Leh – Land of Endless Hills

You may have been to hilly places but the beauty that surrounds Leh is so mesmerizing that it can not be related to any second place. The roads of Leh take you to an exhibition of extremely rich art and sculpture that invokes the dormant artists within everyone. Did you watch the Fifty Shades of Gray? I tell you there’s an infinity of shades and texture to be explored if you pay your visit to Leh.

When you see the gesture of grand rocks, you naturally bow in reverence to nature. Just a look tells you why army men are inherently full with the feeling of proud for our amazing nation. Leh takes you closer to creativity of the supreme creator. The land of Leh is so generous that it has created space for nature to manifest itself in every way – there are amazing sand dunes, large stone rocks, blue water salt lake, ice capped mountains, seamlessly flowing rivers, beautiful clouds and what more you can imagine at one place.

The colorful Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags with blessed mantras written on them spread vibes of serenity everywhere that is also natural in Leh.  People live the words of Buddha and their compassionate hospitality will win your heart.

Apricots and apples grow abundantly in these regions. You can easily find these trees in guest houses and no surprise if you even find them at road sides. Journey to Leh is truly adventurous but it’s important to stay acquainted to these important health related check points as you set for a happy journey.

When you land on higher altitudes, body needs its own time for readjusting its habitual functioning. Stay there a few days before starting the actual trip otherwise complaints of head ache are common. Due to change in atmospheric pressure, your usual pulse rate and natural breathing change here. It’s helpful to take deep breaths consciously. There’s also dust in the air, so it’s good to wear a pollution mask. Everyone must stay alert as some people may feel very difficult and even suffer from a medical condition called Hypothermia which can be fatal if not checked. It’s recommended to carry below items for safety:

1. Pollution mask
2. Sunglasses and sunscreen (depending on the season)
3. Medicines of head ache, vomiting and hypothermia.
4. Thermos flask and tea bags (ginger lemon tea is most suitable)
5. Oxygen cylinder ( Know where you can get it in Leh)

Don’t sit fixed in one position for long. Stay alert and keep stretching arms, neck, shoulders and legs occasionally. Chewing gums can be helpful. Now when you are ready for adventure, let’s find out the best places in Leh/Laddakh.

1. Magnetic Hills
2. Pangong Tso Lake
3. Nubra Valley
4. Monasteries

I will share about these places one by one in upcoming blogs. Rest well and take care.

Rebirth or One Life: How your belief turns into thinking and action:

Every one of us has pondered sometimes that what happens to life ultimately? Most of us have a belief passed on to us by our forefathers. We don’t realize that this single belief impacts all the activities we do. Here I’ve shared five points that why believing in rebirth is better.

1. The show must go on:

This idea sounds real fun only when we believe in rebirth. The tragedy is that we see death as a full stop, then all our yesterday is a day less in our life. That makes Shakespeare become sad and the great writer expresses the insignificance of life – ‘All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players’.

See a child playing carelessly,

His giggles and laughter reflect timelessness.

See him when he’s old, he can’t smile like that now.

The belief that with death, life ends takes away his carefree smile.

2. Fast & Furious is crazy:

You want to live in the present moment. But oops! The ice-cream is melting. Eat it or you will waste it. You live all your life controlled by the fear of death. You work fast because everyday you are approaching closer to an end. Right from the sunrise, your mind is full of the tasks to be accomplished before the day dawns. You rush, you work fast, you don’t actually enjoy the juice of life. You wake up with your alarm watch ringing and the time always stays ahead of you. You keep counting the ticking of the clock, hour by hour and day by day. You go on chasing time till the last hours of your life. Instead, why not wake up relaxed with sunrays kissing you and giving you a warm hug. I hope you  can notice how the belief plays its mischief.

3. Make mistakes, take your time to learn

The fear of failure would not appear so giant to us if we were free from that our life has a frame of time. It even becomes easier to forgive yourself. There’s a lot of time, in fact, ad infinitum. Life is not something that’s running out of a sieve and you suddenly run out of time. It’s a process of evolution to which death is also a phase. Go on learning, never stop. That life is so vast and never ending makes you optimistic.

4. You feel rich:

You’re given life, but with a warning that it may end anytime. It’s like a limited period offer. Huh! It’s having all the wealth and still feeling miserly or at best confused about how should you want to spend it. You’re tensed to spend it before the validity expires. Relax! You will go on dissipating your energy in a rush because deep within there lies a belief that life may end. That conscious never let you behave freely and richly.

5. The law of karma is derived from the theory of rebirth

It happens so often when you feel what is the point of doing anything when death is inevitably true. However, if you change your belief about death and see it as a point of evolution, the law of karma becomes meaningful. Just because you don’t have  the memory of your past births, it’s hard for you to believe that you’re possibly taken birth again. It’s another chance to attain freedom and salvation. Your destiny is continuously redesigning according to the choices you will make. Every choice that you make brings a shift to your stars and destiny. There is a point of doing your best when you know that there’s a scope of infinite growth in every moment of your life.

In a nutshell, I  don’t say that I know the secret answer that life ends or we get a chance for rebirth. My intention is to make you aware of your beliefs and how it influences your life. My message is simple: ‘Choose your belief wisely.’

Being Positively Selfish: Selfishness as a Responsibility

We often use the word ‘selfish’ to make others guilty of being so mean that they could only think about themselves. But, this word should be used with more awareness as it may be sometimes a positive attitude to be selfish. We need to accept that selfishness has a positive aspect too and in fact being selfish is being responsible in a way. Give me a chance to explain this.

It happens many times that we compromise with our views, as an individual working with a team in offices or as a member of the family, because we don’t want to explain others our viewpoint as we may not be knowing the right way to express ourselves. We may fear that it will create differences, offend our boss or hurt our loved ones. Not all the times majority is right. Even if the majority is right, it happens sometimes that we can’t understand why unless we talk about it loud and clear. It makes us against ourselves if we don’t talk about it. And it may also bring a completely new viewpoint and prove majority ignorant. It requires you to take your stand when nobody else supports you. You don’t need to be a conformist. You don’t even need to always announce that you are going to be against everyone because your conscience wants that. Sometimes, you just need to understand what you want for yourself and decide silently. I call it being positively selfish, true to yourself. If I will not do so, I will blame others ultimately. Blaming will be of no use at that time.

Let me tell you here the difference between action and reaction. An action is a response that comes from your instincts. It’s in harmony with your inner conscience. You really know you want it and you are right to the best of your knowledge. Reaction (Re-Action) is a response that you make under the influence of others, on the basis of views of others. Noticing with awareness, you will see someone else is taking your decision. It’s a borrowed decision which loads others with your share of responsibility and makes them a participant in your share of blames if the idea fails. Unknowingly, we all want everyone else to believe what we believe to be right for ourselves. If we are dominating, we will want others to follow us no matter what and if we are submissive, we will come under the influence of others and allow them to dominate us.

We have to be aware and open to both the situations in order to be respectful towards individuality. We have to allow everyone to be positively selfish in order to allow selflessness. Yes, selfishness used wisely become an end and beginning unto itself and leads to selflessness.

In love relation, be kind to your lover and allow expressions. It may seem sometimes selfish when they love themselves but only when each one of you has your own space can you allow space for others. I am not in favor of being mean and allowing anarchy. This is being selfish in a negative way. I am just saying don’t sacrifice yourself like a helpless sheep when you can speak out. Don’t choose to become love-slave instead of lovers. You have to follow your heart with a sense of responsibility towards yourself.

Some of you may make a mistake of thinking me as someone obsessed with self. I don’t intend to be even that. That is also negative and insane. Understand me this way. There are three types of relationship between a mother and child. In the first case, mothers allow their children to have whatever they want and spoil them by pampering. In another case, mothers straightaway scold their children and impose their logics on them. There’s another type, they love their children and empower them with a sense of responsibility when they are wrong but they let them express for they know it’s important for their growth. These type of children become naturally responsible and aware. I am saying you to be kind with yourself in this sense. Allow mistakes, allow differences, allow selfishness in order to become aware, responsible and independent. Treat it like a bridge for reaching to a willful understanding. I hope I made a point. Happy Independence day in advance!

Drugs, Esctacy and Meditation

This is the story of every youth – restless, ambitious and passionate, constantly burning with desires. As adolescence knocks at our door, we encounter a rush of energy, as if some treasure got unlocked. Like some quantum jump, we reach on a different plain where things are not like they used to be in childhood. New feelings start blooming in our heart and in between all these changes, we have lots of other expectations from ourselves. Life becomes a race against time. In this phase of life, one wants to achieve everything – love, fame, praise, money. So many expectations to fulfill and so many desires to do. Suddenly, we start deciding our own rules and if anyone tries to take our decisions, we start feeling bounded. Many times, we have to compromise with our own will to conform to the social norms in order to get what we want. As an example, fantasies of adulthood peep into our imaginations but we would try to suppress it because we have been always told that to have such desires is sinful. We learn to suppress our wild, passionate desires and keep these feelings safe under the mask of humbleness or religiousness. But how long can we deny the feelings that pop up from somewhere every now and then? We become scared of our own feelings under the effect of guilt and we start escaping from ourselves. Some of us become rebellious and choose to fight for our truthful feelings. We start opposing the social norms that try to restrict us and reject authorities. We start doing the opposite to the norms to satisfy their egos. We escape but thinking that we are choosing freedom.
We start moving away from our elders in order to save ourselves to agree forcibly with the pre-decided rules and beliefs of society. We enjoy our freedom with our friends and start going to disc, pubs. We start drinking alcohol, smoking, taking drugs and are prone to fall into criminal acts. Drug dosage gives us relief, a kind of hope. For the moments when drugs possess us, we feel ecstatic. We sense wonderful hallucinations, sometimes we would see a bright light, sometimes we would feel weightless and start flying and so on.

‘’Haan! kya hai ye kamaal bas puch na, puch na, (Don’t ask me how wonderful is this!)Mera haal chaal bas puch na, puch na (Don’t ask me what am I feeling?)Gallan hawa naal kara, naal kara, naal kara (I am chatting to blowing wind) Main toh udaa, udaa vekh zara (See me flying?)

Mere andar hondi shoon shaan, shoon shaan (I am feeling blast of sounds within me)

Roshan roshan, ho gaya, ho gaya (I am filled with light)
Thand seene vich, main gaya, main gaya (I am cooling down and down)’’

For enjoying this ecstasy and a sense of freedom and escape, we go after drugs. We announce ‘My Life, My Rules’. But unknowingly we make a mistake. What we earn is temporary freedom, merely an escape. We allow every suppressed dream to show up and we surrender to our feelings, emotions and passion, and feel free to do whatever we want with a sense of freedom. How far and deep do we go with this state of freedom? What happens next?

‘’Sab sikud rahaan hai ki kara, ki kara (what to do it’s as if I am shrinking or dehydrating)Ghut rahaan dum mera hai ki kara, ki kara (What to do I am suffocating)Bhed lakeera mangda, mangda (Longing for drugs)Mauj bahara mangda, mangda (I am craving for that ecstasy)
Daaru se keh de aake fail hai, fail hai (Even alcohol is nothing to drugs) ‘’

We become addicted. We had come approaching for drugs for a sense of freedom but now we are under the arrest of drugs. Without drugs, we feel powerless, helpless. Only as long as drugs are effective, we feel freedom as we forget all the burdens, responsibilities and even our identities and escape into ecstasy. When we’re awake, everything’s same. Even we feel more lost. Earlier we could blame others. Now who to blame, from who should we escape now? The subconscious fear, suppressed emotions become stronger and more evident. We are more haunted by these fear. Earlier the world was our enemy, now we become our own enemy.

‘’Meri nas nas maange O khushbo bas sunghan do, Bas sunghan do (Each of my cells is craving for that addiction, let me have more and more)
Khalipan te suna sunapan hai (I sense evacuated and devoid of sounds)Badi bechaini te kallapan hai (I am restlessness and aloof)’’

Some suicide out of this fear and some start praying for death out of helplessness. We become so addict that we want freedom from this addiction now but we have no willpower. It’s as if we are trapped in a maze and we are so confused how to exit. We come into such a vicious circle to which only death can give us freedom from it seems to us.

‘’Tann, rooh, kaanp rahi (My body and even soul is trembling)

Maut ka hi alaap rahi (Death is calling for me)

Gala sukhda saah rukda (I have started feeling dehydrated)Praan mere khichda khichda (My life sucks)Kitte ke waqt khatam na ho jave, main khud se hi ab lukta-chipta, haan! (Time may take away my life and now I am avoiding myself)
Aree da da dasse re (Fear stings me)’’

Instead of escaping, had we encountered our fear, it could be different. Long ago, when Gautam Buddha became young, he also felt the same restlessness. He was also imprisoned by desires and longings. Even he escaped and left his palace, his parents and wife. But, he chose to meditate and encounter his fear and emotions. He also reached ecstasy but in a different way. This ecstasy was not temporary, he attained a state of eternal bliss. He won over his desires because he was seeking for freedom in a real sense, we remain imprisoned and surrender ourselves to addiction because probably we only see the partial truth. By understanding the impermanence of everything, Gautam Buddha explored ultimate blissfulness.

“Ho khud se roobaru (Become aware of yourself)

Mann darpan takk le tu (Let your true self be reflected in the purity of your heart)’’

Just give it a thought! From where else can the drugs bring ecstasy but from within you. We all know that we are waves of energy. If we atomize our bodies, we discover wave nature of electrons. This energy manifests itself in the forms of thoughts, emotions, speech and action. Sometimes it takes the form of anger, sometimes fear and sometimes desires. Meditation is the science of centralizing all your energy. It’s similar to how we transform electricity of metals into light energy. Our body has different energy states called body-chakra. As we become more and more aware we open these chakras.

Meditation makes us aware of ourselves. It reveals to us, our subconscious desires by awakening us. We become like a mirror. We register the rise and fall of emotional tides and impulses but we do not identify ourselves with it. Like a mirror, we only reflect.Just as mirror remains empty with the changing images and doesn’t hold to any of these images, we also remain detached with our ever changing feelings. Like drugs, meditation also gives us quantum jump from one chakra to the next. Finally, when we become fully aware we bloom like the thousand petals of a lotus. We become enlightened like Buddha. The choice is yours. Happy journey!

This is the story of every youth – restless, ambitious and passionate, constantly burning with desires. As adolescence knocks at our door, we encounter a rush of energy, as if some treasure got unlocked. Like some quantum jump, we reach on a different plain where things are not like they used to be in childhood. New feelings start blooming in our heart and in between all these changes, we have lots of other expectations from ourselves. Life becomes a race against time. In this phase of life, one wants to achieve everything – love, fame, praise, money. So many expectations to fulfill and so many desires to do. Suddenly, we start deciding our own rules and if anyone tries to take our decisions, we start feeling bounded. Many times, we have to compromise with our own will to conform to the social norms in order to get what we want. As an example, fantasies of adulthood peep into our imaginations but we would try to suppress it because we have been always told that to have such desires is sinful. We learn to suppress our wild, passionate desires and keep these feelings safe under the mask of humbleness or religiousness. But how long can we deny the feelings that pop up from somewhere every now and then? We become scared of our own feelings under the effect of guilt and we start escaping from ourselves. Some of us become rebellious and choose to fight for our truthful feelings. We start opposing the social norms that try to restrict us and reject authorities. We start doing the opposite to the norms to satisfy their egos. We escape but thinking that we are choosing freedom.
We start moving away from our elders in order to save ourselves to agree forcibly with the pre-decided rules and beliefs of society. We enjoy our freedom with our friends and start going to disc, pubs. We start drinking alcohol, smoking, taking drugs and are prone to fall into criminal acts. Drug dosage gives us relief, a kind of hope. For the moments when drugs possess us, we feel ecstatic. We sense wonderful hallucinations, sometimes we would see a bright light, sometimes we would feel weightless and start flying and so on.
‘’Haan! kya hai ye kamaal bas puch na, puch na, (Don’t ask me how wonderful is this!)Mera haal chaal bas puch na, puch na (Don’t ask me what am I feeling?)Gallan hawa naal kara, naal kara, naal kara (I am chatting to blowing wind) Main toh udaa, udaa vekh zara (See me flying?)
Mere andar hondi shoon shaan, shoon shaan (I am feeling blast of sounds within me)
Roshan roshan, ho gaya, ho gaya (I am filled with light)
Thand seene vich, main gaya, main gaya (I am cooling down and down)’’

For enjoying this ecstasy and a sense of freedom and escape, we go after drugs. We announce ‘My Life, My Rules’. But unknowingly we make a mistake. What we earn is temporary freedom, merely an escape. We allow every suppressed dream to show up and we surrender to our feelings, emotions and passion, and feel free to do whatever we want with a sense of freedom. How far and deep do we go with this state of freedom? What happens next?
‘’Sab sikud rahaan hai ki kara, ki kara (what to do it’s as if I am shrinking or dehydrating)Ghut rahaan dum mera hai ki kara, ki kara (What to do I am suffocating)Bhed lakeera mangda, mangda (Longing for drugs)Mauj bahara mangda, mangda (I am craving for that ecstasy)
Daaru se keh de aake fail hai, fail hai (Even alcohol is nothing to drugs) ‘’
We become addicted. We had come approaching for drugs for a sense of freedom but now we are under the arrest of drugs. Without drugs, we feel powerless, helpless. Only as long as drugs are effective, we feel freedom as we forget all the burdens, responsibilities and even our identities and escape into ecstasy. When we’re awake, everything’s same. Even we feel more lost. Earlier we could blame others. Now who to blame, from who should we escape now? The subconscious fear, suppressed emotions become stronger and more evident. We are more haunted by these fear. Earlier the world was our enemy, now we become our own enemy.

‘’Meri nas nas maange O khushbo bas sunghan do, Bas sunghan do (Each of my cells is craving for that addiction, let me have more and more)
Khalipan te suna sunapan hai (I sense evacuated and devoid of sounds)Badi bechaini te kallapan hai (I am restlessness and aloof)’’

Some suicide out of this fear and some start praying for death out of helplessness. We become so addict that we want freedom from this addiction now but we have no willpower. It’s as if we are trapped in a maze and we are so confused how to exit. We come into such a vicious circle to which only death can give us freedom from it seems to us.

‘’Tann, rooh, kaanp rahi (My body and even soul is trembling)Maut ka hi alaap rahi (Death is calling for me)
Gala sukhda saah rukda (I have started feeling dehydrated)Praan mere khichda khichda (My life sucks)Kitte ke waqt khatam na ho jave, main khud se hi ab lukta-chipta, haan! (Time may take away my life and now I am avoiding myself)
Aree da da dasse re (Fear stings me)’’

Instead of escaping, had we encountered our fear, it could be different. Long ago, when Gautam Buddha became young, he also felt the same restlessness. He was also imprisoned by desires and longings. Even he escaped and left his palace, his parents and wife. But, he chose to meditate and encounter his fear and emotions. He also reached ecstasy but in a different way. This ecstasy was not temporary, he attained a state of eternal bliss. He won over his desires because he was seeking for freedom in a real sense, we remain imprisoned and surrender ourselves to addiction because probably we only see the partial truth. By understanding the impermanence of everything, Gautam Buddha explored ultimate blissfulness.

“Ho khud se roobaru (Become aware of yourself)Mann darpan takk le tu (Let your true self be reflected in the purity of your heart)’’

Just give it a thought! From where else can the drugs bring ecstasy but from within you. We all know that we are waves of energy. If we atomize our bodies, we discover wave nature of electrons. This energy manifests itself in the forms of thoughts, emotions, speech and action. Sometimes it takes the form of anger, sometimes fear and sometimes desires. Meditation is the science of centralizing all your energy. It’s similar to how we transform electricity of metals into light energy. Our body has different energy states called body-chakra. As we become more and more aware we open these chakras.

Meditation makes us aware of ourselves. It reveals to us, our subconscious desires by awakening us. We become like a mirror. We register the rise and fall of emotional tides and impulses but we do not identify ourselves with it. Like a mirror, we only reflect. Just as mirror remains empty with the changing images and doesn’t hold to any of these images, we also remain detached with our ever changing feelings. Like drugs, meditation also gives us quantum jump from one chakra to the next. Finally, when we become fully aware we bloom like the thousand petals of a lotus. We become enlightened like Buddha. The choice is yours. Happy journey!