Spirituality / Meditation: Life Lesson
The Underlying Principles and Learnings from Meditation
Discipline and Consistency in Life
I feel blessed to have had this human life where my mind is spiritually aligned and possibly awakened, with meditation and the inherent peace at my core and the desire to fulfil the purpose of my human life — be it towards myself, my family and friends as well as the society at large. Things that keep me content and happy. The real source of grateful bliss.
I started meditating when I was 12. My parents introduced me to Paramhans Dayal Ji and Shri Anandpur’s spiritual society. Ever since I started following the five principles of Shri Anandpur daily. Them being:
- Shri Aarti Puja (praying to God)
- Seva (giving back)
- Simran (meditation)
- Satsang (learnings of godliness) and
- Dhyaan (Equanimity and God in heart).
Meditation is a means to advancing on the path of enlightenment. In finding ourselves and our purpose in life. Gautam Buddha experienced and shared this learning in Buddhism. So do some, if not most, of the other spiritual schools of thought across the world.
Since childhood, meditation has become an integral part of my life, to the extent that it has become an activity as basic and comparable to eating each day. This was instrumental during my 2 years of preparation for the entrance exam for the Indian Institute of Technology a.k.a. IIT-JEE (the most competitive examination in India with about 2000 students clearing the test out of over 1 million sitting for the test).
I would wake up at 4 AM, meditate for half an hour and then be able to study with utmost concentration for 3 hours before rushing to make it to school by 8 AM. For such competitive examinations (IIT-JEE), kids would study and slog for 10 to 12 hours each day whilst the simpleton (me) would study 3 hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening and still feel on top of things. The deeper concentration based on meditation has been the basis of it.
Looking back, this served as a launchpad of my journey. From IIT to Stanford to starting a start-up in the valley, to investment banking and private equity at Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley in Europe and now back in India while running my own investment office- meditation has kept me centred, sane and deeply focused.
Pranayama: Meditation form where one focuses on breathing
I would focus on the spot above my eyes and in the middle of my forehead- also known as the Shiv Netra and focus on my breathing. Observing the inhaling and exhaling, one breath at a time.
With practice, our focus starts shifting higher above on the forehead and eventually towards our head wherein one starts to realise and experience the cosmos and microcosmic world in its true essence, i.e., the genesis that we reside in the world and the microcosmic world resides in us.
Meditation and by extension: equanimity — a balanced, centred state of mind is bliss. It not only increases one’s concentration but it’s like the cheat code to increase the odds of success in Life.
Daniel Kahneman’s book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ notes on similar line-
Instead of reacting to situations: the slow part of one’s brain starts operating such that we start seeing and experiencing things in ways that increase clarity, and make decisions rationally based on which the odds of us being right increase and thus by extension — success.
Little did I know that the learnings from Shri Anandpur- regarding questioning and by extension seeking to know the purpose of one’s life and thereby acting accordingly to attain that and the path to godliness (or in simple terms: self-realisation) would make me so awakened in life and play a pivotal role for the rest of my life both personally as well as professionally
Life Lesson: Realisation of one’s purpose in life and the role of spirituality in attaining it.
The blend of sanskaras (English: value system) from the family and association with Shri Anandpur (through meditation) would go on to be such pivotal pillars in the early years of my life that despite being in an ecosystem where teenagers in the world would be doing everything possibly imaginable (read- ‘having a good time’ in all forms of abuse) I would stay in that ecosystem yet cut through the noise and focus on what I wanted to.
Staying focused, disciplined and consistent in Life. And that has made the difference by compounding over time!
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