During the months of December 2018 and January 2019, we spent about 5 weeks getting several long-overdue renovation and repair projects completed around the home. The projects involved all sorts of works including masonry, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and some basic landscape designing — pretty much everything. There still remains some major painting work, but that… Continue reading Four Lessons from Home Renovation
When you dig and dig some more to find out why something bothers you so much, it hurts. When you discover, or at least you think you have discovered, the real reason why something bothers you so much, it hurts. When you figure out that the real reason why something bothers you so much… Continue reading When it Hurts
Let us accept it. We all have this problem, this difficulty, this shortcoming, this imperfection. This hunger for praise by others. It is one of the most serious difficulties or imperfections we come across when we walk the path of becoming self-aware, especially becoming aware of the nature of this part of our being called… Continue reading Agni, a Cure for the Hunger for Praise
It was one of those afternoons when you simply don’t feel like doing anything. All you want to do is just be. On one such afternoon, I lazily walked around my home with no purpose or aim in mind, nothing to organize, nothing to sort, nothing to do except just be. My eyes wandered around… Continue reading Of Art, Love and Creation
Life, a field for progress. An actual, real, throbbing, vibrant, pulsating, living field for putting to real, outward test whatever little progress there might have been on the inside. Is that inner progress real? Life asks the question, we have to answer it. Mind generally has a tendency to enjoy processing various kinds of inputs… Continue reading Life and Mind
That moment, that morning everything was perfect. Just for a few moments, everything was right, just right, just perfect. Everything was in the right place, as it should be. Nothing was amiss, nothing was wrong. Can it be so? Can it all be perfect? That moment that morning it all was. I had gone out… Continue reading When Everything was Perfect
We practice harmony when we place things in an order that feels just right. Things outside, things inside. Things tangible, things intangible. Things physical, things subtle. We practice harmony when things placed in the right order bring a quietness within. The quietude that brings a calm equality toward everything. Everything around us, everything within. We practice harmony when the calm equality… Continue reading Practicing Harmony
This simple formula — Wash, Rinse, Repeat — is not only good for our hair, it works wonders for one’s mind and heart as well. Yes, the mind and heart also need some good, regular cleansing. The dirt and dust left over from small, medium and big stresses, the dryness and dullness resulting from all sorts of repetitive and mundane… Continue reading Wash, Rinse, Repeat
“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” ~ Rumi A crisp autumn morning. Somewhere on the planet Earth. The 21st century had just started five years back. She was standing… Continue reading Dance, Be Happy
Once again I am reminded of the need for constantly becoming aware of those countless little, pesky flaws in my nature that stand in the way of making the inner aspiration more sincere and true and complete. Once again I am reminded that the path to becoming self-aware and gaining even a tiny bit of… Continue reading Reminder to Reject
A special post for the special occasion of August 15, the birthday of Sri Aurobindo (15 August, 1872- 5 December, 1950) as well as the Indian Independence day. A day meant to celebrate the spirit of freedom. The truer, inner freedom. A post that hopes to remind us of the various knots we tie around and… Continue reading Of Knots and Freedom
I am very pleased to share today some of the photographic work of a talented, not-yet-18 young man, who happens to be my nephew. Pranav is a sensitive, introvert and quieter-than-his-(teen)age type of fellow, who sometimes uses poetry and prose to give an expression to his pondering, questioning and reflecting. On other occasions he… Continue reading Being Human (Guest Post)
