Category: Self-Mastery

On self-mastery

You Think You Are a Mystic?—40 Signs That Say You Are

Have you ever felt that there may be more to life than just going through your daily motions? Have you ever sensed a mysterious presence in your life that has been guiding you through the ebb and flow of life? Have you ever felt a vacuum within you—a feeling of hole in the heart—despite accomplishing every goal you set out to accomplish? If you did, then read on… it may be that you are blossoming into a mystic. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to...

Journaling for Self-Discovery

Journaling is something women do very naturally. However, most often men, when they were boys, were in general discouraged to keep a journal. Journaling is thought to be expressing our inner most secrets and feeling, and boys are in general taught, “Real men don’t really express their feelings and it is only suitable for women.” There are always exceptions in this as it is for everything else. You probably don’t keep a journal unless you are a writer or work in a creative field like art. If you are in scientific fields you probably keep a research notebook recording your...

Download Sivayanama Mandala PDF

Several people requested me for a high resolution version of the Sivayanama Mandala you see on the sidebar of this blog. That mandala is my inspiration and is the logo for this blog and any other blog/website I may have in the future. I just posted this page where you can download the PDF of this mandala. At that page you can also read about its history and usage information. This link is also in the menu at the top of the blog. Hope you enjoy using it. Love and Light, Desika

Body Divine: Musings

These thoughts came about while having an email discussion on the topic of time management as energy management with my friends. One of my friends quoted from an article he had read that we should manage our physical energy by sleeping for 7-8 hours, eating every four hours, etc., to get the work done and still have energy left. I agreed with that, but with one caution, “One size does not fit all.” So, I am posting that email verbatim under “Musings” category, only editing out some names and correcting some grammar. Here it goes. Energy Management versus Time Management...

Approaching Spirituality

Many people wrote in the comments to the article, How I Contacted Siddhar Thirumoolar, as well as in emails that they were looking for experiences similar to what I described in that article. One of the reader’s had a serious discomfort, after practicing the mantra on that page without guidance. Read the “update” on that article for further details. I am posting this here as a separate article for the benefit of those that may not know I posted an update to that article. When it comes to spiritual techniques one size does not fit all. Not all techniques are...

Defining God

Now that I got your attention, let me tell you that I am not going to define the undefinable. But, this is merely to ask you to contemplate on your definition of God. Everytime somebody asks me, “Do you believe or have faith in God?” I pause and ask a question in return, “What is your definition of God? Unless I know that I cannot honestly answer that question.” This is because behind every question, whether spiritual or otherwise, there are some underlying assumptions. Unless those assumptions are brought out, one cannot answer a question truly and honestly. As I...

Stories We Tell Ourselves

Story for The Moment

The sentence, “Stories we tell ourselves” kept rolling in my thought-space for the past few days. As I contemplated on this, I realized the stories we tell ourselves, and others, to justify the status quo, to justify our behavior, to justify why we are resisting change, why we want to give up on something that we are doing, or to never start something that we always wanted to do. Stories, […]

Free Will According to Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I have been contemplating about the concept of free will for a while. I looked back into my life, into all that happened and all that I accomplished. When I contemplated on things that just happened it felt like I had no control over them. However, when I looked at things that I felt I accomplished—at least felt that way at the time of their accomplishment—initially, I felt I had done them out of my own will—free will. […]

Ways to Overcome Limiting Thought Patterns

We end up living a life that we constantly think of and dream of. We will realize this fact, if we take a few moments from our busy lives to look back and contemplate on what happened so far and what was our mental state during those times. Though this may come as a shock or make us feel uncomfortable, once we realize that so far we have been limited by our own thoughts and imaginings, […]

Brotherhood of the Spirit—My Contemplation

In Part-1 of this series, I talked about the confusions and internal conflicts that arise, if the guru-disciple relationship is not seen in proper, higher perspective. In this part, I will discuss my own confusions, and how my teacher Siddhar Thirumoolar clarified my doubts using my wordly relationships as examples. […]