Inner Consciousness : A Journey Within.....

I was thinking, that did Lord Krishna only give teaching to Arjun ?  Why not to others ? Why not me?  What wrong have I done? Why am I deprived of this great wisdom? Having read Geeta at least thrice, I still couldn't figure out it's true meaning,  each time I read,  I would  find a new meaning to this greatest scripture of times. Ones own life is the best teacher,  it teaches you a lesson at every stage, so how could the lessons of 'Geeta' be missed by this greatest teacher of times called " Life". While I was mulling over these thoughts, I got my answers. In this Kurukshetra of life, Krishna is with each one of us.  We all have Krishna in ourselves, yes! its our "Inner Voice", which acts as a voice of Krishna, constantly talking to us. In the ocean of life, our inner voice is the guiding light of the Light House, it always keeps guiding us to the correct path to be treaded. In this world, which symbolizes as Mahabharata, He is within us in the form of our 'Conscious' guiding us at each step . In fact, the battle of Kurukshetra for each one of is different, as our life's struggles are different. Krishna without any bias continues to show the path, irrespective of weather we follow it or not, which is a matter of choice of our free will. The inner conscious at each moment in life reflects upon the beacon of truth and dharma. It is we, who become Dhritarashtra, blinded with lust and greed. Krishna showed the path of Dharma to Dhritarashtara in epic times and even now continues to do so for each one of us today. Kauravas didn't pay heed and met their destiny. In this Kurukshetra of life, while we live, we have a choice to make and write our destiny. Krishna is with all and within each one of us. Some of us  who realise it are like Pandavs and those who don't are like Kauravas. Each one us is a Arjun of his own life, who is bound to turn victorious in the battle field of  Kurukshetra called 'Life' provided the caveats of consciousness are observed . Our body is like a chariot, on which we as a Arjun ride in the battlefield of our life and  our consciousness is the charioteer guiding the path as  Krishna. Therefore, if you are living in the Krishna consciousness your are destined to crossover this battle field.  Our mind is  like a Arjun. It is in a state of confusion and chaos among the rights and wrongs of the worldly action. Amidst the fog of utter confusion in the Kurukshetra of life, it's only our conscious which can pave the way through. The path may not be to our liking, but believe you me it's the only path which is right. You would agree with me,  our 'Krishna' the' Inner Conscious'  always guides us on the  path of Dharma. It is up to us to decide weather we want to be Kauravas and ignore the path or be Pandavas and follow the path. The beauty of life is that Kauravas, Pandavas and Krishna all are within us. It is our 'Free Will' which decides the course we set on. If we choose to be Kauravas, the Krishna with in us leaves and we can no longer listen to Inner Conscious. This is the precise reason ,why we say that criminals don't have voice of conscious, because his charioteer Krishna left long back when he chose to be a Kaurava. When I talk about inner  conscious, by no means, I am  prophesying you to follow a yogic life devoid of worldly pleasures. We all are humans and can not live without them. To be alive and ticking we all need a goal and aim to be achieved. Life without a goal is like a ship without a rudder. You are the Captain of your ship and Inner Conscious is your rudder. If your ship  has to sail on a voyage, you are the captain, set your own destiny. If you don't lay out your destination and principals now, it will be difficult to correct the course midway.  Set your Goal, set yourself on a voyage guided by the light within you.  Like a Arjun,  be focused in life to achieve what you desire.  You may be a student aspiring to achieve a examination goal or a businessman desiring to be a millionaire and for that matter you may be anyone. But be like a Arjun, single mindedly focused to realize your dream in this battlefield of life.  But what is important is the journey of your dreams and the road that you travel. It must be the one enlightened by your inner conscious else you may reach your destiny but your success will be short lived.  

Camaraderie Above All....

Somewhere in NEFA Valley altitude 15500 feet, mercury dipping and anchoring to sub zero levels. Chilling wind blaze added another level of difficulty freezing every inch of the body and any exposed skin would immediately turn blue. To know, what it was, one had to be there else you can only imagine. We, the band of boys held the fort for the countrymen. That night I had a knock on my Fiber Re-enforced Plastic hut, FRP as we called  it. It had a small 10 feet x10 feet space, but it seemed like a palace at those altitudes, where not even a blade of grass grew. I wondered who was it, the voice came " sahab ji main haan Satnam, maadi ji problem" ( little problem in Punjabi dialect). I knew it's never a minor problem, when you are being called upon at night, else these boys would have sorted it out themselves. He said " Harnek  nu saans Chad gai hai" ( Harnek is having difficulty in breathing). I rushed out of FRP, though it was barely 50 meters but it almost took 10 mins to reach the other  FRP. Walking and breathing were a task by itself,  oxygen levels were much below the normal, any effort of walking would leave you panting. I saw Harnek gasping for breath. I really couldn't understand what could have gone wrong. Without wasting even a minute picked up the magneto phone and called up base camp asked them to connect me to the doctor. The doctor spoke to me and tried to understand the situation , I was trying to explain to him and comprehend his directions as to which medicine was to be given. We had a medical box  which had probable medicines with a list of symptoms. Doctor told me, it appeared to be a case of HAPO (High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema) a medical emergency condition when water gets accumulated in the lungs, it's a common illness at high altitudes due to low atmospheric pressure. But the problem is that, if the water is not taken out of lungs  it progresses very fast and turns fatal in few hours else the other solution is to lower the altitude of patient by use of HAPO bag. It's a bag in which patient is made to lie-down, it is closed and air is pumped into it, this maintains the atmospheric pressure around the patient and within no time,  whatever altitude we may be at,  the atmospheric pressure around the patient is brought at par to that of sea level.  Both the things didn't  seem to be working out, neither was I medically trained to drain out the water from lungs, which only trained doctors could do, nor did we have the HAPO bag. The nearest availability of doctor and HAPO bag was at least 6-8 hrs of walking distance. All eyes were staring at me and wanting to know my call about the situation. Easiest was to wait for the Helicopter evacuation till the morning, but that too had a dark lining, in case if the weather packed, heli would not turn up and by then we would have lost time beyond control. The only reasonable option left with me was to head for the road head which was about 6 hrs of walking distance, but with a man on stretcher,  it would take us nothing less than 6-8 hours of continuous walking. And in this option, one thing was  for sure, to find a doctor with an ambulance and HAPO bag. My conscious call was certain, that I was not going to take any chance and let Harnek take last breath  on my lap. I asked to prepare at least a party of 8 boys in buddy pairs and a stretcher to evacuate Harnek . We knew, it was not going to be easy in this sub zero temperature. Doctor asked me, if I was sure and didn't want to wait for the Heli evacuation in the morning. I knew, the going was going to be tough, but we were trained for tough turfs. Life at these inhospitable terrains was  any which way not easy. Well, without wasting even a minute, we picked up Harnek and headed for a tough call that I had taken. Among those present in FRP not even one person had iota of doubt, how will it be undertaken in the fierce cold night, because everyone knew tomorrow it could be him needing shoulders to rescue. The journey began at 2100 hrs in the night in buddy pairs lifting Harnek on the stretcher, the descent had made the load to be more on the shoulders of the front bearers and while up-climb, it was the turn of rear bearer's shoulders to bear extra share of burden. So you see, life balances it out, no one is at advantage in the fair game of life. As the journey with Harnek began and the time passed,  the buddy pairs kept shifting the whole night and shoulders began to bleed, lungs were gasping for breath. At 15000 ft carrying own weight is a challenge and with added weight of a person on stretcher with the inclined gravity makes it difficult beyond imagination. It's sheer girt, determination and camaraderie that kept us going that night. That night I realized the fiber that kept us bonded was strong, it withstood the test of time, even the freezing chill and the fatigue beyond physical capacity couldn't break it. It was about 0430 hrs in the morning when we reached the road head. Doctor was already present there waiting for us with an ambulance and a HAPO bag. Harnek was taken to Base hospital. Later we learnt, it was a confirmed case of HAPO and any further delay could have been fatal. That night though our shoulders bled, but we saved Harnek. We didn't only save him, but his family and our faith in the camaraderie.  I salute the camaraderie of my band of brothers who stood by my side in my decision.  Jai Hind !!

5 AM Magic Key...

Well, I say this with lot of conviction. You don't have to run after success, just form the right habits, build on them, deepen them and rest of the life you can thrive on them. It's like the roots in the eco system, stronger and deeper they are  higher or for that matter lower you go, depending upon which form of habits you have subscribed.

5 AM Miracle or we may call it as dominate your day before the breakfast, all mean the same.  Waking up at 5 AM is one the best and I can say it is the master of all habits to climb the success ladder.  Join the 5 AM Club and then see the miracle happening. A new beginning of your life and a new turn all together, to what you had been following. Twenty one days are all that you need to give  to your body to form or break any habit, after that it's the habit that will drive you. Wake up at the wee hours, feel the cosmic connect , indulge in your self and discover a new self, which is more positive determined and proactive.  Once you become a member of this morning club the dearth of time will be over. Money can buy worldly things, but what buys money?. 'Time' is currency to buy money. Mornings help you to have clarity of vison and priority of goal. If you have these two you don't end up wasting your 'Time Currency' over randomness and mundane priorities. You will find your self taking charge of your day in a commanding manner unlike  being a slave to  reacting situations. I throw an open challenge to you, sit back and think name of five persons whom you know to have habit of waking up at 5 AM and are unsuccessful in life. Let me tell you, how hard you may think but its very rare to find an exception to this universal finding. If you are part of this elite club, I call it elite  because when the world is sleeping its only the elite class who desire success wake up to toil ahead. So you can never be a "minimum guy" if you subscribe to mornings. Mornings have serenity which lends itself to be in harmony with the universe, it is at this time, if you meditate you will get solutions to all the problems in the universe, as all the solutions to problems also lie in universe. And mornings are in perfect harmony with the universe, the invisible thoughts at this time have  answers to all situations.

     Few years back I was working on an engineering research project at IIT Mumbai and to best of my knowledge I was supposed to get the results with the procedure that I was following, but to my disdain all efforts were not yielding results. I had exhausted all my alternate methods, control setups to find as to why my results were not happening the way I wanted. And it was that one morning the universe threw the solution to me, I had a fleeting thought that, maybe the result is in front of me and I am not able to comprehend it. Actually in my research result was based on the sensitivity of reading the loss in the optical signal, I then realized may be that the design of my system was such that the entire signal was getting lost and since loss in the signal  was to be calibrated as the out put, I need to lower the overall sensitivity of the system to read the loss. Sounds confusing, I was also confused until during the meditation I got my answer. When our mind is constantly thinking about a   particular thought, it is actually constantly radiating it to universe but at all other times the environment around is disturbed, and as we say in shastras universal connect only happens in the 'Bhram Mahurata' it is a period of two and half hours before the sunrise. The answer that I got for my technical impass was a perfect light in the tunnel which appeared to be a dead end. Ever since then my mornings are miracle mornings. Need an answer to a situation, meditate in the morning when the harmony is at its best, the thoughts and the gut feeling you get at that time, your answers lies in it. Try it  and I say with conviction. 

You have a Dream. Put a plan in place make it a Vision Statement. Put a date to it make it a Goal. To make your dream come true, you have to achieve your vision and climb the ladder of goals. To make it happen there is only one key, wake up, be part of 5 AM club. It's a universal law "one who starts early stays ahead" it is as plain and simple. A balanced morning routine is to spend at least fifteen minutes in the meditation, invest forty five minutes  in work out, pick up pen and paper  jot down all the thoughts that you got. It is at this time that you must fix up the hours of the day  and see that you have assigned it towards your vision and goals. Now  you have a plan for the day else day gets wasted out doing things in a random manner as they appear.  Always remember the Sum Total of Randomness is always 'Zero'. That is why all those who wake up late always find themselves in random situations chasing urgencies. When you have a plan, urgencies do not occur. It is therefore said " plan the hour and win the day". All this is possible only in the wee hours of the day when you are at your best. Inculcate this 5 AM Club, belive in me, it is a "Game Changer" . Let me remind you, there is only one Trustee of this Club and it  is 'you'. So what are you waiting for, approve your own membership.