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About Niranjan Seshadri
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Blog postAlchemy is happening right under our breath, in our bodies. Food and water turning into bone, muscle, and other bodily cells and tissues is nothing short of a miracle. Nature guides the body in this process of transmutation of energy. Just as nutrition from organic matter helps the body grow, sensory impulses fees the mind's growth. The mind is a significant storehouse of energy, which gets distributed amonst countless thoughts. To realize the mind's potential, we would first need to gather a
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Blog postStanding atop the Hoover Dam, a massive concrete edifice rising a quarter of a mile above the Colorado River, I couldn’t help marvel at human ingenuity. Below my feet, enough concrete to build a four-foot-wide sidewalk around the earth filled a narrow canyon. The smooth-walled human-made structure did not look out of place amid the rugged stone walls rising on both sides. The lake imbued the air with a stillness that permeated a timeless work of art.
A bird rising from the abyss s -
Blog postIn the mind, the past and the future are not dry abstract lists of experiences that we can divide into two columns but a rich tapestry resembling a fine Persian rug. We take the past with us when we dream of the future. Conversely, thoughts of the future color the mind as we delve into our past. The two are inseparable.
The past is a network of thoughts holding experiences like tree roots that prevent a mountainside from sliding into the valley below. The future is also a network, full -
Blog postSacred is the silence
Of the mountains
Carried by the wind
Helping it descend
Into the cramped hearts
Within corpulent minds
Sniffing, for a way up
Ladders of ambition
Bringing along noise
As the wind silently prays
For a chance to audition
Its prized possession
The sacred silence
Divines the inaccessible
Fruits that sages crave
Is right here in our midst
Ear -
Blog postAmbiguity is nature’s play
With cards hidden
Beneath the sea bed
Above the clouds
From where life springs
And blessings rain
Grace and life meet
In the ambiguous middle
Where we thrive
Seeking both worlds
If there was one way
It would be uncomplicated
A soft will makes us helpless
Nursing mind’s ambiguity
An onerous preoccupation
With one eye on the spirit
Swaying with possessions -
Blog postConveniences pursued
Will cost us dear
We are time-bound
Travelers, who forget
Hardship’s temporary
We look for rewards
Momentary pleasures
Are hard to pass up
Unshakable yokes
That stretch us thin
Aren’t conveniences
But the mind’s ruse
To keep us sedate
Obeying its rules
We gladly stay
Raised in comfort
Of nearby thoughts
We fear the depths
Lack such convenienc -
Blog postFamiliarity recedes
As we ascend
Through the forest
Of consciousness
Where seeds disappear
Making way for trees
Each vying for a place
Closer to the spotlight
Faithfully curling across
The sky’s a happy blue
It is so familiar, we forget
Ours is such a rarity
In our neighborhood
Desolation’s familiar
We are given a free pass
To live and breathe
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Blog postRenewal of the tress
Cloaks spring with hope
Nesting leaves emerge
To see the open sky
The womb of new life
Readies to spill its wares
Every drop is sought
By the thawing ground
With seeds of its own
Seeking to one day rise
And host innocent chirps
Begging budding wings
To take the first flight
Into the welcoming wind
Its generous hands
Massage the clouds
Moving them far away
So the sun can see
It’s clev -
Blog postThe entrance, it’s open
Wide as the horizon
Draping the ocean
Mating it with the sky
Unruly waves disappear
Into a peaceful calm
Protected by the shroud
Of the dark night
Stars spring to life
Their soft auras
Light the way
While the sun sleeps
Millions of candles
Exempt from the wind
Reveal the entrance
Waiting for willing eyes
To drop their clouds
Every moment waits
At nature’s entrance
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Blog postMigration through time
Costs milestones
For us to emerge
Into this openness
Shared with the sun
And other adherents
Of the cosmic way of life
Spreading millions of lights
So our eyes may see
Though hopelessly dark
We’re part of a migration
That expands into frontiers
Telescopes can’t find
Our eyes are too weak
Let them get their rest
As we migrate inwards\
To another emptiness
Where illumination waits -
Blog postMemories, they can’t speak
Yet we hear, loud and clear
Brightening the depths
With their copious strands
Each a shimmering ray
Of evaporating time
They cast our future
On a road that’s familiar
Making us comfortable
Resting on breaths past
Witness to all there is
As we lay fresh sod
To cover dry heaps
Of memories, strings
That hold us behind
Life, it’s at this moment
But we keep looking back
At the silent unf -
Blog postDisappearance, is sudden
Of time in the present
We’re left trailing
Clutching old thoughts
Hoping time reappears
We survive by seeking
Scouring fields we sow
For their elusive roots
But the present leaves none
It is a one-act play
Swings of the needle
Complete the circle
The face of a clock
Warns of disappearance
Each stealthy movement
Erases precious moments
We live as if that’s untrue
Putting faith in our a -
Blog postEndurance of heartbeats
Lives in every drop
Of life-enhancing blood
Streaming from the engine
Where we house love
The mind competes
Seeking to endure
As lively memories
Augmenting the known
It is tearing us in two
The swifter current
Lives in the mind
Heartbeats endure
Many cold shoulders
As we’re carried away
By the mind’s ripples
We may eventually learn
Shifting pleasure and pain
Become har -
Blog postConfidence, in time
Helps build castles
To house the future
Its lights are yet to burn
Thoughts are unafraid
Of waiting in the dark
Confident that fate
Will bring luminosity
Making its appearance
One day, becoming ‘today’
We exploit, with confidence
Our relationship with life
She’s kept reserves full
Anticipating our arrival
Saturating us with air
So we may live
Hopeful we’ll turn divine -
Blog postTraces left behind
Lead to a stash
Of dreams, memories
Providing refuge
To them we’re loyal
Discarding the wealth
Freshly baked moments
Our time’s contaminated
It loses its relevance
Unlike the stars
Time saves their spots
To which they return
In months and years
They leave no traces
As they carve space
With soft telltale lights
If we tread like them
Without dragging thoughts
We’re freed from our -
Blog postEach of us has a fistful of diamonds when we come on to this earth. These diamonds are in the form of the energies, and the potential of the mind can bring us lifelong happiness. Somewhere in our childhood, we misplace those diamonds. We then spend the rest of our lives from that point on looking for happiness. Not just looking but begging the world for our happiness.
Every morning we wake up with a clue about those hidden diamonds. It makes a brief appearance before the first thought -
Blog postAcceptance is a big word for the mind. The mind may counter, ‘Why should I accept?’ or ‘Why am I being forced to accept?’ If there is a magic pill that helps us adapt to all circumstances, it is acceptance. Just as water mixes easily with water, acceptance allows us to mix with the unpredictable flow of life that takes us through good and bad circumstances.
If there is a magic pill that helps us adapt to all circumstances, it is acceptance.
Good and bad times are like side stree -
Blog postThere are no winners
Losers or sinners
Our deeds are openly seen
We can’t hide behind a screen
In the museum of the past
Our lives are rehashed
Those who care to look
It is like reading a book
Not just about ourselves
But of humanity itself
Everything is a projection
Within, is ripe for reflection
Fundamentally, we’re similar
Under skins of varying color
The mind has a dominant role
Operat -
Blog postLife is a long game
Following rules is no shame
Play it hard, play it well
Until the final ring of the bell
Thinking of a purpose
The false self will surface
In the pursuit of dreams
We may go to extremes
There’s no defined meaning
Nothing about life is demeaning
Whatever may be the work
Life rewards those who don’t shirk
Living brings understanding
We may spend time planning
But life has other p -
Blog postThoughts, are like raindrops
They fall on us, nonstop
The mind’s a fertile ground
Many seeds are to be found
Waiting to sprout and grow
Sending roots deep below
Latecomers, the fruits
They influence our pursuits
Raindrops, pure as crystals
When they’re at a distance
High up in the clouds
Away from the thirsty crowds
Thoughts that exemplify purity
Are hidden, and lost in obscurity
Mingling with re -
Blog postA change in perspective
Makes life less restrictive
Opening the gate
To more than just fate
We are the authors
There may be higher orders
But day to day, we define
Between joy and sorrow, the line
Everything is beautiful
Sights are plentiful
The eyes suffer poverty
They have lost clarity
The seed of perspective
Cannot be defective
It is life’s mains -
Blog postAncient souls, we are
Old as the primordial star
With elements of the new
Such a contrasting view
At the junction of new and old
The mind takes a tight hold
Of freedom, through constraints
Against it, are many complaints
The keys to existence
Remain at a distance
The gap gets bigger
As time gets thinner
On this side of the divide
The basics are denied
Abundance, happiness, peace
The mind’s -
Blog postIt is customary to measure life in units of time — days, months, years, and decades. Along with quantity, quality of life is equally, if not more important. The past becomes a growing collection of years. The future is also a factor of time. However, quality of life is an experience in the present. It is not in the past or the future, which are quantitative measures.
Quality of life is an experience in the present.
Just as we do with the past and the future, we view the present -
Blog postWe’re so many, on our little dot
It provides, but we care not
Fortunes are made and depleted
Over millennia, the story’s repeated
Our little dot, glowing in the dark
It has enticed life to spark
Getting more complex by the day
Woes of the mind come into play
It’s as if a parallel universe
One we can’t easily traverse
Helpless in space, inner and outer
We counter, through a quest for power
Some leave a giant st -
Blog postA long life, gone in a flash
Why does time have to dash?
There is much to do here
The sky pretends, not to hear
These thoughts may arise
Right before the mind’s demise
It may leave, we’re still here
Free, the mind can’t interfere
Death need not be feared
It is how life is engineered
The mind is the seat of that fear
It knows too much, to disappear
Just like that, life can change
Time spent, -
Blog postWe are here, to flourish
History hence, will cherish
What we accomplish
With the mind, our accomplice
Potential isn’t touched
Habits, tightly clutched
They lead us in circles
Afraid of running into hurdles
Life without troubles
Where only ease bubbles
Blunts any progress
Into the familiar, we regress
Ask any inventor
They gladly surrender
Comfortable nights
Afraid, time won’t suffice
< -
Blog postJoy is not restricted to our thoughts and emotions. It is like an invisible current that permeates every aspect of life. It has the power to bind us together. However, our lives are not uniformly joyful. In some aspects, there may be an oversupply of happiness. In other areas, there may be a scarcity. We spend considerable time and energy in increasing the level of happiness in areas of our lives where it is missing.
Wealth is a proxy for happiness, and it can transform the exter -
Blog postLife is essentially a startup. We were once an idea in the minds of our parents. When we came to be and took our first breath of air, we began as a small working human prototype. After the first year of life, there came a new and improved iteration, with added skillsets such as the ability to speak and walk.
The growth of the body is rapid for the next few years but highly orderly and controlled. Once the body reaches the state of physical maturity, leaving behind growing pains, a new -
Blog postTime is transformational when we are aware of its importance. It is an enigmatic phenomenon. We take it for granted, but we don’t fully understand time. As far as we are concerned, it has only one direction. As the present moves towards the future, what we call as now becomes the past.
Our life as a whole may be divided into the past, the present, and the future. Access to time that has passed is completely revoked from us, but the mind can take us there through stored memories. The fu -
Blog postHuman life has two hard boundaries. They are birth and death. No amount of money or power can modify them. During the journey of life, there are other boundaries we encounter. These include pleasure and pain. They are common to all.
We may not even realize that pleasure and pain can be limitations on the path of self-discovery. With proper understanding, they become stepping stones to a state of awareness that is neither pleasure nor pain.
Pleasure and pain can be limitations on -
Blog postWe have not one, but five avenues to enjoy the world — the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. The brain collects, and the mind interprets these sensory impressions. Once an experience happens in the mind, it creates varying degrees of enjoyment or suffering. When we enjoy or suffer, we do it through the false self or the ‘I.’ We carry this identity throughout our lives, and it is intimately connected with every life experience of ours.
Besides the false self or the -
Blog postImagine living with absolute fearlessness. It would be an indescribably joyful experience of living in the moment. Fear has a powerful effect on us. There is nothing more effective in taking our awareness from the present.
Due to the presence of fear, we find it hard to embrace the mind. We brace ourselves when the mind takes us through past recollections and thoughts of the future. Fear is partly a habit. We condition ourselves to exist alongside fear. For some, fear is a motivating f -
Blog postHappiness is hard to define. It is a subjective feeling which usually relates to the contents of our thoughts. We can say what makes us happy, and we can describe the emotions that go along with being happy. But what is happiness itself? We have in our memory experiences that can bring about the subjective feeling of happiness. This is ‘recorded happiness.’ We harbor many versions of such recorded joy. However, it does not allow us to investigate happiness itself.
Why is happiness worth in -
Blog postThe mind needs constant change. As a result, there is a continual turnover of experiences. It is not a place of rest or acceptance of the status quo. Once we identify with the mind as the agent of happiness, we automatically buy into its lifestyle of change, which is dynamic and can be instantaneous. Before we transfer a cup of coffee from the right hand to the left, we may change our mind about something. It can be hard to keep up with that pace of change.
The mind needs constant chan -
Blog postThrough identification with thoughts, we make substantial investments in the mind. It grows as time passes, and as we have new experiences. With any investment, we expect good and stable returns. The mind is no exception. The gains we expect are primarily related to happiness, from which we hope to derive peace and contentment. Just as we save money for the future, we also keep in our memory thoughts and experiences that bring us joy. They become part of the mind’s wealth. Having spent so muc
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Blog postIn the mind, there is a mixture of disparate energies. It resembles a restless confluence of two oceans. It is natural for the mind to be an active and happening place. It gets its vibrancy from the movement of thoughts. Each thought is a vehicle carrying unique content. People and circumstances from the outer world cannot enter the mind unless they come as an experience, which then becomes the contents of thoughts. Thoughts by themselves are not difficult. It is our relationship with their c
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Blog postEnergy is at the center of the complex interplay between the body and the mind. We know that matter in any form is energy. For example, our bones are solid matter. Scientists would say bones are not inert. They are a dense living swarm of atoms. By inference, we could say each bone in the body has tremendous amounts of energy. However, although matter traps energy, most of it remains inaccessible. The body uses bones primarily as a means of support, not a source of energy. The mind operates d
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Blog postThe immensity of life finds full expression in our physical bodies. Scientists are unraveling the biological complexity behind our physical existence. Besides this, there is an intangible part of our being we are yet to uncover. It lies within reach of everyone. The mind is only a small part of this inner world. The value of that untapped potential that lies in the internal landscape is immeasurable. The mind can be a facilitator or a hurdle. It becomes a facilitator when there is inward free
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Blog postExperiences and life
Experiences play out inside on the screen of the mind reflecting life outside. We are continually searching for new and novel experiences. To every experience we assign a value, quickly forgetting those we consider insignificant. For those we find valuable, we accord a special place in the mind and memory. To generate an experience, there is a complex interplay between memory, senses, emotion, intellect, ego, conditioning, and consciousness. Some experiences may ha -
Blog postBetween us and reality lie the world of desires. They are of our making and are the last of the mountains left to climb before we see things the way they are. The mind cannot exist unless there is a thought of a future, and desires form a bridge to future experiences. When we look toward desires, it implies we are not fulfilled in the present. Through desires, we hold onto the hope of a better future. Desires burn the present, the reality that is easy to overlook. Contentment and non-expectat
Titles By Niranjan Seshadri
