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Tag: Spiritual

Is Chaos Driving You Crazy? Here’s the Secret to Finding Instant Calm

Posted on by prathod

Feeling overwhelmed by the chaos of everyday life? From Chaos to Calm by Gauranga Darshan Das is here to help. In this excerpt, find out tips to calm your restless mind by treating it like a curious child—guiding it with gentle care. Dive in and discover practical tips inspired by the Bhagavad Gita to find peace and focus in your daily life.

 

From Chaos to Calm
From Chaos to Calm || Gauranga Darshan Das

***
Finding Peace Amidst Distractions

 

Once, I saw a little boy, hardly a year old, sitting on his mother’s lap, as she busied herself in a conversation with her friend. The boy was joyful and smiling. Every now and then, he tried to get out of his mother’s lap, or extend his hands and touch the objects around him.

 

When he touched a fruit, the mom smiled and allowed him to play with it. In a few moments, he threw the fruit, and it rolled on the ground. He crawled behind it for a few baby steps, but eventually gave up the chase. Then, he found a knife nearby and picked it up. His mother immediately came over, took it away and put him back on her lap. He was disappointed and flapped his hands and legs for freedom. So his mother offered a toy to pacify him, and he played with it for a while. Then, he left the toy, took his mother’s handbag and tried to put its belt into his mouth. His mother gently pulled it away as she continued to converse. She also put the toy back in her son’s hands. And this continued to happen . . .

 

Whenever the child touched something soft and harmless, the mother would allow him to do so, but when he reached out for something harmful, his mother immediately took it away and brought him back to her lap. Even when the baby cried, the mom comforted him and kept him on her lap. And this is how we need to control our curious, restless, fickle and unsteady minds. Interesting, isn’t it?

 

Getting distracted is natural, but remaining distracted is harmful.

 

The Kid Called Mind

The mind is like an innocent kid, lively and curious. To keep the mind calm and composed amidst the chaotic distractions of this world is a great challenge. The mind is also a storehouse of all kinds of thoughts, desires, emotions and feelings. Some of them positive, while others are negative. The mind collects all these impressions through the senses and interactions with people around us. The mind is always eager to explore everything, but it doesn’t know what’s right or wrong, good or bad. That’s where our intelligence comes in, just like a mom guiding her child. Intelligence keeps a watchful eye on the mind’s activities, just like a vigilant mother, and practises bringing the mind’s focus back to the task at hand. But our intelligence will function in this way only when it has been trained and sharpened. Now, the question is: Are we prepared to do so?

 

Two Keys to Tame the Mind

Lord Krishna responded to Arjuna’s concern by presenting two effective tips to regulate the mind’s distractions. He said:

 

asamśayam mahā-bāho
mano durnigraham calam
abhyāsena tu kaunteya
vairāgyeṇa ca gṛhyat

 

‘O mighty-armed Arjuna, it is undoubtedly very difficult to regulate the restless mind, but it is possible by (1) Practice (abhyāsa) and (2) Detachment (vairagya).’

 

Lord Krishna also describes the hierarchy of the body’s elements, and says, ‘The senses are inferior to the mind, and the intelligence is superior to the mind.’

 

Because the mind is positioned between intelligence and the senses, we can regulate the mind from both sides by (1) Sense Control, and (2) Sharp Intelligence.

 

Combining the above two pairs of keys, we can tame our mind with the following two actionable practices, the first external and the second, internal:

 

1. Practise Sense Control
2. Cultivate Detachment with Intelligence

 

1. Practise Sense Control: The senses act as the entry points through which the mind receives various impressions. Therefore, by regulating the senses from overindulging in the sense objects, we eventually bring the mind under control. By doing so, we restrict unnecessary inputs to the mind, and thus regulate the mind’s distractions. This is the external way to tame the mind. As mentioned before: ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’

 

2. Cultivate Detachment through Intelligence: Although keeping distractions physically out of sight is a good way to control the mind, our inner thoughts can distract us too. With sharp intelligence, we should dismiss such thoughts, and cultivate detachment from things that are unfavourable for our well-being. Knowing the transient nature of the pleasures of this world helps us be detached from them. We can sharpen our intelligence by doing two things: (1) reading wisdom texts like the Gita and (2) learning from experienced people.

 

The mind can be brought from distraction to concentration, by using scriptural intelligence to analyse its thoughts and align them with values. Thus, by restricting the senses externally and sharpening the intelligence internally, we can tame our unsteady mind and make it our greatest friend.

 

When a lamp in a windy place wavers, we protect its flame by enclosing it with our hands. Similarly, we need to protect the flame of our minds from the  wind of distractions with the hands of our intelligence.

 

***

Get your copy of From Chaos to Calm by Gauranaga Darshan Das on Amazon or wherever books are sold.

8 Spiritual Audiobooks to Kickstart 2024

Posted on by prathod

Step into the new year with a fresh perspective by exploring our collection of spiritual audiobooks. From decoding the workings of the mind to finding lasting happiness and practicing meditation, these books provide practical insights and techniques for a more fulfilling and harmonious life in 2024

 

Energize Your Mind
Energize Your Mind || Gaur Gopal Das

In Energize Your Mind, bestselling author and life coach Gaur Gopal Das decodes how the mind works. He combines his anecdotal style with analytical research to teach us how to discipline our mind for our greater well-being. Throughout this book, he provides interactive exercises, meditation techniques and worksheets to help us take charge of our mind.

This book is an essential read for anyone who wants to work towards a better, more fulfilling future for themselves.

 

Life's Amazing Secrets
Life’s Amazing Secrets || Gaur Gopal Das

Stop going through life,
Start growing through life!

While navigating their way through Mumbai’s horrendous traffic, Gaur Gopal Das and his wealthy young friend Harry get talking, delving into concepts ranging from the human condition to finding one’s purpose in life and the key to lasting happiness.

Whether you are looking at strengthening your relationships, discovering your true potential, understanding how to do well at work or even how you can give back to the world, Gaur Gopal Das takes us on an unforgettable journey with his precious insights on these areas of life.

Das is one of the most popular and sought-after monks and life coaches in the world, having shared his wisdom with millions. His debut book, Life’s Amazing Secrets, distils his experiences and lessons about life into a light-hearted, thought-provoking book that will help you align yourself with the life you want to live.

 

On Meditation
On Meditation || Sri M

In today’s challenging and busy world, don’t you wish you knew how to quieten your mind and focus on yourself? In On Meditation, renowned spiritual leader, Sri M, answers all your questions on the practice and benefits of meditation. With his knowledge of all the various schools of practice and the ancient texts, he breaks down the complicated practice into a simple and easy method that any working man or woman, young or old, can practise in their everyday lives.

 

The Power of Thoughts
The Power of Thoughts || Swami Mukundananda

Incredibly, the ingredients of a hugely successful life cost nothing at all. In fact, we mass-produce 60,000 of them every day. These are the thoughts that our mind creates. They are responsible for the happiness and distress we experience. They are the precursors of all we do. We grapple with improving our actions, only to find our attempts undone by impure thinking.
If we focus on transforming our thoughts instead, incredible results will accrue from a fraction of the efforts. Since all aspects of our life are so strongly linked to our thoughts, we have much to gain by deepening our understanding of them.
In this book, Swami Mukundananda, a world-renowned spiritual teacher from India and an internationally acclaimed mind-management authority, will teach you about watching your thoughts, directing them, dismantling harmful thought structures, creative thinking, meditation and much more. When you focus on revolutionizing your thoughts-the most fundamental aspect of inner personality-you will discover yourself evolving to divine heights to fulfil the purpose of your life.

 

The Art of Focus
The Art of Focus || Gauranga Das

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the world we live in, more so than all the recent events put together. The pandemic has made humans question certain assumptions, relook at priorities and adjust life according to the new normal in the twenty-first century. As we take stock of life ahead, beyond this cusp of change, focus emerges as the fulcrum to help ease this transformation.
The Art of Focus, the second book in this three-part series, presents forty-five simple stories filled with revelations to enthral readers with learnings from the experiences of the protagonists and the dynamics of the situations that manifested in their lives.
The first book in the series, The Art of Resilience, presented ingredients to the readers to help them develop resilience in challenging situations that manifested at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Art of Focus builds on the first book and inspires the resilient heart to develop a focused mind. This collective presentation will better equip the readers to take charge of their lives and adapt to the new normal effectively.

 

The Art and Science of Happiness
The Art and Science of Happiness || Swami Mukundananda

First 5000 copies will have Swamiji’s digital signature.
Happiness is a beautiful feeling. It floods our heart with gratitude and enriches us with the exuberance of life. Happiness is what makes living worthwhile. That is why we pursue it in all we do. Yet, despite our best efforts, it remains elusive. Why?
This is the puzzle we must solve in life. What is the secret of finding everlasting bliss? What is the art of experiencing joy that is immune to vicissitudes? And what is the science of achieving happiness that is not dependent on externals?
In this book, internationally acclaimed authority on mind management, renowned saint and bestselling author Swami Mukundananda draws on the ancient wisdom of the scriptures and current scientific research to address these questions. He also explains strategies for happiness in relationships, at work and in the face of adversity. By applying these concepts in your daily life, you can be happy everywhere and at all times.

 

Ask the Monk
Ask the Monk || Nityanand Charan Das

Asking questions is an important part of learning as it provides a unique framework for thinking and opens doors to unexpected revelations for us. Digging into how or why things are the way they are, paves the way for enlightenment.
On the contrary, keeping the doubts to ourselves can keep us from truth, thus depriving us from valuable opportunities life has to offer. As human beings, we must enquire and keep doing so. But what kind of enquiries are we supposed to make?
In Ask the Monk, celebrated monk Nityanand Charan Das lucidly answers over seventy frequently asked questions-by young and the old alike-on topics such as karma, religion versus spirituality, mind, God, destiny, purpose of life, suffering, rituals, religion, wars and so on. These answers that are extremely crucial to help you, the reader, embark on the journey of self-discovery and self-realization.

 

The Wisdom Bridge
The Wisdom Bridge || Kamlesh D. Patel

The intentions, thoughts and actions of the elders are caught by the hearts of the children. The children observe, learn and imbibe the teachings quickly and faithfully, and the elders have the responsibility to not only raise the children well, but nurture and guide them in a way that they can lead fulfilling lives.

Daaji in The Wisdom Bridge offers nine principles to guide you, the reader, to live a life that inspires your children and your loved ones. These principles are important references for parents, parents-to-be, grandparents and caregivers to create fulfilling and happy lives. They will not only help you enrich the lives of your children and raise responsible teenagers, but pave the way for an inspired life and resilient bonds in your family.

Gurcharan Das’s Journey to a More Compassionate Self​

Posted on by prathod

What does it mean to understand ourselves and become more compassionate? In this excerpt from Another Sort of Freedom by Gurcharan Das, we explore these deep questions. Let’s think about who we are, how our identity changes, and how we can live with more kindness and empathy beyond the confines of egotism.

Another Sort of Freedom
Another Sort of Freedom || Gurucharan Das

***

‘When God is gone, how do you give meaning to your life?’ my mother had once asked. I had failed to give her a satisfactory answer. But I had an inkling that meaning emerges from pursuing something bigger than yourself. I had experienced it as a spirit of lightness. It usually happened when I was deeply absorbed in my writing. I wasn’t even there – the fingers just kept hitting the keys of my laptop and words kept appearing on the screen. Tendulkar had described the same feeling when he was approaching his last double century. He said the cricket ball had become so big that the bat just had to hit the ball. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist, calls it ‘flow’. The problem with this feeling is that it is temporary. The big question was: could I extend it to the rest of the day, to the rest of my life? Could self-forgetting become an enduring attitude of living lightly?

 

Such questions emerged early in my life when I first encountered David Hume’s Treatise on Human Nature at Harvard. I became aware of the stream of thoughts in my head. A decade later, the voices first appeared involuntarily in my early thirties. These mental experiments continued over the years, and they have convinced me that I could only be sure of the existence of momentary thoughts, not who was having them. Like Hume, I looked for an author but I could not find him. Was I then merely a fictional composite of my momentary selves? If so, how was I able to negotiate from one thought to the next one? What provided continuity between my individual moments, I concluded, were my memories, my desires, and my beliefs. But these mental entities also depended on the temporary roles I was playing, the masks I was wearing. They were, thus, not reliable sources of my permanent existence.

 

All this led to growing scepticism about my permanent identity. I concluded that my I-ness was a fraud of sorts, a sort of fictional narrator that held the story of my life together. I have been much influenced by Donald J, and by Nagarjuna’s Buddhist idea of anatta, ‘no-self’. When the ‘I’ got busted, I was hugely unnerved. I could not live without a concept of personhood. But I still needed to get on with my life. Of all the emotions I possessed, the most overwhelming was a deep concern for my own survival. I still needed an author, an object of my self-concern. If it didn’t exist, how would I be responsible for my actions? Not just in a courtroom but in my conscience. For all practical purposes, I needed a stable concept of a person.

 

As time went by, I gradually became resigned to the absence of a permanent ‘I’ and I underwent a subtle change. I began to view my identity as a useful fiction, a practical necessity, a minimal self. I became a little more detached, seeing through the many roles I was playing in my daily life. My day to day life, however, did not change. I did not suddenly become selfless or philanthropic. Self-concern still defined my attitude towards myself. But I felt less and less at the centre of the universe – I was just one amongst others. My minimal self, in other words, was able to extend the same concern a little more easily to others. As a result, I began to feel a continuum or sameness with other selves. I did not hanker constantly after premium treatment for myself.

 

It was this awakening that raised a hope. If my minimal self could more easily identify with the selves of others, could I become more empathetic, a more compassionate person? Could I overcome some of the worst, egotistical defects in my character, and liberate myself from bondages that had nagged me all my life? I had lived my life in the constant belief that my interests trumped everyone else’s. And my behaviour had been consistently egocentric. There were exceptions from time to time — a few early moments of awakening! The obvious one being the pencil box incident in kindergarten. When Ayan was about to be wrongly punished for stealing the rich kid’s pencil box, he had cried out, appealed to me. I remained silent. My feeling of shame was followed by profound concern for Ayan, which has never left me. A few months later, I had experienced this in a different way during the Partition violence. On this occasion, I felt a wave of empathy for the handsome Muslim policeman on the railway platform just as he was stabbed to death by two Sikh boys. I bumped first into Ayan and then into the Partition, both without warning, and they pulled me out of my egocentric self, at least for a while.

***

Get your copy of Another Sort of Freedom by Gurcharan Das wherever books are sold.

The comfort of Sadhguru’s words through the ages

Posted on by prhi-dev

Absolute clarity of perception places Sadhguru in a unique space, not only in matters spiritual but in business, environmental and international affairs, and opens a new door on all that he touches. At the dawn of the book launch of Sadhguru’s latest release, Eternal Echoes, we bring to you some other books penned by him that will help you walk on the path lit by this ‘spiritual master with a difference’.

 

Inner Engineering by Sadhguru
Inner Engineering || Sadhguru

 

INNER ENGINEERING: A YOGI’S GUIDE TO JOY 

According to Sadhguru, the term guru means ‘the dispeller of darkness, someone who opens the door for you…’ As a guru, he says he has no doctrine to teach, no philosophy to impart, no belief to propagate. And that is because he believes the only solution for all the ills that plague humanity is self-transformation. Hence, by talking about yoga through his book, he helps one create inner situations exactly the way you want them, turning you into the architect of your own joy. A yogi lives in this expanisve state and he narrates the story of his own awakening, from a boy with an unusual affinity for nature to a young daredevil who crossed the Indian continent on his motorcycle.  

 

 

 

Flowers on the Path by Sadhguru
Flowers on the Path || Sadhguru

 

FLOWERS ON THE PATH  

As a flower can confound you with its brilliance and beauty, so too does each article in this book hold the possibility to confuse you out of your conclusions, and pave the way towards true knowing. Whether the subject covers social issues and worldly affairs, individual challenges, or dimensions of the beyond, Sadhguru’s ability to delve to the root and look at life in all its totality is evident. These essays will render you in profound stillness within and might even delight you with humour.  

 

 

 

 

Death, An Inside Story by Sadhguru
Death, An Inside Story || Sadhguru

 

DEATH: AN INSIDE STORY 

Death is a taboo in most societies in the world. But what if we have got this completely wrong? What if death was not the catastrophe it is made out to be but an essential aspect of life, rife with spiritual possibilities for transcendence? In this unique treatise-like exposition, Sadhguru dwells extensively upon his inner experience as he expounds on the more profound aspects of death that are rarely spoken about. From a practical standpoint, he elaborates on what preparations one can make for one’s death, how best we can assist someone who is dying and how we can continue to support their journey even after death. 

 

 

 

 

Karma by Sadhguru
Karma || Sadhguru

 

KARMA 

Recommended by the likes of Tom Brady and Deepak Chopra, this book deals with the often-used but loosely understood word, Karma. It elaborates on how the grossly over-simplified understanding of it as a system which ensures that one gets what one deserves, has created many complexities in our lives and taken away from us the very fundamentals of the joy of living. Through this book, not only does Sadhguru explain what Karma is and how we can use its concepts to enhance our lives, he also tells us about the Sutras, a step-by-step guide to navigating our way in this challenging world. In the process, we get a deeper, richer understanding of life and the power to craft our destinies. 

 

 

 

Eternal Echoes by Sadhguru
Eternal Echoes || Sadhguru

 

While all these books are written in prose and serve as guides to connect, live and be one with ourselves, his new book, Eternal Echoes is a book of verse full of poems Sadhguru wrote between 1994 and 2021. It has hundreds of poems, one for every day, spread out amidst themes such as life, death, time, yoga, love and devotion, nature, Shiva and more.  

 

A cup of comfort brimming with warmth and love!  

100 years of Sai Baba: His Journey on Life, Death and Everything in Between

Posted on by Penguin India

Rabda has attempted suicide and chances are that he is going to die. Sai Baba of Shirdi enters the hospital room and awakens the spirit body of Rabda. The two, Master and musician, begin to converse about life, death and everything in between.
Set in the present, Rabda by Ruzbeh N. Bharucha takes the reader to the past, to when the Sai lived in His physical body and the life and philosophy of Sai Baba of Shirdi are revealed.
Here are seven quotes from the book that will show you Sai Baba’s path:
 

“ Each moment, every single moment, we either create a dream or a nightmare, as each moment we either choose to live or we choose to kill the opportunity to live.”

∼

“Either you believe that God does not exist, there is no Supreme Power running this grand show, or you believe in a just God.You cannot believe in a God who exists but is unjust.”

∼

   “The more selfless your love,the greater the happiness all around.”

∼

“You may pronounce the words immaculately but if the words aren’t coming from the very breath of your essence, the very sigh of your soul,then those prayers might as well be verbalized by an intelligent parrot.”

∼

“One needs to be careful of desires as once you have your desires under control,you shall move into the region of the heart.”

∼

“When your thoughts rule you, you are like a slave in your own house.”

∼

“So the only wise and commonsensical way of going through life is calmly,giving your best, and leaving the rest to Him.”

A powerful spiritual read, Rabda is a journey you really do not want to miss.
 

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