Life Light Legacy

1998 picture with my grandfather in his Varanasi room My father passed away when I was an infant and I grew up under the loving care and affection of my maternal grandparents. Growing up with my grandfather created opportunities which may not have been possible otherwise. He inspired and shaped my life in many ways. Some of his teachings were direct and many were implicit in his conduct.   As a child I did not understand the value of most of the things he taught but enjoyed the interesting stories he told daily from various scriptures like Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavatam and Puranas.    Now I'm a grown up with a family, profession and responsibilities of my own. But even now I benefit from things that I can trace back to my grandfather. I feel blessed and fortunate to have been nurtured and shaped by him and I owe a big part of the foundation of my inner life to him. Out of the love and gratitude I feel, I'm attempting to reminisce some of the experiences with him and t...

Mahavatara Babaji's cave I waited for this day for 23 years. Ever since I read “The Autobiography of a Yogi” for the first time, I wanted to visit the cave of Mahavatara Babaji and meditate there. As we neared the base of the trek, the excitement in my heart was palpable. Because of the pandemic, there were no tourists. It was just the 6 of us trekking. We followed the direction boards and walked through a beautiful display of nature and colors - blue sky, white clouds, brown hills, green plants, dried yellow grass, bright pink, orange and red flowers. At some places the path was very narrow and at some places the climb was very steep. We reached a point where it was dense forest and didn't know which way to proceed. There was neither a direction board, nor a pathway to follow. And no person in sight. We all sat down and chanted "OM" praying to Babaji for guidance. I asked Atulit to move in a particular direction and tell us if any path was visible. He did that and sa...

Mcleodganj market Here is what does it takes to make genuine long term connections. INNER PEACE Before you can deeply connect with others, you have to first be at peace with yourself. This means accepting yourself and your past and present completely. The reason is that if you judge yourself, you will judge others and judging is a barrier to intimacy. Second when you judge yourself, you are setting the stage for others to judge you. No point in blaming others for doing something which you can't let go first. Pro tip: Know that you have made peace with yourself and your past when you can talk about it with ease and in a matter of fact way without a tsunami of emotions getting stirred up inside. AUTHENTIC INTEREST A deep interest in others and their lives is a prerequisite to forming genuine and long term connections. If all you are interested in is yourself and not in others, be honest about it. Faking interest where it doesn't exist is sensed by the opposit...

Puja at home   Born into a family of devout Tamil Iyers, I grew up watching my grandfather and uncle performing ritualistic worship daily. It is true for the religions I know of but more so for Hinduism where an important and integral part of worship is offering flowers to the deity. Every single day I witnessed flowers being offered to the divine with utmost love and respect. Learning to perform pujas was a natural part of my upbringing and training and soon I found myself doing the same rituals. Even at a tender age I could feel the difference offering flowers can make. Seeing the beauty of a flower, touching and feeling its delicateness, smelling its fragrance took me inwards to sublime dimension where it was natural and easy to connect with the divine I had sat down to worship. And in that state nothing could express my innermost feelings more than offering the flower to the divine as an expression of love, gratitude and joy. In those days, my mama used to go to...