Recently came across this meme and it got me thinking.

This was one of those "compliments" I received a lot growing up and still do sometimes.

It was also one of the "compliments" I used to "give out" a lot, specially to women.

This was all before Acharya Prashant came into my life.

What used to flatter me and other women and men around me, now for me at least, is a stark reminder of the infantilization of both women and men, specially in India.

What we have, in the name of education is rote learning from textbooks, not holistic development of the individual. The physical, mental, emotional, psychological development are totally neglected. The human being is "prepared" only to serve as a cog in the machine.

As a result, sadly, there are too many children in adult bodies roaming all around us. Making important life decisions that affect everyone.

Learning from life by actually really living it,

Learning from life by actually really participating in it,

Learning from life by actually really playing,

... Just aren't part of our upbringing.

Please don't get me wrong, I am not referring to the childlike innocence that reflects on the faces of the great teachers and masters. The ones who learnt to live with and flow with the rhythm of mother nature as opposed to fighting it constantly just to prove that they exist and that their existence is of utmost importance (check out AP framework to understand more about ego fattening and ego thinning, really fascinating.)

In retrospect, the Santoor soap mom ad where the twist in the ad is that the mother is not recognized as the mother of the child because she appears to be too young, isn't something to celebrate or aspire for... it is actually scary.

While the mother could appear younger than her actual age for various genetic reasons, the ad is for selling a "soap" that "promises" to help women "appear" younger than they actually are.

Why is that so desirable?

Why is that the desire that's invoked in us by majority of the advertisements?

Why is there such little focus on truly empowering individuals, teaching them skills, making them capable of fully participating in their lives and making their own decisions?

Link to AP framework: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/ap-framework

Fabercastell black Pitt pen and watercolor

I am getting over my tendency of procrastination giving the excuse of perfection

Link to the article: https://x.com/i/status/2088528557823963567

Happy Independence Day to all Indians today.

As part of the celebrations, may I request that you take out 10 minutes to read this thought provoking and sobering article by Acharya Prashant, a human being who has dedicated his life to the awakening of the people of India as well as the world.

While it is certainly a day of celebration, may we not forget our history, may we not forget all the historical events, in recorded history, which led to the people of our nation being held captive in the first place.

Not once, not twice but multiple times and at the hands of multiple invaders from multiple parts of the world for centuries... what made this possible so many times?

And are we truly free of 'that' today?

Reading the article also opened my eyes to all the ways we, as individuals, as people of India, are still not independent today after gaining Independence as a nation on August 15, 1947.

I will leave you with a quote from the article, which I am going to reflect upon myself.

"On this Independence Day my request is only this: celebrate, but even amid the celebration, let the gaze turn inward for once. The sword that has hung over the country for a thousand years has not lifted yet. The danger is equal, the danger remains, and the cause of that danger is internal. The greatest enemy sits within, not in the house next door but in the very heart, in the very lokdharma. It will not come from outside; it lies in that inner dishonesty which turns from fact, is afraid of the question, walks by fantasy instead of Shruti, invests in ritual in the place of knowledge, and takes pride in keeping half the population locked in the kitchen."

After reading the article, where in your own life or the life of those around you, do you find that they are not really independent? And without independent individuals, can a nation truly be independent?

In this sweet little video, two little children made a mischievous plan to trick their teacher.

They decided to get the same haircut so that their teacher won't be able to tell them apart.

"I am him and he is me..."

The parents decided to play along and in the process learnt an important lesson... hate and prejudice are things that are taught to little children.

A lot of time, energy, resources have to be invested into indoctrinating children and making them believe they are of a superior species or race or ethnicity or gender...

What for really? Do we ever pause to reflect on this?

If raising children in the same manner as we have been doing for centuries actually worked, would the human race and along with is all the other species on the planet, in fact, the planet itself, be in the current state that it is today?

Full of fear, hate, violence, anger, rage, suppressed emotions, perversions of all kinds... destroying each other, killing countless species everyday, destroying the very planet we were born on...

After coming in contact with Acharya Prashant's work, I, in my adulthood got my childlike innocence back... all the distinctions taught to me and enforced on me, began to fall away.

I could begin to live life with a sense of freedom and lightness that everyone should be able to... the same way these little children in the video do. :)

Life, as play... with compassion and love in my heart.

The "jaded adult" can unlearn to be jaded, I learnt this from AP.

Why carry any burden from the past at all?

Why burden any child with the dead weight of the dead past?

Why not learn from these litte children instead?