Megha is a bestselling author, film script writer, passionate educator, influencer, and ardent seeker based in Mumbai.  She is the author of The Breakthrough, Thank You, Cancer, and I Inspire among others. She has been a well-loved speaker at premier institutes like The World Confluence of Spirituality and Ficci. She received a 25 most inspiring and influential women of Mumbai award by World Women Leadership, and was featured in the top 50 most influential authors of 2021 by Delhi Wire. She loves working with fellow visionary educators and spiritualists toward the upliftment of society.

meghabajaj.jpg

Megha Bajaj

<hr class="vertical-space1" />
 <h4>
 MEGHA BAJAJ tells a beautiful simple
 story about a monk and his disciples, and relates this to her own
 experiences of the power of now, the present.
 </h4>
 
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 
 Stories can teach in ways that only stories can teach. For days I had held
 a question in my mind about how I can progress on the spiritual path. Last
 evening, finally, the answer came with the birth of this story. Through
 me, and for me, this story has become a milestone. A realization has
 become my realization. Perhaps, it can become yours too.
 
 
 Years ago, when finding peace was still the most important quest for all,
 there lived a great Buddhist monk. High above the mountains iced by snow,
 and sprinkled by cherry sunrays, was his little monastery. People sought
 him from all over the world. The scaling heights, the brazen winds, the
 wild animals – nothing could stop them from flocking to the monk – for
 they knew he could pave the way to peace for them. However, after a few
 days, many got restless and left. The reason? The monk hardly spoke. He
 just carried on in his usual fashion. For many, this was hard to deal
 with.
 
 
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 
 <hr />
 <h5 style="text-align: center">
 If I can learn to do what I am doing, 
 and immerse myself in it completely, 
 meditation will cease to remain a part of my day. 
 It will become a part of me. 
 And gradually, it will become me.
 </h5>
 
 <hr />
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 The great monk had a merry laugh and a twinkle in his eye. He seemed
 ancient and yet just like a child. He never invited anyone and he never
 refused anyone, and when someone did come he made sure his home was their
 home. Many came, many went – but a few, a small group of eleven, stayed
 behind. The monk knew he had finally filtered the ‘seekers’ from the
 ‘questioners’. This was the group who had left everything to find peace,
 and they wouldn’t return knowing about peace, they would return knowing
 peace ! The monk did all that he needed to in a day, while the group
 followed around, hoping to get a cue as to how they too could be in
 constant blissful union with their Lord.
 
 
 In the evenings the monk would sit under a tree, while the group gathered
 around him. Some put their head in his lap and he caressed them lovingly,
 while others were content to just watch him from afar. The seekers asked
 questions and sometimes the monk would answer at length, and sometimes he
 would choose silence to speak. Either way, the night would rise only when
 all the doubts had drowned.
 
 
 During one of those twilights, the youngest girl in the group, Mira, asked
 him, “Beloved one, tell me the secret to your peace. I want to know.” 
 Knowing that the words that would follow could change their lives the
 entire group moved closer. 
 Silence fell over them as the monk replied, “When I walk, I walk.” 
 The seekers moved closer still. They wanted to know more. They wanted to
 transform. Something told them that the answer would be revealed. The
 monk, however, spoke no more. He just sat with his eyes skywards,
 wondering at the stars.
 
 
 The seekers were disappointed. They had thought some profound, complex
 secret would be revealed. But no, the monk had just spoken a single
 sentence: When I walk, I walk. What could this mean? All of them went to
 sleep that night with questions chasing his words around … answers nowhere
 in sight.
 
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <hr />
 <h5 style="text-align: center">
 The beauty about this moment is that when you are in it, 
 completely and absolutely, nothing else matters…. 
 All that exists is the activity that you are involved in and you. 
 Get immersed even further and nothing but the activity remains. 
 You dissolve. And in those moments, 
 when there is no ‘you’, what is, is. And that ‘is’ is peace!
 </h5>
 
 <hr />
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 The next day, the monk went about his day as always and the seekers
 followed step. As he plucked the weeds out of his tiny garden, the group
 helped. The monk smiled to himself as he sensed a peculiar restlessness in
 the air. However, no one said anything. They had already learnt that
 answers would come only when answers would come. Usually one amongst them
 would stumble upon the answer to the monk’s words and share his
 realization with all the others. The group would internalize it, ponder
 upon it, and wait until the realization became a part of them. Today,
 however, revelation didn’t seem to be in the mood of befriending any of
 them.
 
 
 The guru chuckled silently and asked the young girl, “Mira, what are you
 doing right now?” 
 Surprised by the monk’s question, she replied, “Helping you pluck out the
 weeds, beloved one.” 
 He smiled and asked, “What else?” 
 Mira spontaneously replied, “Nothing else!” 
 The monk asked, “Are you sure you aren’t doing anything else?” 
 Mira thought for a minute and said, “Well, I am thinking about your
 words.” 
 “And?” asked the monk mischievously. 
 “Umm … wondering what is there for dinner tonight,” replied Mira with a
 giggle.
 
 
 <img
 alt="walk2"
 class="img-float-left has-img-center-in-mobile lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/walk2_b21969f09b.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-04T07:05:10.602Z"
 />
 The monk smiled and said, “When I am plucking weeds, I am plucking
 weeds.” 
 And with that he went back to doing this chore with the same intensity
 that he used to meditate, or eat, or watch a sunrise, or speak with them.
 
 
 The entire group spontaneously burst into smiles. This was the first time
 that they had all understood something together. Restlessness changed into
 excitement, and within moments, excitement became peace. The little group
 of twelve – one master and eleven disciples – plucked weeds as they
 plucked weeds, that afternoon.
 
 
 Ever since this story wrote itself out, the very perspective with which I
 look at life has changed. Queen of multi-tasking, I believed I should not
 waste a single moment of my life. I packed in as much as I could in every
 second. I watched movies while exercising. I had breakfast while reading
 books. I enjoyed a sunrise while chatting on the phone. At any given point
 I was involved in at least two or three activities … and I wondered why I
 wasn’t enjoying any.
 
 
 When I walk, I walk. So simply answered the master. Since yesterday I have
 been doing this. When I ate, I ate. When I was with my husband Arun, I was
 with Arun. When I listened to music, I listened to music. Initially it
 almost appeared too difficult to do just a single thing at a time. I felt
 restless. I felt irritated. But I didn’t give up. As I pursued a single
 activity long enough and gave myself to it completely, I realized
 something within me suddenly shifted. No longer was I living in the past
 or the future – rather I fell into the coveted ‘now’, the ‘as is’, the
 ‘present continuous’.
 
 
 The beauty about this moment is that when you are in it, completely and
 absolutely, nothing else matters. The unpaid bills, the chores for
 tomorrow, the aching knee, the worrisome child – in the now none of these
 exist. All that exists is the activity that you are involved in and you.
 Get immersed even further and nothing but the activity remains. You
 dissolve. And in those moments, when there is no ‘you’, what is, is. And
 that ‘is’ is peace! It sounds almost too simple to be true, doesn’t it?
 Too commonplace. I always believed finding peace was a treacherous,
 arduous, difficult process, however I now realize that it is so simple
 that we miss it.
 
 
 I always wondered what the difference was between me and a monk. Now I
 know. Even while meditating I am thinking, planning, scratching and
 wondering. A monk, even while thinking, planning, scratching and wondering
 is meditating. If I can learn to do what I am doing, and immerse myself in
 it completely, meditation will cease to remain a part of my day. It will
 become a part of me. And gradually, it will become me.
 
 
 Usually when I write it is while sipping a masala chai, chatting on
 Facebook and checking my mails. Today, as I write, I write. I can feel the
 difference. I can almost experience you sitting beside me, a friend, a
 fellow seeker, as together we live this message: When I walk, I walk.
 
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <hr />
 <h4 style="text-align: center">Article by MEGHA BAJAJ</h4>
 
 <hr />

When I walk , I walk

<h4>
 MEGHA BAJAJ shares a few tips on
 building healthy relationships by dealing with emotions in the right way
 and at the right time.
 </h4>
 
 There is this strange thing that many of us do in relationships. If we
 didn’t do it I believe we would have much better relationships. We
 displace our emotions from one relationship to other relationships. Does
 it sound familiar?
 
 
 Let’s say, for example, you have a husband who is very dominating. It’s
 his way or the highway, and you really don’t have much choice but to
 follow him. You have tried speaking to him, you have wept, you have done
 everything you could, but to no avail. Ultimately you resign to your
 fate and start finding ways to deal with the issues within, without
 really letting them out.
 
 
 Yet, the nature of emotions is that they are never buried dead, they are
 buried alive. You can suppress them but not for long. The pain shows up
 in your body through aches and pains or disease, and it also expresses
 itself in other relationships. These are the relationships where you
 feel the ease that the person won’t leave you, or sometimes it is with
 support staff like house help or drivers. You start behaving like the
 dominating person in your life, and project your emotions onto others to
 somehow deal with the pain. It could be your children, or your own
 parents, or anyone. The emotions from one relationship are displaced to
 another, and the people who are subjected to them have no clue why you
 are behaving the way you do – just like the way you keep wondering why
 your husband cannot be a little more empathetic.
 
 
 The problem with displacing emotions is just that – they are displaced.
 In no way does it provide a permanent solution, because somewhere you
 know that you are not doing the right thing. There is a sense of guilt,
 a sense of not feeling good enough about yourself, that hinders life
 from flowing the way it should.
 
 
 Think of some of your relationships that aren’t as beautiful as you want
 them to be. How do you deal with the negative emotions that you go
 through in those relationships? What do you do to ease yourself?
 
 
 Here are some of the positive ways I have realized to deal with the
 emotions in a dysfunctional relationship:
 
 &nbsp;
 <h4 style="text-align: justify">
 CONSISTENT COMMUNICATION
 </h4>
 <h4 style="text-align: justify">
 <img
 class="img-float-left has-img-center-in-mobile lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/about_relationship_2_d8c012d660.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:50:03.499Z"
 alt="about-relationship"
 />
 </h4>
 
 Although most of us may be communicating how we feel with the person
 concerned, we probably don’t do it consistently enough. We express, then
 let go, believing he or she won’t understand. Yet the secret to good
 relationships is consistent communication. Instead of blaming and
 saying, “You are …” say “I feel …”. When you express what you are
 feeling instead of blaming others, they are a little more open to
 listening.
 
 
 <img
 class="img-float-right has-img-center-in-mobile lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/about_relationship_3_aa0bb445af.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:50:48.069Z"
 alt="about-relationship"
 />
 
 &nbsp;
 <h4 style="text-align: justify">
 NATURE
 </h4>
 
 Nature absorbs negative emotions like nothing else. Taking a long walk
 in the garden or near the sea or mountains, as part of your daily life,
 is bound to help you clear your heart and mind of residual emotions so
 that they don’t form a chain and hurt others into the bargain.
 
 &nbsp;
 <h4 style="text-align: justify">
 WRITING
 </h4>
 
 <img
 class="img-float-left has-img-center-in-mobile lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/about_relationship_4_5cbfc38ab1.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:51:27.711Z"
 alt="about-relationship"
 />There is something incredibly healing about the writing process.
 Writing helps you to understand all that you are feeling. In a way it is
 your innermost core on paper and allows you to release and vent emotions
 that may be burdening your within for God alone knows how long. Writing
 letters to people who hurt you, whether or not you let them read them,
 helps you to deal with the emotions within the relationship.
 
 &nbsp;
 
 The world is in dire need of better relationships. A lot more love.
 Compassion. Whether someone is good to us or not, somehow we need to
 ensure that a lot of good flows from us to the world outside. Break the
 chain reaction and, in our own way, we will create a better world.
 
 <hr />
 <h4 style="text-align: center">Article by MEGHA BAJAJ</h4>
 <hr />

About relationships

<h4>MEGHA BAJAJ shares some simple tips on how to develop the capacity for intuition, which can be cultivated in daily life.</h4>

For as long as I can remember, I have been an intuitive person. Whether it has been choosing people to work with, or projects to undertake, intuition has helped tremendously. Intuition is nothing but a hunch, a feeling, which may not necessarily be based on facts. You see someone, and you just know they are going to play an integral role in your life. You see another person and the caution blinkers go ballistic. “Stay away, stay away,” a siren rings in your head, for no particular reason. You just know that a certain person is going to call you on a particular day. All these are instances of intuition.
So while some people are highly intuitive and base much of their decision making on it, others are not. I have been asking myself: How can I make my intuition more powerful, and how can I develop it further?
Some answers that I have discovered are:
First, the more the mind is quiet, the more intuition works. When the mind is a drunken monkey, running helter-skelter, objectivity cannot be attained. There is so much activity going on in the mind that the whispers of intuition go unnoticed. So, to begin with, using meditation to calm the mind and prepare it to develop intuitive powers seems a must.
Second, I have come to realize that when I am in a sway of emotions, intuition doesn’t work. When I have very strong likes, dislikes, intense mood swings, it becomes difficult for the faculty of intuition to guide me. Emotions are all encompassing – and when we are feeling something, it once again becomes difficult to remain neutral and to hear the intuitive mind. A calm, emotion-free mind seems to be the first step towards beginning to tap the power of intuition.
Third, I believe, is openness. Sometimes what the intuitive mind is trying to tell us goes beyond our conscious mind. Say we meet someone and the conscious mind feels everything is great. The person looks fine, speaks well, and in every way seems to be a great fit for whatever it is that we are looking for. And yet, something within doesn’t seem completely “right,” or “in place.” The intuitive mind is connected to the cosmos and knows – way beyond – what the conscious mind does. So it is important for us to be open and accepting to views contrary to what seems obvious. Only with this openness, can the intuitive mind really speak to us.
Last, but not least, there are some psychic ways to develop our intuitive powers. The human body has a number of chakras and the third eye chakra, the Ajna (between the eyes), is considered to be the one connected to intuition. The sound OM is associated with balancing this chakra. When we focus between the eyes and chant OM, we activate the intuition center and allow more energy to flow there.
Intuition is a wonderful tool to have. It guides. It protects. Developing this could make relationships, decision-making and hence life itself a more beautiful process. I have a hunch that you are going to agree! 
<hr/>

<h4 style="text-align: center;">Article by MEGHA BAJAJ </h4>
<hr/>

Megha Bajaj

Explore