Relationship

An ideal relationship is between two 'whole' beings who don't wish to either change each other or change for the other....who are comfortable being who they are..:)) In my case, it is beginning to happen NOW!

Communication

Many a times (especially in intimate relationships) we feel that the other person (parent, friend, child, sibling, spouse) ought to know our feelings/ desires/ wants/ aspirations/ expectations etc automatically- on their own. If s/he doesn't, s/he doesn't love me!

But that's not always true! In order to get what we want, We MUST communicate our needs......

Ask and it is given! 

Knock and it is opened!

All the best!

I use the easiest tool- the e-mail- effectively in this regard...:)

Need Vs Greed

A lesson learnt at school puts my understanding in perspective- Sun is the Primary Source of Energy. Plants utilize Sun's energy (through photo-synthesis) to create Food. That's the first conversion. Animals eat plants to consume that Energy- the Second conversion. When we eat plants we take in the first-conversion, when we eat animals, we take in the second conversion. But such humans are very rare who live ONLY on animal food......Humans consume all kinds of available food.......Our problem is that we are driven by GREED instead of being driven by NEED........and as the Father of our Nation said, "The planet has enough resources for all its inhabitants needs but not enough even for one man's greed!"

Food- Fundas

I was born in a vegetarian family; in fact our entire neighborhood was vegetarian.  Until I joined college, I didn't personally know anyone who ate 'animals'.

In college, I made a friend whose family cooked and ate chicken. These chickens were raised on their own farm. On Sundays, the male members of the family cooked some birds (usually male, who couldn’t produce eggs) on an open pit (chulha), in the backyard, using utensils kept exclusively for this purpose. My friend always awaited Sundays with great anticipation. In fact, she would sing such praises for the ‘heavenly’ taste that I became intrigued enough to join her for lunch one Sunday. However, neither the look of the dish, nor its aroma did anything to make me appreciate its taste. I dipped a tiny piece of chapati in the gravy and could barely swallow it. The entire family laughed at my ‘brahmin’ background and I thanked God for sparing me from puking out!

That day, I thought that I was done with eating any meat for life. But when I fell in love with a Bengali boy, my love encompassed the entire package of family, language, and cuisine; and what is a Bengali cuisine without Maach (fish) and Mangsho (meat)?

I relished eating, cooking and serving all kinds of meats (and when I say all kinds, I mean ALL kinds) until I got into spirituality and began questioning killing someone’s life to sustain my life. I also began wondering about the ‘food farms’ where animals were kept and killed in most pathetic and filthy conditions. I learnt about the hormones that were injected/ fed to fatten them.

While I decided not to eat any meat, I couldn’t stop cooking it. After all the rest of my family couldn’t think of a meal without ‘protein’, as they call it. And much to my discomfort, I found that at times I too craved for it. Sometimes I resisted this craving but sometimes I gave in to it. I justified my actions by saying, ‘I mustn’t deny my body.’ But the problem was that I couldn’t distinguish between the language of my body from that of my mind.

This see-saw continued until one fine day when our 19 year old son read ‘The Auto-biography of a Yogi’, and gave up cigarettes, alcohol and meats- on one fine evening- just like that!

His will-power and resolve made me strengthen my resolve. But I still had to cook for my husband. Since I completely believed in not imposing my own path on any other member of my family, I did my duty calmly, with detachment. My pain/ unrest came from the fact that I was still confused about ‘Right Nutrition’.

That’s when I attended a residential program on ‘Re-nutrition’ conducted by the fire-brand food crusader Dr. Vijaya Venkat from Mumbai. She convinced us that while animal food in any form, including dairy products, was definitely a no-no, there were other culprits like white sugar, white flour, regular salt, and water. I agreed with all other items whole-heartedly, but water??? That was a bit too much to agree to, even though Mrs. Venkat was armed with a whole lot of convincing research to back her claim!

Thus started my experiments with gluten-free, dairy-free diets! My kitchen was a crazy place as I cooked different things for each resident.

I braved on despite being the odd one out in all social-dos- including family get-togethers. But I was still not clear about ‘right nutrition’.

As the years passed and I became more aware of ‘Consciousness’, all my reasons for not eating animal food fell by the way side. Plants too have life. Vegetarian food too is laced with chemicals. The energy of greed is very much present in the way grains/ vegetables/ fruits/ nuts are grown. Not a single food item/ condiment in my kitchen was free from all that I was shunning by not eating meats/ dairy etc.

Luckily, I lived in houses with kitchen gardens and fruit orchards; so ‘home-grown’ fresh food became my latest savior. But I couldn't grow everything, could I?

Recently, in 2013, as though by magic, a great deal of clarity has dawned on me, about many subjects, including food/ nutrition; and it has truly shattered many of my older beliefs.

My new beliefs are based upon the simple premise/ truth that LIFE CAN ONLY BE SUSTAINED BY LIFE. Hence, we need to ‘kill/ destroy’ some life in order to live. There are no two ways about it. BUT, and that is a big but; we can choose the ‘least-violent’ ways to do it.

While we can't ask an 'Eskimo' to not eat sea-life (poor chap has no other choice),  we can choose (without putting ourselves in a labeled-box) to eat the least-damaging 'live' foods.

As of now sprouts, fruits, nuts and seeds top my list of favorite foods!! What about you???

However, my personal experience teaches me that we can't suddenly change our dietary habits. It is a gradual process. As the body takes its own time to re-adjust itself. After all, we can't change a 'coal-fed production unit' into a 'nuclear-fuel-fed plant' over-night! Can we??

Do you have Time?

Have you ever said, "Oh, I want to do this but do not have time for it"?

When we say we do not have time for something/ someone, what we are really saying is that it/s/he is not as important as other things that we want to do.

We all have equal amount of time (24 hrs a day) but our priorities dictate where/ how we spend it!!

Can we stop making excuses about not doing something/ not calling someone/ not being somewhere--- citing a lack of time as the main reason? Can we be candid enough to say that this particular task doesn't fit in with our priorities? Can we be our 'true  authentic self'?

Personal Experience

Whenever we espouse/ teach second-hand knowledge- without having a first-hand experience of it (EXPERIENCE can only be first-hand), we always complicate matters. We create confusion with words, lest we be caught and discovered as a fraud! This truth remains valid whether we are teaching how to write/ speak/ cook/ or achieve Self-Realization..........:)))

The ills of our Education system (at all levels) stem from the fact that our teachers (including spiritual teachers) do not always teach from their Personal Experience.

Now is the time to correct this anomaly. Let us stop mouthing/ espousing/ teaching borrowed truths. Instead, let us share our learnings -from our personal experience- freely with each other......The Internet is a great place to make a beginning.......Are you ready for it??

Put On Your Dancing Shoes

Many of you would have observed that if we sit/ lie down without any movement whatsoever (as in meditation/ deep sleep) our body becomes very stiff. So much so that at times it becomes very difficult and pretty painful to dis-entangle our limbs. The rigor-mortis that sets in after death is primarily because of a total lack of movement. 

Having understood (and experienced) that, it would be sensible to surmise that all body 'stiffness' can be relieved by movement! And what kind of movement is the MOST enjoyable not just for our body but also for our mind/ soul/ spirit (something that raises our spirits) and which can be easily done either in the privacy of our homes or in full public view...........at any time of the day or night.....Yes Sir, you got it right!! It is DANCING!

What stops us from dancing everyday? It is not only good for our muscles, joints, mood etc but also helps us reduce extra-body weight..........That too in such a fun way!!!

Today onward I have decided to move and shake, every day, day after day, and have a ball!!! Are you game too??