Soul Spectrum

You are in search of God. You want to know God. You want to know the function of God. You want to know the address of God, but most importantly, you want to be with God.

But, what is God?
Is God the creator of the universe?
Or is He the ruler of the world?
Is He a Supreme Being Or is He some kind of a moral authority?
Is God life? Or is God hope?
Is God love? Or is God truth?

Let’s get some real clarity on what God really is? For most of us, the image of God has naturally developed in our mind from when we are young and is usually associated to the religion our family follows. As a result, we trust, accept and revere that Being as ‘God’. For instance, let us take the example of someone who worships Lord Krishna:- If he is a believer of Bal Krishna, then for him ‘the image of baby Krishna playing pranks’ is God, whom he knows by the name Bal Krishna; and to the believer of Radhe Krishna, ‘the image of Lord Krishna playing the flute besides Radha’ is the ultimate God by the name of Radhe Krishna; whereas for the devotee of Krishna, ‘the image of Lord Krishna with a chakra in his hand’ starts floating before his eyes as that is what is God for him. This same thought process holds true for the devotees of other Lords too. All of those whose name we take as God, Lord Mahavir, Lord Krishna, Jesus, Lord Shiva, Allah etc – were ordinary human beings who have been accepted and worshipped as God later on in their lives. This means God is not a name, but a common adjective given to describe people who have exhausted all their karmas and have done something supernatural in their lifetime. They have lived such an ideal and exemplary life that even after hundreds of thousands of years, people still draw inspiration from their life, even today. While they were living, these great beings did not create different religions, sects, or rituals to follow, nor did they refer to themselves as God. They realized what is God and they explained it to the world. They realized God and made people realize God. They taught the world that: ‘God is nothing but our true Self.’

We are told ‘God created this world!’ But, we have not seen God. Therefore, we start imagining how God looks. One who has created this wonderful world, how wonderful would he himself be? And since we are human beings, we imagine God to be in the form of a human being. As we get to see the world more and more, the meticulous and perfect design of this huge and magnanimous world enchants us, and we start imagining God to be some supreme being, the perfect being! And when we see, hear and experience the unexpected and unusual things that happen around the world, things that cannot logically be explained or reasoned out, people call them the miracles of God; and we imagine God to be the most extraordinary, supernatural, divine being! Over time, our imagination is converted into our beliefs, and going ahead they become strong, staunch beliefs, which we consider to be the truth.

God is neither the creator nor the ruler of the world. God is within each one of us in the form of a Pure Soul,in an indivisible form. 

Until you have the ignorance of ‘Who am I’ and out of that ignorance you believe ‘I am this body’, you are an ordinary living being; and as and when you realize that “I am not the body or the name given to the body; I am only a Pure Soul” then you yourself are God. The soul of every living being is perfect in every way and is completely independent of the inner thoughts or outer actions of the living being within which it resides. Just as oil and water never mix, the soul and the body it resides in, never mix. The reason why we are unaware of it’s existence and cannot experience it’s glorious properties is because it is covered by infinite veils of ignorance. These infinite veils of ignorance can be broken only after Self Realization. This is the moment when you stop binding new karmas and start to finish all your old karmas. When all these karmas are exhausted, the pure soul is completely uncovered and what remains is Absolute God! The title and status of God is given to such enlightened beings in whom the inherent properties of the soul have completely manifested. Thus, God is not a name, but an adjective that describes these enlightened beings.

“God is in every creature whether visible or invisible. God is in creature, not in creation.” 

There are infinite invisible creatures which cannot be seen even under a microscope; God resides in all of them! However, there is no God in a sofa, a table, a camera, a tube light, or a record-player as these are all man-made creations. God does not reside in any man made things, but he is present in living creatures i.e. one-sensed living beings, two-sensed living beings, birds, plants, trees, animals, human beings, etc. What we see outside is the body and within there is God!

All our life, we keep looking for God outside, but actually, God needs to be realized inside.

God does not have any body. The body is just an outer covering. It could be that of a tree, an animal, a human being or any other being, and it may rot or tear one day. Whereas God is the eternal pure element within, which is the same in everyone. This element is our true identity! The element within is the self. The self is a pure soul. The Pure Soul is God!

Do you know there are six eternal elements that have always existed in the universe, namely:
1. The Soul,
2. Matter,
3. Space,
4. Time,
5. Element enabling motion,
6. Element of inertia.

The Soul is one of the 6 eternal elements. And that is what God is!

God is the Soul and it resides in every living being in the Universe. No one can create a Soul nor can anyone destroy it. Therefore, God has not been created by anyone; no one has made Him. God has no origin, God itself is the original element. God is not dependent, God is self-existing. God has always existed. God is eternal. Only the body, in which God resides changes from one birth to another, just like when we dispose of an old coat and wear a new one. God himself by his inherent nature, never undergoes any change.

People often are wanting and eager to please God; by praying regularly or by enchanting and by various other ways. In this process they tend to use items like milk, oil, candles, blankets, flowers, water and what not, on the idols. Every single day these basic items like food, blankets, candles, etc are misused and not utilised the way it is supposed to be. Like i mentioned before God is in creature and not in creations. Rather using these resources in our prayers and trying to please God, don’t you think using these resources to feed the needy or lighting a candle in a house where there is complete darkness or covering up one’s body with a blanket in cold, will in true sense, please God as God is in living beings and not in these idols we have created. The main purpose of all these so called supernatural beings, to whom we refer as Gods, have spent their entire lifetime to make us realise what God truly is, but yet we failed to understand the true meaning behind it. They tried to set standards like helping people without being greedy, putting others’ need before yours, but yet we created idols and started worshipping them instead of doing what they tried us to teach.

When these enlightened beings, called Gods, were alive, they did not create any differences amongst the people they used to live with. No religion, caste, rituals or superiority was created despite of their powers and what they could do. They tried to teach us to keep equality amongst each other and treat everyone with respect. We have created these religion, caste, type, rituals, etc. differences with the purpose of it being unknown. It’s time we start doing things the way we were supposed to and how we were taught to. It’s time we start to worship the real God. The one which matters and makes a difference in the world. The one which lives inside each one of us despite of what cast, religion, etc we belong to.

#KnowYourGod

#WorshipTheRealGod

#FaithReborn

One of my favorite things to do is dream up all the ways I could make a difference in the world. Of course, there are countless ways to do it, and it’s easy to just get lost in my thoughts if I let myself. I think, it is about finding something that can change the world and actually feels doable, something that doesn’t require you to do the impossible to actually succeed. That’s why, lately, I’ve been really fascinated with the idea of simply taking a stand. It’s such a simple act, but it’s probably the most powerful thing a person can do to really effect change. Of course, it’s not that easy. You have to get over the fear or criticism and ridicule in order to take a stand. That takes work, but it’s within reach.

Taking a stand is the FIRST step but, ultimately, taking a stand for something is WHAT’S REQUIRED.

It’s easy to have contempt for something you don’t like. Maybe you even get worked up enough to do something about it. But when you’re done, what do you have? If you’re successful, you’ve destroyed something that you thought was ugly or unjust from the world. That’s useful, but even more important is standing for something that will create a lasting change. In fact, I think that standing for something is really the only way to be truly effective in the long run. Standing against means working to destroy, while standing for means working to create.

Think about it. If you’re disgusted by rape, then it makes sense to stand up against it and the people who do it. You feel passionately about it, so you speak out to tell the world that it isn’t okay. But what’s the result? The world already knows that, and yet it still happens.

What if, instead of taking a stand against rape, you took a stand for the equal treatment of women in society? A much more difficult task, for sure, but that’s the real culprit isn’t it? Standing against something addresses the symptoms of a problem while standing for something is far more effective at actually fixing it. Creation beats destruction. Standing for a cause you believe in is more difficult than standing against one because the triggers that excite you to action aren’t as obvious.

If you think there’s a world changing message inside you, here are some things you can do to make sure you take a stand for something you really believe in.

1. Take something you stand against, and turn it around.

If you hate rape, stand for equal rights for women. If you don’t believe in war, why not fight for peace instead? Want to stop the destruction of the environment for our own amusement? Stand up for land preservation and responsible use of resources.

Don’t waste your time fighting the symptoms. Use your energy to support a real solution to the underlying problem.

2. Find the most important thing you do every day and tell people about it.

Having a hard time figuring out just what to take a stand for? Look at everything you do in a day, find the most important thing, and do more of that. Then, tell people about it. Tell everyone you know. Tell anyone that will listen. That’s a good place to start.

I waste more time each day than I’d like to admit, but eventually I sit down and write an essay. Writing is the most important thing I can do every single day.

Not doing anything important with your day right now? Take a stand for doing more important things. Go from there.

3. Don’t beat around the bush.

Standing for something means setting aside your fear of ridicule and saying what you really believe. Don’t allude to it. Don’t lead into it. Don’t beat around the bush.

Say it. Say it and mean it. State it as if it’s fact, even if it isn’t. If you want it to become a fact, you have to treat it like one. And don’t say you’re sorry when someone disagrees.

4. Change just one person.

There’s this happy, feel good idea that you can change the world all by yourself. It’s a lie. You can’t. But you and one other person can. You don’t have to convince the whole world to change – just one other person.

If you can change just one person, then that one person can change one other person. This only has to happen a few dozen times before it becomes a chain and the entire world is a whole new place. Start a movement, and let the movement do its job.

5. Take a stand every day.

This isn’t something you get to do once and then sit back and relax. Find time every single day to take a stand for something you believe in.

6. Wake up early.

Taking a stand for something and changing the world is going to take work. You get the same number of hours each day that everyone else does. Get up early and get a head start.

7. Make efforts.

Be efficient where you can, but don’t let it efficiently rule your life. Focus on doing something awesome at whatever cost. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t, but most of all, just work really, really hard. Do that enough and the world will listen.

8. Build a platform.

Spreading your message is a lot easier when you don’t have to repeat yourself. If you want to make your message stronger, deeper, and more impactful, find a way to save it so that people can always find it while you continue to work on something new.

9. When the room is quiet, shout.

When you have a captivated audience that wants to hear what you have to say, let them have it. Shout at the top of your lungs if you have to. Don’t let anyone think for one second that you don’t eat, sleep, and breathe your purpose.

This will change people. That’s a good thing.

10. When the room is loud, whisper.

When it feels like the noise is so loud that you could never shout above it, don’t try. Instead, whisper. People always want the opposite of whatever it is the rest of the world is giving them. So give them that.

In a world of cacophonous noise, speak softly to intrigue. Once everyone’s listening, then start shouting.

11. Make a scene.

Don’t be afraid to be ridiculous. Make a scene, flail your arms, dress like a clown, get noticed. Then, deliver the goods.

13. Create art.

If you have something important to stand for, then you probably feel pretty strongly about it. Make sure you always convey that.

Anyone can write a report, not everyone can write an essay. You have the ability to change people with your passion. In everything you do, be an artist. Paint a masterpiece by telling your story in a way that people can’t ignore.

What are you going to take a STAND for?

How are you going to CHANGE THE WORLD today?

Everyone nowadays talk about “Feminism”, “Equality for all Genders”, “Right to say NO”, “Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act” and what not, but how many of those Law Acts or Rights are undeniably given to the women of India. ‘Women’ are our mothers, sisters, wives and even our Goddesses, but what do we do for them – ‘NOTHING’. Forget doing something for them, we don’t even treat them in a right way. Is this a joke? I mean we don’t even treat them like ‘HUMAN BEINGS.’ Every 90 minutes a woman loses her life just because of the decided amount of dowry promised to the husband’s family was not paid, 25% of the girls stop going to school or quit their education after the age of 13 because the society tell them and makes them believe that mensuration is a deadly disease, 70% of the women are undergoing marital rape and domestic violence, a girl child is aborted immediately when the parents come to know about the gender of the baby, girls are not taught what is a good touch and what is a bad touch, but then again “Is It A Big Deal?”

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People think that the clothes, attitude, boldness and other behavioural pattern of women decides or portrays their consent of having sex and men often end up forcing them to have sex. But why do we forget that ‘RAPE’ is never the victim’s fault. Why do we forget that there is something know as ‘GENDER EQUALITY’ as well which still exists? Why do we forget that being a narrow-minded person and being paranoid is the biggest problem which leads to women harassments, rapes and what not? People think that you don’t need to take permission from your wives or ask them for their consent to have sex just because they are married. Marital rape is not considered as a crime in India but it is a crime whether law defines it or not. The person needs to be asked for their consent before getting them involved in a sexual or a non-sexual act, but sadly this rarely happens. Why do we even celebrate days like Happy Women’s Day, Mother’s Day, Social Justice Day, etc. Why are these day even celebrated? Do we actually implement these things in our life? But then again “Is It A Big Deal?”

A Woman Is One Who Can Build A Firm Foundation With The Bricks Others Have Thrown At Her.

The word ‘Man’ comes from the word ‘WoMan’ , without women there are no men, but then does it matter? People don’t even realize the fact that women are the reason why there are men in this world. Every man starts his journey of life from the mother’s womb because mother is that symbol of strength which cannot be even defeated by God himself. A mother bears a child for 9 months, breast feeds the child bearing all the pain she feels, nourishes the child while completing her responsibilities which she has, bears taunts of people and faces all the difficulties in her way and gives all the good manners it takes to grow up to be a better person in life. After all that a mother does, do we even pay attention to their happiness? Do we even bother to ask if she requires some sort of help? Are we so busy in our life that we tend to forget what have they gone through to help us grow and to make us reach where we stand right now? We are the same ones who push our mother out of the house just because we can’t manage their age related issues and can’t take care of them or just because we want to stay away from them. But then again “Is it a Big Deal?”

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A Woman can predict the future because she Creates it.

Why do we tend to forget that we need them a lot more than they need us and start misbehaving with women around us? There are a lot of women out there who are living in suffocation and pain just because they are compelled to, there are a lot of women out there who commits suicide just because they are not allowed to speak about the pain they are bearing and they could not just take more of it. Can’t we change our bad habits or at least try to be a better person in life for the women in our lives who guides us as mothers, supports us as wives, becomes our role model as sisters and gives you the most unique happiness of becoming a father as daughters? Without them there is no life!

Women are the only ones after God who has the power of creating life.

Now it’s time for,

• a change within us,
• a change to saves lives,
• a change to bring the lost respect of Women,
• a change to let the world know the power of Women,
• a change to spread happiness and not cruelty.

Normally, we create hash tags for some occasions, and what can be a better occasion than of this change. So let’s promise today, to the WOMEN around us, that we make the world a better and a safer place for them. And let’s just not promise the change but be the change that’s required.

#WOMAN

#CHANGEMATTERS

#WOMENSAFETYMATTERS

Hope is a feeling of trust that lies deep down within ourselves. A feeling which makes us feel fine and aspired during the days of darkness in our lives. An expectation that eventually “Everything is going to be fine.” From the day we are given birth by our mothers to the day we die and are buried or burnt by our loved ones, we never stop hoping. When a mother is pregnant, she hopes that the child to whom is she going to give birth, is born healthy and without any struggle or complications. When it is about the child’s upbringing, the parents hope that they can they raise the child with lots of love, care and good manners which teaches him to be a good person in his life. When it comes to kid’s school activities or project, which involves sowing seeds and learning how to plant a tree, the child hopes to see a sapling one day after taking good care of the seedling. The chain of hope continues from emerging adults, hoping to get good job and make a great career, to adults hoping to be capable to taking appropriate care of their family. The last but not the least, this chain is also passed on to the elderly, who keeping hoping in their end days that they get a peaceful death and not a painful death.

Hoping for something gives a person strength to face the bad things happening in his life. Hope just does not give us strength but it also makes us believe in ourselves by telling us that “we are much stronger than just facing the situation, within you lies every solution to the difficulties you are facing.” It reminds us that no matter how bad the things can turn out to be, one day it will go away and everything will be fine, as the good will return back in your life. You can face the bad times hoping that “there is always something which I can look forward to!” No matter how bad your day goes, at the end, before sleeping, you will hope that tomorrow will be a better day. We all live in hope that everything what we have been going through or are going through will be of all worth one day. We always tend to forget that we have the greatest power to hope, the power to assure ourselves that it will be fine, the power to rebuild the damaged, the power to reconstruct life.

Yet sometimes we lose hope, we lose ourselves and get carried away at certain difficult points in our life. A coin always has two sides, Heads and Tails. Even the yin and yang philosophy says that the universe and the nature is made up of competing and complementary forces like the sun and the moon, light and dark, good and bad, etc. We are a force of nature, we can’t avoid or destroy all the bad things which are happening with us or will happen to us in the future.

 At times there might be a situation where you have no doors open for you, where you have to prove yourself to others, where you have to fight hard for what is yours, where you lose everything thing that you have worked hard for. In these times you might feel that you are not worth anything in life and you deserve only the pain in your life. In those times, don’t give up HOPE, maybe at that time the doors had to be closed so that you get a better door to go in later and live a better life. Maybe at the time when you have to prove yourself to others, proving yourself might get you a better place than anyone else. Maybe at time of fighting hard for what is yours, making efforts to regain it might get you many more thing you could have not imagined ever. Maybe at the time of losing everything you have worked hard for, might give you different angles to observe and make it better. Maybe somethings were better out of your life rather than in your life and holding you back.

“To Live Without Hope Is To Cease To Live.”

Life is not certain nor promised to any living creature in this universe and nor are the bad times. So if something bad happens to you, hope that the bad phase passes soon, no matter how strong you have to be when fate tests you. And then as it is said, what value good has for you if only good is there in your life and not bad. You could have never understood the value of the good times if bad times would have never existed. Allow life to build you, break you and build you stronger after breaking you every time with the bad situations.

“In the beginning HOPE IS ALL ABOUT LIFE and at the end LIFE IS ALL ABOUT HOPE. “

A friendship is composed of trust, care, and harmony. Whether it be humans, animals, mammals, friendships of all kinds do exist. You must have heard cows have best friends, and when they are separated from each other, they develop negative feelings of loneliness and isolation. In humans, we confide feelings to one another, in hopes that burdens can be relieved, as friends give us support. Some of the human beings have been successful in developing a relationship with the wild animals and are living with them.

Today I am going to unravel some myths about the relationship between humans and wild animals. It has been said that wild animals and humans can not have a significant bond, they can’t be friends or wild animals can’t be kept as pets. There is this one saying which I have heard all my life, “THEY ARE WILD ANIMALS ATER ALL”, “THEY WILL SHOW THEIR TRUE FORM”, “NO MATTER HOW LOYAL THEY BECOME TO YOU AS YOUR PETS OR FRIENDS, THEY ARE AND ALWAYS WILL BE KILLERS.” This Myth has lead to human and wild animal conflict. Humans and animals come up against each other in a multitude of different ways, often leading to a conflict that generally results in the humans attempting to destroy the animals in question. This happens when humans feel threatened by wildlife, either because of physical safety, livelihood, property or otherwise. But the truth is a ferocious animal like lion also hugs human and like to cuddle with them. Lions have similar levels of affection for a human as might a dog. They enjoy working and learning new things. They’re happy to have you around and treat you as one of their own. Be it any kind of animal, wild or domestic, if you treat them with LOVE, RESPECT, AFFECTION AND KINDNESS, they will never harm you or kill you. There is no difference between a dog, a lion and a cheetah. All three animals only wants you to treat them with all the LOVE, CARE, KINDNESS, and APPRECIATE them for their good doings.

I’ll tell you some real life cases to prove the innocence of wild animals. One of these incident happened with a hunter. One day when he was going along the path to the forest, he saw a little wolf pup. Apparently the wolf pack forgot or abandoned him, feeling sorry about the little animal, he decided to take him home with him. The hunter’s kid loved the wolf pup alot and decided to train him like a dog. Training was difficult, the pup didn’t wanted to follow the commands, obviously because he was a wild animal, who was not habitual to following commands when he was the part of the wolf pack and also the part being that wild animals have different laws. Gradually the wolf got habitual to following commands and also started going for a walk in the yard. Many days and months passed, the wolf pup grew up and the hunter had to chain him, but at home he was given freedom. The wolf pup often ran around in the house, enjoying and playing with the toddler. But one day the wolf disappeared in the jungle and the family was unable to find him. The boy got really upset due to which the family promised him a shepherd puppy. Within a week, again the house was filled with happiness and little puppy running around in the house. The boy didn’t seem happy though, he was still missing the wolf alot. So distracting his mind, one day in the afternoon, the boy went sledging down a hill. He lost the track of time and soon it was evening. He was just about to head home and suddenly, a adult wolf came running in front of him. The boy was very afraid and closed his eyes. As the wolf came near him, the boy recognized him as his missing wolf pup. The wolf was so happy to see him that he started licking and hugging the boy. Together they climbed the hill, at the very top, where the rest of the pack was waiting. The rest of the pack, looking at the head wolf and the boy so close and friendly started playing with the boy and respectfully escorted him home. Wild animals do have emotional attachment with humans.

Another incident took place near a hospital in Syberia. A man who was recovering in the hospital had to go for daily walks near the hospital. One day he rushed back very quickly, when he went for a walk and had taken the path which was close to the forest. He shouted at the top of his voice, Run! There is a wolf out there!. Crowd had gathered in the hospital premises thinking what to do with the situation. Among them there was a paramedic and he was an aged person already, he was the only one out there staring at the wolf back in his eyes. Gradually the man started to move closer to the wolf and started telling himself “It is okay, it is not going to do harm to me if I don’t harm him.” He went to the beast for a couple of yards, stopped for a while, looked into his eyes and went back to the hospital to get his medical kit and told everyone that he came for “HELP”. The Wolf was still sitting calmly and in patience without showing signs of aggression. It looked like the wolf had a bullet puncture on side of the stomach. The man returned with his medical bag and again started to crouch down towards the wolf without disturbing him. He removed bottles of tampons from his medical bag and started washing the skin of the wolf that was sticking from blood. The animal was sitting without even moving his face. The paramedic cut the wolf’s hair as far as he could, at the place of his injury, and then started removing pellets from the wound with tweezers. The Wolf was sitting with patience all this time. Having removed the pellets from the wound, the paramedic applied the dressing and started to put everything in the bag. He returned to the hospital without looking back. The people who were nervously waiting, saw the wolf return to the jungle.

Wild Animals don’t always have the intention to go for the kill. And when there are cases of a tiger, a lion or any predator, coming out of the jungle and killing humans, people say they are “MAN-EATERS” and end their life. If a predator comes out of the jungle and gets involved in killing humans, why kill it? Rather than killing the animal why not just contain it and take it back deep into the jungle and leave it? To all those people, I want to ask a question “If you INVADE their TERRITORY, SNATCH their FOOD, KILL their FAMILIES, do you expect they will sit quite and mourn?

Humans are the most selfish animals on the entire earth. Even when the wild life does not owe us anything yet we take so much from them forcibly. These are the same wild animals which provides us with valuable toxics and deadly venoms which are used for finding out cures to various incurable diseases. The waxy layer on the world most poisonous frog in the world, the poison dart frog, is used to develop a cure for cancer and various other diseases. The venomous saliva of the iguanas helps to develop an antibody which counters heart related problems. The venom of various species of snakes, when extracted, is used for curing alzheimer’s disease and many more. Wild animals are a real blessing to the man kind. In order to understand any animal completely, you need to live with their laws, you need to eat, sleep, stay, protect each other, fight, etc like they do. You need to understand how and when they are offended, when they like being loved or shown affection towards, how do they communicate, etc. “IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND A LION COMPLETELY, YOU NEED TO BE LIKE ONE.”

You can always make an unbreakable bond with any kind of animal, when they are born. When they are born and you imprint on them, they trust you with all their heart and they will never miss even a single change to protect you, no matter if it’s a lion or a duck. Most of the bonds are also made when the animal is rescued by humans, knowingly or unknowingly, when they are abandoned, injured or about to die. “THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU WALK OUT IN THE JUNGLE, BEING FEARLESS, FIND A LION AND TRY TO BOND WITH IT”. PLEASE DON’T DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT AFTER READING THIS BLOG. IF YOU TRY TO IMPRINT ON THEM, WHEN THEY ARE NOT HABITUAL IN THE HUMAN WORLD, THEY WILL AND DEFINITELY WILL ATTACK AND KILL YOU. BECAUSE THAT’S HOW THEY ARE RAISED IN THE WILD. A wild animal’s food are other animals, it hunts, kills and feeds on other animals. But that doesn’t mean they are BAD OR THEY WILL KILL YOU IF YOU RAISE THEM AS PETS. Every creature was designed to serve a purpose.

The entire world has experienced change in its daily routine due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and the need to reduce or stop travel for the sake of global health. From new strict hand washing regimens to cancelled events or having to work from home, this is without a doubt affecting everything in our daily lives including our carbon footprint. In fact the environment might just be the only beneficiary of this scary social distancing scenario we are all part of. We human beings might have evolved physically but mentally we remained stagnant. Before this pandemic showed up, we never use to spend so much time with our family, we never sat by the window to get a glimpse of the beauty nature holds, we never became so health conscious and worked out so much. We have always ignored to see the true form of earth and its real beauty because of our daily struggles to earn a living. We have forgotten that what is helping us in our survival, we are the only ones, killing that source of our life. Cries of an environmental crisis have echoed through our modern societies for the last 50 years yet life goes on. Just because we got locked up and have to stay home now, we started to shift our perspective from living this everyday fast moving life to living a quality peaceful life. When the violence and vexation created by us faded, all the birds came out, creatures like dolphins are seen in shallow waters again, pollution in the air decreased and ozone layer started to heal and repair itself. We used to visit the zoo to see animals in cages before this pandemic and now animals come to see us in those cages. The thing which we took from nature is being released and returned to it now. All the rivers which turned into sewers hold fresh water now, a massive river like Ganga, which was nearly impossible for humans to clean, holds crystal clear water just because there is no washing clothes, funeral practices, bathing, etc. Maybe it’s time for us to learn the lesson that nature, mother earth is trying to portray. We need to take care of her, only then we can survive orelse our salvation is not far. Whenever earth has tried to repair itself it has restored itself in a condition better than it was before. Mankind’s craving to control nature and exploit all its resources for profit can be wiped out in a stroke by an organism we cannot even see with the naked eye. Let’s remind ourselves that our ancestors saw nature as mother, and asked us to respect it. At some point in history, we forgot ancient wisdom. When pandemics and abnormal weather phenomena are becoming the norms, it’s time to pause and wonder where we lost the way, and how we can still make a comeback. Nature is reminding us to acknowledge, with humility, our equality and interdependency. It’s a lesson, imparted at a heavy price, that will come handy in mitigating global challenges like climate change as well as in building a better, common future.

In this continuous evolution of the world, every single thing is changed or modified but one thing never changes – FEAR. What is fear? Where does it come from? Fear is the made up thoughts and over imagination done by human beings. Fear comes from ‘US’. ‘We are always in a constant state of fear our whole life’. From the day we are born to the day we die we are never fearless. We have forgotten that we, as humans, have evolved so much that all our fears are self-created now. We always scare ourself by imagining negative outcomes to any activity we pursue or experience. But just because we imagine these things does not mean that they ‘WILL’ happen, or that they will be painful as we think. ‘FEAR IS ALL ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN NOT WHAT WILL HAPPEN’. The most common fears that sabotage all hope for success are failure, poverty and loss of money. Fear causes people to avoid risk of any kind and reject opportunities which are presented to them. They are so afraid of failure that they are almost paralyzed when it comes to taking chances at all. Everyone has their self-made fears :- fear of rejection, fear of financial security, fear of loss of love, loss of respect, etc. The most common reflex in a fear situation is the attitude of ‘I CAN’T’. Fear is a terrible emotion that undermines our happiness and can hold us back throughout our life. ‘Do the one thing you fear and death of fear is certain.’ There are many ways to kill your fear and one and the most effective way is to visualize yourself performing with confidence and courage in an area where you are fearful, your visual image will eventually be accepted by your subconscious mind as instructions for your performance. Your self image, the way you see yourself and the way you think about yourself, is eventually altered by feeding these positive mental pictures of yourself performing at your best. The reality of our fear is:-

• We are not scared of dark, we are afraid of what’s in it
• We are not scared of heights, we are afraid of falling
• We are not afraid of people around us, we are afraid of rejection
• We are not afraid to love, we are afraid of not being loved back
• We are not afraid to let go, we are afraid of the reality that people left us
• We are not afraid to try again, we are afraid of getting hurt for the same reason again

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Poverty alludes to a situation where people are deprived of basic necessities of life, like inadequacy of food, shelter and clothes. It is a state of privation where there is a lack of essential needs for subsistence. Tremendous number of young boys and girls are engaged in child labour. They don’t get proper living conditions, they have to fight the hardship of poverty to secure food, clothes and shelter. Who are these people? Where do they come from? Why can’t they lead a good and normal life like us? The underprivileged are the real strength of the country, they beg, they starve, they face situations which they don’t even deserve to face but yet they don’t lose hope. They suffer from innumerable diseases without even a single drop of medication, they sleep on roads yet they don’t lose hope. They stay away from their loved ones and family yet they don’t lose hope. They fall several times but yet they have the strength to get back up and face life. In this world there are more than half of the population, struggling to survive. Isn’t is heart breaking that we humans have become so greedy and selfish that we don’t look after the needy anymore. What have we become?

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Latterly, I saw a man clearing up the sewage and his child, an infant, was abandoned on a piece of cloth in front of a shop in this intensely roasting whether. That infant, in all those situations, is crying from past 15 minutes and people who are passing by that area are looking at him and doing nothing except for ignoring. When I went a little bit closer to the infant, an old man, from nowhere came and picked up the baby and tried to calm him down. As soon as the old man picked him up, the baby gave up on crying and started smiling. By witnessing this situation, I got my hopes back that there is still some humanity left in this world. By looking at old man calming his son, the man who was working had a big smile on his face feeling that nothing wrong will happen to his baby. In vogue, the other municipal workers or contract labours working, their families are also not given any place of accommodation. Even the families are forced to stay on roads until the work is not completed. They stay on footpaths, on a fabrication of inferior materials like plastic sheets, bamboos, bricks, etc.

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Twinning the scenario, a beggar dragging his old father, comes and stands right beside me and begs for money. I give him 10 rupees but he shows his five fingers and pointing straight out to the driver’s water bottle. Informing, that they need water not money. Unfortunately I did not have a bottle of water but the auto rickshaw driver did have one, so he removed his water and gave him. But the beggar was telling him to pour in his hand so that he can drink. Poured a complete 1 litre bottle of water, still the beggar was thirsty. Can’t we afford to donate not more than 10 bucks each when we ear in thousands or lakh? Are we of so low grade mentality? Sometimes I feel maybe we are just not capable to evolve our minds! Sometimes I feel I am on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell, so ashamed of myself. It is truly said by Brain Tracy, “Successful people will always look for opportunities to help others but unsuccessful people will always ask, ‘What’s in it for me?’ “

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