Have you ever felt the mystical stillness of nature at dawn, the serenity at twilight? These precious moments, known as sandhi kaal, are significant for a spiritual practitioner to experience greater depth in sadhana (practice).

Dreams seem real while we are dreaming. While dreaming, one is totally oblivious to the waking state world. When we wake up, the very dream that seemed so real whilst dreaming, becomes unreal. But if we never woke up? What will be a dream and what will be the reality then? If our sleep continues endlessly, then dreams would become our reality. When you are in the dream world, you have absolutely no memory of the waking world and...

Mind is not just the conscious mind that you know. There are deeper layers which you are ordinarily unaware of. Whatever is happening on the superficial level of the mind, is called the conscious mind. Underneath the conscious mind, is the subconscious and unconscious mind - in Sanskrit it is called ‘chitta’. It is the storehouse of all memories and past impressions.

Mind is like a jungle. You are standing in the middle of the jungle completely lost in the forest of your thoughts. But how to find the way out? Our sages showed the way. This is the path of dhyana. But this involves preparatory stages like pranayama, etc. Pranayama will prepare your body, breath, mind and energy, so that you can experience dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and finally the samadhi. There is a complete procedure to it. You cannot...

A medical student whose goal is to become a fine doctor, he or she stays focussed on this target and puts in the required effort unceasingly for five to six years. He or she works hard, day and night as their eyes are set on the day they are awarded the coveted degree. The same is true for every worldly achievement-be it sports, arts, science, commerce, theatre and so on…success comes only with strong conviction and hard work.

A gyani (enlightened being) knows his true, ever-blissful ‘Self’. Thus, although he performs all actions, he is not dependent on the world for anything. He is blissfully content in his own ‘Self’. And only such a being can be the non-doer of actions and thus the non-bearer of its consequences. He is ever content with whatever that comes to him of its own accord, being equanimous in success and failure, and thus he is not bound despite performing actions....

India is a land with a long tradition of great masters and great yogis. And there are countless stories depicting their amazing lives and teachings. One such story is about a yogi from Maharashtra (in central India) called Changdev Maharaj. He entered a state of samadhi and stayed in that state for almost three hundred years. When he came out of samadhi, his age was almost four hundred years. Emerging from the cave, he asked the locals what year...

Meditation is the gateway to inner awakening. It is the door that opens up the possibility of self-realisation. It is the sword that destroys all ignorance forever. Imagine being free of all bondages and sufferings, not enslaved to anyone or anything, supremely happy and content, mind in perennial peace, having complete clarity of one’s real identity and the meaning of life being crystal clear…can there be anything more precious than this achievement in life? Can any worldly...

Meditation is not about doing but being. Thus all that is done in the name of meditation is not meditation at all! It is not something which can be handed over to you on a platter, it is not something that can be bestowed upon you. Meditation is an effortless effort. The effort is required only in the beginning to create the right inner milieu for meditation to happen effortlessly. Thus, you take effort to sit properly and practise...