How I started a podcast

I was a little vary of writing this post and I will tell you, why later. It took me a bit of courage to write this post. But let me go back to what I really wanted to share with everyone. 

I have always been a voracious reader. I don’t read books , I devour them. And perhaps because I am so used to reading, my speed of reading is also tremendous which mean I can finish books which are lengthy (maybe 500 pages and above) most times within a week in between my work hours. Now please don’t think I am trying to boast here. That’s not why I am writing this. Like I said reading is such a habit , perhaps that’s why I have built up speed as well. Now for the longest time I used to believe everyone loves to read. It’s an easy task. It was my tunnel hole perception. Probably this idea was also stoked by the fact that most of my friends enjoy reading. So it never occurred to me otherwise. If I would come across people who didn’t read a part of me (I shamefully admit) was condescending. I have come a long way from that and I no longer subscribe to that part.

Anyway a few weeks back I was discussing some spiritual books with a friend of mine who happens to enjoy reading (perhaps not as much as I do) but she has a formidable library with books on spirituality and we both end up spending lot of time discussing it. During one of these discussions she happened to mention how she spends more time hearing books rather than just reading it. According to her she can concentrate more and often she finds the ideas seeping in more as she has to only concentrate with the faculty of hearing.  

I wasn’t really open to the idea as for me the pleasure of holding a book is something else. But I  also feel no one should block out any experience in life and it just so happened that particular week I was unable to read much. I was mentally tired and my eyes weren’t able to concentrate. So for a change I decided to look for a podcast on a book reading. I did find some. (Spiritual variety) but they were all what one would call the more well known spiritual literature.  Another thing that struck me was some of them were 4 hours long ( if the book was a lengthy one. )

Nevertherless, I began listening to a podcast based on Swami Nisargadatta’s teaching and I quite enjoyed it. My friend was right sometimes just letting one faculty work can help. Here I was just closing my eyes and listening to a narration. Just the voice was seeping in and it was quite relaxing. (Not that I will never read a physical book again, this was another experience I enjoyed )

Fast forward to a few weeks after that. And I was sitting doing nothing.(I do that often) And suddenly a thought flashed with great ferocity in my mind.(I use those words because, it just sprung in a way which had little to do with my egoic faculties) . It was a simple thought. Since I read a lot wouldn’t it be a good idea to read and record small portions of the many books I have read on by the masters. Some of them probably which are not what one may call the popular ones. But are treasure troves for human evolvement.

It might be useful for people who don’t like reading, or maybe are busy, or even people (like my mother) who can’t read for long because of weak eyesight. Sometimes 4 hour audible books also deter people. How about small extracts from various books, short readings, enough to help with contemplation on the spiritual journey.  Words of masters and sages which should be heard. If nothing it can be a nice positive reading (hearing ) moment every day for everyone.( maybe) 

This thought arrived and disappeared. And as soon as it disappeared the egoic mind took over. (Now the ego mind works in both ways, it can exalt you or it can even put you down, both ways are methods it survives on). For me it was the latter. It threw up thoughts like , come on you don’t have time. When will you record? Then you need to edit. Who will listen to it? What a waste of time ! And then finally once you record you will have to tell people about it. Now this last thought really deterred me, because I don’t particularly enjoy announcing my work. So I actually decided not to go ahead with it.

But somewhere the seed had been planted and even though I ignored the whole idea it kept finding it’s way back. It kept nagging me. And I am not sure at which point , but one night I tentatively started recording bits and pieces . And then it became a habit, every night. Every night  after work I would take out my books sit and try to figure out which would be the most appropriate part to read and record. I ask for guidance. And then I record following which I need to  edit it.

And then I took the big step of actually putting it out as a podcast. Of course I didn’t really want to announce it. I just have it out there. And just today in the morning my mind again told me, “still wasting your time.” Because for the mind everything has a purpose and an end game. And this podcast has none. It might be the lamest idea I have ever had. 

And right then I was editing a recording by Sri Aurobindo , these were the words ” God never takes his work too seriously that’s why we have a beautiful universe”. And I grinned to myself.  I suppose it is alright not to have anyone listening to it and it’s perfectly alright for me to waste my time every night and record. What the hec! it just ends up being my date night with the illumined souls. 

And the reason I was apprehensive about sharing the post, well I thought it would seem like a self announcement post. So my apologies if it still ends up sounding like that.

And if you are curious to hear the podcast you can find it on

   Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2JTl31uhNhH5NxB7mzF1r0

  Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81YjVlOGNkYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

 Anchor   https://anchor.fm/s/5b5e8cdc/podcast/rss

Guess what I named the podcast  SPIRITUAL LUNACY 

 And if you do get a chance to hear it, I would love to hear what you thought about it.