Feburary 2017

Dream it, do it! Find your song The laws of life Bust your ghosts February 2017 www.lifepositive.com ` 60 YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO PERSONAL GROWTH

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Dear reader, Welcome to another issue full of promise for a beautiful, healthy, happy and successful life. Like the last, our cover story is about helping you get the year off to a good start, by focussing on realising your dreams. To dream is everyone's birthright, but to realise your dream needs more than just imagination or a wishful heart. It needs courage, determination, self-belief and faith in the Universe. A tough call, perhaps, but realising our dreams are really what we are here to achieve on Planet Earth. Each of us has been given a unique purpose and our dreams are inextricably part of it. Our cover story profiles a number of people who achieved this goal, and will hopefully inspire you to join their tribe. Once you acknowledge that the Universe and everything in it is energy, we can no longer deny the existence of spirits, or disembodied souls who linger on Planet Earth instead of moving on into the Spirit world. Quite often, such spirits may enter a receptive body and cause all sorts of disruptions, including ailments. There is no need to panic, however. The first step is to protect yourself against such invasions by developing an invincible aura. Secondly, cultivate faith in the Almighty. Remember that nothing can come to you without God's consent. And if it does come to you, then you are meant to go through it and it is in your best interests to do so. Above all, spend as little time as possible on the subject. Free yourself of an unhealthy fascination with it. Cultivate a direct relationship with God and refuse to liase with the spirit world. Our article gives many more tools and technique in coping with this situation. February is synonymous with love and in response to the call of love two of our popular columnists, Shivi Verma and Megha Bajaj, eulogise on the subject. Have a wonderful February. Live your dreams February 2017 ‹Vol. 20 ‹ Issue 11 ‹ Price ` 60 Chairman: Aditya Ahluwalia President: D R Kaarthikeyan Editor-in-Chief: Suma Varughese Editorial Deputy Editor: Shivi Verma Associate Editor: Punya Srivastava (Delhi) Chief Graphic Designer: Kuntesh D. Panchal (Mumbai) Senior Graphic Designer: Vijaypal Singh Gusain (Delhi) Photography: Kuntesh D. Panchal Marketing Deputy General Manager: Pankaj Shukla Manager Ad Sales: Ajit Singh (Delhi) Asst. Manager, Marketing: Issac Chettiar (Mumbai) Product Marketing Manager, Circulation: Dharamveer Singh Assistant Manager Circulation : P Murali (Bangalore) Senior Executive, Marketing: Krishan Kumar Senior Executive, Circulation : Dhananjay Singh (Delhi) Senior Executive, Circulation : Ganesh Suke (Mumbai) Subscription Manager: Abhishek Singh Assistant Manager: Anita Chandel Senior Subscription Executive: Urmila Verma Subscription Executive: Pooja, Ginny Gupta Manager, Production: Kamal K Saini Finance & Administration Deputy General Manager: Ambika Sharma Accountant: Shweta Devrukhkar Events Manager: Tripti Sawlani Asst.Manager: Balaji Golekar Advisors Parveen Chopra, Mark Tully, Kiran Bedi, M Madhavan, Nambiar, SD Saxena, Ameeta Mehra, Manisha Verma, Shruti Nada Poddar, Hamid Ahmed, Shovana Narayan, Ritika Goyal Editorial & Advertising Offi ces Delhi: C 153, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase- I, New Delhi-110 020, Ph: (011) 49563777 Fax: (011) 49563773 Mumbai: 410 & 411, 4th fl oor, Pearl Plaza, Opp Andheri Station, Andheri (W), Mumbai-400058, Ph: (022) 69002081 E-mails: edit@lifepositive.net U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Lifepositive.com, Inc. P.O. Box 65, Colts Neck, NJ 07722, USA; e-mail: usa@lifepositive.net Readers are requested to make appropriate enquiries before sending money, incurring expenses or entering into commitments in relation to any advertisement in this publication. Life Positive or Life Positive Pvt Ltd do not vouch for any claims made by the advertisers of products and services. The printer, publisher or editor-in-chief of Life Positive or any employee of Life Positive Pvt Ltd shall not be held liable for any consequences in the event of such claims not being honoured by the advertisers. All rights reserved. © Life Positive Pvt. Ltd. losZ HkoUrq lqf[ku~%] losZlUrq fujke;k% losZ Hknzkf.k i’;Urq] ekdf’pn~nq%[kHkkd~Hkosr! May all beings be happy, May all be healthy, May people have the well-being of all in mind, May nobody suffer in any way. — Vedic prayer Edited by Suma Varughese. Printed and published by Aditya Ahluwalia on behalf of Life Positive Pvt. Ltd. from C 153, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi. Member, Indian Newspaper Society Printed at M.P. Printers, B-220, Phase 2 Noida, 201305 Editspeak LP mascot: Laughing Buddha

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Š6Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Contents Lead story 24 Be a dreamcatcher Only when we fulfil our dreams will our lives achieve the full trajectory they are capable of, says Jamuna Rangachari Heartspeak 16 Father, forgive them Despite the brutality documented by the daily newspaper, K Geetanjali concludes that people are only unconscious, and not inherently evil 24 32 18 Cover Photo: Thinkstock Cover Design: Kuntesh D. Panchal Close encounter 18 The harbinger of happiness Shivi Verma meets Dr Cheryl Dabhi, whose mission is to bring people to God and help them attain moksha BODY The facts of fat 32 Good quality fat helps you maintain immunity, improve mental health, and even lose weight Cut the cord 36 Prana Violet Healing dissolves the cords contant.indd 6 ontant.indd 6 1/17/2017 5:20:06 PM /17/2017 5:20:06 PM

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š7Š that bind us to others, and cause sickness and suffering Coming clean 52 An intense ayurvedic detox programme helped the author regain health, fitness and energy MIND What’s your song? 60 With their powerful ability to open our hearts, songs help us express our feelings, soothe our hurt, or proclaim our credo SPIRIT The Laws of Life 46 60 50 Total pages 84, including the cover page and the back cover REGULAR COLUMNS Response 9 Column: Saraswathi Vasudevan 10 Mandala 12 Column: Megha Bajaj 41 Column: Shivi Verma 44 Sharing 55 Positive Focus 70 Column: Suma Varughese 72 Revelations 77 Banyan tree 80 In order to penetrate the supreme mystery of life we need to understand its laws Transformation 50 By using the powers of the subconscious mind, the author healed fully from an ankle injury Freedom from possession 66 Many ailments can be healed faster if we released the person of attached spirits contant.indd 7 ontant.indd 7 1/17/2017 5:20:10 PM /17/2017 5:20:10 PM

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LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š9Š God is in the details I totally resonate with the musings in the cover story, Fuel your flame by Suma Varughese in the January 2017 issue. In the article, she mentions how mundane acts, such as brushing our teeth or bathing, become deeply enjoyable when performed passionately. Any act, whether sweeping the floor or preparing a budget speech, can be a doorway to the inner sanctorum, provided there is 100 per cent involvement. Since we are not in the ‘being state’, which realised masters tell us is ‘blissful’, we can at least use activity as a crutch to navigate to that state. Apart from this, I’m also grateful for the profound outpourings of Megha Bajaj, Shivi Verma and Suma Varughese in the regular columns, which I eagerly look forward to reading every month. Beena Menon via mail. Magnificent India I loved Barbara Briggs' article, Inimitable India! in the November 2016 issue of Life Positive. I too am a Westerner, born in the USA to a father who worked for the US Civil Service. But from the youngest age, every time I heard, saw, smelt or tasted anything from India, I was intensely attracted. In the later years I came to realise that I must have had many incarnations in India, including one or more in the Golden Age when avatars like Rama or Krishna existed. There were times in ancient India when the government was enlightened, when the people were prosperous and healthy, and there was no pollution, crime, war, or poverty. People had few possessions, but their quality of life surpassed the millionaires of today. Barbara’s article moved my heart because she sees the same truth, the same reality. While the India of today shows the ravages of Kali yuga, it is on its way to a return to Sat Yuga which will hopefully be far more permanent than any previous Sat Yuga. India’s Sat Yuga of yore brought both an outer opulence and an inner splendour that has still not been matched by America or any other modern nation. Those seeds went to sleep in India during the Dark Age, but are now sprouting up everywhere. Life Positive is a divine channel for this revival. In fact, the fantastic prevalence of avatars and enlightened masters in India, is still unparalleled anywhere else in the world. It is for reasons like this that I did a legal name change in 1984, and made both my first and my last names Indian. Thank you, Barbara, for singing my song and thank you Life Positive, for publishing it. Taansen Fairmont Sumeru via email Response Mail from our readers, online fans and subscribers To read this online and post your comments, go to http://www.lifepositive.com/articles/news. Send letters to editor@lifepositive.net Letter of the month A real hero The article, A Warrior's World, by Jamuna Rangachari in the December 2016 issue of Life Positive was the epitome of believing in yourself. It was amazing to know that Shrikant Bolla, though blind since birth, excelled in playing chess, cricket; scored 90 and 98 percent in Xth and XIIth respectively and was at MIT (USA) as the first international blind student in the history of that school! No doubt it was the profound love of his poor farmer parents that filled him with selfconfidence, brilliance, nobility and compassion. In turn he laid support services for others with similar disabilities. Thanks for choosing real life heroes. Reena Upasham, Mumbai

Š10Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 more attention to the breath, focus the mind and to assess progress in practice. Start with a simple 1:2 ratio in pranayama using Ujjayi. As you inhale, count mentally 1-2-3. Pause for one second. Exhale for six seconds, pause one second. Do this a few times and raise the ratio to 4:8. You can progress to 5:10, 6:12 and so on. Later you can start working on extending inhalation and exhalation keeping them equal, 4:4, 5:5, 6:6 staying for a few breaths with each ratio. Remember to pause for onetwo seconds after each inhalation and exhalation. Pay attention to the quality of Ujjayi. The sound of the breath in your throat should be audible only to you, not to the person next to you! When the sound of Ujjayi is very loud, the breath is not well regulated and controlled, straining the throat, heating up the body and making the breath regulation inefficient. It can also agitate the mind. A minimum of 20 breaths with equal ratio of inhalation and exhalation will make a significant shift in your energy levels and state of mind. Because you are regulating the breath at the throat, counting the length of inhalation and exhalation, pranayama will become a very engaging practice making your mind more attentive and ready for deeper practices like meditation. It will improve your health by strengthening all your physiological processes as well. Contraindication If you have cough or sore throat, Ujjayi is contraindicated as it can irritate the throat and trigger cough. Asthmatics who find that coughing can trigger an asthmatic attack, have to use Ujjayi with caution even though Ujjayi can be a great technique for people with asthma to improve and regulate their breathing. Do you know that a habitual low energy state can be caused by improper breathing? Either we are too busy, stressed out, or holding a bad posture (back stooped, chest caved in and constricted, with the lower abdomen pushed out) creating a shallow breath restricted to the upper chest, even using neck and shoulder muscles! Many times you may be even holding your breath. If you do notice – right now – straighten up your back, and start breathing more deeply and fully. You will feel a dramatic shift in your energy levels and even your state of mind! Today, we will look at ways of extending the exhalation and inhalation through a simple pranayama technique called Ujjayi. In fact, in asana practice we regulate the breath in all movements using the Ujjayi technique. When you simply lengthen your breath step by step, there is an automatic constriction created in the throat, narrowing of the passage at the glottis creating a gentle hissing sound. Initially you can feel it easily during exhalation, but through practise, can achieve this hissing sound also during inhalation. To practise this technique, imagine smelling a rose through your throat or whispering gently with your mouth closed; you will begin to hear the hissing sound! Then just begin to extend it. The flow has to be smooth and uniform. Ujjayi in Sanskrit means “that which masters the upper portion (of the body)” – particularly clearing and strengthening the throat and upper chest. The sound in the throat helps your mind to focus on the breath and anchor itself to the present moment. The more subtle the sound, the better the quality of control. So Ujjayi breathing (when it is subtle and long) helps the mind to calm down. Once you are able to lengthen the breath using Ujjayi pranayama, you are ready to use simple ratios in breathing to bring Saraswathi Vasudevan is a yoga therapist trainer in the tradition of Sri T Krishnamacharya. She specialises in adapting yoga to the individual. (www.yogavahini.com). Energetic breathing Body column To read these articles online and post your comments, go to http://www. lifepositive.com/Magazine/Feb2017. We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article. Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net Ujjayi pranayama is a very effective way to increase the energy level in the body, says Saraswathi Vasudevan

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Š12Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Mandala Kalyan Akkipeddi belongs to the fast spreading clan of young educated Indians who are making the world a better place... merely by awakening to their life's purpose. Just a day after his 30th birthday, Kalyan, a Masters in Accountancy from the University of Nevada, resigned from his well-paying corporate job to make each day of his life count. He realised that he has the next 30 years or roughly around 11,000 days to be productive, and walk his talk of 'doing something for the people'. He packed his bags and spent the next two-and-a-half years travelling through rural India, depending upon the inherent goodness of the village folk who warmly shared their meals and roofs with him. Kalyan, hailing from Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh, visited tribal communities and witnessed how their self-sufficiency made them happy. And this shifted his focus from devising ways to eliminate poverty to creating opportunities for the free flow of abundance. Because, in his words, “That sounded a lot more empowering to me than removing something that I did not even understand.” What followed was a literal homecoming – he bought about 12.5 acres of land in Tekulodu village of Anantpur, worked along with some of the farming families, and is now on his way to building a completely self-sufficient community, named ProtoVillage; a demonstrative rural community that is ecologically sustainable, socially cohesive and economically viable, built by the villagers, for the villagers. In this journey of eight years so far, Kalyan has managed to simplify his life so much that he doesn't need much money to live by. The whole ProtoVillage project is crowdfunded, ably aided by Kalyan's wife, and his friends and families who take up volunteer projects like tree plantation, providing solar waterpump, and so on. Today, ProtoVillage is self-reliant in terms of energy generation (solar plant, wind turbines, and bio-gas plant), apart from being Wi-Fi enabled, and has a consistent source of water. Members of ProtoVillage grow their own food as much as possible. Experts who are keen to share their expertise and knowledge for this community development work are routinely welcomed. Talking about his journey so far, Kalyan says, “The biggest challenge I faced was myself, my own imaginary hurdles. I don’t consider anything outside as a big challenge because you will always find a way. I have a simple dream and I am super committed to it. I live very happily now, thanks to the people I met and their generosity. That’s enough to keep me going for a lifetime.” www.protovillage.org Desi Kalyan Akkipeddi: Removing poverty by creating self-sufficient villages hero

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š13Š With the New Year not yet having worn off its sheen, and the promise of a new beginning beckoning one enticingly, a mini workshop on priority management by Bhaavin Shah seemed just the ticket. Happily, the workshop more than delivered, offering a number of insights and tools to achieve our goals with optimum effectiveness. Beginning with the story of a samurai who wove his way into a force of 64 men, killed them all and escaped unscathed, Shah explained that it was the samurai's ability to bypass the thinking mind and simply operate at the gut level, keeping his focus unwaveringly on the moment, that enabled him to achieve this feat. Rule no 1, therefore, was to shift from the power of thought to the power of intuition. Shah's central insight revolved around the concept of a gamechanger. He explained that achieving even the most ambitious goal could be much easier if one could move from milestone-thinking to focussing on game-changers. Drawing upon the dominoes effect, Shah pointed out that one small tile was capable of felling all the tiles behind it. And this was the power of a gamechanger – it had the capacity to bring down all the other tiles. But how on earth were we to identify the first tile? All we had to do, Shah explained, was to keep asking ourselves: "What is the one thing I should do that would enable me to achieve my goal and render all the other goals or considerations either unnecessary or fulfilled?" Giving an example of a gamechanger, he reminded us of how parents exhort their child to focus only on getting a good result in the 10th standard because that would then automatically ensure that he got into a good college, more or less guaranteeing a good job and a comfortable life. So good results in the 10th was a distinct game-changer. Once having identified the gamechanging tile, we were advised to focus all or most of our time and energy on it, putting in efforts every day ongoingly until the tile fell, taking the other tiles with it. And how were we to do that when life pelted us with distractions, urgent tasks and other decoys? Shah told us to build space and time bunkers. If there are overwhelming demands on your attention at work, consider heading for the nearest coffee shop. And in order to create a time bunker, establish an inviolable period of time given only to the game-changing tile. Taking most of his inspiration from Gary Keller's book, The One Thing, Shah deconstructed success into a relatively easy strategy. Shah will be conducting threehour mini workshops once a month, to cover all areas of life including work, health, spiritual evolution and relationships. Consider overhauling your life under his able guidance. Meanwhile, am off to find my game-changer and build my bunk! Towards quantum success Bhaavin Shah: Prioritising can change your life

Š14Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 S anjiv Ranjan's mini workshop on the mystical art of manifesting one's dreams was an invigorating shakeup; setting a promising tone to the run up to the New Year. Held in the Gulmohar Hall of India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, this open-to-all session was organised by the Life Positive Foundation in mid-December. The session began with everyone present in the hall sharing one dream each, by putting out a verbal intention to the Universe. “Our dreams manifest in our lives when we hold a burning intention to make them our reality,” said Sanjiv Ranjan, gifted healer, visionary and reformist writer. He explained that holding the intention with greater consciousness, and not just in a mistyeyed, wishful way, was the key to realising one's dream. “The capacity to hold an intention with greater awareness is only in the present moment – in the 'Now'. And one gets rooted to the 'Now' through breath. Hence, by focussing on breath, and by verbalising the intent with definite clarity, one manifests his or her dreams,” he added. But is it as simple as it seems? Not quite, because a majority of us are kept at bay from the present moment due to the innumerable fears we have grown up with or which have been handed to us by others. Addressing this issue, Sanjiv said, “Fear is merely False Evidence Appearing Real,” emphasising that we must learn to differentiate between situational fears and mind-induced fears. Mind-induced fears prevent a person from being in the 'Now', by triggering a long chain of 'what ifs'. Sanjiv taught a handy tool to remove such fears in the form of a written exercise – write down your fear on a piece of paper, then write 'Fake Evidence Appearing Real' beneath it, followed by 'I am releasing it'. “Repeat the last line a number of times until you start relaxing. Do this exercise daily till you get rid of your fear,” he said. The workshop ended with a small meditation session in which Sanjiv took everyone present to a deeply meditative state where they went through their intentions with a heightened awareness. Dream destination Sanjiv Ranjan demystifying the secrets of realising one's dreams

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Š16Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 As I closed the newspaper this morning I felt shocked and a little depressed. I had just read how two medical students in Tamil Nadu had tortured a monkey before killing and burying it. A few days before, the newspapers had carried the story of a few other medical students throwing a dog from a roof top. “Where have we humans gone so hopelessly wrong that people in a profession supposed to personify compassion, are committing such heinous crimes? Why do people do the things they do?", I wondered. When 'healers' turn predators, what hope is there? Isn’t this the byproduct of selling medical seats? When money rules the roost and determines your career path instead of the heart making the decision out of the soul’s calling, this is what the world will reflect. The projections of a distorted mind. Heartspeak Despite the brutality and heartlessness documented by the daily newspaper, K Geetanjali takes comfort in the conclusion that people are only unconscious, and not inherently evil Father, forgive them However, if you give the matter some thought, you will realise that most people are not bad or evil, just unconscious. They are not out to harm others, just trying to find some happiness. Living in an illusory world, they define happiness through the distorted lens of a highly unconscious mind. The examples I have mentioned above are extreme cases of distorted minds that derive joy from the suffering of others. But living in an unconscious manner where we cannot see beyond our own needs, is more common than we think. While returning home from a PTM (Parent-Teacher Meeting) a few days back, my colleague was ranting about an unreasonable parent who had given her a hard time. “The parent knew I had had a long hard day which included teaching sessions in the morning and meeting parents in the afternoon. One would expect a human being to empathise with another human,” she ranted. “Instead she kept badgering me about her child, totally oblivious to my feelings!” After all the other teachers had wrapped up their sessions, this parent had apparently taken it for granted

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š17Š conscious or unconscious, it became easier for me to let go and forgive. “Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do…” became my daily prayer and the instrument to cleanse myself of resentments and judgments. Soon after this incident I read a Facebook post about a young girl who had suffered so deeply in her biological home as a child that after being adopted she began hurting the little brother in her foster home with the intention of killing him. The post started off by recalling the distortions in that girl's psyche and zoomed into the present where she is all grownup and working as a nurse, caring for others. She was lucky enough to have received therapy and loving treatment from her foster parents. A shift from deeply unconscious behavior triggered off by intense suffering, to an evolved and caring one, could be engendered by the conscious and loving behavior of her caregivers. Only deluded people can inflict suffering on other living beings. The more separated and fragmented one is, the greater the suffering and aberrations in the psyche. Of course I don't ask that such behaviour be absolved. Unconscious people must face the consequences of their actions and receive whatever punishment the law doles out to them, but they also need to be treated as sick people who need healing. The antidote to unconscious behavior is bringing the light of consciousness into the world. Only exposure to the opposite qualities of love and unity can heal such aberrations. Want to know how whole and healed you are? To the extent you can rejoice at others' fortunes and the extent to which you can go beyond your own self to help relieve their pain, you are whole. That is the true test of spirituality. Till then our work is not over and we need to plod on the path towards wholeness. Till our mind is wedded to the heart as one, till we can see the world through the third eye of unity knowing everyone else as an extension of oneself, our work is not yet done. that my colleague should be at her service even after the scheduled time, failing to see her exhaustion. Another colleague calmed her down with her soothing words, “Forgive her for she was not conscious of how she was behaving. The parent was focussed only on one thing – her happiness. When your focus is so narrowed, you can’t see beyond your own nose. Where then is the question of empathy and compassion for another?” Her words brought to my mind the words of the great Master Jesus Christ who had said, while dying on a cross. “Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.” Jesus was so present and highly conscious that even in his darkest moment he could see that people were not evil inherently, merely deluded and unconscious. Funnily enough I had an occasion to understand what this phrase meant that very evening! A friend of mine newly introduced to Whatsapp had been having a merry time forwarding messages from one group to another. Rita (name changed) found the activity so thrilling that she began forwarding the messages after just giving them a cursory glance, without reading them through. That evening when I reached home and checked my Whatsapp I was shocked to find that the Whatsapp group in our apartment was buzzing with activity. A mighty row was in full swing. Various people were leaving the group and others were expressing their disgust. The reason? Rita had forwarded a post where only one religion was extolled and the others were condemned. Ironically, Rita was one of the most peace-loving persons on earth with a secular attitude and a wide circle of friends of all religions. She was someone who took active interest in conducting all the religious activities in the apartment’s club house. All that was wiped out just because of a moment’s unconscious behavior. Was she a bad person because she had created a split in the so-far-united group? “Of course not,” I comforted her. “Every chain is as strong as its weakest link. If the group was so weak that a mere forward, designed by someone and forwarded in a hurry by someone else could split it, it was not united in the first place. Having said that, where you erred was in being unconscious of what you were doing. Feeling that it was the in-thing to belong to many groups you went overboard and began sending messages unconsciously without even checking them out. Nothing is right or wrong but all things have consequences.” The intention was not to harm, but unconsciousness had led to wrong action and thereby its consequence. And as a result my poor friend received the cold shoulder from many a nodding acquaintance during her early morning walks in the apartment. This upset her a lot and I could only advise, “Forgive, for they too know not what they do.” Whether it taught my friend a lesson or not, this incident left a deep impact on me. And when I cognized that all behaviour – whether mine or others', arose generally not from good or evil but from a place of being To read these articles online and post your comments, go to http://www.lifepositive.com/Magazine/Feb2017. We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article. Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net K Geethanjali is a teacher, writer, and healer, currently based in Bangalore. She is a disciple of Mahavatar Babaji

Š18Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 When I first met Dr Cheryl Dabhi at a healing event, she was busy channelling God’s love to people around her. She called herself God’s love healing channel. I was drawn to her warm and affectionate voice which brimmed with confidence and a certain spunk. There was something quite unique about her. She very confidently spoke about her self-realisation; something which even the Masters rarely own up. It is considered a big claim. I was curious. So I asked her a few questions. She answered all of them boldly, Close encounter Gods and ascended masters are her intimate friends, and her connection with the Divine flows naturally. Shivi Verma meets Dr Cheryl Dabhi, whose mission is to bring people to God and help them attain moksha The harbinger of happiness confidently and very happily. I was impressed. She had the experience. She was spot on. She ticked off all the boxes of a self-realised soul. Her inner space was joyous, big, broad and expansive. And there was no ambiguity at all in her knowledge. She was genuine, authentic, warm, and bursting with life and brio. One could go on talking with her. She told me that she channelled God’s love to hundreds of people every night with tips to realise their dreams, remove blockages and find health, wealth, life- partners and prosperity. To know more about her journey I met her up at her 20th floor flat in Versova, a suburb of Mumbai, a couple of days before Diwali. One could get a panoramic view of the ocean and the city from all sides of her penthouse. She had her pet dog with her and she laid out a

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š19Š family became amicable to her. Another client wanted to marry a person of her choice but her father was against it. Through the love prayer procedure the hurdles got removed, she easily got married to him and her parents found a son in their son-in-law. Many such life-changing incidents followed. Do you talk to God through meditation or is there any other technique? My conversations with God have been very natural and spontaneous. With no effort to meditate at all. Even when I am angry God speaks to me. I remember once I was very agitated by Diwali crackers. I complained to God about people’s apathy towards the pain felt by Mother Earth and her children because of the noise and pollution. Just then God said, “Look up.” I refused, because I was overwhelmed with emotion. Again God said, “Please look up.” As I looked up, I saw the night sky light up in a pageantry of bright colourful fountain fireworks for 10 long minutes. It was a breathtaking sight. I was spellbound. Then God continued, “Why do you forget that I am God? All this pollution is nothing. I can clear it up with a snap of the finger. But for me your smile is more important. Always remember, if you smile once I smile four times, if there is a tear in your one eye, I have tears in my four eyes.” This was a huge declaration for me. Since then I promised not to be sad anymore. These and many such experiences kept on happening to me. Even though you enjoyed such closeness with God, you were still not enlightened? Yes. True. There was some hollow in my heart, which was not getting filled. In pursuit of answers, I came across a Chinese Master who proclaimed to heal the soul of karmic bondages. His course fee runs into several lakhs, and since I had no option I enrolled in his course to make me a spiritual channel. The master talked about bad karma, spiritual limitations and forgiveness practises imparted in the form of a forgiveness prayer. In it we seek forgiveness from others for the pain we might have caused them. As the course progressed, I understood spiritual terminologies, read the Akashic records, discovered my divine self, realised that my heart chakra was already open, and that I received messages from all saints, ascended masters, and even from nonliving things without receiving any training. If a certain thing gets lost, I simply ask, ‘where are fairly lavish fare for me. And though the formal interview was yet to begin, it was difficult to pass off anything which she said as small talk. Dr Dabhi was a steady stream of Divine flow. How did it all begin? Please share your spiritual journey with us. It is very difficult to pinpoint where and how my journey started. Since childhood I had been having lots of conversations with God. But I thought that it was a normal occurrence. Once in class II some of my classmates were praising America’s scientific progress. I commented that our Indian rishis and munis of yore were far more advanced. They could simply meditate on a rose, ask it to reveal its characteristics and the rose would do it. My friends laughed uproariously. How was it possible for a rose to talk? Their reaction made me realise that I was saying something unbelievable. Even when I was a little girl, I used to write small postcards to God, to my mother’s amusement. I am a Christian by birth so Christianity comes easily to me. When I was in class V, I spotted a small Aum symbol in my trinket box. I did not like it so I removed it and kept it on a window sill. A voice which I felt was Christ’s said, “How would you feel if I insulted your friends? Would you like it?” I said, “No.” He said, “All gods, such as Ganesha symbolised by Aum, are my friends and I don’t like it if they are disregarded. We are all best friends over here.” I immediately put the Aum symbol back in my box. At that moment I saw Shirdi Sai Baba, Lord Ganesha, Lord Shiva, Ma Durga, Jesus and Mother Mary all of them together. After that I stopped discriminating between one god and another. Rather, I developed a huge fondness for Ma Durga and began observing the Navratris. Interesting. You were the chosen one since birth. I don’t know but I have had glimpses of my life as a sage in many lifetimes. I had a strong urge to help, to heal, to know, to find the answers, and to find the truth. Such divine encounters used to leave me gasping for more. In the meantime I got married in 2005. Though a Christian, my husband has a deep connection with Lord Shiva. After marriage I explored healing modalities like reiki, vaastu, pranic healing for around eight years in an attempt to come closer to the truth but they left me spiritually frustrated instead. I had a natural ability to connect to ascended souls and masters, which unfortunately I did not know was a unique gift. While treating clients I could easily connect to the ascended masters, saints, or Jesus Christ. In 2011, I had a client who was not open to any modality due to her difficult family circumstances, but she needed help badly. I asked God what I could do for her. Instantly, in a flow I got a long message in the form of a love prayer and a technique. I applied the technique and the life of my client began to change within a week’s time. Her

Š20Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 you?’ and it tells me. But all these are just energetic abilities, it is not enlightenment. This is the mere start of the spiritual journey. How is it possible to get messages from non-living things? See everything you buy or possess has a connection with you. When it was made, at that time itself it was decided as to who would buy it, own it, or use it. Therefore, things also have a sense of relationship with you. For example, suppose you and your neighbour were to buy the exact same set of tableware. After some days some of her plates and cups end up in your kitchen. Would you be able to distinguish yours from hers? Yes. How is that possible? Because what you own and use also begins to vibrate with you, and develops a certain form of identification with you. Therefore you can immediately spot your things from the belongings of others. Only difference is that I am aware of this fact while others are not. So when you are aware, you are in tune with your possessions and they can hear and respond to you. If you lose things it is because somewhere you know that they will go. Make a one-time, lifetime command, “Everything that I buy and own will stay with me till the time I ask them to go.” And you will never lose them henceforth. Wonderful. But how did you get enlightened then? It is a journey. In one of the distant learning sessions with the Chinese Master, we had to practice connecting with our spiritual parents. I was thrilled beyond measure. I remember sitting before my computer at home and getting absorbed into the fourth or fifth dimension (non-physical). I asked, ‘Who is my spiritual father?’ Many lights came and I recognised Jesus. I was in tears of gratitude, love, happiness. I then asked, ‘Who is my spiritual mother?’ Again, a train of lights passed and I saw Mary Magdalene. I felt I was meeting them after so long. I asked if I was on the right path by pursuing this course with this particular Chinese master. Jesus said “No.” I saw Mary Magdalene nudging him and stating, “She will come about it.” I was shocked. I had already paid Rs 2.5 lakh and my father says that it was not good! And then the Chinese master started selling moksha for Rs 2.5 lakh. That triggered me. I got so angry. I asked a friend what the master meant by moksha? She said, moksha meant one would not be reborn. I asked, ‘Are you sure? And what if I take rebirth? Who will return my 2.5 lakh rupees?’ My friend informed me that one of his disciples who had bought moksha had died , and his soul had communicated that he wanted to take rebirth because he wanted to serve. I asked, ‘Whatever happened to the moksha for which he paid 2.5 lakh rupees?’ I was very angry and upset and in my frustration, said to God, “I want moksha now, and I don’t want to die after it. I want to live after moksha. Otherwise, how does it matter?” At that point I went out into an unknown dimension. I don’t remember any moment after that. I didn’t know where I was. I simply remember having uncontrolled tears of happiness and bliss, dancing in the house, sometimes writing, sometimes here, sometimes there and I was not alone. I was with God, talking all the time. And I asked him everything I could. I asked God why He did not give me the forgiveness prayer which he had given to the master along with the love prayer? Then God replied, ‘There is no need of forgiveness since there is no bad karma.’ I was astounded. I said, ‘How?’ What did God say? God said, ‘There is no bad karma because all the pain you receive from someone is the trigger for your growth. For example, if you hadn’t been hurt or humiliated by someone, would you have bothered to prove your mettle in the world? So the one hurting you is your spiritual friend, your soulmate. So many people owe their growth to difficult people. So tell me is it good or bad?’ And then he began teaching me. I was taught how to connect people to God. Plenty of work was done on me. And I was surprised because I didn’t even consider myself worthy. I carried the belief that such divine teachings were imparted to men alone. It Dr Cheryl Dabhi in her prayer cum meditation room

cosmic care feb 2017.indd 27 11/01/17 2:27 PM

Š22Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 To read these articles online and post your comments, go to http:// www.lifepositive.com/Magazine/Feb2017. We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article. Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net took me sometime to realise that something was there in me so I should stop doubting myself. I realised what Mary Magdalene had meant when she said, ‘She will come about it on her own.’ I accepted God’s will and said YES to Him. What kind of work was done on you? During this phase of continuous trance, God opened my third eye, activated my golden DNA, did karmic clearing where loads of bondages were removed. There was a shift in my thinking. I was given the knowledge of samadhi, moksha, karma, spiritual accountancy, and what not. Plenty of unimaginable techniques like soul blueprint reprogramming, DNA activation, permanent shielding, and God frequency healing were given to me. But the main thing was that I was one with God. I had got moksha, and I was alive. After enlightenment in 2013, I had forgotten all the previously acquired knowledge, all the chants, all the religious understandings, even Jesus and Shiva. I knew just the One, God, the Source, the Niraakar Bhagwan. I would look at Jesus’s picture and not recognise him. I was only with God. Once I saw Jesus's picture, and was struck with shock and remorse. How could I forget my own spiritual father, Jesus Christ? I felt so guilty. But Jesus asked me to cool down. He said that I had made him happy and proud, ‘My life purpose is to take you to God. And because you went to God, my life purpose is fulfilled,’ he said. So the moment you let go of the guru, you merge with God. Therefore I tell people not to make me their guru. Can you shed some light on what moksha and accountancy of spirituality mean to you? Generally, we think that moksha is a time when our karmic balance has become zero. When you don’t have any desires left. But actual moksha is loving God. In it your connection with the Divine is so strong that nothing matters. Like Mirabai. If she was in the palace she didn’t care. If she was on the roads she was happy. In moksha you are happy with everything that God serves you. Such is your high state and divine connection. In spiritual accountancy when somebody slaps you or hurts you, they are actually giving you a lot of their own good karma. Though we criticise fundamentalists or bullies, in the spiritual world they are giving you loads and loads of punya (spiritual potential). The moment you are sorrowful due to someone, or a situation, automatically spiritual money gets transferred to your account. It is the law of the spiritual world. If I hurt you I actually transfer my punya in your account. Because it is helping you evolve. For you to evolve you need that punya in your account. Similarly, if someone treats you well, you transfer your punya into his account. So what is enlightenment then? It is the realisation that I was never separate from God. That my eyes were closed but not His. I am loved, and will be loved forever, and nothing can change this. Nothing. Are there many levels of enlightenment? Or is there only one? There is only one level of enlightenment, But there are phases. Which are mostly from our side, not God’s side. First is the phase of non-doubting, then accepting, and later strengthening. It may take time for many enlightened people to accept that they are enlightened, but once they accept, their life changes drastically, they start living in alignment with their soul purpose. If you are enlightened then you know that whatever has to happen is happening. Then why do you offer people so many solutions? Whatever suffering a person is going through is because of his soul’s choices, and how he programmed himself before birth to complete his karmic account. Now you might have programmed yourself to undergo suffering. Since it’s your choice, God does not stop you. But like any parent God wants us to be happy, because if you are happy, He is happy. I realised that God is always there, it’s just that we are shying away from him. We get so engrossed in our own problems, that we lose faith in solutions. But the moment we ask for a solution He is more than happy to help and difficult situations ease-out in unimaginable ways. What do you do to help people? I channel God Frequency healing to all those who ask for it. I do God frequency shielding, DNA activations of people to activate their real selves. I rewrite the soul programmes of finances, relationships, health and much more. What is your soul purpose? To connect people to God, lead them to moksha and samaadhi. The state of Divine Oneness that I have become, is what I want to share with all.

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Š24Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 lead story Dreams are inspirations issued by God, which we have an obligation to realise. They are powered by love and ignited further by faith. Only when we fulfil our dreams will our lives achieve the full trajectory they are capable of, says Jamuna Rangachari Be a dreamcatcher Š24Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š25Š “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” - Eleanor Roosevelt E verything in this world arose first as a dream in someone's mind. Indeed, the Universe itself emerged as a dream in God's mind. Which is why it is imperative that when we give birth to a dream, we bring it to life too. Abortion of a dream is every bit as much a murder as that of a foetus. And yet, how few there are in this world who chase and realise their dreams. I see even successful people deeply unhappy because they are not connected to their inner selves. We hear of people in IIT and medical colleges committing suicide, professionals on the brink of depression, every second person gulping down sleeping pills, and parents concerned about the grades of a pre-nursery child. In this artificial world that we ourselves have created, dreams are believed to be fiction and never reality. Personally, when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I thought it was the end of my life as I knew it then. Soon however, I began dreaming of a complete life, with or without the ailment. I knew the Universe would look after me as it had always done. I made a plan for myself and lived according to it. Dreams tiptoe into every imagination, but we often ignore them thinking they are impossible to achieve. Often too, we are discouraged by everyone around us, leading us to lose our confidence and follow the tried and tested path that everyone else follows. In the process, we compress our spirit, dampen our life force and enfeeble our soul. Perhaps somewhere, the Creator who gave us life and sent us on this planet to unveil our magnificence weeps to see us so stunted. And yet there is one power that we can harness to bring back our natural buoyancy, verve and daring. A power that can unfold the superhuman in us all. And that power is love. If love awakens within us, it gives us the foundation upon which to dare impossible things. This love can either be the love with which we are cared for as children, or our own passionate love for a cause, a person, a community or a profession. It can also be a realisation of the constant love of the Creator towards us. The power of love Love can make us believe in ourselves and then, in our dreams. Preeti Monga, now in her 50s, was six years old when her visual disability was first diagnosed. Stationed in the remote township of Agartala, the capital of the northeast state of Tripura, and with little access to specialised support, counselling or guidance, her parents had absolutely no idea how to bring up a blind child. For a while, they toyed with the idea of sending her to a school for the blind, but since none of the schools they visited satisfied them, they brought her up in the best way they could, showering her with love and support. This love made her believe in herself and the power of her dreams and she kept on dreaming, dreaming and dreaming. When Helen Keller had achieved so much, why not she? Determined not to let her disability come in the way, Preeti learnt to play the sitar and even completed a diploma from the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. However, that was as far as she could go with that dream, for her understanding of music was insufficient for further exploration. She then thought it would be best if she settled down in matrimony and became a good homemaker. At that stage, all she wanted was a good marriage, kids and a reasonably comfortable home. She had a host of men who were friends but no one wanted to marry her. An arranged marriage seemed out of the question as no one was willing to accept a visually challenged woman as a life partner. After a period of pain and humiliation, in 1982 she met and married her first husband. Here again, she met with difficulty. It was a marriage that headed straight for the rocks from the very beginning. He was an alcoholic who kept leaving one job after another, rendering their lives unstable. In 1986, when she was a mother of two, she decided to become economically independent so that she could leave him and take care of herself and her children. As we can see, Preeti never stopped dreaming, because she knew she could achieve them. She just redefined her dreams. After all, in the journey of life, our original dream often changes to newer ones, sometimes even making us explore new territories. Observing a rising trend in fitness, Preeti got the idea of becoming an aerobics instructor. In 1988, she became the first blind aerobics instructor in the world. In 1993, she finally separated from her first husband. In 1994, she took up a full-time job at the National Association for the Blind in New Delhi as a resource teacher. From there she moved on to getting the job of a marketing and sales manager with a food marketing company. There, she met her second husband who, though much younger than her, completely shared her values and helped her craft a happily-ever-after denouement to her life. The love of strangers Sometimes, there are people who get no love

Š26Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 London and wrote a fantastic piece on him on the Internet which went viral. Many foreigners who came later specifically asked for Amin to drive them around. His business prospered and he bought another car. In his personal life too, he evolved. He knew he had to forgive his mother in order to rise above the blame game. Understanding that she too was a victim of circumstances he nobly bought her a house in 2006, and bridged their bond. From experience, he knew that apart from issues of food and clothing, living on the streets could be lonely. He yearned to open a space where people could meet and bond, as he had seen them do in the cafe in Barcelona; he dreamt of opening a similar one in Mumbai. Friend of the Earth Love for Planet Earth is something most of us have, but rarely does it spark a fire that electrifies us into action as it did Shubhendu Sharma. Bangalore-based Shubhendu always wished to do something of abiding value. In a city full of software engineers, he decided to join Toyota because of their high quality work. But slowly, he began to question if auto manufacture was in the interest of the planet in the long run, because of the pollution it generated. In 2009, he met and volunteered to assist a naturalist, Akira Miyawaki, to cultivate a forest at the Toyota plant where he worked. This experience became a turning point in his life. He saw present-day India as a concrete jungle surrounded by barren land all around. He was obsessed with creating forests. Love for community Love for our community and nation is deeply embedded in all of us. However, in the scuffle of daily life, we often forget this basic love of ours. When we forget this love, a part of us remains incomplete, as Babar Afzal found. Babar had left Kashmir as he did not want to be part of a land that was full of uncertainty and conflict. He studied and was extremely ‘successful’ by society's standards. He worked with organisations like McKinsey in India, USA, UK, and Middle East as a technology analyst, business consultant, and a hacker who broke the codes of many. He had a great salary, great accommodation, good food, good friends and was travelling all over the world, but there was always at all from one’s own family but still get ignited into dreaming by the love they draw in their later lives. This was the case with Amin Sheikh in Mumbai. Amin’s stepfather used to beat him savagely, and so did his mother. During the day he used to work eight to 10 hours a day in a tea shop, and would be paid two rupees for it. At night he would come home and bear the abuse. He ran away at the age of five, begging, eating discarded eatables, and sleeping in fear under park benches or in hidden corners of railway stations. Fortunately, he was lucky and taken to an orphanage, Sneh Sadan, at the age of eight. There he learnt what it meant to have a place one can call 'home' and people one can call 'family'. After several odd jobs, he worked with the late Eustace Fernandes, a renowned advertising artist, most famous for creating the 'Amul Girl'. Amin became not just his Man Friday but almost a son. Fernandes even took him to Barcelona on a visit. There, Amin noticed how people use a café as a space to bond and interact. In 2003, Eustace bought him a second-hand car, and he started running his own cab company with it. One day, a British woman told him that she had been in a lot of cabs but none showed her around the way he did. She went back to The love of strangers helped Amin dream and realise a better life for himself and others.

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š27 Š something pulling him back home. His soul gnawed at him all the time. “I could see people back home, friends and family, who were struggling, who were dying. It was devastating,” he says. He had to revive the place that he loved. “The world does show its magic to those who pursue dreams,” said Babar when I met him recently at a conference. He felt he must do something to make Kashmir return to the original state that had inspired the famed Amir Khusro to rhapsodise, “If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.” We often hear about many things from and about Kashmir but most of us are not aware of the power of its creativity. Kashmir is a wonderful blend of beauty and creativity in various forms, which includes its wondrous pashmina shawls. Babar had always understood and resonated with the power of pashmina. The word ‘pashmina’ comes from the Persian term ‘pashm’ meaning wool. The real pashmina wool comes from the Changthangi goats of the Himalayas. The goats are cultured in cold weather that compels them to develop a protective skin and wool for survival. Babar knew that in the late 14th century, the poet and scholar Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani had introduced the Himalayan goat’s wool to Kashmir, where the word ‘cashmere’ has come from. With this, Hamadani had helped develop a weaving industry in Kashmir then. Babar wanted to work in the same area. “My love for pashmina comes from a journey that is intertwined with different threads. Of the community that has protected the pashmina goat from centuries. Of a textile so pure that it rests atop everything the world calls luxury. Of a place that is being hit by the severe impact of climate change. Of a state that is known mostly for disturbances and terrorism. It’s about my own journey of quitting a corporate career and taking on a mission to guard the roots of the eco-system and protect the perfection that is pashmina. And in the process give back as much to the community that has selflessly given us the finest fabric known to man.” Babar saw that that the goats responsible for the pashmina industry were dying due to changes in the eco-system, making the industry struggle for survival. He knew he needed to do something about this, else the industry itself would remain a faint memory. Apart from its beauty, he knew it had and still has tremendous economic potential. This is what Babar wished to unleash. Essentially, he wished to find an economic solution for the communities that are linked to the pashmina industry in India, the country’s original and perhaps only true luxury product. Today, India accounts for less than one per cent of the world’s annual pashmina production, which is estimated

Š28Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 at 10,000 to 15,000 tons. That’s far behind China, with 70 per cent, and Mongolia, with 20 per cent. He could not allow this to continue. Before he implemented his entrepreneurial solutions, Babar became a shepherd to empathise with the hardships of the community he had vowed to protect. In the process, he learnt many lessons, “I got to know that a flock of pashmina goats was attacked by snow leopards in a village in the outskirts of Leh. This was in the late afternoon and the spot of the incident was about 60–70 kilometres from where I was. Once I reached the spot, it was about a 1.5 mile hike to the place of the attack. As it was getting dark I started to run with only a Swiss knife in my pocket to ward off the leopard. My weapon of choice was not the biggest blunder of my life. Running at 14,000 ft. was. Soon I started gasping and fell down unconscious.” This was a terrible situation but the only reason Babar survived is because the shepherds came to his rescue. They lost their flock that day, but saved him from certain death. Many may have given up their resolve after such difficulty and gone back to their comfort zone. This did not happen with Babar. When he woke up the next day in a Delhi hospital, his resolve to resuscitate the livelihood of the pashmina shepherds who had saved his life, only increased. He wished to revive the pashmina industry and make the lives of the shepherds better in the harsh and difficult terrains where they lived. They had saved his life; could he not save theirs? Harnessing the power of love Of all the love we experience and receive, none is so powerful as the love of the Universe for us. And when we follow our dreams, the Universe is faithfully on our side, leading us on, showing the way, sending people and ideas towards us. We look out for one dream, but very often the Universe gives us many on the way, knowing what our soul is craving for. “There lies in every human being an unfathomable store of potential which remains unexplored due to various factors like social obligations, limitations in thought patterns, and the fear of the unknown,” says Preeti. Her own struggles had empathised her to the lot of the disabled and her new dream formed: to help disabled women to carve a niche for themselves in the world. She gathered together some of the women she knew and started helping them become confident, presentable and with a skill that the world would pay for. In 2006, she founded an NGO, Silver Linings, to indicate that every cloud does indeed have a silver lining. She began counselling the members to never give up on life, and to focus on their inner positivity and potential. She taught them to handle sexual harassment at work places as well, so that they could pursue their work untroubled. Amin continued his work as a tour guide but kept thinking about his cafe. In 2007, he met Marta Miquel, a doctor from Spain who had published a book to raise funds for a hospital she wished to set up in Orissa. At first she was his client and soon become a friend. “Even though she went back to Spain she kept in touch with me by Skype,” says Amin. He was impressed by her commitment to her dream of building the hospital and the unique way she raised funds for it. It inspired him to write a book himself. It took him 11 months to write the book and two years to publish it. Life is Life, I am Because of You is his autobiography, based on his life as a street child, the people who rescued him, his struggles, and how he became the success that he is now. Babar's dream of reviving the dying pashmina craft of Kashmir made him fight against tremendous odds

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š29Š “I wrote it myself, and once I finished, Dilip D'Souza, a journalist and author, did the grammar and spelling corrections,” he says. Many others pitched in to make the cover design, page design and sketches. He finally published the book in 2012. The book is now a great success and has been translated in eight languages. The sale of his book made him realise his long-cherished dream of opening his café, called From Bombay to Barcelona in Marol Naka, Mumbai. “I never thought Amin's dream would materialise, and am truly happy to have been proven wrong,” said Dilip, when I spoke to him recently. Doubtless many shared Dilip’s scepticism, but we should never despair, for are dreams not made from and through magic? Apart from the miracle of his book getting published and the café being opened, Amin’s faith in the goodness of humanity has increased manifold. He could not believe that people all over the world wanted to read about him and extend their help to his mission. Now, Amin is looking to delegate his responsibilities in order for the cafe to be sustainable. “My aim is that other boys and girls should get an opportunity to get a good job and broaden their minds like I did," he says. That dream too, will soon bear fruit, surely. “Chasing dreams is hard work,” Shubendu told me when I spoke to him recently. He began working ardently in the area of restoring nature using Akira’s approach. Though he was working on a model that had already been implemented, he needed to experiment with the model; eventually he came up with an Indian version after slight modifications to suit the terrain. His first tryst with making forests was in his own backyard in Uttarakhand, where he grew a lush green forest within a year’s time. This gave him confidence and he decided to launch it as a full-time initiative. He quit his job and devoted almost a year on researching the methodology. After much planning, research and enthusiasm, he started Afforest, an end-to-end service provider for creating natural, wild, maintenance-free, native forests in 2011. He wishes to work till there is not even one piece of barren land left in the globe. The lofty aim will not materialise today or tomorrow, but he is happy to be adding his efforts in making this happen and contributing to the planet. Babar founded a company, Kashmir Ink, from his personal savings and began working hard to make it a success. He says that he is the only pashmina activist that he knows of, in the world. This makes him a target of enemies too. His biggest opposition is from the pashmina traders in the region. There

Š30Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 and take back some of the profit middlemen were walking away with earlier. He also wishes to invest seven per cent of sales back into the region where he grew up. Today, he envisages leveraging the power of technology to drastically improve the quality of the shepherds’ lives. “I have designed an application for the nomads which will empower them in the higher reaches of Himalayas to bid for their wool when it is ready. They would get mobile alerts of weather, prices, auctions, medical emergencies, and so on. This would connect them not only with their families but also globally with buyers.” He adds, “I am discussing this development project with a few people at IIT to commence work. Then there is a plan to integrate the weavers and craftsmen on a platform which will give them design intelligence from international markets, thus enabling them to make products that are marketable at a high price,” he says. The journey has been immensely tough, but Babar’s efforts are paying off. His company is getting great interest from Angel investors who want to speed up the start-up’s expansion plans. His cause has also attracted some mind-blowing talent for Kashmir Ink’s soon to-be-debuted management team. “The team would comprise a former creative head of Facebook, an investment banker from UK, an international journalist and communications specialist, a Harvard alumnus and business strategist, and a luxury retail expert,” he says. He is very optimistic about the future and says. “I believe that the world is waiting for us with open arms. There has not been a single attempt like this anywhere. Pashmina has been a part of the personal apparel collection of kings and queens globally, passed on from one generation to another. We have a product which is the root of true luxury, fashion, and heritage. We would be retailing across all the luxury retail destinations in the world.” Already, he has secured orders of over USD one million. The company’s signature pashmina shawls are selling at USD 200,000. He has ensured that the dyes used to colour pashmina in his organisation are ecofriendly and not a health concern, as most dyes are. Quite apart from the gratification of creating a pathbreaking initiative, what makes Babar really happy is that he is playing a role in making the people of his land a wee bit more comfortable. When I asked him who his inspirations were, he said, “I seek inspiration from my heroes, the shepherds, the weavers and the craftsmen and women who hold the ancient wisdom, heritage, culture and religion of Himalayas. They are the ones who inspire me with their patience and courage.” In a sense, he has returned the favour by himself becoming their hero, thus completing the circle of his life and theirs. Live your dreams Whatever your dream, set out to realise it, but only if it is a calling from the heart. Our ego self would want us to become the next Aishwarya Rai or Amitabh Bachchan which is why half of Hindi heartland beats a path to Bollywood. Ignore such dreams. And grow up. A genuine dream is something that sets you afire from within. Turn a deaf ear to the naysayers. Dreams get derailed if we get influenced by them. Listen instead to the inner voice, which will guide you truly. Choose appropriate role models. There are many people who have achieved their dreams. Adopt them as your role models, for they will remind you that nothing is impossible. Express gratitude to the Universe everyday. There are many aspects in life we need to be grateful for. Gratitude is, in fact, the best communication we can have with the Universe. When we express gratitude for one thing, so many other blessings come to our notice. This is, in fact, the best prayer we can practice. Extend as much help as you can all around you. When we help others, we feel better about ourselves and more empowered. This empowerment makes us believe in ourselves more. Meditate. Meditation leads to introspection and helps us in recognising our dreams and knowing where we may have erred. Take inspired action. The Universe will guide us through dreams, hunches, intuition, and through the people and events we come across. Always ask yourself if anyone you meet could help you realise your dream. Never give up. Remember, even when everything fails, it may not be the end; it may be a bend! has been a great organised campaign against him carried out by many industry stake holders who want him to stop his activities. Still, he is also encouraged by the valuable support he has received. “I have been lucky that I have been able to garner strong support from the Chief Minister and governor of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Vice President and President of India. This has created a big deterrent to those elements who want to disrupt our work in bringing in positive change for the community on the ground,” he says. His vision is to raise the nomads’ earnings by teaching them to spin and weave cloth,

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š31Š The happy ending Preeti harnessed love for the other to help other people face disabilities, Amin provided a space for others like him, Shubhendu tried to serve Mother Earth by building forests, and Babar tried to redefine Kashmir as we know it today. In my case, I healed substantially through alternative therapies and by working on all areas in my life, the body, mind and spirit. I have even written a book on my healing, called Dancing with life: Living with MS. The greatest gift I have received is that it has inspired other MS patients, and those contending with dire diseases to dream of a better and more complete life. It is said that love makes the world go around. I certainly agree. It is through this love that we become complete, when we chase and manifest our dreams. It is through this manifestation that we become whole. When ‘we’ become whole, ‘our’ world becomes whole and slowly but surely, ‘the’ world shall become whole too. Shubhendu dreams of not having a single dry patch of land on planet Earth. To read these articles online and post your comments, go to http:// www.lifepositive.com/Magazine/Feb2017. We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article. Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net Jamuna Rangachari writes and manages the websites of Life Positive. She has authored three books for children, compiled and interpreted Teaching Stories-I and II for Life Positive. and published a book through Hay House

Š32Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 F inally we have come full circle. Slowly and steadily we are realising that a diet without fat is ringing a death knell on our health. “Eat ghee or how will you have strong bones and back? How will your digestive system work without ghee?”, said my grandmother and to date these words resonate in my mind. For the last few decades fat was considered public enemy no 1, contributing to weight gain, heart diseases and over all poor health. We grew up in an era where we equated health with low fat or zero fat diets. Little realising that fat is needed for vibrant health and even weight loss. We can actually turn off Enjoying good quality fat helps you maintain immunity, improve mental health, strengthen bones, hair and skin and even lose weight, says Naini Setalvad Body food The facts of fat our fat genes and reduce our stress, sugar levels, and cholesterol by eating fat! Not only that, every single bodily function, from boosting our brains, preventing dementia and mood swings, improving our immunity to reducing inflammation, heart diseases and joint pains, depends on eating fat. Recent scientific studies have recommended oils and fats with a richer content of saturated fat followed by mono unsaturated, poly unsaturated and omega 3 fats as part of the diet. The studies show that they help protect against heart disease. Vitamin A, D, E K are absorbed by fat, making our hair lustrous, giving us a glowing skin, great eyesight, and healthy strong bones. Fats make the food taste better, satiating hunger faster and preventing binge eating. Fat prevents blood sugar spikes.

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š33Š Ingredients 50 gms fennel seeds 50 gms sesame seeds 50 gms flax seeds 25 gms almonds 50 gms dry coconut 1 tsp ghee Rock salt and lemon to taste Method 1. Chop almonds and coconut length wise. Take ghee in a pan and heat it. 2. Add the chopped almonds and coconut and roast them for 5 to 7 minutes till they are crisp. 3. Mix fennel, and sesame seeds in a vessel. Add salt and lemon and mix well. 4. Dry roast the fennel and sesame seeds continuously on a slow flame till crisp. 5. Add raw flax seeds and sautéed almonds to the mixture. 6. Snack on it or toss it in your salad. Seed and nut mix

Š34Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 To read these articles online and post your comments, go to http://www.lifepositive.com/Magazine/ Feb2017. We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article. Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net Naini Setalvad is a nutritionist, specialising in lifestyle and immunity disorders. Her foundation, Health For You, throws light on healthy food habits. T dh The magic of fats So fear not your cow’s ghee, coconut, nuts, and seeds, cold pressed oils of mustard and sesame and confidently add them to all your food. “No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office,” said the sardonic George Bernard Shaw. Perhaps the abundance of academicians from Southern India (Dr Abdul Kalam, for instance) is linked to their usage of good quality fat, coconut oil and cow’s ghee. For centuries now, most parts of coastal and Southern India have been using coconut oil as a cooking medium to make their coconut chutneys, coconut stews, and vegetables. Those who use coconut consistently find that they can go for several hours without eating and not feel hungry, that too without experiencing hypoglycemia and erratic blood sugar swings. Consuming coconut regularly restores thyroid function, relieves hypothyroidism and actually increases the metabolic rate, leading to weight loss. Cow’s ghee is a promoter of health, memory, intelligence and provides vital nourishment to the body. More valuable than gold, this fat has an entire verse dedicated to it in the Atharva Veda which enumerates its multiple benefits. Cow’s ghee is your antidote for back, knee, and joint pains. Without fats your joints would be stiff and the winter chill would be unbearable. The skin, hair and nails would become dry and brittle. On top of it, cow’s ghee is your natural drug for constipation, depression and maintaining of body temperature preventing the chill from settling in your body. So ditch the myth that ghee is the bad guy. It is actually your superstar whose presence ensures good health. The ability of spice absorption for medicinal purposes improves with fat. For example, turmeric mixed with ghee works better than plain turmeric. Snack on nuts Our hands must stretch towards nuts when we want to snack since they are an excellent stockpile of nutrition. Consumption of peanuts, almonds, cashew nuts, pistachios, walnuts, and coconuts pave the way to good health and remove the FLC (feel like crap) syndrome. Add pumpkin, sesame, flax seeds in your food for added benefits. Nuts and seeds contain vitamins, minerals, Omega 3, Omega 6 and mono saturated fats which are required by the body. Thirty grams of any nut or seeds is just 100 calories whereas a similar amount of any fried snack is a minimum of 350 calories with zero nutrients. To get the waist line plus pounds down and to maintain optimum health you need to eat fat as it keeps you satiated. A low fat diet does not work over a period of time as it is very unsatisfying and you start binging on foods that are detrimental to health. Fats are as essential for the body as carbohydrates and protein. They are an integral part of cell structure, a vital energy source carrying out many metabolic functions, like storing vitamins and regulating body temperature amongst others. If you want the fats in your diet to work favourably for you, that is preventing the arteries from clogging and turning into bad cholesterol, throw out the bad fats such as French fries, vadapav, bhujias, jalebies, margarine, hydrogenated oils and trans fats. Replace them with good quality fats, since they satiate, cut cravings, prevent binging, diseases, and improve memory and performance. Reintroduce fat in your life with loads of vegetables cooked in ghee, pour it on your rice, spread it on your roti, garnish with coconut and seeds, and snack on nuts. 5HDGLQVSLUHGERRNVE\5R\(XJHQH'DYLV $GLUHFWGLVFLSOHRI3DUDPDKDQVD<RJDQDQGD $W0RWLODO%DQDUVLGDVVERRNVWRUHVLQ'HOKL3DWQD3XQH 9DUDQDVL&DOFXWWD&KHQQDL%DQJDORUHDQG0XPEDL $OVRDWRWKHUÀQHERRNVWRUHV :HEVLWHPOEGFRP )5((/LVWHQWR0U'DYLV·YLGHRDQGDXGLRWDONVUHDG 7UXWK-RXUQDOPDJD]LQHDQGVHHXSGDWHGQHZVDERXW KLV.UL\D<RJDWUDGLWLRQZZZFVDGDYLVRUJ

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Š36Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 I t is rare that one comes across people who discover a healing that everyone can practice and benefit from, and then dedicate their lives to creating more healers to minimise the agony and suffering in the world without expecting anything in return. One such person is Mr Siva. I heard of Mr Siva and Prana Violet Healing (PVH) from a young mother whose autistic child had become much better due to the healing given to him and her by Mr Siva using PVH. She has made this technique a part of her life and is vocal in her gratitude at having discovered it. Body healing Through the practice of forgiveness, Prana Violet Healing dissolves the cords that bind us to others and cause sickness and suffering, says Jamuna Rangachari Cut the cord Auras, chakras and cords Mr Siva, an engineer from Malaysia, had gone for an official visit to Indonesia and casually went to Borobudur, a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist monument in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia, which is the world’s largest Buddhist monument in the world. He could sense a strong cosmic presence there and subsequently something made him go there for 69 visits during the full moon. He had always wanted to help people so he prayed ardently to be shown a way to help especially the poor, in improving their physical, emotional and mental health. In July 2008, on his 35th full moon visit he was asked to use the symbol of Borobudur and spread its message to everyone. Healing techniques were revealed to him as instantaneously as a transfer The symbol of PVH, which is the ground plan of Borobudur

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š37Š sensed to see if there are cords that are coming to us or emanating from us. Whatever the reason may be, some of which we may not even know, the solution in PVH is always reading the affirmations. The healing process comprises affirmations that fall in the categories of forgiveness to release the cords, and spirituality to make the divine connection strong. There is a special affirmation for women to release their emotional blocks. The law of karma is the basis of PVH. As the cause of suffering is some action done knowingly or unknowingly by the affected person, according to the divine law, he must forgive before the prana violet can heal him. Remarkable experiences of healing Meera Kotak, a healer and corporate trainer from Mumbai, heard about this therapy from a friend, who kindly taught it to her. She practised it herself for a couple of weeks and then went to Nashik to learn more in 2016 end. At the end of two days, she found it to be a simple yet powerful tool. Hitherto, her spiritual growth had taken place mainly through spiritual organisations but now she learnt to form a direct connection with God. “I felt freedom through blue tooth. It was at this point that the design of the wand was transmitted to him, consisting of a stick on which the plastic replica of the symbol is attached. Once guided on the complete healing process, he started spreading the message all over the world. The more healing he does, the more secrets are revealed to him, increasing his powers day after day. In sum, the philosophy of Prana Violet Healing (PVH), as he named his therapy, revolves around the energy links we form with others in the course of our relationships. The cords, as he calls them, consist of the strong thoughts or emotions we emanate to each other and can be positive or negative, though generally speaking, it is the negative thought forms such as ego, jealousy, envy, anger, hurt, disappointment, revenge and lust that manifest as cords. Sometimes cords may come from thoughts created by memories stored in the subconscious mind which may emanate to the other without the sender even being aware of it. For example, a cord could be coming to the heart chakra of a 65-year-old man from a girl whom he liked when he was 20, but never married. The girl could still be carrying that hurt in her subconscious mind and sending him cords. Cords can even come from those who are dead in the physical world. In other words, from souls we knew in past lives. In PVH, the aura or the energy body around us is

Š38Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 from many entangled cords connecting me to the various teachers. In just those two days, a lot of my aches and pains disappeared,” she says. Now an ardent practitioner, she is deeply grateful to Mr Siva as well as Deepa Padmanabhan who conducted the workshop. Dhatri Pandya, a professor from Surat, attended the PVH workshop in Surat two years back. She was suffering from vertigo for the past two years which no medicine could cure when she attended the PVH workshop. “Mr Siva sensed that the causes of vertigo were due to acidity and the presence of cords. Within seconds, my vertigo was healed,” she says joyously. Even her nine-year-old son is now an ardent believer of PVH. “Once he was climbing a hill with his friends and when it suddenly started raining, they were a little scared. However, he chanted the relevant spiritual affirmation of the PVH and they all became more confident,” she says, adding that he does not take any medicine for his cough, cold and digestion problem but asks her to heal him using PVH. She has also enabled her friend who was suffering from acidity heal by using the PVH approach of reading the affirmations. Deepa Padmanabhan learnt about Prana Violet Healing at the Life Positive Expo 2011, where Mr Siva had taken a stall. Incidentally, he was a regular participant in the Expo for a few years. Soon after this, she attended his workshop and began teaching and healing many. She now conducts workshops in many parts of North India. Among those who have healed is Greta Grace, 33, from Hyderabad, who went from pillar to post to get healed from an auto immune disease, SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) that she contracted when she went to America to pursue her higher studies. In August 2011, she had a severe flareup that left her swollen from head to toe. To her utter dismay no medicine worked. It was at that time that she contacted Deepa, who was assisting Mr Siva at the Prana Violet workshop in Kolkata and had stated that anything could be healed. She was guided by Deepa and Mr Siva through Skype and phone, and is now completely healed, which, doctors say, is a miracle. Poonam Agarwal from Bengaluru learnt PVH in November 2012 from Mr Siva in Mumbai. After this, she has healed many people. For instance, her nephew, a medical student who had said he does not believe that affirmations can heal, started accepting it when he himself was healed from the wounds of an accident. Even her sister, Neelam, who is mentally retarded, has improved in leading a disciplined life after reading the affirmations and forgiving everyone through her subconscious. Removing inexplicable cords Apart from emotional baggage, cords can also manifest through black and white magic. On sensing the presence of cords, we can also discern whether they are black or white magic and if black, the level of their potency. White magic is essentially used as an instrument of spiritual control. It could be a strong thought sent by a guru to the disciple. Even this is not good as it means we have chosen these gurus as God over and above the real God who is our creator. This can become the greatest hindrance in the soul’s spiritual path and direct connection to the Creator. Black magic consists of sending very strong thoughts to hurt someone. There are six levels of black magic. The first level consists of dark energy where one sends intense negative thoughts to someone or to many; the second level is black energy emanating from a place of worship with the intention of hurting another; the third level is through the service of a tantric; the fourth level employs souls from the spirit world; and the fifth level uses the services of a black magician from the spirit world. Mr Siva discovered the sixth level in Africa in 2016, when he came across black magicians eating the body parts of a sacrificed human or animal and captur- Tamil Selvi was exorcised of a male spirit with the use of Prana Violet Healing

Name_______________________________________Date of Birth______________________Mailing Address__________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ City_________________________Pin Code_____________________State___________________Tel. No_____________________________________ Mobile______________________________Email__________________________________________________________________________________ Payment should be in favour of LIFE POSITIVE PVT. LTD. by DD/MO/Cheque No_____________Date._________________Amount________________Bank__________________________Signature__________________________ Cash on delivery available at extra cost (as applicable) in limited cities or you can order by VPP Order Form Delhi Office: C-153 Okhla Industrial Area Phase-I, New Delhi-110 020, Ph. (011) 49563777, Abhishek Singh: 09910509678 Mumbai Office: 410 & 411, 4th floor, Pearl Plaza, Opp Andheri Station, Andheri West, Mumbai-400058. Ph: (022) 69002081 Email: sales@lifepositivebooks.com You can also order online at www.lifepositivebooks.com Available Online ` 325 An exciting and fascinating book of incredible mystic experiences with great Himalayan Masters. New Release Mystic advt full.indd 1 08/12/16 5:02 PM

Š40Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 ing the soul for his black magic work. Neeta Chopra, a housewife in Delhi, felt a lot of negative energy in her new apartment. She even felt things moving as if there was an earthquake every night. Her young daughter could sense this too. She was also grappling with severe arthritic pain. She attended a PVH workshop and was guided to forgive all the souls she had encountered, including the ones who were struggling to get released in her apartment. She did that, and within two weeks, there were no issues in her apartment. Slowly, her pain also started reducing. Today, she has made PVH a part of her life. Tamil Selvi from Coimbatore, a young mother, was terrified of remaining alone even for a little while as a presence would come near her whenever she was alone. This presence would speak to her and touch her inappropriately. She felt completely violated but did not know what to do. She and her husband went to many tantriks, temples and performed many, many poojas but nothing brought her any relief. “I was so desperate that I even wished to commit suicide. Then a friend took me to a PVH healer who immediately sensed some cords and the presence of a male soul and sent my image to Mr Siva who healed me within 10 minutes and guided me on what I needed to do,” she says. He told her that she was possessed by a trapped male soul whom she may have hurt in a past life. He guided her on doing the forgiveness. She has now healed completely and is now a healer herself. Even her husband who was suffering from psoriasis for 30 years has now got 90 per cent relief. PVH has also successfully healed allergy to foods like cheese, curd, bread, potato, raw salad, almonds, saunf, papaya, guava, milk, egg, rice, peanuts, pineapple and so on. Travelling to heal Mr Siva travels all over the world to make others heal, especially when there is a call for help. He has conducted classes in USA, Canada, Italy, Geneva, Russia, Barcelona, Madrid and Palma De Mallorca in Spain, UK, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Mauritus, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Senegal in Africa, Australia and New Zealand. During his visit to Africa, he could sense a lot of black energy, prompting him to determine to go there more often, as also South America. He had once conducted a workshop in Uruguay when one of the participants told him to go to Brazil as there was a lot of black magic there. The lady volunteered to be his interpreter, and organised a workshop within two months. There, a young woman excitedly said, “I am suffering from black magic for many years which no one was able to remove. Eventually a powerful medium in Brazil told me, ‘One tall and dark man will come from a country outside South America; he is the only one who has the power to remove this black magic,’” she said. Even Mr Siva got goosebumps hearing this. Sure enough, she was healed as were several others at the workshop. PVH has several teachers and healers in various countries. Selfless in all respects Prana Violet Healing is always provided free as Mr Siva does not want money to be an impediment for healing. A donation box is kept but it hardly meets the costs. Still, his selfless attitude has drawn immense support from the Universe. Creditably, he did not want his photographs to be printed in the article, but suggested instead that the symbol be used. May he continue to be a source of divine and selfless healing to the suffering world. Website : www.pranaviolethealing.com To read these articles online and post your comments, go to http:// www.lifepositive.com/Magazine/Feb2017. We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article. Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net Jamuna Rangachari writes and manages the websites of Life Positive. She has authored three books for children, compiled and interpreted Teaching Stories-I and II for Life Positive. and published a book through Hay House Meera Kotak's aches & pains vanished within two days of practicing PVH

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š41Š little beyond the first two. It stems from being together, growing together, admiring each other for certain qualities, sharing a value system. This kind of love, I believe, needs some time quotient. When I saw the way Arun responded to various phases in my life – be it health challenges or relationship issues, I kept growing in respect for him. Not that at this stage there aren’t arguments or differences – but somehow one can always find one's feet and reconcile again. And then when respect deepens, somehow I have seen love transform into one of its most beautiful forms. Devotion. I feel this for my beloved guru. At this stage the love is completely free of judgments. It is unconditional. It is choiceless. Ceaseless. And this kind of love, I have found, is the deepest, most wonderfully 'completing' feeling I have ever experienced. From feeling empty – one suddenly starts feeling so, well, 'full'. From loneliness one moves to a state of feeling 'accompanied' even when alone. Life becomes beautiful and the love starts encompassing every role. I now feel this for my parents too. This love is so filling, so abundant that it overflows into everything we do. I have come to realise that no matter who we are, and what we do, or what age we are, we are all seeking love. We all love love. And yet experiences tend to make us cynical and we cut ourselves off from the love vibration, which I believe is the life vibration. Somehow, let’s reconnect. To a flower, or a child; to a pet or a spouse; to the self or God. And once we do, and love flowers within us, by its very nature it emits a fragrance that begins to attract all that we want in life. I sign off in the hope that the New Year brings a lot more love into all our lives. We use “I love you” as a blanket statement… and yet as I grow in love, with myself, with others, with life itself, I realise that love is something that evolves through different stages. And to me, the highest state of Love is devotion. A state where I no longer know where I end and where the other begins. It’s a complete union of two beings. I believe the love between two people from the opposite sex usually begins as infatuation. The way her hair smells, the way he smiles, the way she looks, the way his eyes twinkle… everything seems intoxicating. It’s love at the physical level and hormones play a large role in it. Gradually, the love grows to become a mind love. (Of course, for some people it begins with this). It is a love based on commonality at the intellectual level. One feels connected to the ideas, thoughts, and vision of another. When this form of love exists between people in an organisation – it will flourish. In my own team I have seen this. When all of us are on the 'same frequency' or in 'harmony', we attract everything we want. When there is discordance, I have seen even the best of projects getting repelled. It’s almost as though the collective love energy of an organisation either attracts amazing breakthroughs or repels them. We keep focussing on skill sets, and bringing in new talents. However, every leader needs to look at the cohesiveness within the organisation and the ability to stand together, and attract a common goal. In time, I have experienced mind love to grow into a deep respect. I feel this with my best friend for life, my husband, Arun. We went through stage one, we passed through stage two and now what I feel for him goes a Megha is, above all, a seeker. These days she is attempting to find herself in the role of a teacher through the online writing course designed by her. You can know more about her on www.wonderofwords.org The phases of love As love evolves, it transitions from the physical to the mental, and eventually spiritual level, where it flowers into devotion, says Megha Bajaj Aha-moments To read these articles online and post your comments, go to http://www.lifepositive.com/Magazine/Feb2017. We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article. Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net No matter who we are, and what we do, or what age we are, we are all seeking love. We all love love.

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Š44Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 As a kid, films used to mystify me. I could never understand why so much emphasis was laid on romantic love, and why only that was considered love, even though love was freely available in the form of friends, parents, and near ones. I used to consider it an exaggeration and often laughed internally on hearing the sweeping statements swooning lovers made for each other, “I will love you till death and beyond...” It would also make me wonder what there was about love that made people want to transcend death and even human limitations. And was it possible to love like that? Even as I grew older I could never understand this phenomenon. Why did people want to find the ‘One'? My analytical brain would argue that ideally if you are in love, you should fall in love with everyone around. Love should expand you, not confine you to one person. It should mellow you, soften you, make you more gentle and kind. And when I didn't see that happening in friends of my age group, I was disappointed. To make matters worse I became the girl friend of a boy in my college I wasn't attracted to, simply because he was too insistent. For the two years I hung around with him I never felt any stir in my heart and remained perplexed about this thing called 'being in love.' I yearned to feel what others felt and see if love really had the ability to turn your life around and make you a better person. Since I was also a passionate reader I often read about saints urging people to love God. Now this had me even more bewildered. How was it possible to love something which was invisible and imperceptible? And then it happened. With great reluctance I had agreed to sit for meditation on the insistence of my aunt. I didn't want to experiJourney column A Divine love story There is no greater love affair than falling in love with life with all its shades and hues, says Shivi Verma ment with this energy because a few attempts in the past had injured me emotionally. No sooner had I closed my eyes and focussed deeply on the Divine, than I felt a strong rush of energy entering my third eye. I could distinctly sense a sense of panic in it, as though desperately wanting to get hold of me lest I slip away once again. And then in one fell swoop, Divine love cascaded over me like a gushing waterfall, soaking me from head to toe. My heart burst with uncontainable love for God, the one who could not be seen, touched or heard. The feeling was so intense that I wanted to roll on the ground in ecstasy, pain and madness. Tears of love began to flow from my eyes. I would tiptoe to the puja room and secretly cry rivers of gratitude before the picture of Lord Shiva. I wanted to express my love to my invisible Divine lover, but since He couldn't be physically accessed, I began pouring it on people around me. So steeped was I in this experience that the physical world began losing its grip on me. But all my attempts at having a darshan of my ishta deva failed. There came a time when I lost all hope because the Divine would not yield to my entreaties. Slowly, my passions subsided. I dropped into my own being. I became calmer. I realised that He was never away. It was my mind which sought Him outside of myself. And I began to see every living moment, person, every big and small happening as a symphony of Divine love. I found my lover residing within me, filling me with a mild fragrance and aliveness. As I breathe this scent and see the world from His eyes, I find every moment of this life a story of love, being written by Him using me as a pen. Isn't this what I always thought love should be? To read these articles online and post your comments, go to http://www.lifepositive.com/Magazine/Feb2017. We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article. Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net My analytical brain would argue that ideally if you are in love, you should fall in love with everyone around Deputy Editor with Life Positive, Shivi Verma is a devotee who found all her answers in loving God passionately.

Now in bookshops everywhere! She makes you think, She makes you feel, She makes you cry, She makes you love Travel along with Suma Varughese in Travelling Lighter, The much-awaited sequel to Travelling Light New! A never before published section: Stories from my Life Order Form PAYMENT DETAILS Recipient's Name (Dr/ Mr/ Mrs/ Ms)_________________________________________________________________________________________ Age______________ Occupation____________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Tel ______________________________________ _______________________ City__________________________________ Pin_____________________ State_______________________________________ E-mail______________________________________________________________________________________________ Date_______________________ No. of book(s)_________________ Amount______________________________________________ Signature________________________________ CH/MO/DD no................................................................................ For Rs..........................................................Dated............................................... Bank...........................................................................................................................Signature................................................................................. Cash on delivery available at extra cost (as applicable) in limited cities or you can order by VPP Delhi Office: C-153 Okhla Industrial Area Phase-I, New Delhi-110 020, Ph. (011) 49563777, Abhishek Singh: 09910509678 Mumbai Office: 410 & 411, 4th floor, Pearl Plaza, Opp Andheri Station, Andheri West, Mumbai-400058. Ph: (022) 69002081, Email: sales@lifepositivebooks.com You can also order online at www.lifepositivebooks.com Available Online travelling lighter.indd 17 17/03/16 7:14 PM

Š46Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. This excerpt is taken from Macbeth, when all his schemes had fallen apart and his wife had committed suicide. His honour gone, his friends gone, betrayed by the witches, ambition thwarted, his monologue is full of despair, hopeless rage, and an inability to understand life. We can all resonate with him, can we not? There are moments when we feel the same. When a Spirit insight In order to penetrate the supreme mystery of life we need to understand its laws, which alone govern our health, wealth and happiness, says Suma Varughese friend stops talking to us for no rhyme or reason. When an accident rips out a limb and tears apart our life. When the person we love does not love us back. Life seems so baffling, so hard to control, so impossible to figure out. The thing with life is, nothing makes sense. The smartest people don’t necessarily end up getting the best marks or the best jobs. Bad things happen even to good people. And injustice is everywhere. You may work your butt off, but the promotion may go to the person your boss likes. Your favourite aunt gets struck down with breast cancer at 40, while thugs and goons seem to be bathing in the fountain of youth. Some are rich, others scramble to cars at traffic lights and stick out a grimy paw for a rupee. Some are geniuses, while others contend with cerebral palsy and autism. Some are lucky, others can't even seem to get out of bed without suffering an accident. Random. Totally random. How do we get a handle on this puzzle, this mystery, this baffling conundrum that is life? Photo: Thinkstock

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š47Š one and everything in this Universe. We are made of Divine stuff. Pause a minute and let this understanding sink in, if you do not know it already (I am sure most Life Positive readers are familiar with it). Unlike what science once stipulated, we are not fragments floating in space that somehow got assembled on an astonishingly coherent planet. We are here because we are meant to be here. Not only that, the whole design of life, including the tiniest detail, is deliberate and here for a purpose. Far from being a stellar accident, the Universe was created. Or, if you want the absolute truth, the Universe is the Creator. Not only has God created the Universe, but He is the Universe. This means we are connected to everyone and everything, which includes the furthest atom in the outermost reaches of the universe. What does it mean in practical terms? it means that we affect everyone and everything and they affect us. If we think good thoughts and emanate good vibes, others get it. If we think bad thought and emanate bad vibes, others get that too. And we get the vibes of others too. So there is no question of us being an island. We are deeply and intimately yoked to the other and our fate hangs on it. Most of us go to our graves without understanding life’s profound mystery. After all, we are not given manuals to understand it. But the fact is that life can be understood. We can penetrate its mystery. The purpose of all religions and spiritual texts, including the Bhagavad Gita, is only to highlight this one thing: What is life and how can we live it? If we can but understand life, we will realise what the Landmark Forum founder, Werner Erhard, once said, “This thing called life is meant to work.” So how can we understand life? Laws of life Just like the physical world has its laws which help us to not just understand the universe but also to use its laws to better our lives, life has its own set of laws which we need to understand. And then to abide by. We may not understand the law of gravity but if we do not abide by it, we will hurt ourselves. Similarly, even if we do not understand these laws, we will hurt ourselves when we flout them. In fact, all the misery of life happens when we flout these laws. 1. The law of unity and divinity It is as the Vedas said it. Aham brahmasmi (I am God). We are amritasya putraha (children of immortality). The Universe and its Creator are one. We are not separate from God. Indeed, we are God and so is every-

Š48Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Thus no matter how much we wish to be happy, we can never get there by causing unhappiness to others around us. On the other hand, the more we focus on the happiness of the other, the happier we get. Mothers are the prime example of this. They honestly get more happiness out of seeing their offspring eat a delicacy than out of eating it themselves. As we grow in refinement, empathy and sympathy, we too will become capable of this feat. What stops us from experiencing this all the time is the ego or ahamkara (I-maker, as Sanskrit succintly puts it) that draws a veil between us and the other, and prevents us from recognising that we are just one! This understanding also has positive implications for the environment and for society. We cannot hurt others without injuring ourselves. We cannot destroy the environment without damaging our own health or the health of our children. We cannot give bribes and destroy the system without weakening our own welfare. In our own best interests we need to focus on the larger good. Instead of making choices that conflict with the larger good, such as manipulating the law to do business, or putting our interests ahead of our wife or children, we need to do what works for all. 2. The law of attraction Like attracts like. Whatever we draw into our lives is here by the vibrations we put out. Negative thoughts, words and deeds have a lower, grosser vibration; guilt, shame and fear are right at the bottom; positive emotions have a higher, more subtle vibe, with peace, love, gratitude and joy emanating the highest vibration. So if we want to know what our vibration is, we need to look at our lives. Lots of relationship issues, difficulties, struggles, unhappiness, scarcity and ill-health? Well, perhaps we are going through a negative phase. Lots of happiness, great health, opportunities coming your way, booming career, a sense of peace and expansion, wonderful people coming into your life? Your vibes are high. This brings us to the basic spiritual truth of life. We create our own reality. Not a malignant fate, not the genes we inherited from our parents, not a black cat crossing our paths, not the manipulations of our family or colleagues. We have drawn everything into our lives by our own thoughts, words and acts. The agents of our destiny are the thoughts that we think, and we think 60,000 of them everyday! If these thoughts are selfcondemnatory and reflect low confidence, self-doubt, poor self-esteem, anger, fear or hate, our destiny will be difficult and constricted. If our thoughts are confident, positive and reflect a love for life, our destiny will have an upward trajectory. We are not the victims we thought we were. In fact, we could potentially be victors. Because if we change our vibrations, we can change our destiny. Now this is not easy, despite what The Secret tells you. Because your vibration is a part of you just like your genetic makeup or fingerprint. To change it needs deep inner work, where you literally unmake the grooves of your mind and conditioning and recreate your attitudes and behaviours. It takes a lot of work. But it works! 3. The Law of Karma Karma again repeats the same message. It says what we sow, we reap. All our thoughts, words and deeds have consequences, and each one of these consequences will be visited upon us. No matter how minor. Karma says we get away with nothing. Karma says everyone always gets their just desserts. Karma says life is perfectly just. All the seeming randomness of life can be attributed only to karma. So if we break a leg, lose a job or girl friend, or win a ticket to go The key to a happy, harmonious and fulfilled life lies in understanding and abiding by its laws

LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 Š49Š round the world, it is because we have deserved it. Life is not unjust. If things do not work out in our favour, if finances have not worked out despite our best efforts or our relationships have floundered even though we have worked on them, well, perhaps karma is the spoiler. We have reaped the fruit of our own actions, if not in this lifetime, then in another. But even here, there is hope. Karma means the consequences of our action. So if bad karma has closed some doors to us, maybe good karma will open them. More important, when bad karma visits us, we need to learn the lessons it holds for us and bear the difficulty patiently. For instance, if our busy and frenetic lifestyle has brought about high blood pressure, we need to learn to slow down, change our diet and soothe the frantic mind. If we sincerely apply ourselves to learning these lessons, sooner or later we will be free of the high blood pressure. Sooner or later, our karma will spend itself out and we will be free. 4. The law of uncertainty This is a scary one. The only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain. We live in a phenomenal world. Nothing is guaranteed. We may fall ill, break a leg, lose our job, or our marriage. There are simply no guarantees. We cannot expect anything from anyone or anything. Because no one owes us anything. This is terribly frightening and we can face it only when we learn that we can cope with challenges. Moreover, we will get only what we draw (as the Law of Karma tells us), so we do not have to go through life wide-eyed, fearing disaster at every turn. Also, the more we work on ourselves and become progressively evolved, the less impact this law will have on us. Finally, surrender helps defuse this law completely. Whatever comes to us is sanctioned by God and is therefore in our highest interests. So why worry? Why not just let go of all concerns for the future into the hands of God and live in the moment instead? Grappling with this law dissolves all the sense of entitlement an indulgent childhood may give, and its final reward is the joy of gratitude. For in accepting this law, we will be freed of expectations, which in turn causes deep gratitude. Without expectations, all of life becomes a great blessing. This law has the potential to take us to enlightenment if we master it. 5. The law of reciprocity You can get what you want only when you give it. If you want love you have to give love. If you want money, you will have to be generous. If you want appreciation, you have to give it. It is paradoxical, but true. The more loveless you feel, the more you need to love. The less money you have, the more you need to give of it. The less energy, the more you need to expend it. This law is the secret of all abundance. The more we shrink into scarcity, the more scarcity we attract. If we can courageously rise above them and give generously of what we have, whether it is time, money or love, we will attract them wherever we go. Look at babies. They have absolutely nothing of their own and yet their joy, innocence and love attracts us irresistibly. 6. The law of resistance What you resist persists. Whatever you don’t like will keep showing up in your life. This is one of the most powerful laws and the main reason why life can seem so baffling and uncontrollable. The more we resist being in poverty and strive to rise above it, the more entrenched we become. The more we hate cockroaches, the more they seem to proliferate. The more we resist traffic jams, the more often we find ourselves exposed to them. This can seem perverse on the part of the Universe but the reason is very simple. We are meant to flow with life and not against it. We are meant to eliminate every ounce of resistance to everything that comes our way and move into surrender. We need to transcend all our everyday aggravations as well as the bigger stuff. Disease, relationship breakdowns, divorces, deaths of others. This of course requires deep spiritual work but we can begin with the small stuff. And work our way up. The more we free ourselves of resistance, the more the natural fabric of interconnection reveals itself. Without resistance, we flow with silken smoothness with life. Everything comes to us without even us asking for it. Our ego dissolves because it is resistance that keeps it alive and therefore we experientially realise that all is one. Life reveals its true beauty and potential. Our own potential become endless because without the ego to block us, everything flows in play. Once we understand these laws we will understand the nature of life and our purpose in taking birth. We are here to grow, to learn our lessons, realise our potential, eventually void our ego and return to the Godhead of which we are made. The law of unity and divinity gives us the vision, the other laws set the rules for us and as we master them, they lead us home! To read these articles online and post your comments, go to http://www.lifepositive.com/Magazine/Feb2017. We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article. Mail us at editor@lifepositive.net

Š50Š LIFE POSITIVE ŠFEBRUARY 2017 L ife is beautiful. But to make it so, we need to understand its secret. When we do so, we discover the power within us, which is so potent that we can achieve anything we wish to. Personally it has immensely amplified all areas of my life, including health, wealth, relationships and spiritual intelligence. The secret is none other than the divine power of our subconscious mind. Our subconscious mind is the God within, and based on our thoughts it can manifest anything we ask for. Since most of us unconSpirit fi rst person By understanding the powers of the subconscious mind, Dipti Shah healed fully from an ankle injury which doctors had pronounced incurable, and turned her life around Transformation sciously think negative thoughts and experience negative feelings, we draw problems, illnesses and other forms of suffering into our lives. But we can use that same power consciously and positively to draw forth happiness, harmonious relationships and health. In 2001, soon after my first pregnancy, I met with an accident which badly damaged my left ankle joint. All leading doctors pronounced that for the rest of my life I would need the support of a walker to walk or even to stand. But since childhood, I have had the courage and strength to think positively. Whenever in need of guidance, my friends, relatives and classmates used Photo: Thinkstock