Tag: Spiritual

Energy Speaks Louder: On Being Genuinely Happy for Another

Blessings of Lord Shiva

We have all felt it. You share good news – a milestone, a windfall, a moment of recognition – and someone says, “That’s wonderful, I’m so happy for you.” The words are correct. The smile is in place. And yet something in you registers a flatness, a subtle withholding. The sentence arrived, but the person didn’t.

Because here is the truth we rarely say aloud: most people cannot be genuinely happy for you. Not because they are bad people, but because genuine happiness for another is not a social skill. It is a spiritual attainment.

Words can be manufactured in an instant. Energy cannot. Energy is the unedited transcript of a person’s inner state, and it speaks louder than any congratulations. When someone is at war with themselves – comparing, measuring, quietly asking “why not me?” – your good news lands on them like a verdict. Their mouth says celebration; their field says contraction. And you feel it, even if you can’t name it.

The one who can rejoice in your joy is someone in deep communion with themselves. There is no vacancy in them for envy to occupy, because they are not experiencing themselves as separate from you in the first place. Your win does not subtract from their account because, in their understanding, there is only one account.

This is where the matter becomes sacred. The Vedic seers held that the same divinity dwells in every being – Ishvara sarva bhutanam, the Lord seated in the hearts of all. When you are genuinely happy for another, you are not performing generosity. You are recognising. You are seeing God in the other — and in that very instant, seeing God in yourself. The joy is not borrowed from them; it rises from the same source in you. This is why the authentic celebration of another person feels expansive rather than depleting. It is a moment of darshan – a glimpse of the divine wearing a different face.

So the next time congratulations feel hollow, don’t take it personally. The person is simply energetically telling you how far they are from their own centre. Offer them compassion; their struggle is not with you.

And the next time you feel a clean, unforced gladness at someone else’s good fortune – pause and notice it. That lightness is not politeness succeeding. It is communion. It is the Self recognising the Self, briefly forgetting the fiction of separation.

We spend so much effort trying to appear happy for others. The deeper work is to become the kind of person for whom it is effortless – someone so at home in themselves that another’s light only reminds them of their own. That is the quiet test of spiritual maturity: not how you handle your sorrows, but how you receive another’s joy.

Energy speaks louder. Make sure yours is saying something true.

Vedic Chanting the Shri Rudram

The vibrations of this chant purify the atmosphere and mind, fill your being with peace and vigor, bestow protection, and coupled with a pure intention, have the power to grant your wishes, including liberation.

I discovered Vedic chants while playing rock music in my college years [yes, it seems like an unlikely combination, but not really -:)]. I realised the meter, the feel and the vibration, went so well with some of the fusion work I was doing and it also took me deep into myself. It intrigued me so much, that over the years, I have put different tunes to different Vedic chants, for my own pleasure and happiness. In this video, Vidura Barrios a fellow sadhaka (someone on the spiritual path) chants the Shri Rudram with the text on the screen, for us to follow. The abhyasa (regular practice) of scared chanting, is a great discipline in the Indian tradition.

The Shri Rudram is an ancient Vedic text and part of the Krishna Yajurveda (look up more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajurveda). It is a powerful hymn in praise of Rudra, or Shiva. In the mystical tradition, Shiva represents the consciousness within everything, the pure essence within all, referred to in the Hindu scriptures as Sat Chit Ananda: truth, consciousness and bliss. It is in Shri Rudram that the great five syllable mantra, Om Namah Shivaya is first mentioned. You might simply listen to the chant during meditation or you could chant along.

The vibrations of the chant purify the atmosphere and mind, fill your being with peace and vigor, bestow protection, and coupled with a pure intention, have the power to grant your wishes, including liberation.

Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness

Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness

This is not just a video about happiness; if you see it one pointedly it is pure joy, expressing through the Dalai Lama and infectious to the people around him. Just hearing him, I was moved to both laughter and tears. The Dalai Lama, talks about warm heartedness, a quality so integral to our sense of connectedness with the universe. When we are warm hearted, we intuitively acknowledge that the highest part of the universe – if you would like to call that God – resides deeply in each of us. If we cannot approach each other with warm heartedness, then we have cut ourselves off from the nectar that flows in our own heart; which is the beginning of loneliness. Please have a lovely day.

Video Length: 8 min 7 seconds

My India – Potentially Flawed?

Yes, we all want to see India do well, especially those of us who stay in India and are brought up here. And yes, we have inherited a great culture as we like to say, 5000 years old say some. But when I look around me, either we are blinded by this great culture we have inherited or we are plain shitting on it – this applies literally as well. Remember Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and many others are developing nations like India, but we have a unique reputation globally, of defecating on the streets. And I cannot ignore this. A nation that “allows” people to defecate on its streets on a regular basis, creating tons of organic waste left outside to rot, reflects an inner state within the cultural fabric of its soul. It communicates very simply – we don’t care, say what you like, when I want to shit, I will just defecate right there in front of you – that, is the inner feeling. Of course, the solution is not in having more public toilets (that is one of the outer effects of an inner change) , the solution is in changing our mindset first – both parties, the ones who shit and the ones who do not – need to care about the country. But do we really?

Continue reading “My India – Potentially Flawed?”