THE DIARY OF Z

2007 turned out to be a mixed bag for me. Earlier in the year, I had to take a very important decision — to stop working for somebody and do something on my own. And I did after working 12 years full-time for somebody or the other. Not because I didn’t like working under someone, but because the job didn’t allow me to make the most of my versatility. Now, I can write for publications, and find time to do photography, pen short stories and memoirs, be part of new ventures… the possibilities are endless.

Ofcourse, the beginning wasn’t easy. It took me almost two months to get to grips with my new way of life. But the result was sweet. Before I could settle down in my ’self employed’ avatar, I travelled to Bangkok and Pattaya with a group of 10 people and stayed there for nine days. The experience opened up my mind to a more international experience. Not that I hadn’t travelled outside India before. The last time was a few years ago when I had to visit Dubai for a few days as part of my job with Star Network.

Today, I am happy to say that 2007 was actually the most liberating year for me, as it gave me a handle on my career and life itself. I got to meditate a lot more during my morning walks that I have been religiously doing for the last one-and-a-half years.

But why am I saying all this to you? Because I guess, you might want to do the same. Throw away your stable, secure job and become an entrepreneur. But remember, I did it after being part of a team, and then leading a team… these skills are invaluable and need to be learnt before you start something on your own. People skills are ‘the’ most important tools in this world. Not your bachelors and masters degrees. They are only good technically. But holistically, you need to have this innate sense of calm and the belief in ‘give-and-take’. Only then, will you be happy at what you are doing, and slowly understand the real meaning of your existence: to be happy and make others happy.

Talking of happiness, every individual have their own way of interpreting it. To me, watching and playing with children, being with nature, taking a lukewarm shower, sleeping when I am really tired… all these make me very happy. Similarly, when I give alms to the disabled who cannot earn to make a living, I am most happy that they gave me the opportunity to serve them in whatever way I could. And I don’t consider this as charity. I think I am only helping my brethren.

On the same lines, when I watch the sun set in front of my house, when I watch the white clouds make an interesting pattern against the blue sky, it makes you feel blessed that you are living under their shadow. I am also very happy when I am reading a very good book, which is quite rare to find. The other day, I was reading Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, and I could sense the change within me almost immediately. It was as if my thinking was being fine-tuned and my soul was being liberated by these thoughts. Just reading this book made me happy and relieved. Now I have never read Deepak Chopra before. But what he said rang so true. He says, practice the art of ‘give and take’. Whenever you meet someone, always give them a gift. And it needn’t even be physical. It can just be a prayer. His underlying message is that so long as we keep giving and receiving life’s most precious gifts (tender, loving, care), wealth (both material and spiritual) will keep circulating in our lives. Isn’t that such a wonderful thought?

The best advice I received from Chopra is to be “non-judgemental“. I think that’s so true. As we all know, ‘assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups’. And this applies to life in more ways than one. If only we hadn’t thought of a race as being ‘inferior’, a person as being ‘evil’, a thing as being ‘must-have’, we would have none of the baggages occupying our mind space and clogging our very existence. If only we practiced to be non-judgemental and just took life as it came to us, we would have learned the art of forgiving and forgetting. High philosophy, but told very succinctly.

Therefore, I wish that 2008 awakens, energises and catalyses the spiritual awakening amongst us all, so we live in harmony across the globe. After all, eradicating poverty will not make us happy. But infusing love and goodwill surely will. So, are you ready for 2008? I surely am.

Wish you all a rocking 2008!

May all your dreams become a reality (and if you haven’t dreamt yet, start now!)

There are many ways to heal yourself. Here are three that could do the deed. Happy healing! And do write to me with your experiences.

What is Vipassana?

With celebrities like former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, Priyanka Gandhi, veejay and actress Sushama Reddy, super cop Kiran Bedi and Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah’s daughter Heeba as its active votaries, Vipassana is here to stay. A beginners’ course consists of a 10-day period of silence and abstinence. This includes the following tenets:

1.       Abstaining from speaking, stealing, eating elaborately, thinking ill of others and indulging in sexual activity and intoxicants during the period of the course. This helps in calming your mind.

2.       Focussing on the flow of one’s breath as one inhales and exhales. This brings more focus by the fourth day.

3.       Learning a technique of meditation that teaches them to think well about everything and everyone.

           By following these three steps, Vipassana helps in self-transformation through self-observation. It helps you come to terms with reality by instilling courage in your heart and face things as they are. There is a Vipassana Meditation & Research Centre on Lalbagh Road. It can be reached on 080-2222 4330.

The Law of Attraction

The law of attraction has many different labels: ‘Success consciousness’, ‘Law of Magnetism’, ‘Power of Thought’. What it says is that all your thoughts, images and feelings in your mind will later turn into your reality. Meaning, everything you have in your life now has been summoned by your mind. This means that both the things you are happy with and those you are not are your own creation. Now that you know this, you can now create your life consciously. You can start attracting only those circumstances that create happiness for you and leave out the ones you don’t want.

Affirmations

Here is a great way to create affirmations that may be helpful to you. Here’s how it works: You start off the affirmation with “Today I choose…” then fill in a quality or thought habit that you want to condition into your thinking. Repeat it often through the day and particularly when you are about to make a decision or engage in an activity that is directly related to what you intend to create. Let it act as a compass to guide you so you keep moving in a straight line directly towards your goals regardless of what others may do.

While Western workers pop antidepressants and tranquilizers to beat stress, India seeks relief from the pressures of its emerging materialistic society with a booming spirituality industry. Personnel departments in big firms are calling on spiritual gurus to help new recruits handle the tensions of modern-day life. And the best part? You don’t need to trek to the Himalayas to learn meditation any more. Bengaluru boasts of over 50 ashrams and spiritual centres. These range from global biggies such as the Art of Living, Mata Amrithanandamayi Math, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and the Satya Sai Baba ashram to relatively smaller outfits like the Ramana Maharishi Centre for Learning and the Sri Mathrudevi Vishvas Shanti Ashram.

Software and spirituality

Each outfit has a growing group of high earning, professionally on-the-move followers. Art of Living has conducted The Sri Sri sudarshan kriya and meditation course at most top companies in the city, including Infosys, HCL and Tata Consultancy Services. The organisation has also designed a special Corporate Executive Programme — essentially a meditation and pranayama capsule — for senior corporate managers. The programme is stated to help managers increase team productivity.

Bengaluru has a lot to offer through discourses, spiritual talks and short courses on spirituality. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s ever popular ‘Art of Living’ techniques are recognised by the United Nations and scores of multinationals have it on their annual HRD agenda. Bengaluru’s ISKCON centre organises weekend stress and time management classes as part of its Friends of Lord Krishna (FOLK) programme on Sundays. Classes begin at 4 am with a tulsi puja, followed by a meditation session and, in tune with the changing times, a power-point presentation on managing work and lifestyle stress.

The software and spirituality industries are growing hand in hand in Bengaluru. With long work hours and deadline pressures, software professionals are stress-prone. This makes them a ready-made market for spiritual organisations. Why, even professors at the Indian Institute of Management include spirituality as part of their curriculum to ‘develop life skills and negotiate the world better.’

Spiritualism is essentially about stress management. People join the Vipassana meditation course mostly to beat stress and depression. Most of these happen to be 30-something professionals suffering from chronic depression who turn to meditation as a last resort.

Religious harmony

Except for sporadic outbursts over the Cauvery and a few minor issues, the city has largely been secular. Take the stretch on Old Poor House Road. A church, two temples and four mosques stand in serene religious equanimity. As proof of the secular nature of the city is the nine-day karaga festival (March-April) to worship the chief deity of the Thigala community, Goddess Draupadi. The earthen pot in which the goddess is said to be invoked is installed in the Dharmaraya Swamy Temple near City Market. On Chaitra Poornima (full moon day in the Hindu month of Chaitra), the last day of the festival, the karaga is carried in a procession that begins at midnight and continues till the morning. The procession halts at Majestic at the Dargah-e-Sharif of Hazrat Tawakkal Mastan, the 18th-century Muslim saint. Legend has it that on hearing the approach of the karaga the saint ran towards it, but fell and was grievously injured. The Hindus applied kumkum to his wounds, which miraculously healed. Hazrat Mastan then prayed to Draupadi that, after his demise, the karaga stop at his tomb, a tradition carried on to this day.

The city is a window to many religious practices. Deepavali, the ‘Festival of Lights’ transcends demographic and religious lines and is celebrated with great vigour. Dussehra, a traditional celebratory hallmark of the old Kingdom of Mysore is another important festival. Just the way Fridays are a busy day for all the mosques in the city, Thursday is a busy day at the Infant Jesus Church when believers of all kinds gather to light a candle to fulfil their prayers. A series of miracles, all occurring on Thursdays, led to it being declared ‘Infant Jesus Day’. On Saturdays, the scene is repeated at the St Mary’s Basilica where Mother Mary, also called ‘Our Lady of Health’, is sought for her legendary healing powers.

According to the 2001 census of India, Hindus (79%) form the majority followed by Muslims (14%), Christians (6%) and Jains (1%). Some of the religious hotspots include the majestic five-storey Jamia Masjid in KR market, St Mary’s Church in Shivajinagar, the Parsi fire temple on Queens Road, the gurudwara near Ulsoor Lake, the Jain temple in Chikpet, the Bahai Bhavan on Coles Road, the Krishna temple in Rajajinagar (ISKCON) and the Shiva statue on Airport Road.