"नर सोचे नहि होत है, प्रभु सोचे तत्काल।
बली चाहत बैकुंठ को, प्रभु पठाए पाताल॥"
What man plans does not necessarily happen; what God wills manifests instantly.
King Bali desired heaven, yet the Lord sent him to the netherworld; for a higher purpose.
Human beings often think that things happen because of their will alone.
But life does not work that way.
A thing happens only when your will and the will of the Universe are moving in the same direction.
You may say, "I achieved this position," "I married this person," or "I built this success through my efforts."
And yes, your effort matters.
But effort alone is not the whole story.
There are countless people with equal or even greater talent, discipline, and capability who never receive the same outcome.
Why?
Because success is not just personal will. It is also timing, destiny, and grace.
That is why truly successful people often speak about fate, blessings, or a higher force. They know that hard work was necessary, but it was not the only factor.
You were the instrument.
The achievement happened through you, not only because of you.
Nothing happens without the permission of a higher order. And that is one of the most humbling truths of life.
If you're young and still a student, stay away from politics unless your family has influence, strong connections and financial backing.
Don't let media convince you that you're leading a revolution or fighting a historic battle. If you're a middle-class teenager, focus on studying, learning skills and building a better future for yourself. Create opportunities so you can choose the life you want.
Don't risk your career and future over internet politics. If things go wrong, the people who plan to build careers in politics will move on and benefit from your efforts, while you will be left dealing with the consequences.
India is not Nepal. The Constitution and legal system have very strong consequences. Once law enforcement gets involved, even big activists spend years waiting for court hearing.
One thing I've noticed about software engineers in their 30s and 40s, The fear isn't unemployment. It's responsibility.
When you're 22, losing a job feels like an inconvenience. When you're 38, it feels different.
There are school fees. Parents getting older. Home loans. Family members who depend on you.
People who assume you'll always be able to provide.
That's why a lot of engineers quietly carry anxiety. Not because they're bad at their jobs. Not because they're underpaid. Because they understand how many things are riding on a single salary.
The mistake many people make is trying to eliminate uncertainty. That's impossible.
No company can promise lifetime employment. No industry stays unchanged forever. No amount of doomscrolling will make the future predictable.
Instead, focus on building resilience.
Build savings. Keep fixed expenses under control. Invest in your health.
Keep learning.
Stay connected with people in your industry. Create options before you need them.
Most importantly, Don't spend hours every day consuming layoff news.Bad news gets attention. That's why algorithms keep serving it.
If you read enough headlines, you'll eventually convince yourself that disaster is around the corner.
Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. Either way, worrying about things outside your control won't protect you. Preparation might.
The goal isn't to feel secure. The goal is to become adaptable. Because adaptable people don't need certainty.
They know they'll figure things out.
5'11 girlie growing up in India meant years of "too tall, too intimidating, too much."
Turns out there's a name for it - height premium, and a paper in the Journal of Applied Psychology found each inch above average is worth $789/year in salary. over a 30-year career that's ₹1.5 crore. for being tall. nothing else.
And it gets worse. Good-looking MBA grads earn $2,500 more per year than average. The top 10% best-looking earn $5,500 more. 15 years out, 50% more likely to hold a prestigious job. This is peer-reviewed research from INFORMS, not a vibe.
Companies are now using AI during interviews to score candidates on skin texture, gaze stability, posture, and facial width-to-height ratio. In the US, this is unconstitutional. People have sued and won.
In India, there is no law that explicitly protects you from this.
Beauty has always been labour. We just made women pay for it twice, once to do it, once if they don't.
One of the most humbling lessons from reading is discovering how frequently even the greatest thinkers have changed their minds about almost everything.
Physicist Igor Novikov proposed the self-consistency principle:
if you could visit the past, you could only ever do things that were always part of what happened. You could not create a contradiction.
How much free will do we really have? How much is predestined? And can we ever truly know the future? Let me explain it the way I understand it.
Imagine you are a cow tied to a peg with a rope.
The peg is your karma. You did not place it. Your birth, your family, your body, the broad shape of your life. That peg is fixed.
The rope is the limit of that karma. Also fixed.
But inside that circle, you graze freely. Left, right, near, far. That movement is your free will. It is real. Nobody forces each step.
Now bring in time. Time is simply the cow walking. The moment you take a step, you have chosen a path, and a slightly different path has been left untaken.
Here is where modern physics quietly agrees with our shastra.
Quantum mechanics suggests that reality is not a single line.
At every choice, it branches. The you who turned left and the you who turned right are both real, on different branches. Same cow, same peg, different routes.
So there is not one future sitting and waiting for you. There are many possible futures, all inside your circle. You do not discover your future. You select it, step by step.
This is also why time travel is not what films show. You cannot walk back and change your peg. The past you would visit is the path you already walked, and it was always walked that way. And the future you would visit is not fixed, because it depends on which branch you are still choosing. You can sense a future. You cannot pick it up like a stone and carry it back.
When we read a chart in Jyotish, we are not watching one fixed video of your life. We are reading the peg and the rope. We see the size of your circle and the direction the branches lean. The walking is still yours.
So the final answer is this. You are not a puppet. You are not fully free either. You are free within your karma. Destiny gives you the field and the rope. Time is your walking. The realities are your branches. And you, the cow, decide the route.
Visited Ahmedabad yesterday and was blown away by the number of new restaurants, cafes, fast food joints, ice cream parlours, bakeries, dessert places etc. Probably more than anywhere else I’ve seen recently. Everywhere you look, there’s a new fancy place to eat. Hundreds of them. Meanwhile, the internet makes it feel like most people are now obsessed with health and fitness and everyone’s lifting, running marathons, tracking macros, wearing fitness trackers. Reality is very different. People are eating out and consuming junk food more than ever before. Eating out has become one of the biggest forms of 'entertainment' for Indians and Ahmedabad has taken it to another level.
I am not sure if it is just me or if it’s with every girl. I feel like I am losing my feminine side. I have stopped getting ready, meeting my girls, and partying with them. All I think about is gym workouts, badminton, work, and money.
Lopamudra, yagyaseni or vaidehi are such powerful names for girls. We need to let go of nyra, inaya, nyasa and should start naming our girls some beautiful powerful ancient names.
Never ever doubt the capacity of your Ishta (divine) to do things for you. We often become anxious after asking for something because, to our limited minds, it feels impossible. But Ishta can do His leela & give you things that once felt impossible. Faith should be unshakable.