One Light

Life sometimes becomes a road full of stones and thorns… a dead-end labyrinth. Pain invades each one of the days; one is caught in a world that seems not to understand you, a superficial and unjust world. At such times, one only tries to fit, going with the flow, being a “normal” person, with a “normal” life……But something, inside, it’s calling……

When there is darkness in the life, only one Light is required, as to remove any darkness a small light is enough. Surprisingly we carry that one light within us, and its presence can only be felt when one crosses through the darkness. Since without darkness there is no light, darkness must not be a bad thing, but essential. It is the play of the two that fills us with wonder. Light that shines in the darkness, a light that darkness could not overpower.

The real test of this one light is when suddenly, quiet life finishes, the balance which was earlier there, is broken and the “normality” of life breaks to pieces. Chaos and crisis happens… and one asks why…? Why me……? Chaos and destruction are necessary. When one is far from his road and is not listening to his own heart, life has ways to make you return to your own path. Because something, inside you, continues calling…..the light inside is calling……..

Only when one surrenders and listens to this light and follows the true beat of the heart one is able to transcend one’s own barriers, insecurities and fears, without caring what others would say. You open your eyes and you begin to flow with the same universe… light takes charge of taking you to the right place where you should be. And then you begin to understand… Each moment, each person, each situation… everything has a reason of being. Pieces perfectly fit. Everything, absolutely everything, has contributed to take you to the place where you are and to be the person that you are. And something, inside yourself, calls louder now ……..
And then the heart seems to wake up… and one sees that all the answers always looked for were there, within reach of one’s hand. When looking toward inside, we can see our true nature… a spark of light, a sigh of love. And now, beating of the heart marks the rhythm of our steps. We have begun to respond to the call….. our soul smiles.

And one discovers that, no matter what happens, nothing can stop the passion of the soul looking for light. Later or earlier, we’ll hug our true essence, because our soul remembers its origin and quietly guides so that we learn how to fly again. When we recover your wings…… there is balance and harmony in everything we do and achieve. Appreciating the abundance of life, the reality of both the physical light and the spiritual light and in recognizing the unique gifts we have and we have to share with the world.

When eyes are opened, fears are faced, and life is embraced. That’s the place to start when we want to make our way to the light. Writers and philosophers have suggested that hope, which is arguably the most precious of all things, begins in the dark. “The stubborn hope,” “that if you just show up and do the right thing, the dawn will come. It is the law of nature; darkness is followed by the morning light. One has to just wait, watch and work, and don’t give up.

Each life is a miracle. Each of us is a miracle. We cannot explain by logic or experience where we come from before birth or where we go after death. We have no way to comprehend the mystery of life or the mystery of our universe. We can only appreciate that we exist on this Earth at this time in this vast and expanding universe, and try to use our precious lives for good purposes.

Hope must be a conscious choice. There are always reasons for giving up and retreating into selfishness, ignorance and apathy. If you want hope, you must choose it. It will not necessarily choose you. The way to choose hope is by your actions to achieve a better world.

There are important reasons, though, to have hope. The most important reason for me is the power of the human spirit. The human spirit is amazing. It is capable of achieving sublime beauty and overcoming tremendous obstacles. All greatness - in art, music, literature, science, engineering and peace - is a triumph of the human spirit. But the greatest triumph of the human spirit comes from choosing a compassionate goal and persisting in overcoming obstacles to achieve this goal. All worthy goals require persistence to achieve. They will not happen overnight.

The greatest enemies of change are selfishness, apathy and ignorance. These are the enemies of hope. I urge one should resist these at all costs.

Selfishness is a narrow way to live. It is about what you have, not what you do and give. Rich lives are not about the money we accumulate, but about the ways in which we interconnect and help others. The antidote to selfishness is compassion, built upon helping others.

Apathy is about not caring about others. It is a lack of interest and a failure to engage in trying to make a difference. The antidote to apathy is caring and commitment.

Ignorance in the midst of information is also about not caring - not caring enough to find out about the problems that confront us. Hope and help are needed. The antidote to ignorance is knowledge.

We must be seekers of knowledge, not for its own sake but to better understand our world so that we can engage in it and break our bonds of selfishness with a compassionate response to life. I don't think this is asking too much of ourselves or each other. It is the essence of being human, carrying one light with us in the darkness and finding our way out to our ultimate goal.

Power Of Fixity

Fixity being firm, firmly fixed in our vow, in our resolve, in our determination. Being firmly fixed let nothing shake you. Being so established in our observance that nothing can move you. Fixity indicates a certain attitude, a state that one achieves in his interior, strong within, unshakable within, firm within.

If our attention is scattered and fragmented moving from one thing to another, we will be unable to create what we desire and we will have little to show for our efforts. Without a conscious focused attention and awareness and mindfulness, we will continually live in the past or in the future. We will respond to our life experiences rather than proactively creating them. Fixity is a power if utilized properly, shall help us to focus on exactly what we want, and thus righteously creating circumstances to achieve the same.

We are beings of infinite creativity and if we look a little deeper, beings of infinite consciousness. We create our experiences and the reality of those experiences by how we focus our attention and awareness. The more directed or concentrated the focus of our attention and awareness the more energy we can put into that on which we focus. The more energy we put in, the greater the probability we will manifest an experience of what we desire.

In the end fixity is what carries us towards our goals. If man has walked on the Moon or is going to land on Mars someday, it is because of our determination to extend our presence far beyond the earth, by surmounting the difficulties and increasing our knowledge and awareness about ourselves, our existence and the universe in which we live. Fixity means having the ability to stay on course, to remain focused on our goals, to stand up to the problems and obstacles with conviction, to be fixed and firm about our decisions, solutions and intentions and to apply the power of our will to our dreams and desires with firm resolve, grit, fortitude, faith and courage.

If there is one gift that you can give to yourself in your life to be what you want to be, it is the power of fixity. Without it you are a mere passive spectator in the drama of your life.

If there is one trait that makes a difference between a winner and a loser or a leader and a follower, it is the power of fixity. Without it, one may dream wild dreams, but will not accomplish much in life.

If you have determination nothing can stop you and nothing can deter you from following a particular course of action to achieve your goals or realize your dreams...so follow 5 simple steps:

• No casual approach, have strong determination to see things through.
• Know exactly what you want, and be clear about why you want it.
• Have simple and easy steps to follow plan, to keep you focused.
• Carry out the plan to support your self esteem and self worth.
• Address your fears and deal consciously and constructively with them.

People with strong determination in life are usually goal-oriented people. They cannot be undermined by negative principles and their inner strength is obviously manifested through their attitude toward challenges in life.

The achievements of mankind till date are the products of strong determination and will-power.

Fixity is that one ingredient that has mountain moving faith, miracle generating faith, earth shaking faith and situation changing faith. I am fixed to my goal, I shall not move. If the times are tough, the toughness shall move, I am fixed to my goal, I can rise above the rough times, but my eyes shall remain fixed on my dreams and my goal.

Wait, be patient, be fixed, the storm shall pass. The spring will come. New feelings will come, new ideas will come, only if you keep waiting affirmatively and positively in prayer for God’s strength to return. He will definitely renew your strength. During the rough times when your strength is tested, surrender your fixity to God. Let Him be in control of your life. Ask Him three questions: Who am I? Why am I here? And Where am I heading towards? Listen to the answers and get the right counseling and guidance, direct from the source.

If you want to succeed, if you want to conquer, then Hope- hold on, practice fixity- praying expectantly!!

Latent Strength Within

Let us Understand the Hidden Strength Inside each one of us, which lies dormant or latent, unused. Ask any winner and he shall refer this strength as The Key to winning any game in field or life.

The intent of the mind is so powerful. And if we use this latent strength righteously, we can Change life, ignite our career, boost business, and enhance relationships. But intentionally it requires stretching out of our comfort zone. The more you expand your comfort zone the more powerful you become. We have what seems to be an infinite amount of inner strength. We are capable of so much more! There is more learning, stretching, and growing to be done that leads to greater opportunities, more fun, success, life experience, etc. We all have access to arguably an infinite amount of inner strength and courage. What can be said for sure is we all have access to more than we currently use. The more you use inner strength the stronger and more confident you become. Stretch yourself daily and see more and better opportunities roll your way. Tap your hidden value: identify your latent strength within.

However you define personal growth, you will soon realize that to achieve personal growth on any level, you would ultimately require “Inner Energy”. Inner Energy, as it has been described in many ancient, eastern and western traditions, has always preceded any form of action. Inner Energy is the necessary component to support our emotional strength and self confidence; it creates a clear vision for the desired outcome, to give a true physical strength and the necessary inspiration to take immediate action. That resourceful and magical is this latent inner strength. Inner Energy as the hidden component to our success has the ability to do more than just empower but also redefine our personal growth from the inside out.

What is actually inner power? Inner power is a man’s connectivity to God’s network, His decision as well as willing. Many people or situations will try and stop you on your journey to success. How do you respond to these things would depend upon your connectivity with Him. The right connectivity gives you the right ability to forgive and understand, thus allowing you to grow and know yourself more - any experience adds on to your knowledge. Forgiveness & Understanding – using your latent Strength.

Our connectivity to God arouses Spirituality and spirituality arouses the consciousness of hidden/ latent strength within. Learn to live in the shelter of God, our refuge and strength, in every aspect of life – thus developing our spiritual strength.

The tools for developing latent strength:

1. Silence and Solitude: this can be a hard battle but it is worth it. It is like sitting in a sound proof room, which is totally shut away from the noise of outside traffic: the difference is amazing. We often find ourselves in a conspiracy of noise- internal/ external and it is difficult to remain focused. Indeed solitude can test our inner reality: some are extremely uncomfortable in the absence of other people. We can hear God in a noisy room and even during a conversation but it is in a quiet place that we develop spiritual strength. So make it a point to spend daily some time in silence and solitude.
2. Listening to God: we do read lot of teachings, perform many types of rituals and prayers, all that is good, but God wants to speak to us, He wants to communicate and interact with us, He wants to nourish the relationship with us, and that can be developed only by listening- it is essential to the reality of the relationship like any other.
3. And when we sit in silence and talk to Him, just like our friend, we get the right guidance and support from Him, thus developing our latent strength direct from the source.

When we get into physical exercise we make the muscles of our body stronger, when we study more and gain more knowledge, the muscles of our brain develops and get stronger, similarly by working on our spiritual and God consciousness we develop our latent strength. And it is only those who seek, who find. Only if we delve deeply into this truth, will we ever discover how exciting it is.

We have some little knowledge and we think we know everything to solve and deal with our challenges and situations, we keep struggling with them in all the best possible ways we know, without taking any help from Him, He who has the knowledge of the entire world, we have to plug ourselves with this knowledge, like internet gives you all resources of world information but you shall receive it only if you are connected with the server, otherwise you are deprived of all that information and knowledge. Similarly in life the problems are given to understand the power of God’s resource and knowledge available to us and this is only possible once we start listening to Him and develop an ongoing life time relationship with Him. Let us fall in Love with the most exciting Person in the universe; connected to the right network for developing our hidden latent strength.

The answer is not to try to boost ourselves, but to delight in our God and make Him the center of our universe; to thrill in His perfection. Today you can laugh at the fact how can we talk to God. Ten years back to make a person sitting 7000 km away present in a room and make him a part of a meeting or conference could have been a point of joke. Today this is possible through video conferencing. It is again the right connectivity. Today we don’t know the frequency God is available at, which may be our ancestors knew.

Everything you could ever hope for is found in God. Get Him and you get honor, knowledge, joy, fulfillment, power – everything. Delight in all His wonderful qualities, knowing that they are all yours because He is yours. Seek any of these without Him, however, and even if you temporarily obtain a little, you will eventually end up with nothing.

Let us take an example, we are sitting in our car, want to start it, drive and reach a certain destination. For this, first thing is to start the engine and that is possible only with the ignition. Now let us view it in our life context, the person driving is the soul and car is his body (the vehicle for living on earth) our mind is like the engine of the car, which starts and helps us to drive and live through fulfilling our ambitions and goals, thus helping us to reach our destinations in life. But what is the ignition to start the mind (the right thought process) to get directions and reach destination. This ignition comes from Him and only His connection with us. Otherwise we move but directionless.

How could we really enjoy a movie if during most of it we were looking in a mirror checking our hair, worrying about what people think of us, and so on? Our Lord is much more important and exciting than any movie. He is the Source of life, love, creativity, goodness, beauty, wisdom, joy, honor, power, purity, perfection – does the list ever end? Like our movie analogy, the more we forget ourselves and focus on God, the more enthralled we will be by Him. We will not merely be transfixed, we will be transformed. We make the greatest spiritual progress not by constant self-examination or preoccupation with our needs, failures or inadequacies, but simply by fixing our attention upon God, filling our mind with an awareness of how wonderful He is.

Gloriously Conquer

We all deal with challenges everyday in our lives, nothing new. While dealing with these challenges, we get the ultimate experience of life. Accordingly we can feel either a struggle or an enduring voyage towards growth and accomplishment. Every time we face a challenge the spirit has to emerge Glorious. How!!!

Whenever you have to accomplish a challenge, ask yourself how badly you need to get across. What level is your burning desire to achieve it? Here I would like to share a story of a Lion and a Rabbit. Once there was a lion in a jungle very strong and healthy. He came across his prey the rabbit and he started to chase the rabbit in order to hunt him, catch him and satisfy his hunger. But the rabbit was also determined to run fast and very fast and it kept on dodging the lion each time. After all the marathon, when both of them got extremely tired, finally lion gave up, and said to rabbit, “I accept my defeat and you are a winner, but I would like to ask you a question, how did you manage to defeat me, while I am stronger, bigger and an expert in catching my prey?”. Then the rabbit replied, “Sir, you were running for your stomach (hunger), and I was running for my life, it was a question of life and death for me.”

This is the burning desire, a passion of life, that come what so ever may, I have to conquer these circumstances in order to come out as a winner. This is only possible if we are just present in the moment and not at all bothered about the past or unsecured about future, investing all our energy in the present moment, focusing on the challenge head on with just one intention to conquer it gloriously. You will find the strength and courage to deal with it, always remember to view your challenges, as if they were serving a purpose, which they always do.

We have to deal with today’s issues today. Let us not be concerned what will happen tomorrow, because tomorrow will come with its own set of challenges, which you have to deal with tomorrow. So stop mixing past with today, today with tomorrow.

Now where do I get the strength and courage to come out of the challenge as a winner? Surprisingly that strength is always available to us, we are the one who ignore it. God with all His wisdom, energy and strength is always there, this unlimited resource is available to each one of us, but we have to ask for it, we have to tune into Him for His strength and wisdom to come across and solving our challenge. He is like a transmitter, always there, we have to tune into His frequency in order to receive from Him. And He knows exactly what we should receive exactly to take care of that particular situation .

It is not that we don’t pray. We normally do, and more often when we are in trouble, but we ask the situation to change, other people to change, we ask for the material things to come across. But God does not have that; He has power, peace, purity and love. He can only give us what He has. So ask for a drop of His power and you shall have the strength to solve your issues.

Always have faith in yourself. People might call you anything, but you don’t become that with each word of theirs. What you think about yourself is what you are. Check your own thoughts. Your own thoughts sabotage your success more than anyone or anything else. There is nothing more to conquer but yourself first of all. Then all the setbacks in life will seem like opportunities in disguise……..because they actually are…………

Hum Koi tinka nahin, jisse hawaain udaa le gayin;
Hum koi katra nahin, jisse andhiyaan baha le gayin;
Hum to wo chattaan hein, jisse aao, aur aakar takrao;
Aur khudh hi thak kar laut jao.

Translation: “I am not a small straw, which the winds can blow anywhere, I am not a small drop, which storms can carry anywhere, I am like a solid rock, with which you should come and conflict head on, and leave back tired yourself.” That’s the kind of rock solid self esteem, self faith we should have in ourselves, to combat whatever comes our way.

As such if the clouds come in front of the Sun, the existence of Sun cannot be challenged. It is still there shinning to its own glory, but people cannot temporarily see its complete sunshine, its complete glory, similarly the clouds of your challenges shall also pass through and you shall again shine as you got to. In order to gloriously conquer, we have to conquer our own mind first:

“ man ke haare haar he, man jeete jag jeet” - If you lose in your heart you actually lose, you win over your own heart and you have won over the world. As a small child I remember hearing these words from my Mom, a lady who is an epitome of strength and perseverance.

Let us first gloriously conquer our own mind with the help of God, the greatest resource available, tune into Him and you shall receive. With His help let us gloriously conquer these minuscule challenges, which are there for a purpose.

Take Control Of Your Life

We always have a choice in life, what we want to choose. Once we choose that and move in that direction, new situations and circumstances follow. Along with the choice comes few roses and few thorns. We accept roses with welcoming hands but resist the thorns in all possible ways. We don’t accept the thorns and don’t take any responsibility for them, although these are also the outcome and byproduct of our own choice.

When we don’t accept the unwanted we start the blame game. Now this is played both externally with people around and involved. And internally in our inner dialogue, now we say, "I have to accept this as it is, I don’t have any choice."

And the moment we use this kind of conversation we lose control over the situation, we feel like a victim and we allow someone else to take charge of the situation.

But let’s be clear what being in control means, it is not related to power or authority. Close your eyes for a minute and think, what does being in control means to you. To me it means being my own navigator of my own ship, knowing exactly which direction it is going and on the way I am happy, content and enjoying the ride.

We are the creator of our journey, the writer of our story. The creator of your own thoughts, emotions, feelings and imagination. If you are the creator, you can any time regulate or moderate your situation, by taking charge of wanted and removing the unwanted. For healthy thoughts to nurture, unhealthy ones have to be removed. Ask a farmer and he knows the damage unwanted weeds can do to his agricultural yield. Similarly we should know the damage our self created unhealthy thoughts, can do to our situations and circumstances of life.

So next time you find yourself in a difficult situation, don’t ask the situation to change, ask for the strength to face the situation and rise above the situation.
There are times when we say, "someone has hurt me, I am very disturbed."

But the fact of the matter is we are choosing that someone to hurt myself. If you want to remain in control and in charge than choose the right things. With every one problem, you shall always have two choices, number one you can cry over it, number two you can laugh over it – choose to laugh over it and you can solve it better. As such we all know the great problems of yesterday are hardly of any relevance today.

Whenever you go to the market, you see lot of things, even if you have money to buy you don’t buy everything, you would always choose and bring home only what you like. Similarly in life, during a day, lot of things will happen, you can not bring back everything home. You have to choose, and choose rightly, based on your values and priorities. Making the right choice, brings in more control of your life, opens you up. We are using our mind, heart and spirit more and thus receiving more what life has to offer.

Soon The Weather Will Change

It might be frozen cold right now- with foggy days and chilly nights, but it shall not remain the same forever. It shall definitely change in a few days. It can be a physical torture and quite taxing if one has to spend a lot of time outdoors, traveling etc……

Similarly in life when we go through rough weather, it can be quite torturing to the soul internally if not physically. But remember even this whether will change very soon for better. How harsh might be the circumstances right now, how cold might the people have turned around you, how harsh, stormy be the situation, but after all this storm the peace, comfort and calm shall prevail, as in the nature, so shall be with us, with our soul.

The sun shall shine very soon; let it be very cloudy & foggy right now. Variety is really important for life to be enjoyed and lived fully. If it would have been sunny and bright always, we would have never known its importance, sunshine is important only after dense rains, clouds, fogs and dark nights. But when we know it is there for a while, you can enjoy even that rough weather, endure it better, learn from it and become wiser and experienced.

You can’ t eat all sweet all the time, even salt, sour and bitter all have their tastes and roles to play. It takes both the rain and the sun to make a rainbow, after the storm, you must endure the rain, and then wait for the sun.

The rough and the extreme weather tests our limits, at times we are ourselves not aware of our own strengths, but in these challenging situations when we stretch beyond our limits we experience self awareness and know our actual intelligence, strength and capacity, the muscle of the brain which were not used earlier become active and perform beyond expectation.
Ask for God’s help whenever you are trapped in rough weather, ask for His strength to help us endure it all and pass through it, eventually becoming tougher and receiving all His love, peace, warmth and comfort.

Have Faith in Yourself – Achieve Success

How much faith do you have in yourself? 100%, 200%, if it’s to this scale, then how can you be under a state of self doubt in any challenging situation? Difficult situation is not new to any one of us, perhaps in a day we come across it many times, but there if we have complete faith in our self, our abilities, our courage, and our intelligence then we should know that this situation is nothing else but the test of that faith. In school do you remember, just minutes before the exam, that state of fear, uncertainty, self doubt, but if and only if we have faith in our preparation, we are confident that we shall secure good marks; then for sure we shall pass the test not only with good marks but also come out stronger and achiever.

The higher standards/classes you reach in school and college, the more difficult the exam gets. But in the end even the degree achieved is higher, which is achieved only and only after passing the exams. Just similar is the situation in life now, the only difference is you are not in school or college there is no set time for the exam and test does not come in the form of an examination paper. So next time you are in a challenging situation, remember it is the test of life you are going through just to become stronger for the next level, to achieve more success and happiness in life you have to go through it. And how well do you go through this, would depend upon how much faith do you have in yourself, how well are you prepared for your test? Trust me we all have a diamond inside, only thing it is hidden somewhere. We are never given a situation we can’t deal with; it just requires some additional effort, some more introspection.

Have Faith in yourself, you have the ability to achieve things not known; this is the most important faith of all. Something which you are not aware today, with all science and logic not possible today, but with your faith and sincere persistent efforts, it is possible tomorrow. If you don't believe in yourself, then it will be impossible to truly believe in anything else that you cannot see, touch, feel or physically behold. I mean your dreams, your goals, if and only if you have faith in yourself, you shall have faith in your dreams, that yes you can make them possible.

Look at the word impossible, I look at it and read I m possible. This change in the vision is required, how you look at things, situations and your tests. Remember that having faith in yourself will lead you to having faith in others, as well as in the achievement of things previously thought to be unattainable in your life. Improve your own self-image, self-talk and self-confidence, make your life better and this world a better place, it starts from myself, having faith in me.

Few steps to start with:
• Always thinking that you’re capable of succeeding can help the thought sink into your subconscious. Remember, failure begins with disbelief. And success begins with FAITH to succeed.
• Stop thinking of what you can’t do but begin to be think, of the things that you can do. Be a “yes” type of person. At least to yourself.
• When grabbing opportunities, place your heart into it. Again, believe that you’ll make things happen with this opportunity in hand.
• Think BIG, believe BIG. As that realistic proverb says, “Aim for the roof, you fall on the floor. Aim for the sky and you fall on the roof.” But just concentrate on soaring upwards.
• As you can see, it’s all in the mind. Start with positive thoughts and the rest will follow. For a month practice only positive talk with yourself, even if a negative thought comes convert it to positive.

If you think, you can achieve very little with faith, then don’t forget you can do nothing without it. HAVE FAITH, its possible, you can do it.