around one year, the next step was shown. The platform Quora was brought in front of me. "Do you want to write here?" Next question by my spiritual guides. Took that task. After one year, do you want to start a website? See, like this, when we start to trust ourselves, the custom-built spiritual team sitting within us starts to lead us. Yes, sometimes it is deeply painful as we almost won't have any clue, when and how the next step shows up. No clue, that step is one bead in a garland of other beads or steps.

But as long as we don't take the step shown, the next step never comes about. This also shows everything has a reason and a season. This guidance many times the human cannot access because we are so much in our mind, that we as humanity have lost our own inner core or heart. The mind pulls the person in million different directions. The vehicle of life goes any which way behind such a mind. The person loses focus, determination and dedication towards their goal. The mind needs to be kept as a servant of the being. It should be willing to do what the human or their heart wants. Then the person can co-create with Brahman- Universe.

I urge you to experience life, even the hidden potential
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Words changes to life: Like this when we take a wish, set it as an intention and start working on it with the deepest of dedication, things start to happen. I had almost gotten this perfected during my early twenties. Then life as marriage, moving to another country, kids all happened and the single focused dedication got diluted a bit. So, that also is important. We can have every other thing that happens in our life. But as an under weaving cloth, our life as our creativity should always exist. Always. It is on this fabric of creativity; we paint our brilliant picture called life.

If that picture above career and creativity includes a whole lot of human Souls whose life, we touch that would become a life well-lived and worthwhile. Why do some Souls become humans, a whole lot of others look up to? For example, lives of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr.? This is because above their family and friends these great Souls were dedicated enough to do things that touched the hearts of a whole lot of people. Nobody insisted or pushed Lincoln or Gandhi to take up such enormous challenge. It was their purpose. But they could always have objected and did things just for themselves and their family. Instead, they had the will power and grit to take up the challenge.

If these Souls can do great things in their own life, we may be able to take up the Dharma for our own life as well, correct? The path of Dharma is very unique and one of a kind for each one. My path would be very unique for me. So, would be your path for you. Without taking up that path, how will we ever know, what we could achieve? Every human comes with deep untapped potential. But this hidden potential starts to open only in the path of purpose. Why did Nikola Tesla or Thomas Edison achieve huge things, while we sit within our smaller and insignificant life?

Because they were courageous enough to follow the path of their heart and passion. When Tesla alighted the ship in New York city as a young lad from Serbia, he just had a piece of paper with the address of Thomas Edison written on it. That was the will power and grit of Tesla to go behind his dream and make something out of it for himself. If he can take up such humongous challenge, we too can. We are also the star dust made from the same fabric of the Universe. Only the being has to decide, deeply intent and take actions on it. That, of course is always a free will and personal choice!

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: The terror called Mangalik (Kuja Dosha) !
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay

Break for the month of July!

2021-07-02T05:30:00.015-04:00

Hello all,

We were discussing the series Word and it's many different essences in a series of blog posts. As all of you know, I have been writing this blog pretty consistently with a two week break in 2017 and one month break in 2020.

As it is a lot of mental, emotional, analytical, thought process, deep contemplation, reflective, ideation and imaginative work, it is imperative that I take a mental and emotional rest once a while. You see I should not have an overloading of the mind, leading to a mental, emotional as well as physical burn out. Rest and rejuvenation is imperative.

So, I have decided to take a one month break in the month of July just to give my mind, creative space and my emotional realm a break. I will be back in August of 2021, to finish the Word series and then start on other topics. This one month I can also think about some more original and unique topics.

Wishing all a very wonderful months of Summer (here in the US) or lovely weather, time and life with family and friends, while I also give some time to my own family. Wishing all happy days and amazing times. Leaving all with a few snaps from my own Spring and Summer of 2021.

Best, Regards,
Swaroopa

Spring 2021:-

Summer 2021:-

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next month (August 2021)! 😉

Next month: The Word - Our life as our Creativity!
Image Credits - Swaroopa

The Word - Creativity!

2021-06-25T05:30:00.394-04:00

Hello all,

Wishing all the Souls who identify themselves as the Other, a very beautiful, joyful and creative Pride month. I also like to wish everyone joy, peace, happiness, equality, equal voice, equal value, equal opportunities and equal justice to all!

Last week, we discussed the topic of originality and how every single Soul is a unique individual. Before proceeding further, hope all are staying safe, sane and with good health. Why sanity? As we know, wherever we are there is our mind. Humanity always had gone out and about, doing their stuff. Now, for the last one and a half years, people are stuck within the four walls. That is a very different dynamic. People can think, get into a rabbit hole and lose mental peace and calmness. So, maintaining emotional and mental calmness is deeply important during a pandemic. Like we take care of our physical health, mental and emotional health also are important. A healthy mind leads to a healthy body.

Back to originality. We saw how from the heart, original thoughts and ideas emanate. If a person is just living from the mind and heart is not involved, the person is leading a shell of a life. Yes, outside they may have every kind of blessing, wealth as well as prosperity. But within they are as poor as a beggar or a pauper. Many times, Souls bring these inner circumstances from other lifetimes. As all of you know by now, I intuitively feel other lifetimes to exist.

Otherwise, what is the reason for a bunch of spiritual gifts to suddenly open up in my life at forty-seven years of age? Before that even if I was doing shades of the same activities, I had no clue and my awareness was also not developed or open to accommodate a very different reality that was existing deep in my subconscious mind. Also, how suddenly knowledge that I had never gone a single course for opened up? We need to realize, in this lifetime to develop a skill, we go for twenty to twenty-five years of school and college. Minimum that much of studies and knowledge are required to get somewhere in our life. Then, knowing something without reading or studying? Most probably the knowledge and information had been acquired in another lifetime in another space. Only there was a greater timing at play and the individual has zero clue until that exact moment.

The inspiration from the heart later becomes physical manifestations
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Inner Child: From only one such incident we can understand there are a lot of things we humans have no clue about knowing or perceiving, because the Universe is only so much physical. A major part is mental and emotional. What we understand and perceive. The same incident ten people view as ten different things, because each one brings their own upbringing, childhood and circumstances. That incident each one looks through the filter of reality they have developed through the lens of their life experiences.

Many times, people find it extremely difficult to have common ground, because their own reality is so varied, there is nothing common about it. But if the same person rewinds their life and goes around 2-4 decades, they find themselves in their childhood. Many of us have gone to schools and primary classes. Those days all the difference and divisions never use to come and haunt us. This is because we used to live from the heart. Only the other kid and his/her interests were visible and enchanting to us.

Then, we grew up, studied, learned a lot of perspectives, used our mind to make sense of the world. Now, what happens? The mind showed a very different reality of the current social, political, economic and cultural difference. Then, it asked us to choose. Choose the best way that places you at the best place in your own life. We perused and explored. Where can I be the very best in my life? Let me listen to my mind. As the mind is focused on all that would place us in the very best spot, for ourselves, it becomes I against the world. There, we have found ourselves in the competitive, chasing and achieving mindset.

Suddenly we are competing with everyone in the world. How can I make it? How can I achieve the best in my life? I! I and I! The friends whom we were very close with, seems to feel like strangers. Actually, it is not the friend who has changed, but we have decided to live from the mind rather than the heart. The heart sees the human underneath everything and the mind sees all the outer trappings the human wears whether of religion, political stance, cultural difference or any other attire we wear for this lifetime.

While we live in this mental space, we still crave for that younger Self or the inner child we left behind. Unless we don't understand, we live between these two realities. Craving for a magical, freer younger Self and living from a mind with its divisions, attitudes, perspectives and analysis. Mind always likes to "think". But if we are not careful, we think, bring many perspectives and divide among ourselves as well. Who are we considering as us and them?

The inner child who lives within each one of us
Image credits - Pixabay.com

All of us were born here, in this blue-green planet called Earth. Did anyone come magically from outer space? As of now, in these fifty years of lifetime, I am yet to come across such a person. We can imagine, ideate and create. But as of now whomever I know in this world has taken a birth in the normal way. So, the technique is to live from the heart and use our mind to live that way of the heart.

Heart: If a person deeply realizes, every culture or religion in its deepest core takes an individual to the heart space where our own higher Self or Soul resides. This space even at fifty or seventy or ninety years of age is still mystical and magical with perspectives that embrace everything in this life/Earth and of beyond.

But in our hurry-berry to make something of this life and become someone, we leave our own heart behind and embrace our mind that too the divisive aspect of the mind fully. Suddenly, we find living with everything that the Earth can provide except a hole in the place of the heart. If we realize this world is filled to the brim with people who have holes for the heart. Then, for the next 30 or 50 years we live lifeless and as grey beings. Yes, we put on a mask for everyone to see.

But what about the time we are just falling into our sleep, alone as a Soul in this world? Is a smile playing on our lips as we are falling into sleep? If it is, we are indeed blessed to find our heart and live from that heart space. If not, we would be stressed out thinking about every small detail, every small division and everything that is not working in our life. Because mind divides, if not led by a higher Master- the Soul sitting in the heart. Hence the Upanishads warns us not to follow the mind, who is the servant, instead follow the Master, the Soul sitting within the heart, of course with the help of the mind.

This is what is missing in our modern life nowadays, that is bogged down with internet, social-media, glitz and glam. The human heart! Look at the world! Is it living from it's mind or the heart? Why are we only seeing divisions of parties, politics, religions, cultures, ethnicity and another thousand different things? We are called as the humanity of the world. But where is the human in it and the human heart? Missing and absconding!

Imagination from the heart and mind
Image credits - Pixabay.com

So, whenever people bring divisions, view points, perspectives, debates and arguments, I realize- okay, so you are living from the mind, not the heart. If you are living from the heart, you would be asking the other more about themselves. Where do "you" come from? What are "your" desires, aspirations and interests? How do "you" live? What do "you" like? Not I, I and I. But You, You and You. Heart always tries to find a common thread or a common ground.

Imagination: Now, as heart is missing another huge part also is lost. Imagination that has to emanate from the heart with the help of the mind. Imagination needs the colors or emotions of the heart. But when instead of a human heart, if there is a hole, how can the person imagine? Anything as a human we want to bring into our physical reality, we should first be able to picture it in our mental reality.

But here without imagination, what to picture? The person becomes lost to the connections of the spiritual world and grander potentials that are yet to come alive. The human becomes deemed to the every day hustles and bustles of life. Now, can we see why people who live from the mind or even atheists who always bring reality and physical world are not able to go beyond the barriers of the mind? Because there is only mind and no heart.

As we have discussed many times before, the human mind is very limited and bounded. But it becomes very expansive, overtaking the edges of the Universe if it aligns to the heart. Once it aligns to the heart the person gets access to the abundant pastures of the imagination. There in that fields of imagination the person gets to meet their own younger, vibrant and freer Self. This is the difference between humans who live from the mind and those who live from the heart.

The person who lives from the heart gets to embrace the inner child in their life and live from heart and the mind united. But those who just embrace the mind, miss the heart and lives with a hole in the heart. It is not the Gods- Shiva, Vishnu, Allah, Jesus or God that divides, or even the perspectives, viewpoints, political parties or religious differences that divide, but the minds that take up all these perspectives, viewpoints. Put it into their subjective filter of perspectives and find the other operates different. So, it is the mind that sees the difference and tries to divide people as us versus them.

Imagination that inspires creativity
Image credits - Pixabay.com

So, as a single Soul what is our duty? To see that the mind is not taking us for a ride and keep it at it's place with a rebuke, whip lash or a stare, behind the heart which is led by the Soul. The Soul, higher Self for You and I is always the Master who should lead our life with the help of the mind using the vehicle for this life- our body. The correct way of using our Divine given faculties for a fulfilling, content and creative life.

Creativity: This leads to the heading of today's topic, creativity. As I mentioned a deep imagination is needed for creativity to happen. We need to see concept first in our mind's eye before it can be brought out into the physical world. But a mind that has a missing heart cannot imagine as the clay needed to mold the sculpture, the heart and the emotions are missing. That is why people who are deeply drenched in logic and intellect find it very difficult to imagine, ideate and create.

When you deeply embrace the mind and want nothing to do with emotions or heart, what imagination and what creativity? Nowadays, emotions are considered feminine, soft that needs to be pushed aside to think very logically and rationally. Those who are just embracing the mind say -"Be real. You cannot live in the clouds, come and be on Earth". But people forget something. All the major inventions, innovations and progress first happened in the mind/heart and later took a physical form outside.

Now, after all these progress and modernity, we are saying heart, emotions and idealism are valueless? Come on. Give me a break! Let me give a few examples. Thomas Edison had to imagine direct current in his mind, Nikola Tesla- alternating current, Steve Jobs-iPod/iPad, Bill Gates- personal computer, Mark Zuckerberg - Face Book, Jeff Bezos - Amazon, Elon Musk- Tesla. The mega minds of imagination who later gave employment, food, water and shelter for umpteens of other humans.

So, people who "Pooh Pooh" heart, emotions, idealism, imaginations and ideas need to think again. Are you truly correct to just embrace the logic and rationality? Yes, logic and rationality is definitely needed, very definitely. Those are the qualities that make the physical life possible with the mind. But before coming to physical reality, with every new idea or imagination, there is first emotional reality and later a mental reality. Today, after writing for four years I am very definitely able to articulate.

Creativity that is a manifestation of the imagination and emotions
Image credits - Pixabay.com

But just ten years back, it was not so. The emotions, heart, mind, idealism, rationality, logic, intellect and intelligence, all together used to create a mush in my mind. What is what? Which is which? A mind that is given equal amounts of all finds it very difficult to make sense of everything. There were times where I have been afraid that I am losing it and going nuts. Nope. I was not crazy. Only I didn't understand the different inner as well as outer realities.

This is how it is- the major realities as a human. The deepest spiritual reality, then above that comes the emotional reality (emotions) of the heart, next the mental reality of the mind and from all the three through idea, imagination, intentions, plans and actions the physical, rational and logical reality. Without the inner three properly working, it is almost impossible for the outer reality alone to work. Because the rocket is ready. But there is no fuel, no software, no scientist, no Math and no infrastructure for it to be launched. A human operating from the pure mental perspective.

Creativity is an outward manifestation of inspirations and emotions that are almost divine in nature. It is this innate spark of divinity as of now humanity has lost. All of us are running around as emotionless human zombies finding fault with the outer attire of another never to take a second look at their heart. Now, whether to capture one's own emotions, heart and live a very creative, vibrant life or not? Always the free will and personal choice of a Soul!
I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: The Word - Our life as our Creativity!
Image Credits - Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay