One early morning I sat on the steps of the Dashashwamedha Ghat in Varanasi. The sunrise across the Ganga is a super sight. And every day is a new day.

1/10 Not far from me, on either side, sat a couple of people who had come, I presumed, to watch the glorious sunrise and feel the cooling breeze that blew across the river.

2/10

Namaste, the traditional Indian greeting, putting your palms together and bowing your head slightly has made a comeback.

The other day Prince Charles was seen, greeting important people with Namaste. That's a sea change even though it’s under special circumstances.

1/7 There was a time when all Indian/Hindu customs and traditions were considered as superstition by the West in general. Even useful ones were discarded without examining.
A classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

2/7

Many years ago, I lived in a tiny little cottage on the edge of the forest near Rishikesh. I hadn't seen one, but a sadhu told me there were leopards.

1/8

#SriMspeaks
#Compassion
#AnimalLove
#AnimalCare One morning, as I was treading along the narrow tract that linked the pilgrim town to the forest, to get my roti and daal from the Nepali dharamshala, I heard repeated whimpers from the forest on my right.

2/8

It is interesting to see how many images we create and live with. As a child, I have one image of myself. Then as an adolescent I cultivate another.
Probably imitating the images l admire, the matinee idols, the famous people,the brave adventurers, sometimes even terrorists.

1/6 Some grow out of adolescence, some grow up but are still psychologically adolescent. Generally a new image is created to work, to marry, to have children, to save for the future ‘ad infinitum’.

2/6

It may seem as if our thoughts go on continuously in a stream. Actually they don't. One thought comes and goes and another arises in its place.

The present thought, which is based on the one that has vanished into the past, then goes into the past, and a new thought arises.

1/4 All that is so fast that the minute gap between one thought going and the other coming up is not grasped.

If one watches with attention as the thoughts follow, one after the other, carefully, calmly, then one day, the gap between the thoughts is witnessed.

2/4

Three yogis decided to go to the Himalayas to meditate. They found their way to the snowclad upper regions, sat on a flat stone and closed their eyes.

1/7

#SriMSpeaks It was freezing cold. So they looked around, discovered an abandoned cave with wooden planks on the floor and sat down again.

Three days passed and one of them opened his eyes and said, “It’s damn cold here, isn't it?”

2/7

The son of a great Rishi returned after his studies in the forest academy of another Rishi.

“Have you understood the Truth?” asked the father.

1/7

#SriMSpeaks “I think I have, dear father” said the young man, “but I am still confused about one thing. How can this entire Universe come out of the attributeless, Supreme Brahman?”

2/7

As I sit in my little garden, all alone, the cool breeze tussles my hair gently, today’s golden Sun appears above the hills, the koel is singing.

Is she chanting the Gayatri? I wonder.

1/8

#SriMSpeaks Have you wondered about the fact that everyday is a new day?

Or do you compare it with yesterday and allow the pictures of the past to cloud and cover the fresh innocence of today?

2/8

Long ago, when I was barely nineteen, I set out to wander in the Himalayas. My mind was filled with images of snow clad mountains, which I thought, would start from Haridwar.

1/8

#SriMSpeaks I was disappointed. No snowy peaks. In summer, the Shivaliks were dry and grey, a contrast from the lush green Kerala I was coming from. The only redeeming factor was the cool waters of the sacred Ganga.

2/8

Two young disciples were walking in the forest when they came across a beautiful young lady sitting beside a narrow river and crying piteously.

1/9

#SriMSpeaks When questioned, she said, she had crossed the river from her village on the other side to pluck flowers with her friends. They had gone back but she developed cramps in her legs and could not swim back. They promised to get help but no one came.

2/9

The disciple asked the Guru "Sir, you keep saying that we need to lead good and pure lives, loving and forgiving, but I live in the world, surrounded by muck, how can I?"

1/5

#SriMSpeaks The Guru replied, "Do you see where sugar cane grows? In dirty soil, full of muck and clay. And what does it give when ripe and ready? Sweet sugar, dear boy!"

2/5

A disciple was with the Guru for thirteen years. He thought he was a true seeker and practised his Sadhana meticulously.

Or so he thought.

1/7

#SriMSpeaks He also accompanied the Guru wherever he went and enjoyed the special attention showered on him for being close to the Guru.

But the disciple still felt that the exalted Divine experience, he had read of, in various scriptures had not yet been revealed to him.

2/7

I am here, and I need to go there to reach the goal or get what I want. This is the linear approach.

What if, what I seek, is right here.

1/7

#SriMSpeaks How do I then find it?
By not reaching out.
By not desperately trying to grab, or grope about in the dark towards something I do not even know.
In this case, the Truth.

2/7

In a small village well, lived a frog. He was very proud of his great ability to jump across, from one side of the well to other. His co-well-dwellers crowned him the King. None of them could beat him.

1/8

#SriMSpeaks So lived the King frog, proudly boasting that he was the emperor of the world and no one could excel him. The narrow well was his world, for, he had never been outside the well or seen beyond.

2/8

When I was staying with Babaji for the first time in the Arundhati cave, close to the Vasishta Gufa in #Rishikesh, I used to sit in, padmāsana, close my eyes and try to meditate.

#SriMSpeaks
#Meditation
#Mindfulness
#VedantaWisdom

1/7 Repeated attempts with no success.

One day Babaji smiled and said, “you can close your eyes but can you shut your mind up?”

I said, “no, trying hard.”

2/7

The Yogi said to the King, while at his palace, “So this is your caravan? Very luxurious. How long will you stay in it?”

“Ignorant man, mad as well, this is not my caravan, it's my palace, don't you see? Are you blind too?” said the King.

1/7

#SriMSpeaks
#VedantaWisdom “Oh!” said the Yogi, “and who sat here on the throne before you?”
“My father” said the King.
“And before that?”
“My grandfather” said the King.

2/7