Hello world – It has been some time since I have written.  Life sometimes just takes over and when you are in the thick of it, especially when it comes to change, some things fall through the crack. Today I made writing a top priority and it actually just feels so gooooood.

Things over the past few months just seem to be so over the place in this country and this world. There are so many things that are coming to surface: injustice, racism, political strife, war, stagnation…the world is interconnected now, everything just feels like the “worst time” ever.  Although the internet has brought connection, increased the reach of education, and can be viewed as an equalizing tool…it is also in my humble opinion, not what it is hyped to be.  I had a conversation with a great friend, where he made a statement, “We are living in such a unique time period, innovation is abundant”.  While I agree that it is a cool time period, I also believe that everyone that lives in a specific time period thinks what is happening during THEIR time period is the MOST ________, or BEST _________…ending with an EVER. I just asked my friend one thing, put yourself in a different perspective…imagine for an instance you lived in a time that the only way to bring light was to light a fire.   The world you lived in and all that you knew was this fact…then all of a sudden one day, a person comes over, installs a switch, and them BAM…Light!  I mean, that would freaking blow my mind…I don’t have to get log wood, I don’t have to do work, and all of a sudden by switching a little button On, I get freaking light.  I can see my neighbors at night, protect my home, and actually spend more time doing other things.  That is freaking cool is it not?

Like usual, my random, long analogy brings me to my main point: that is our life is just our life, we live this one life and then things go on…the world keeps turning, time does not stop, but that is a beautiful THING if you think about it. This whole construct of legacy is a figment of imagination…do you think people from the past, after they die, are going to care? Let’s say you believe in heaven, do you think people sitting there with God and are saying, man I did some great things…look God, that was all me (I would think God would just point to the universe and say, “That was all me”).  Legacies are great if they impart a change in the way people think, live, feel, but that is about it. After I die I hope I can leave something behind (at least my genes haha), but how will I know.  No one has ever or ever will prove that I will know…has anyone come back after death (Christians, please just bare with me)?

In that regards, since we are given this life, how about we just appreciate it…be so grateful for all that we are given.  So many people, myself included, say “you look so happy” or want to be “happy”.  Happiness is a state of mind, and the way you view the life you are given.  If the mind is a way to control ones happiness there is a few ways to become “happier”…turn off the mind and enjoy the now, or find things that make you happy.  But the easiest way to just happiness is Gratitude.

I know what some people might say…man, it is so easy to be grateful when you have so much or are one of the lucky ones that has “it”, whatever it is.  First, yes, life freaking sucks, and some have it worse than other (that is a fact)…there are things you can’t change and things you can change, so either accept it for that or change it but why dwell on it.  It is a true probability that I was born to my parents and their environment, while another person could be born on the streets or born caste as Untouchable/Insignificant.  Sometimes it is harder to be grateful, but everyone in their own mind goes through their own pains that are the “WORST” ever, or “NO ONE” feels the same way…sounds similar to our society as a whole huh? But in my opinion, the easiest way to happiness, is to accept yourself and everything around you.  Things sometimes suck, things WILL go wrong according to your mind/plan, life is FiCkLe and volatile, but that is life…it is about going through those moments and being grateful for what you do have, who you have, or that you fact you can sit there and just breathe/read…I bet there are people in this world that would just love to take a breath or read.

Bad things will happen…as it is hard to change people, perspective and society.  Things will happen as we have really no control over mother nature (it is great to focus on this gratitude as a driver for change).  Things will  go up and down in life and that is a fact.  No amount of money, power, status, wealth will change that.  People will get sick regardless of anything we try to do, at one point or another.  But it is in those moments when you feel the world is unfair, unjust, life is tough…those are the moments when you have to be the most grateful.  The ability to observe those moments, take a step back in whatever your situation is (everyone’s situation is going to look easier, harder etc from the outside, but no known can put themselves in a persons mind, or even come close to it) and just be GRATEFUL.  Grateful for yourself…YOU.  Grateful that you understand that life is such a beautiful gift, you are alive, you can breath.  Look, it might be harder for others given their situations, which I could never fully understand or would dare to say, but even the most hopeless situation there is a sliver of light…because you can always find a sliver, so why not focus on that?  Accept the reality and just live live to those rays of light.

We come in this world in the same way…going through this with my wife being pregnant, just makes it more real for me at this moment.  We also ALL will end in the same place (no matter how long we can extend our lives, that is an inevitability)…this is the the way the universe works EVERYWHERE and the normalizing force.  So, if this is the case, why live a life of always worrying, stressing and instead, focus on those rays of lights that are all around you.  Change that perspective…be grateful.  We are all MADE of the same energy, in the same way.  Worry, stress, sadness, ups, downs are what make us human…the fact that we can go through these, feel these, think about these is truly amazing.  We are one of the blessed creatures that can truly see this and at least try to change it.  And the change I am talking about is just perspective…it is something we all are born with and no one can take THAT away from us.  People have their own perspective that is unique to them, a combination of what they are born with and their environment they are from…no one has that same exact perspective.  If it is such a rare gift, then appreciate it my friends…be grateful for that gift and what your life is.

Hello my friends,

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  My weekend was just full of energy, people and life.  Those types of weekends can get really exhausting, especially to a pregnant wife, but I always get so much energy from being around people that I rarely feel it.  My wife and I recently found out that she is pregnant and it has been such a great journey.  Just a few days ago, I actually felt our new baby kick for the first time and it just blew my mind.  But even before I could physically feel him kick, I felt his energy from the moment we found out.

We decided to start trying because we both always wanted to be parents.  My wife was a bit nervous and cautious about the timing because unlike social media where you hear the “best of everyone’s lives”, when you are trying, people tell you the horror stories.  The mind is a fickle beast, and once my wife started to think about all the negatives, that was all she was thinking about.  I was focused on the positive, knowing that in due time the universe will provide and things will work out, and it so happened in the first month things worked out.  I actually had a dream that she was pregnant the night before we found out, I could feel the energy changing in my life and the baby was exactly that.

It is hard to describe the feeling I felt knowing that I am going to be a dad.  First, the energy that a baby brings is something that is hard to describe.  Being around children, and being a big child myself, I just love to the fact that they just “observe” the world with no ego.  However, I was not sure what to expect when the baby was just in the womb, and all that I can feel is just pure energy.  That energy has brought so much happiness and extra goodness to our lives and has pushed my journey even further along.  There is even more focus on the now, especially since I will not be sleeping in a few months haha…I can feel the energy that is being formed in my wife’s body and it is truly amazing.  Second, I cannot wait to provide a world of no “ego” for my child, where they can soar to the highest mountains and just truly look at themselves for who they are.  Given my history, I cannot wait to bring a world of no judgement to my child (at least from my perspective).

The new child has brought new energy to my life, an energy source of pure beauty.  My friend Jacob and I were talking the other day about pregnancy and children, and he said it was “magic” the two times he went through it.  Things played out in his life that he did not expect (for the better), and the only way he could describe why was just Magic.  I think that is perfect and exactly how I would describe it…having a new child is energy and brings magic to my life.  I cannot wait to spend the days watching as he observes the world for the first time…those moments will also be magic, but for now I am happy with the energy he brings at this moment.  I hope to share this magic and energy with you all.  My next post will be on gratitude and the power of being grateful in any circumstance. Love you all and the universe will provide, so enjoy the moment that is present, and live that to all its glory!

Hello world,

It has been some time since I wrote a post…it was a combination of time, travel, work, visitors and anything else you can think about.  The truth is that for some reason my mind just prevented me from writing, always making excuses every time I would have spare time…the mind is a powerful distraction from being able to live in the moment.

I recently took a trip to Philadelphia for work and met up with a dear friend whom I consider a sister.  Her brother was someone who changed my life and although he passed away, his energy and spirit forever live and guide me…he is a beacon of light and someone who truly lived life.  We met for coffee and she discussed her new journey into a masters program at a top “rated” university.  She was talking about school and how so many people she has been meeting just  seem to “have it”…to get it on life (seem confident, etc), and she was envious about that fact (looking up to that).  This caught me by surprise because she is one of the most decorated and successful people I know, someone who I never have to worry about in any regard…yet she was explaining to me how she feels envious of other people.  In reality, she was not envious of anything but her mind made assumptions about everyone else and she began to look at them through the lens of her own mental perception.  How could she have been “envious” if she only met them a few weeks ago, interacted with them for a few times…it was all a mental image of who she THOUGHT they were…those same people got into the same prestigious school she got into, so why was she envious?

When we delved into her mindset a bit more, and it soon became clear that it was not a matter of others but a matter of self.  She did not look at her own self as someone who gets it (even though others probably look at her in that same light) or even in that same light.  This is something that I struggle with as well and could relate to what she was going through.  The reason we were this was was due to our upbringing, always told that we were never good enough.  My parents/family did not do this out of spite, ill will or in an “unloving” way, but our parents/siblings believed that life is a competition and you have to continue to improve yourself to compete.  They believed that loving yourself and being confident in your abilities/strengths is bad and will bring negative energy/karma…almost akin to cockiness.  That was probably the way they were raised…there was no hatred, but this was just the way their mind/environment was and still is.  Our environment created a lasting effect on our ego and that is how we view ourselves.  I asked her to say a tell herself that “I love me”, yet I could see her struggle with these three words even though she has spoken three other words so many times (I love you).   This same phrase is something that has taken me 30 years to say.

I have such an easy time saying “I love you”.  It is something I truly feel towards my family, friends, students, and I have even said a number of times in a drunken stuper to strangers…however, it is something I could not say to myself.  I love everyone else in the world but I did not know how to truly love myself.  Every-time I looked in the mirror I saw and would dwell on some type of imperfection…every-time I read an article about someone successful I wondered what made them that way…every-time I would do any type of assessment regarding strengths/weaknesses I focused on my weaknesses.  This was not who I was, but something that was stuck in my mind from my upbringing (I needed to break free of).  It was not until I went to Shanti Bhavan, met my wife and truly started the journey of breaking my ego did I say this.  I remember one day my wife  told me “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you and others see you”.  This made me cry because it was so true…if I could look at myself the way I see others, or the way others see me, I would see my own true beauty.

Through the past few years getting to know myself and breaking my ego, I have gotten to look inside myself and love what I see. The self I love is not something special or unique, it comes from the realization that I am made from the same energy that makes up the universe and every other living being on this planet.  This does not make me cocky or conceded, yet it provides humility in the way I look at others and myself.  It does not matter if you are rich, poor, strong, weak…you are made from the same substance, and begin/end your life in the same way.  To be one with God is to be one with yourself…in that regards I love myself because I was created in the energy of God.  It is something that for some takes time…but now I can say those words, “I love me” and mean every word.  I love my being, my external/internal self, my strengths, my weaknesses, my energy, and my everything.  I asked my sister to say “I love me” and it brought tears to both our eyes…life is not about the external, it is not about what the mind perceives or how it thinks…it is about becoming one with yourself and seeing yourself in that same light.  I hope that whoever reads this can see themselves in the way that I see them, others who love them see them, and if no one is around, the way the universe sees them…an extension of God.  So take a moment, step back and spend some time just loving yourself.  It is the best way to love and show love to others.  I love you all and I love me.

To be One with God is to be One with yourself.  I caught myself saying this to a few people this past weekend as I was taking part in my brothers wedding (Indian weddings are fund yet exhausting).  The wedding was beautiful but it was more of a show then a celebration of life and love.  My aunt came up to me at the temple and made a comment about my meditation, saying it was something that she doesn’t see often (it was nothing special).  This is the same thing I have noticed visiting places of worship  (I also used to just go to Temple see people or hang with friends)…people attending service to check a “list”.  This is not to say everyone does this, but I would ask yourself this question.

Every enlightened soul of the past lived by the same principle (it is evident in their writings)…to be one with God is to be one with yourself, and that is the path to enlightenment (however you define that). All the ceremonies, rituals, writings are supposed to help guide people to this epiphany, however, as time goes on these teachings end up viewed through the eyes of man, therefore they become convoluted and masked (man struggles with his/her own ego).

I am not a religious person at all but I am spiritual.  I believe in God but God to me is not a being in space that judges people on actions or religious followings, rather God is in all of us…the Energy that combines the entire universe. Most religious writings I have read talk about this (Man being created in God’s image). The profits/avatars knew this as Truth.  I also look at this as absolute Truth…the energy that exists in this world connects us all and we are created from this same energy. One of the most fundamental laws in science is that energy can be neither created or destroyed…it is infinite, ever lasting, omnipresent, which happen to be same words that people use to describe God. When you think about this concept it is truly humbling and powerful…we all have that power in us, and everyone/everything is made of this same energy.  Thinking of God in that light, I began to appreciate the connecting force, and have been striving to become one with myself ever since.  It all starts with the acceptance that you are not the physical being you see, but an energy that permeates all the cells in your body.  The same foundation and energy that created the universe also created each one of us…I get shivers thinking of this.  The hard part is being able to accept yourself and break the mental layers to become one with God/yourself.

Religion can be a beautiful tool to teach these things but the further we get removed from the true source of enlightenment (to the world of instant satisfaction and ego), the more religion becomes a construct of ego/man.  I was born a Sikh, which has always been more of a cultural affiliation rather than a guiding source (mostly because I couldn’t read or understand the language).  At the age of 11 my parents put me into a Baptist private school (for education purposes)…I lasted only 2 years before I was back into public school.  While in school, I was ridiculed and ostracized because of my looks, weight and mostly because of my “religion”. I remember the days where I would be put in the front of the class and shown videos of the rapture.  As a child, you can imagine the horror I felt being left behind by God…I even “converted” out of fear and to fit in.  Over the next 10 years I never felt any closer myself.  As I became older and focused on being one with myself, I have never felt more at one with God.

The more I have began to understand this the more I have become to have faith. It is hard to have faith when your innocence was ripped from you at a young age but through my wife, and my time volunteering at a school in India, I began to look at myself in a new light…I began to see myself through love, through the eyes of God. The children at Shanti Bhavan and my wife did not care for the image I built in my mind, but cared for the energy that I brought. They looked at me with pure love, and provided me the energy to face anything.  Doubt was in my mind, yet love and energy set me free (faith is the opposite of doubt).  Think about this…the moments when things seem to go right usually occur when you have faith/trust in yourself (don’t dwell on the outcome).  The times you doubt yourself, it brings negative energy into the picture, making the eventuality “hazy”.  The times spent with my wife, the children of Shanti Bhavan, and now myself have shown me the power of energy, self acceptance, faith and love…all ways to get to God.

Over the past 5 years I have started my journey, and have never been closer to myself, and God.  Even concepts of reincarnation, which used to sound absurd, makes sense if you look at yourself as pure energy (never destroyed).  Our time in this world is temporary, yet the energy in us is infinite…the body is just a mechanism to hold the energy.  That is God (in my humble opinion), the all encompassing energy that is in everything, and those who break those mental layers/accept themselves are the ones that are one with God (my journey is still in the process but I am loving it more and more).  In that light God = Energy = Love = Acceptance.  I love you my friends and thank you for listening…I wish nothing but goodness for you as you continue your path to yourself.

Hello my friends.  I hope whoever is out there is having a wonderful day and is enjoying the moment’s life is bringing you.  I wanted to discuss technology but not just technology as the conduit for innovation, but technology as the conduit for consumerism in our world of instant gratification.   These are my humble opinions and should not reflect anything more than that…I could, and probably am wrong, but I do believe this might be a reality.       I thoroughly believe the revival of a state of “consciousness” correlates with the access to knowledge and information.  However, I also believe that this revival is based not on just access to information but the fact that our consumerist society is reaching the carrying capacity (I love when I spell check a word and find out that an entirely new word exists…consumerist was that!). 

I do believe that technology does make it easier to access information, like the beautiful writings from the teachers of the past…if it was not for technology, I would have taken much longer to discover “Autobiography of a Yogi” (I would never say “never” because I feel that in due time things will present themselves when you need it the most).  Technology is allowing me to face my fears by writing this blog.  I do think (I have no evidence) there is a direct correlation in the way our world is changing and the revival of the “self” as a way to level the playing feel…otherwise the perpetual cycle of needs, wants, and desires will cause a great shift in the natural equilibrium.    

I work in technology, on the intersection of data and innovation.  It is exciting to see what is possible and the monopolies that are going to be disrupted.  However, there is another side to this world and that is the ability for people to consume at a higher rate due to direct access.  One of the “tech” investors who so many people follow and admire (it is sad we idolize money makers) this bubble environment known as Silicon Valley, Marc Andreesen, recently “tweeted” (he wanted to impart his wisdom in 140 characters) “Technology innovation disproportionately helps the poor more than it helps the rich, as the poor spend more of their income on products”.  Although he was talking about how the rich used to have servants, and now people can have “dishwashers”, it still speaks to the fundamental issue about how tech is making it easier for the poor to consume…and the people who provide this reap the benefits.  For every disruptive innovation, there is the 100 “Kim Kardashian” app that is about exploiting people to consume.  There is a saying that the earliest adopters of technology are the Porn industry, and this is due to the fact that they accept themselves for who they are, vultures. A society that is built on capitalism, or consumerism, will be focused on making money due to the arbitrage opportunity provided (based on access to information, capital, and resources).  There is   a reason why the average debt per person has ballooned to 6500 (from 1500) in the past 10 years and why 1/3 of the US population is in collections…it is the fact that technology is (inadvertently or on purpose) creating a culture of the immediate need/desire to consume.  This need for instant gratification is what I care most about.

I think to a time when labor costs eventually may go down to 0.  We see that in manufacturing, self-checkouts at grocery stores, self-ordering machines in restaurants, driverless cars, etc…what happens when the few take it all, while the vast majority, are left with scraps.  The inequality debate is a reality here in the US, but it is not limited to just the US, but is now a global issue.  Although the access to information levels the playing field, it really does only for those who have the access/ability to do so.  Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, Sheryl Sandberg did not come from the bottom 20%, but they were offspring of upper middle class families.  Right now only 1/20 people in the US who are born to the bottom 20% can “climb the ladder” while it is 2/3 for the top 20%. 

These issues, coupled with social media, cause society to delve further into the ego.  Social media, for the average person, is an affirmation bias.  Do you ever see anyone post on facebook about their crappy day?  On the contrary, it is just an accumulation of the best moments of someone’s life which they selectively choose to share. The other issue I have with social media is that it doesn’t teach empathy.  When a child makes fun of another child, they can see them feel bad, which in turn causes that child to feel some sort of remorse (I am talking in generalization).  However, on social media, all it takes is 140 characters and an internet connection.

I love technology and believe in the creative nature of human society.  I feel as though we will find a way.  Whose to say our time is relatively more or less innovative than the time of Galileo or Copernicus…they might have thought the same thing.  However, I do believe that we are living in a time where the need to find yourself is so much more necessary because the world has become so much smaller…technology can be a way to change the world for good, but it has started off in a way of amplifying existing beliefs. We gain energy from physical beings and not from inanimate objects…hopefully we can find a beautiful way to create harmony on all accounts.    I love people, energy and the pursuit of the self…I just hope technology can enable this rather than monetize it.