AKHAND-JYOTI

Recently, in one of my contemplation sessions, while I was trying to figure out the purpose of my life, I stumbled upon an interesting situation. I came across a thought, or an idea, that I should write, as I am borne to write. As a consequence, the following series of questions arose in my mind: What kind of writer should I be? What will I write about? What will be the central idea, or the core theme, of my writing? Will it be travelling, motivation, spirituality, academics, etc.? Will I write in the form of songs, poetry, articles, blogs, or books? Who all will be included in my target audience? What will be the age group that I would like to address my writing to? What kind of expertise, resources, and network will I require to make my writing more than effective? What will I do to get my work rigorously reviewed by experts of the domain I would choose to write about? How much time will I take, i.e., what will be the frequency of my writings? How many articles,...

There is this big realization. It is not only about myself, but also about the people like you. Those who are ready to don their thinking cap and want to engage with their lives in a better way; people like you who really want to get the full value of their birth and want to accomplish the mission with which they have born; those who think that they can add huge value to not only their, but others' lives as well. I work with my inner voice every day, for my everyday growth as a human being. I try and don my thinking cap and think, some times I enter into a denser ambiance of thinking. That I think is a good sign; looking at my current situation, I would welcome it, and would like to do that almost every time.  I think I have started engaging into ''thinking and getting better'' game with my life.  Now let's talk about the realization. The realization is that we have passed through the first level of getting better, together. That brings us to its conclusi...

As far as my understanding of inner voice is considered, it is there to answer the deeper questions such as why am I born, what is the mission I have to accomplish at the earth, etc. Although for our own convenience, we engage it to answer the mundane everyday questions such as will he/she be the right person in my life for marriage, or will this job or business prove better for me and take my life to the next level, etc. though such questions become important for a person at given situations and times. However, the everyday engagement of the inner voice to answer such questions is a mistake for me. In fact, I myself have been a person, for a long time now, who has indulged in such a misuse of the inner voice. Thus, there is a big realization and learning about the inner voice. Just as if we will appoint somebody for accomplishing a certain task of his/her capability, and will not just assign him/her the assignments falling short of his/her capacity, we should not use the massiv...

There is a great conditioning on what you are expected to be at a particular place. For example, at the workplace, there are certain expectations from you and thus all your actions and behaviour are directed by or are influenced by your role in the organization. This may result in you developing your vision are per the demand of the job. This cannot be taken as the personalized vision, which could be as different or great as writing a book or working for a social cause or raising your voice against corruption. This kind of vision setting, dependent vision or limited vision, is not preferred by the inner voice. Instead there is a better suggestion. First, you create your own vision or purpose of life, then see who all have a similar vision or purpose, and then find ways to get associated with them or if there is some space with you, associate them with yourself. Then the magic will happen. The spirit will augment and this will make life more than interesting and engaging. For example, ...

I have experienced that when a person takes up a cause and takes steps to proceed on the chosen path, he exposes himself to tests. These are the tests presented by the destiny. These are tests of a different and higher level. It is just like a person moving in the opposite direction of the wind flow. The force is too much to resist. And there are so many mental and behavioral changes that are automatically invited and invented when a path is chosen. For example, I have chosen the path of engaging with my inner voice on daily basis. Since I am proceeding on this path, I am also facing the resistance. I am getting busier than ever in my job responsibilities. At home I come all tired up. And I find my kids unusually active when I return from office these days. They and young and thus have so much attachment with me as far as their small-small wishes are concerned, the things which their mother, my wife, cannot do: such as a ride, or a long drive, on a bike. This becomes harder t...

When under the influence of the inner voice, it is certain that you will face trials. These will not be the trials of this level. These will be trials of a different, higher level. The establishment of connection, the happening of communication, the receiving of message, the happiness or more happiness after the message is received, the right interpretation of message, and then implementation of the message or the action based on or guided by the message from the inner voice: these are just a few examples of trials that you will face in this case. In addition, the bigger trial will be that of the timely devotion of right amount of time to attend to the inner voice, at right time, right place, etc. But these will just vanish when you will be determined. The inner voice will have to show up and meet you, connect with you, give you a pure, inspired, and wise guidance whenever you will show respect and determination to its presence. It is just like two persons badly in love with eac...

These days there is a huge emphasis on improving listening skills. It a common practice that when you are in conversation with somebody, it is essential that you listen that person very carefully. Otherwise the message is lost and the end result may not be what was intended during the conversation. Same is the case with the inner voice. When you attend the conversation with the inner voice, the most important thing is that there should be a strong connect with it. This is impossible if there is not careful listening from your end. Since the careful listening is the solution, the listening atmosphere should be clear. It is important that the place where you halt, sit for making a connection with the inner voice, should be clear of disturbances such as noise, people and objects. Although when you have practiced a lot and become a sort of expert in this task, all these factors will not matter at all. But to start with, it is important to establish physical clarity to establish ...

What happens when you are set to go to meet a very important person. He/she could be your boss, girlfriend, boyfriend, a visit for a job interview, examination, etc. When it is important, then it important. Factors such as hot/cold weather, traffic jam, long drive, hunger, meeting with any other person, etc., just do not matter in such a case. Since the importance of the meeting with an important person is important, the rest of factors just melt away. The will to visit and meet that person is the only power that fuels you and takes you to meet him/her.  Same is the case when it comes to meeting or communicating with the higher self that sits within each one of us. This higher self is wiser, smarter, more intelligent than what we are. It is available for the meeting at a very short notice and almost every time. The hurdles that we just mentioned do not exist for the higher self. It is always ourselves to blame for thinking of such obstacles and holding ourselves back from such a...

Everyone has short and long term goals in his/her life. These goals may be to get thin, to earn and save lot of money, to have a beautiful girlfriend or a handsome boyfriend, to own a luxury car, etc. Among all such mundane goals, there seems no requirement of interference of the inner voice of an individual. However, if you are under the spell of your inner voice, just like me, I advise you to arrange your goals. These can be fundamentally organised into short term goals and long term goals.  On the basis of such a self-made arrangement, start focusing on your inner voice. Ask common and specialized questions to your inner voice about each of your desires. As I have got, you will also get some answers; some questions may not be answered at this point of time. It is a must-believe situation. Without trusting the inner voice, there is no other choice in such cases. Hence such an arrangement.  A better way to deal with such a situation is to focus on your i...

Since these days I am under the immense influence of my inner voice, here is another gift from it for all the writers, beginners, stragglers, accomplished ones. I consider my inner voice having a source that is much wiser than me, much better thinker than me and much better advocate of these good thoughts than me. It sends me messages that are more convincing than what I think about a matter.  While I was contemplating over the topic of this article, I was suddenly guided, by my inner voice, to write about writing. But I did not get enough time to write on a particular topic I had thought about to write. Then there was an idea put silently on my table by my inner voice. "Why not I write about time that a reasonably good (self-satisfying) article requires to complete," was what this idea said to me.  I thought that such a satisfaction depends on the stage at which the write is; beginning, middle, accomplished, etc. and, if for that matter, we think that the writer is ...

At times, there is no valuable surface level thought in mind. It is as if, all thoughts are on a vacation. I sit like a lonely person in the room, thoughtless. I think I should prepare for such an emergency in the future. Today, I asked this question to myself. I asked, what should I do in such a situation? I got the answer right away. That was my inner voice once again.  The answer was to explore my experiences and learnings in the process of writing, i.e., what I learned, and am still learning, to hone the skill of writing, relive those moments of my experiments with whatever limited knowledge I have gathered in my journey as a blogger, as it would not be correct to call myself a writer at present (being honest, etc).  Why should I do that was my question to myself. Once again, my inner voice replied, 'I should do such a task, of writing about writing, to dig deeper within, learn more from my experiences, correct myself, give myself to better and modern resources o...

These days I am feeling this new alert system inside me. When I wake up in the morning, somebody calls me from within and says, 'you have to write a blog today'. Then I respond to this voice with a smile. I know that's my inner voice. I respect it, and almost automatically find some quality time during the day to write a blog.  This I think it is just the tip of the iceberg. Some big, massive, holistic, interesting, and from deep within is due to come in few days' time. Even I don't know its nature, length, plot, or topic. But I do feel pregnant with possibilities. And that to me is an enormous change; welcome change; and what not.  

Since I have written about life, I would like to do it again. I have written that there are four aspects or dimensions of life: physical, financial, social and spiritual. These combine together to make holistic life.  Thinking about my thoughts, going deeper into what I have thought previously, has now become my passion. And thus this revision. Now I see that there are tow aspects that influence all these surface level dimensions of our life. These are: stable and unstable forces. This means, our physical, financial, social and spiritual aspects are directed and determined by the forces of stability and instability. For example, if a person is fat today, and he remains more or less in the same shape next year, same day, then his physical situation would be considered stable. Another example: suppose a person earns fifty thousand rupees today in a month, and he earns the same amount next year same day, then he would be considered a person who has acquired financial stability...

There are two stages of life. Before we discuss these two stages, we have to have a right understanding about the “life.” Here we are discussing and talking about the “life,” which is meaningful; a life that has a purpose; a life that adds value and happiness to the lives of fellow humans. For example, the life of Mother Teresa or the Buddha. These are the lives that can be looked to as the role models. These great individuals added immense value to the lives of fellow humans. The Mother took care of poor and downtrodden and showered her unconditional love to whosoever went to her with an open heart. The Buddha was the master of maters; he handed us over the philosophy of life and made us aware of basic principles to live a meaningful life. Millions of people across the world are inspired by these two individuals; many try to follow their path. However, it is not at all mandatory that you should orient your life only according to their lives. There are modern-day examples as wel...

The importance of a particular theme is as important for a writer as water for the fish. Almost every kind of content that is available in the market and on the Internet is based on a particular theme. For example, Aamir Khan's latest TV show, Satyamev Jayate, is the latest hit on the small screen. Just think how millions of people react to the show. Why do they do so? It is of course not because of the celebrity, because if they have to admire Aamir Khan, they would rather watch his movies. Actually, what is important in this show is its theme. In every episode, he comes up with a social issue, discusses it by giving examples, displays the data related to the social issue, meets those who are working for the eradication of the social evil, and pledges for further action in this regard. That's a way to represent a theme, and the theme is the "social evils" in the country. Thus, we see that the theme is very important for the content, be it video, audio, wr...

Short-term goals and attention busters Suppose you are playing a match of cricket in the street or the lawn of your home with your friends. Your mom calls you for something. What is your first reaction to the call? Most of you would say, “Yah, Just coming.” Just consider another example. Suppose you have arranged a date with your lover. In order enjoy the time with your lover thoroughly, what do you do? You just switch off your mobile as you do not want your attention to be diverted (busted) because of unnecessary, as well as necessary, calls. Same happens when you are present at an office meeting, where you have to do a presentation which will play a critical role at the next promotion. You just concentrate on the presentation, and nothing else. You really do not allow your attention to get diverted or busted; rather, you guard it at any cost. The aforementioned are the examples of everyday life. These examples prove that we all know the value of attention and practice the ...

....then you should still start writing...and continue writing till you get some reasonable thought to develop upon. It may initially seem awkward, but it is the way to make a road where there is none. Actually, it is very simple. By forceful writing you tell or rather instruct your lazy mind that you want a good thought to develop upon...and after an effort worth it, the mind obeys.  To start with, you can write whatever comes to your mind, such as: `` Today my mind is a bit lazy. It is not responding to what I want to do. I want to write, but it is not suggesting any topic to develop upon. However, I have decided that I will make a good effort in this regard. I will see that when I get up from my table, I have a write up in my hand and post it on the Internet. This is the only valid solution to this problem. And I shall really get this deal closed in my favour.....(You can continue writing and develop on this basic structure.) "  Within two minutes of...

Temptation is the desire to perform an action that one may enjoy immediately or in the short time but will actually later regret for various causes such as legal, social, psychological (including feeling guilt), health-related, economic, etc. In the context of Dhamma (religion), temptation is the inclination to sin. Temptation also elucidates the coaxing or inducing an individual into committing such an act, by manipulation or otherwise of curiosity, desire or fear of loss. More casually, temptation may be used to mean "the state of being attracted and enticed" without anything to do with moral, ethical, or ideological valuation; for instance, one may say that a piece of food looks "tempting" even though eating it would result in no negative consequences. The following are some of my favorite quotes on temptation: Temptations, when we first meet them, are like a lion that roared at Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them we shall fi...

When you come across a point or avenue in your life, where you feel that you have successfully completed the task assigned to you by the universe (God), what do you do? How do you manage your life? How do you find out what's next? Who do you look for the directions in your life? Who guides you? From whom you take an order? Who requests you to take up the next task and accomplish that? ...Sorry, if you, as an average reader, are not able to understand what I am trying to say here. Let me explain. Recently only, I was having a chat with one of my family members. This guy is a young talented student. He has just completed his Class XII. For him, now is the time to join college. While he can take admission in any of the best colleges of the city, or migrate to a metro city to join a University college, he thinks otherwise. He does not want to go to the college. Don't get him wrong. He has some other plans for his life. He wants to continue his studies, but not full time. He ...

Imagine a town where there are as many wells of inspiration as there are streets. Given this scenario, there would live a population, which will the most inspired breed among the fellow planet dwellers. The people of the town will never face the shortage of inspiration. As and when they will consume the inspiration available in their homes, they will just run to the street well and have as much of it as they will require. The government of the town will also encourage this practice and keep the nearby area of each well neat and clean. It will protect the wells. There will be no tax on the inspiration being pumped out of the wells because the town is blessed with the unlimited source inspiration in the shape of wells. Also, due to 24-hour availability of inspiration, the people of the town will live the lives that will be “ high on inspiration ”. There will be numerous benefits of these inspiration wells.   Alas! Such a town does not exist. Rather, such a town can exist...