This blog is dedicated to my guru, mentor, and friend Rajen uncle on this auspicious day of Gurupurnima. I have been blessed to have Rajen uncle in my life since I was young. I never knew how and when he sowed the seeds of knowledge in my life so I could withstand any weather life throws at me. Over the last few months, as I have been reading his articles, I realized that he has already taught me so much every time he visited us in the U.S. over the past ten years through the simple moments in life.

Yet when we think of the journey of life; what is our purpose of life, how can we be a good human being, what do I need to do to not be irritated or frustrated when things do not happen the way I wish, or how to deal with our surrounding events; it seems so hard and we simply buffer it by saying to ourselves, “I am only human and not a saint.” And at the end, we console ourselves by getting into the justification and praising the life of a saint we think of it as difficult or isolating yourself from the rest of the world and finding inner peace.

While reading one of Rajen uncle’s recent articles it struck me that the secret to life’s journey is self-observation and he has been teaching me the practice of self-observation all this time.

This week I had an epiphany that self-observation is just like making pizza. For the past three months, while we are all at home due to the lockdown, I have been trying to learn how to make pizza. The ingredients for both self-observation and pizza are very simple, but the secret is in the small things. While the ingredients for pizza is simple water, flour, yeast, sugar, salt and oil it is all in getting the proportions right, having the patience for letting the dough to rise, the amount of air in the dough, temperature of the oven, how you flip the pizza is what gives the signature taste of the chef. So, while the ingredients are simple the process is not difficult but requires continuous effort and attention to reach perfection. Similarly, for self-observation the “recipe” the way I understand it is simple, which is to observe each event of life as a third-party spectator without attaching like or dislike and taking a pause.

My life is like a roller coaster where I am happy in one moment and the next moment, if something happens my mood would swing. One incident I would like to share with you from Rajen uncle’s visit last year to the U.S. Rajen uncle arrived at SFO, and upon landing my dad spoke to him and learned that the immigration line, was about two hours long. Our immediate reaction was negative towards the immigration process and the monkey inside me started to chatter on and on. While we were irritated, Rajen uncle responded in an unexpected manner. I still remember my dad reading out his text message saying, “Good exercise. First no thinking about the past or future. Second no thinking at all.” I now realize how impactful the practice of self-observation can be on myself.

On Gurupurnima, I dedicate this blog to Rajen uncle, and I am going to make a conscious effort to practice self-observation events rather than making my life a roller coaster. It is going to be an effort just like after three months I am still learning how to make pizza, but each moment is a new joy I feel I can do the same here and cherish from each moment of life rather than trying to fix it as now there is nothing to fix only observe learn and cherish the moment as to how I understand it.

I am going to miss Rajenuncle greatly this summer as he will not be visiting the Bay Area, but he is still live with us on www.youtube.com/c/rajenvakil also his regular articles on www.rajenvakil.com.

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