कुछ मिठा हो जाएं !!  Chak Ke Dekho, !!

At almost all the sweet shops, we are given a sample to taste and most of us would try a few sweets instead of just one before locking on one to buy. 

So does the black lotus app… Try a few packs for free and then buy if you like. I too had BL for a long time. Long before the subscription started. When the subscription started, Swamiji’s was asked and some had it in them to question and some had the audacity of calling him (money) hungry baba. Some of you may remember the post  he had put out on Hungry baba and the new normal. 

Well, while I  saw the sense in subscription and subscribed, I too was  not sure. When I saw subscription for the Black Lotus app , I didn’t subscribe to it. I was just happy with Os.me subscription. I even justified. There are plenty of apps which are free. They are more or less the same. A part of me wanted to subscribe and other wasn’t sure. As always, when I am indecisive, I sleep on the problem. In this case I slept for too long. I read articles on OS.me but I didn’t write for over a year.  I had a lot of questions and self doubt of writing a worthy post. 

Then in one of the session, om swami assured us, “I am always here for you “.. and that hit the mark. Why ? What have I done to deserve his presence? What can I do now that he is by my side? And my inner voice was to write more freely about my open honest truth. Some locked door got opened with the key “I am always here for you” 

One more sample tasted, i Liked the Sweet

True to my inner voice, I wrote. And on the very first post, guess who was the first to pass a comment? find out…  and then I wrote a second one, took me half a day to write a 8 minute post.

On that second post , Someone commented ” it’s been tough time in office since last evening, however, thanks to your thoughtful penning, I handle my situation with the quiet and clam demeanour”.  I was satisfied at having made a difference. happy and contended, flowing in bliss , I mentioned about it to my wife. She said, “So?  दुसरों का ही उद्दार करतें रहागे या अपना भी करोगे ?  What she meant was that I can only make a difference to other’s life, hope I can make a difference to my own self too.

 It was harsh and discouraging.  My interest in writing flickered like the dwindling light of the candle in a storm 🕯. Wife can have that impact on husbands….  A disclaimer here, it’s the truth which was harsh, not my wife. She is the best. (Just in case, she reads it someday 😉😀, I mean it.) 

But then came into play ” I am always here for you”, For a second time. 

Someone who read my second post support it with Rs. 8500.  Could this story make such a difference that someone pays for it and 8.5K for a 8.5 minute article !!     I was pleasantly surprised. The voice in my head “I am always here for you” had turned the flickering candle had turned into beam. 🔦 .  And then i wrote more freely!! It was always to share a truth intended to make a difference to someone, somehow. Money was the third priority, always!! Out of reverence, I hadn’t drawn the money.  
One day when my wife was in a good mood, I shared with her about the article, satisfaction i had and support I got. I was smiling , happy and contended.  She said, “चलो, कुछ तो हुआ ! account में आ गया?”  Good, finally something worked! Is the money in the account? I was 😲🤐, crest fallen, it was a face palm moment. Then I was reminded of the example Swami Ji’s gave in Walk the Dragon of the CEO, Frank Lowy who asked, “are you spending my money 🤑 or making me money 💰.  My respect for my home CEO went up by a few notches…. Re-read the disclaimer above. (Added Disclaimer: I love her!!…… I mean it.)  

खट्टा मिठा नमकिन भी। 

After sometime, i drew the money and the first thing I bought with it was Black Lotus subscription. After all it came from him and I am only giving a part of it for BL app which was still in a free mode.

Tasted, liked and bought the sweet. (SubscribED). एक तीर और दो निशने | 

So he got two things done with just one act. Showed me that my experiences are of value!! and got me to improve with BL. Improvement…. How?

I am someone who gets involved into something then, I just have to keep on at it until its done, anything else is a distraction. As I write this article, I don’t want to be called for dinner even though I know that eating late is not good for digestion. I can do a 10-day long Vipassana retreat, that’s hard and I have done it once but if I was asked to sit every day for one hour in meditation, I would stop in day 3. Restart on day 4… Stop again on days 7, restart on day 9… High on commitment, Higher on failing it consistently. Why? Boring to do the same thing every day. (excuse 1); It’s the new or at least some variation that’s exciting (excuse 2).  In Short, I consistently committed to meditate but fail at the commitment consistently.   

But anyway, now that I had the subscription, I started. In the beginning, it took about 20 minutes…. Well, that’s fine I can do that. And that’s how I passed the first phase and then a few more activities unlocked which would take even lesser time like 2 minutes more that’s all. Easy, I continued…

I have been savouring the sweetness of  BL for  14 days now with 2 days missed in between, that’s me.   14 days down the line , I am  
  Clear in my head, aware of the moments!   
  Options have narrowed down.  
  More clarity on decisions. (Black to Grey…. on the way to White) 
  Improved execution.   

So how did Black lotus transform?   

During the course of the pack, app would ask a question

What is the first thing you would do tomorrow morning?  

I write what I would do tomorrow morning. No one is looking,  no one is watching , No one to point out if I don’t do it And if I do what I write then it feels good for having done what I should be doing.  Then wanting to feel good, I ended up keeping the commitment…. consistently.  …hmmm sweet!! Habit begins to build   

Another question in the app is  

One thing you could have done today to make it better?  

In few seconds, I review my day. Apart from the meditation assessment which the app does, the most glaring mistake or achievement is visible.  Just one thing , its enough. Most of us plan what we Have to do the next day but we rarely review what we’ve done on a given day. Only when we review the day, we know what’s done, where to improve, what’s a must to-do and from that review arises the plan. There is a flow , a continuity. Without review a plan is to-do list of many check-boxes with a fewer tick. Review is in the night. When we sleep thinking of work and about it, sub-conscious fires up!! helps build the consistency 

Another box would ask   

Any comments?   

I just enter a Smiley 😊🤫 as a token of self-acceptance. Only when I accept who I am then and only then I can change to who I should be. 

Now imagine doing this consistently day after day. … It is like doing Japa every day, not boring because you know that you are yet to discover its power. Even though in the surface it’s the same thing everyday yet the excitement of discovering a the new taste continues…  Its like you are about to savour the plate of sweet lying just ahead of you .  Needless to add that meditations Build the focus or quieten the mind to build the focus, breathing exercises build the awareness much more… 

So, I tasted the sample with free packs, like some part of it, bought it by subscribing and eating it every day… now seeing my consistency my wife is liking it…. she commented “सुधर रहा हैं, बच्चा !! ” Disclaimer: For Once, Wife is always right !! 😄😄 , you know I mean it.  For all of those who are sitting on the fence about black lotus subscription like I was,  कुछ मिठा हो जाएं !!