On a clear night

On a clear day, 

        I can see 7 kilometres to the horizon

On a clear night, 

         I can see million of kilometres to the stars.

                                 - Author unknown

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Success is like a bright day.  Shiny, attractive and blinding. 

Failure is like a foggy day. Unclear and confusing.

Without reflection or contemplation little can be understood or experienced.

Contemplation is like a clear night. We can see deep within and without ourselves.  

Who is king of kings?

   "Chah gayi chinta miti, Manva beparwah;

    Jinko kachhu na chahiye, Wohi shah-en-shah"

- The Guru Granth Sahib

 Translated.

When desires are gone, worries end, and person will become carefree;

The one who wants nothing is the king of kings. 

Let her go.

Once an elderly monk and a young monk were trudging through the forest, back towards their monastery They came to a small river, which was in spate. The water was not deep but the current looked dangerously swift. They would simply have to wait it out. 

On the same river bank stood a young attractive woman, looking tired, hungry and  very anxious. With hesitation she approached the monks and said, "I have been here all day. I am desperate to get to my home on the other side. My young children will be waiting for me for they will be very hungry. Sirs please help me to get across, I implore you."

The less people think and feel, the more zealous they become. The young are particularly eager to be accepted and therefore always more earnest in obeying orders.
Being an ascetic the younger monk refused to even make eye contact and simply turned his back on the woman. He dismissively gestured to her to be gone.

The elder monk was a wise and spiritual man, he too had taken many vows, but he felt it no sin to look at and listen to the woman. With spiritual awakening comes compassion. The monk understood the anxiety of a mother longing to reach out to her children. He felt obliged to be of service and to assist the young woman in distress.

He set about putting together a makeshift raft, and when completed he waded into the river with the raft. He gestured to her to sit on it and she hesitatingly climbed on board and held on to the monk and raft for dear life. The angry young monk grudgingly followed the older monk. 

Pushing the raft forward with one hand he began to slowly wade across the river. When they had almost crossed the the river, the raft was hit by debris and overturned, tossing the woman into the muddy water.  As the young monk watched with shock, the elder monk plunged quickly into the water grabbed the woman and carried her safely towards dry land. 

The woman regained her breath and composure, then with folded hands and tears in her eyes, she bowed to the monk and touched his feet. After a few long moments she stood up and ran, on her way to her children. The two monks also resumed their journey but the younger monk now visibly very very angry.  

He continued sulking even after arriving at their destination. After a long while, the elder asked the young monk, "Brother what is it that bothers you?"

The younger retorted, "You know what troubles me. You have broken your vows. You not only looked at but touched the woman, and even carried her across the river."

The elder monk with a smile replied, "Yes, I carried her. I believed it was a greater duty than obedience to my vows to help that poor helpless woman. However, I left her at the river's edge, but it seems to me my brother, that you are still carrying her."  "Let her go"

Dream or Awaken?

Who looks outside, dreams;

Who  looks  inside, awakes.

             - Carl Jung

Power of Yoga, explained.

Who is my best friend?
Should it not be me, myself?
For how can I befriend or love others when I cannot love or befriend myself?
How can I know the eternal, when I don't know myself?

But who am I?
I don't know.
My impressions or understanding of myself is what others have communicated to me.  Even my name is given to me by someone else.
I am this and that and a thousand other things, but I always remain that being, who is defined by others.
Then who am I?

_____________________________                                

Who am I?
To find out, I must ask none other than myself.
But how can I know myself?

Man the animal has his senses trained to handle the external world. The eyes, the nostrils, the ears etc, all are directed outwards.

Man the divine being, lies within us. We should journey inwards into our being, and that journey has to start with the mind.

But my mind is not one. There is always a crowd within my mind and all of them are clamouring for attention. I need to silence them all and still all thoughts, so that I can listen to and observe myself.

This listening and observation is meditation.

This is why it is imperative for me to spend some time alone with myself, to meditate. Concentration does not work, because the more I focus, the more I am strained.

 When I try meditating, I find that sometime my body and most of the time my mind dominate my being.  I tried to fight the thoughts but the more I battle them the stronger they bounced back.


This is why it is imperative for me to spend some time alone with myself, to meditate.

When I try meditating, I find that sometime my body and most of the time my mind dominate my being.  I tried to fight the thoughts but the more I fought them the stronger they bounced back.    

I try not to judge or fight my thoughts, I try just to observe them. Like clouds in the sky, they waft in and fade away, I am often swept away by the clouds or I go a chasing them.

The answer lies in performing yoga.

Yoga is not just contorted body postures, and exercise. It is an ancient and complete science. It has remained a gift from India to humanity for thousands of years.

The more I perform Yoga, the easier it is to meditate.
The more I meditate the more I discover the foolishness of being busy just for the sake of keeping myself uselessly occupied, trying to satisfy and keep entertained that insatiable factor, the human ego.

With each passing day, grows the harmony of my being. The less my mind strays, more healthy and alert I feel. I have traded useful action for useless activity.



Harmony cannot be explained it has to be experienced.


Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word 'Yuj', means to join. I prefer to describe yoga as a confluence, the coming together of the flow of the body, the mind and the spirit.

Yoga offers, possibly the simplest and best path for individuals and humanity to be to be truly holy*.  Holy because the mind, body and spirit of the individual will be in harmony with each other.  Blissful, aware, active and healthy people.

Could we ask for anything more?



*Holy comes from the same word, meaning, 'to be whole'

Who is a Warrior?

"No one has the right to take another life. A warrior for us is different from what you think of as. The warrior is not someone who simply fights and kills. 

The warrior, for us, is the one sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenceless, those who cannot provide for themselves and above all, the children who are  the future of humanity."

 - Sitting Bull

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Sitting Bull  (1831 – 1890) was a holy man and tribal chief of the Hunkpapa Lakota people, who led the Sioux Red Indian Nation against the American government which mainly constituted of Europeans who had settled in  America

While two thirds of who died were due to diseases imported by the settlers a third of the native American Indians were simply exterminated. It is estimated that approximately 18 million Red Indians died for the sake of 'freedom' and 'progress' of the settlers in North America.




It is estimated that the number killed in South America or what we also call Latin America was still higher at over 50 million native Indians killed.

It marks one of Humankind's greatest tragedies and depicts Man at his possible shameful worst.

The American colonisation of the West, and the dispossession of its indigenous peoples was carried out under the ideology of Manifest Destiny. Europeans believed that they had a superior culture, and that it was their God-given destiny to occupy the land and to extinguish the culture of its original inhabitants. 

Manifest Destiny - American Progress by John Gast (1872)

In this illustration, we see Progress leading the settlers across the prairie, Bible in hand, stringing telegraph wires with the other, while the “savages” flee ahead

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers

       - Alfred Tenyson

I visited the Universal Business School (UBS) in Karjat (near Mumbai, India) several times. An impressive and wonderful feature at UBS is called, 'The Wisdom School'. UBS is probably the only managerial and business school in India which seeks to amplify and stimulate human goodness.

In addition to producing some good potential business managers UBS also strives to evolve good human beings and leaders.

Usually students and parents too often are focussed only on facts and figures, tools and techniques seeking to get knowledge. The grades and mark sheets are all that matter to them and to potential employers. Alas if more of them also sought wisdom.

UBS have not yet got there but they believe that in addition to the knowledge they impart, they must help their students to become wise.

Mr. Gurdip Anand the main founder of UBS, sought my opinion on what I felt would help the students be wise. That really stumped me and I needed to think long and hard and search for an answer. 

No doubt many of our education institutions provide knowledge but that is wholly inadequate. Knowledge increases our ability to act. However mere actions without wisdom often causes suffering and degradation of individuals,  society and nature.  

The ability to apply knowledge, understanding experience, insight, and common sense for the benefit of oneself, for others and for creation, is called wisdom.

Good education should teach the person,

• To discover oneself and realise one's potential
• How to be in harmony with oneself?
• To enjoy life by being true to oneself.
• To be friends with the world.
• To continuously learn, un-learn and re-learn?
• Respect for oneself, others and creation in general.
• To be compassionate
• Tolerance
• To be healthy?
• Enjoy art, creativity and to be innovative?
• The true meaning of responsibilities and rights and their judicious application 

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"The more I see, the more I learn.

The more I learn, the more I know.

The more I know, the more I realise.

The more I realise, I learn how little I know."

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If you wish to know more about Universal Business school you may contact 

Brigadier GPS Cheema

Chief mentor of UBS Wisdom School 

email:      gpscheema@yahoo.com

Mobile:   +91 787 587 0837