2024 - Review

 As 2024 draws to a close, it is time to reflect, introspect, and pay gratitude to key moments of this year. This has been my regular year-end activity since 2005, as I love to document the highlights of each year in my blog.

After completing my Yoga Instructor Course (YIC) at SVYASA last year, it was a natural progression to sign up for M.Sc Yoga (Distance program).

Back-to-school mode from Jan'24. As someone who loves the role of a student, I find it an enriching learning experience so far. The syllabus gives good exposure to a range of subjects - Anatomy and physiology, basic Sanskrit, Vedas and Upanishads, Yoga philosophy, Bhagavad Gita, Patanjali Yoga Sutras and Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and many more. Our faculty have been amazing, and they provide the required orientation for each subject at the beginning of every semester. It is then up to the motivation and efforts of the students to pursue the learning in the depth they want to. 

Though the course is distance mode, we have in-person sessions (PCPs) and 18-day mandatory Yoga therapy field training, where I had to stay at our university campus in Bangalore.

It was a completely new experience for me, as I had never stayed in school/college hostels earlier. This was also the first time I was away from my daughter for many days. With lots of planning, pre-preparation, and coordination with K, we managed those days when I was away from home.

The first year is almost complete, and the second semester exams are coming up in a month. I hope to continue the same rigor and efforts in 2025 and complete this course with God's grace.

As I invested more of my time towards my academics, I had to reduce the time commitment to my other activities like reading non-fiction books and blogging as compared to 2023.

Textbooks and study material from university took priority, but along with them, I also managed to finish reading 12 new non-fiction books this year. There are also many books that are in progress.

1. Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
2. Timeless Gita, Endless Bliss - Vol 1 by B Mahadevan
3. Being Love by BK Shivani
4. The way to Women's freedom according to Vivekananda by Anjana Gangopadhyay (BL)
5. Spiritual life of the householder by Swami Ranganathananda (BL)
6. Creative use of emotion by Swami Rama
7. Maturity by Osho
8. Ishvara in one's life by Swami Dayananda Saraswati
9. The fall of the human intellect by A Parthasarathy
10. Yoga Sutras simplified by Vasudev Murthy
11. The Paths of Pravritti and Nivritti by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati (BL)
12. Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier

*BL - booklet (less than 100 pages)

I also didn't blog as frequently as last year. Among the articles I wrote this year, here are my favorite five:

Identities are like shirts that we wear

Is your success yours?

Perspectives on homeschooling

Can we change our opinions?

The Ferris wheel of Life

I had set an intention for 2024 that I would like to go deeper into our scriptures. The avenues opened up in multiple ways.

I completed the course "Introduction to Vedanta" conducted by Smt. Rama Sivaraman on Vyoma. This was a perfect foundation course to understand the basic concepts and philosophy of Vedanta.

I got blessed with the opportunity to collaborate with Prof. B. Mahadevan and we worked together in translating his Tamil book on "Sanatana Dharma" into the English version. We also published a new book - "The Joy of Oneness", a commentary on Adi Shankaracharya's Manisha Panchakam. There is so much profound wisdom in our Shastras that one lifetime isn't sufficient to read, digest, and assimilate the learnings.

The most special gift I received this year was the blessings of Bhagavan Krishna to step into the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. I sincerely believe that Gita comes to us when we are ready to receive the knowledge. In March, I enrolled for the Gita chanting classes, conducted by Gita Parivar. I have completed 3 levels and am currently in Level 4 (13 chapters done, 5 more to go). Learning the right pronunciation and chanting the shlokas is the first step before we dive deeper into the meaning and wisdom that's presented in Gita. I'm also reading the translation and commentary slowly to imbibe the teachings.

Along with learning Yoga as part of my M.Sc course, I also completed two Yoga programs conducted by Nirvana Academy - a 21-day Yoga challenge in Jan/Feb and a 21-day Women's Health challenge in Aug/Sep. Both were beautifully conducted by Vijaya ji. I love her style of teaching Asanas and her clarity in presenting knowledge.

In my quest towards learning Vedanta, I stumbled upon the book "Fall of the Human Intellect" by Shri.A Parthasarathy. This further led me to listen to Bhaskar ji's weekly lectures on the same book. He also conducted weekly sessions on Kaivalya Upanishad. As these lectures were available only for a week on YouTube, I diligently followed them by listening and taking notes.

As part of 2nd semester, we are learning Patanjali Yoga Sutras (PYS). This led me to get introduced to Balamurali sir's classes. Attended his 10-hour course on PYS and a course on Evolution Theory. He explains complex (and abstract) concepts in relatable ways using anecdotes and perfect imagery in his PPTs.

This year was indeed packed with loads of new learnings on various topics.

Shloka chanting classes for kids that I started last year continued this year too. It feels so satisfying to teach young kids Hanuman Chalisa, various short Shlokas/Bhajans, share stories and answer their inquisitive questions on spirituality, culture, and values.

An interesting and unexpected request for a class came up early this year from a family who asked me if I could teach them how to read and write Tamil. Though we could only do a few classes due to mismatch in our schedules, I felt happy to help them read and write Tamil alphabets and simple words.

Bhoomi College invited me this year to conduct a 1-day workshop on packaged foods and traditional food wisdom for the participants of "Teach for Nature" fellowship program. It was a memorable talk, connecting with like-minded individuals. Also presented an online webinar on Packaged foods for the group members of "My Bharat My Culture".

Though the book club wasn't as active as last year, we had a couple of online sessions - "Reclaim your focus" workshop, book summaries of "Stolen focus" and "Bad therapy" (two impactful books that I read this year).

Travel this year was something special. We had planned to visit Mussoorie in Apr and booked a hotel in the main market locality. But due to some reasons, the hotel booking got cancelled in the last minute and we had to make an alternate booking in Landour (at a higher altitude than Mussoorie and away from main town center). It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Landour was so tranquil, quiet and beautiful. We did the infinity walk of around 3 kms multiple times during our stay. Though I couldn't meet Ruskin Bond, as a fan of his books, I felt so thrilled to see his home and the bookstore that he used to visit often.

We also did a few long weekend trips to Coimbatore, Ooty, Yelagiri and Pondicherry. I also got the opportunity this year to seek blessings of Bhagavan Shiva by visiting Thiruvannamalai for the very first time.

Celebrating D's birthday at Wonderla was special as this was our first visit to a water theme park. Meeting my soul friend and her family, spending a day at her home in Coimbatore was memorable.

This year also marks the important occasion of me having quit social media! I came out of Instagram, the platform where I was actively creating content for nearly 10 years. The reels trends, fake gurus and influencers, algorithm pushing certain agenda and determining where our eyes should be, poor reach for static content - considering these factors, I decided to stop using the platform. I feel a lot relieved and am now more focused without getting distracted by social media. 

Ofcourse, there were other distractions that took away my focus for some time :-) 

During the Loksabha elections, I somehow got interested in geopolitics and current affairs. I created a X (Twitter) account for consuming content. I later realized the kind of negativity, stereotyping, biases and unnecessary arguments over small issues that was seeping from this platform into my thoughts, causing restlessness and anger. After a few months, I deactivated the account to retain my mental peace. But this little exposure to geopolitics opened my eyes to the various agenda and narratives being propagated and distortion of historical facts. 

Similar to last few years, I have no resolutions, goals or plans for 2025. Embracing my curiosity to learn, going with the flow, sticking to my habits and routines, and contributing to family and society in as many ways as possible - I hope to continue on these lines with the Divine blessings.

Wishing you a very happy, healthy and joyous New Year 2025! 

Health is Wealth

 The last 10 days have been an enriching learning experience as I completed the credits required for Yoga therapy field training at Arogyadhama, SVYASA. There were certain patterns that I observed:

=> More young people in the psychiatry dept with anxiety, depression, insomnia, restlessness, and overthinking. 

=> More women in the 50s and 60s in the rheumatology dept with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. 

=> More young and middle-aged men and women with spine-related issues - herniated disc, bulged disc, cervical spondylitis.

During their 1- or 2-week stay at the campus, the participants undergo various therapies and treatments from Yoga, Ayurveda, naturopathy, and acupuncture, along with counseling and lectures. They feel better during discharge and also experience a positive change in some of the parameters due to proper diet, physical movement, being amidst nature, interaction with more people, and learning about their ailments and solutions for the same. 

The real challenge begins once they resume their normal routine in their homes/offices. I guess it is the same with most of us. When part of a wellness retreat, we feel better, but it is harder to make the required changes in our everyday routine and sustain such habits and practices.

In today's times, falling sick is easy, but maintaining good health requires effort and patience. 

The adage - Health is Wealth - has so much truth behind it. Our physical body has a lot of resilience to bounce back, but we push it to such an extent that the system collapses beyond a certain point. If not considered so far, let's prioritize health as one of our top priorities for 2025! 

Quit junk/processed food.

Eat home-cooked meals as much as possible. Reduce the frequency of ordering from food delivery apps.

Prioritize physical movement and regular exercise.

Practice sleep hygiene. Disconnect from work and devices at least an hour before bedtime.

Prioritize your life areas. Pursue goals with a strong reason, not just because everyone is doing it.

The Karma transition for the worse

 Why do projects/ideas that begin with good intentions, service, and a contribution mindset turn into profit-focused businesses with selfish motives? 

What is the tipping point that triggers this change?

What is that milestone when greed takes over?

What are the factors that influence this change?

Is it the admiration and validation?

Is it the ego boost?

Is it that point when one realizes they have found ways to earn quick bucks with minimal effort?

Is it due to the pressure from investors or competition?

Is it due to the relentless pursuit of growth?

In Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna classifies action (karma) into three types based on the spiritual influence and growth:

(1) Sattvika Karma - Selfless actions. Actions to help others, actions performed without ego or attachment, and actions where there are plenty of beneficiaries.

(2) Rajasika Karma - Selfish actions. Actions performed for the fulfillment of personal desires and gains. Actions where the beneficiary is oneself or close family/circle.

(3) Tamasika Karma - Harmful actions. Actions with Selfish intent that cause harm to others. Actions taken without any regard to consequences of loss, injury, or hurt to others. 

Ideas and initiatives that start as Sattvika karma eventually downgrades to Rajasika and Tamasika karma. This downgrade seemed to have accelerated in the past few years, especially in social media-driven businesses.

Having observed and followed various "influencers" (food, lifestyle, productivity, health, fitness, habits, parenting, family, relationships, personal finance, careers, etc) on Instagram/YouTube, I noticed this consistent pattern. The same people whom you earlier admired for their supposedly good intentions turn into greedy, selfish, and arrogant folks, with the sole purpose of minting money from their followers through every little gimmick from the marketing playbook, leveraging inherent biases of humans, scarcity syndrome, FOMO, tall promises, building a personal brand that is based on extreme ideologies presented in an idealistic and aspirational way. 

They do a fabulous job in marketing to lure the audience, but when it comes to the actual content/offering/product/service, they fail miserably as there is hardly any value being offered apart from a mish-mash of content haphazardly put together.

What is surprising is that there are enough people who fall for such gimmicks repeatedly.

Is it because of their lack of self-esteem and self-belief? 

Is it because people expect quick fixes, shortcuts, and easy readymade solutions that work for someone?

Is it because they do not want to put in the hard work to read up, research, and find solutions for their unique life challenges?

An unorganized industry has come up in the past 3-4 years where a lot of easy/quick money is being made by the so-called influencers with barely any investment (time, resources, knowledge, etc). Wonder if they even pay taxes on the lakhs and crores of money they earn through such channels.

Many questions in this write-up but I have no answers. In Tamil, we say a proverb - "yemarravanga irukkara varaikkum yemaatharavanga irupaanga" ("As long as there are people to be fooled, there will be people to fool you").