To the One who thanks the Bad world for Making her Strong.

So thin, yet so deep. 

Mine, still not mine. 

So wise, yet so light. 

So strong, yet so soft. 

So present and aware and still wandering and distracted. 

I'm sure who you will be is remarkable and yet who you are is also remarkable. 

People, including yourself may think, you are very tough and maybe even cold, but I can see the depth and softness of the oceans and still, the perceptiveness of the sun in your eyes. 

What is a Nation?

A nation is a collective notion. 😊

True Love

What is true love if not the following?

unconditional acceptance,

makes time stop,

makes thought stop,

allows unhindered expression of raw authenticity without any hesitation,

allows for complete presence and relaxation,

allows you to be yourself,

assures you that all is okay, and 

makes you feel as if you are the center of the universe.

Meditation makes me feel this love. 

Environmental Justice and Quality of Life

Most of those who face environment injustice are poor and vulnerable.

14,00,000 infants in India die prematurely per year due to pollution. Injustice.

Children suffer from reduced IQ levels which lowers their future socioeconomic status due to long term lead exposure. Injustice.

Traffic constables and rickshaw drivers are suffering from chronic respiratory symptoms. Injustice.

Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring, said, ’’ For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death’’.

Ofcourse, quality of life is much more than good health.

Let’s look at the standards to assess quality of life.

The NGO Social Progress Imperative that announced a list of countries with highest quality of life used three main indexes

Basic Human Needs, which includes medical care, sanitation, and shelter.

Foundations of Wellbeing, which covers education, access to technology, and life expectancy.

Opportunity, which looks at personal rights, freedom of choice, and general tolerance.

The list suggests that it takes more than a strong GDP per capita for a good quality of life. Even so, all the top 10 countries are developed nations. Clearly, development facilitates a good quality life.

Environmental conservation and development are seen as conflictual, but I see them as symbiotic.

I am going to explain the why and how of this proposition.

Let’s see the why:

The betterment in quality of life due to infrastructural, medical , educational and scientific developments among others, commands appreciation.

Similarly, environment conservation fosters good health, increased agricultural productivity and ecological diversity. Thus, indirectly strengthening equitable economic development. Ramchandra Guha justifiably said, Ecology is Economy.

As development and environment conservation serve us plausible functions we must blend the best of both.

We can deduce this philosophically. Hegal’s dialectics sees an idea as a thesis. The idea’s imperfect manifestations gives rise to the a conflicting idea or anti-thesis. A third point of view, a synthesis, arises from this conflict. It overcomes the conflict by reconciling the truths in the thesis and antithesis at a higher level. Further, the synthesis becomes a thesis.

Consider the traditional form of development as thesis. Environmental protection appears as the anti-thesis and sustainable development emerges as the synthesis. Which in turn will become a thesis.

Problems arise perpetually, but we can improve the quality of these problems. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”.

How to go about this approach?

The way forward is to develop connection of people with their land, nature and institutions i.e. ‘Consciousness of the place‘. Inclusive and democratic participation of locals is an urgency. We need to build a ‘globalization from the bottom‘ by working with the locals and nature in such a way that they are protected from the ill effects of globalization. Socio-environmental negative externalities must be taken care of in the planning stage of product and process making.

As required, State support needs to be demanded. Here is an example of local cooperation aiming to tackle pollution but facing a legal challenge. Iron ore mining causes tuberculosis and cancer. It makes agriculture unavailable. Thus, in Caurem village in the eco sensitive Goa, Sadhana multipurpose co-operative society ltd. aims to launch sustainable mining. But, this needs amendment to Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015.

In a democracy, popular demand for environmental conservation is cardinal to resolve such challenges. For a strong welfare state, a strong intellectual life is indispensable. Universities must facilitate critical thinking. Social Science educational reform will put masses in sync with reality. Poverty and environment are always at work. Indian middle class is too busy indulging in consumerism, to deal with a ticking time bomb i.e. climate change. We buy and throw. Buy and throw. Buy and throw.

The above approach involves economic, educational, environmental, social and political empowerment of people and strengthening of laws and their enforcement. This, in itself is comprehensive and participatory sustainable development for an improved quality of life.

End of Language and High Vibration

We are all vibrating. We are all aerobic and anaerobic to some extent. All dualities coexists at the same time. We are here and not here at the same time. We are local and non-local at the same time. We are physical and non-physical at the same time. All exists at once, at one place.

A fetus vibrates. Like us,  all things vibrate. We differentiate between the living and the non-living because we cannot perceive the vibrations of the non-living things. Things exist because we perceive. Leaves are green because we perceive them to be so. However, our perception is limited. For example, we cannot perceive the way bats do.

End of language is the start of experiencing nothingness. The reason for this being, when language ends, we stop labeling and opining.

The rhythm of the heart beat is an indication of the altitude of the mind. Slow heartbeat is a symptom of a peaceful mind. However, it is symbolic of a high vibration.

We are at a higher vibration when we move from dense to light, from physical to spiritual and from complex to simple.

This life is only a play or a dream. Only this helps us perceive the spiritual realm profoundly, just as colour allows us to perceive its lack.

Some suggestions for spiritual practice:

• Purify the mind through mindful actions. 
• Be present.
• Be in touch with nothingness. 
• Allow: make yourself ready to receive. Be like flute. Open in ways that allows melodies. 

Breaking Boundaries

Just sitting is all I need. Just paying attention is all I need. The world never taught me this. It taught me quite the opposite. Knowing that all is available by just being present as I sit, is the most revolutionary discovery I received. It is the parent of all discoveries of mankind. It is being a lover (water), a student (wind), a patient bull (earth) and a flame (fire) all at the same time. 

Despite being quite old, spirituality is still new, because it is alive, not stagnant, just like a perennial river.

Spirituality is all about breaking boundaries. It is revolutionary. It nurtures ingenuity.

Just like a physical intercourse, a scientific discovery, an authentic dialogue break boundaries , so does spirituality.

We are One and still parts. The unease that we feel is because of the boundaries that separates our parts from the whole.

Meditation is a revolutionary act but is also a necessity. A mediator is perceived as being isolated and disconnected to the world but she is more intimately connected to all space and time.

Meditation is a period of reception and connection. It is about feeling and knowing yourself . It is about facing the truths.

These truths include:

• You are the universe and still connected to it. 
• You are love, knowingness and bliss. 

Listening to silence and being neutral are revolutionary acts in a world consumed with Ego based actions.

The very act of meditating is about peace, satisfaction and faith in the universal intelligence.

With the world becoming over masculine , being receptive to the universal intelligence is the most feminine and revolutionary gesture of love to Source.

It is where we stop doing the talking and sit to connect, listen, take in and be present. These are loving and respectful gestures.

 Think of it as a coffee date with all there is, has been and is to be.

It is through spirituality that we break barriers and take leaps. Our emotions guide us, like a compass.

Only space allows for matter.

 Only gentleness allows for aggression. 

Only silence allows for language. 

We meet our physical and emotional needs on a regular basis. Then why forget ourselves? The one who has these needs also needs to be connected to her eternal self and know who she is and her power.