Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Work-Life Balance : A Practical Perspective

This blog is a short summary of 8 YouTube videos made by me and my wife (Shweta) on Work-Life Balance. The goal of these videos is to provide a practical perspective into this very important topic, and also some effective techniques that can be used to maintain a balanced lifestyle.


Monday, November 1, 2021

The Myth of Moksha

All religions of the world, without exception, are based on the concept of deliverance from suffering. Human beings, no matter how rich or poor, go through varied experiences in their lives, some of which are good and some bad. The bad experiences lead to suffering, and create a stronger impression on the mind than the good experiences. And since there does not seem to be a way to get rid of suffering in this earthly life, the human mind starts looking for it in the heavens above. The first stage in this striving is to imagine an eternal heaven with unending pleasures that one can get access to after death of the body, if one belongs to a certain group or does certain good actions as per wishes of the heaven's gatekeeper called God. After some more evolution, the human mind realises the fallacy of this desire, and understands that no such pleasures, earthly or heavenly, can be eternal and so after a certain period, a return to earthly life of mixed pleasure and pain is inevitable. But this answer also does not satisfy the human mind, and so it goes on to construct or accept the concept of "Moksha" where one goes beyond both pleasure as well as pain permanently through dissolution of the "soul" or subtle body comprising of the prana and manas. There are elaborate texts of Vedanta and Yoga written to help human beings in progressing on this path and finally achieving the goal of Moksha or ultimate freedom/liberation, through a sustained effort over many lifetimes. But is Moksha an achievable goal, or is it just another myth constructed by the human mind? More importantly, do the Vedantic scriptures clearly support this idea of Moksha?