When things aren't going well..

2094th BLOG POST

Every time we get something new, we celebrate it as if it is going to be one of the defining possible change of our life. Yes, it definitely becomes that when it gets initiated in our life. We tell people about it. We update about it every here and there on the Internet. Slowly, it starts becoming a regularity and the presence of it remains to be almost as usual as that toothbrush in front of our wash-basin mirror. Some greatness lies whenever we get a new job, promotion, car, friend, relationship etc. I don’t know why but eventually it doesn’t remain that great as it seemed to be at the first glance. Either we start seeing the real face of it or the entity itself starts getting degraded day by day.

 

Unfortunately, when things start happening good in your life, everything looks good. When it starts getting bad, you will find every department failing to make you happy. Most of us face the issue where we try sacrificing for the other person whereas the same person is trying to think about him/her. It becomes horrible when such instances happen in front of you. Professionally, I witnessed something similar happening in front of me with the person I trusted. It shocked me even though I have seen something similar happening in past – with others if not with me. This has been an eye-opener and I have finally realized to be vocal of what would benefit me in future rather than considering anything as a partnership mission where I would kill a piece of me to maintain a cordial relationship where the other person would run away for personal perks.

 

As I said, when something wrong happens, it automatically mirrors the same in other aspects of life too. My favorite relationships are just moving upwards and downwards if it can be visualized as a graph. I am trying to be a good person but every time, I am trying something, it is turning out to be a relationship killer. I have experienced something before which has killed a similar relationship hence, I become very skeptical to even talk or chat. Taking such a stance can be more detrimental to a relationship than engaging in an imperfect conversation. When one abruptly falls silent, it may convey the message that the other person is not deemed important enough to warrant continued communication. In essence, this silence can be perceived as a lack of consideration or regard, potentially undermining the dynamics of the relationship. This becomes a Catch-22 situation where you don’t know how to handle the relationship anymore and you are now riding the car knowing that the brakes have failed and you might end up meeting a severe accident – and only God’s grace can save you.

 

Well, apart from this, even monetarily, you want to keep funds available for yourself because you know you aren’t completely satisfied with the place you are working at and you might take a dramatic decision at any point of time without any control of yours over it. Life then starts showing you what it is and throws unexpected expenditures which doesn’t spend your money but blow it away. Before you realize, your bank balance is in a spot. Now, because shits are going to happen all across, even your portfolio suffers and you find majority of your investments not generating money for you. Your passive income almost ceases to do any favor upon you. Similarly, your renters are about to leave with no new tenant contacting you to accommodate the place immediately to keep the money flowing for you.

 

Things at home aren’t good too. You are expected to take certain decisions which shall bring happiness to everyone but you have been bitten once hence you don’t want to jump into anything JUST LIKE THAT. No one understands your logic and everyone feels that you are doing it purposefully to trouble everyone. Now, you were the saintliest person until yesterday when you were doing what others felt was right but suddenly, you are the harshest person for them. Can you change anyone’s feeling for you now? No until you don’t do what they want you to do. Hell – nothing less than that!

 

You were planning a vacation for yourself in a way you wanted it but some discussions here and there – and now – it’s not happening the way you wanted it. That one time when you expected to spend the way you wanted it to bring the relaxation from all the unhappiest things happening with you turns out to be another reason to bring more unhappiness. How worst can life move from here onwards? It can! I know there are worst situations where I have been at my lowest when there wasn’t even a ray of light visible at the end of the tunnel. This is still a better situation to handle but there’s no enthusiasm to go through any kind of pain. It’s a New Year and there was a great energy to live one of the great years but the first month has itself drained every bit out of me. I hope the upcoming days are wonderful. I can’t expect worst to come across as I shall not be able to fight through them. Well.. that’s it!

 

Thanks..

 

WRITING BUDDHA

Ayodhya Ram Mandir: Bharat’s Quest for Ram-Rajya by Swadesh Singh (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

2093rd BLOG POST

1^st Book of 2024

 

I remember reading about Ram Mandir in 2011 descriptively in the newspapers when one of the prominent hearings in the court was going on. That was the first time when I understood the prominence and controversy around Ram Mandir and why it has become so important for certain section of our society – surprisingly the section which counts as majority in our nation. 4 years back, I turned into a Vishnu devotee. At this point of time while I was reading about Lord Vishnu and his avatars and the most famous one – Lord Ram, I realized the importance of Ram Mandir which was due to be built at his birthplace. Luckily, the Bhoomi Pujan happened just after.

 

Since then, I wanted to know all about its history etc. which I got a great opportunity to finally learn when Swadesh Singh released his latest book this January named “Ayodhya Ram Mandir”. I must applaud Rupa Publication as well for publishing this book as it might have turned into a controversy and despite howsoever secular our nation is, whenever it comes to such sensitive topic, it is objected by certain section of audience whatsoever might be the case. Anyway, talking about the book, it helps us understand the whole history of the establishment of Ram Mandir and its multiple destruction by different rulers of India. It helps us get into the past and know about the psychology of people towards this temple and why it is so prominent even after centuries for the Indian civilization.

 

The 1^st chapter discusses the significance of the land of Ayodhya. Author delves into explaining us about the Ikshvaku dynasty and all its respective kings. It tells how Ayodhya has always been a major part in the history of India. Along with it, author discusses about the different set of rules under which temple and its existence suffered right from Mauryan, Gupta, Mughals and finally, Britishers. The 2^nd chapter finally brings us to the modern India where the first case gets filed in the Indian judiciary in the year 1822 and how it kept on struggling in court until 2019. I was surprised to learn how intellectually and smartly Supreme Court rejected the judgment of High court which gave three different parties equal land at the birthplace. It is also a proud moment to learn how Indians accepted the Supreme Court judgment and there was no major case of any violence across India.

 

In the latter part of the book, author moves towards the current scenario where the construction of Ram temple has begun in Ayodhya and is ready to be open for its devotees to worship Lord Ram in his childhood avatar proudly standing at its rightful location – Lord Ram’s birthplace. Author gets into details and gives an overview on the design, architecture and the whole insight on how the whole temple and the premises will look like. The way author has written the whole part actually makes you visualize the whole temple in front of your eyes. It will make you impatient as the construction of whole temple premises will take some more years for us to view what it is actually planned and aspired to be.

 

Swadesh also discusses how the development of modern Ayodhya is being planned along with the temple because it becomes very necessary for the whole locality to have different tourist spots for the devotees to enjoy as people come from faraway places and expect every lane to give an essence of Lord Ram’s presence. I am glad the way author narrated about all the existing attractions around Ayodhya such as Sarayu River, Hanumangarhi, Kanak Bhawan, Shri Nageshwarnath temple, Sita ki rasoi etc. Along with this, author also talks about how these attractions shall be further beautified after the temple gets opened for its devotees.

 

Along with the importance of Ayodhya for Sanatan Dharm, Swadesh speaks about how it is also equally worshipped by other religions such as Jains and Buddhists as well. I wasn’t aware about Ayodhya’s relevance as a spiritual fabric of the nation for multiple religions which the book made me decipher in very easy language. Swadesh has divided the chapters in a manner where each of them talks about a topic specifically which makes the interest alive for the readers and keep them focused towards the subject.

 

His research and efforts are visible in every sentence as author has deep dived into the subject. He could have made this book difficult for all of us by getting into the legal aspects in the language of our Indian law but he keeps it simple for all the audience to understand and learn from an overview aspect as to how the whole phenomena around Ram temple kept disturbing the emotions of the people aspiring to pray their Lord on his birthplace itself. Also, the book is of around 160 pages hence it becomes easy to go through it in few sittings itself.

 

Overall, this book is an excellent read specially at this point of time when Ram Temple is already open for all of us. It is going to be a very different experience while visiting Ayodhya after reading this book hence I would recommend everyone to read this one before planning an Ayodhya visit. It will also help you understand when is the best time to be there on the spiritual land based on the development that has been planned by Government along with its timelines. I rate this book 4.5* out of 5.

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE

 

Thanks!

 

WRITING BUDDHA

Get Committed to Yourself

 2092nd BLOG POST

While I was working upon my new year resolutions for 2024, I just thought of going through what I had thought of achieving in 2023. Though the target wasn’t very out of my zone yet when I was going through the unachieved ones – I realized that I fell back on so many of them which could have been achieved very easily. In hindsight, we always retrospect. But sometimes, I think if retrospection is just another form of procrastination or it does bring something positive out of the whole exercise. Thinking of many such instances, I feel that every time we have failed in achieving anything, it is not because of any external factor but our lack of commitment towards ourselves.

 

If we promise something to our friend, we go all our way along to ensure that we don’t fail in executing what we promised them. Similarly, if we are at work and we have committed to a deadline, we go all our way to send that mail on that EOD so that we aren’t blamed for any failures. Even with the person we love or have soft corner for – not necessarily a love relationship – we don’t want to disappoint them at all. We will go through sleepless nights just for readying that gift we know would make them extremely happy on their special day. But what happens when the same is expected towards our own well-being? Why do we feel that we aren’t answerable to anyone even if we don’t provide ourself the required on the expected day?

 

I have understood that success and failure are never guaranteed even if we put all the hard efforts that are required to achieve anything but what one requires the most is commitment towards one’s own self. We lack the intensity when it comes to promising anything to ourselves but yet we expect great things to happen with us. There may be multiple times when you must have promised yourself of a better lifestyle… of dedicating certain amount of time every day for yourself – on your health – on your reading habits – on improving your skill sets – on your studies – on your family life etc. But every time, you must have ignored it as generously as you had decided upon following them. Why are we so careless towards ourselves?

 

We think that someone else will come up one day in form of a great friend, sibling, parent, stranger or an opportunity will fall upon the sky and do everything for us all of a sudden. We feel that life just needs that one miracle which must have been written in my destiny to happen which will give meaning to all the failures and struggles that we are walking upon. Why don’t we understand that no one else is going to come to help us out from our misery? Even if someone would want to help us, they can only devote a limited time out of their own busy schedule for us. We can never rely on anyone else to be committed to us when we are ourselves in a toxic relationship with our own self.

 

Our actions are enough to tell how much we want something. If we just keep on saying, claiming, manifesting without any real execution and commitment towards our dream and goals, it tells us about our own character every minute. If our priority items are only in our words but we never act upon them the way we should, then deep down we don’t actually want to achieve it. Yes! It might sound an impossible fact but it is true. We keep on lying ourselves continuously of achieving this and that target but in reality, we are just clowns making our minds laugh by making it win every moment.

 

We just don’t want to control our mind and make it work on our commands. We want a life of comfort and damn, when has anyone achieved heights by chilling at the base of Mount Everest. One has to fight thousands of challenges to reach the summit when the world and universe actually acknowledges your presence. When you are at journey, no one wants to know you. I read a quote written by James Clear which said “Your actions reveal your true motivations”. How true is that!

 

Every moment wasted in partying with friends, chilling at restaurants, gossiping at office, spending money on expensive cloths/cosmetics, lying to parents comes back to haunt us. They never get disappeared in this galaxy of things in space. It knows that there’s a phenomenon called as Karma which needs to be served to the same person who emitted the negative energy with his/her behavior towards the universe. There’s a reason why we are not achieving things and only by our alertness and awareness, we can fix it. We need to be committed to ourselves first before being committed with anyone else. Your friends, family and colleagues will be proud of you only when you are a person of great conduct and discipline. Otherwise, you yourself know how you treat or see the people who aren’t disciplined and sincere about their life and success. Well, that’s all….

 

Thanks!

 

WRITING BUDDHA

GoodBye 2023!

2091st BLOG POST

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year 2024!!!

 

2023 has been a very chill yet a transformative year for me. Though there's nothing extreme that happened with me but yet Life took some turns and provided experience which will always list 2023 as one of the best years of my life.

 

Sharing few of the highlights from 2023:

• Purchased first car with my hard-earned money without applying for any loan
• Got my first Corporate-level job and the kind of monthly-package all of us dream when we slog in college
• Got my flat rented for the 1st time. It's great to realize that there's another stream of passive income as well
• Completed reading 36 books yet again. 9th Year when I have achieved my Reading Target successfully.
• Attended 10-days Vipassana course finally after planning it for 4 years
• Got a great opportunity to have a short conversation with my role-model - Mr. Amitabh Bachchan- A dream come true. Met him twice this year on the sets of Kaun Banega Crorepati.
• Met public figures such as Kiara Advani, Anupama Chopra, Ankur Warikoo, Raj Shamani and got chance to interact with the latter two.
• Met one of my favorite cousins - Rohit Bhaiya after 2 decades & spent quality time with him in Delhi.
• Attended my favorite comedian- Zakir Khan's Mannpasand show which is now available on Amazon Prime as well.
• Traveled Delhi, Nainital, Daman and Statue of Unity 
• Finally made some great friends at office after being trapped in Work From Home for last 3 years.
• Once again, enjoyed the arrival of New Year at Imagicaa with a college friend. Surprisingly, met someone with whom I connected at Vipassana recently. Realized how small the world is!

Hope 2023 was a great year for all of you and 2024 turns out to be the year you have always waited for!

Thanks

WRITING BUDDHA