Spirituality

The best gift to yourself would be blessings from even one person whose life improved because of you.

Why don’t we teach our children these wonderful songs with meanings for life and living? Where you do something genuinely for another without advancing your ego by commissioning the paparazzi/ media to write about that.

Living life on the surface and not connecting with other aspects of God’s creation is just a loss of opportunity to upgrade in the current lifetime.

We have no bandwidth for understanding the reasons we are here. We can stand upside down to project ourselves in the world but with misled values and understanding of the true nature of life.

We need an integrated approach: education first and then efforts with mind, values, intentions, spirituality, inclusion of creation and action.

Yes, our duty is towards self-uplift but the tools are based on our connectivity in this world. We are not here to be exclusive.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Self-improvement

 Self-improvement starts with the surrender of arrogance, ego and cultivating humility. We are constantly becoming aware of what we should be giving up to gain a foot in the door of heaven, so to speak.

Spirituality implies a gradual elimination of the unwanted that we have wanted all our lives, in our ignorance.

Yes, it could shake comfort levels. It could isolate in a small way and later, as your practices increase, in a big way also. But this kind of isolation does not necessarily take you away from people. It may lead to a dropping of people whose energies are not on par with yours at that time.

There is however, no cause for any lament! That is a natural phenomenon. It WILL happen.

Ultimately, this is not a loss but a gain. A gain to strengthening your energy to be directed towards a higher awareness and higher goals.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Spiritual Practices

 

As the candle burns the brightest before getting extinguished, so , when pain is the highest in intensity during its transitiory phase , and before it disappears to provide the relief.

Ofcourse, this is evinced after rigorous spiritual practices to empty the mind of memories and seek salvation through a superimpisition of positivity on  every negative factor seen within us. 

It is not quite right to assume that pain and suffering won’t recur. But with regular practice, their impact can be minimised . With an understanding of why it is returning and with the wisdom we have hopefully acquired .

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Tranquil

 

Sometimes, it is okay to go with how you feel. And actually, also do what we feel like. There is enough we do that we must do clinically. And that is a part of the duties and responsibilities which it would not be right to shirk. But outside of that, it is okay to have some “me” time to restore the equilibrium.

Just like the candle burns brighter as it becomes smaller, so, sometimes, we grow more spiritually aware and kind of withdraw a little from external activity. Withdraw into ourselves a bit. It comes from within. Only from within.

This is an inevitable part of maturing, changing, evolving towards feeling peace and becoming tranquil.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Spiritual Health

It is important to train yourself to understand that YOUR life and your spiritual health is THE single most important thing or atleast, should be, for you. You have to and must keep your focus on your well-being, and this should certainly not depend on someone else. Whoever it may be. If you notice, the moment you stop taking the words or actions of others seriously and stop applying them to yourself, you begin to feel your energies lightening. Many must have experienced this. The heaviness leaves you. You can think more clearly and resume your own activities with a new vigor. There is much to be said about taking things with a big pinch of salt. Surekha Kothari www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com surekhakothari.wordpress.com Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Spirituality

 

If I think continuously that I am at peace with myself and the world, soon, I will begin to BE at peace.

If I discontinue my spiritual Practices and practice goodness only occasionally as and how I like people and situations, I will not open any new doors .

Often, it is even the mechanical regularity of a practice that gets you everywhere. For example, ask people who pray regularly or visit a place of worship every day how their day pans out. Most of them

will feel more energy to go through the day and with less agitation than earlier. And this becomes a habit in gaining energy.

So, to enhance your spirituality , it is necessary to establish a routine and prioritise on it, never mind who or what demands your attention at that time. Or adjust your time , not postpone your practice. Most of us fail in this. We are happy to do a little and talk about it more. If only we could do more and talk less, we would see some fantastic results.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Liberating Experience

 The understanding of Vedanta is a liberating experience. It is a shocking revelation or a giant jolt for those who have never perceived reality this way, for people who see the world as an ultimate reality, where we live and die … and that’s it ! Nothing more , nothing less !

The basic understanding  is severely lacking when we see ourselves as subject and the external world as the  object. The moment we say “I”, we mean there is something else apart from “I”.

In Vedanta, we learn about the different states of being.Like,  the waking state, the dream state , the deep sleep state . And we think all of these are us. Actually, not so !

There is a fourth state which is the awareness that we ARE the awareness in which all these three states are manifesting. We are merely watching provided we don’t get involved because what is real is only US as observers.

I am that which observes , that which is aligned with a collective consciousness which never dies … it’s merely like an ocean in which waves come and go. In the same way, episodes within the waking state and those within the dream states are not real.

We live our physical reality as in a dream and live our dreams like they are real , with all the emotions etc thrown in. Neither are true.

And the deep sleep is the state where all this happens to us , and we observe. Because, I am not one with that which I see. I am just the awareness that sees.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Determination

 

I have found that creating emotional distances with people who are a part of your life spells some measure of weakness and fragility of the mind which may not want to accept its faulty thinking and dark areas.

Spirituality speaks of being simple and honest, precisely because both traits are to be internalised into the self first.

Honesty asks a direct question and in a simple way. “ are your being honest with yourself?” People think that honesty means revealing private matters to others. Absolutely not !

If we want to live within our supreme consciousness, we need to acknowledge with complete honesty, what we need to change within ourselves. It is a part of self-speak. Nothing to do with others.

Secondly, the more simple we are in our self speak exercise, the more effective we can be in accepting tge need to change and the change itself.

I smile with compassion when I see people obviously uncomfortable about their dark spaces and running away from them. It never helps ! On the contrary, it complicates your inner self and your relationships as well.

There is so much to study, analyse and internalise by meditating on it.

As someone said, unfortunately, there will always be less thinkers who take the trouble to look for their “ is ness”. Others will just hang between the illusory and maybe, mere glimpses of the actual reality.

The awareness, the determination to go beyond the seen takes time, perhaps a few lives , provided we set the seeker goals in stone.

So be it !

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Parameters

 

Being emotional by nature is a very stressful trait. Not only is sensitivity an integral part of this state , so is depression. In a world filled with a standard “no problem” answer to every huge bottled up issue, depression is a normal condition.

What is significant is, we may confuse the symptoms of spiritual growth and depression at times, specially when we pretend to be happy when we are actually depressed, often clinically depressed.

It is a fact that when you work on spiritual Growth, there comes a time when you leave behind many earlier “normals” in your life, reaching a point of isolation. You also stop fitting into earlier moulds. But you don’t really think that you are “sacrificing” normalcy. Because you don’t miss the earlier routine which included a certain amount of social interaction. In fact, you might be happier this way.

A depressed state also tends to give a feeling of isolation and a withdrawal from social activities and interaction, and a general lack of interest and excitement... a general ennui.

The only parameters of telling the difference are within. If you are happy and busy with your personal growth by being by yourself and WITH yourself happily, then you are on the path of spiritual growth, because you naturally move into a state of gradual silence, not liking too much mundane conversation and preferring to use time more constructively.

But when you are depressed, either you are numb or wrapped up in your own feelings and hence, uncommunicative. And you need help because you will probably not admit to being depressed and might be showing a false bravado which could be harmful for you.

You never know when depression might be triggered if you are not careful to keep your emotions in check and give yourself more care and attention before others.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

Quote of the day

Nature of happiness

What is the nature of happiness? Someone called it an idea the other day and I was intrigued. It was quite a thought. Is it merely an idea then? So, does one make a difference between being happy and feeling happy? Are they the same thing or not?

If happiness is an idea, then it disappears if and when the idea disappears. If I feel happy, feelings can be transient and that status can therefore, change anytime.

Being happy seems to be a longer lasting concept. The “being” happy is a state of being that is not dependent on external factors. You just ARE happy. No one and nothing was responsible for that state of happiness. Evidently then, it comes from within. And that is the coveted state which all humans search for but in the wrong way.

If happiness were on sale, people would buy it in a heartbeat. But if they were offered just being happy, for no reason, the price would be too heavy to pay because it requires some difficult measures that might spill over to many lives.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

SpeakingtreeBlog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Mind and happiness

To wash away the impact of karma, one must necessarily dwell on the plausible reasons for the state of the mind. We don’t realize that we have many people inside us, not only our own energies from other lives but our memories of every age we have crossed in this life and many of them needing healing.

Healing is not such a complicated task if we can even just give rational thought to why things are the way they are. “Could be” has many vital possibilities that can relieve us a great deal when memories are relived and re scripted.

That we could have thought, spoken or acted differently is always a later realization. But we need not kill ourselves over such thoughts. Even if we had done things differently, who knows the final outcome?

It is therefore wise to lighten our burdens everyday and treat ourselves with kindness and compassion, because we can give genuine caring to ourselves and put our arms around ourselves instead of waiting for someone else to influence the condition of our mind and happiness.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Learning and understanding

Why is it that quiet people are generally ignored? Just because they don't indulge in constant chatter even if it is trivial or meaningless, just to make their presence felt? I have also noticed that they are not given credit for much brain either. Almost as if, being quiet is being dumb.

The quality of being judgmental is our birthright, you see. So, how can one let it go? How will we form opinions then? They are generally formed on this very premise and such premises, on others and their lifestyles and personalities.

One should always look beyond the facade. Very often, quiet people have much depth of learning and understanding. It is also a fact that those who elevate spiritually find their minds quietening and so do their speech levels. It is true that they don't feel the need to talk and comment incessantly on something or another. One should never judge them hastily. They could be thinkers who don't need validation from external sources.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

SpeakingtreeBlog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Spiritual exercise

Really speaking, more and more I realise that harmony is within . Being a singer, I notice that when I sing a raga of "gambhir prakriti " or in other words, of a serious nature, the mind calms down and you get transported onto another level. As if you are floating. And there is peace and nothing matters.

We actually let the world come in to disturb us. We are the ones who open the door indiscriminately. Why ? Because our desires don't leave us. We are not strong enough to tell them they are not needed in our life. And that life will happen anyways. If we let it flow through us.

The more spiritual exercises you do daily, the more the clarity will come.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Virtual world

It certainly appears that the virtual world has created distances between people. Families and friends today prefer to SMS or whattsapp rather than pick up the phone. The need to hear a voice is diminished considerably. The old world dialogue, " son, (or daughter) I haven't heard your voice in such a long time" is an almost obsolete statement. If you want that personal touch, there is a solution. And that is, just stop wanting it.

Similarly, a decreasing of hard copies of books and newspapers in the wake of a kindle and online news still makes one yearn for the touch of paper , a turning of a page physically instead of a click .

The emotionally led generations will, by and large, have to take a back seat in the next few years. I am not complaining. Just stating facts and neither am I unhappy. Because, spiritually, this is a wonderful time to detach as much as possible before leaving this earth. There is always a grand plan if one can see it. What the sages advocated and was so difficult to practice, is now becoming easier. We have less to account for in the other world.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

SpeakingtreeBlog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari