अहम् प्रेम​: aka Self-Love

Love is all about setting them free.

Aham Prema is a mantra that is typically translated as “I am divine love.” It comes from the Sanskrit, aham, meaning “I,” and prema, meaning “love” or “affection.” Click here for more

Through my life experiences so far, I have come to realize that true-love for others or self-love are no two different ideas. When we truly love someone/something, we learn to set them free. Practicing this thought might be really hard initially, but when we are able to practice this, we realize the secret to setting ourselves free and living up to our life potential.

When we truly love someone and learn to let them go, set them free to do whatever they want, you realize ultimate bliss. Love is not about to live with someone forever or until you die.

We often tend to get confused with the concepts of Attachment and Love. Attachment I believe rises out of a need/imagined void or incompleteness in us. The kind of love that makes you think that you have to live with someone forever. This is definitely not Love. It is an attachment. This is the thing which hurts you when you let someone go or when ur beloved one left you alone. Attachment is the cause of all the sufferings. In our modern times, I am tempted to associate it with unrequited love. 

Quoting these below lines from a fellow Quora user: Click here for his profile

According to Bhagwad Geeta, We all have souls that are eternal but our bodies are materialistic things. We have a relationship at the bodily level and as we are in the body relationships are important.

But Love is completely a different thing different from Relationships and Attachment. Love is something that doesn’t need a body to be in love with. It is a sacred feeling between two souls which is eternal. True Love is a never-ending feeling as it does not depend on the material bodies. Love is hope, gives us a reason, a purpose to live. Love is that shares happiness among people. Love is God, something that is beyond our understanding. It is unconditional

So don’t confuse between Love, Attachment and Relationship.

Love unconditionally and spread love.

And always remember one thing-

When you love someone, you make yourself love the world.

Reading these above sentences, brought goosebumps in me as I realized the unconditional love of our parents and the fact that it does not end with their demise. 

On a similar note, 

We would all agree that marriage is one relationship that we consciously choose for ourselves. It is not something we are born with like in the case of parents, siblings, etc. And I feel that's what makes it very special

 These words from this article make me realize and appreciate to an even greater extent, the kind of love we experience post marriage.

In an Indian marriage, there is a sentence that states: “I give you my heart.” Both say this at the same time. Then the next sentence states: “Let your mind be in keeping with my mind.” Here it means granting freedom to the other person to think the way that person thinks. That is the proper translation.
 
May you approve of my way of thinking as long as it is proper (dharmic), of course. It is not merely thinking; doing is also involved. So may you approve of my way of thinking and acting. That is a prayer for both parties. May each of them approve of the other’s thinking and doing and help and validate each other. Thereby, both of them will grow. That is how there is freedom in a relationship.

Let the other person think the way he thinks. Even if he is wrong, it is better than he discovers what is right. That validation is important, and it is mutual. Anything one-sided is not going to work in a relationship. If you commit a mistake that is good, because learning from you I won’t commit the same one. Therefore, in relating to another, granting freedom to the other person seems to be the most crucial thing. Courtesy: www.dayananda.org.

I feel the reason the divorce rates were extremely low in our previous generation of Indian marriages, was because they truly understood this concept. 

Ending this blog post with my favorite quote by Kahlil Gibran 

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.”

Do share your thoughts in the comments below. 

ज्येष्ठभ्राता: Jyeṣṭhabhrātā aka Elder brother

National Siblings Day - Hey what's that?

Today is Siblings day. Honestly, how many of us are aware of such a day being celebrated in the west? Siblings Day (sometimes called National Siblings Day or National Sibling Day) is a holiday recognized annually in some parts of the United States on April 10,^[1] honoring the relationships of siblings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siblings_Day. Even though it is a bit sad that unlike Mother's Day and Father's Day, it is not federally recognized, the Siblings Day Foundation is working to change this.

 It is heartwarming to see the foundation declare the day as ‘ it seeks to unite and reunite siblings who may have been separated by distance, by circumstance, by birth and adoption or interpersonal, familial issues.' Read more here:

 A different version honoring the sibling bond is celebrated in India as Raksha Bandhan.

On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman, or amulet, called the rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers, ritually protecting their brothers, receiving a gift from them in return, and traditionally investing the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care.

With the media making so much publicity around days like Valentine's day etc., how many of us are even aware of this day being celebrated in the west? Siblings are a very important but often an under-appreciated special relationship and bond of love, friendship, and respect shared between those lucky people who were blessed from being a single child in the world. Above all it a selfless relationship, unexpecting, unassuming and one that always seeks to love and protect. 

Dearest Panni,

This is not the first time I am guilty of writing a post honoring our sibling love and embarrassing you in public. Link to my first post here for re-embarrassment :). I have always believed in these two things 

 A Sister is our first friend and second mother

To have a loving relationship with a sister is not merely to have a buddy or a confident 

                                   -- it is to have a soulmate for life. 

Since I am not blessed to be in the same city as you anymore all I can do is look at some old photographs of the good times we have spent together, cherish our wonderful childhood memories and make this miss you card with loving thoughts. 

I want you to know that you have been a pillar of love and strength to me during some of my really trying times in life. I hope to be the same and much more to you always. 

                                                                                                

Well now that I feel happy from reminiscing lovely childhood memories with my elder brother this Siblings day, how do would you like to celebrate this truly unique and under-appreciated relationship?

Few thoughts on celebrating this unique day

• Cook them their favorite dish, take them out to do their favorite activity, stay at home and go through old family photos and videos, and reminisce about the good times you had growing up together.
• Spend some time with your siblings. If you live away from them, call them and talk to them. Even better, how about a surprise visit?
• If you are unable to call or visit them, what about sending them a lovely card that tells them how much you miss them and care for them? I chose the option to make a card and pen down few words on my blog saying how much my elder brother means to me and trust me it feels fantastic.  
• Tell them how much you love them and appreciate them and all they do for you/have done for you.
• If your siblings are no longer with you, what about doing something special in their memory? 
• If you happen to read this and know someone like say your spouse who has a lovely sibling show them this post and suggest they spend some quality time with their sibling.

Leadership - From Ambition to Vision

Excerpts from above video : 

Ambition is just an exaggeration of the existing. Vision as the word suggests is about a new possibility, something which is not yet. Ambition is about wanting to take as much as we can take, vision is about making everything yours. One is an aggressive way of taking it, another is an embrace. There is a world of difference. Making the world yield to you willingly and trying to take a piece of world are two different dimensions.

Business is about expansion. If we forcefully take something you will never be expand to the full capacity. Only if you learn to make the world yield to what you want it to be only then you can take it all. Ambition is about more, vision is about all.

A leader is somebody who is trying to create a situation and people are looking up to him believing that he is going to make it happen. He must be in some position within himself that he is able to see things better than the people around him. If you are not even able to manage your own mind, it will be accidental management. Managers of the world are the most tense human beings. If you succeed you will suffer is the message that is going in the world. Success is becoming a suffering simply because we are managing to do outside things without doing anything about ourselves. If the work that you are doing is important, the first thing that you need to do is to work upon yourself.

Each human being is his own, everybody is unique. Our idea of success has become like this right now.If we fail we will be depressed, if we succeed we will be damned. At present, our ideas of success and well being are not consciously worked at. Today leadership means that we are able to re-engineer the very ideas of success and well being in this world.

If we bring about the necessary shift from economic leaders operating out of narrow personal ambitions to a larger vision that will be the greatest things for the future generations. This message that success is the sweetest thing in your life, success is not a miserable thing has to go for which economic leaders need to do something about themselves. This is important because everything that we ever know and experience is within you. Working about the inward nature of who you are is extremely important.  

We have mistaken that intelligence means thought. The intelligence which is the very source, that which makes the body happen is so phenomenal.  The way to find access to this intelligence is Inner Engineering. This inner dimension is needed the moment we are taking a position of leadership. Once you are a leader every thought, emotion and action you perform is going to impact million people. We are going with ambition right now. If we journey from more to all, we have traveled from ambition to vision

To transform a society, we need to transform individuals. If we cannot do what we can do then it is a disaster. All the technology and resource is present except the person who can use it effectively. There is an intelligence that gathers the body and mind. We need to access it. A range of human experiences are different chemical basis within you.

We are talking about a technology of creating the right kind of chemistry. You are at a chemistry of blissfulness, does not matter what the situations are, you are at your best!! 

Especially if situations are going wrong, its all the more important that you are on the track.
Once you establish your way of being and it cannot be disturbed by what is around you, one thing that is happened to you is you are free of suffering. Once the fear of suffering is gone in your life, only then you will walk full stride in your life. Otherwise every step you take is half a stride worrying what will happen to me, if this doesn’t work what will happen to me.

Action has to be focused, a multitude of actions will lead us no where.We have to learn to do everything the way it works. We just have to learn to do it the way of the world/planet. Only then we will be a sustained success. Otherwise my way or your way, is ambition. Vision means we do it the way it works. If we do it the way it works we all do it the same way. Organizations will become monstrous if we function out of individual ambition rather than a larger vision. Somehow get there is the nature of ambition.

Human consciousness should shape our business environment. Essence of being human is we can create our situations. Leadership means we have a vision to craft the situations where everybody can fit in and everybody can prosper.

Working with people is not management, it is a big love affair. People are in love with you, they will do it. They will not fall in love with you unless you fall in love with them, that is the secret. You have to do it first :).

Three things an adult can learn from a child

To be happy for no reason

To always be busy with something

And to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires ~ Paulo Coelho

Life never ends she said, Love does not

You are near, even if I don't see you. You are with me, even if you are far away, You are in my heart, in my thought, in my life always. Feels like every pencil stroke brings me even closer to you .. I may not see your smile or bring you food or spend time with you. But I nurture and hold the wonderful memories I have had with you. I hope to always make you proud for having raised me with so much love,affection and values. Love you Amma.

Non-artists creating something stunning

Art a medium of self expression, has the ability to evoke emotions in both the artist and the perceiver.  Besides being a great stress buster in today’s busy lives it also enhances qualities like focus,patience and creativity much needed for successfully solving complex problems both at work and in life. Art inspires creativity in the perceiver as well by making him/her ponder upon the artist’s state of mind.

Today @Hightail India we had an opportunity to explore Oil painting as a team! 

It was fascinating for me to observe the inner child inside my colleagues awaken during this activity. After the event team members were excited to talk to each other about their art.Amazed at realising their hidden talent,they were appreciating one others work. I felt immensely happy watching these non-artists create something stunning with minimal guidance on drawing/painting techniques. In fact some of them were inventing their own painting techniques .Watching them explore, I reminisced some of my initial attempts at painting.  

                                                     

Winning Entry

                                                           

Second Place 

Third Place

Some notes on experiences of the art session 

“Never knew I have an artist inside me!”  

“ Today’s session has given me tremendous confidence to explore art further!” 

“Never Give Up!” 

                                                          

Srinivas(one of my colleagues) who greatly enjoyed today’s session has already started his next masterpiece :)

I am grateful that I had the opportunity to embark my colleagues on this exciting journey of brush strokes. 

When we are at loss of words to express ourselves all one needs is to pick up the brush and paint :)! 

https://www.facebook.com/brushstrokesbyvidya

Tribute to Taare Zameen Par

                                                             Every Child is special ...