Category: Happiness

Moksha: Download my new book

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Enlightenment, Happiness, Health, Leadership, meditation, Moksha, MUM, Music and Poetry, Nature, self-development, Sustainability, Technology, Transcendental Meditation, Vedic Technology, yoga

My new book, ‘Moksha: Liberation through Transcendence‘ was published on April 13th, my birthday.

For your benefit, here is the url and description of the book from its Amazon site:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E88QUB2/

Moksha is total liberation, from everything. This short experiential book flows from my own journey towards moksha, and is meant for seekers everywhere. A person in Moksha experiences total bliss. The experience is so special that we cannot miss the experience. Moksha is achieved by a deep desire, and the right way to transcend the world of mind and body. Moksha cannot be achieved by using the intellect alone. Vedic Technologies like Meditation, Sidddhis, and Yagyas can help transcend the sensory surface reality and realize our unbounded invincible creative Self, and progress on the path to Moksha.

Transcendental Meditation™ technique from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is a Vedic mantra-based meditation technique. Hundreds of published research studies show that regular practice of TM, and advanced techniques, helps with the reduction in stress and anxiety, increase in brain integration and creativity, improvement in cardiac health, and reduction in negativity in society.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Moksha and Enlightenment
Chapter 2: Vedas and Vedic Technologies
Chapter 3: Personal Development through Transcendence

Enjoy!

Check out my other bestselling book  Data Analytics Made Accessible

On Running a Marathon

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Creative Writing, Happiness, Health, Leadership, Music and Poetry, Nature, self-development, Travelogues

I ran a marathon race 10 years ago in Austin, TX. My motivation was simply to become a more outdoors person. An athlete friend suggested we run a marathon, and so we did.

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It was an exhilarating 6-month journey. I signed up for the Austin Distance Challenge, a series of seven increasingly longer races (5k, 5M, 10K, 10M, half-marathon, 20M) culminating in the marathon (26.2miles). I selected the best local marathon coaching company, and got a fantastic coach. Over this period, I made new running friends, became a more outdoors person, improved my health and stamina, and accumulated medals and running shirts, among other things. And, of course, successfully finished the marathon. I also learned a couple of lessons.

Anil marathon 010

  1. A good marathon is a completed marathon. I took longer than most people to complete the race, but I finished it successfully. I got my medal and jacket and kudos. Out coach told us that 98% of those who show up at the starting line, end up reaching the finish line. That was a great comfort, and a strong motivator to get up early in the morning, be excited about it, and get to the starting line. I had running buddies from my coaching group also running the race. We had physically traversed the race’s course the previous day using the coach’s script to ensure the mind does not get bored or anxious. Also, the 6 months of preparation … with long runs (or competitive races) every weekend, and a 2-hour exercise drill every Wednesday, gave us stamina and confidence. We had also been careful to stay free of running injuries to be ready for the marathon. That brings up my second lesson.

Anil marathon 005

  1. Keep it fun and injury-free. When we are preparing for the marathon, we are stretching the body to great extremes. It becomes easy to overdo and injure oneself. Many people injure their IT-band (the side of the leg from hip to the foot), knees, muscles pulls, and so on. So, run at your natural pace, with just a little bit of stretch, and make that your target pace. Do not chase the other younger and more athletic guys, the seasoned runners. Running at a natural pace uses your red-colored short-fiber leg muscles. These muscles keep up an efficient supply of oxygen and disposition of toxins (lactic acid) to keep themselves fresh and energized. Running from those muscles makes you will feel you can run all day. Do not try to sprint during long runs or the marathon … especially during those seductive downhill stretches. Sprinting utilizes the white long-fiber muscles of the thighs. These super-flexible muscles give you superb speed, but not much range. You will very soon hit a ‘wall’ when your legs freeze, and will have to abandon the marathon right there.

P.S. There were some minor lessons. Such as about investing in the right running shoes, that are one size bigger than normal to allow your feet some wiggle room. And to stay hydrated and keep the energy level high with yummy quick-release high-energy snacks bars/gels.  And of course, always listen to the coach, so you can escape a lot of grief down the road!

Moksha (Liberation) and Beyond

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Creative Writing, Enlightenment, Happiness, Health, Leadership, meditation, Moksha, MUM, self-development, Sustainability, Technology, Transcendental Meditation, Travelogues, Vedic Technology, yoga

I had the good fortune of visiting the Brahmistan of India a few weeks ago. It is located at the geographical center of the country of India, a two hour drive from the city of Jabalpur. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s movement owns a large tract of land, where a beautiful and blissful residential and Transcendental Meditation facility has been established. A large number of Vedic Pandits meditate together at this location to spread peace around India, and indeed the world. The Pandits also do Vedic chanting here. In particular, everyday they do a Rudra Abhishekam, homage to Lord Shiva every day.  The chanting in this particular location is special, with 1331 (being 11 x 11 x 11) highly trained Maharishi Vedic pandits chanting together. Thus it is called Ati Rudra Abhishekam, (Ati means Extremely Large). It was Maharishi’s dream project, and it got fulfilled a few years after he passed on.

Brahmistan 2016 group

My daughter and I went to the Brahmistan knowing that Ati Rudra Abhishekam is a highly transformative event. Just listening to and witnessing this live chanting can have a powerful and liberating effect on oneself. We were taken to the huge meditation hall and we were seated comfortably on sofas. All the pandits, young and old, sat  on the floor, while a few pandits sat on stage doing the actions of bathing the shivlingas with milk.(see picture)

AtiRudraAbhishek

The chanting began with an hour-long obligatory oblations to many gods as well as donors. Then began the real Rudra Abhishekam chanting by the almost 1500 pandits present in the room. It was a very deeply resonant experience for me. In just a couple of minutes, my head grew heavy and woozy-doozy, and my eyes naturally closed. I was neither awake nor sleepy, and began to have amazing perceptual experiences. I ‘saw’ a giant crane, like the ones used in constructing tall buildings, pick me up by my head from the well of a tall building, and place me on the side of the building.  I felt liberated from the confines of my physical body. This is the state or the feeling of ‘moksha’.

I had never had such a vision before. Such visions are rare but powerful indicators of a quantum leap into higher wisdom, say my learned friends with whom I have shared this experience. Where do we go from here though? How do we use our liberation and higher states of consciousness for the maximum good? Do we evaporate into air like camphor, and spread like a fragrance that is always there everywhere? Do we become like a sun and emit powerful light in all directions at all times?

This leads into my Billion Buddha Project … to ensure that at least a billion people wake up to their true divine infinite powerful creative nature and live a naturally and effortlessly happy life. Enlightening others to this reality is the theme of the rest of my life.

 

Visiting Harry Truman Presidential Library

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Happiness, Leadership, Music and Poetry, self-development, Sustainability
A few days ago, I had the good fortune of visiting the Truman Presidential Center and Library based in Independence, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. It was an amazing experience spending a couple of hours there. In the past, I have visited similar centers for President Bill Clinton in Little Rock, Arksnsas; President Jimmy Carter in Atlanta, Georgia; and President Lyndon Johnson in Austin. President Truman’ story was quite different and simply inspiring.
AnilwHarryTruman
Truman had been a fresh Vice-President for just a couple of months when the super-popular President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) died in April 1945.  This fairly young President at that time made the momentous decision of dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and ended the World War II. The jury is still out on whether this was the right decision, but he saw it very clearly and had no regrets even much later in his life, as he saw its as a way of saving many more lives.
Truman oversaw the formation of United Nations Organization, which endures till this day.
Truman crafted the Marshall Plan to deliver aid to Europe and help the vanquished countries of Germany and Italy and Japan rebuild; this helped stave off the real possibility of Communist guerillas take over Italy, Greece and and many other countries. He chose to name the plan after his Secretary of State George Marshall who was a very popular man and thus the plan would win Congressional backing and release of funds. He even innovated and resisted the Russian blockade of Berlin by supplying them exclusively through airplanes, till the Russians gave up. This ‘Berlin Airlift’ would mean more than a quarter million flights!
Truman fought the Korean War against the Russians. After a bit of back and forth victories by the two sides, he let it become a Cold War, a stalemate, rather than make it a hot war by attacking China who had begun to back North Korea. He relieved the super-popular hero General Douglas MacArthur when he began to defy the President, after the President refused to accept his advice of attacking the Chinese.
He was not quite as successful in getting his domestic policies on healthcare and others pass. However,  the great postwar growth of the American economy happened on his watch!
‘The buck stops here’, said this diminutive ordinary man who would  become a consequential President under extraordinary circumstances.  Truman does not get nearly as much respect and adulation as the other Presidents. May be it was because he was considered to be a creature of Democratic Party bosses, and had little political base of his own. However, on the basis of his overall accomplishments, I think he should be up there with the likes of Abraham Lincoln.

Be Here Now: Art of Happiness

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Enlightenment, Happiness, Health, Leadership, meditation, Moksha, MUM, self-development, Transcendental Meditation, yoga

Be Here Now: Art of Happiness

 

I watched this well-presented video on the new science of happiness by a professor from Harvard medical school. It showed that neither wealth nor accomplishment nor fame nor beauty nor youth makes a person healthy. Living constantly in a sunny weather or on a beach will not bring happiness either.

Not surprisingly, what makes people most happy is to be present, to be here now! We are happy when we are fully engaged in whatever we are doing at the moment. Whether we are washing dishes or teaching a class, we should be aware of and pay full attention to what we are doing in the moment. There is no need to hold on to any experiences, whether pleasant or unpleasant, of the present or of the past. ‘This too shall pass’, Buddha said. Holding on to positive feelings is just as counterproductive as holding on to negative feelings. Just let go, and enjoy life every moment!

Gratitude and Forgiveness are other habits that bring happiness.  We should be grateful for what we have: our functioning body, sane mind, caring family and friends, …everything. I am grateful to the people who invented the internet and manage it, for making available a platform where to share this message with all. I am grateful to those who raise the food and deliver it so we may nourish our body. And so on.

Forgiving others also makes us happy; it releases us from the unnecessary burden of holding on to grudges. Forgiving them makes us not suffer. Forgive them because they may not even be aware that they have done any harm to us, while we may be stewing in anger and hate and thus wasting our time and energy and life-force.

Compassion for others also brings happiness. Happiness has that paradoxical quality: the more we chase it, the more it will flee from us. The more we care about others’ well-being and happiness, the more we are likely to become happy.

May all Beings be happy!

 

Age and Happiness

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in big data, Business, Business Intelligence and Data Mining, Creative Writing, Data Analytics, Happiness, Leadership, Music and Poetry, Technology
I did data analytics for a long-term project on family businesses, while at Case Western Reserve University a little over 2 decades ago. Using survey data from hundreds of respondents across dozens of companies over several years, we tried to analyze predictors of success at family firms. The astonishing finding was that the biggest finding was not about usual factors like ‘Succession Planning’ and ‘Clear Strategy’ etc. The biggest amazement was that across almost all dependent variables, the age of the respondent showed the greatest impact. We found what I used to call a bucket curve. For respondents under the age of 30 and below, their perceptions of their company was good. Similarly, for respondents of age 50 and over, their perceptions of their company was good. In the middle age, the respondents’ perceptions were not too good, across all variables. No other independent variables, like gender and education level and years of experience and even whether the respondent-employee was also a member of the owning family, made any difference. The AGE variable ran away with the whole variance, and thus the whole story.
We went to the retired dean of the school of business to express our excitement, amazement as well as trepidation at such a result. This old wise man looked at the results, asked some questions, and said that it all makes sense. The younger employees are glad for what the company has given them. The older people are looking back with pride at what they have achieved. It is the folks in the middle who are nervous and frustrated  as they have half their career behind them and want/expect the company to give them more opportunities to do better.
The paper was sent for publication on the strength of this finding. It got published at Family Business Review, the top journal in the field, in 1997.  Twelve years later I accidentally discovered that this paper had been included in the authoritative Handbook of Family Business all these years (there are less than 30 papers in that handbook). This paper was significant for just this insight, that age changes perceptions like nothing else. At our age, we are mostly happy as we have accomplished a lot!

On Moksha (Liberation)

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Creative Writing, Data Analytics, Enlightenment, Happiness, Health, Leadership, meditation, Moksha, MUM, Music and Poetry, self-development, Transcendental Meditation, yoga

Moksha is the ultimate thing. It is liberation from the biggest falsehood – that we are this body or the mind. Moksha is the liberation of the soul from the confines of the mind and body. We say that we have a mind, and we have a body. We are the master of our mind and body. We should devote our time living in touch with our true self, which is the soul, or whatever other name it may be called by.

Moksha brings freedom from the afflictions of the mind and body. The body is frail; it can be broken; it can get diseased. The mind is fickle and flighty; it can get anxious or fearful or angry; it can get depressed. The body is a great tool while it works; it houses us and allows us to engage in the relative world of other souls and the material things. The mind is an even more powerful tool while it works; it helps us grasp things unmanifest and subtle, through the power of thinking. The mind allows to plan, act and be happy. To be liberated does not mean discarding the body or the mind; it means not to be confined or defined by them.

A person who has achieved Moksha experiences total and eternal bliss. Such a person is not moved or agitated by anything in the relative world. Such a person is able to ‘see’ the soul in every other person and can connect with them. Such a person can communicate with their mere presence, without using any words or even raising a finger.

Moksha is achieved by (a) a deep desire for it, and (b) the right way to transcend the relative world of mind and body. I believe that everyone fundamentally desires moksha, as no one wants to suffer pain and misery. However, the strength and the depth of desire can be different for different people. I do not believe we can will a desire, i.e. the mind cannot create a desire. Desires are what they are, and they exert the most powerful force upon us. The right way to fulfill the desire of Moksha is the way of meditation. All meditations are not the same. I believe that transcendental techniques such as TM (from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) and Vipassana (from Buddha through Mr. Goenka) are two such techniques, though there could be many more of them.

 

Mathematics is Fun

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Business Intelligence and Data Mining, Happiness, mathematics, MUM, self-development, Technology

I often say that I eat because of my comfort in math. It is my love and comfort with math that makes me confident and successful (sometimes), no matter what role in what organization. I was lucky to have parents who cared about math so much that I practiced and practiced, for funny money, always trying to find faster ways to accomplish my ‘practice load’. I was lucky to have a high-school math teacher who always emphasized starting from first principles, whenever in doubt. I have instilled in both our daughters the love for math.

An anecdote here. My wife was working at a Kumon center in Austin, tutoring 4-6 year old kids in English. I was then happily working at IBM. The live-wire Taiwanese-American lady owner of that Kumon center was bragging one day to her staff that not even CS professors at UT Austin can pass the G-level math test (They go from A to M levels). My wife casually said that I would pass it. Jennifer, the owner, said no way and said she would bet $100 that I won’t be able to pass. So, my wife chose to call me and told me about it. Never shy about such challenges, I drove up to the Kumon center, and took the G-level test. It is a good test that the kids have to score within a couple of errors, in a time frame of about 30 min, to pass. I was able to do it pretty quickly. Blood drained out of her face, as she went through my answers skipping many intermediate steps. She said she had never lost a bet in her life, especially around Kumon activities. We declined the $100, but she insisted on my accepting that crisp $100 note. So we organized a party for all the Kumon students. I later showed her my GRE transcript showing a perfect 800 score in math. I said she messed with the wrong guy, and she laughed.

I wonder if programmatizing anything is a kiss of death. The reason people feel bored in large organizations is because of large programs with rigid structures and limited scope for initiatives. May be the education departments should take note and teach the teachers to teach according to inside-out model, where students learn by expressing what they feel and see. That goes for teaching math, Psychology, Computer Science, Management, and everything else.

Trip to Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Happiness, self-development, Sustainability, Travelogues

This summer, we made a 3000-mile road trip to Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, and more. For those who don’t know, Mt. Rushmore monument in South Dakota has the faces of four most important US Presidents carved on a mountain top (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt). It was created in the 1930s. And Yellowstone is the first, and the largest, national park in the US. It was declared a national park in around 1910.

After a 800 mile drive over two days from Fairfield Iowa, we reached the Mt. Rushmore. We stayed at a nice hotel in Keystone, SD, just three miles from the monument. The monument, frankly, looked a little underwhelming from a distance. It is actually quite large at 80x human scale, but given the size of the mountains, they look small. From inside the park though, it looks imposing and grand. In the evening, there is a nice light-and-sound show that shows the history of the monument including a brief description of the accomplishments of each of the four presidents.

Anil at Mt Rushmore from a distance  4 heads at Mt Rushmore

Thirty miles from Mt. Rushmore, is the Crazy Horse memorial. This is to celebrate a native Indian chief. This monument is much bigger, at 450x the human scale. It is so big that the entire bust of 4 presidents on Mt. Rushmore would fit into the head of Crazy Horse’s bust itself. It is privately funded and is thus slowly evolving based on funding. Both the Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments are a part of the Black Hills National Park.

Crazy Horse Memorial - Mammoth Face Anil Neerja at Yellowstone Grand Canyon

After a 700 mile and 10 hour drive on I-90, we went to Yellowstone national park through Montana. On the way we saw a limping bear cross the highway. We stayed the night with friends at the Big Sky skiing resort in Montana. The next day we drove into the huge Yellowstone national park. The entire park is a crater formed 600 thousand years ago from a major volcanic eruption. It could erupt anytime. The place is full of geysers, small and big. Steam can be rising from many spots on the ground. The big Old Faithful geyser erupts every 90 minutes, thus its name. It rose to almost 100 feet for us, though can go up to 150 ft. The old faithful inn is also a delightful structure. This park has a huge 80×80 mile lake at its center. Yellowstone park also has a Grand Canyon of its own, like the one in Arizona, with two huge falls.

From there we drove south to Grand Teeton Park, and saw its beautiful twin peaks. Through the elite resort town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we drove into Utah, and stayed the night at Salt Lake City. There we visited the Salt Lake Park, just west of the city. The lake is really huge and actually very salty. From there we drove to Las Vegas, and then to Los Angeles to attend a destination wedding of a friend’s son.

International Yoga Day as the Independence day of the human spirit

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Enlightenment, Happiness, Health, self-development, yoga

The celebration of the International Yoga Day is akin to being the Independence Day for the human spirit.

The word Yoga means ‘union’, with the transcendent infinite Spirit. A Yogi means one who has had direct perception of the transcendent. For example, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was one such person. The celebration of Yoga day empowers people in 193 countries to freely and legitimately practice transcendence, and achieve liberation and bliss. Yoga is more than just the physical postures, which are needed to get the physique flexible enough for the energy to flow freely in the body. If yoga were just physical steps, circus performers would be called yogi. Yoga is simple and yet profound. There are many resources for the practice of yoga. The united nations (Unesco) page on the International yoga day is idayofyoga.org

This day should also be called the International world health day. Yoga is preventive medicine. It helps avert danger before it come: ‘Heyam dukham anagatam’. In contract, the modern western medicine is a disease management system. Yoga is about wholeness, about union with the infinite powerful source, and thus about health at every level. The legitimacy of yoga begins to free up humanity and healthcare from the clutches of industrial medicine. In particular, yoga frees people from the clutches of pharmaceutical companies who fund medical research and control the corporate media. World Health Organization (WHO) is likely to declare Yoga as being good for health. That would also free up the practice of yoga from the tyranny of the clinical test system, which is loaded in favor of big corporations and lobbyists. It is absurd to do clinical trials for Yoga to prove general improvement health at all levels.

The International Yoga day is also the launch of an effective antidote to capitalism. There is no force bigger than yoga to take on the relentless march of unbridled capitalism, which is corrosive to the human spirit. When was the last time 193 countries voted unanimously to make such a powerful declaration as the International Yoga Day, and practice it in large numbers. Yoga gives people free and effective techniques to provide complete control over their own body and mind. Yoga liberates people from the dictates of the western capitalist medical system which forces us to spend an inordinate amount of time and money in pursuing the medical system.

It is also the Father’s Day today. Enjoy with your family and friends.

It is also the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. It is also a pleasant summer day. So enjoy some time outdoors with nature, and practice yoga!