“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”

― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

Almost all of human knowledge has been the product of attempts to answer this fundamental question. While philosophy, psychology, religion, politics and sociology have tackled it head on, mathematics, economics and all the sciences have tried to understand you and I stand relation to the universe but at the end of the day, the human self is the site of all wonder, curiosity and investigation. Not surprisingly, the question, “Who am I”, resounds through Mahatman and this is where I offer several ways of arriving at the answer.

The third pillar of Great Wisdom is all about sharpening your mental faculties and bolstering your psychological heft so that you achieve complete Self-Actualization and reach the goal of Greatness. But how are you going to do this unless you know who you really are, unless you know yourself fully – your own strengths, skills, aptitude, interests, potential and areas that need work. The human brain is wonderfully adept at conjuring excuses, fiction and fantasy that can work a web of self-delusion. “Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears”, said the Nobel Prize winning writer, Rudyard Kipling. Your own mind can convince you that your goals are nothing but pipe dreams or it can lull you to remain satisfied with an easy sense of well-being. Worse still it can hold you back with the phantasmagorical chains of fear and insecurity or can poison your relationships with darts of jealousy and hatred.

To achieve Great Wisdom, it is necessary to break such bonds of self-deception and self-delusion. Instead work hard to know yourself and be prepared to face facts, no matter how unpleasant they are and most importantly rise up with determination to act upon whatever the exercise of Self-Awareness and Self-Realization uncover so that you can move on from Enlightenment to Self-Actualization. In the rest of this chapter I will be dealing with Realize on four levels – physical, emotional, functional and spiritual.

There was a time in history not too long ago when physical characteristics of humans were related to psychological traits as well. The best known of these approaches was theorized by William Sheldon in mid-twentieth century. According to him the Endomorph body time was soft, fat and round body and indicated a sociable and relaxed personality. The Ectomorph was tall, thin and flat chested and indicated shy, reserved and self-conscious personalities. The Mesomorph type was well built and muscular and made for physically active, noisy, adventurous, athletic personalities. Sheldon even extended this classification system to explain delinquent behaviour, finding that delinquents were likely to be high in mesomorphy and low in ectomorphy and arguing that mesomorphy’s associated temperaments (active and aggressive but lacking sensitivity and inhibition) tended to cause delinquency and criminal behaviour.

Needless to say such theories of personality based on physical traits were criticized, not just because it was hardly representative but because it had the potential feed stereotypes and to justify the worst of racial, gender, class and other kinds of discrimination based on physiology.

Why I mention this here is to emphasize that colour, complexion, body type and weight are externals. They do not determine character or personality. So do not believe theories that tell you what you can and cannot do on the basis of your physical traits. There was a time when women were called the weaker sex and even the Olympic Games in 1932 did not allow women athletes to compete in a maximum of three events. But Babe Didrikson Zaharias won five events in the Olympic Games trials the same year. Similarly Mistly Copeland broke racial stereotypes to become America’s first African origin woman to be promoted to principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre’s 75-year history.

The human body is indeed one of Nature’s miracles – the extent of coordination and balance that goes into seamless functioning of the physiological systems is mindboggling. Did you know that you have an almost entirely new skeleton every 10 years? Or that the surface area of the average adult lung – comprised of around 480 million alveoli – could cover half a tennis court? Your body is a treasure trove of such and many more incredible precious secrets.

So, how do you get to know more about your body?

Finding out your body type, BMI and all that is not my focus here. Like I said, you can be any body type, size, and colour and yet be able to do and achieve anything in the world, provided you treat it with care and respect. Instead, in the journey towards Mahatman, it is more important to know your body so that you can care for it and fulfil its potential. So I am going to outline a few ways that will get you started on the journey towards self-realization on the physical level.

• Begin by looking at your body – long and lovingly. Every day the media fires a barrage of images of reed thin models at us daily from multiple platforms not just so that you buy the products and services from those companies; the other purpose is to feed a constant anxiety in you about how you look and what it says about you, your relationships, and your career and so on. To counteract this sustained campaign of making you feel awful about your body size, type and complexion, practice looking at yourself in the mirror with love and affection. This also figures part of your Self-Love regimen, more of which will be discussed in the Energize section.
• Nurture it right – The Great Health pillar of Mahatman talks about all the foods that will help your body function at its optimum. Just as you should feed it with the right nutrients, it is equally important not to abuse it with any kind of addiction, harm or mutilation. The famous yoga expert BKS Iyengar has crystallized in words what is believed in many cultures,

“The body is your temple; Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in”

• Listen to your body – The more you follow health promoting practices, the clearer will your body’s message to you become. You will learn what works for your body and what doesn’t. For example the circadian rhythm influences your sleep patterns – some people, the ‘larks’ who rise with the sun and believe that they work better early in the morning while some consider themselves ‘owls’ and believe that they are able to do their most productive work late at night. Nevertheless it is a fact that circadian rhythms change with age and new research published in Harvard journal even says that your genes may have a role to play in determining your sleep habits. Similarly fine-tune the skill of receiving messages that your body may be sending to you explicitly or implicitly. The more you work together with your body as a team, the more energy and power it will lavish you with.
• Move it – You are already aware – from the Great Health pillar – of the need to practice some kind of physical activity or other. Stretching and sweating gets the blood flowing besides building your muscles and core strength – leading to a fitter and more attractive you. But another benefit of moving is to know where you need to work more on your body. If you unable to do more than five push ups, your upper body needs to be stronger or if you start huffing after running barely a kilometre, you have to increase your stamina. Often the inability to do moderate exercise is the first sign that something might be wrong with your body or its systems. Again being aware of your body movements will help you spot poor body language and take steps to improve it. For example slouching and leg shaking are not only unseemly but indicate lack of confidence and anxiety.
• Make it beautiful – You may or may not enjoy keeping up with fashion trends of the season but dressing up your body to enhance its full aesthetic potential is a more fundamental motivation. Practice the essentials of self-grooming and spend a little to spruce it up. After all the benefits of personal grooming so much beyond an attractive appearance – the boost it gives to your self-confidence and the spark that it lights in your relationships is invaluable. Other ways you can lavish this sort of care upon your body by dressing right, looking bright and perhaps even making a personal style statement like a trendy tattoo. Sylvia Plath once quipped, “If the body is a temple, then tattoos are its stained glass windows”!
• Ask about it – Knowing about the different parts of your body and its functions is really the starting point to unleash its immense power. More so because certain cultures prohibit frank, clear-sighted discussions on sexuality and physicality. So ask if you have questions about your body – rather than succumbing to negligence or worse, misinformation by all means look for answers from a professional or trusted family and friend.

“I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul”

-From Invictus by William Ernest Henley

For a good half a million years, we hunted animals and gathered fruits. All this time we were nourished on a steady diet of fears and myths born of those fears. Floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, famines, diseases and all other phenomenon over which we had no control or could make no sense of- they commanded our dread; and we revered what we feared, and we tried to placate and appease all that we revered and feared. These mysterious forces, we invented sounds for them, over a period we put a face to them. Slowly as time progressed, we processed the unknown in the shape of our aspirations and dreams and desires. We projected on to them what we could not be. We called them the Elements, Forces, Principles, Gods. Yes! We created those Gods, and like an acquired taste we started invoking them for all reasons big and small.

This was our first brush with Greatness. We had created a pecking order, in which we were somewhere in the middle, with supernatural forces (created by us) at the top of the continuum, and all birds and beasts and flora at the bottom. We invented elaborate rituals to keep the Gods happy. Thus, we acknowledged Greatness. We personified it. We worshipped it. We bestowed upon it the title of “Creator” and gave it irrevocable rights and powers and control over the Universe and everything that lived on it, including us. We perceived Greatness as something on the outside, something that is present everywhere, knows everything and is all powerful. Until one day, some of us decided that we wanted a smidgen from that infinite reservoir of power. We invented rituals for that too. Rituals that would make the Gods see us in a favourable light and grant us boon and powers. We were not happy worshipping Gods, we wanted to become one too. The lesser ambitious ones decided they will be the mediums between the Gods and the masses. These thoughts were the birthplace of Shamans and mystics and priests; and Messiahs!

The locus of greatness had shifted from the Outside to the Inside. In a very rudimentary sense of the world- The Great self was born for the first time. It was born out of the wedlock of Myths and Fears. The mind that wanted to believe that the Earth is at the centre of the universe and the sun moves around it, also wanted to believe that inside of us is a blueprint for Greatness. Greatness was no longer the turf of size or physical strength, or the presence of mind required in killing woolly mammoths or sabre tooth tigers. Greatness was something innate, it was the desire to become our most powerful dreams. We feared fire, we revered it, worshipped it for ages, until one day some amongst us with the chutzpah, found that fire can be harnessed to stay warm or to barbeque some mammoth (well done!). In small ways the Greatness blueprint inside us had started to mutate. The gestalt was slowly shifting from fear to making sense of the fear. The wicked old hag of myth no more looked like a wicked old hag, but rather a beautiful maiden of logic and evidence. From controlling fire to declaring that the Earth is not at the centre of the universe and diseases are not a scourge of god, we have come a long way in pushing the unknown into a corner (although it is still a huge corner which fights back, we shall come to that later).

The Great self was born for the second time. This time it was the progeny of Logic and Empirical Evidence. The Renaissance period gave birth to art of grandiose proportions and also witnessed a quantum leap in scientific pursuits. The epicentre had shifted from the hereafter to the here and now. Unknown forces no longer instilled angst in the masses, rather they were a subject of scientific scrutiny and philosophical inquiry. Diseases were no longer a scourge of the gods but aberrations in health that could be treated and cured. This was the age of inquiry and reason. This was the age that ushered in a remarkable work ethic that promised to vanquish the ills induced by weather, diseases or lack of proper education. The indomitable human spirit is best ensconced in the marvels of engineering and architecture, the painstakingly created and breathtakingly magnificent Art and literature, scientific inventions and medical breakthroughs. The Great self was making its presence felt in the collective consciousness of the rational human beings.

Today, we are living in an era which according to the famous author Steven Pinker in his book “The better angels of our nature” is the most peaceful era of all times. We have freedom like we never had before (in most parts of the world). We have the technology and the resources at our behest, needed to eke out a comfortable life. The medical science has bestowed us with longevity. The world has become a small place that can be fit into our smartphones. And yet with all this cornucopia, this abundance of everything, we are unhappy. We are happy and yet we are unhappy. The reason- we are not wired for complacency. We are meant to become what we can be. We are meant to express ourselves to the fullest of our potentials. If this world is a cocktail then we are a steady mix of Intuition and rationality. We have to make the most of it. All of you who are now reading this book, have that hunger inside of you to not just be happy, you have this insatiable desire to settle for nothing less than being great.

The Great self is waiting to be born the third time. This time it will be the offspring of Enlightenment and Energy. The Great self will be beyond the shackles of dogmatism, caste, class, creed, religion, even science. The Great self will rise and soar high, dynamic, reverberating with enthusiasm and power. The Great self will be more than the sum total of its parts – beliefs handed down to us through the ages, that give us a context and keep us rooted and the spirit of free inquiry which is so vital and paramount to our growth. We as human beings have this uncanny ability to conform and be subversive at the same time. The Great self, thrives on this juxtaposition. The Great self is waiting to be manifested as you and me.

As we proceed along the book, we are going to learn that Greatness is a state of being. We have to imbibe it and make it our lifestyle, our philosophy. Allow greatness to dig its roots deep inside you such that it becomes your involuntary reflex. As Douglas Adams says in his book “The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy” Flying is all about throwing yourself at the ground and missing it”. In the same vein , being great is all about taking the plunge into the debris of mediocrity and complacency, shooting right through, and emerging on the other side, victorious, jubilant, throbbing and pulsating with energy, and GREAT.

This soliloquy from one of my movies “Gladiator” has stayed with me-

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

The movie is well known for its grandiose sets and robust fight scenes. But this scene stayed with me for another reason. The character played by Russell Crowe is making a point. He does not need to raise his voice till his carotid artery juts out of his jugular. There is no shrieking, there is no shouting and yet he is making one of the most vehement statements that has become immortalized in the annals of celluloid history. Why? The answer is Energy. His demeanour and his composure along with the words he chooses exudes immense energy. Energy reflects power, energy reflects control, energy reflects the inner mettle, and energy reflects the courage on one’s convictions. Energy is at the core, at the nucleus of the atom that is Greatness. Why is energy so important?

In the universe that we inhabit, there is something called Entropy. Also known as the arrow of time, entropy is the progression from the state of order to disorder or chaos. Entropy is the reason why building a house of cards and putting that last one up there, gives you the jitters, but collapsing it is just a huff and puff. Entropy is the reason why your car gets old, as does your house and so do you. Amongst the fundamental laws of physics that govern our universe, Entropy sits there right at the top. Entropy, also known as the “Dance of Shiva” is taking the world towards chaos. There is not much you can do about it. But what we can do is we can counter Entropy to the best of our abilities.

As the poet Dylan Thomas puts it across so succinctly in his poem-

“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light”

We are all going to die someday. But we are here now and we are here for a purpose. The purpose is to maximise our potential, the purpose is to make the most of our sapient life to lead a fulfilling existence. Opinions are divided over whether life has any meaning or purpose. Most of the organised religions have some meaning making process embedded into their workings. Hinduism says that Existence is Leela or the act of God. But if we ask questions like “What is in it for God?” and “if he is complete unto himself, why this whole charade of creating a universe? “Mostly we will be asked to hush our questions, but more important than that no one has the answer. Once after a talk by some famous atheist, an old lady came up to him, brandishing her stick in defiance and all belligerent and said “Sir, what all you have said is rot!, I know that this Earth is flat and it sits on the top of four elephants” The speaker was amused, he asked “and what do the Elephants stand upon” to this came an impatient quip “Upon a Giant Turtle!” He further persevered to ask her “ And what does the turtle stand upon” Came the reply of a lady who now clearly sounded like a Sunday school teacher who had lost it with a kid who had forgotten to learn his catechisms “ What do you mean by that? Everyone knows it is turtles all the way down!”

So yes most of our myths are like turtles all the way down. Then there are others like the existentialists who believe that life inherently has no meaning. It is through our actions that we give meaning. Though I am not subscribing to any of the doctrines or “isms” let us stick to this definition, clearly because it is simple and stripped of all unnecessary baggage. We need to strip all our baggage, our indoctrination can shackle us to the terra firma of conformity and dogmatism. We need to be sprightly and buoyant all the time. For us to be great, our nucleus should reverberate with energy. Only then we can help others to be great. For all of us frequent and not so frequent flyers, we have to go through the necessary but vapid rigmarole of safety instructions demonstrated by beautiful looking people with wooden faces. I find this part absolutely important. It is like a gospel truth. “In case of fall in air pressure, oxygen masks will pop down, make sure to wear your own mask first, before trying to help others. Always assist yourself first before helping others.” Golden words! Always remember it is absolutely important to be selfish, only then can you be of value to others. Ramakrishna Paramhansa the great mystic of India and the Guru of Swami Vivekananda used to say “God is not for the hungry and the starved” It is important to LOVE yourself. Only then will you endeavour for the greatest in life.

We have to be selfish, hungry and greedy. We have to be greedy for knowledge. We have to be greedy towards improving ourselves every day. We have to learn to live each day without languor, without sloth, without complacency, without mediocrity, without doing things that fritter away energy in meaningless pursuits like gossip and quarrels. There are things money cannot buy, but perhaps it can buy some amount of happiness through creature comforts and luxuries. And yet these things wear us down very soon. We have more than two hundred Television channels and we are not happy. That is because “The Greatness Blueprint” inside of us craves action, it craves ambition, it craves Self-Actualization” Greatness has to become a journey, a relentless pursuit. It has to become a reflex action. Greatness has to become our threshold for life. Greatness has to become our lower meniscus. Low hanging fruits are dangerous, they make us stoop and they make our ambitions droop and wilt away. We have to aim high and we have to soar high, we must grow our own wings and the energy must come from within.

To quote the great philosopher and mystic Jalaluddin Rumi-

“Do not raise your voice, raise your words, It is not thunder that grows flowers”

We must raise our words, we must raise our thoughts and we must raise our feelings. We must raise our actions to create something enormously significant and beautiful. We must raise ourselves to the levels of loftiness that our great self deserves. We must become the “Mahatman” or the Great Self. Across cultures I have come across sentiments where people talk about “waiting for the Messiah” or “waiting for the Christ” The Hindus talk about “waiting for Kalki- the tenth incarnation of Vishnu.” We have to wait for no one. We have to be the Messiah, the Christ and the Kalki we have been waiting for. We have to be the Robinson Crusoe of our life and we have to be our own Man Friday. We have to be our own Mahatman.

And while we raise ourselves to the epitome of our best versions, let us get a bird’s eye view about some of the important precepts of Mahatman philosophy-

We must seek power and not peace– We are already in peace. That is our natural state. We are rooted in peace. That is why when anyone is angry we say “calm down”. We are bringing that person down to the roots that is Peace. Therefore we need not strive for what we already have. We must seek power. We must be ambitious and hungry and greedy and unapologetic about aspiring for anything and everything that makes us powerful and great. This does not mean we should seek power without paying heed to our conscience. Our conscience is the “Chitragupt” or the “Saint Peter” who sits at every fork of a choice and we must listen to its voice. We must empower our conscience to make decisions from a position of strength and not from a position of weakness. On our shoulders we carry a halo on one side and a pitchfork on the other. We must succumb neither to the halo nor to the pitchfork but carve our own path of greatness.

We must seek greatness and not happiness– There is an old proverb which says “A happy man wears no shirt” But I ask you, really how many of you wish for a life like that. Happiness is our natural state of existence. Look at the animals around you, and the birds, and butterflies, they are all happy and carefree. But that is what sets us apart from the rest of the creatures. There is a blueprint for greatness inside each one of us, which yearns and craves for scaling the zenith of our potential. Happiness will makes us all feel hunky dory, but sooner or later we will all languish into complacency. At all times we must avoid the garden of low hanging fruits. We must choose what must be done over what makes us happy. We have to push our limits and make some tough choices. That is how we shall all turn into indomitable forces of greatness. There is a beautiful movie by the name “Hurricane” about a former middleweight boxer who was wrongly convicted for a triple murder in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. I love a statement made by the eponymous Rubin Hurricane Carter- “I will always be the Hurricane and the Hurricane is beautiful” We must all strive to raise a storm of greatness in this happy life of ours. We must be great.

We must seek Actualization and not Enlightenment– We are called the Homo Sapien Sapien for a reason. We are not just the human, we are a wise human. Apart from everything else that separates us from birds and beasts is our ability to think about what we think. We are born enlightened. We are born realized. Let us not swoon over a red herring that is dangled in front of us by many self-proclaimed Gurus, Swamis and Evangelists. Let us not get lured by promises of a fantastic afterlife redolent with all the opulence you could ever imagine. We have to create our Shangri-La on this very planet. This planet is our Inferno, and this planet is our Purgatory and we have to take massive action to transform our planet into a Paradise of great people. We have to climb the beanstalk of Actualization to find the kingdom of greatness that is already within us. We must pursue our heart’s calling, pursue it tenaciously and relentlessly and not stop till we paint the most mesmerizing picture or write the most evocative poetry or do research worthy of a Nobel. Our aim is to Actualize and become the greatest and most fulfilled version of ourselves.

We must seek Compassion and not love – Philosopher Erich Fromm says in his book “The Art of Loving” – “There is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started with such tremendous hopes and expectations, and yet, which fails so regularly, as love.” He further says “Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of being loved, rather than that of loving, of one’s capacity to love.” If we want to be great all the time, we must learn the art of being compassionate. We should be able to be compassionate from a position of strength, from a position of greatness. We should be compassionate without the expectation of getting requited. Poetic though this may sound, this is the mantra for great living. And how do we become compassionate from a position of strength? We do that by loving ourselves more than anything else in the world. If we get that clear in our heads, we will be able to avoid all the pitfalls that come with the craving for being loved. Like the great Mystic and Philosopher Rumi says “Be forgiving like the fragrance that flowers give when they are crushed”. Only I would say you do not need to be crushed, just give yourself an enormous amount of compassion, such that when you filter yourself through the vicissitudes of life, the residue that remains shall be forgiveness. Be compassionate like a Master and stay great.

Now let’s discuss a few people who were not so great. Let’s try to understand why so in the context of what we have learnt so far. Adolf Hitler. This man who was responsible for killing millions of Jews across Germany and surrounding Nations in Europe. Hitler had a troubled childhood. His father was never very kind to him. As a result there was always and underline bitterness in the mind of Adolf Hitler which was to manifest itself someday in colossal and grotesque proportions. Adolf Hitler did not meet with success in all his endeavours. Apply for admission to the academy of Fine Arts in Vienna but he was rejected twice. The director suggested that Hitler should apply to the School of Architecture but he lacked the necessary academic credentials because he had not finished Secondary School. Hitler often ran out of money and was forced to live in homeless Shelters. His growing resentment about his own state made him even more rancid. In the country that time there was a growing dissension about Jews. Anti-Semitic feelings were proliferating. The melancholy mind of Adolf Hitler was easily influenced by the wave of collective hatred against the Jews. Hitler immediately took to the sentiment and blamed the Jews for his personal failures. With a firm faith in his belief and with his oratory skills he soon climbed the political ladder making Jews the scapegoats for all problems in in Germany. In a letter Hitler argues that the main aim of the government must undoubtedly be the removal of the Jews altogether. If you look here at the intent we can see what difference it makes. A bad intent leads to the birth of a cruel dictator and the massacre of millions of innocent people. Despite having the abilities and the charisma, Hitler was not able to make the use of it in a positive constructive and a life affirming manner. The results were catastrophic for mankind. Therefore we must remember to develop the right intent. A great intent is always life affirming and positive. We need to love ourselves and not blame our family, our society, our city, our country on the world for any of our problems. We should take complete responsibility and accountability for the way we are and for the choices that we make. Adolf Hitler is a quintessential example of how great human potential can work against humanity. Even nuclear power which has a lot of constructive uses can be misused by the people with wrong intent.

Charles Bronson– In 2014 Britain’s most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson smeared himself in butter and then took on 12 able-bodied prison guards to make good his escape from full Sutton prison in York. He did not go down so easily. It was quite an effort for the prison guards to take him down and pack him back to his cell. One of the Britain’s most notorious criminals Charles Bronson is also a fitness fanatic. His extreme regimen has made him a man of superhuman strength. He can do 172 push ups in 60 Seconds, pick up a pool table all by himself, bend a steel prison door with his bare hands, he holds the prison record for the maximum push ups in an hour- a staggering 1727! What is more remarkable is that this man has been for more years in prison than out of it. His fitness routine is practiced in a small solitary cell without access to gym equipment. Charles Bronson has made his body his equipment.

In his book solitary fitness, Bronson says- “buy my book and I will show you how to burn up ugly love handles, firm your abs, make your arms huge and Powerful, build stamina and help change your life forever. All of this without fancy gym equipment, steroids, pills or powders. I ask you- did Samson do drugs, did Hercules need any fancy trainers? You are never going to run any faster with those $300 trainers. Nobody wants to die. Why kill yourself off? Stop and think, get fit and strong!

Even a good shag will burn the calories off and pump your heart! There is no excuse – you know it!”

A man with such great abilities, do you see where he could have gone with the right intent. With the right attitude and the right approach he would have gone places and not languished from one jail to another.

We have seen example of not so great people. People with great abilities and great Charisma, they have gone south because of the lack of great intent. Just as we learn what to do we have to learn what not to do and these examples teach us exactly that. Let us all promise ourselves that come what may we will always things with a great intent.

Change in intent can work wonders. Let me tell you about Frank Abagnale junior. He was a Con Man, check-forger, impostor who assumed no fewer than 8 different identities and escape from police custody twice. He is today a consultant and lecturer for the FBI academy and field offices. He also runs Abagnale and Associates, a financial fraud consultancy company. His life has inspired the Academy Award nominated film “Catch me if you can” Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale and Tom Hanks as the FBI agent pursuing him. This is what happens when your intent changes from not so great to great. Life and universe both give you a second Chance at greatness.

Beginning with the next chapter we are going to see each of the great pillars in detail. Great health, great wealth and great wisdom are the three pillars which we must understand. We must be hungry for great health, great wealth and great wisdom. All the three spheres are connected and go a long way towards achieving greatness and becoming the great self or Mahatman.

If this book was a movie then you have just gone through the credits. Now let’s begin with some actual action. So now this brings us to the first component under the first pillar great health. We will be talking about sweat and stretch. Today we live in a world where we have so many options when it comes to taking care of our body and yet we often neglect to do the same. Besides our usual workouts we have other equally interesting options such as yoga, dance, martial arts, functional training and other simple things that we could do when left to our own devices such as jogging brisk walking climbing a hill or cycling.

In today’s age something as beautiful as walking is dismissed by most of us who are always in a hurry to get somewhere. Walking is just not a “pedestrian” activity. It is an exercise for the body and it is a philosophical Pursuit for the mind. There are things we see while we walk which we would not otherwise notice. Walking is an activity that accentuates our senses. We take in more with the eyes. Our nose becomes a centre of olfactory delight. Our ears become more receptive to the abundance of sounds around us. If we are morning Walkers we get to hear the bird song. We must all walk more, and walk without frills such as our smart phones. We must walk as our ancestors did. We must walk sure-footed and with a purpose, to our greatness.

A basic thing we need to understand here is we have to do each and every activity with mindfulness and passion. Even something as mundane as brushing our teeth or tying our shoelaces can be done with lot of energy and passion. We need to understand that everything we do is for the brain and the body. Every small activity that we undertake is is going to benefit our brain and our body in some way. For example while brushing we could stand in the martial arts pose. While tying our laces we can do it in a standing posture instead of sitting. This helps to activate the core.

When this man was knocking at the doors of film agents and managers, he was rebuffed.” come on! Do you want to be a leading man? Let’s start with your body, you are gigantic you are a monster. And, and then your accent, it gives me the chills listening to your German bullshit. Then you have done obnoxiously long name. Who would want to see a movie, when Schwartzenschnitzel is starring in it? No no, it won’t happen, it’s not gonna happen, forget about it.”

We have never heard of the agents after that but Arnold Schwarzenegger is a household name. The person who broke The Hero stereotype with his large musculature and rugged face, Arnold is truly our modern day Hercules. But Arnold did not get this great body on a platter. A 98 pound weakling, he had to take painstaking effort to get where he is today. All of us do not have to be like Arnold, but if we wish to be great we have to start with our body and there are two important approaches to a great body- sweat and stretch. Let’s look at them one by one.

Sweat it out-There are various ways by which you can sweat outdoors toxins out of your body, just flush them away with those beads of perspiration. Indulge in weight training, aerobics, resistance training, functional training, dance, and sports. Even daily activities like cleaning the house, cleaning the car, de-cluttering your house, playing with your kids, these all when done with the right intent can help transform your body into a leaner and fitter version of you and fill you to the rafters with an immense powerhouse of energy. Throughout the day we have to constantly remind ourselves that whatever we are doing is for our brain and body health. With such mindfulness in place even the most mundane tasks will yield great results. Always think big, ignore the naysayers, work your butts off, make it great in life and change the world. Start with your body. Ask yourself this question- if not us, who? If not now, when?

Nothing can drive this point home better than the scene in Karate Kid where Mr Miyagi makes Daniel wash his car. He then makes him wax it. He also mix Daniel catch flies with a pair of chopsticks. A chagrined Daniel cannot make heads or tails as to how this is important to his learning karate. He blurts “I’ve learned plenty! I’ve learned how to sand your decks maybe! How about wash your cars, paint your house, and paint your fence. I’ve learned plenty!” Miyagi deals with him with unruffled firmness. As the movie proceeds we come to know how Mr Miyagi’s training is not futile. Every action, every reflex learnt through the mundane tasks, help Daniel in the fight when he needs it most. A jubilant Daniel shouts at the end of the movie” Mr Miyagi we did it! We did it all right!” Readers give yourself 100% to this process of sweating towards greatness and I assure you-you will do all right!

Let us look at the health benefits of sweating-

• • Heavy metals detoxification
  • Promotes healthy skin
  • Protects the heart
  • Lowers stress hormones
  • Sexual drive booster
  • Defeats harmful microbes
  • Reduces Menopause pain
  • Decreases risk of Alzheimer’s
  • Helps body remove endocrine disruptions

I ask you how many of you can touch your feet with your hands without bending in the knees. How many of you can fold your hands behind your back in a “Namaste” posture. Things that came to us easily as kids we have forgotten, our muscles have forgotten. Most of us who are reading this book live a reasonably comfortable life which involves sitting in front of the computer for anything between 6 and 10 hours. It is important that we stay in touch with our muscles. Every few hours we must take a break and stretch ourselves, our Limbs, so that one day when we wake up we are not in for a surprise like a stiff neck or a pain in the lower back or worse. Such problems are more rampant and frequent then any time before, an indicator of our comfortable but indolent lifestyle. And by indolent I mean in the physical sense. We have the ancient wisdom of yoga and martial arts at our disposal. Martial arts like judo kung Fu karate and our very own Kalarippayattu. These exercises ensure that we stretch to the optimum. Interestingly stretching is also a metaphor. Just as we have to stretch our bodies we also need to stretch our minds to overcome our own mediocrity, complacency and limitations. Farshad Asl author of no excuses mind set, says,

“where there is no struggle there is no stretch, and therefore no growth. Easy does not change you and comfort won’t challenge you. Costing isn’t a strategy.”

Even daily life presents you with a lot of opportunities to stretch. Getting that jar off the top shelf, which might require you to stand tip toe and stretch your hand as far as possible to get hold of the jar. Put your clothes out to dry on a washing line which is slightly higher up. Bending down to lift objects. Pluck that farthest flower on the tree branch. Even while working, every few minutes, stretch your hands and legs. Even in the most crunched of places never forget stretching, like in the cramped seat on a flight. Make space for yourself to stretch your digits, your Limbs. Make sure that you rotate and knead your neck, once in a while. You will realize stretching helps to release toxins and you will see that you are creating immense energy to be tapped for fruitful and great work.

Below are some of the health benefits of stretching-

• • Increased circulation
  • Greater flexibility
  • Better balance
  • Lower stress levels
  • Reduced injury risk
  • Reduced pain
  • More energy
  • Increased mobility
  • Improved posture
  • Increased exercise performance

I am a connoisseur of western classical music and I remember having read this somewhere. The great violinist Yehudi Menuhin had once come to India. He was renowned worldwide for his great skill with the violin. He is known to have played with the Beatles as well as having a jugalbandi (a musical duel) with the Sitar Maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. There was a chance meeting between Yehudi Menuhin and the Great yogacharya B K S Iyengar.  Yoga maestro observed Menuhin playing the violin and such beautiful plaintive notes were flowing. He waited for Yehudi Menuhin to finish his practice. They got introduced. Yehudi Menuhin then asked him “what do you do?” To which he responded

“I see that you have acquired great skill and expertise with the violin, the music seems to flow so effortlessly.

You ask me what I do. Well, through years of practice, I have metamorphosed my body into a musical instrument through which life flows effortlessly and I can teach you the art should you allow me to.” The rest is history. Yoga maestro and Yehudi Menuhin were friends for the rest of their lives till the death of the great violin Maestro.

Truly our bodies have to become like a musical instrument that is tuned to the greatest life can offer. We must create great energy and we should also make ourselves supple and elastic for the energy to flow with full force. We need to stretch our limbs for a healthy body and a healthy mind. We need to expand our horizons. As the inspirational writer Israelmore Ayivor says

“If you really want to eat, keep climbing. The fruits are on the top of the tree. Stretch your hands and keep stretching them. Success is on the top, keep going.”

Dance like everyone is clapping. We have to make a celebration of dance. Dance is synonymous with energy and energy is synonymous to dance. “O how wonderful! How like the thought! How like the mind it is!” Helen Keller exclaimed when she experienced dance for the first time. Helen Keller was 72 when she first visited the dance studio. Deaf and blind from birth, she could not see the dance, but she could focus on the dancers’ feet and say in which direction they were moving. Helen innocently ask the choreographer” what is jumping I do not understand” to which the choreographer called upon a member from her troupe and asked Helen to put her hands on his waist. As the dancer jumped Helen’s hands rose and fell. Her expression changed from curiosity to one of joy. Her fingers began to move slightly as if fluttering. For the first time in her life she had experienced dance. You all who are reading this book are more fortunate. You can see the dance, you can hear and revel in the feet tapping music. What’s stopping you from dancing towards greatness?

The Great Armenian Mystique Gurdjieff once said- “what you cannot discover in your own body you will not discover in any place of the world.” He further said about dance” between the Precision and beauty of the movements opens the word of clarity, love, inner strength, creativity, and great action.”

Latest cutting edge Research in Psychology says that dancing improve brain function on a variety of levels. It blends cerebral and cognitive thought processes with muscle memory and “proprioception” held in the cerebellum. Every person can maximize his or her brain function by incorporating some type of dance at least once a week in their routines.

Let us look at some of the health benefits of dancing-

• • Aids good posture
  • Alleviates back pain
  • Help indigestion
  • Aids breathing
  • Improves muscle tone
  • Increases resting metabolic rate
  • Improves balance
  • Enhances flexibility
  • Improves creativity
  • When we dance about brains release neurotransmitters known as endorphins. Endorphins keep us euphoric all the time.

If you have read the Hunger Games or seen the movie, you will remember the feisty Katniss Everdeen, who took on the empire for the happiness of her district. Apart from great performances and grandiose cinematography, the movie also drives home the fact that hunger Games where introduced as a way of eliminating wars. There is a Theory that this could have actually happened in the ancient times. Sports were started and encouraged as an alternative to war. Like war sports demanded aggression and ambition, however unlike war there was no blood shade and Carnage. Sports were here to stay. From the days of ancient Greece to now, sports are an integral part of our individual as well as social life. Each one of us should adopt and practice at least one sport, one physical sport that will help us to have great bodies and subsequently great minds. Sports are a metaphor to channelize our energy, use it, unleash it, and become great sportsmen.

Let’s look at some of the benefits of sports-

• • Better sleep
  • Strong heart
  • New connections
  • Improved lung function
  • Increased confidence
  • Reduced stress
  • Improved mental health
  • Leadership qualities
  • Stronger relationships
  • Healthy development of children
  • Release of neurotransmitters called endorphins

The Olympic Games have a slogan in Latin “Citius Altius Fortius” (faster, higher, and stronger). Crusaders on the path of greatness, let us strive to run faster, climb higher and become stronger.

“Fly me up to where you are beyond the distant star. I wish upon tonight to see you smile, if only for a while to know you’re there. A breath away is not far to where you are.” “Sometimes it’s the same moments that take your breath away that breathe purpose and love back into your life.”

–Josh Groban

 Adwaita was a male Aldabra giant tortoise that lived in the Alipore Zoological gardens of Kolkata India. While we may leave the separating of apocryphal matter from facts to the experts, it is believed that Adwaita was presented to Lord Clive of the East India Company by British Sea Farers, who captured it from an atoll in Seychelles. The tortoise resided at Clive’s estate at Barrackpore in the northern suburbs of Kolkata. Born in 1750 Adwaita lived to an age of 255 before he breathed his last in the Alipore zoo on 22^nd March 2006. Adwaita’s life was cut short by the cracking of his shell in 2005 and the subsequent wound that developed in the flesh beneath the crack. Adwaita was born years before the American declaration of Independence and lived well into the 21^st century. Why did he live so long?  Answer- He was a Tortoise. But let us not rest at that and dig a little more into a habit that is responsible for the longevity of this amphibian. A tortoise breathes only 3 to 4 times per minute while a resting adult human being breathes anywhere between 12 and 20 times. A monkey breathes around 32 times while a dog breathes around 40-50 times in the same time frame. If you look at the life spans of each of the animals, clearly there is a plausible correlation between the breathing pattern and the longevity.

One of our goals of Mahatman is to live to at least 100 years of age. And one of the pivotal factors that contribute to longevity are our breathing patterns. In a study conducted by thoracic surgeon and psychologist Phil Neurenberger, all 152 heart attack victims had a serious breathing irregularity. Breathing in less than optimal way can result in shortening of life spans and various other illnesses. We have to consider two aspects – chronological age and biological age. A physically active 45 years old can have the biological age of a 35 year old and an inactive 45 years old can have the biological age of a 55-75 year old. A Framingham study shows that if you do nothing to preserve even average breathing, you will lose 70% of your breathing capacity by age 70. That is why we need to follow “More breath per breath” technique. More breath per breath increases our oxygen delivery to vital organs and reduces oxidative stress which makes us calm and tranquil. Breathing pattern changes in different emotional situations, it becomes chaotic when angry, sluggish when depressed, and rapid and shallow when anxious. But we can consciously change our breathing patterns and alter our moods.

Some of the breathing techniques you can use are-

• Pranayam
• Dragon breathing
• Kalari breathing
• Vipassana

Pranayam– Pranayam means control of Pran or vital force. Pranayam occupies a central position in the Indian yogic system. Pranayam affects the Autonomous Nervous System (ANS) positively. The ANS controls physical processes such as digestion, respiration, heart rate, immune function, and excretion. It has two branches known as the Sympathetic Nervous System which governs the fight or flight response and the Parasympathetic Nervous System which takes care of rest and digestion. Pranayam is reported to have positive effects on the ANS. A study conducted in 2009 on 39 people who were asked to perform Pranayam, confirmed that it significantly lowered their systolic and diastolic pressure and slightly lowered their heart rate. Ninety people with hypertension when they performed Pranayam, it reduced their blood pressure and also improved their performance in manual dexterity and fine motor speed test. Pranayam was also found to increase theta brain wave activity leading to a feeling of bliss, akin to absence of thoughts in deep meditation. Pranayam was also found to significantly lower oxidative stress by reducing body mass index, waist-hip ratio, fasting and postprandial plasma glucose, glycated haemoglobin, and improving antioxidant levels (malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase, glutathione and vitamin C). The study concluded that Pranayama significantly benefited those with Diabetes. Pranayam was also found to alter the health of those suffering from Gastrophageal reflux disease (GERD). Their stomach acidity had significantly decreased after 4 weeks. Pranayam is also shown to increase the pain threshold significantly.

Another technique is the Dragon Breathing. Dragon breathing helps to release tension and toxic energy. It is the best exercise when we feel we are angry, about to explode. A few rounds of dragon breathing and we are back to our calmer selves. The long exhale stimulates our Parasympathetic nervous system and also ensures that we are breathing deep. This ensures that we connect and work through our emotions. Kalari breathing is another technique which is practiced during Kalaripayattu. Kalari performers are known to show higher lung volumes and better lung function.

Vipassana- The Theragathapali says “One who has perfected, developed, and practiced in proper order, mindfulness as taught by Buddha, lights up this world like the moon freed from the clouds.” Vipassana asks us to observe our breath as it is without regulating it or doing any breathing exercise. One should observe bare respiration as it is. Observation respiration helps to understand the nature of the mind. The breathing process in Vipassana is like this “Start from your head. Observe your breathing for a few seconds. After some time, you can start scanning the neck area. From there, you should turn towards your right shoulder, hands and back. After you are done with that, start scanning the front and back torso. With this, you can continue with the rest of your body. Make sure you finish where you started.

Angela Gibson says “and I wonder if Beethoven held his breath the first time his fingers touched the keys the same way a soldier holds his breath the first time his finger clicks the trigger. We all have different reasons for forgetting to breathe.” True we have different reasons for forgetting to breathe. But as Mahatman the path to greatness goes through the corridors of mindful breathing techniques. We must all keep our heads high and our lungs and diaphragms full. As Thich Nhat Hanh says “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” Yes we must make conscious breathing our anchor to great health.

“If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning ‘Good morning’ at total strangers.”

― Maya Angelou

I am a person who loves to observe things in general, and I especially love observing certain things more than the others such as Quotes on T-shirts. I came across a cute and cheeky quote long ago when I was travelling in a bus. A passenger who was standing in the bus, her T-shirt read “Smile because it is the second best thing you can do with your lips” I did not heed the advice that time, but the quote stayed with me through these years. Smile is one of the most beatific gestures that the human species have been endowed with. It is positive and life affirming. And research has proven that smiles play a certain role in longevity. Anything pleasant can act as a stimulant for a smile- A conversation that we accidentally eavesdrop on, a sweet little kids who toddles past and beams at you flaunting her first baby tooth, a spontaneous hug by a friend you bump into suddenly, words of praise, the aroma of your favourite delicacy. This stimulus gets funnelled to your brain exciting the left anterior temporal region is particular. The brain then rouses two dormant muscles into action. The “Zygomatic major” which resides in the cheek, tugs the lips upwards, and the “Orbicularis Oculi” which encircle the eye sockets, squeeze the outside corner of the eye into the shape of a crow’s foot. This whole episode within less than a second to four seconds and is reciprocated by the other person (under most circumstances) with the same process commonly known as Smiling.

There are other muscles that can simulate a smile. But only the quintessential dalliance of these two muscles produces a genuine expression of a smile. Psychologists call it the “Duchenne smile” and it tops the pecking order of sincere positive emotions. The name attribute to the French Anatomist Guillaume Duchenne”. The intensity of a true grin can predict marital bliss, personal wellbeing and even longevity. Mental health research has proven that people who were treated for depression, displayed a lot more Duchenne smiles, than while entering therapy. Genuine smiles are a clear window into a person’s core disposition. In a more recent study by Ernest Abel and Michael Kruger of Wayne state university, which rated the smiles of professional baseball players from the 1952 yearbook, found from among a sample of 46 people, that people with genuine smiles were twice likely to live long than their counterparts. The smile intensity could account for 35% of the variability in the survival rates. Smiles also serve as the perfect alleviator in tough times. In a steady conducted by Keltner and George Bonnano of Catholic University, the facial expressions of people who had recently lost a spouse were measured. Lower levels of distress were reported for those who tried to smile genuinely as against those who did not.

“There is good evidence that motor routines associated with Smiling are inborn” say Jeffrey Cohn, a researcher the university of Pittsburgh. At 10 months an infant can offer a false smile to a stranger while it reserves the genuine smile for its mother. Smile is also a marker for altruistic and collaborative tendencies in a person. LaFrance the Author of “Lip Service” writes- “Smiles are universally recognized and understood for what they show and convey, yet not necessarily for what they do. Smiles are much more than cheerful expressions. They are social acts with consequences.” Truly Smiling has a high potency, in the individual as well as the social spheres. Dale Carnegie the author of the bestselling “How to win friends and influence people” puts a Smile as one of the most important attributes or qualities in a person.

When you smile sincerely, chemicals like dopamine and serotonin are released. These chemicals help us to relax, they lower our heart rate and blood pressure. Serotonin specifically acts as an antidepressant. Endorphins which act as natural pain relievers are also released in this process. Dale Carnegie really sums it well in his evocative poem about smiling-

“It costs nothing, but creates much.

It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give.

It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.

None are so rich they can get along without it and none so poor but are richer for its benefits.

It creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in a business,

 and is the countersign of friends.

It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad,

and nature’s best antidote for trouble.

Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen,

for it is something that is no earthly good to anyone ’til it is given away.

 And if in the hurly-burly bustle of today’s business world,

 some of the people you meet should be too tired to give you a smile,

may we ask you to leave one of yours?

For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give”

 A new concept has gone viral in most countries across the world. “Laughter therapy” It is a type of therapy that uses humour to relieve stress and pain and improve a person’s sense of wellbeing. Laughter has shown to decrease cortisol, the stress hormone. It also increases endorphins which lowers pain in the body. Laughter also helps foster a bond between friends, families, relatives, colleagues and total strangers. We must all Smile from our hearts and we must all laugh from our diaphragms. We must love each other unconditionally and the first thing that we should do every morning when we are up, is look at ourselves in the mirror, reward ourselves with the most beatific smile ever, wink at ourselves and feel sexy about our body, our mind and our existence. These are the famous last lines of a poem which I would like to slightly alter in the context of Mahatman:

I have promises to keep and “Smiles” to “give” before I sleep. Let that be our promise to ourselves

“Nutrition matters for everybody, but you can’t major in it at Harvard. Most top scientists go into other fields. Most of the big studies were done 30 or 40 years ago, and most are seriously flawed. The food pyramid that told us to eat low fat and enormous amounts of grains was probably more a product of lobbying by Big Food than real science; its chief impact has been to aggravate our obesity epidemic. There’s plenty more to learn: we know more about the physics of faraway stars than we know about human nutrition. It won’t be easy, but it’s not obviously impossible: exactly the kind of field that could yield secrets.”

― Peter Thiel

At Mahatman, we cannot stress enough the importance of a good body. Good health is paramount and something that cannot be compromised upon. Our body is the only source of our connect with the world. It is our only means to make sense of the reality around us. It is our only means to perceive and enjoy the cornucopia that life has to offer us. The great Indian saint and mystic Ramakrishna once said “God is not for the hungry and starved”. As a Mahatman we owe ourselves a long healthy life of 100 years. We have to do what it takes to nourish and sustain the apparatus that is going to make phenomenal contributions to the self and society. Here are a few facts that we must understand about our eating habits- If we have more processed foods in our diet, we invariably suffer from lifestyle disorders such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and a third of all cancers are linked to this kind of a diet. People who eat a remarkable amount of traditional diets do not suffer from such lifestyle related disorders.  There is a third category- people who slowly make a transition from processed food to traditional foods see a marked improvement in their health.

With a plethora of eating substitutes at our disposal in the supermarkets, which claim to be called food, eating is a troublesome activity. There is a simple litmus test about what you should eat.  Before you buy anything that is remotely called as food, think, would your great grandmother recognize this as food? If the answer is No then it quietly goes back to the shelf where it came from. Another thing to look for is the ingredients in the food. If you come across even one word which sounds a bit obnoxious and not something you know from a domestic conversation like Ethoxylated diglyceride, then be sure to discard it pronto. When in a supermarket try to shop on the fringe. Do not try to enter the core flanks of the market where all the processed food occupies the key aisles. Most of the fresh vegetables, fruits and dairy and livestock products occupy the peripheral aisles like the least lit corners of the Milky way (ironically our Earth is a part of one such dim alley in the galactic scheme of things.) Another way to go about picking your food is to ensure that it is something that will rot, the sooner better than later. All processed foods are meant to contain artificial preservatives that will increase their shelf life. Try eating old school, budget your food for a day or two, and then consume it before it rots.  The next one is something even kids can do, or rather it is more important for kids to dissuade themselves from eating it. For example in a supermarket if you see an apple and if you see a bar of chocolate, try thinking which one of them have you seen or imagined growing on trees. If you think an apple grows on trees- devour it (make sure you pay for it on your way out). If you think a bar of chocolate growing on a tree is a bit preposterous, then you may toss it back to the shelf you picked it from.

Make sure that you eat something that grew on a plant and not in it.  Clearly we are talking about different setups here. The first kind of plant is the green thing you see all around, outside your window, in the garden, alongside the boulevard etc. and the second is the plant which has conveyor belts and assembly lines and people who appear to be cut from the same sloth doing the same thing again and again. If a food is called the same in every language, then clearly it is a far distant relative of the real thing. Real food will be spoilt for choice when it comes to having names across languages. Also make sure that you try to consume food in the form that is closest to its natural state. So instead of going for that apple juice neatly packaged in tetra pack, run over to the apple counter (not too far away) and nibble away at the juiciest one you can find.  And if you want to east junk food, eat as much as you can, the only condition is, prepare it yourself! Once you set yourself to it you will realize the enormous amount of hard work that goes into putting the food on your plate. That will discourage you enough to cut down on the frequency of such high labour intensive foods.

Now let us look at some good eating habits that will leave your grandma beaming at having passed on the legacy to a conscientious posterity. It is emphasized in all cultures across the world that we must stop eating before we feel we are almost full. Though it might seem like the man in the joke, who says watch where I get down, your stop is the one before me! The body does know and understand when it is about to be full. It has its own internal emailing mechanism, just make sure to read those cues and know you have to stop minutes before you arrive at your first burp. In India, where I come from, they say you must chew your morsel at least 32 times (giving each tooth a fair share I guess), before you push it down your throat. Many cultures emphasize slow eating. This ensures you chew your food enough, also since it prolongs your meal time, it discourages you from over eating by keeping you mindful of the time factor. We have this perception about measuring our satiation with the time we spend on our food. Eating slowly takes care of that. Another simple thing you can do is buy smaller plates, serve smaller portions and try avoid making a beeline for the second serving. Also make sure to eat in setup specifically marked for eating meals. Shut off all the distractions like the TV, your mobile, (the bawling neighbourhood kid if you can in a way that is legal). Have company while you eat. Studies have proven that when one eats alone, one tends to consume more food.

As a Mahatman, one should try to follow “Ayurvedic” eating habits. An Ayurvedic diet is an eating plan that provides guidelines for when you eat, what you eat, and how you eat to boost your health, prevent or manage disease, and maintain wellness. If you follow an Ayurvedic diet, you’ll eat primarily whole or minimally processed foods and practice mindful eating rituals.

We should try to eat organic foods. Organic foods often have more beneficial nutrients, such as antioxidants, than their conventionally-grown counterparts and people with allergies to foods, chemicals, or preservatives often find their symptoms lessen or go away when they eat only organic foods. Organic produce contains fewer pesticides.

It is important to drink adequate water throughout the day. More if you are out in the sun often or if your work is physically demanding. Water helps dissolve minerals and nutrients, making them more accessible to the body. It also helps remove waste products. … Water is essential for the kidneys to function. If the kidneys do not function properly, waste products and excess fluid can build up inside the body.

In addition to maintaining a healthy diet, we must also ingest supplements which fill the deficit that is lacking in our diet. The most popular nutrient supplements are multivitamins, calcium and vitamins B, C and D. Calcium supports bone health, and vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. Vitamins C and E are antioxidants—molecules that prevent cell damage and help to maintain health.

In India, our traditions have incorporated some very interesting fasting practices. I would like to mention one such practice here. It is called the “Chandrayan Vrat” (literally Moon fasting).The fasting follows the waning and waxing of the moon. On a full moon day one eats a square meal and proportionately reduces the portion of the meal in accordance with the waning moon, till on a new moon day there is complete fasting. The same is followed vice versa in case of a waxing moon. The Indian philosophy says that one should never consume food to satiate the cravings of the taste buds or the appetite. Food is to be treated as the offering to the fire within. Just as we add just enough wood  or coal to the fire to keep it burning, so should we intake only as much food as is necessary to keep the fire within us alive and kindling.

As a Mahatman, it is our responsibility to distil the wisdom from our ancient and time tested traditional sources, at the same time we have to pragmatic about accepting cutting edge research about food. And surprisingly we will see that though both the approaches talk in different languages, they are saying the same thing.

Big Bang of Nourish and Sustain-

• • Eat less and less of processed food and more and more of traditional food
  • Eat slowly, and chew properly
  • Drink lots of water
  • Intermittent fasting is good for the body
  • Inculcate the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda into your diet
  • Respect age old eating traditions, but be open to cutting edge research in food technology
  • Take supplements in addition to a healthy balanced diet not as a substitute for a balanced diet.

“How can a three-pound mass of jelly that you can hold in your palm imagine angels, contemplate the meaning of infinity, and even question its own place in the cosmos? Especially awe inspiring is the fact that any single brain, including yours, is made up of atoms that were forged in the hearts of countless, far-flung stars billions of years ago. These particles drifted for eons and light-years until gravity and change brought them together here, now. These atoms now form a conglomerate- your brain- that can not only ponder the very stars that gave it birth but can also think about its own ability to think and wonder about its own ability to wonder. With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, is the greatest mystery of all.”

― V.S. Ramachandran, The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us Human