I got to know about this song, “Javeda Zindagi,” through a discussion I came across, and since then I’ve been hooked.

I might have ignored it earlier, thinking of it as just another romantic song. But after listening to it now, some of its lines hit very differently, especially in light of what I’ve been learning:

शमा को पिघलने का अरमान क्यों है?
पतंगे को जलने का अरमान क्यों है?
इसी शौक़ का इम्तिहान ज़िंदगी है।

Why does the candle long to melt?
Why does the moth long to burn?
Is life the test of this very longing?

The more I listened, the more I thought about something I’ve repeatedly encountered in sessions about self-inquiry: reduction/dissolution ,the loosening of the identity we are constantly trying to protect.

How love is the willingness to be reduced.🍃

We usually think of love as getting something: attention, affection, security, companionship, validation. The “I” wants more and more: more importance, more control, more certainty, more of my way.

But what if love moves in the opposite direction?

What if love means becoming willing to let some of that “I” go?

Not self-destruction, and not sacrificing yourself for someone else. Rather, seeing that the very identity we keep trying to protect can itself become a burden.

And maybe this is where life becomes a matter of choosing.

Again and again, we get to choose:

Do I choose what strengthens the old me, or what reduces it?

Comfort or truth?
My image or honest seeing?
Immediate pleasure or something deeper?

There is no final choice after which the work is over. The ego can understand something today and return with the same demands tomorrow.

And perhaps that is also why the song feels so different to me now.

Because love isn’t simply a feeling that happens to us.

It can also mean choosing not to make everything about “me.”

The real question life keeps putting before us is simply:

What will you choose this time?

It won’t be fair to call it just becoming vegan , it’s a WHOLE journey of becoming stronger from being fragile that too both way: externally and internally. 💪🏼
To me it used to be like - building muscle is simply about looking fit protein, calories and progressive overload. And physically, it is. But I also had this growing interest in philosophy, and at some point I came across a perspective that made me question something beyond just my diet.🍃

That outlook came through Acharya Prashant, whom I discovered was also vegan and had been recognised by PETA. And I found him keeping the points no one else was ,it was more than “don't eat this, eat that.” His words made me question the idea of consuming animals in the first place.

And strangely, that shift in understanding also changed how I approached my own body.
The funny part is that I had eaten animal products for years and never built the physique I wanted. After becoming vegan, I changed both what I was eating and my relationship with my body, and that's when I finally started seeing progress.
And honestly, it just feels better to build yourself without another being having to be harmed in the process. :)

So, Recently watched Into the Wild (2007), which has surprisingly left my mind filled with quite a lot.

Here, Christopher McCandless gives away almost all his money, leaving behind his degree, car, family and the life he had built, and heads towards the Alaskan wilderness🐾

**At first, it honestly looks like freedom. No society, no expectations, no roles to play. Just him and nature! ☁**️

But he still seemed unhappy..

may be because changing places, people or lifestyles can be a huge “external” change while something within remains untouched.

I saw how , even “I don’t belong to this society” or “I am free because I live differently” can quietly become another identity.

And then there’s another part of the film that caught my eyes.

Chris meets people who genuinely want to connect with him, yet keeps moving away. It made me wonder whether relationships themselves bind us, or whether it is our expectation from them that creates the bondage.

Upon observing closely , it reveals the problem is not in relations but the expectations of the the “one” that desperately wants to get something from a relationship.

Saying “This is mine , This person should complete me ” or relation with any person/ object held onto to fill an inner sense of lack, that very relationship is nothing but bondage.

Alsoo, Near the end, he writes:

“Happiness only real when shared.”

I’m not sure the film is asking us to choose society over solitude or vice versa. But what I see, is it asking something more uncomfortable:

When I want to escape from my life, am I actually escaping the situation or am I simply taking the same ‘me’ to a different place ??

Can you see something similar in your lives too? If yes, comment. I’m curious to know!🤓

I was reading an article yesterday that explained procrastination as a cycle: you feel guilt or discomfort for not doing something, compensate by doing something less relevant, and then justify not doing the original task by telling yourself that you’re still being productive. In a way, it is self-deception through doing other things.

But then I wondered: Why do we choose this deception in the first place?🧐

Why do we procrastinate things that could actually help us grow, while rarely procrastinating things that are clearly degrading us?

The article talked about fear of failure, perfectionism, anxiety, and everything else, just like many self-help books, videos, or those “try this to fix your habits scientifically” kind of things do.

I’ve definitely observed all of these in myself while procrastinating, which they mention.

But again, what they didn’t really answer is: what do we actually do about it?👀

The whole “trick your brain” approach.
They work. Sometimes.
But always only for a few days.

Then one can somehow find oneself back in the same self-created loop.

So, to share something: surprisingly, I am finding a different outlook in wisdom through Acharya Prashant’s teachings.

What I am understanding is that the cause is rarely something outside me. I am the cause.

Looking closely, I could see the patterns of my own deception. There may be discomfort, but by not taking action towards growth, there is also a strange sense of remaining as I have always been. And maybe that is the very preservation through which the ego survives.

If the loop and the mess have been created from within, then the effort to come out of them also has to begin there. Nothing outside is going to magically do that for us.

That is where I came across the idea of an upstream movement: going against the tendency within that wants to remain comfortable, unchanged, and asleep.

It might not sound like the usual productivity advice, but I’ve experienced a strange kind of lightness whenever I’ve actually gone against that tendency.

The thing that has changed internally: I don’t romanticise procrastination anymore.

I see it quite often online procrastination almost becoming a personality trait, something people joke about and portray as cool or relatable.🤡

From the outside, it might look harmless.
But when you’re actually living inside that loop, you realise you’re slowly building a dark place for yourself.

The good part is that, through these teachings, I now know there is a way out, out of my own web.
And no doubt, it requires intent.

Curious to know: have you ever experienced this kind of self-created loop, where the very thing you want to escape from is something you yourself have created?

We’ve all said this at some point. “I wanted to study, but my brain said no.” or “I know I should do it, but my brain just wants to scroll.” 💭

It sounds harmless, but the more one looks at it, the more interesting it gets.
As the question arises : Who is this “I” that wants one thing while “my brain” apparently wants something else?

Neuroscience 🧠 says that ,there isn’t a separate “me” fighting against the brain. Different neural processes compete around things like immediate reward, effort, emotions, and long-term goals.

So that “my brain doesn’t want to” feeling can simply be a conflict between what feels good right now and what we know we want in the long run.

And when we look at it from Wisdom’s perspective🌅 it strangely gives a sense of freedom for the one who has intent and challenge for those who lack love by telling that we can observe these impulses instead of immediately identifying with them.

The impulse may arise, but we don’t necessarily have to blindly follow it. There’s a room for discernment seeing the impulses clearly and choosing what is actually right rather than simply going with our conditioning.

So maybe the next time we say, “Bro, my brain made me do it,” we should pause for a second and ask:

Did my brain really “make” me do it, or did I just never stop to observe what was happening? 🤔

Picture’s source : r/Scrollcafe

A short film: The Neighbors’ Window, made me think about how easily we start living through other people’s lives.👀

The whole film is basically her watching the neighbours through her window. Their family, their little moments, their life together all of it looks so much better from where she stands. So she starts seeing her own life through that comparison.

And by the end, she finds what was actually happening on the other side. The same life she had been envying suddenly looks completely different and so her feelings with that.

And it made me wonder how many of our identities are actually borrowed?
And it uncomfortably reveals the deeper problem is this very “I” that we take so seriously, as if it is some fixed, authentic thing.

On the surface, the message seems simple: don’t compare, value what you have, enjoy your life. “All good, socially acceptable lessons.”💁🏻‍♀️

But something deeper was missing…

She didn’t really stop comparing. She just discovered that the person she thought was happier was actually suffering much more. And that made her look back at her own life differently. In a way, she still needed someone else’s situation to tell her how good her own was.

It reminded me of Gita’s teachings about our constant search for security outside ourselves. We keep shifting the object to another person, a relationship, a lifestyle, money, success but if the one seeking security remains insecure, changing the object doesn’t really solve the problem.

This all makes the window a good metaphor. Showing it wasn’t about how is one looking at others but the important thing was to look at the one who was doing the looking.

Now, the question “Why don’t we value what we have?” seems almost irrelevant compared to
.
.
“Why do we need someone else’s life to tell us that what we have is enough?”🪞

Janmashtami used to mean something very different to me.

As a child, I would get incredibly excited for it.I’d play bhajans about Shri Krishna, dress up idol, decorate the house, keep fruits and sweets before deity , fast, and then eagerly wait for the temples to announce, “कृष्ण का जन्म हो गया है!” 💁🏻‍♀️ which, looking back now, seems deeply ironic.

And then the scripted celebration would begin.

Some people would bathe the murti (idol) in milk, curd, sugar and Ganga jal(holy water), change into new clothes, put on a swing, play loud music, have a heavy meal at night and celebrate the birth with everything they could.

But as I grew older, questions started arising.
Is this all?
“What is the Krishna of the Bhagavad Gita then?”
“Who is that Krishna?”

Why do we speak so much about his childhood and leelas, but so little about Krishna who stands before Arjuna and tears apart his deepest delusions?

I remember lying alone after Janmashtami, once everything was over, wondering:
“Was that it?”

The next day, when the decorations came down and life returned to normal, there was always a strange emptiness. I felt that a festival meant to remind us of something profound should leave behind more than memories of celebration.

I remember searching about it all when ,I came across Acharya Prashant and watched one of his videos:
“कृष्ण कौन हैं?”
Link to it :
https://youtu.be/RjLIWph2H20?si=mvO1ZvHWBCOsYjCN
I was almost starstruck.

The Krishna I encountered there wasn't merely someone whose birth was to be celebrated once a year. He came as a challenge, a mirror, a reminder that the real battle is within, that the ego has to be seen, and that truth demands something from us.

And slowly, the meaning of festivals has begun to change for me.
It no longer feels like something that simply comes and goes. It feels like a wake-up call, like every other session with him.

Perhaps every session can be a festival.
A chance to diminish the “I” a little more.
To question what I blindly carry.
To remember the purpose of life.
To look at the inner battlefield, rather than merely celebrate the outer one.

Looking back, I realise that I was externally doing everything a lokdharmi devotee was expected to do, while internally moving in the opposite direction. Sometimes, festivals even gave me an opportunity to display that ignorance with greater enthusiasm.

It may sound like a loss, who is unaware of the real wisdom.

But perhaps this is the greatest thing I have received:
The festival is no longer merely an event to celebrate. It has become a reminder of what I must see within myself.🪞

 I am beginning to understand, even if only a little, why Shri Krishna says:

“निराशीर्निर्ममो भव” 🙏🏼

While reading The Stranger by Albert Camus, I kept coming back to one uncomfortable question:

How much of what I call “myself” is actually mine?

How I like to think that my thoughts, emotions, opinions, values and choices are uniquely mine. But if I look closely, how many of them did I actually arrive at ,myself?

I looked how our family teaches us what is right and wrong. Society tells us what is respectable. Culture tells us what to desire. Experiences shape our fears and insecurities. 
Even our ideas of success, love, morality and happiness are often inherited before we are old enough to question them.

This is what made Meursault so unsettling to me.

He doesn't respond to life in the ways society expects him to. And perhaps that is why we immediately feel the need to judge him, understand him or label him.

We say it just too casually ,“This is just who I am.”

But what if the “I” itself is largely made up of accumulated memories, beliefs, desires, fears and identities?

I came across this perspective through the teachings of Acharya Prashant, and it gave me another way of looking at the questions that The Stranger brought up for me.
His emphasis on self-inquiry questioning the assumed “I” rather than constantly trying to improve or protect it made me wonder whether the deeper issue isn't simply what I think, but who is the one thinking?

And that question can get quite uncomfortable.

If my identity is made up of everything I have accumulated, then perhaps what I call “myself” is not something I have discovered but something I have constructed.

So when I judge Meursault for being different, am I really seeing him or am I seeing him through my own conditioning?

And if I stripped away everything I have been taught about who I am, everything I have accumulated and everything I am trying to become.

what would remain that I could honestly call “me”?

Perhaps that is the more interesting question The Stranger left me with…👁️👁️

A child is called “ugly” at school.

An adult comforts her by telling her that she is “pretty,” pointing out her dimples and reassuring her that she is cute.

At first glance, it feels like a beautiful act of kindness. And of course, there is nothing wrong with protecting a child from cruelty.✨

But it made me wonder: are we actually questioning the idea that hurt the child, or are we simply replacing one label with another?

Somewhere along the way, we have quietly taught children:

Dark = ugly ,Fair = pretty.
Certain features = beautiful.
Other features = undesirable.

And then we tell them to love themselves.

But love what ? The body?

This reminded me of Acharya Prashant’s teachings on how deeply we identify with the body and inherit conditioning without ever questioning it.

May be the deeper issue isn't “you are actually pretty”

Maybe it's:
“Your worth was never dependent on being pretty.”

Perhaps beauty has less to do with skin, facial features or body and more to do with the quality of one's consciousness, freedom from comparison, vanity and hatred.

We often call it self-love. But how much of it is actually self-attachment?

So what should we really teach a child when someone calls them “ugly” that they are prettier than they think, or that they never needed to be pretty in the way society defines beauty to be worthy? 🌻

This quote sounds simple or may be too straightforward ,right? But the more you think about it, the more uncomfortable it becomes, as it starts to work like a mirror, reflecting the story of our daily lives.🪞

It shows how we have somehow built a civilisation where consumption is mistaken for living. Wake up, check your phone. Watch something. Scroll. Order something. Buy something. Eat something. Consume information. Consume entertainment. Consume other people’s lives. 🔁
And then, at the end of the day, wonder why there is this strange emptiness inside.

Maybe the problem isn't that we are consuming too little. **Maybe we are consuming far too much and creating far too little.**👁️👁️

This is where, to me, Acharya Prashant’s points come in. He often points towards something deeper: the mind is constantly looking for satisfaction in objects, experiences, people, and achievements because it doesn't know itself.
 We keep adding things from the outside, hoping something will finally make us feel complete. But no amount of consumption can permanently settle a mind that is fundamentally restless. 😮‍💨💔

And “creation” can mean participating in life rather than merely extracting from it,  thinking deeply, questioning, learning, working for right purpose, building something meaningful, helping someone to grow, or simply responding intelligently to what life puts in front of you.🌅

But we see webs designed to make fool out of us ,entire industries compete for our attention because our attention itself has become a commodity.

And then the ordinary person gets trapped in the cycle: earn → consume → seek stimulation → feel empty → consume again.

Perhaps this is why self-knowledge matters so much. If I don't understand why I constantly want more, I'll spend my entire life trying to satisfy desires whose roots I have never examined.

Maybe the real question isn't “What should I consume to feel better?”

Maybe it is:

“Why am I so dependent on consumption to feel alive?”

And I think that is where creation and self-knowledge actually begin.

Hmm… let me know what you guys think about this? I’d genuinely be eager to hear your perspectives.

Photo’s Source: r/Adulting

It made me pause when I read that around 1.1–2.2 trillion wild fish are caught from the oceans every year. The number itself is difficult to even imagine! 💔

But what struck me even more was how much technology has enabled us to reach this scale.

Sonar locates fish underwater. Satellites help identify productive fishing areas. GPS allows vessels to return to those locations. Then massive industrial nets can capture entire schools at once and sometimes turtles, dolphins, and seabirds along with them as bycatch.

The whole system is astonishingly intelligent:

Satellites → sonar → GPS → giant nets → industrial-scale fishing.

But if we look a little deeper and think, another question arises: if our intelligence and technology keep growing, why don't we question the direction in which we're using them?

It would be lazy to say that technology itself is the problem. It's not merely the action, but the centre from which the action arises. The problem is the “I” using technology to satisfy its ever-growing wants, treating nature as a resource for its own expansion, as if this thirst could ever be quenched by simply doing more…

We take pride in the technological boom in almost every sphere. But perhaps we should also gather the courage to ask an uncomfortable question:

Are we becoming more capable without becoming more conscious of what we're doing with that capability?

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10951671/

3...2....1...let's jam

Okay, fine. Nothing to lie, it might seem funny the first time you see it ,especially watching them “dance stress-free” after throwing their school bags into the mud. But if we look beyond the humour, there’s something quite unsettling about it.

Shouldn’t a school bag represent learning, possibilities and a path towards the future ?
Yet here, throwing it away seems to bring relief and freedom. Somewhere along the way, studying has become associated with pressure, exhaustion and competition something to be escaped from rather than something to be explored.

While on one side we see children dancing on reels and on the other, children celebrating their escape from school, these incidents are reflections of something we shouldn’t simply laugh at and move on from.

Both may look harmless, but together they point towards something worth thinking about:

What does it say about the future when learning itself becomes something children feel happiest escaping from?