Inspire Someone Today
Inspire Someone Today
E94 | Building a Community of Seekers | Sri Anish
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Are we simply products of our thoughts, or is there a more profound entity within us? A bold question, indeed, but one that we delve into, head-on, with our special guest Anishji. This episode strips open the understanding of self and the world around us, throwing light on our interconnectedness with the cosmos. Together, we unravel spirituality's essence and its crucial role in nurturing unity, resilience, and adaptability in our chaotic world.
The latter part of our enlightening conversation focuses on the perennial question – who are we? Anishji invites us to journey inward and connect with the entity beyond mere bodies and thoughts. It's an invitation to discover our true self, to be compassionate towards it, and to embrace our incredible capacity to adapt. By the time you reach the end of this episode, you will have gained a new perspective on the role of spirituality in creating a life of joy, stability, and agility. So, get comfortable, grab that cup of tea, and make way for a deep, heartful conversation with yourself.
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Who I am really. Am I just this body? Am I just my thoughts? Am I just my computer, my possessions? Am I just my thinking process? Am I just my feelings or is there something beyond this? Who am I really? I think unless we know this, we can't really create any connective in the world outside. We can't really do anything for anybody If I don't know who am I. What can I do for you, what can I do for the society, or anybody for that matter, what can I even do for my own family if I don't know who am I? So I think that is really the essence, or the importance of having spiritual understanding in one's life. If I may say so, trees which are tall, which have a very strong, firm footing roots are very strong, no matter how fast the winds are, the velocity of the winds, they are able to withstand because their rooting is very strong. I realize that I want to be on the evolutionary path, not on a repetitive path.
Speaker 2Welcome back, my dear listeners, if you are returning listeners. Thank you so much. If you are a new listener, welcome to Inspire Someone Today. Inspire Someone Today has had its journey. We are closing in on three years of our journey and with me is a very special guest. While Inspire Someone Today had its own journey, this guest had also had his own special journey. It's my joy and honor to welcome Anishji on Inspire Someone Today. Anishji, welcome to ISP.
Speaker 1Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Rikant. Happy to be here on the show with you today.
Speaker 2Anishji, my first conversation with you was how is spirituality and spiritualism different? Is it religion, Is it God? And you very eloquently put it, saying that it is beyond all of this. So I'll start off with that particular question to you what is spiritual journey and why is it important?
Speaker 1Good question, rikant. First of all, because these two are very pertinent questions. First question, which is what is spiritual journey? People have their own thoughts, ideas about it. The second part of the question why is it important? I think that really is a very important piece of the question. So everybody has different views on what is spiritual journey. What is spirituality? What is spiritual life? Is it religion? Is it a certain kind of practice? It is a dogma? What really it is all about?
Discovering the True Self
Speaker 1If you look at it in very simple terms and I'm a man of simplicity spirituality basically is a way or a journey or a process to connect oneself with one's own self. So my ability to connect with my own self layer number one. Layer number two, my ability to connect with people around me layer number three, my ability to connect other life forms around me. Layer number four my ability to connect with all of this nature around me. And the final layer is my ability to connect with this entire cosmos. Do I feel a part of this? Do I feel a deep connect with each one of these layers? Or a way to establish my deep inner connection with these five layers is what is spirituality all about? Yeah, I think at heart, at the core. We're all spiritual beings. You know, living a very early experience, not the other way around. You know, in the Sutra it is said that the whole world came from nada, which is vibration, and now quantum physics is also talking about that, that everything here, including you, me, this microform, this computer system, this technology, everything is a certain frequency vibration. And if it is so, then how we are different from each other. How do I perceive that I am an independent individual, being separate from Srikanth? As an individual, independent being, I think that disconnectedness creates all the conflict. That's the root of all the conflicts. So you said, what is spirituality and why is it important? This is how it is important, srikanth.
Speaker 1Unless I connect with myself, unless I know who I am really, am I just this body? Am I just my thoughts? Am I just my computer, my possessions? Am I just my thinking process? Am I just my feelings or the something beyond this? Who am I really? I think unless we know this, we can't really create any connector in the world outside. We can't really do anything for anybody. If I don't know who am I, what can I do for you, what can I do for the society, or anybody for that matter, what can I even do for my own family If I don't know who am I?
Speaker 1So I think that is really the essence or the importance of having spiritual understanding in one's life, if I may say so. And I think the other elementary kind of this is the world around us is changing way too fast. You know the speed of transformation. We never imagined the speed of transformation. And in a world like that, how do you get rooted, how do you become stable, how do you develop the capability to bounce back, unless you're rooted in this deep understanding of number one who am I? Number two I am deeply connected with each of these five layers, as I explained. Once I know this Srikanth, my resilience, my power to deal with change, my power to or my capability to transform in this changing scenario becomes I become very agile. Actually, I become very stable, I become very agile. At the same time, I think that really is why I speak so much on the importance or significance of spiritual understanding and spiritual way of life today.
Speaker 2That's a very interesting start and I would also say a little heavy for people listening for the first time. So my essence of that particular piece is it's more about getting connected to yourself and getting connected to the outside world. That is what, in essence, what you're kind of alluding to.
Speaker 1You know, few days ago, srikanth, I got a very funny WhatsApp from a dear friend and this was an image, and in the image he said I mean the image says that there's a friend request from you waiting for your own approval. Yeah, I found it really nice because it's saying that are you becoming your own dear friend? Are you becoming your own best friend? Are you accepting your own friend request while you're expecting accepting friend requests from the whole world? Are you having that deeper, kind, loving, friendly relation with your own self? That, to me, is the essence that I just spoke about, which could sound a bit heavy.
Speaker 2I think you did touch up on two critical elements here. One is about being friendly to yourself, being self-capped, compassionate towards oneself, and two, we also mentioned about resilience in the changing world. If you can talk a little more about both of these elements, yeah.
Speaker 1So first of all, Srikanth, it's like you know, if you're becoming very aloof from our own selves. When I meet people and I meet thousands of people most of us are acting like a machine. There's a certain routine during the day. We follow that and in that routine there's an auto rhythm and very rarely we sit with our own self having a cup of tea, talking to our own self not mental chattering. I'm not talking about mental chatter. I'm talking about really talking to my own self, saying how are you feeling today? What is it that you're trying to achieve in this world? Are you happy? Are you experiencing joy? When you were a child, you always wanted to climb up the tree. Are you doing that? You know, these are the conversations we're just not having with our own selves. Unless I do that, I don't create a solid, deep connect with my own self. People are stranger to themselves. Unfortunately, even leaders I do a lot of work with very senior leadership Very rarely we take out time to sit with our own selves, do a quality thinking process, quality chatting with our own selves. And I'm warning again, I'm not talking about mental chatter, I'm talking about heart full conversation with our own selves. So that's point number one If you're not having it, there's a problem, then I'm a stranger to my own self, let's put it that way. That's not a nice or a joyful state, by the way.
Speaker 1The other element we talked about resilience, srikanth.
Speaker 1Whenever the life situation or the reality around is changing too fast, people feel drowned, people feel the force is so much and they're not able to hold back, they're not able to stay put.
Speaker 1Life situations, our job situations, our family situations, technology substituitions it's changing way too fast, srikanth, the way the next generation is growing, the kind of questions they have, the world of chat, gpt and whatnot, I think unless we develop a deeper, stronger resilience, which to me is basically an ability to bounce back and you can only bounce back if your feet are stable enough. We sometime do certain yogic exercises or meditations. I see people who are not firm on their feet. I don't ask them to jump, I don't ask them to, when they're standing, to close their eyes because I see their footing is not firm They'll not be able to sustain it. I think spiritual understanding, this holistic way of looking at life, this integrated way of looking at life, give us that strong foothold, strong rooting, from where resilience becomes a strong capability. It comes with it, srikanth. With a strong grounding, with a strong footing, you automatically start to become very resilient, because I think there's some power source you've tapped into, so to say.
Speaker 2And strong footing is is it a physical manifestation or is it something beyond that physical manifestation?
Speaker 1No, I think it's beyond physical manifestation. What is physical manifestation, srikanth? Here let's say you, you're having a great career. That's a strong physical footing. Your body is fine, that's a strong physical footing. But not necessarily that your internal emotional state is very strong. Not necessary that your willpower is very strong, not necessary that you're which I call the power or the capability to take firm decision. That may not be very strong. Your spiritual understanding may not be very strong, and if these things are not strong, then your footing, which I'm calling grounding, is weak, srikanth.
Speaker 2That's a good point that you're making, and you also did mention about lot of changes that is happening in the world, right Be it in the technology world, the chat, gpt being the business world, post pandemic, what's happening even in the personal lives, and we're indontated with the form or effect, right, you don't? The fear of missing out is loud and clear out there. How, how does one not get distracted with all of this chaos that is happening around us?
Speaker 1Okay, there are two ways. Let's look at it this way Srikanth, when you're driving a car, yeah, no, let me take a different analogy here. Only when you are too firm in your mental understanding, srikanth, only when your resolve is very strong, only when your purpose and direction is very strong, you'll be able to deal with the changes. Let's say I don't know what my purpose in life is. Let's say I do not have the ability to pour my attention into anything. Let's say I do not have the capacity of elongated attention span. If I do not have that, then the world which is changing around me way too fast, it'll all start to disturb me, impact me. Look at it in the nature, trees which are tall, which are very strong, firm footing roots are very strong, no matter how fast the winds are, the velocity of the winds, they're able to withstand Because the rooting is very strong. Yeah, let's call it, let's give it a term called spiritual well-being, srikanth. Again, I'm talking about rooting because I saw in the world, you know, there was a phase when we talked about physical well-being in the world. Yeah, in the, let's say, in the corporate world, companies came forward. They started rolling out programs, started giving out free gym memberships and all of that. Then the next phase came where suddenly the emotional well-being became much higher. We started seeing a lot of mental wellness issues. Yeah, so emotional slash mental well-being started taking prominence. We started making sure that, you know, our employees, our teams, our families mental health is taken care of. That's evolution number two. But I think we've still not reached the core, which I'm calling the spiritual well-being. Unless this spiritual well, unless we work on this spiritual well-being, srikanth, the outer changes of the chat, gfet or whatever tech changes are happening, it'll sway us like nobody. It'll sway us and we won't know our place in this universe. Only spiritual well-being is the answer because and I'm saying again the reason there's a scientific reason behind it. Let's look at this way. This could be a little heavy, but I think it's important to understand. My eyes see the object outside. Question is I am the object? Not really. Yeah, I'm not the object because my eyes are able to see the object. My mind is able to see my eyes. So, which means I'm not even the eyes because my mind is able to see the whatever you are able to perceive. You are not that correct. You're talking about what is spiritual well-being? Whatever you're able to perceive. You're not that.
Speaker 1Now, your intellect is able to see the movement of your thought process. When you're thinking, you're able to witness the thoughts, right, which means you're not even your thoughts and there's somebody at the back of your intellect also. Let's call that the pure spirit or the spiritual self that is also witnessing your intellectual process. Unless we come to that this is spiritual well-being, srikanth Unless we come to that understanding, the changing objects, the changing scenery, the changing thoughts will disturb me, they will sway me left, right and center.
Speaker 1Unless, through this process, I realize that, no, I'm not that object, I'm not my eyes, I'm not even my thoughts, because I'm able to see my thoughts. I'm not even the intellect which is seeing the thought. I am sitting at the back as a spiritual self who's able to witness all of these changes. Srikanth, when you become rooted in this witness, then, no matter the amount of tech changes, geopolitical changes, economic changes, whatever changes are happening around you, you are able to sit in the spiritual self. Number A observe all these changes, not get impacted by that. Number Two you also develop deep wisdom, srikanth, to be able to act accordingly. Act according to the situation, choose the right act, not a reactive act but a right act to do in that situation. It's a deep resilient state, it's a deep rooted state and I think that's really needed. That's really, really needed across board.
Speaker 2I would say and is it also got to do with having that congruence with oneself? How can one develop that congruence? Or attention you did mention about attention also is getting swayed, so how can one develop? What are some of the practices that you can recommend our listeners to adapt?
Speaker 1I think, before we come to that, srikanth, there's another key point I think I should talk about here. I do a lot of programs with leadership and there's a word called success. Right, we're all pursuing success. I think there's a fundamental mistake in our understanding here. We're trying to pour our attention on success and everybody has different definition of success. No, what we're really missing, srikanth, here, is our attention and focus on something called significance. Why are we trying to achieve success? Because I feel if I achieve success, I become very happy. But do you see successful people always in a state of happiness or joyfulness? Rarely. Reason being this we're trying to chase success and we're becoming defocused from the essential core, which is significance. Is my work becoming significant? Is my act become significant in my life or other people's life, which we call also impact? Because whatever I do, if there's a great significance or impact of that, joyfulness will come with that automatically. Is it making sense, srikanth?
Speaker 2Absolutely. I think you're just trying to move the goalpost here, saying that do not get defined by success. It's about significance, it's about impact.
Speaker 1Exactly Because, whatever we are trying to do, srikanth, one thing is sure we all wanting to drive happiness out of it, right or wrong. And if we're trying to attain happiness out of fate, then the formula is very different. Then, let's say, your definition of success is becoming CEO for a company and having a million dollar package. Let's say, but it is not really necessary that it might give you happiness, or it might give you happiness for a short while. However, if you push the goalpost and you say no, no, my agenda must be significance or impact, and when you're able to create impact in the life of a million people, the amount of continuous happiness that you will get out of it and I'm using the word continuous happiness is unimaginable. Yeah, so we definitely need to change the goalpost here, yeah. You also then ask how do we develop this attention span? Right, how do we develop this attention span? Srikanth is very, again, very interesting that there's a whole talk of in the world called multitasking. We all try to do multitasking, isn't it?
Speaker 2We've done many experiments on that, like I'm doing now, I'm making notes as I'm listening to you.
Speaker 1Correct. I've done many experiments on this, srikanth. Multitasking is a big myth. It is impossible for one to do multitasking. Actually, when you do multitasking, you're losing your power of attention. Whenever you do multitasking, it's like you're forcing your mind to split between multiple topics too frequently. It's like if you change the situation too frequently, the stability is lost. Yeah, that's exactly what happens with the mind. Try and do this experiment sometime.
Speaker 1Take two phones, talk to two important people in your life, put both the phones on you know both the ears and try to talk to them simultaneously. You cannot do that because your brain does not work like that. If you listen to speaker A, you miss out what the speaker B is saying. If you focus on speaker B, you miss out what the speaker A is saying, because your attention is like a sword it's one pointed. It can focus on one single point, one single item at a point at a time. It can't focus on two different dimensions at the same time. And if you try to do that, for an example, you're listening to me and you're taking notes, shrikanth, when we do this, it tires us. Our capacity to do long hours of engagement gets reduced because mind gets tired quickly because what we're doing to the mind, frequent changing of the task, and that drains a lot of energy. That drains a lot of mental energy. Remember, we're talking about attention. In Hindi the word is ekag ghrata focus. It comes Shrikanth when you do one thing, absolutely being attentive on that one thing in one time. So if, let's say, while this conversation is going on, I pick up a cup of water, I take a sip, when I took this sip I took a three second pause from the conversation. I poured all my attention into the taste of the water, the touch of the water, the feel of the water. I felt the way water must go into my system respectfully. When you do that, everything that you consume or do becomes much more authentic and respectful and you're also doing this practice. If you do that for a period of time, you will see, not just your attention will increase but the span of attention will also increase. There are two things. What I call is the spasm of attention. Today people have spasmic attention, while the agenda is to have a longer span of attention, not spasmic attention.
Speaker 1It's a funny thing the other day one of our dear friend who's a social media expert called me and he said sir, you should start making 10 second reels for whatever that is called. You know 10 second content bites. I said just few months ago. You said make one minute content bite, then you call them. You said 30 seconds content bite and now you're saying 10 second content bites. What's going on? And he said people's attention is really going down. It's 10 seconds now, srikanth. If you don't hook them for 10 seconds, they're gone, and beyond 10 seconds, in any case, they're gone. I'm talking about social media In the world.
Speaker 1Look around. If you have to learn to drive cars, if you have to learn anything, if you have to work with your teams, if you have to develop deep relationships, what do you really need? There's attention. From work. You go back home. What does your child wants from you? Not gifts or chocolates your attention. If you have pet at home, what does that pet want from you? Your attention. Yeah, so there is something magical about this attention which we're totally missing, something. This is a deep subject, srikanth. Attention in itself is a podcast, is a deep subject, but it's really important to have this to live a happy, healthy, integrated, joyful life. Otherwise, we'll remain distracted, life will pass by and we'll remain distracted.
Speaker 2And it's indeed a very interesting subject. We are talking about the former world and also talking about the significance of attention.
Speaker 1You know this former word is also very funny. You know, fear of missing out. You see, in the earlier times we had fears of life. Yeah, we were in the forest. We were fearful of wild animals, we were fearful of elements of nature.
Speaker 1Yeah our whole biological system was developed in such a way that we are able to take care of this fear. Our whole nervous system, shrikanth, was built in a way that we're able to deal with this life fear. That's the reason. Whenever there was fear or nervous system will act in a certain way and within 10-15 minutes the nervous system is shanth, you know, peaceful, back to its original position again. Now, what is happening? You see, there's no physical danger, shrikanth, now, but there's an internal fear that our minds are building. Because of that, our nervous system is always under pressure. Because of that, it's giving to steady rise to a lot of lifestyle diseases. Did you read? India is becoming the diabetes capital of the world? We've crossed hundred million cases, active cases and there are about three or four.
Speaker 1Number? Yes, yes, yes, and there's about four times the number which is called pre-diabetic. Have we ever observed? Why is it happening? What's the secret behind it? Why, suddenly there's boom in that Spiritual well-being. We're not focusing on spiritual well-being, we're not understanding that this form of world will, will derail us, it will take our physical, mental and spiritual health away from us. That is the reason increase in these lifestyle diseases. We are cultivating fears in our mind if I don't get so many likes, so many views, so on, so forth. So this is what is really happening, shrikanth, all around us. And I said in the beginning to me, our spiritual well-being is at the core. From there comes Emotional and mental well-being and from there comes our physical well-being. This is the core. This understanding is the core. Yes, shrikanth, I hope this Conversation is not too heavy for your listeners. I don't know if they're used to these kind of talks or subjects.
Speaker 2To stick up really, really well. The last bit of it is how, perpetually running behind something, we are kind of causing the unseen effects of it, which not many people don't realize it. I think we are always in the constant chase of success, title money, but we are not understanding what is it at the cost of?
Speaker 1Exactly, exactly. And and what happens? Shrikanth, here you know, we look very, we look at a very myopic view of situations. Oh, I have to compete in the career. Because of that they stress, and all of that, and because of that there's a lifestyle I'm not able to manage. Because of that there's a disease. Let's say, yeah, we're still not going at the root of it. What am I chasing? Why I'm chasing what I'm chasing? Is it really needed? Was it really my purpose of life, or it's just I'm running somebody's race. Is it my race? First of all, I should ask the race in which I'm running Is it my race? Who's race is it? In any case?
Speaker 2Yeah, I read a very interesting quote the other day, and each which was right. If you're in a rat race and if you come first in the rat race, you still have that.
Speaker 1Yeah, correct, correct, correct. You do an experiment, shrikanth. If you meet, let's say, hundred people over a month, just ask them if I'm talking about in a corporate job setting or whatever. Just ask them what do you want to do after retirement? Yeah, a surprising Shrikanth. 99.9% people will give you the answer. Their answers will be Something different from what they're doing in their job, in their career, in their business. They want to do something else once they retire. Very interesting insight. It tells me that whatever they're doing in their job, their career, their business, that's not really their race or they're calling. They're doing it for some forced reason. It could be money, it could be stature, it could be whatever, but that's not their life's calling. Because whatever is their life calling, they have postponed it on post retirement. Yeah, very interesting insight.
Speaker 1So 60 years of my life I'm running somebody else's race, I'm doing something which I never, wanted to do, because what I wanted to do I'll do post retirement, because that's my goal, that's what I identified, that's what I think will create larger impact. But I will do it after retirement. Yeah, till that time. If somebody else is race, I don't even know who's race I'm running. Yeah, yes, shrikanth.
Speaker 2Brilliant, brilliant insights there. And all of these insights is not coming from a place of Nyan, not coming from a place of. I know it all because Anishji himself was a Xevo in his past life. Now he's a spiritual teacher, visionary, but he too ran his own race, realizing that was not the race that was meant to be.
Speaker 1I think I'm blessed first of all, huh, and I think we are all are blessed, but some of us take the charge to listen to the signals, clear the noise away and listen to the signal. I think I was fortunate I did that. So you know, when I was, when I was in the corporate world Very successful career, the all the definitions of success came by very early. But when I was about 29 and I had formed this very successful I was one of the co-founder there, a very successful company called people's trunk. Suddenly I realized that this is all done, this chapter of my life is over, this race is over and I don't identify with this race anymore Because this experience for me is over now. After this, it will all be the repeat of the same experience. It will be adding just more zero to it yeah, but it will be the same repetitive chapter. Yeah, you'll go ahead, you'll form two companies, you'll make this company bigger, so on, so forth. And I think this thought came to me is that what's beyond this? What's beyond this chapter of life? There was a choice that I could continue to read the same chapter over and over again. Beautify that chapter a little more, add a few zeros to that chapter a little more. But I think I realized that I want to be on the evolutionary path, not on a repetitive path, and for that I decided that I need to start a new chapter or I need to explore the new chapter of life. Yeah, and from there she can.
Speaker 1This, this ritual quest began. I started asking some existential questions who am I? What is my purpose here? Is the purpose only Create a successful career, have a great family, give good education to the children, save for your retirement, then grow old and then you leave? Is that to life or there's something more to life? So these were the question started coming to me and I I didn't ignore those questions, and that's the underlying Shrikanth here, because I I know these Existential questions come to everybody. It's nature's way of knocking on our doors, but most of the time we just brush them away. We just think them as philosophical questions, not Permanent life questions. But I didn't do that. I pursued them. I pursued what is beyond physicality. I pursued what is beyond the mental thought process. Why do we get a certain kinds of thoughts, etc. What is the nature of mind? What is the nature of life? What is the nature of reality? I pursued, shri Khan, these questions and then I renounced that chapter of my life, moved to the Himalayas, spent about 10 years in almost incognito mode. My family supported me.
Speaker 1These 10 years were very revealing. They were deep or long periods of solitude, long periods of silence, long periods of internal contemplation, long periods of experiments with food and what not. I called them the tapasya or the sadhana period of my life. After about 10 years, there was a higher command, divine calling, which said that now is the time you start to travel, move back in the world, right-speak and share whatever has been received or whatever you continue to receive. Share that and that is your life's mission, life's purpose. I think, once this alignment happened with my life's true calling, true purpose, joyfulness never left me. Yes, shri Khan, that's a congruence. I call it a blessing. Shri Khan, I think I just happened to listen to the signal out of all the noise and pursued the signal.
Speaker 2And that led you to sadhu Sadhu, we call it sadhu.
Speaker 1Yeah, so about three years ago, when this work started growing, shri Khan, we created a small spiritual community in a place called Dharamshala in the Nadanimalayash, and we named this community sadho sangha. Sadho is the word we borrowed from Kabir Sahib. He used to say so know by sadhu. Sadhu means a call to a seeker. Yeah, sadhu means seeker, seeker of truth, and the second word we picked up from Buddha, sangha. Sangha is a community, so we call it the community of seekers, and there are about 15 people who are permanently part of this community, who live here in the mountains. There are all kinds of people X IBM, x Microsoft, some till, doing part time works, filmmakers, some musicians, some health practitioners all kinds of great combination in a small team and in this sadhu sangha.
Speaker 1Now we do this work. We try and bring this spiritual awakening to corporate leadership, to educational leadership, to a lot of people in general, to a lot of people at positions of impact, so that we are able to create a more awakened world. Shri Khan, that's the work that we do. Yeah, in the, in the simple term, let's call it, we're working on holistic well-being, where spiritual well-being is the core. On top of it is mental and emotional well-being, and on top of it is physical well-being. So that's integrated work that we are doing now.
Speaker 2Wonderful Anish you did mention about. You didn't want to read the chapter, create the chapter. You could have just beautified it and you ended up creating a book for yourself. And you are now authored a very interesting book Let the Mud Settle. Tell us a bit about that. What are some of the key learnings that you had while writing or authoring this particular book?
Speaker 1Yeah. So one of the things Shri Khan Tai realized during my journey is the spiritual aspect of life. Some of you made it too complex. Somehow we've made it something that you do post retirement, something that is available only in the religious places, etc. Etc. While for me, spirituality is the core of who we are, is the core of life. Everything is built around it. So I wanted to simplify this understanding so that anybody you know this is everybody's birthright to follow a spiritual path, everybody's birthright. Do whatever else you're doing in life, but integrate this as a core. So I wanted to simplify this knowledge. I wanted to make it accessible. You know, if you go to Shastras or deep Indian scriptures, sometimes they could become overwhelming, yeah, so I wanted to create a literature which anybody can connect with, anybody can digest with, anybody can implement practically things from this in their own lives. So that's how I think this book came about.
Speaker 1There are reading chapters in the book addressing each particular aspect of our life and what I also did at the end of each chapter. I gave certain practices, certain exercises, certain meditation techniques, certain things to do, very simple things which could bring profound transformations in your life. So I think the idea was to simplify everything, shri Khan. We've made life too complex a phenomena. Yeah, let's simplify it. So this book is about that. Simplification of spirituality, so to say, or simplification of your Ananda. Can, in a simple way, you attain your Ananda? That's, I think, the book led the mudsettles all about. I think it's a great read, by the way, not just because I've authored it.
Speaker 2It's a wonderful read. I will definitely leave the link to the book for our listeners to pick it up. I particularly like two elements in the book. One is this chapter around celebrating life, and second is the anecdote that you shared where the beggar gives the king 99 grains. Yeah, and how the elusive one grain takes the happiness out of the king.
Speaker 1Absolutely, absolutely. Shri Khan, if you look at life, you know our focus in general is never on what we have. Somehow, our focus is always on the lack, that one thing which we don't have, yeah, and because of that there is no gratitude for what life has gifted us with, but there's always a complaint or chasing off what we don't have, and I think that is a recipe for unhappiness.
Speaker 2So we are here with Anishji and the power of 3 round Anishji the first of the power of 3, 3 routines, followed by Anishji 3 routines, okay.
Speaker 1The first is I walk barefoot. We have a small ashram, lot of grass and mud here, so my first routine is I walk barefoot a lot in the ashram, most of the calls I take while walking on the barefoot. This is my way to connect with nature. Second, my routine is yoga and dhyana. So I do some yogic practices and dhyana practices that I do to connect with my own self. And the third daily routine is every day there are I conduct satsans, which are basically talk sessions, conversation, heartfelt conversation sessions. I call them satsang. This is basically she can't to share whatever I receive, so that I am able to connect with everybody around. So I do these 3 routines to establish deeper connections.
Speaker 2Yes, great start. 3 key capabilities to build to celebrate life.
Speaker 1See the top has to be purpose, the capability to define, find out, create one's own purpose in life. I like the Hindi word. It's called Udisha. What is the Udisha purpose of my life? Very important to have clarity on that because everything will derive from there, and I am not talking about career purpose of life. Once you have that, there is a joyfulness that comes with it, there is a certain clarity that comes with it. So that's first capability. The second capability should be Shrikanth.
Speaker 1I would say Ekagrata, which is power of attention, the ability and will power to pour my attention on a certain subject, on the purpose that I have defined for myself. Once you have this, there is a certain coherence building between the purpose and the attentiveness and that is also brings a lot of joy. And third, which might sound strange but which is not strange, the third capability which we all must develop, shrikanth, is the capability to renounce. Renounce what Not your material accumulations or everything. Renounce the fruits, the expectation of the results. Even as a leader, you have done a great project. Lot of appreciations are coming to you. Renounce the appreciations, give it to your teams or to your bosses. Say that because of this team the project has happened, because of the great bosses, leaders, the project has happened. Renounce that. If you do that, you will see a lot of internal calmness, peacefulness, joyfulness and lightness of heart. So three key capabilities to celebrate life purpose, attention, renunciation.
Speaker 2You are always here to this. What would be your advice to an angel self? There is a twist to that question. My question is what is your three advice to an older self?
Speaker 1When I am old, really, yeah, okay, I think first advice would be whatever has happened, it was meant to happen that way no regret. Yeah. Whatever has happened in the past, it was supposed to be supposed to happen that way. Yeah. So when I am old, there should be no regret. Yeah. So that's my advice to first. Advice to the older self. Second advice is as you grow old, you attain more wisdom. With more wisdom should come more joyfulness, not more dullness. Yeah. So that's my second advice to my older self that as you grow old, you gain more wisdom. More wisdom should lead to more Ananda, more joyfulness, not the other way around. So that's my second advice. And my third advice would be slowly, slowly, become more silent. Words have their own limitations. True joy, true wisdom, resides in more silence. Yeah. So as you age, become more silent, outwardly also, inwardly also, yeah, and that brings a lot of grace and rot of Ananda. Yeah. So that these three advices I give to my older self.
Speaker 2Fantastic advice out there, aniji three book recommendations. It can be anything. Okay, but if you are to, be specific in the journey of spiritual enlightenment, in the journey of spiritual well-being. What would be your three book recommendations be?
Speaker 1Yeah, actually there could be a lot, but I think, since it's three, I would say first has to be autobiography of a yogi by a great yoga Ananda. It's a spiritual classic. I think everybody should read it. Autobiography of a yogi by yoga Ananda.
Speaker 1Second, very, I think, a powerful book which everybody should read I would deeply recommend is Letters of Swami Vivekananda. These are the letters he wrote to his brother disciples when he was roaming around the country and around the world. You would see the purpose with which this great being was driven, yeah, and how should be inculcate such purpose. So that's the second book, letters of Swami Vivekananda. And third book I would recommend, I would say, is Let the Mud Settle, by Sri Anish. Not because I've authored it Genuinely. I think it's a great book for beginners and for intermediary people on spiritual path, if you want to understand deeper nuances, aspects of life. I think this book has come out really good. Yeah, I don't even claim if I had the choice I would not even sign my name on it, but the world works differently. But it's a great piece of writing. I think people should read that. So that's a third book I would advise.
Speaker 2Only recommendations there. The last of the power of three round, anishji. If there are three simple experiments called personal transformation, what would you recommend as simple experiments?
Speaker 1I would say number one would be start to work with your food habits. Experiment with your food habits. We don't really realize the power that will be unfolded If I break my ties with the food. Yeah, we all are very accustomed to eating certain kind of food. We don't even realize that we becoming dependent on that kind of food and it is very important to break away from these dependency. Without breaking the dependencies, transformations does not happen. Yeah, so experiment with your food dependencies. Include more raw, more holistic kind of food in your plate. Experiment with food left, right and center. Break the food habits, the samskara that comes with the food. So that's one of the biggest experiment we all should, should do. Yeah, number one Second experiment I think, which can bring deeper self transformation, is try and experiment with your connect with nature.
Speaker 1What does that mean? Next time you go for a walk in the forest, in your park, in your locality, don't listen to anything, don't talk to your friend, don't talk on phone, nothing. Just try and do this experiment, walk and just walk and observe. Yeah, when you do that, you will realize that there are tons of things which you have passed by every day from last 10 years, but you it never came into your attention. There are things out there which you just don't see, don't observe. Yeah, and when you observe them that tree, that flower on the tree, that bird coming on the tree, that small dog sitting under the tree, so on, so forth it will, it will do something to your inner self. Yeah, these small things are deeply transformative, yeah, so that's, I would say, number three.
Speaker 1I would say try and and this could be a bit difficult but try and remove yourself from the equation, at least in certain situations In your house, if there's a debate on a certain thing happened, try and remove yourself out of the situation and now debate. Don't try to win the argument, just remove yourself out of the situation Now, on the logic, on the understanding, on the wisdom, just try and debate. Do this experiment with your teams also, in your workplace, with your family also, and you will see that people respect and appreciation about you will start to increase. Number one number two you will stop getting hurt. You will completely stop getting getting hurt out of whatever comes out of that debate. By removing yourself out of the situation, you're still participating in the situation, but I myself in trust, my ego, interest, I am right, you've just removed this out of the situation. Try and experiment with that. If you're able to experiment on this three, they'll bring three deep transformations in yourself. It's like in India. You say try and see for yourself. It really works.
Speaker 2So that's the power of three round. Anishji, thank you so much for being a sport and responding to that. So, as we get closer to the home run I know you have been I have heard you talking about it, writing about it, and I cannot miss an opportunity not to talk to you about this particular piece, which is it's not the survival of the fittest, but it's the survival of the kindest. That's a line that you keep talking about. Help us to understand this a little more. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1Correct, correct, yeah, so I think this is. I'm very passionate about this line, shri Kanth, because you know, if you observe nature and I think all our learnings have come from nature if you observe nature, you will see. Nature survives on this principle of survival of the kindest, not survival of the fittest. I'll give you an example of this. You know, in a forest, how the community of trees survive. Their mechanics is under the earth. All the roots of the trees, they're all intertwined with each other. Roots of different species of trees, they're all intertwined with each other. Yeah, what are these roots doing? They're talking to each other. They are sending the desired nutrient from one tree to another. To the extent they are so kind that if one tree is dying before death, this tree will dissolve all his nutrient and pass on the nutrients to all the other trees through the root network, through the root systems. So these roots of the trees are continuously supporting each other. They're very kind. Because of this kindness, the whole forest and all the species of trees in the forest survive. That's the law, that's the principle of nature. Yeah, not survival of the fittest.
Speaker 1Now the question is where did this thought survival of the fittest came from? Yeah, we are told that there was a person called Charles Darwin. Yeah, he wrote a book, origin of Species, in which he talked about, or he gave this term survival of the fittest. Actually, not. There was another British gentleman of philosophy called Herbert Spencer. Basically, herbert Spencer first coined this term survival of the fittest, and later Charles Darwin borrowed it from him, saying that it's my line kind of a thing, and wrote it in his. What's the significance of this? The significance is both and this is my theory. Yeah, we can debate on it.
Speaker 1Both Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer were off the time when there was huge rise in British imperialism. Their whole thought process was derived or developed from British imperialistic mindset. And what was British imperialistic mindset of class systems? We are the whites and all browns are in the world should be our slaves. All browns are born to be slaves. It's their right, it's our right to have them our slaves. This was the kind of mindset very class oriented mindset I have a sense or I have a feeling she can that because of this imperialistic mindset they coined this theory survival of the fittest and they forgot if let's see, if our mothers do not, if our mothers were not kind to us, they gave us their, their blood, they gave us their milk.
Speaker 1If they were not kind, if they were just thinking survival of the fittest I want to be fit why should I give my blood and milk to this child? We won't be alive today. So life actually sustains and works on survival of the kindest principle, and Bharat, this country, is a proof of that. We've never invited anybody. We've always welcomed people from outside. We've always trusted them, yeah, so on, so forth, because we learn from nature that life thrives on this principle of survival of the kindest. But I think it's very unfortunate.
Speaker 1What has happened in the world is, you know, in Hindi we call it karma shetra, field of action. So our works, our jobs, our corporate offices, they're all column shedras, field of works, yeah, where you can be kind and still do your karma. But somehow, because of this wrong theory, we've converted our karma shedras into juda shedras, which is battlefields. You, the shedra, is a battlefield. People go to office in the meetings as if they're going to war. Strange people enter into boardrooms as they were entering into a war room. Some of the boardrooms are called war rooms Bad terminology.
Speaker 1It's not juda shetra, it's a karma shetra. It's a field of performing kind, compassion, action which results in everybody's well being. That's the essence of a business. The karma should be done in the business for everybody's well being. Who's everybody? My stakeholders, my employees, my customers, my clients, my government, my local community, this planet, this nation. They're all stakeholders, so my actions should bring well being to all of them. That's the essence of a business. So, which means business is a karma shetra, not juda shetra, not survival of the fitness, but survival of the kind rest.
Speaker 2So that's the role of the organizations and leaders in the current age to nurture the survival of the kindest mentality.
Speaker 1Absolutely. They first have to nurture so Shrikan, they first have to understand it deeply. They first have to cultivate this in their own individual, personal hearts. Once it's cultivated in their heart, it will start to flow out as an organization culture. But first they have to live this, not just talk about this. They have to display it in their thought, words, action, decisions. Then the change will start to come, and it's a beautiful change. It's a very imagine, you know we will be able to create very joyful, nurturing organizations.
Speaker 2Yeah, anishji, this has been a beautiful epilogue of the spiritual journey, what individuals need to do to adapt significance, impact versus success, and much, much more. The show is all about creating ripples of inspiration. Before we sign off, what is Shri Anishji's inspired someone today? Message to all the listeners.
Speaker 1If I have to speak in just one, two sentences, I would say Shri Kand, every sentient being on earth has a specific purpose, from a honey bee, which has a specific purpose, to the tonsils in my throat, it also has a very specific purpose. If everything in this nature has specific purpose, then your life must also be having very specific purpose. Please investigate, spend some time, find it out, and only once you find your true calling, your true purpose, your life will start to become blissful, it'll become a blissful end-day over. This actually is a spiritual quest. Finding your true purpose and then working towards that.
Speaker 1It's like a spiritual quest, and I think this is also our nation's true identity. We found our purpose through our rishis, through our munis, through our sages, and we cultivated that purpose. We work towards that, yeah. So I think everybody must investigate, spend some time, find out. If you're not able to find out, go out, find somebody, get a mentor, get a guru, get some external support, help. But you must find your true purpose. Only then the bliss of life will come and touch your feet. So to say yes, that will be my message to you, kand.
Speaker 2Wonderful. Find your true purpose. That's the key to the bliss of life. On that note, anishji, thank you so much for sharing your pulse of wisdom with me and my listeners. I appreciate your time and thank you so much. Thank you for listening into today's edition of Inspire Someone Today. It's been a privilege to bring in these conversations. If you like this episode and have any feedback or comments, do mail me at wwwinspiresomedaypodcastcom. Inspiring someone is like creating ripples around us. If you like what to listen, feel free to share them, and let's create ripples of inspiration. Do not forget to follow me on my Instagram handle. Add to it inspire someone today podcast for all the latest updates. This is Shri Khan, your host, signing off, and until next time, keep inspiring.
