Category: Health

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.

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  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.

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  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.

 

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!

 

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.

 

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!

Anything is Possible: Neuroplasticity provides proof

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Creative Writing, Enlightenment, Happiness, Health, Leadership, self-development, Technology

Anything is Possible: Neuroplasticity provides proof

Our brain is a primary driver of our physiology and decision-making processes. Not many people recognize and realize how plastic and malleable our brain is. It also opens up new vitas for thinking big in all walks of life. Transcendental Meditation is a powerful way of using neuroplasticity towards a more purified nervous system and new waves of effortless accomplishments.

Not long ago the brain was said to be configured permanently. Habits were supposed to be set early in life and incredibly difficult to change. Attitudes to life were considered fixed. Education was supposed to be completed early in life, and then one used that to work all their life. However, all that is passé and incorrect.

Progressive waves of neurological research have shown that the brain is soft-wired and not hardwired. It is almost completely reconfigurable in a short period of time at any age. The cortical tissue (grey matter) is fungible. i.e. a loss of any sensory ability can free up the associated parts of the cortex to be deployed towards greater capabilities in other sensory or motor areas. E.g. Hellen Keller lost the sense of vision but gained a more acute sense of sound and touch; this was due to redeployment of the brain’s cortical mass from the sense of eyes to the other senses. Research shows that the brain changes at all points in time: 70% of neural synapses are rewired every day. The direction of the rewiring can be deliberately changed through focus and persistence towards alternative action patterns. The brain can be rewired quickly also through biofeedback systems. There are no limits to learning and accomplishment at any age.

At a personal level, neuroplasticity demands of us big thinking, i.e. ambitious ideas. Everyone can dream of being an enlightened person, very soon. Everyone can dream of being perfectly positive, healthy, and prosperous. In my own life, it empowers me to make the right decisions for moving forward singlemindedly and without doubt to pursue big goals. In family relationships, I can aim to restructure all my relationships through unilateral change in attitude and behaviors, knowing that my family members’ brains are plastic and can adapt for the better. My work relationships can similarly improve through initiating the right kinds of projects, aligning my work with my interests, and molding my work interactions for the better. I can start new organizations with lofty missions, knowing full well that my brain has enough capability and adaptability to align itself for effortless accomplishment of those missions.

Neuroplasticity also encourages me to pursue my meditation practice with full vigor and determination to become an enlightened person, and to help everyone around me become enlightened. As my good friend Gary Guller, the only person with one arm to have climbed Mt. Everest, says, ‘Anything is Possible’. Now there is neuroplastic evidence to support that claim!

On Unconditional Love

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

On Unconditional Love  … by Anil Maheshwari

Dr. Eben Alexander is a Harvard-based neurosurgeon who went through a Near-Death Experience and wrote a very insightful book, called “Proof of Heaven”, about the experience. From a materialistic paradigm, his brain got infected with E.Coli bacteria. His brain’s cortical surface tissue was completely shut down as a result of the bacterial attack. He was brought back to normal brain functioning in a few days through antibiotics. During these few days of non-normal brain functioning, he saw things that could materialistically only be described as hallucination. Without new inputs coming into his brain, he was perhaps experiencing self-reflective memories from the still functioning middle part of the brain, the thalamus and the brainstem.

He describes himself at one point as just a point-like primordial awareness without access to language or emotion. Then he vividly saw creepy-crawly earthworm-like creatures and grotesque animal faces moving around him, kinda representative of hell. Then he saw ‘a beautiful, incredible, dream world’ … filed with angel-like golden-haired pretty women floating around him along with butterflies and beautiful sounds. He specifically remembers messages of feeling loved, safe, and free from mistakes. He then felt a sense of place, as a fetus in a protective womb of Om the primordial sound. He says he received so much knowledge, effortlessly and for good, which will take more than a lifetime to unpack. He concludes that ‘unconditional love is the greatest scientific truth’.

From a spiritual perspective, Eben was able to experience the mystical totality that each one of us is. He was reporting what might be called super-normal experience in spiritual parlance. With sensory inputs cut off just like in meditation, he was perhaps able to transcend to a higher state of consciousness, where he saw a complete oneness of the universe, which he felt was better than 1000 times the best scenario he could ever describe in English language. This resembles the infinite creative unmanifest potential value of transcendental consciousness. With the body not functioning, he could be realizing his atman (soul), the ‘dweller in his body’.

I feel that Eben is in a unique position to speak from both paradigms, materialistic as well as transcendental. His statement that ‘unconditional love is the greatest scientific truth’, resonates aligns with all spiritual traditions especially Vedic and Buddhism. However, from a physio-causal perspective, it is not clear how he can remember all these fantastical multi-dimensional experiences so vividly, so much after the actual accident happened. I would still not doubt the veracity of his self-reported experiences, as Vedic Science values on the subjective experiences of the observer, under proper circumstances.

Love is all that is. Love conquers all. Unconditional love conquers unconditionally. There is  usually no unconditional love except from a mother. King Solomon’s story is an allegorical proof of this wisdom. Be like a nurturing mother to all around you. Like the Buddha, help everyone and refuse no one. Giving them love will bring you more love. We are all one. Recognize that, see all as part of us, and deal with all as kindly and lovingly as one can.

Acupuncture Treatment for Ulcerative Colitis

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

Can-Acupuncture-Treat-UCAcupuncture Treatment for Ulcerative Colitis

Many people suffer from auto-immune diseases. Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is one such auto-immune disease. It is characterized mostly by an inflammation of the colon leading to constant bleeding from the rear end. Medical science calls it as part of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). There is no definitive cause assigned to it. There is no cure for the disease. Medicines like Mesalamine are designed mostly to contain the disease, i.e. to avoid its flaring up. I was able to obtain great success for myself in this disease with Acupuncture form of therapy. This piece below is to share my story with a wider audience so they can have a path to hope and success.

I first suffered from UC more than a dozen years ago. I was going through a particularly job-related stressful period in my life. I ignored the problem, till I could clearly see blood in my stool. I went to the emergency room and had colonoscopy done. I was prescribed steroids (Prednisone), which stopped the bleeding within a few days. I was also prescribed a Mesalazine formulation designed for long-term maintenance. I am against taking medicines for life. I immediately sought the help of Meditation, and went for a 10-day Vipassana course. I felt much relieved and happy, and in a few months, I let go of the maintenance medicine.

About 5 years after the first occurrence, I had another flare-up of the condition of UC. There was another job-related stress and some kind of a sinking feeling. After colonoscopy, the usual steroid and Mesalazine regiment was prescribed. However, this time the medicines were ineffective and the bleeding continued. My Gastro-Enterologist (GE) doctor now wanted to prescribe an immuno-suppresive medicine which worked on a different mechanism. After noticing its side effects including a form of cancer, I decided to obtain second opinion. Then I also consulted a tertiary GE specialist at a teaching hospital who had spent his life studying just UC. He also told me that there is no definite cause for this. He recommended that I should continue to take the maintenance regimen, as that is the best bet. I did another course of Vipassana meditation, which gave much relief but still did not completely stop the bleeding.

A chance encounter with an Acupuncturist set me on a different course. He said that they have no problem in curing UC. I was intrigued. I found a nice acupuncturist nearby and consulted her. She spent a whole hour listening to my symptoms in great detail. She also said that I will be cured soon. I was impressed. With two weeks of acupuncture treatment, with some herbs, my bleeding completely stopped. I repeat: bleeding completely stopped with acupuncture in 10 days, when it won’t stop for the previous six months. This looks like magic but it is completely true. I continued to do maintenance sessions with the acupuncturist at reduced frequencies, finally just once a month. My body and mind felt healthier. After an year I was completely cured.

A couple of years later, we relocated to another city for work. Again, because of job-related stress, UC reared its head. After colonoscopy I was prescribed the usual regimen of medicine, which did not help in stopping the bleeding. I lost a lot of weight. I called my previous acupuncturist and planned to fly out to her for treatment. However, she completely assured me that if I found a good acupuncturist in my new city, I will be able to get the same benefit. I followed her advice and selected an acupuncturist in my new city. He also said that the chances of success were excellent. Once again, with just two weeks of acupuncture treatment and herbs, my bleeding completely stopped. That was magic, repeated again.

I wanted to understand how this thing works. I was told that a good place to start was ‘The Web that has not Weaver’. It is a good book, but it is difficult to understand their language beyond the introductory chapters. They speak in terms of Chi and meridians. The reader can read this book on their own.

It has been several years since my last UC flare-up. Even now, I go to acupuncturist if my body begins to feel even a little bit uneasy. And I feel instantly better. Others are free to try.

I believe that the permanent solution lies within ourselves. We should be mentally strong and positive. There is nothing that we cannot do if we put our minds to it. We should prepare for the worst and hope for the best in every situation. We should lower our expectations. Being alive is great. We should be grateful for our life and everything else we have. We should take the time to thank all the beings that make your life livable and enjoyable. Our family, friends, customers, employers, suppliers, colleagues, restaurants, snow-removers, pets, and everyone else.

Auto-immune disease means that the body turns on itself. i.e. our body’s defense mechanisms like Adrenal glands get into overgear to protect against some imagined or real enemy. We exhaust ourselves in some time, run on fumes for a while, and then we get into a downward spiral from which it becomes difficult to escape. The best preventive method is to not feel negative at all in the first place. Try to be positive, always. Try to see something good in everything. Once negative feeling arises, it will have its effect on us. We can try to deny or suppress it, but it will come out some time or the other, in some way or the other.

We should try to see the world as sunny. There are many people who have lost their limbs or vision, but have not given up their dreams. Keep dreaming of a great future ahead. Then keep working towards it. Once life has a lofty purpose, then everything else, gain or loss, seems small and insignificant. Nothing bothers us and our bodies anymore. We can be as happy as we want to be.