Anuradha Sridharan

 In the course " Foundations of Sanatana Dharma ", Prof.Mahadevan mentioned this book title while explaining the principle of Dharma. K had bought this book many years back and I immediately picked it up from our home library. It has been a thought-provoking read over the last couple of weeks. Swami Dayananda Saraswati sets the context on how the expression of our life is just the expression of our well-assimilated value structure. He beautifully explains how we apply values more consistently and more absolutely to others than to ourselves. For eg, we may expect others to be 100% truthful with us, but we may not be 100% truthful to everyone. He calls this a " half-value " where there is a disconnection between what we expect of others (personal value) and what we do (obligatory value). Whenever we perform an action that is against our values, we create a seed of guilt, that leads to fear and conflict. This also creates a "knower-doer" split. Such a confli...

 Someone told me this recently - " What you are doing now - practicing Yoga and meditation, learning and teaching shlokas, reading spirituality and philosophy books - these activities are best taken up after you cross 60 years. The 40s and 50s are the time to continue working and earning money ". Though I respect their perspective, I have slightly different points of view. Spirituality isn't reserved for retirement life or senior citizens. ANYONE (irrespective of their age, gender, financial, cultural, or social background) who would like to know more about themselves, their lives, and the world around them can start their journey towards spirituality. What you learn through spirituality can help you lead your external lives with ample strength and resilience. What you do in your 40s and 50s will influence the quality of your life in your 60s. If you are indoors throughout your 20s to 50s, it is unlikely you will suddenly become an outdoorsy person in your 60s. I have com...

  I received this question as a DM - "What advice would you give to girls in their mid-20s, working for MNCs as you have gone through that phase of life?" My mid-20s are different in many aspects: No social media (just getting started with FB), no smart phone. So there is no constant pressure to prove myself to the outside world. Of course, there was pressure to do well in my career - mostly self-imposed - to go up the ranks. And the dreaded question - "When is the good news? When are you starting a family?" status updates from near and dear ones, causing more stress. From a work perspective, I believe that in the decade of 2000s, employers(especially MNCs in India) were a lot more reasonable in terms of work expectations and timelines. But this has shifted quite a bit in the past 7-8 years due to various factors - growth pressures from investors, competition, uncertain economic situations, all leading to unrealistic project timelines. Instead of advising girls in t...

 When the outer world feels uncertain, the inner world starts to reflect the same if we aren't aware. As I reflected, I realized that Bhakti (Devotion to the Supreme) is what has helped me since my childhood to process various uncertainties in my outer world - the sudden loss of my mother, financial struggles in the family, exam pressures during the 10th and 12th board exams to name a few. To express that Bhakti, chanting had been my go-to way. I didn't know the meanings of the chants but I always enjoyed chanting and listening to them. The various shlokas/stotras that my Paati (paternal) taught me, The shlokas that my mom, aunt, and Paati (maternal) used to chant during Navaratri, The summer classes where I learned a little bit of Vishnu Sahasranamam, The neighbor aunty who taught me simple devotional songs, The Sai Bhajans unconsciously learned when participating in Baba Pooja on Thursdays in a neighbor's home, The Tamil devotional songs that I heard from nearby temples, ...

 When the controversy around a politician passing remarks on Sanatana Dharma happened a few weeks back, I came across multiple videos from news channels and discussions on YouTube about this incident. Instead of passively consuming content and doing nothing about it, I decided to learn about Sanatana Dharma in depth. I should have done this many years back, but better late than never. I stumbled upon this online course " Foundations of Sanatana Dharma " on Vyoma Sanskrit Paatashala and this course was conducted by none other than Prof.Mahadevan from IIMB. I attended his Operations Management course 15 years ago and I loved his approach to teaching - simple, crystal clear, and extremely logical. The later batches had the opportunity to attend his other course on Management paradigms through Bhagavat Gita. I so wish I get a chance to do this course sometime! I was completely immersed in the last few weeks, listening to his 12-week lectures on Sanatana Dharma. When I completed t...

 I came across a reel on reproductive health issues and feminine energy shared by gree_yogabhyasi . I was nodding when she spoke about how feminine energy gets impacted by the pressures women face in trying to balance, achieve, and be perfect in everything that they do. I should have stopped at that, but I scrolled through the comments section. It is appalling to see many women's aggressive comments and the misconceived notion that feminine energy equals cooking 4 meals a day for the family. It is such a narrow, biased view that our society has brainwashed women with, in the past 2-3 decades. The corporate workplace requires a certain aggressive mindset to push yourself (and others if you are leading a team). It also needs a competitive mindset to thrive, "belong", contribute and be visible in the male-dominated culture. This mindset would imply being proactive in taking up new initiatives, getting your voice heard in meetings when strategic decisions are made, and putti...

 It was Mar 1996. The men's cricket world cup had just started. My younger bro started watching a few matches. On one boring evening, I sat with him and watched an innings. It was Ind vs WI and Sachin scored a 70. That was my initiation into becoming a cricket fan! I was in 10th grade back then and it was time for final revision exams. While we were writing the exam, our Headmaster would announce match scores through a mic and we would cheer together in the exam hall🙂 From 1996 until mid-2002, I watched almost all cricket matches played by India - test matches and ODIs. I became a crazy Sachin fan. I remember jotting down his scores with a lot of detail (runs scored, balls, 4s, 6s) in a notebook after every match. Cricket was one of the many things that my bro and I bonded over (add Formula-1 and WWF to that list 😂😂😂). We also spent a memorable day watching a test match in Chepauk stadium when Sachin hit a century (Ind vs Aus 2001). I moved to Bangalore in 2002 for my first jo...

"For most families in the past, life was simple but not easy. Today, for a nuclear family, life is easy but not simple" - I came across this statement in the book "Wisdom Bridge". It made such an impact on me. Why is life not so simple these days? Are we creating the complications deliberately or without our awareness? Is our nature to gravitate towards extremities causing this complexity? Sharing a few thoughts from the perspective of health. We overindulge and then we go for extreme diets. For eg, there wasn't any detox after festivities during our parents'/grandparents' times. They happily indulged in sweets and savories during Diwali and then got back to eating simple, regular home-cooked foods. In the past few years, every health influencer has announced a detox program post-Diwali. If we say "detox", it implies that there are toxins that we have consumed which need to be eliminated. We are programming our minds that sweets/deep-fried food...

 Earlier this year, I discovered the talks of Sister BK Shivani. I resonate so much with her thoughts and just love her calming voice. I read her book " Happiness Unlimited " which made a profound impact. Her latest book " The Power of One Thought" elaborates on the idea of how our thoughts shape our destiny. She emphasizes the power of a soul and its inherent qualities of love, happiness, peace, and power. The topic of emotional dependence on external situations was an eye-opener, specifically how the uncertainty in the outer world has increased so much in the past few years. She then explains the function of thought and classifies them into 4 types. In the third chapter, she puts out an interesting framework of how thoughts cascade into our feelings, attitudes, actions, and habits (which she refers to as sanskars). Sanskars are the automated patterns of emotions that we easily gravitate towards - blaming, complaining, anger, and hurting others to name a few. Until...

  In my earlier post , I spoke about how having an open, scientific mind is essential before we pass random comments or mock traditional ideas and principles. In this post, let me share my perspectives on the topic of Prana in food.  " Prana " is a Sanskrit term, that refers to life force or life energy. In Yogic philosophy, this life force is considered to be present in every aspect of creation. In the context of food, the idea of Prana has different interpretations in naturopathy/nature cure, Ayurveda and Yoga philosophy. These streams have overlapping principles, but they are quite different. On social media, we see that these principles from all these streams get mixed up, leading to confusion. From a Naturopathy point of view, foods are classified into three - positive pranic, negative pranic, and neutral pranic foods. This classification is based on the inherent Prana (life force) that the food contains (PROPERTY BASED). Positive Pranic foods - raw vegetables, fruits, ...

 Imagine that you are in a dark room and facing a corner. You somehow stumble and locate the switch of a tiny light bulb. When you switch it on, the small corner of the room gets illuminated, while the rest of the room remains dark. Does this mean that the other corners don't exist? Does this mean that the other corners don't have anything? No. You can only perceive the objects in the corner illuminated by the light bulb through your senses. You are not able to perceive other corners yet. Does it then make sense to dismiss that there are no other corners in the room? If one has a true, scientific mind (which is inquisitive and experimental), then one wouldn't reject or mock ideas that he/she hasn't fully explored yet. As people portraying that we have a modern view of the world, I'd highly suggest that we keep an open mind and explore ideas/principles that aren't visible to our perception or understanding yet. Dismissing them blatantly as superstitions/blind bel...

 It's becoming a trend to mock traditional practices and food philosophy by a few "Instagram-only" medical doctors and so-called food science experts. Instead of rejecting them completely, assuming that they don't suit today's modern world, I'd advocate that we choose to take the middle path and identify those principles that work for our body and mind. Recently I stumbled upon a video of someone criticising the idea of not storing idli/dosa batter for 10 days. Let's leave the science of refrigeration and slowing down of fermentation aside. Let's test this with our own experience. I have observed this with myself and my husband. Whenever we consume idli/dosa/oothappam made with old batter (>5 days), we feel an increase in acidity levels, leading to indigestion and heartburn. This happens more so with millet-based idli batters than with regular rice idli batters. Based on this experience, I don't grind batter quantity that would exceed 4-5 days. ...

 This happened a few weeks back. It was around 6 PM and the rains started to pour all of a sudden. All through the afternoon, I had feelings of restlessness and agitation, manifesting as shallow breaths and faster heartbeats. I couldn't put a finger on why I was feeling this way. I couldn't pacify these minor energy turbulences through my routine evening prayers that day. Coincidentally, one of our cats Georgina started to howl on the balcony as the downpour became heavier. We let her inside our living room, along with her sister Octi. They both started to play fight and chase each other. As their restlessness increased, so did mine. K was busy attending a work call in his room and I didn't know how to manage these two hyper-active kitties. Intuition pushed me to open the Spotify app and start playing a rendition of the 108 OM mantra. I sat down on the sofa and closed my eyes, meditating on the sound, voice, and the musical instrument. As the chanting progressed, our cats s...