Effortless living – what does it mean?

by Lt Col RK Langar

Effortless living is an inward living. Effortless living means living purposefully and mindfully, without any stress. Effortless living is only possible when we put in plenty of effort to make our living a useful event. Self effort must precede effortless living. It is only through our right understanding and self effort that we can turn stressful living into a stress free living. Today we have to struggle a great deal for our existence mainly because we have enlisted wrong priorities in our life. We are surrounded by gadgets and products which instead of empowering ourselves leave us with a feeling of deprivation even though they give us some comfort. In the present society we have worldly successful people who are not happy, then we have happy people but they are not successful in the worldly matters, then there are majority of people who are neither happy nor successful. There are very few people who are both happy and successful in the true sense. These are the people who are both happy and successful from inside. These are the people who understand the purpose of life and they are also the ones who live effortlessly. Majority of us are spending majority of our time in chasing what we want which distances ourselves from both success and happiness. First and foremost there is a need for us to close the gap between what I want and what I have. God has given us so much unasked which so many like us do not have. If we keep a count of what we have we should feel contented with it. The equation more money equals more happiness does not hold good. (more…)

Patriotism in an Indian Context

By Lt. Col. RK Langar

The dictionary defines patriotism as love for one's own country with an earnest desire to contribute towards the welfare of countrymen. But when we study patriotism in the light of Indian Spiritual thought that the world is one family, then patriotism takes a bigger form and gives a meaning in a larger since in that patriotism would not just mean just love for your own country. Patriotism would now mean love for the entire humanity and living in the world and contributing towards the welfare of all and not only our countrymen. When you love the entire humanity this also means love for your country as the world includes your own motherland as well. (more…)

What does success mean to different people?

By Lt Col R K Langar

No one meaning of success is same for two different people. For a sportsman success means winning a medal. For a worldly man success means doing well in his job or business which secures comforts and luxuries for him. For a writer success means his writings are appreciated by one and all, for a student success means securing a high grade in exams and for a housewife success means looking after the needs of all members of family but commanding their respects. (more…)

Understanding The Power of Now

First published in 1999, Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now has become an international bestseller. Written as a series of questions and answers, it presents a radical analysis of humanity's current state and offers a revolutionary route back from unhappiness to enlightenment, which this article attempts to give the merest flavor of. If you read just one Spiritual book in your life, The Power of Now is a very strong contender to be that book. (more…)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

From the vast collective literary output of mankind very few works are worthy of the epithet classic. Robert Pirsig's 1974 semi-autobiographical(?) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) is one of the few - a true modern classic.

Essentially ZMM consists of three distinct but interwoven stories. Superficially it is a travelogue, about a man - the un-named narrator - motorcycling across the United States with his somewhat troubled son, Chris; for the first part of the journey they are joined by friends, the couple John and Sylvia Sutherland. It is also the story of a man haunted by a "ghost", that turns out to be his former self. Finally, as suggested by the subtitle, An Inquiry Into Values, ZMM is a discussion on philosophy inspired by the cultural upheaval of the time (epitomized by the counter-culture and hippie scenes) concluding that a re-discovery of quality is the key to the re-harmonization of an increasingly dichotomous society. (more…)

Goal Setting and Purpose

Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't. Richard Bach

Purpose and Goals

Life can be likened to a journey, with its purpose corresponding to the destination. The sense of purpose is so essential that without it we’d struggle to climb out of bed in the morning, for without purpose there'd be no reason. But our purpose is way more complex than getting to New York Grand Central. (more…)

When Will We Ever Learn?

The history of mankind makes for depressing reading. It is a story of recurrent conflict between different groupings with the mightier invariably exploiting or eliminating his less able neighbor. Looking around the world, wars continue to rage; the only difference is that the means of destruction have grown exponentially more horrific.

It takes no great leap of imagination to view mankind simply as clothed animals, and indeed whenever any account of particular depravity comes to light it is common to hear the perpetrators described as animals. But this is an insult to the animal kingdom, which though often savage, acts only from the instinctive drive for survival; ie bears kill to eat, men kill for fun. (more…)

What are our Duties in Life?

By Lt Col R K Langar

Lord Krishna states in Bhagavad Gita that man attains perfection by performing his allotted duties in a spirit of sacrifice which means without bothering for the fruit of actions, without attachment and even without the feeling that I am the doer of actions. When  your offer the fruit of your actions to God and also its doer ship then your work becomes worship of God. With actions performed in this manner one attains purity of mind which is a prerequisite for gaining progress in the spiritual path. Man has to perform certain obligatory duties while living in the world which are listed below. (more…)

Living With Imperfection

As imperfect beings living in an imperfect universe we inevitably, at times, find life a frustrating experience. Here's how to not only cope with life's inescapable imperfection, but to recognize the genuine beauty of its experience.

Imperfection is part of the great design and an inherent part of nature. Physicists believe the physical universe exists only due to the big bang's imperfection in producing unequal quantities of matter and anti-matter (known as baryon asymmetry). Put another way, if the universe had begun with perfect symmetry, we wouldn't be here.

The heights of human achievement and the incredibly rich diversity of life evolved only because living things reproduce imperfectly. They introduce random mutations along the way, some of which improve the status quo and allow things to get better.

A great wonder of the human experience is our uniqueness. We are each born into different (enormously varied) circumstances, with different characters, aptitudes, and weaknesses. But unhappiness arises from two distinct kinds of imperfection - the inner and the outer. (more…)

Exist As Your True Self

In order to awaken who you really are, you have to set free everything that is not you.
Any part of yourself that has been built up, transformed, or altered and doesn’t feel real is not you.  By becoming your true self, you are able to find peace within yourself.  True happiness and contentment can occur when there is no internal conflict between your true self and how you exist. We may believe that we exist as the person we are meant to be, but if we are not happy, then we are not. (more…)