Gerald D'Cunha

    “The cause of poverty is not scarcity, it’s fear and small thinking.” Alan Cohen W e find the poorest of the souls, often, sitting on the mightiest of the thrones, or owning largest ‘wealth’ on this planet… Poverty is a state of mind… the state of lack of love and gratitude towards life and people around… Be it Donald Trump, or be it Elon Musk… These guys are nowhere near the treasure called ‘Love’… The more they crave to sit on the thrones, the less secure they feel. Forget about their outlandish dreams and promises to make the Nation, or Life, great… “Enough is abundance to the wise,” said Euripides… People who are consumed with the ambition to conquer the world – yes, they will never understand… what ‘enough’ is! The Bible… Sorry, why do they need help from ‘the Manger and the Cross’ to woo people - to place them on thrones? Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, Shirdi ka Sai Baba, Mahatma Gandhi – were they ‘poor’ souls? Did they suffer from insecurity? T here ...

  “A goodness you do by waiting for a return is not a goodness, but just a cunning investment in the future.” Mehemet Murat Ildan   L ife is short… It gets even shorter through our complaints. When our complaints occupy our major mind-space, it is difficult for us to notice and appreciate the beautiful gifts we are blessed with… Complaints make life look like a bottomless pit… No matter how valuable gifts God puts into it, they all go down into this pit with no bottom! Our complaints breed our unhappiness – our disappointments, hurts, sorrow, self-pity and pain. A major complaint, which many of us carry in life, is, that we do not find people reciprocating our goodness towards them... Sounds familiar? Let’s see it from both ends… We complain, saying, that those who we have helped are ungrateful to us. On the other hand, others who have helped us complain, saying, that we are ungrateful to them. Thus, just as we feel hurt and angry, there are others feeling ...

  “So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.” J.R.R. Tolkien   S taying relevant till the ripe age of 80 – and be able to continue doing what you are passionate about, that too, remarkably well, and, that too, in a cut-throat glamorous industry -   is not possible for any one, unless he or she is an Amitabh Bachchan! When Amitabh turned 80, on this October 11, I wanted to write something about him. But, then, what is left ‘new’ to write about this ‘One-and-only’? Whatever I wanted to write had been already written by countless number of his admirers. I, myself, have written about him so many times in my past Blogs… So, what is new, now? Nothing! E very time I feel tired – both physically and mentally – I look up to Amitabh Bachchan. Every time, I feel scarcity in my mind – that, I may not be able to find ‘work’, earn my daily bread, manage my home etc. – I look up to him. Every time, my boat gets caught up in a storm, every time I hear...

  “Abundance is not what you hold in your hand. Rather, it’s what you have in your heart. Until we realize this, both will feel empty.” Graig D. Lounsbrough   T he more I feel grateful for Life and its privileges, the more peaceful I become. This life is a true gift, a blessing. And, I say this not as a cliche… Life ‘is’ a gift… “Thank you, Lord”! When I truly feel grateful to God for this life and its privileges, reaching out to people in need – not necessarily through money – becomes easier. We give joyfully and we give with our blessings, too. Sometimes, when I sit alone near the vast sea, watching the setting sun and swiftly-changing hues on the sky, listening to the rhythm of the waves, I get to realize how vast and kind this Universe is… I get to realize how abundant the Life is! So, when I reach out to someone, through whatever manner, what I am truly able to experience inside me is, that the Universe within me can only keep growing. I am able to realize...

  "we only have what we give.” Isabel Allende   N one of us is rich enough to eradicate the poverty in this world. The biggest Foundations and Charities in this world have been able to do only so much… Poverty, hunger, deprivation still run rampantly. Now, the Poverty shows up in differs avatars. There is poverty of mind, heart and soul, too. Lack of love is poverty… Loneliness is poverty… Lack of self-confidence is poverty… Distrust and envy are forms of poverty… Poor physical health is poverty. And, yes, lack of money – hunger and homelessness - is poverty. I have hardly done any financial charity. A few rupees which I may have given, now and then, are like casting   drops of water in a vast ocean. Putting it inversely, it’s like trying to empty the ocean – the ocean of poverty – with a teaspoon! It can be overwhelming! But, each one of us has been blessed with our own special wealth. We may be poor in terms of money; but, we may be wealthy in terms of oth...

“I do not know what I may appear to the world; but, to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself, now and then, in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than the ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Isaac Newton S ometimes, a thought crosses my mind: Did the Buddha, Jesus, Nanak, Kabir, Sai of Shirdi, Mirabai, Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, Michelangelo, Darwin, Newton and Einstein and so many ‘greats’ like them – ever worry about someone stealing or copying their ‘stuff’? Sorry for making their colossal work appear so trivial to be called ‘stuff’! Those were the days when ‘Intellectual Property’ was not a ‘property’ yet… and Hashtags, copy rights, patent rights and branding had not found their place in the lexicons… And, yes, yes… those were the days when the houses had no doors… Quite literally! I smile when I think of this: Some houses, even today, still do not ...

“If you accept a limiting belief, then it will become a truth for you.” - Louise Hay F or last two days, I have been reading some of Louise Hay’s writings, particularly some powerful quotes from her famous book, ‘You Can Heal Your Life’. In August, this year, Louise Hay died peacefully in her sleep… She was 90. Her story has been an inspiring testimony of self-healing. By her own account, she was raped  by one of her neighbours when she was 5… At 15, she was pregnant… at 16, she gave away her just-born for adoption… She dropped out of her studies without a Diploma… She was physically abused by her step- father… Her own husband, after years of marriage, deserted her for another woman… For many years, she did low-paying jobs for survival… At 51, she was diagnosed with ‘incurable’ cervical cancer… and, she was devastated! It was when her body was besieged by life-threatening cancer, Louise Hay became aware of the root cause of her disease… he...

T his is the season of results… tenth standard and twelfth standard, particularly, where the excitement – the joy and despair – is maximum. Yesterday, tenth (ICSE) and twelfth standard (ISC) results were out; and, today twelfth standard (HSC) results are out… In the P.D.  session, this morning, I asked some boys and girls to come up on stage and share their joys and despair after the results… not just theirs’, but their parents’ and grandparents’, their siblings’ and friends’ too… The ‘Board results’ are something… big thing! When I was a young boy like these students, I had gone through the same experience… the joy and the despair. My parents, even though they weren’t educated, had gone through the same experience, too… “At your age, I was nowhere near you,” I tell my students, “You are far, far, far better. Hence, I have no business to judge you, leave alone ‘condemn’ you.” When I look back at my own tenth, twelfth and graduation marks, I am now ab...

I n response to my last post on ‘Women’s Day’, Pooja, one of my dear friends, shared her story with me. “Sir, I strongly felt that I must share it with you,” she wrote, “If you think it is worth sharing with your readers, please feel free to do so.” Yes, I immediately felt that the story deserved to be shared. Just this Sunday, I had been to my friend Sundar’s place. “I want you to approach fear and confidence from a different perspective,” Sundar said in the course of our discussion. Being spiritually anchored, he described to me a simple ‘Sadhana’ – a spiritual exercise… which involved sitting quietly and remembering and showing deep, sincere reverence to our parents mentally before we evoke the name the deity we worshiped. Sundar had told me, in several occasions, the importance of making peace with our parents… and, how central that peace was for the flow of abundance in our lives… including that of wealth, health, and love through all other relationships… He had...

Pic.: Suyog Surte “ Abundance is a process of letting go… that which is empty can receive.”   - Bryant H. McGill A week ago, I had some very important and urgent work with a person. So, I tried calling that person and all my calls were met with the same response: “Switched off’ or ‘Out-of-coverage area’. I found no replies to my messages, too… Initially, I was irritated and annoyed… even anxious as the matter was important and urgent. The state of mind continued to be so – tensed and restless – for quite some time… And, finally, I let go… The solution emerged on its own and from an unexpected corner. What once seemed like ‘important and urgent’ – a do-or-die situation – now did not seem so. It was a ‘life-situation’… It wasn’t life itself. Its weight was so heavy because I kept holding it in my mind for so long! The moment I dropped it – let go its importance and urgency – it became an experience as light as a feather…The way open...