The making of a Sarvodaya Sannyasin

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Selflessness at its extreme – I bow to her

Posted by Gopal on February 10, 2012

Ref: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9047494/Costa-Concordia-victim-died-after-she-gave-life-jacket-to-elderly-man.html

Erika Fani Soriamolina’s body was found by divers on the sixth deck of the vessel wearing the ship’s uniform but no life jacket.
Witnesses said Soriamolina had helped dozens of terrified passengers into lifeboats on the night of the disaster before giving the life jacket to an elderly man.
A tourism graduate, Soriamolina was working on only her third cruise on the Costa Concordia .
The recovery of the young woman’s body ended a desperate search by her parents and sister Madeleine who were among the family members of passengers and crew waiting for news of their loved ones on Giglio.

What a great selfless act – no words to describe my amazement and respect for her! Rest in Peace, Erika!

Regards,
Gopal

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Brahmacharya and marriage – the dilemma before every spiritual aspirant

Posted by Gopal on February 5, 2012

Dear friends,
As I have spent a hell lot of time and mental energy on spiritual reading, reflection and experimentation, I think, I should express my understanding on this important issue of “brahmacharya and marriage” for the mutual benefit of myself and readers who are most welcome to give their comments.

There are 4 categories of people in this respect.

CATEGORY 1. People with desire for marriage, but no desire for lifelong celibacy even in a married life
CATEGORY 2. People with strong aversion to marriage since beginning and having the inborn capacity for lifelong celibacy
CATEGORY 3. People with strong aversion to marriage since beginning, but without the inborn capacity for lifelong celibacy
CATEGORY 4. People with desire for marriage as well as desire for lifelong celibacy even in a married life

Nothing much needs to be said about “category 1 – People with desire for marriage, but no desire for lifelong celibacy even in a married life” as they are present left and right, front and behind, everywhere like air in this world. The whole atmosphere on Earth is pervaded by these people. For them, sensual pleasures are too important and obviously great and words like meditation, Self-bliss, celibacy, etc. are quite distasteful and weird mumbo-jumbo. May Maya show some mercy on them and let in few rays of spiritual light in their lives – with this prayer, let us move to other 3 categories.

Now, “category 2 – People with strong aversion to marriage since beginning and having the inborn capacity for lifelong celibacy” people are special people like Swami Vivekananda, Sant Jnaneshwar, etc. and most of us are much below their spiritual level. They have a specific social mission to work upon and are too spiritually evolved to desire spouse and children. Since they are absolutely devoted to their mission, they have some aversion for marriage simultaneously as marriage entails diversion of a non-trivial amount of our time, energy and attention which these greats can ill-afford due to their matchless devotion to the cause. Unfortunately, I do not belong to this category in this life (probably, If I get born again, I will be in this category).

Next is “category 3 – People with strong aversion to marriage since beginning, but without the inborn capacity for lifelong celibacy”. I definitely belong to this category. These people develop a strong aversion to marriage to one or more of below reasons:

1. Dysfunctional family background which developed the distaste for a married life in them.
2. Strong influence of some bachelor role-model. In my case, it was the strong influence of Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and other martyrs of freedom struggle who made me take the decision of lifelong bachelorhood in class 2-3 itself – I had no clue that time about MAYA and its power to tempt and delude.
3. Strong influence of some great ideal or vision. Such ideal or vision may be desire for absolute independence, love for humanity, etc.

Now, these people do not have a natural capacity for lifelong celibacy as they are not spiritually very evolved. But, those with a really strong determination will develop the capacity through sincere effort and struggle and stick to their resolve whereas those with a weak level of determination will give up and violate the resolve of lifelong celibacy in a bachelor life. I have already given full details on “Greatly inspiring brahmacharya quotes” article on how to develop the capacity for lifelong celibacy for all those readers who are determined enough for lifelong celibacy in a bachelor life.

Coming to “category 4 – People with desire for marriage as well as desire for lifelong celibacy even in a married life” people, they usually possess one or more of below characteristics:

1. They were good-hearted to begin with, but got the fire ignited fully at a later phase of life like teenage or 20s. Since the fire ignited a bit late in them, the desire for marriage had got developed strongly enough by then.
2. They got very loving parents and their parents always expected them to lead a married life. So, they never thought of a bachelor life.
3. They learnt fully about the importance of celibacy a bit late like after already getting married.
4. They had a strong curiosity to have some taste of brahmacharya-unfriendly deed to see how it feels.
5. They believed that begetting children is an important duty towards parents or society or both.

Whatever brahmacharya insights I have put on this blog are important for both category 3 and 4 people because lifelong celibacy is not trivial whether one wants to follow it in a bachelor life or a married life. Full details on brahmacharya techniques are already given in “Greatly inspiring brahmacharya quotes” article. I can sum up those techniques using below 2 approaches:

1. Brahmacharya sadhana every day. We all need to follow “Wake up by 4 am” routine every day and spend 1-2 hr in pure meditation (not including asana and pranayama) in brahmamuhurta every day. Only then sushumna will awaken and prana will move towards higher centres (away from the lower centre of lust [mooladhara], fear [swadhistana] and pride[manipura])
2. Rat technique – be timid like a rat in at least first 12 years of lifelong brahmacharya practice. Rat is very timid. It never stares us in our eyes. Just a little noise and the rat rapidly runs away from us unlike dogs, monkeys and even cats who many times growl back at us with flares of anger in their eyes. Since brahmacharya is not trivial, we need to be timid like a rat and avoid all brahmacharya-unfriendly situations completely for at least first 12 years of lifelong brahmacharya practice. There is a proverb in Bengal, “The brave falters, the timid succeeds” regarding brahmacharya practice which clearly shows that showing lion-heartedness before Mahamaya (cosmic illusion) is a recipe for spiritual self-destruction. Trying to fight the currents of millions of years of natural evolution, through which human body has evolved, using our will-power shows a total lack of understanding. Will-power should surely be used as an aid (even moving our hand a bit requires will-power: will-power is needed for every minor or major effort) but full protection is assured only through rat technique for spiritual beginners like us.

There is nothing to feel ashamed of rat technique. Even greats like Gandhiji followed it. Gandhiji realized in his 30s that he was not able to practise unbroken brahmacharya despite all his efforts. He found that private meetings with his wife Kasturba were leading to brahmacharya-unfriendly deed. So, he followed the rat technique and decided that he will meet Kasturba only in public like in wide open room or outside or when children or others were present. Once he started following rat technique, he was able to maintain celibacy thereafter since the age of 37.

Instances of lion technique failing miserably and rat technique working wonderfully are too many. Sage Vishwamitra failed when he met his nemesis, nymph Menaka. If only he would have followed rat technique and kept 2-3 brahmacharya-protector dogs with him during his sadhana phase to chase away all temptresses with their fierce bark and assault, no Menaka would have been able to destroy his penance. But, alas! Only after failing once and thereby giving an eternal opportunity to all worldly people to taunt struggling spiritual aspirants, Sage Vishwamitra understood the importance of rat technique. Let us be wiser and understand it now itself.

Ramakrishna Paramahansa as well as Swami Sivananda suggested married people to sleep alone and not with spouse on the same bed. Ramakrishna even went to the extent of suggesting his householder disciples to avoid touching their spouse even in a playful, but non-lustful way as it will bring strong lust in mind – it is a harsh truth that males are very easily excitable in matters of lust. He scolded his householder disciple, Mahendranath Gupta, (also known as Master Mahashaya in Yogananda’s book “The autobiography of a yogi”) when he had a son. Mahendranath Gupta eventually started living in a separate building on rent since late 20s, away from his spouse and children whom he used to visit only in the day time for genuine family works. Thus, Mahendranath Gupta also followed rat technique as suggested by our great sages and he eventually became enlightened – so, rat technique does work wonderfully.

Having given enough examples to prove that following rat technique shows our spiritual maturity and high intelligence and leads to spiritual success in following lifelong celibacy, let me point out one remarkable thing regarding lifelong celibacy. It seems that lifelong celibacy should be begun in 20s or at the most early 30s to gain full power ascribed to lifelong celibates.

Swami Sivananda writes in his celebrated work “Brahmacharya”: “There is another sect called “Dhiryaretas”, or those persons, who, previously a prey to lustful thoughts and deviated from Brahmacharya, later take to the practice of strict celibacy. Such a person, if he practices strict celibacy for twelve years, can acquire superhuman powers. Medha Nadi or Buddhi Nadi is formed in him. By means of this, he can have retentive memory of anything as long as he lives, and he will be in a position to learn all kinds of subjects.By observance of unbroken Brahmacharya in thought, word and deed for a period of full twelve years, one is bestowed even with the vision of God, if one aspires for it. He can solve the most abstruse and complicated problems easily. But, this kind of observance should commence before the thirty-second or the thirty-fourth year.”

This clearly shows that at least, one should take to the practice of lifelong celibacy after the age of 32 (before 34 means after 32). So, one should be finished with having kids (not more than 2, plz!) and sensual enjoyment (in case, some curiosity is present) by 32 at max. Thus, marrying too late is not good for spiritual aspirants. Mid-20s (the age of 26-27 but definitely first 25 years is not right for married life as it is brahmacharya ashrama phase as per our sages) is the best time to get into married life for whatever personal, family or social reasons, one is interested in marriage.

But, what if one has already crossed the age of 32! I genuinely believe that such a person would not get Self-Realization on his/her own even after practising lifelong celibacy, but it is definitely possible with the combined effect of lifelong celibacy plus grace of a living, Self-Realized Guru as can be seen in the example of some householder disciples of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa like Girish Chandra Ghosh who was headlong into lust even in 30s, but recovered late, still got Self-Realized due to grace of his Guru. This also explains why a criminal like Angulimal (a murderer who later became disciple of Buddha) who recovered in 20s itself became Self-Realized, whereas someone like Gandhiji who recovered after the age of 36, missed the boat! It was all due to what Swami Sivananda has mentioned as “32 year deadline” to begin lifelong celibacy.

Practising lifelong celibacy after 29 or 30 is amazing because we have the example of Buddha (who started at 29) and Mahavira (who started at 30) to continuously inspire us. It will boost our confidence a lot because we are emulating giants like Buddha and Mahavira. (After 29 means: if someone is born at 1 Jan, 2000 then he will be in “at or after 29” phase after 1 Jan, 2029.)

Now, only one question is left to discuss – what if one wants to practise celibacy and spouse does want? I think, practising celibacy is such an important spiritual decision that one cannot give it up because of spouse. One should try to gently persuade the spouse, but if he/she is adamant, one should allow him/her to use other channels or persons for these things while not breaking celibacy oneself. This approach may sound harsh and even immoral but breaking celibacy whole life is not the moral duty of a husband or wife. It is spouse’s problem if he/she is not able to practise celibacy – why should one destroy one’s spiritual life for spouse’s weakness? But, to be honest – I think, using “brahmamuhurta sadhana” plus “rat technique – be timid like a rat”, even weak-minded people can reach the level of lifelong celibacy.

Gandhiji’s quotes in this regard are remarkably clear and sharp: “To the Newly-Married. I tender this advice even to the newly married. It is easier not to do a thing at all than to cease doing it, even as it is easier for a life abstainer to remain teetotaler than for a drunkard or even a temperate man to abstain. To remain erect is infinitely easier than to rise from a fall. It is wrong to say that continence can be safely preached only to the satiated. There is hardly any meaning, either, in preaching continence to an enfeebled person. May I point out to parents that they ought not to fall into the argumentative trap of the rights of partners? Consent is required for indulgence, never for restraint; this is an obvious truth.”

I have expressed various insights on the subject matter of “brahmacharya and marriage” in this article. I hope it was helpful. Feel free to offer your comments below.

Thanks,
Gopal

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How to wake up by 4 am in winter?

Posted by Gopal on January 1, 2012

Hi friends,

Wish you all a happy and prosperous new year in 2012! This article is my new year gift for you as it is related to an important spiritual issue of waking up in brahmamuhurta (by 4 am) everyday in a year.

When I wrote my previous article “How to wake up everyday by 4 am?”, I had thought that my technique of going outside for 10-15 min just after waking up is the final solution for all seasons to deal with the problem of laziness, etc. in early morning. The reason for this deception was that this technique worked like a charm during the summer. The joy of walking, running and exercising in cool breeze of early morning was so intoxicating that I used to feel an ecstatic thrill rather than laziness when alarm used to ring in the morning. I had that time thought that even in winter and rainy season, I will follow this technique by using appropriate woollen clothes and using umbrella respectively.

Now, I have no experience of rainy reason yet, but the onset of this winter made me realize that my assumptions were false. In India, winter starts from November and stays till February (almost 4 months). Winter is quite chilly in the north India and temperature reaches even zero degrees centigrade – 5-10 degree is reached almost all across North India (but South India has no such problem as it lies in tropical zone with more annual sunlight).

So, when I continued with my morning routine of going outside for 10-15 min in November also, I started feeling cold. Then, I used woollen clothes, but I noticed that the amazing freshness of air that I used to experience in the early morning during summer was conspicuously absent in winter. It seemed as if air quality in early morning of winter has much less vitality or freshness or probably cold air entering my lungs was enough to give discomfort to my nervous system despite all woollen clothes. As a result, the thrill of waking up that I used to feel everyday in summer vanished in winter. By dint of will-power and force of previous habit, I continued to wake up at 3 am for few more days, but first week of November onward, I eventually felt sick due to early morning cold air.

This disturbed the rhythm completely. Then, I decided to avoid going outside in winter (but, will definitely go in summer as that is amazing joy), but I realized that I had started feeling real problem now in waking up in the morning. The primary reason was not laziness, but lack of sound sleep due to variations in cold on day to day basis every night. So, if I decide that one blanket will be enough today, the temperature at night will fall down so much that I will feel cold and will not have sound sleep. As a result, waking up at 3 am became impossible. My rhythm got broken completely for almost 1.5 months due to this (till mid-Dec, 2011). But, I added techniques after techniques to deal with cold during this period as I did not want to be “early riser in summer and late riser in winter” kind person.

My guru, Swami Sivananda, says that wake up by 4 am and I have to follow this because he was a genius. Following his advice properly has always brought all desired results in my life and I have every reason to believe his assertion that the maximum rate of spiritual progress is possible only when one wakes up and does yoga-sadhana in brahmamuhurtha (which is roughly from 4 am to 6 am). Now, to deal with the problem of cold, I had to do the following things:

1. Put a curtain on glass door because glass conducts cold much more than concrete wall.
2. Close gaps in windows through pasting cello-tape.
3. Shift bed to the sides of conjoint walls (L-shaped wall-configuration) rather than keeping it in the middle of your room. This way, wall protects us from two sides and we feel a bit less cold (we should try to use those L-shaped walls which are away from doors and windows as far as possible as concrete materials of wall conducts cold much less than glass and wood in doors and windows).
4. Buy one more blanket – total two blankets now to be used at night.
5. Use a monkey-cap plus one sweater (more woollen clothes may be tried if needed by readers – like more sweaters, inners, etc.)
6. Use a heater and put it near your head.
7. Of course, I always follow universally valid yogic law of sleep with head in South or East direction (Magnetic axis in our spine should not be aligned North-to-North with the Earth’s magnetic axis, otherwise due to repulsive magnetic force, sleep gets disturbed. This explains the reason for sleeping with head in South rather than in North. On reason behind sleeping with head in East, I did not get 100% clear idea, but it is partly related to Earth’s rotation on its axis from West to East – so, smoother experience with head in East rather than in West).
8. Use a better sleep inducing technique than mantra or meditation technique. And that technique is doing Shashankasana after going to bed till some drowsiness comes – I practice meditation in Shashankasana rather than in sitting posture just after going to bed. Shashankasana cools the nerves and mind very easily and rapidly – that’s why it is called Shashankasana (Shasahank means moon – so, nerves and mind become cool like moon due to relaxation produced by Shashankasana). Within 10-15 min, I feel much relaxed and then lie on bed to eventually fall asleep in another 10 min or so. Please search on internet to learn Shashankasana.

So, I found that my sleep pattern has stabilized greatly after I started following all 8 steps together – all this evolution occurred over 1.5 months’ bitter struggle in which I kept fighting it out by figuring one thing after another.

But, one more master stroke was needed because when I was following this technique, there was always a possibility that one day my rhythm will break and I may sleep a bit more in day-time or even at night due to unexpected mistakes (like forgetting to use two blankets properly, etc.) as humans cannot be expected to maintain perfection every day. In that case, even when I used to go at 9 pm to sleep, I would fall asleep after a long time. That effectively would reduce the actual sleep hours from 6 to less than that. So, at 3 am when alarm used to ring, I would feel disoriented and would fall back asleep again after putting off the alarm.

So, I used technique 9 now to deal with this:

9. When your total sleep becomes more than 6 hrs, but less than or equal to 8 hrs due to extra sleep that day due to whatever reason, next day, set waking up alarm at 3:30 am (9 pm to 3:30 am) and when total sleep becomes more than 8 hrs, then next day set waking up alarm at 4 am (9 pm to 4 am) rather than usual 9 pm to 3 am. Once I started following this technique, I was very happy because one day’s mistake would not break the rhythm for 3-4 days like in the past – now, I was able to recover the very next day. Other thing was I was still waking up by 4 am even in the worst case in this routine (as per the sage advice of “wake up by 4 am” of Swami Sivananda). Though staying on bed awake for 30 min or even 45-60 min was not a pleasant experience, yet I was able to wake up in the morning at the scheduled time because I was still having 6 hrs of my sleep need fulfilled after following this technique. Also, this unpleasant experience of staying on bed awake for 30-60 min due to extra-sleep made me so alert that extra sleep also vanished almost 100% eventually.

All these 9 techniques worked fine. But, I felt the need for one more refinement. I found that getting off blanket was a bit harsh experience due to sudden cold that body gets exposed in winter. The nervous system and hence, mind gets a rude shock. And this is obviously due to biological reason rather than any psychological reason like laziness etc. So, I added 10th technique:

10. Do 5-10 round internal breath-retention on bed under blanket itself to warm your body – as internal retention produces lots of inner heat (technique is simple – just inhale deeply and hold breath as long as possible and then exhale completely to finish 1 round of internal breath-retention). And then getting off blanket to put off alarm does not give any rude shock as my body is warm due to inner heat generated by internal breath-retention practice. So, I put off alarm then, goes to wash my face and then start my daily routine with 1.5 hrs yoga-practice.

Thus, above 10 techniques together fully solved my problem. Do not get mistaken by 10 number as once I got habituated, I do not feel at all any problem in following these techniques (in fact, many of them are once-in-winter technique like shifting bed to conjoint walls, etc.)

This is the first winter when even when temperature is as low as 5 degree centigrade at night, I am able to wake up at 3 am in the morning. The problem of not able to wake up during winter was due to a host of biological reasons and I have fixed them all, thanks to good fortunes and resolute, persistent application of mind.

Since I have struggled for almost 8 years in developing “wake up by 4 am” routine, I feel at the top of the world now after vanquishing this chronic problem. During this period of struggle, I suffered a lot as extra sleep or lack of sound sleep was very disorienting to mind, usually accompanied with lack of freshness or headache (sometimes migraine) or both during day-time, affecting both my mood and over-all efficiency by a huge margin. But, spirituality is what I am sure leads to the highest peace, joy and wisdom. So, there was no question of compromise with the goal even in face of failure-after-failure for not mere 1 or 2 day, but 8 years!

I am very happy to taste full success at last. During last 8 years, due to endless disappointments in achieving success, I used to blame my Guru, Swami Sivananda, for not giving more details on how to develop early morning routine in face of so many problems. But, probably he never faced any problem in developing such routine himself and it was very easy for him to do so. In some sense, it is good that for me it was very difficult to develop brahmamuhurta routine because it led me to discover so many effective techniques which will surely be of immense benefit to other aspirants who are aiming to develop a brahmamuhurta (early morning waking up) routine.

On the whole, I enter 2012 now with this amazing habit of “wake up by 4 am” – this is a watershed in my whole life so far. I am sure to go miles and miles deeper and higher in future due to amazing spiritual energy generated by brahmamuhurta sadhana which also aids tremendously the growth of mind power by producing more inner peace, intuition and focus.

I hope, you all also develop “wake up by 4 am” routine and enjoy the peace, joy and wisdom of spiritual sadhana of brahmamuhurta whole life like many wise people have done in the past.

Just for sake of information, my full early morning routine for winter (in summer only change will be – I will do 10 min and not 5 min physical exercises on the roof of apartment in open air to enjoy cool breeze, but thoughtless awareness meditation will be done inside room only) is:

8:30 pm – 3 am: go to restroom + 5 min Nadi Shodhana Basic (involving no internal breath-retention) + Go to bed and do thoughtless awareness meditation in Shashankasana till some drowsiness comes + lie on bed and doing thoughtless awareness meditation, sleep.
3 am – 3:20 am: do 5-10 rounds internal retention on bed under blanket itself (in lying or slightly raised position itself) + get off and put off the alarm + wash your face + 5 min physical exercises
3:20 am – 4:30 am: On ground with heater ahead of you, on a wooden plank put on newspaper, do the following in Sidhasana: 5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced (involves internal breath-retention) + 1 hour thoughtless awareness meditation (begin with 5 rounds Shunya Pranayama which is similar to Kapalbhati) + 5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced (involves internal breath-retention)
4:30 am – 7 am: Self-studies for civil services (I am doing fulltime preparation for it in New Delhi – please pray for my desired success in this immensely complex and challenging exam)
7 am onward : bathroom, etc and day begins (whole day only studies and studies :D – enjoying it a lot)

Thanks,

Gopal

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Kishenji’s death and an appeal

Posted by Gopal on December 4, 2011

Kishenji’s death is quite painful for me particularly after I learnt that his brother and he had not even come home to meet their mother for last 3 decades. When almost all of us want to lead an easy life, these people are leading such a difficult life, living in jungles on plain food and under extreme psychological pressure, for what they consider to be the best way of removing injustices from the society. I have no doubt that Maoists’ method of violence is ineffective and futile in a democratic nation like ours. Despite all flaws, democratic polity leaves ample scope for positive transformation. But we have to accept that the nation collectively failed many unprivileged people and drove some of the most idealistic persons like Kisenji on a path which led them or us to nowhere. The loss of such people with an extreme empathy for the downtrodden is a tragedy. Maoists should be treated differently from other extremists and whole-hearted efforts should be made by all stakeholders to bring them into the national mainstream through general amnesty and rehabilitation like it was done in our neighbouring country Nepal. If Maoists can be made to change their path to peaceful means, they can bring great reforms in our society through their dedication and sacrifices.

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How to wake by 4 am everyday?

Posted by Gopal on September 23, 2011

  1. Note: If there is no update regarding subsequent failure of this technique, know that this technique is continuously working everyday for me. Because in case of subsequent failure of this technique, you will see an update at the top of this article mentioning the same.
  2. An additional technique related to sleep management is how to remove untimely sleep. Please read this technique here.
  3. This technique should not be followed in winter as it makes one sick if one goes outside under the sky. One can do it inside home or on balcony in case of mild winter.
  4. My new routine:
    1. 3 am – 4:30 am: till 31 Dec, 2014 (first three year of real brahmacharya practice which can be done only if one wakes up by 4 am), put on light during yoga
    a. wake up
    b. 10-11 min:
    i. On apartment roof (not in winter as it makes one sick – in winter, do it in room itself or during mild cold, on balcony), 1 min “simulated running” -> 3 min jumping & stretching and bending exercises -> 1 min Poorna titali asana. Then, come back to room. // The park in my locality in India was occupied by menacing, big and barking dogs (they started barking directly at me) when I reached there on the first day at 3 am. So, I decided to spend this first 20 min on apartment roof and instead of actual running, do now “simulated running” by running on the same spot without moving the body forward (like one does on treadmill machine) – that is as good as doing simulated running on treadmill machine :D .
    ii. 5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced
    c. 60 min Thoughtless Awareness (start with 5 round Shoonya Pranayam – described at the end of this doc)
    d. 5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced
    e. 10 round Simha-Garjanasana
  5. After trying for 1 month in November (the month of doom for my early morning routine), I failed in waking up by 4 am in winter not due to laziness, but due to two factors: (i) not possible or even enjoyable anymore due to cold to go outside after waking up unlike in summer and (ii) disturbances in sleep due to unexpected increase in cold on some days which destroys the rhythm for next few days due to cascading effect. Since time is very precious, I am not doing any further experiment and have moved to late night “1 am to 7 am” sleep routine till Feb, 2012. Will move back to “9 pm – 3 am” routine by following the technique of this post from March, 2012 onward. And in Nov 2012, after being done with civil services mains, will again fight to stay at early morning routine even during winter and hopefully, next winter early morning routine will be 100% maintained. So, just a tactical retreat due to civil services mains pressure.

Hi friends,

I wish, I had the credentials to write this post 8 years ago when I first learnt the great spiritual importance of getting up by 4 am after reading Swami Sivananada’s books. Ref: http://gopal4mission.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/greatly-inspiring-brahmacharya-quotes/#Wake_up_during_brahmamuhurtha – In fact, waking up by 4 am is indispensable for first-class brahmacharya practice which, in turn, is indispensable for Self-Realization.

Wake up during brahmamuhurtha. Waking up at 3 am or latest by 4 am (3 am – 7 am is most suited for reaching more joyous state during thoughtless awareness practice, as the entire atmosphere is free from thought vibrations and hence peaceful/sattwic, thus naturally deeper and more joyous state of thoughtless awareness – which is 100% peace/sattwa – is realized during this period.”) and doing thoughtless awareness practice for as many hours as possible. Since lust is a rajasic (passionate) quality, with more increase in sattwa, brahmacharya automatically becomes more easy and natural. Sushumna awakens automatically during this period and kundalini automatically ascends up the spine. Anyone aiming at full celibacy must develop the solid routine of waking up between 3 am – 4 am and utilizing time till 7 am in yoga, meditation (thoughtless awareness) and other creative activities like self-study, etc. This alone will solve more than 90% of difficulties one faces in the practise of full celibacy. No wonder, all our true sannyasins wake up during 3 am to 4 am. Most people find celibacy so hard because they sleep even in this golden period of 3 am to 7 am when the whole nature is supporting the awakening of sushumna, raising up of kundalani and hence, a natural, fast-paced evolution of our awareness. So, this rule is exceptionally important for all sadhaks. Swami Sivananda’s first instruction in “20 Important Spiritual Instructions” is: “Get up at 4 a.m. daily. This is Brahmamuhurta which is extremely favourable for Sadhana. Do all your morning spiritual Sadhana during this period from 4 a.m. to 6:30 or 7 a.m. Such Sadhana gives quick and maximum progress.” I wrote “wake up daily during 3 am to 4 am” because some effect of brahmamuhurtha is present even before 4 am and even after 6 am (Brahmamuhurtha has different definitions on internet, but one can consider 4 am to 6 am as the reasonably accurate brahmamuhurtha period).

Convinced with the fact that sexual energy generated every month in human body is so high that it is well-nigh impossible to transform it into spiritual energy (Ojas) and make it ascend the spine along Sushumna channel unless one wakes up by 4 am to utilize the automatic opening of Sushumna during brahmamuhurtha, I had been trying all kinds of techniques to develop “wake up by 4 am” routine. But, alas! An otherwise strong person like me failed miserably in this endeavour for 8 years in a row. I used to succeed for 3-4 days and then fail again due to feeling strong laziness mostly when alarm used to ring at 4 am or sometimes during subsequent meditation. Despite racking my brain, I could not solve this conundrum. All the techniques on internet failed in helping me fix this all important issue.

I always remembered that during 11-12 year’s age, I was able to wake up at 4 am and go along with my friends to nearby high school sports field to practise running and physical exercises. That success of past kept pinching me due to continuous failures of the present. I thought that I was able to do that because of group effect as even one person waking up by 4 am means he will wake up other persons and then together, they will go for running and physical exercises. And there was no group effect available as during college (IITK) as well as in USA, I had no one who was eager like me to wake up so early. But, one thing that is present in me is: I am absolutely devoted to the spiritual path despite all weaknesses as spirituality is my only real mother/father that gave me solace even in most inconsolable situations of life. So, I never gave up the quest of waking up by 4 am despite continuous failures over last 8 years. And at last, I solved this problem 100% cleanly. And the solution is based on the same mechanism which worked for me at the age of 11-12. Let me explain the solution below.

Since I am a fan of yoga, I always used to focus on doing yoga inside room just after waking up. And of course, I was failing with this method. 50 days ago (first week of August, 2011), when I woke up at 3 am as per the scheduled setting of alarm clock, I was feeling strong drowsiness. A thought came to me due to analysis of my drowsy situation, “Why not go outside and walk for 10-15 min?” I did exactly that – and oh God! It was an out-of-the-world experience in walking in that perfect stillness on the road with very cool breeze of that early morning hour. I felt so fresh that I cannot describe it in words. I came back and my drowsiness vanished. I thought, why not try it next day also to see whether it can work on every day. And so did I. And it worked on next day. And on next day. And on every day in last 50 days and I have every reason to believe that it is going to work in future also (because 50 days is a long enough time for a sleep experiment to expose any problem).

I modified the routine accordingly and added “Get up, wash face and go outside on road to do 5 min walking + 5 min running + 5 min exercises + then come back to home (takes 5-6 min) totalling around 20 min” everyday as part of my daily routine. And now, my mind feels so elated when the alarm rings just because of temptation to enjoy that out-of-the-world experience of coolness in that calm hour outside under sky that I jump out of bed with great joy to get onto the road as soon as possible. Thus, the reason why I was able to wake up by 4 am at the age of 11-12 was not group-effect, but the amazing experience of coolness of early morning hours under open sky.

Thus, my problem is solved and now, I am able to wake up at 3 am everyday 100% cleanly. My complete yoga routine is as follows:

1.3 am – 4:35 am: (Put on light during yoga – as darkness induces drowsiness)

a.wake up
b.20 min: On road, 5 min walk -> 5 min running -> 5 min jumping & stretching and bending exercises. Then, walk back to house (taking another 5-6 min).
c.6 min (1 min Poorna titali asana + 5 min sarvangasana)
d.5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced
e.30 min Thoughtless Awareness (start with 5 round Shoonya Pranayam – described at the end of this doc)
f.5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced
g.10 round Simha-Garjanasana
h.5 min Nadi Shodhan Basic (read brahmacharya quotes simultaneously)

I have a gut feeling that this technique will work for everyone. Additional suggestions for developing “wake up by 4 am” routine are as follows:

  1. If you live in a region which is too cold or too rainy or for winter/rainy season, you can buy a treadmill exercise machine for running inside home itself.
  2. Girls will find it potentially not-so-safe to get outside at such hours. They can use a treadmill exercise machine for running inside home and/or use rope-jumping inside home itself which is aerobically as effective as running.
  3. If you cannot go on road or in a nearby field, please do running & exercises on the roof or balcony – and if that is not possible, inside room by keeping windows open to get fresh and cool air.
  4. Beware of stray dogs. Look here and there to detect their presence. If one or more of them are present, do light jogging first so that they do not get startled and start barking at you. After that, move to full-speed running. If you also have a dog, you can take the dog out for running which may perhaps make stray dogs feel friendly towards you by looking at a like-minded fellow running with you :D – hihi.
  5. If you are not habituated to wake up so early, try shifting your sleep schedule by 15 or 30 min a week till it reaches 4 am or earlier waking time. For example, I was sleeping from 12:30 am to 6:30 am during June 2011. I shifted it by 30 min every week (12 am – 6 am next week; then 11:30 pm – 5:30 am next week; and so on so forth) till it reached 3 am in 5-6 weeks. Try only gradual shifting approach; otherwise failure is almost 100% guaranteed in switching from late night to early morning routine as body-mind complex does not accept any rapid change in sleep pattern because sleep pattern is very intimately linked with various physical and psychological processes.
  6. Read other techniques described here and here also for sake of completeness.

All is well that ends well. Now, my real spiritual life begins. I will improve early morning yoga practice further by making it 3 hours of thoughtless awareness practice in future, but till civil services project is over, I cannot spend more than 1.5 hours of total time on early morning yoga.

Please feel free to post your comments below. I am inactive on this blog due to civil services preparation, but your comments will surely be read some time in future by me and may surely add some value for the readers who will read this article.

Best regards,
Gopal

Posted in Socio-political issues | 6 Comments »

Did Anna Hazare’s fast strengthen or weaken Indian democracy?

Posted by Gopal on August 26, 2011


Hi friends,

Like many of you I have been very actively supporting Anna Hazare’s movement for a strong and independent Lokpal. There are increasing demands now that he should break his fast. I agree with that also. There are also some voices that are saying that his fast has set a dangerous precedent for Indian democracy. I totally disagree. On the contrary, I think, his fast for a strong Lokpal bill has strengthened our democracy. Below are my reflections on the subtle nuances of this issue:

  1. Anna’s fast was not an agitation, but rather a movement. Dealing with his fast as an agitation was a big political mistake by UPA government.
  2. Parliament is definitely a supreme institution, but in a democracy the people are the sovereign. Pushing the parliament through a mass movement had become a moral imperative for Anna Hazare and his supporters after many flip-flops on this issue by the government? Fasting was a bit coercive method; but in this country the system does not move unless pushed to the brink (which is a pity because that violates the common sense “Why do we have to fix things after it breaks down? Why not to avoid the breakdown itself?“) So, if Anna would not have gone to fast, we would have been waiting for Lokpal bill for another 40 years just like we have been waiting since last 40 years.
    • He has empowered those who’ve felt lost in a new India where wealth is the sole presiding deity.
    • He has become a symbol of change and hope at a time when a scam culture has assaulted the conscience of the nation.
    • It is true no fast can be called off till the primary goal has been achieved. If that goal is to have the Jan Lok Pal bill passed exactly as you desire then that is a maximalist position which is never easy to accommodate overnight. But, cannot take a maximalist position on a legislative issue. The fast should be called off at a proper time after key demands are met without calling off the movement.
  3. Will Anna’s movement set a dangerous precedent or did it undermine Indian democracy? Not all. Because, Anna Hazare was able to move the government into action only because of the mass support. In absence of the mass support, his agitation would have been easily suppressed and fast broken through force-feeding. So, it is not the victory of any coercive technique, but the victory of the people whose aspirations were channelled by Anna Hazare. Thus, it has strengthened our democracy by once again proving people as the sovereign.
  4. Democratic process is often lengthy and lumbering. But it is so in order to be inclusive and fair.
  5. 3 movements by civil society went through standing committee and led to below revolutionary bills:
    1. MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
    2. RTI (Right to Information)
    3. RTE (Right to Education)

    Still we cannot say that the same would have happened to Lokpal bill also because Lokpal bill hurts the corrupt politician directly by bringing their corrupt activities into the domain of investigation by an independent watchdog.

Conclusion: Anna Hazare’s movement is the need of hour and he is rightly our national icon and hero for the youths. He should call off the fast now and continue the movement till an effective Lokpal bill is passed by taking an all-India tour and mobilizing public support.

Jai Hind,
Gopal

Posted in Socio-political issues | 4 Comments »

Some ruminations on our political challenges

Posted by Gopal on August 13, 2011

Hi friends,

As many of you know, cleaning the politics of India is the most important goal of my life (more important than even spiritual goal or any other personal goal). I believe that a clean politics will inspire cleanliness in all other spheres of our social life as well. There is a quote attributed to Alexander, “I will be more afraid of an army of lambs led by a lion than an army of lions led by a lamb.” Politicians are our most visible leaders. Any nation state needs a system of governance. Democracy allows the highest participation of the masses. The political class in democratic countries devise policies which influence and shape the future of educational, economic, social, political, cultural and technical spheres of the society. Without a doubt, to show apathy towards politics is utter moral depravity and the highest cowardice apart from sheer foolishness.

One of the biggest problems faced in democracies all over the world is the role of money power. Let me jot down my thoughts on this issue in this article.

In India, the ground report says that at least 5 crore rupees are spent on each MP seat by all main candidates; the amount is to the tune of at least 2 crore rupees for MLA seat and at least 20 lakh rupees for mukhiya/corporator elections. Let us do some calculation (I will neglect mukhiya/corporator elections because they are not party-based). In 5 years’ time-frame, 543 MPs are elected to Lok Sabha. So, for a mainstream national party, the cost of Lok Sabha election is 5 * 543 = 2,715 crores. Assuming that each MP constituency maps to 5 MLA constituencies on the average, the total money required by a national party for legislative assembly elections in all states of India will be: 2 * 543 * 5 = 5,430 crores. I discount this assertion made by many people that much of this money is used to buy votes. I think, when that is done then the cost of a MP election runs into tens of crores. The calculation I am making based on 5 crores for each MP election and 2 crores for each MLA election is based on the expenses in pamphlet distribution, organizing meetings and means of electronic communication and transportation for leaders and active cadres – and the expenses of 5 and 2 crores are reasonable estimates for even such legitimate expenses in MP/MLA elections.

If we do a sum total, we find that it becomes 2,715 + 5,430 = 8,145 crores every 5 years or around 1,600 crores every year. Assume that a national party has around 10 lakh active donors. It will require a donation of around (1,600 crores)/(10 lakhs) = (1,600 * 100 lakhs) / (10 lakhs) = 16,000 every year from each of these 10 lakh active donors. Theoretically, it is not possible to raise this much money from good cadre base. But, the practical reality is almost all Indians are quite stingy in donating to any cause, but not when it comes to family expenses (the cancer of “family comes first” mentality) – yeah, I know I am generalizing about the great Indians, but I will stick to this generalization based on my personal experiences with people of India. So, we can safely assume that raising even 10% of this amount from donations is a big task, not to think about raising 100% of it. In this scenario, the political process in our country gets widely exposed to the crooks and criminals who wield enormous clout in our democratic system through their money power. Most of our politicians are crooks and criminals. The intelligentsia is as always too busy in perpetuating “family comes first” legacy of our forefathers generation-after-generation to do any meaningful sacrifices for cleaning the rot of our political system. Assuming that the more things change, the more they remain the same, I believe we need technical solutions to this problem rather than assuming that we can change the mentality of people comprehensively by making them donate to political parties generously so that honest politics can happen in this country. In any case, it often happens that once technical solutions are implemented, the eventual effect changes the mentality of the people also. Let me give an example here so that things are clear. In USA also, lots of social tensions on the race issue were present in 19th century just like we had on the issue of religion. But, USA’s law-enforcement institutions (police, judiciary, defence forces) have been so strong that even the worst riots in USA on race-issue led to the death of just few hundreds. Whereas in India, even in the very presence of one of the greatest men to ever have walked on the Earth, Mahatma Gandhi, we lost lakhs of people in barbaric riots. The institutional work done by USA leaders saved the USA from murderous riots leading to loss of lives of people. Whereas the spiritual work done by our greatest leaders could not save us from barbaric killings of lakhs of people. This proves that on average minds, the technical power works more effectively than spiritual power (spiritual power seems to affect mostly highly evolved souls.) Even otherwise, it is good to employ as many tools as possible to solve complex challenges which are very hurting by nature. So, let us work out very optimized technical solutions first as ideas and then as actual reforms through enormous efforts in future.

My technical strategies to deal with the serious problem of crooks and criminals entering our political system due to the vulnerability exposed by expensive election process are as follows:

(1) Have elections of both Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies together. The advantages of this are many. It will ensure that the election-campaign for both can occur simultaneously. So, the expenses of 8,000 crores per year will get reduced by at least 30-40% due to this one step itself. It will help even regional parties because the problem of separate election campaign funds for separate elections of Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies is present for regional as well as national parties. But, regional parties may raise one issue here: if elections of both Lok Sabha and Legislative assemblies are together, won’t it compromise the effectiveness of regional issues in the election due to crystallization of national issues, which may adversely affect the multi-party democracy and federal aspects of our policy. The argument is seemingly well-taken. But, the way our political system works, if a regional issue is related to intra-state development (related to only developmental matters concerning a particular state), such a issue can be effectively raised along with national issues by the political class. The problem happens mostly when a regional issue is related to inter-state matters or over division of the state itself. Still it should be said that such complexities arise even if elections are separate. For example, in a particular national or state-level election, political, economic, defence and many other issues gets raised before the electorate in a very complex matter. Sometimes, a large segment of the electorate vote for a party due to broad agreement on the issues they consider important even if they may not agree entirely with the party positions on those issues or may even be in complete disagreement on less important issues. So, the inherently complex nature of modern social, political and economic activities make this argument of joint election of Lok Sabha harming the regional issues as redundant. Hence, joint election of Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies is the key strategy for reducing the election expenses in out country by at least 30-40% for all parties, national as well as regional.

(2) No-midterm election – the largest party will constitute the executive in case of no coalition having a majority. As a necessary part of “(1) Have elections of both Lok Sabha and Legislative assemblies together.” and also due to its inherent advantage in putting less burden of having strong financial muscle on political parties and leaders, it is very necessary that no mid-term election be allowed. If a coalition government loses the majority in Lok Sabha or state legislature due to withdrawal of support by some coalition partners, the government should be allowed a period of 2 weeks for finding support from other parties (of course, without any financial scandals). If it fails to garner the majority support, the largest party will be asked to constitute the government for the remaining period of 5 year term irrespective of whether it has the majority or not in the “Lok Sabha”/”legislative assembly”. Please mark the word “the remaining period” which means that no more destabilization due to political machinations or wrangling be allowed. So, in such a scenario, we will always have a political executive and no mid-term elections (and no financial pressure on political parties). The problem with the largest party forming the government without having majority is definitely there. Such problems arise in passing bills or budget. The situation will become similar to presidential systems like in USA where many times the executive is republican (or democrat) whereas the Congress or Senate is dominated by democrats (or republicans) – so, lots of political give-and-take happens. This is quite acceptable and surely much better than the present system of money-power based corrupt politics run by crooks and criminals in this country. The government needs the budget to get passed at all costs before April 1, the beginning of the financial year, even though other types of bills may be allowed to linger for a while in the legislature and go through normal process of political give-and-take. So, the solution is to disallow the legislature to fail the government budget as a whole, but allow them to pass amendments to individual items of the budget with a simple majority. This will ensure that a minority government run by the largest party can still pass the budget before April 1, with the legislature still being able to influence the budget as per the will of the majority. So, with these strategies put into place, this strategy is fully workable.

(3) Campaign contribution matching by the Election Commission. The Election Commission should be allocated a separate public finance fund by the Government. Individuals should be allowed to donate directly to the Election Commission for this fund as well as through income tax forms (like it is done in USA). The Election Commission can then distribute the entire funds collected over 5-year period among various parties using certain reasonable formula. Some components of that formula can be: matching x percentage (make x 50 or 100 or so, but keep it same for all parties in order to be fair to smaller parties) of the individual donation to the party upto some ceiling limit (say Rs. 10,000). So, if I donate Rs. 1000 to a particular party, the Election Commission will match my contribution by another Rs. 1000 (assume 100% matching) and donate that amount to the party. If I donate Rs. 20,000 to a particular party, the Election Commission will match first 10,000 by Rs. 10,000 (due to the ceiling limit). Please neglect exact numbers as they are only for the sake of illustration to understand the basic idea. Of course, there is already a limit on the maximum contribution that an individual or corporate can make to a particular party – and that limit is definitely good so that a particular individual or corporate should not be able to use the financial muscle to subvert or dominate our political system.

(4) Equal and subsidised allocation of government means of communication and transportation for election-campaign work. Election campaign is obviously about communicating about the vision and track-record of the party and the candidate to the electorate. This requires use of telephone, mobile, print material, electronic media (Radio/Television). Government should subsidize the usage of all the communication resources to the parties on the basis of equality. For example, Doordarshan is national channel owned by government agency. Suppose the rate of an advertisement on Doordarshan is Rs. 10,000 per min. So, the government should give a subsidy of 80% so that a politial party desiring to use Doordarshan will need to pay Rs. 2,000 per min rate. This subsidised allocation is crucial so that political parties or candidates do not end up misusing government resources (which is often the case when resources are allocated free of cost). Also, the allocation should be equal for all parties/candidates. So, if both a national party and a regional party want to pay for 10 hrs of advertising time and that is the maximum advertising time that Doordarshan can allocate for election advertising, both should get 5 hrs each rather than using complex formulas of which party has how many seats and so on so forth. The reason is the party with more financial muscle has already so many means to employ; it is the party with less financial muscle which needs fair amount of government support for their election work. This strategy of “equal and subsidised allocation” applies to transportation means like government bus, air-flights and train travels as well. This will ensure a good level-playing field to new or smaller parties.

(5) A strong and independent anti-corruption agency to dent the role of money power in politics. Having a strong and independent anti-corruption agency will definitely dent the role of money power in politics because if it becomes difficult to make money or unscrupulously affect the decision-making process after winning elections, crooks and criminals will have no incentive to employ their financial muscle to enter politics. Anna Hazare’s movement for such an agency under Jan Lokpal bill deserves all the support that people of India can give. I have already wrote in good details in this article: Once upon a time, in a nation corruption was at its zenith and then ….

(6) The election method should be changed to include some innovations to deter the crooks and criminals from entering politics. There are suggestions like moving to proportional system where a party gets seats in Lok Sabha and legislative assembly based on its vote share (e.g. 30% of overall vote share means 30% seats allocated to the party) – you can read about proportional system here. I do not find it better as it makes the system party-based rather than leader-based and historically it is proven that it is easier to pin down accountability on individuals rather than on (amorphous) institutions at a microscopic level (at macroscopic level, we have to hold both individuals and institutions accountable). The voters of an MP or MLA constituency can hold their individual MLA/MP accountable for what he/she does or does not for them. So, the current system of voting for candidates directly is fine (this is technically known as plurality/majority system as contrasted with proportionate system). There are other suggestions like moving to “Instant run-off voting system” (also known as preferential voting). It is differently better than the present system (called “first-past-the-past” meaning the first person crossing the post wins the race.) of electing the person who gets the highest vote. The reasons are many: we have a graded level of choices in every aspect of life. How can it be then different when it comes to electing our MP/MLA? We surely want a candidate A to win, but if he/she cannot win, we would like the candidate B to win and so on, so forth. Also, this becomes a very effective method because strategies (1) and (2) have already ensured that no mid-term elections will happen. So, people will definitely look out for the most competent candidate as long as his/her party’s policies are in tune with voters’ beliefs and values. So, we should surely move to “Instant run-off voting system“. This will give more chance for honest people to win elections because even if due to casteist, religious or other narrow considerations, a voter marks a crook or criminal as his/her first preference, there is a high probability that his other preferences will be more based on competence (because the voter has already satisfied his/her narrowness partially by giving number one preference to a crook). I do not think that we really need to do anything beyond moving to “Instant run-off voting system” as far as the question of election method is concerned.

(7) Convicted crooks and criminals should be debarred for whole life from election process. Crooks and criminals have a free run in our country due to dysfunctions of our legislative, executive and judicial systems. But, we should at least bar convicted crooks and criminals for whole life from election process, be it a matter of voting or standing for elections. We should allow convicted crooks and criminals voting rights (but not the right of standing for elections) after the completion of the sentence only in the condition of their not being an elected representative in the past at any level of our political system. But, after conviction in a court, an MP/MLA or a mukhiya/corporator will lose even voting rights for whole life along with the right to stand again for elections for his/her breach of public trust is much more sinister than a non-elected crook/criminal. This will deter crooks and criminals a little bit more because they will get the social and moral stigma of losing even voting rights for having stabbed their nation.

These are the strategies that I could come up based on lots of reading of past 15-16 years plus some intuitive ideas that occurred to me this morning. I am eager for your comments/feedback and sharing any strategies that you have in mind for removing the rot of crooks and criminals entering our political system due to its financial vulnerability of our election process. Please comment in comments section below.

Thanks,
Gopal

Posted in Socio-political issues | Leave a Comment »

Some ruminations on distraction management

Posted by Gopal on July 24, 2011

Hi friends,

Distraction management is a very important issue in life. Even to understand what we are aiming at or what we should aim at requires some serious introspection apart from adequate guidance from sources like books, magazines, even internet and, of course, knowledgeable persons. Once we understand what our short-term (from few minutes to few days), medium term (from few weeks to few months) and long term (from few years to few decades or even lifetime) goals are, the major issue becomes how to develop our one-pointedness of mind for working out these goals in short-term, medium term and long term. Yoga definitely helps. In fact, it is impossible for anyone to be at one’s best in every possible field. But, what our actual field of work is something which needs certain intuitive guidance from within (and feedback from others as well). Meditation helps greatly in developing that intuitive faculty for guidance from within. In absence of such a faculty, we end up getting distracted by the clamor of others’ opinions which are given from the reference frame of their own knowledge, tendencies of mind and experiences.

Given that we have developed a satisfactory mechanism to figure out proper short-term, medium term and long-term goals, how to keep ourselves focussed in working them out is the key thing. The problem is relatively easy to solve if we can figure out how our short-term and medium term goals are tied to the fruition of our long-term goals because ultimately a person is more motivated by the chances of fulfillment of one’s long-term goals rather than short-term and medium term ones. Still, human mind has a tendency to slack off and loose focus either due to inner shortcomings or due to an extreme level of complexity of one’s goals or sometimes due to a complex level of psychological experiences from past or future. I have experienced all kinds of turmoil and confusion and consequent distraction and lack of satisfactory productivity myself due to all these three factors and believe that I have understood now how to deal with all these three factors. So, let me now list the principles that I have learnt on distraction management so that one’s satisfaction with oneself can be optimized.

PRINCIPLE 1. Develop your peak level of FOCUS ZONE for first 12 hours (more is also fine) on day-to-day basis.

If we look at life on the Earth, it revolves around 24-hour daily cycle for not only humans, but all other species of animals and plants.(due to the Earth’s period of rotation on its axis being 24 hours which leads to around 12 hours of day with the availability of sunlight and around 12 hours of night with no availability of sunlight). So, the unit of life on the Earth is one day (24 hours).

Every yesterday came as today and every tomorrow will also come as today. Every past moment of life was experienced as present and every future moment of life will also be experienced as present. Below lines of the poem “The Song of Life” explains this succinctly:

Take care of present and future will be taken care on its own.
Take care of effort, and glorious success will be your crown.
So, worry not over the rewards, and always give your best.
True wisdom is living in the moment with supreme level of zest.

That’s why the first 12 hours of every day should be the peak level of our focus zone. What we have to do to ensure this is described below:

  1. Have a clear plan for the first 12 hours of today – if needed, write down the plan on a paper and keep that paper with you. This time should be spent in being your best and hence, should be as organized as possible. This duration of 12 hours includes the hours of meals, bathroom, morning yoga and exercises and even evening sports/exercises. The only thing is – everything must be well-organized so that you know at every point what you are doing now and what you will be doing next.
  2. Keep the later part of the daytime for brooding over past or even worrying about future. But, first 12 hours is your peak level of FOCUS ZONE – so, you should not give any room for repentance or worry. Maintaining this will be easier if you fully grasp the signification of this principle: “Develop your peak level of FOCUS ZONE for first 12 hours (more is also fine) on day-to-day basis.” Morning yoga practice will be another great aid in giving you that serenity of mind required to be at one’s best. Also, techniques like ones described in this doc are very good for bringing the mind back to the present whenever it starts getting distracted by past or future.
  3. Try to be up for school or office around 30 to 60 minutes (more is also fine) earlier than when it officially starts. This will give you time to do an extra bit of effort for school or office tasks in the very beginning which has a tremendous ripple effect whole day – after all, “well-begun is half-done” was not said for just nothing :D . If you work in an office, it will also help you in being in a good position to take up issues requiring urgent attention and thus, get more opportunities to be an impressive office-worker and consequently get the satisfaction of rewards and recognition. If you have some issue with waking up in time for that, please read “How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off” and this list of techniques. Please note that if one is habituated to late night sleep schedule, one should use gradual method of shifting sleep schedule by 5 or 10 min per week upward till it reaches the desired timing. Only gradual method should be tried as body does not accept any rapid change in sleep pattern and one is back to square one despite the most sincere efforts – so, try only gradual method, only then your sincere efforts will succeed.
  4. Absolutely avoid reading newspaper and visiting work-unrelated websites during your peak level of FOCUS ZONE, otherwise focus of mind will definitely slacken and defeat the whole purpose of this principle. If you need a mechanism to control or regulate internet, buy some internet filtering software like “Safe Eyes” with a difficult-to-remember password given to a friend. You can also try this technique if you need just a little external help in maintaining your will to stay off all types of internet distraction (I also use this technique):
    1. Suppose you wake up at 6 am daily and have in mind to maintain a peak level of FOCUS ZONE till 6 pm on day-to-day basis. You find that you are getting distracted by xyz.com website disturbing your implementation of the principle of FOCUS ZONE. You do not want to block xyz.com entirely, but only till 6 pm. How to do this?
    2. If your computer has a Linux operating system, then you will be using firefox browser. In that case, you can directly use Leech Block addon. It has all the features to help your purpose.
    3. If your computer has a Windows operating system, then you should completely block xyz.com site on internet explorer browser using its parental control setting (search on internet “how to block website on internet explorer”) so that you will never be able to use internet explorer for visiting that website. Now, install firefox browser or chrome browser – whichever you like. For firefox, use Leech Block addon and for chrome use, “Chrome Nanny” to block the website every day till 6 PM. This can be bypassed by changing system timing or other things – for making changing system timing a bit difficult (so that your will-power has the reaction time to kick in), you can use the suggestion listed here.
    4. If you use Macintosh operating system, I have no idea. But, you can search on internet for leech block type add on for browsers on Macintosh operating system.
    5. Please note that this technique is not foolproof. That’s why I said in the very beginning that this is for those who need just a little external help. If you need more external help, buying a internet filtering software like “Safe Eyes“, with a difficult-to-remember password given to a friend, becomes a must – it has the feature to block websites in a certain time-range apart from blocking websites completely.
    6. Freedom software. I have recently started using this software to deal with occasional wandering of mind on internet when searching for some relevant stuffs or browsing news on hot topics like delhi terror attacks, etc. What I do is I block the internet for 30 min (or more) using this software whenever such a distraction happens. This brings back the mind to actual task which is reading NCERT eBooks or revising GS notes (in Microsoft Word) for me for civil services preparation right now. The blocking can be undone by rebooting the computer, but that being inconvenient (as one will have to open all applications again), my mind does not try to do that and I am able to ward off the distraction. I am sure, with time the distraction power of internet will automatically subside with regular usage of this software.
  5. Do not indulge in debates and discussion on sensitive issues during the first 12 hours of your day so that your mind does not get excited or frustrated. Such sensitive issues may be related to personal as well as social affairs. Keep the later part of the day for such things.
  6. If needed and possible, pick your spot for work. I said needed and possible. Because sometimes we may feel the need of a different location for work, but that may not be available. In such a situation, we will have to adjust to the location using personal determination and other methods. But, if there is a need as well as possibility, we should definitely choose the spot where our mind is at its highest focus level during our “peak level of FOCUS ZONE” phase of first 12 hours of the day (in fact, this approach can and should be applied for entire 24 hours also, but applying it for first 12 hours is an absolute must). Example: for students, it may be some library or a particular room in the home where they may find their focus level at its best.
  7. Have a deep sleep everyday so that you are refreshed in the morning to give your best. Various aspects of sleep management have been discussed by me here and here.

PRINCIPLE 2. Define your short-term, medium term and long-term goals and connect your short-term and medium term goals with your long-term goals.

Our long-term goals always represent our natural interests and tendencies. For example, despite being a very good student, my long-term goal has always been the upliftment of the masses. I never had any intrinsic ability in any particular field, but I have been a very laborious student since very beginning as I had realized that developing myself academically would be indispensable for doing my best for the society. Invariably, this type of long-term goal makes one an activist (one who primarily works for a cause bigger than oneself using one’s creativity) rather than a careerist (one who primarily works for satisfying personal urges of creativity and material prosperity). People like Swami Vivekananda, Gandhi Ji, Bal Gandadhar Tilak and others were primarily activists; people like Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan and others are primarily careerists. An activist is at the higher end of spiritual evolution (even if he/she may not seem so in the short-term to many) and all careerists eventually will evolve into activists over many lifetimes as per the spiritual law of evolution. The psychological complexity that an activist faces is of a much vaster scale and intensity than a careerist. So, my life experiences will be useful for everyone in doing a good management of personal time, energy and motivation even if everyone will surely not require my level of penance (because by nature, an activist has to do a great amount of penance and definitely gets a great level of joy eventually in life if he/she has taken care of basics well) – unlike a careerist, an activist has to eventually practise lifelong celibacy in order to be at his/her best – such is the challenging nature of psychological complexity and the giganticness of the work that activists do for the sake of society; and the reward for their work is from God (or Self) rather than from mammon and is in the form of immense, inner fulfillment and ceaseless bliss of Self.

Once we are clear about long-term goals (belonging to a time-range of few years to few decades), then we have to define our medium-term goals (belonging to a time-range of few weeks to few months). And then using the compass of medium-term goals, we should narrow down our short-term goals (belonging to a time-range of few minutes to few days). We should feel free to do all these things using a combination of time-management and self-analysis techniques. You can read a couple of such techniques that I use regularly (or sometimes) in various articles like this, this, this and this (and of course, this very article as well).

PRINCIPLE 3. Purify and improve the productivity of your mind using yoga and a host of self-help techniques.

By purification of mind, what is meant is removing (or, at least regulating them to a great extent) unskillful thought-patterns of lust, anger, greed, pride, attachment and jealousy because these 6 unskillful thought-patterns are the root of all our inner shortcomings which are definitely responsible for any kind of distraction. Such purification can happen using a combination of multiple techniques like yoga, diet-regulation and others. I have written articles on these topics here and here.

And we also need to increase the productivity of mind using a host of techniques because the more is the productivity of the mind, the more motivation and joy one feels in doing one’s work as a result of which one can easily stave off distractions and be at one’s best. Such productivity improvement can come as a result of better mind management techniques, good quality sleep, good family management, good health management, good process management (to reduce inefficiencies in various work processes), improvement of skills and mental ability and others.

Despite being an activist, I have eventually figured out now using a host of techniques to maintain the best focus. If the complexity of my approach seems more than what a careerist needs, that is reasonable and easily understood. My intention behind sharing these techniques in this blog is merely to let people know that there are many amazing techniques to solve various problems (and distractions) even in the most complex situations. I will continue to update this blog whole life to help people out as that is what an activist is naturally interested in doing.

So, above 3 principles are sufficient for distraction management if emulated in letter and spirit. I welcome your comments/feedback.

Thanks,
Gopal

Posted in Socio-political issues | 5 Comments »

A great self-analysis methodology to develop a satisfactory level of strategic excellence

Posted by Gopal on July 2, 2011

Important note:

After using this technique for 7 months, I have grown beyond its need due to its powerful effect. Now, I do not have any need to maintain any weekly lesson as my daily routine is pretty stable and planning skills pretty refined (this technique was indispensable for making me reach here; so, definitely recommend others to try it for at least a couple of months to reach a stage where it is not needed). But, I continue doing self-analysis meditation before sleep as well as note down some details on daily routine’s degree of success in this “daily routine cum self-analysis table“.

Hi friends,

Whole life I have been chasing the limits of excellence irrespective of numerous not-so-happy experiences of life. So far I could succeed only to a limited extent due to many reasons one of which has been my personal mental turmoil and trauma since the tender age of 13.

I knocked upon a great self-analysis methodology in last week of Dec 2010 which made me realize that 2011 will be the year of my renaissance – the rise of a new Phoenix from the ashes of past failures and failings. I have applied this self-analysis methodology continuously since last 6 months and have reached a stage now where I have not more than 2-3 strategic lessons in a week (in the beginning 2-3 months, it was 2-3 strategic lessons every day :D ). I have also found the methodology to be as perfect as it could get. In 6 months’ continuous experimentation, I feel 100% satisfied with the results and will continue using this for whole life.

Please read about it here. I am also pasting it below.

Thanks,
Gopal

Posted in Socio-political issues | 1 Comment »

How to create flash cards/notes using Microsoft Word?

Posted by Gopal on June 15, 2011

Hi friends,

As we all know, flash cards or notes are very good for practice of recall. Flash cards/notes mean the question and answer are written in different pages so that when we look at a question, we do not see its answer and can practise recall easily. And after we recall, we can then look at the answer page to verify how correctly we could recall our answer. This recall process is very, very good for remembering details as well as for gaining a better conceptual clarity. For those of you, who want to know more about the importance of recall (and how to create flash notes on paper notebooks), please read this post:

Brahmacharya (celibacy) during bachelor life and other important study skills (February 7, 2009)

I used to use Anki software in the past for creating flash notes, but I did not feel fully in control of the notes while using this software. And hence, was reflecting over how to create flash cards/notes in Microsoft Word. I got the clue now. Here is the process (if needed, feel free to tweak it a bit to suit it more to your particular needs or whimsies): open this doc first so that you can understand the method easily.

  1. Write a question. And then, do ctrl + Enter to insert a page break.
  2. You will be in the next page now. Write answer to the question in this page (and subsequent pages if needed).
  3. Keep on repeating above steps for as many questions as you want.
  4. Now, your flash notes/cards is ready. When you read your question, your answer will not be visible as it is in the next page. And once you practise recall for the answer mentally (for objective/”short-answer” questions) or in writing (for subjective/”long answer” questions), you should go to the next page by pressing “page down” key and then, verify how accurately you could recall the answer. Keep on doing this for all questions in the Word notebook.

This was just a basic level of flash cards/notes. To make it more effective, have a categorization similar to the following:

p1 category – extremely important
p2 category – very important
p3 category – important

In the beginning, all the questions should be marked as p3 (important). Why? Because increasing the grade of a question in future is easier and more accurate to do than decreasing the grade of a question. So, if you put all your questions in p1 category (extremely important) category in the very beginning, your eventual categorization into p1, p2 and p3 would not be very good due to this psychological reason. So, mark them all as p3 in the beginning.

Now, as you revise the questions, you will have some clue on some questions being more important than others. Promote them to higher grading category like p2 or p1. Thus, you will have a good priority wise categorization with time. This will help you when you have very little time left before exams as you will then revise only p1 or p2 questions (of course, when you have enough time, you should revise all p1, p2 and p3 questions).

But, there is one more issue to consider. Two questions belonging to the same category, say p1, may not be equally difficult or easy for you. What to do if you find a question more difficult for you to remember. Do the following:

  • Suppose that category p1 has 4 questions. During revision, you were able to answer questions 1 and 2 very easily. But, then you faced difficulty in answering question 3. So, copy question 3 and its answer pages and paste them at the very top of your p1 section. Now, question 3 becomes question 1, question 1 becomes question 2 and question 2 becomes question 3. This way all the questions that you find difficult will be moved to the top regions of p1 category – do the same for p2 and p3 category questions. This will ensure that the next time you revise, you find all the difficult questions in the very beginning so that you can pay more attention in mastering them and thus, earn good scores in exams.

Thus, you have taken care of two vital aspects of right prioritization and right difficulty-management approach both together using the suggested methodology.

Sorry, Anki – you served me well in last 1 year, but now, I will move to this “Microsoft Word” based flash cards/notes technique as it is more flexible and extensible.

Do share this cool technique with your friends also (just like I did with you) so that you can earn more punya (merit) points for a bright heavenly future :D

Thanks,
Gopal

Posted in Socio-political issues | Leave a Comment »

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