Lamp Lighting on 5th April: What Does It Mean?

Seeing a lot of questions, comments, and even jokes about the diya lighting request by the Indian PM on 5th April at 9 pm. Here are some findings and thoughts from me on this topic based on my research so far. Hope all this explains things.

Also, when we light diyas, wherever possible, please use natural sources such as candles or diyas (like the ones we use in our home temple or Diwali). Energy emitted by lamps lit using natural sources has different potency and vibrations than that emitted by artificial sources.

Social & Psychological Significance

Psychological studies show that humans by nature, no matter how introverted or unsocial, start displaying adverse impacts when confined to a closed space with restriction on movement. Psychological impacts include increased anxiety, stress, borderline depression, lowered patience and alertness, more mistakes in day-to-day activities, and so on. The (wrong) feeling that, "I am unable to connect to other people outside my house" further aggravates these conditions. In foreign countries and even in India at smaller levels, we can connect with family and friends using social media, video calls, phone calls, etc. but if we have to connect with each other on such a massive scale as all of India connecting with everyone else at the same time, then even the best of companies have not yet developed a technology which can make this happen. Lighting lamps while maintaining the laws of social distancing can therefore, be an effective way for us to (re)connect with each other and stay in good mental health.

Security Significance

This is straightforward. If everyone who supports the lockdown, India's progress, and wishes that COVID-19 disappears from India participates in this 9 minute activitiy from the safety of their homes, it will be easy to help decide how to remove the lockdown, and where to beef up security post 15th April.

Scientific & Spiritual Significance

Yoga Vashishta, chapter 6: Application of the principle of collective consciousness in a society strengthens and healds the ACE2 receptors which are responsible for viruses entering our system. To put in layman's terms, the positive energy created by 1 billion+ people by lighting a diya or candle with the sankalpa (resolution) that we will not let this illness affect us, individually as well as collectively as a society will act as a catalyst in building our immunity towards the disease. Here is a quick 1-minute video from a former chairman of the IMA and Padma Shri awardee explaining this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eXLpDz59gI

Political Significance

It is no secret that there are forces both within and outside the country who want to destroy India by creating a sense of fear, panic, spreading lies, hate, and division in the nation. This is the time when the citizens need to be more united than ever. Not only that, we need to show our unity, to each other and to those who have been tasked with leading the country. We have to keep boosting our own morale and the morale of friends and neighbors. So, use this opportunity to connect with the leader and tell him you are with him every step of this battle against COVID-19 ... and terrorism too.

Footnote -

There are some very "wise" people who are calling this a shallow feel good act, voodoo, and all other kinds of nonsense. We are not being asked to stop taking medicines or other medical treatment. Even under normal circumstances, we regularly leverage help and guidance from nature and the gods by visiting places of workship, observing fasts, eating dahi before going for exam, wearing kumkum after taking a bath, and what not. This method of lighting diyas does not cost any money or special efforts from any of us. Just take 9 minutes of our time at the same time across the country to stop, pause, be quiet, mindful, and build collective consciousness with one sixth of the world's population. Has our education, money, and modernity made us so arrogant that we can't uphold one simple request? I sincerely hope not.

COVID-19: Stay At Home!

Across the world, people are fighting what is right now mostly a losing battle against #COVID19.

You are not being brave or cool by going out and being close to people. Even if you wear masks, gloves, and walk 10 feet away from others, you are going to get it or you may infect others. Infection will spread even by using someone's phone or sharing or a plate of food among a group. Either you will die or people will die because of you. Or worse, you both will die a miserable death.

If you don't understand and follow the orders of #selfquarantine #jantacurfew #stayathome of your respective city/state/country, you are a terrorist.

YES, THAT'S RIGHT, IF YOU DON'T #SELFQUARANTINE #STAYATHOME, YOU ARE FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES, A TERRORIST.

IF YOU ARE OLD, PREGNANT OR NURSING, HAVE COMPROMISED IMMUNITY, YOU WILL GET COVID-19.

IF YOU ARE YOUNG, NOT PREGNANT, HAVE GREAT IMMUNITY, YOU WILL STILL GET COVID-19.

BE A PARTIOT. BE A GOOD HUMAN. BEHAVE LIKE A MATURE, EDUCATED PERSON. SIT AT HOME.

Use this time to talk face to face with your family, laugh together, crack jokes, catch up on each other.

Keep the phone away and log off social media. Play some snakes and ladders, Uno, Lego, Dum Charades. Cook together.

Meditate. Pray. Paint. Knit. Read. Write. Trim your nails. Pluck out some ugly nose hair. Catch up on that sleep you deprived yourself of for days and weeks. Clean your house. Rearrange the furniture. Collect old clothes and items to donate later to someone in need.

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to be of some use to your family, friends, country, and this planet. Just sit at home. Easy as that.

Revolution? Not Me!

जब तक हमारे घर में आग नहीं लगती, हम सोते रहेंगे।

हमें सब कुछ मुफ्त में मिल रहा है, इसलिए हमें वोट क्यों देना चाहिए? लोग मर रहे हैं, देश टूट रहा है, हर जगह अंधेरा फैल रहा है, अन्याय व्याप्त है, लेकिन मेरे घर के अंदर सब कुछ ठीक है, तो मैं वोट क्यों दूं?

इससे मुझे कोई फर्क नहीं पड़ता? मुझे बदलाव क्यों करना चाहिए?

क्रांति तभी अच्छी होती है जब मेरे पड़ोसी के घर में ऐसा होता है, मेरा नहीं। मैं बस क्रांति और परिवर्तन होने का इंतजार करूँगा। जब परिवर्तन होता है, तो मैं निश्चित रूप से इसके लाभों को प्राप्त करने के लिए वहाँ रहूँगा।


We stay asleep and don't wake up to reality until there is a fire inside our own house.

We are getting everything for free, so why should we vote? People are dying, the country is breaking, darkness is spreading everywhere, injustice is rampant, but everything is fine inside my house, so why should I vote?

It makes no difference to me? Why should I make a change?

Revolution is good only when it happens in my neighbor's house, not mine. I'll just wait for the revolution and changes to happen. When the change happens, I'll definitely show up to reap its benefits.

Wake up, India. A problem happening in another person's house may very well be your headache tomorrow, and by then it may be too late.

#LowVoting #DelhiElections

The Alien and Its Mothership

"Come to think of it, we all are really just aliens whiling away on this Earth, waiting for our mother ship to take us back home, and that home for all of us is the same place."

Consider the fact that we are an Atma (individual soul) which is a part of the Brahman or Paramatma (eternal soul/ultimate reality/consciousness). We all are on this Earth going through life experiences only to realize our life purpose of spiritual growth and evolution and to understand that we are complete and perfect, and that we already know all that is there to know. We've just forgotten this, and being born on Earth is solely to understand this ultimate truth.

The day we do, we will be free from the limitations of birth and death and the bondages of this Earth, liberated, and ready to reunite with the Divine, where we always belonged.

You thought I wrote about this guy, didn't ya? Yeah I love him too!

Life Lessons

"Few" things I've learned to appreciate ... and accept while graying my hair out with age :) Happy weekend reading!

1. Human beings are not perfect. They are malleable and have a gray area no matter how infallible we perceive them to be. We have to learn to love and accept them for what they are despite their flaws.

2. That we have to let go even when we know someone needs us. People don't accept our help until they themselves realize they need it.

3. Letting go is really difficult! But we must keep trying.

4. Contentment is a relative term.

5. This is something I learned from a very dear friend: If I wake up every morning and find my limbs intact, if I can still see the world with my eyes, if I can still feel my heartbeat, then irrespective of how bad my situation is, I should be grateful. <3

6. Accept yourself for what you are. Only then will others begin to accept you.

7. Make sure you smile and laugh, a lot, every day, and even without reason. And laugh like no one's watching.

8. If people gossip about you, then take it as a compliment. They are the reason you're a celebrity. ;-)

9. It is important to have faith. It is more important to trust that faith. It'll help to implement #5.

10. Don't say "when I turn 55 and my kids grow up and when my mortgages are paid off..." kind of things to yourself. That day will never come and when it does, you'll already have one foot inside your grave. Having responsibilities doesn't mean we cannot enjoy our life or pursue happiness.

11. Operate from a position of strength and not of fear.

12. Always, ALWAYS, be honest with yourself. No one else will.

13. Nothing goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.

Go Hug Yourself!

"Learn to love others as much as we love ourselves, but first learn to love ourselves infinitely."

No matter how much others care for us, they are also human and lose their balance sometimes. So, sometimes they may say or do things which do not align with their normal behavior or concern toward us, or in other words, hurt us unknowingly (or knowingly, thinking that that's what we need for our betterment). We must draw some mental boundaries and not let ourselves get hurt, but at the same time, not end the connection with them, forgive them, give them more time than we think they need to realize what they did, and without saying anything to them because they themselves are going through their own hell. It is not always possible to cut off such people from our lives. Sometimes, they are too dear to let go and genuinely mean good. It's a tough call.

And then after we find our notions of trust and stability shattered through such experiences, we have to still *not* put up a guard and keep trusting because right at the moment we put up shields to protect ourselves, destiny showers beautiful things upon us which are so good that we find it hard to believe they're true.

Stop Thinking and Just Do It.

So I had this one student in yoga today whose upper body and core strength was in very early stages ... kind of like where I was when I first started. She was a regular yogi though, and someone who enjoyed her yoga practice too. When we came down to Malasana (yogic squat) and I offered the option to do Kakasana (crow), she got iffy and wondered if she could, as it had been a while she'd attempted it.

So, I offered her steps to get into it. She seemed afraid of the floor - imagine the fear of falling flat on your face and hurting your head or breaking your neck. (My experience in falling down from crow has taught me that all you get is a tiny boo boo on your nose or forehead.) I waited a couple of seconds watching the fear on her face and attempts to take one foot off the floor, place that foot on the floor, then lifting the other foot, and repeat the process. I said, "Don't worry, the floor won't hurt as much as you think it will. I've fallen many times, and believe me, it doesn't hurt that bad."

I was just trying to help the lovely young lady enjoy herself and laugh a little. She giggled and to my surprise suddenly took both her feet off - it must have been just for 1.5 seconds. But for those 1.5 seconds and for the remaining 20 minutes after that, her expression changed. She was surprised at herself and happy that she did something she thought she couldn't do.

It reminded me of the first time I was able to get into Kakasana.

Over two years of nearly daily practice and no success at getting both feet off the floor, forget staying up there and allowing my arms bear my weight. I can't recall what got to me, but during one Malasana, happily compressing my legs after a lot of Surya Namaskars, and thoughts miles away from arm balances, lost in my breath, something hit me. The thought of not being able to get my feet off the floor. Only because I was afraid I'd get hurt. Then I convinced myself that the worst that could happen is that I'd fall on my face and break my nose or get a neck sprain. I had gotten neck sprains just by sleeping all night, so I said this was not going to be any worse. I'll call 911 if something goes terribly wrong and made sure my phone was next to me, just in case. With that I got both feet off the floor.

It's another thing that I didn't have enough arm strength back then to stay longer and so I did fall (and thus discovered that my fears about breaking necks and noses were unfounded). But it was only when I stopped worrying about consequences and trusted that nothing bad would happen that I couldn't handle, I was able to do something that I couldn't in two years.

That student was my reminder - and for that moment she became my teacher.

That if we want to do something for the first time but are unsure of the consequences, it is okay to try and fail and then try again in a different way, rather than not to have tried at all.

That after a certain point, we should just do what we want to do.

Enjoy the process rather than overthink and waste too much time cooking up conclusions that may never happen. Maybe laugh at ourselves and the situation while we are going through them.

If nothing else, life might just become a lot more bearable and a little worth living that way.