Growing as we go!: Recent Episodes
Upasana Gupta
Recording my journey and trying to connect with like minded people. Everyday trying to learn something from life and people around me. Share with friends who feel the same way.....
Getting clarity on the 4 stages of our journey to enlightenment . Point is even to get on the path, we need to be clear on what are all the tools available to us and what are the gurus really saying will work. Well it’s not a linear path that is for sure.
Start somewhere.
Preparation is the first step, then listening to what is in our scriptures, dwelling on what we heard and then finally contemplation.
All very simple but heavy at the same time.
This is the only thing which makes sense though. This session is my way of making sense out of what i am hearing and feeling - in layman’s terms. Hope it inspires you in any way.
Happy Journey!
Hi Everyone! I lately realized there is no straight path to achieve something. Also, if we have a thought which is clear in our head - then no matter how remote or unachievable it might be, you might or i should say you will achieve it! It is surprising but i am talking from experience. Note say you want something there no straight forward step to get to that point. But your thought- even if the thought is unintentional- will take you there via a twisted path and surprise you. This is feel might be shat law of attraction might be ( might). Point is it all starts with a thought- a clear and crisp one - don’t worry how remote it sounds. You might not know how to get there but you will see your self just making those choices which lead you to it! Simple insight but amazing mind boggling results- so honestly be careful of what you want kind of thoughts .. happy thoughts and happy journey to you!!
Just realized again - real happiness is not in buying a big house, a better car, marrying the perfect guy or girl, etc - its only in knowing your true self. We know it but still have to dwell on it. We need a constant reminder until we become that. Just trying to record my realization… Everyone has their own journey. Here is a piece from mine. Hope it helps in any way. Happy journey ya all!!
Sometimes when we are sad or have some kind of downtime, inner engineering steps help me overcome those bad vibes. There is one specific step which you will see it literally taking all such bad feelings out of you. If you get a chance do look into it. Of course, this is just my personal opinion. Hope it helps. Happy journey!
I am learning a lot but no questions- not sure if its a good thing or bad. Listen to this session and see if it helps. Happy Journey!
Gut health is king! I am sure this needs to be understood well to stay healthy. Today, I Did my very first interview - with Dr. Anil Sharma, who is a BAMS- Ayurvedic doctor specializing in Neurology and psychiatry. What i got from the session on a high level is an overview on Gut health. Chew your food well, fast at least once a month and consider taking Triphala ( ayurvedic medicine). He also suggested not to take too many antacids as they mess up with your system and can create chemical imbalance. Please listen to him directly because i could be doing a twisted translation of his words. I will let you know here as well once I upload on YouTube and or podcast. Hope you benefit from this. Gut health is key for staying healthy! Happy journey!!
I am getting ready for my next step. For quite some time i have been planning to interview or maybe have simple candid conversations with some great people in my life, and bringing out here so others can benefit if possible. There are so many amazing people around and so much to offer, its not even funny. Looking forward to it… this is my way of announcing to myself i have to do it. Hope it helps!!! Happy journey once again!
Just realized how much real headache can conflicts give us. Please try not to roam around with so many things bothering you. So many things unresolved. Its not worth it. We need to just get rid of these conflicts so we can be peaceful. Just wanted to share this simple lesson I learnt. Thought of sharing with you. Happy Journey!
I noticed we see these yellow alerts and conveniently choose to ignore them. By yellow alerts I mean the signs which are not completely in our face but we feel them. We sense them and know they are important. They are clearly telling us things but because they are not in our comfort zone we choose to ignore them. The point is we should address them. Otherwise, at some point in life we will face the consequences. We will then think why did we not listen to our inner voice aka the yellow alerts … Just wanted to share this - hope it helps. Happy Journey!
We hear that enlightened people “chop wood carry water” before they were enlightened and still “chop wood carry water” after enlightenment. I wonder how that happens or will happen, assuming we all will be able to attain enlightenment. When we meditate and contemplate simply on the path, it’s hard to juggle day to day life and our inner journey. I wonder how we will be able easily carry it once we get enlightened ( hoping we will soon :) ) … in any case that will be amazing if we can lead a great normal life without suffering… still be around current surroundings and not suffer. It’s all in our minds. Gotta just understand our true nature is unchanging and so on … contemplating here. Thought I will share … and hopefully understand more as well … happy journey!
I listened to Swami Ji’s latest video on enlightenment. Wow, I got some major questions answered, the ones I did not even realize I had. I am not much of a reader and in fact these simple yet heavy lessons from Gita and Vedanta take time to sink in. One thing I do get as a gist of everything- tat twam asi. Swamiji just answered this big question I had that nothing to worry if you can not easily absorb the scriptures and the technicalities- if we can even dwell on “tat twam asi” that will do. That is a different story that Vedanta and other scriptures make it easy for us to dwell on it … anyway … that is my takeaway… happy journey!
There is only one thing needed to get enlightened- only one way - Neti Neti. Neti Neti is process of negation - I am not this, I am not that and so on. Whatever is remaining is our true consciousness - satchitananda atma. This is my understanding from whatever I gathered from my Guruji’s Vedanta classes. Yes how well we do Neti Neti is the whole game….
We all know we should help others. Just realized a simple way of helping others is by sharing something we already know and we know it works. A simple information, a tip or a hack can do wonders for a person in need. We do have inhibitions that what if we don’t sound knowledgeable or what if the person does not receive it well.. don’t worry just share. The beauty of this is, it not just helps them, but it helps us understand our own knowledge better…. Then, the satisfaction you get after helping is so immense. You will feel elated and satisfied. Plus, your knowledge of your knowledge will increase another fold. It’s like we did research on that topic. So it’s all win win … we help ourselves by helping others. Hope this helped! Happy Journey!
Now it’s clear we need to gain knowledge and need to meditate to get enlightened. It will not happen with just one. Need to do both. I realized the more we get on this path, the more confusions. Good confusions. Or we can call them our blocks. In this session all I am trying to say is continue on this path of seeking knowledge and meditating. Eventually we will get our questions answered for the questions we never really knew we had. Happy journey!
This weekend I learnt that first of course we have to move towards being detached. Secondly I got a feel of a great hack on how to get on that journey of detachment. The answer is acceptance. In this session I am discussing the cycle of life. How to be love our people but be detached at the same time. We need to accept the cycle of life - death is an integral part of it. Yes we will be sad but need to accept it. It’s not easy and but that is how it’s supposed to be. This will remove a lot of suffering, I guess. I am just trying to process what I heard in this weekend lesson from Swami Tadatmananda ji- in his class on Gita. Please note I am trying to make sense out of what is going on around me and what I am hearing from my gurus. All I say is just my journey and some rough thoughts. I have a lot growing up to do and learn. Just sharing my journey as I go. Hope it helps. Happy journey!
I realized if we want to meditate, first most important thing is to forgive everyone including yourself. As discussed in one of my earlier sessions.The second thing which is important and can instantly bring you in meditative state is by aiming for stillness throughout your body. I have not researched this concept much but I am telling you from my personal experience. I think I picked up things from different experiences with different teachers on the way and realized these this hack works instantly. In this session I discuss how I do it and see if this works for you! Please note I am still learning and recording my journey as I go. Hope this helps. Happy journey!
How I understand religion is faith in something or someone. Another thing I have been hearing is we all are lost without a religion. I grew up with a faith but that was handed to me by family and society I grew up in. It did not gel with me and now I am totally lost. I have no clarity of what is my religion or faith. What is it that I believe in really. Point is we all need to be clear in what we believe in and do believe in something. We are lost without it. Religion or faith grounds us. I am recording my journey of finding my faith or religion. Happy journey to you all too!
Today I am narrating a very sweet story to indicate how everyone has their own calling. It’s about what my dog does very innocently proving a point - every one has their own calling.
So many times we try to meditate and our mind just does not stop talking. For me it happens a lot and sometimes it just does not calm down. I found a great hack for that. I should say I tried something I had known already just did not know it could work like this. So here it is : when you sit down to meditate, close your eyes and just say you “ I forgive everyone, including myself “. That is it. Say it like you mean it. You will see a big baggage is dropped and your head feels so much lighter. A lot of the voices stop. You will be surprised. You can then continue with your meditation. This is not something I came up with myself. I remembered it from Sahaj Yog and Sedona method. Point is to “let go” of all the unnecessary thoughts in your head. You will probably not realize you have to do that. You might try to just meditate and will feel frustrated if u don’t get into the zone. Try it at that time! Enjoy
I noticed no matter what a spiritual guru, a life coach, our parents or anyone else in our lives who has something to say, is teaching us, the base story stays the same. Fundamentals don’t change. I am emphasizing on 3 base habits which I realize every one is emphasizing in different ways. So it’s high time we tackle them and see how to best implement them. Yes first and most important thing is to really be sold on the idea that yes keeping our gut clean, sleeping on time and self love is the way to go. Once the high level is covered we can start digging in as to what it means for each one of us. Here I am just trying to reveal the 3 things which I have learnt. No matter how a teacher is teaching it boils down to these fundamentals - specially when it comes to our health and success in life overall. I know you all could argue with me on this, but telling you what I have realized as of today and what I feel as of now. Right here right now! Hope this helps you.
First of all we all need mantras in our lives. What a mantra does is, first cleanses your mind of any thought you have at that time - it could be positive or negative. So, if say you were happy or sad when u started reciting the mantra, while and after reciting it you will be peaceful and not thinking of your thought. You will be surprised even erasing the happy feeling will make you peaceful. Anyway, point is “any” mantra you recite will distract you. Now on top of that if your mantra has a positive meaning, that will then have a positive impact on you. All these personal development coaches also teach us mantras in a way. Only thing is these mantras are one dimensional called positive affirmations say I am a millionaire 🙂. There is more to spiritual mantras like say OM. They have another dimension to it like the sound it makes which has a positive effect on you as well. So mantras are important to not just forget your sorrows, to relieve you from pain, but help you even handle success or happiness well. Done right I heard it can take you to moksha or enlightenment… happy mantras guys!
Let’s all ask ourselves this question- what are we waiting for? - in fact let’s ask this question very frequently. We all have a habit of putting all our simple desires also on hold. We think we have forever to live on this planet. We are so sure we will lead a healthy and long life, that we put most of our desires or dreams for later. Guys there is no later. Let’s try to go for our desires now. Who knows when is the time … we don’t want to have regrets in the last minute. It’s not just that, why not do what we want to and be happy and content now - it’s simple - what are we waiting for?
Guys don’t feel bad about making yourself happy first before you head out to make others happy. Self love is necessary for us!
I have been following Swami Ramdev ji, a great yogi, who teaches yoga to the entire India on a mass scale via TV, social media etc. Here I will be briefly mentioning the 5 techniques we could do every morning for long healthy life. Hope this excites you and you go researching them and implement them in your daily routine. These are 2 breathing techniques ( anulom vilom and kapaalbhaati ) and 3 yogasanas “ sarvanga asana” followed by hal asana, followed by shav asana. Please do full research as I am not an expert. Hope this info helps you!
I will like to share this golden nugget with everyone- get on with “ Shambhavi Kriya” - it will just take care of you and your life from there on. I am practicing this as taught by The spiritual guru Sadhguru in his Inner Engineering Program. I personally like how they give end to end how to do it - like start with upa yoga etc. to warm up and that preps you for a better experience. Note things will start aligning for you once you get on with a disciplined practice like Shambhavi. It has and still is helping me. Give it a shot, if you are looking to begin the journey!
Hi Friends, I learned this lesson and am still learning that - we “need” to use filters when we speak and specially react to something. Guess what, if we don’t we might regret later. First of all what do I mean by using filters. Point is just think or even take a small break or a pause before you say something. We don’t have to and should not just straight say things as they come in our mind….. Simple lesson but could help if we apply.
We all want to help out people besides ourselves. I want to help out too. Until I create time and resources, I want to figure out which direction I should go which could help people in a big way. I was debating between 2 main causes. Global warming as my top contender. Second in line was basics like water and food. Even though I would like to do something to prevent global warming, I decided to go for “water” for every one. This is one of the very basics, we all living things need to survive. This is what I will like to start with… at least for now. Wish me luck- even if I could help out a single person, single issue, it will be my privilege!
Today I was in the mood of singing this beautiful old song 1 line - Main jab bhi akeli hoti hoon” - I love to sing but I don’t trust my voice all the time. It depends on my mood and how my throat is feeling that day - it could also be the situation I am in. Today, it’s a Saturday. I try not to do any business related works on the weekend. So I am more relaxed. I love to do riyaz because I feel my voice quality needs a lot of improvement and I want to be able to sing a song very beautifully. I believe only classical music can bring out that edge. Short story is I have an immense desire to learn music and I love to sing. Since I don’t usually know songs fully I end up singing mostly first 1 or 2 lines of my favorite songs. Rest later… btw i want to make sure I don’t worry too much and just share. Please don’t judge.. I am a beginner. I just want to learn vocal music but share my journey as we go.
Unknowns always scare us. Once we get used to them, they are not that intimidating. We are heard about non- duality- there is no I. Accepting non duality concept is very scary. But more we visit it, more we will accept it. Please listen to Swami Tadatmananda ji on YouTube on Non-Duality. I am listening to him and trying to make sense out of things! Happy sailing!
I have tested this and still testing how awareness affects us - brings so much happiness that is deep. In this session I give some every day life examples to show how I feel satisfied and happy from within by just being a little more aware than before. It’s mind blowing how it works…. Considering we all want to feel happy in this tough world.
I question myself these days - how can I help the world, the people. Then I think of all the million things I have to do every minute. I see a lot of people who are able to do 100 things at the same time. Not me. But what I can do is start creating my mindset and clarity of thought. My problem is if I go all out to support just every cause I feel about, I won’t be able to even help a single one much. So I kind of want to think while I have some time, and when I am ready, I can just dive in. I do believe in women empowerment, spirituality, helping with hunger and water scarcity issues etc. In this session I am laying out my thought process so far - trying to sort out…
Hi Everyone, I got this little hack or advice from my dad - “ Get ready every day even if you don’t need to, it’s important for personal growth and feeling good about yourself”. I am not there yet, but now I am sure this tactic works. By the way, please remember I am not talking spiritually. That is a whole different ballgame. That is all inwards. So, until we get there and while we love and care about how we appear physically- let’s get ready every day!
Please get on with the concept of “ the one thing” - this is from my lessons learnt so far. I got this initially from the book I read titled “The one thing”. It explains how solving that one thing will take care of all the following issues. Point is to figure out carefully what is that one thing, then tackle it with all your heart. You will see how it creates a domino effect and all the related issue get dissolved. Read more directly from the book which changed by life - The One Thing” by “Gary Keller”
Guys, you can not expect someone to just take care of your work like you do, without you even monitoring or being on top of it. If you let go of your things to someone without being strategic, it will come and bite you. So, don’t be lazy. Be strategic.
We all are on a spiritual path, whether we know it or not. Another fact is we all will get to the final destination but how we get there, what path we take might be different. Here I am talking about how it’s okay to be on a different path if our final destination is the same. We all are seeking the final place where there is no suffering even if there is pain. Complicated word is enlightening.
If you don’t plan what you want, you will end up getting carried away by life. If you do plan, you can stop unwanted things from happening to you. I know it’s tricky because too much planning is not good but generally have a basic sense of how you like or want things.
These days I am “feeling lost in a crowd”. I am in a party or gathering with friends all around- but wondering what am I doing there…. Just expressing how I realized how important it is to have like minded people around me - best is to have people at the same or slightly more elevated stage in life. I mean in terms or spiritually evolved!
Whatever we do in life, balance is important. Whether it’s money or spirituality, love or hatred, we need to balance. As it’s rightly said, excess of anything is bad.
Hi Everyone,
First of all, yes money mindset is important depending on what phase of life you are in.
I was drifting more towards the spiritual side and it was taking me away from the money mindset.
I am at the phase where I want to build my business and make sure all my financial needs are met. At this phase I can not mentally afford to be in the full spiritual zone. That is where I was headed, I could see.
So, my appeal to everyone on the spiritual path is, see at what phase of life you are in. See how much can you afford to let go and how fast.
You don't have to leave your spiritual path. Just watch your pace a bit depending on your responsibilities and worldly goals!
Happy Journey!
I have just started listening to Swami Tadatmananda Ji’s sessions on Bhagvad Gita. In this episode I am including my understanding of that session. Please be forgiving if I made mistakes. Please do check out his video on YouTube for exact details.
Here I am talking about the most important question we need to ask ourselves and have full clarity on. What do you want?
We are running around and chasing happiness but what is this happiness to us. Is it money, family, music or anything else?
Idea is we need to be very strategic just like in business and other goals of life, what is it that we really want in life.
My suggestion based on what has worked for me so far and I am still working on it honestly is: Keep a diary and start answering this question in it daily. Tweak your answer every night. You will see how you get clarity on your approach towards life in general.
By the way, my dog Bubba is sitting next to me while I am recording this episode. He is busy scratching the bed. The scratching noise is also recorded in this and is kind of annoying... I do find it funny and sweet. Sorry about this noise. I don't know how to remove that sound so, bear with me please. Hoping soon I will be able to take Bubba to a professional studio where there is noise cancellation :)
Happy listening guys!
Here I am talking about the importance of how we all, especially women, should make sure we save up some funds individually as well as common family funds.
Small tips can make a world of difference in your life, your meditation, your being...
In this episode I am sharing how it makes a huge difference as to where you meditate and do yoga, not just the fact that you are committed and do it consistently...... If you can relate to me, you will feel what I mean by this.