I had been told to get on Facebook when I started writing. I did. I used to have an author page where I kept posting blog posts regularly at one time. Then I was told to publish them on LinkedIn. I had never bought a book, especially fiction, after reading about it on LinkedIn. Or … Read more
50 isn’t very different from 49, I discovered the day after my 50th birthday. Did the above line catch your attention? I just wrote it as an experiment. When I started writing, a lot of courses told me that the first line of a story is very important. So, I cultivated this habit of noting … Read more
Swami Vivekananda on Mind: All knowledge, therefore, secular or spiritual, is in the human mind. Like fire in a piece of flint, knowledge exists in the mind. Work, but let not the action or the thought produce a deep impression on the mind. Working as master of our own mind gives rise to the bliss … Read more
It is instrumental to understand Dronacharya the teacher, his loyalties to Hastinapur and the throne, and his treatment of various students to understand the character and its motivations. There was no doubt that Dronacharya had a favourable attitude towards two students, Ashwatthama and Arjuna. Out of them, Arjuna was probably his favourite student if one … Read more
Swami Vivekananda on Intellect: Intellect can never become inspired; only the heart when it is enlightened, becomes inspired. An intellectual, heartless man never becomes an inspired man. Follow the heart. A pure heart sees beyond the intellect; it gets inspired; it knows things that reason can never know, and whenever there is conflict between the … Read more
“I think Raichand is back to his shenanigans,” Swami said when we met at the café the other day. Jigneshbhai and I stayed silent. In the past, we had seen Swami suffer due to his boss Raichand’s penchant for making money by hook or by crook. “He wants me to talk to some placement consultant … Read more
The story of why the best teacher of Vedic culture was named Drona is a fantastic one. Legend has it that Bharadwaja, the great seer, while having bath, once saw an Apsara, a celestial beauty named Gritachi, having a bath at the same spot. It was one of the rare occasions when even a saint … Read more
Swami Vivekananda on Misery: All thought of obtaining return for the work we do hinders our spiritual progress; nay, in the end it brings misery. Never will unhappiness or misery come through work done without attachment. Misery comes through attachment, not through work. As soon as we identify ourselves with the work we do, we … Read more
One of the striking features of Bheeshma’s life was that he had the benediction to choose his time of death. One might feel that this was a blessing, which in fact it was. But the other side of it also meant that unlike others who have to wait for death irrespective of what happens in … Read more