I am among those many people who happened to read the Chetan Bhagat Bestseller Five Point Someone years back, before the movie 3 Idiots came into picture lately. And I must congratulate Chetan for such an entertaining piece of work. The book is indeed one of it's kind and I had been a great fan of Chetan since then. I was hooked up to FPS like a bee to a hive and had finished the book over a long weekend, almost within three days. To brief the overall experience of reading the book, it was altogether a very unique genre of story telling - a graphic way of writing wherein words were simply used to create pictures in front of your eyes. That is the beauty of this IITian. I loved the book, the plot, the characters and the style by which the author had put forth the story. The story doesn't stop with mere being entertaining rather, it imparts a very serious message to the society - the drawbacks of the current education system. And that is the significant feature of this masterpiece. With all the fans this first time author has won, which is a very rare phenomenon these days, Chetan truly deserves more than just a big applause.

As a first time reader, I was very much aware of the fact that the book was soon to be molded into a Hindi film. That is exactly what was being published on the cover pages of the book. And I am happy that the movie is live and starred by one of my favorite actors Aamir Khan in the lead role. I happened to watch the movie this weekend and this was when I felt like commenting over the fuss that has been gaining bandwidth in air and space in the newspaper columns. For a while, I have been reading the reactions of the supporters and the critics who have watched the movie but not read the book, read the book but yet to watch the movie and the ones who had watched the movie and read the book as well.

As a result, prejudices and mixed opinions were engulfing me before I was about to watch the movie. Given that the movie was made by some reputed director and was enacted by one of the most successful movie stars who believed in quality work, I expected it to be a good piece of work. To my dismay, it stood below all my expectations. Although, the film was successful in collecting huge money all over the country, that really doesn't gain much significance in my opinion esp. when I think and compare it to the original creation of the author - his book. I really do not want to get into the dirty politics being used by the film makers of the movie to promote and sell the movie. That is something that the Bollywood folks are best at. The movie at times gives us a good chance to stretch our lips - all credits to the father of the original wits, the author himself. On the other hand, the innovation that the film makers have tried to push within the movie makes it nothing better than pathetic. Their creativity fails with their silly attempts to feature a baby delivery scene in an obscene way. That is where Bollywood sucks at. It really hurts when they say that the movie is loosely inspired from the book when the primary concept, the jokes and the message was used from the book.

I am forced to accept that the entire episode and disregard duly hurts the writer community at a broader level. I can feel the disgust when Chetan wrote on his blog 'Imagine someone takes your child, dresses him up and tells the world it is theirs'. As far as Aamir's comment on this issue is concerned, I disagree to it too. When the author said that he felt neglected, it just meant that he merely expected his well deserved recognition; popularity ain't the destiny of the talent. You are indeed a great actor and so be it and your fans really do not need your comments on this issue.

Authors and script writers have always been one of the driving forces behind great cinemas and plays. The entire episode was an outburst of the front stage players overriding the back stage inspiration. Come on Bollywood, you need to learn to play a gentleman now.

The so called scientific advances and technological innovations have gifted us many things in the recent years - from smarter modes of communication, to high configuration personal computers and smarter cell phones to name a few. Being an everyday person, it is very easy to adore these technological advances and adopt them into our day to day lives. They are to make our lives easy and easier with every single passing day. Certainly, it is obvious for an everyday person to continually strive to gather ease in leading a modern human life and technology has been instrumental in achieving this goal to a certain extent. This is a general notion we have of Science today. It is about all that we could feel, see, touch and reap benefits out of. If one comes across something which is difficult to comprehend, he would immediately reject it, terming it as superstitious or unscientific. As for the phenomena which objectively exist around us and impact our lives, people do not dare speak about them. However, some people have very rigid mentalities and pass reckless opinions about subjects they do not comprehend. Whereas, the phenomena that are tangible are all labeled as topics of science. No seeing, no believing - this is how the world sees it today. It is indeed sad that spiritualism is still categorized as a philosophical topic. And when it comes to philosophy, modern people have a petty casual approach towards the subject. This is a big hurdle in the enlightenment of common humankind.

No matter how far a spaceship can fly, no matter how long medical science can prolong your life, no matter how many technological innovations man could make, it is too much confined to our physical materialistic world. The so called progress of humankind is a mere notion when it comes to the high level truths which greatly impact our lives. It is just too easy to not believe them and this is the reason why despite so many scientific advancements, modern human is still not able to figure out how a brain functions, from where feelings originate and how the mind works. Opinionated people find it very easy to categorize all such topics as paranormal or within areas of future explorations. The fact is that, with the present approach of science and with the current set of notions, it is impossible for humankind to know the truths of the universe.

Spirituality is still a mystery to many. Some are not clear enough with their correlation with religions. There are so many religions and so many practices in society today. So much so that people just do not understand as to why really they exist. On the contrary, everyday people have extremely strong notions about their religion or sect. Some people may fall prey to some serious sins like killing in the name of religion. Religions have been instrumental in shaping the lives of human society since an ancient time. However today, religions fail to provide their real teachings anymore and their real purpose of establishment has itself become obsolete. This is primarily because human society has changed and so are the standards that discern the good and the bad.

It is no doubt that our world today has become too much materialistic and most of our notions are greatly influenced by various pursuits of personal gain. This is common in the world of everyday people. People are just too much confused when it comes to social interactions and leading a life. The same applies to any spiritual practice. For most of the people, spiritualism is meditation. There are many theories and books available in the market that teach various techniques of meditation. They are written by everyday people bearing various pursuits for fame and personal gains. They cannot really teach a genuine way towards enlightenment. With various pursuits and everyday people desires in mind, one cannot progress. This is absolutely true.

Spirituality is a cultivation practice in the real sense. A genuine cultivation practice involves cultivation of both mind and body. Meditation is a form of physical exercise which supplements the cultivation of mind, providing spiritual energy to unveil the mysteries of the universe and self improvement. I understand that today there are a zillion practices present with various masters that provide their teachings. Almost all of them provide their teachings with a pursuit of healing and fitness. This includes Yoga, Reiki and many more. In the midst of so many things, it is very important that a person remains single minded and stick to one practice. A person who just keeps on studying theories without practicing them will ultimately land up doing nothing. This would be a very difficult situation since his mind will be too messed up. Single minded-ness is the key towards advancement in cultivation and spiritualism.

So far, only the Buddha Fa has been able to provide a complete insight into the mysteries of the Universe. Now what exactly is the Buddha Fa? Let me highlight that it is not related to Buddhist religion since the original teachings of several religions have now become obsolete. Falun Dafa or Falun Gong is a spiritual practice which truly allows its practitioners to ascend towards higher levels of cultivation. There are over ten crore practitioners worldwide. As of today, only Falun Dafa is able to provide the true teachings of the Buddha Fa. The practice consists of five set of physical exercises which includes energizing the physical channels of our body and meditation. All these exercises are easy to learn and the instructions can be freely downloaded from the Internet. Zhuan Falun is the book which is a complete teaching of Falun Dafa which could also be downloaded free of charge. Truly, a genuine practice is always selfless and regardless of any pursuits.

Spirituality is all about complying oneself to the characteristics of the universe under any adverse circumstances. Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance are the fundamental characteristics of the universe and conforming to them is the ultimate requirement of a cultivation practice. Exercises and meditation are supplementary. If humankind is able to have a fresh look at the universe and the things around him, science will get a better definition.

If someone walks into the middle of your life and tells you that your life isn't really the entire truth of the universe, what would your reaction be? As an everyday person, you would reject him instantly. You would call such a person, mysterious, superstitious, insane and so on. The same is the case with our Falun Dafa or Dafa or Fa. The extent to which you study and practice the Fa, the closer you would progress towards the truth of the universe. Unfortunately, for an everyday person it is very difficult to give up his rigid mentality, prejudiced views and his past learnings. This contradicts with my current knowledge and beliefs, he would protest. This all seems hypothetical theory which is hard, way too hard to believe and follow. As the Fa says, humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking and open up their minds to accept new ideas and approaches. Otherwise the current civilization will forever continue to crawl in between the boundaries which is delimited by its own ignorance and prejudices.

Imagine the world in which we live today, our interpretations of progress is confined to what we refer to as scientific advances, technological progressions and the amenities of the modern human lifestyle. If a couple of hundred years back, if someone said that man would be able to walk on the moon, then he would definitely be declared a fool, superstitious or an idiot. Without even having a spacecraft invented, how can a person really talk about a theory of man reaching on the moon? It would sound like a joke. The mentality of accepting unforeseen facts, possibilities or a form of existence entirely depends on the mind-set of human beings. I have seen several people around who do not understand the facts but have a very strong opinions about some unforeseen truths. Instantly, they reject things that does not make sense to them, they do not comprehend or they are unable to understand.

One of the biggest problem in the humankind of today is their rigid mentality. They believe only those things that they have seen and experienced. They are not willing to change or experience new things for a simple reason that they do not comprehend it, find it too hard to believe. Their channels are blocked and minds are locked. If technology is what can be seen, felt and heard they gather a firm belief in it. They wholeheartedly accept it as the absolute truth of the universe. Modern man call it science or technology and has made it a way of life. This is how they fail to realize that this is just a small part of the entire truth of the universe. They are confined to believe this way and the various dimensions of life are not even thought to explore. This is what is happening with the Fa.

The understanding of modern man is restricted to the knowledge and experiences that occur between his birth and the so called death. Right since his birth, he gathers numerous attachments to matter. Food, water, land, shelter, garments, property, money etc. are all various forms of matter. With his pair of eyes, all he can see is various forms of matter. He sees what his eyes reflect back on his brain. The pair of eyes he owns is pretty much confined to see matter in this dimension of the universe. If one says, there exists a third eye in between ones eye brows, it is quite possible that many of us would straight away reject this concept. Even modern scientists have accepted that there exists an aperture (tianmu) in between ones forehead. But they are just not able to explain it. Their rigid mentality is a hurdle in order to get a better understanding of the human life. This is the reason why even today, everyday person is not able to comprehend how human brain works, whether there really exists something called as a mind, from where thoughts originate - do they have any material existence and so on. Humankind is unwilling to believe anything beyond what they can comprehend in this physical dimension filled with matter. The largest thing they know are planets and the smallest one is a cell, an atom, a proton, an electron or a neutron. They have not been able to build such a microscope which could foresee beyond this physical dimension.

Such rigid thinking is a huge hurdle in self improvement and cultivation. We have raised ourselves to think at a very low level and thus our understanding of life is very tiny and restricted. Everyday people find it so easy to fool others, bully them and commit serious sins. With a very shallow understanding of life, it is very difficult to grow up and become enlightened.

One of the noblest thought that could come to a mind of a genuine Falun Gong practitioner is to introduce the practice amongst the everyday people he comes across during his course of cultivation. I am definitely sure that this thought in the practitioner’s mind is a result of profound compassion towards the people around him and that it has been cultivated by him through the practice itself.

Most of the everyday people, to whom Falun Gong practice is being introduced, think about what he is really going to gain out of it. Being an everyday person, it is very easy for them to expect for something they are investing, time in this case. Why should I practice Falun Gong? It’s a very obvious question that comes to the mind of a non-practitioner. They relate it to other practices viz. Qigong, Yoga, Art of Living etc. which is primarily done for healing and fitness by everyday people. It sometimes makes me feel too difficult to explain people that Falun Gong is not pursued for physical fitness or curing illnesses. As our Master Li (founder of Falun Gong) illustrates, people with illnesses are not really meant to practice Falun Gong. It is for a simple reason that not everybody can practice it. In fact, if such a person tries to practice it, he won’t be allowed to do it. One of my school friends recently admitted to me that he is not able to practice for a simple reason that it is too difficult to follow. Of course, it is difficult to follow just for a simple reason that it is just too difficult to give up your conventional thinking in the present human society. It is as difficult to practice as thinking good about the person who has been unfair to you. Probably, this is the very reason why a majority people to whom I tell about the practice do not turn up for the Falun Gong exercise sessions.

We have been practicing Falun Gong in some of the public places, parks etc. in our vicinity for several days. We have been distributing information brochures and sometimes, printed copies of Zhuan Falun to people who really show interest. Most of the people enquire about the details of the practice and get intrigued by the characteristics of Zhen-Shan-Ren i.e. Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. Some of them truly manifest that the practice is based on some divine principles of morality but they are just reluctant to change their present life. They express a sense of failure and complain that this practice is not practical. They simply ignore that facts and try to sneak away towards their everyday life. Some people really want to give it a try and turn up for the exercise sessions. However, they are very reluctant to read the teachings and principles on which these exercises are based upon. Falun Gong consists of five slow moving exercises which includes both standing and sitting meditation exercises. The very first exercise is primarily done to open up and unblock the energy channels within our human bodies. Non-practitioners, who are reluctant to open up their minds and understand the facts behind the exercises, will find it very difficult to stay with and continue the practice. For the ones, who genuinely read and manifest the principles of the Fa, would genuinely realize that they have been blessed to be a Falun Gong practitioner.

Falun Gong is not primarily for healing and fitness, but all such benefits are mere by-products of the practice. Falun Gong is a practice based on high level principles and as per our Master Li Hongzhi, such a practice is being openly introduced to the public for the very first time in the history of human civilization. There are crores of practitioners today all over the world who have been trying seamlessly to cultivate the good and righteous thoughts during this Dharma ending period. Numerous Falun Gong practitioners have experienced slow aging just by getting their virtues correct. One of my fellow Falun Gong practitioner who has been practicing for around seven years, do not remember if he has taken any pill or fallen ill during this period. This practice has built up a strong belief in my mind that the treatments done by doctors merely transform or postpone illnesses. The root cause of all the miseries and illnesses is truly not being dealt with by the everyday people. They have been too much busy with their so called personal lives, which generically comprises of inter-personal conflicts, jealousy, egoism, addictions and attachments. I just feel nothing but concerned.

It's the International Women's Day again and it's time to review again the state where we stand. One of the greatest woman in my life, my wife delivered a baby girl on 28th Feb last week. This is our first baby and we now feel blessed for being the proud parents of a baby girl. However, it sometimes makes me feel too down when I come across people with a very low level thoughts when it comes to a girl child. Our society has deteriorated to a very low extent. Merely observing a commemorative day for women has no meaning when they are disrespected over the rest of the year. The society must cultivate itself to celebrate womanhood and learn to treat women with dignity and compassion.

I wished for a girl
She wanted a boy
A thought across my mind
How impatient was I

I was going to be a father
In a moment or three
How I cared for the little one
And for the mommy to be

Staring at the labour room
There stood me
A thousand prayers I groomed
For a soothing delivery to be

Lengthy moments of wait
Vanished like a gale
As the nurses stood at the gate
Deplorable and pale

Is everything alright sister?
I waited for a sigh
The doctor will answer you mister
It shouldn't be I

Congratulations, said the doctor
As he wore a grim dark smile
Of a girl you're now a father
Said he, in his very own style

Leaving the tender soul in my hand
There walked away the squad
Sneaked a tear of compassion
As I caressed my child

Get us all some sweets sir
I heard a voice behind
Bravo, it's a boy, said the sister
To an another man beside

Nothing in the world can take away from a man, who has nothing; Nothing in the world can hurt a man who wants nothing. I thought about the plight of a multi millionaire man resting on his death bed. If riches is what could fetch one happiness, he must have lived a life of the happiest man in the world. Today, this is the notion of happiness amongst everyday people - you and me. An everyday person often mistakes excitement for happiness. To be able to fetch your favorite ice-cream, winning a few hundred dollar lottery or meeting your favorite person are various forms of excitement. This feeling brings the mind of an everyday person to it's highest emotional peak. Similarly, there is a lowest emotional peak - fear. Then what happiness really is? Some say it's contentment or satisfaction. Some say that happiness is stability of mind. For me, happiness is nothingness - to be able to stick to nothingness in adverse everyday situations. And that is the path of cultivation - our practice of Falun Dafa.

Our conventional thinking about our materialistic attachments is the biggest hurdle to our cultivation practice of body and mind. As a new practitioner, I wonder how many of us can really stay away from our materialistic thoughts while performing the Falun Gong exercises. Oh! my friend owes a thousand rupees to me, I haven't paid my electricity bill yet; when is the due date? My neighbor has got a new car; I wish to buy a better one than him! I must rush home after the exercises lest I would be late for office. Although you think that you are practicing cultivation, the mind is cultivating evil deep within. But to say, we are still practicing cultivation. And we know that cultivation is good. Isn't this contradicting somewhere? Definitely, this is evil cultivation. With a mind filled with various kinds of attachments, it is very difficult to practice nothingness and cultivation.

In order to be a practitioner in the real sense, one must be very loosely connected to our possessions. Thinking too much about our possessions create an evil called attachment. There are various forms of attachments which will restrict your growth in the course of cultivation practice. Attachments need not always bear a monetary value. Feelings like jealousy, anger, hatred and even love is a form of attachment. Being attached to the human society, one is bound to gather various feelings, relationships and materialistic possessions. In our Falun Dafa, one is permitted to possess riches and materialistic properties. If a practitioner gives away everything, he won't be any different from a monk or a sanyasi. We are permitted to carry and manage our money and possessions since we are still practicing amongst everyday people. The crux is how lightly we take and pursue interpersonal conflicts, preferences of self interest and our attachments.

The path of cultivation is good and difficult at the same time. Good and bad is relative in the dimension of everyday people. What one person thinks good might be bad from the perspective of another everyday person. Similarly, what one thinks bad might be good from the perspective of another everyday person. So far our thoughts and actions comply with Zen-Shan-Ren (Truth, Benevolence and Forbearance) which are the characteristics of the universe, it can be termed as good. Cultivating mind and body is by adopting righteous thoughts and conforming to these characteristics of the universe. The path of cultivation passes through nothingness and for a everyday person, this seems to be the most difficult thing to do. The higher a man progresses through his path of cultivation, the closer he is to the truth of the universe.

Accolades: This post was chosen as the Best Post from the Indian Blogosphere by BlogAdda - their topmost pick on 26th February, 2011

Who : Neeraj Shinde
What : A Journey Through Nothingness…
Spicy : Neeraj informs us about the journey of nothingness through the path of cultivation, a practice of Falun Dafa. In today’s world we are too much attached to our materialistic things. The practice of Falun Dafa is about being loosely connected to those things. Get closer to the truth of the universe through Neeraj’s post!

I attended a centenary lecture of a CEO of one of the greatest multinational organizations in the world this week and must admit that it got me nothing but disappointment. I would have had a drastically opposite perspective about it, if I were not a Falun Gong practitioner. Is making money the real purpose of our existence? Certainly not! I am not really criticizing anyone here. I am not permitted to do that. I mean it. But it really makes me feel sad to manifest the fact that several people in the world with able capabilities talk like mere businessmen. That is just one of the zillion aspects of the modern life.

Where is the modern world heading towards? Just sit back and relax, turn on your television set – your favorite news channel. Watch it. Sons killing their mothers, father raping their daughters, thefts, betrayals, kidnappings, domestic violence, social unrest, intolerance, hatred, extra marital affairs, gambling, addictions, religious conflicts – is there an end to all of these varied forms of Karma. An ignorant person would take it as granted as a part of life and switch the channel. That’s the way it is. I am a no person to have control over it. A few, with a sadistic bent of mind would like to entertain themselves over the grief of their fellow beings. Again, I am not criticizing anyone here since I am not permitted to do that. That’s an undeniable fact of our current lives. We are into the dimension of the everyday people. We have attachments which are hard to resist, we fume up very easily and almost always make things worse in a fit. These are the characteristics of everyday people – you and me.

I have seen people killing each other over religion or the so called religious sentiments, whatsoever. Let me ask a very simple question here. What has the person who killed another man in a rage really understood about religion? What did he protect when he intentionally committed such a grave Karma? This is complete lack of forbearance. Amongst the everyday people, prejudices and reactions without a thought are so common that they are now a part of our so called DNA. In this course, the facts behind the truth of the universe are casually overlooked. And the funniest part of it is that we are almost unaware of this loss - our own loss.

All the illnesses and sufferings are the aftermaths of our bad deeds – the karma. I know most of you will find this statement ridiculous; some might neglect it by terming it plain philosophy. For most, philosophy is not practicality – remember that we all think from a dimension of an everyday person. The universe is not confined to a single dimension. Being an everyday person we have deviated from our true selves, the characteristics of the universe – Truthfulness, Benevolence (Compassion) and Forbearance (Tolerance). Since we are a part of the universe, we must comply with these characteristics of the universe. Every matter in the universe possesses these characteristics. The ‘true self’ within us possesses these qualities. While committing a bad deed, haven’t you felt it deep within your mind, your conscience? The life amongst the everyday people isn’t that easy. Especially, in the world of today when there is ‘karma’ all over it has become way too difficult to stick to your true self. It is like a war within. You need to inculcate the qualities of the universe in order to understand the truth of the universe. This is the path of salvation.

What is Falun Gong? Firstly, Falun Gong or Falun Dafa is not a religion – I am just trying to clear the notion of the everyday people here. It is an ancient cultivation practice which is indeed a science by itself. Falun Gong was introduced to the public in the year 1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi. Falun Dafa is today practiced by over 10 crore people in more than 114 countries. It comprises of a five set of simple exercises which are easy to learn and suitable for all age groups. As a practitioner, I would say that it is a practice to inculcate the righteous by purification of our everyday bodies and mind. For new practitioners I would strongly recommend to read Zhuan Falun. However, this post of mine is not really to credit myself or advertise any one. It is rather meant to 'hint' my fellow human beings with whom I share a predestined relationship. In order to start with the practice, you need to possess an open mind and a willing heart. That is a mandate. In fact, that is the first step towards enlightenment, believe me. This is absolute truth.

It is never too late. You will realize it only when you start. Please note that Falun Dafa is free and practitioners all over the world are volunteers. Please feel free to contact any of the volunteer contacts at your nearest site locations. I will feel privileged to assist you with any help that might be needed.