Business to the Buddha

Tag: spiritual practice

  • My 4 Pillars of Health: Staying Fit at 45+

    My 4 Pillars of Health: Staying Fit at 45+

    I turned 45 recently! But my annual health report shows that it looks like the report is of someone in his 30s.

    I’m neither a gym freak nor a marathoner. In fact, it is evident that I do not have bulky muscle! I’d like to soon start at least light gym or exercise.

    I’m just like any professional who is fairly at senior position – juggling work, deadlines, targets, city traffic, finding difficult to get time for self or family and any other sort of stress. Additionally, I have gained 3 KGs in last couple of months.

    People asked me – how do you manage to look younger, fitter, healthier than your age? At times, I only thought of my physical appearance, and I responded lightheartedly “looks can be deceptive” and dismissed the question.

    When this question was asked too often I started thinking about possible reasons.

    When I looked deeper, I found four big levers of health:

    1. Genetics – no control, thanks Mom and Dad.
    2. Lifestyle – long hours, stress, traffic, only partly in our hands.
    3. Food – this one matters. At home, we eat balanced, mostly fresh meals. Think dal, sabzi, whole grains, fruits, nuts, everyday real food. Rarely junk. That credit goes to my wife.
    4. Spirituality – my daily anchor, 20+ years of Art of Living practices.

    My this deeper analysis has given me this insight – what could be different in many others vs what I do is combination of above. I have control on some of these and some are God’s gift. I mean parents and wife :).

    What is complete in my control is part of life style, food I eat and my Daily practice of Art of Living Sadhana. I’ve been pretty regular with it since 2004. For the past 20 years, I’ve practiced Sudarshan Kriya, pranayama, meditation – every single day. That consistency has been my anchor. It keeps my stress low, my energy high, my mind clear – and yes, those health numbers reflect it.

    You don’t need extreme diets or punishing workouts. If you anchor yourself in two things – simple, mindful eating and consistent spiritual practice – it can transform your health and your life.

    I would seriously and sincerely recommend – Art of Living Happiness Program and regular practice of the same after the course.

  • The observer







    After my regular spiritual practice of Art of living’s Yoga, Pranayam and short sudarshan Kriya, I opened my eyes. The birds were chirping, Adviti – my daughter – was playing with my mother. Our drawing room was shining with the morning Sun light.

    I was sitting on my yoga mat with my eyes open. The light was falling on my eyes. Objects – the dining table and chairs – were making reflections. It was a fraction of a second that these objects were there visible to my eyes yet there was something within me that was an observer – no more than that. This observer was witnessing everything as it was. There was no filter of naming the objects, sounds were falling on the ears – sweet and pleasant – yet there was no division or interpretation of the sound. Sound was just experienced, no label on sound such as “my dauther’s voice”, kuku or pigeon or sparrow. Most intriguing of this label is the experiencer was just there, I dont remember if the word “My” was there in the dictionary at that moment.

    The intelligence that defines all the objects of senses was there, yet there was only observer. There was no definition. I thought to write about it for a couple of weeks. However, it was difficult to explain and felt very small incident to write as a blog pos.

    Today, suddenly this picture popped up in a Mumbai Police tweet. This made me think about the previous Sadhna incident and a possible experiment.

    What if someone is sleeping and we somehow slowly – without waking that person up – open his eyes. Assume the person is still asleep, would this person – be able to see, discern and still remain asleep? What gives us power to interpret what our eyes see, ears to hear and define these?

    When do we become more aware? Is it a time when the intelligence that interprets is still there inside yet someone within only observes without contaminating the observed with the biased interpretation? Is it true?

    The intelligence gives us only as much possibility to interpret, as much it can fathom. A very cliché example of this in Indian spirituality is – seeing a piece of rope as a snake. Intelligence in that way seems limited in its abilities, yet the observer does not.

    Disclaimer – I am a practitioner of spirituali practices, the thoughts were complicated to explain. Therefore possibly confusing.

    Image source – Twitter handle of Mumbai traffic police.