We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

- Jawarhalal Nehru in his speech on the granting of India’s independence on Aug 15th, 1947.

In the 1980’s Rajiv Gandhi, when asked about his country, used to say, “Mera Bharat Mahan”, meaning ‘My India is Great’.

It didn’t make sense then to the public who watched. Yes, India gained it’s independence 60 years ago on 15th August, but most people felt it didn’t qualify for that statement. Independence was achieved. India was a new born baby and what the country needed back then were more of the general public to act as midwives to the country, in order to bring it up to become a great country.

But 60 years on, India is beginning to enter the consciousness of every man in a huge way. TIME magazine reported a massive special report on the last 60 years. You can read the full article here.

Here are some excerpts that particularly stand out to me:

Over the past few years the world’s biggest and rowdiest democracy has matched its political freedoms with economic ones, unleashing a torrent of growth and wealth creation that is transforming the lives of millions.

Twenty years ago the rest of the world saw India as a pauper. Now it is just as famous for its software engineers, Bollywood movie stars, literary giants and steel magnates.

The article is an exploration of a Malhotra family’s three generations and the struggles and times of joy they have all experienced.

India is not yet a country that can be considered a ‘developed’ country, but it is far from an ‘under-developed’ country too. The quote “Mera Bharat Mahan” certainly rings true today.

Not only is helping those who are suffering something we should all willingly do, I think it should also be seen as a duty. We are on this planet to give love and help one another. Jain scriptures say “parasparo graho jivanam” which means “souls render service to one another”.

Think about world suffering. The scale of the problem is massive. Much more than we can even bear to handle or think about without getting overwhelmed or distressed. At least, that’s how I feel. Unfortunately, the fact is, one person cannot help everyone as fast as is required. But everyone helping at least one person will easily solve the problems that exist. That is my plea for today’s post.

It is possible for you to help those who are suffering. Even if it’s just one person. And the time to act is not tomorrow, but today. The time is now.

What can you do to help those who are suffering? Here are a few ideas to get you going:

1. Donate a bag of shopping food once a week.
2. Visit your local prison and offer support to those prisoners who want it.
3. Spend an hour or two a week in conversation with those in pain at the hospital.
4. Donate your second hand clothes to charities that will send them directly to children  and adults in Africa, Asia and anywhere close to your heart. The way they cherish your clothes will touch you in a way never before.
5. The same for your textbooks, unwanted games and toys. Donate them.
6. Take on a fundraising activity to raise funds for your favoured charity.
7. Donate a year’s education for a child in India. Check out Nirvana School.
8. Travel to a developing country and teach at a local school.
9. On your next holiday, visit a village in poverty and donate pens, pencils and rubbers to the young children. Take some biscuits and your favourite chocolates too.
10. Offer to befriend a disabled child or adult for a one week period.
11. Volunteer your professional services for free to a charitable trust.

The list of things you can do is endless.

What motivates me to help those who are suffering is the fact that no-one deserves to be tortured. Whether left to live out on the streets or in the prisons, nobody deserves to be tortured. This acts as a strong emotional driver within me and urges me to do all I can to ease suffering and bring about peace and unity.

What have you done in the last 30 days to help someone who has been suffering? Comment on this post and let me know.

The ideas of peace, unity, love, compassion, non-violence and faith need to be at the forefront of our everyday discussions. There is less and less of it going in my local town and it’s time to step it up. Our community is strong, vibrant and active, but there is more talk of violence, sex, drugs and drink rather than peace, love, compassion, environment, unity and faith. It needs to replace gossip. It needs to stimulate people to think creatively, constructively and openly. We all need dialogue in our life.

We need more people to discuss these things. We need them to share them with their friends. This is not profit-making. This is joy-and-bliss-sharing. We need to bring them together on a regular basis, to share ideas, common themes and ways forward, etc.

With that in mind, I’m proposing a monthly (or regularly scheduled) meetup called Breakfast Conversations in which individuals are invited to join a round-table creative dialogue, discussion and collaboration on a focused theme. If you’re anywhere in London, travelling through our city, then please come. But only come if you’re juiced about love, compassion, faith, peace, unity and togetherness. If you are just interested and want to find out more, you are also welcome.

I prefer conversations like these to take place over breakfast - the start of the day provides each and everyone of us with a fresh outlook on the chosen theme and a great way to start the day.

With that in mind, I’ve gone ahead and selected the first date. I’ve gone for a weekday morning and a 9am meetup. I’m experimenting with the weekdays. If you want to come but can’t because you are working, please let me know. It’s best to run these things when there’s a majority presence.

The first Breakfast Conversations will take place on Tuesday 21st August 2007 at 9.00am at Amano Café, Northwick Park, Watford Road, Harrow, HA1 3TZ.

I’m hoping you’ll be able to make it. Even if there’s just two of us, this will go on. It’s nice if you can let me know if you’ll be coming. To do that, just leave a comment saying you’re coming. If you want to email me, my email is kavit@kavitharia.com.

Here are five of my favourite empowering beliefs.

1. My life is created according to my faith. Do I have faith in miracles or disaster? Do I have faith in war or peace? Do I have faith in love or hatred? Do I have faith in cancer or healing? Do I have faith in what I intend or in what I fear?

2. I am the captain of my ship. Yes, I do direct the way. I follow a map but I’m the ultimate decision-maker of the direction of the ship. I decide when to change course and how to deal with the obstacles I face at sea.

3. Love is in everything and everyone. If there is no love, there is no life. Life is love. It is the only thing we are here to do. If you give love in every moment, that moment is a success. Love is my state of being.

4. Abundance is my natural state of being. It’s how I was created, but unforunately, schools of thoughts have betrayed me. It has covered the core that is me. It is my job to get back to my natural state of being. The more I am in that state, the more I will attract that which I desire.

5. World peace and unity is a possibility turned probability. Life is full of unlimited possibilities. We simply have to identify them and turn them into probabilities for ourselves. I have done that and made this an empowering belief. It is what I work for.

What are some of your favourite empowering beliefs? Please let me know by commenting here.

Intuition provides us with guidance, knowledge, direction and the ability to feel what’s right or wrong. Intuition is sometimes mistaken for coincidence or guesswork. Those who can tune their intuition and use it to their advantage are usually in a state of higher consciousness and in a place of abundance.

Have you ever looked at a problem and known the root cause instantly, without even looking into it? That inner voice that you’ve been taught to not trust by society is your intuition. It was Emerson that said, “all things find their origin in intuition.” Here are a few ways to sharpen your saw:

1. Allow yourself to flow past fear. Most people don’t face their fears. They prefer to stay in their comfort zones and remain stagnant. Tune your intuition by facing your fears and flowing through it. Allow your intuition to guide you when you feel uncomfortable. Follow it’s command and see what happens. Fear blocks intuition and is strengthened when we resist it.  Don’t bury your fear.

2. Emotional communication. When you talk with others by email, phone, face to face or any other method, try to seek out their emotions and connect to how they feel rather than only what they say or do. How does the person sound? What is that emotion they are feeling trying to convey? This is a powerful exercise and works wonders.

3. Question yourself. When in conversations with others, ask your inner voice what to do. Ask questions of yourself and what the next step should be. This builds your intuition strength and allows you to trust it more when you enter important situations.

We are currently living in a realm of infinite possibilities. We have at our hands all that we need and all that we may need. All we have to do is select the infinite possibilities we want and turn them into infinite probabilities. Making your dreams come true is not about blood, sweat and tears… it’s about beliefs, imagination and expectation. We live in a magical universe with unfailing principals that conspire on our behalf. 

If this is true, there are infinite possibilities for peace and unity as well. When we keep our eyes and ears open, we get to observe and appreciate more. This increased awareness allows us to notice the possibilities that around and thus grab the ones we feel at home with and turn them into probabilities. The more possibilities we turn into probabilities, the more hope there will be for world peace and unity.

How are you keeping your eyes and ears open?

Ho‘oponopono means to make right. Essentially, it means to make right with our ancestors and the people we have relationships with. The original purpose of Ho’oponopono was to correct the wrongs that had occurred in one’s life. It’s a simple process of letting go of toxic energies within you to allow the impact of Divine thoughts, words, deeds and actions.

There is one technique which I find particularly powerful. Different practitioners have different methods of invoking the power of Ho‘oponopono, but since I like the work of Dr. Joe Vitale, I am utilizing his methods of invoking Ho‘oponopono, which can be summed up in the 4 phrases that he uses whenever he wants to invoke Ho‘oponopono, which is also called “cleaning”:

“I Love You”
“I’m Sorry”
“Please Forgive Me”
“Thank You”

By creating a mantra of saying those 4 things pretty much as often as you can day after day and week after week, you will quickly come to the realization that by Loving yourself, by Apologizing to yourself when you have done something wrong, by Forgiving yourself for that wrong-doing, and by Thanking yourself for the opportunity to create Good, as well as to stop creating Bad, that you can create your life to be “right”.

Vince has a great blog on this Hawaiian process here.