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Impractical Dreamer: Sweety Shinde

~ Doctor. Author. Mahabharata fanatic. Yoga enthusiast. Sanskrit learner. Chiku's (my doggie) adopted hooman. Love to unfurl with pencil sketching, Kishore Kumar & black coffee laced with Hazelnut syrup. Curious about the Mystique.

Impractical Dreamer: Sweety Shinde

Tag Archives: spirituality

Insurance and Karma – philosophy in hindsight

03 Sunday Nov 2024

Posted by dr sweetyshinde in Random Musings, Spirituality

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

car crash, karma, paap-punya, philosophy, piety, sins, spirituality

I renewed my car insurance this year.

When I checked the invoice, it quoted a sum almost 2x of last year’s premium.

“Why?” I enquired.

“Maam, you made an insurance claim last October. Ergo, you lose the benefit of NCB i.e no claim bonus!” came the cheeky reply.

To confound it, the claim was made because the paid driver took a calculated risk … realised he had miscalculated – and created a deep gash in me car’s beautiful booty.

And that is exactly how karma works.

Years of punya can be flattened by one sin. Even if the sin is committed on your behalf by a third person.

In other words, years of ‘no claim’ was my accumulated punya (piety). One claim (paap aka sin) and it crashed down to nil.

What say?

No point wailing. Flex those lungs. Deep breath. Begin collecting back those punya, brownie, + points. Start from scratch.

Atheist or otherwise – by fault or default?

16 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by dr sweetyshinde in Random Musings, Spirituality

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Atheism, dharma, God, religion, spirituality

Can atheists & non-athists coexist peacefully? Yup, I sure think so. That’s b’cos both reside within me!!

My father believed in God. My mother doesn’t.

This simple fact gave me the best gift – that of Personal Choice!

If both parents were believers, I’d have been unwittingly (and witlessly) built along similar lines. If both parents were atheists, I’d have been poured into a similar mould.

Now I’m free to think, judge, evaluate, transform, debate, expand horizons and explore. Have I reached a decision? Cant say. I’m still open to revelations.

All I can say at present is :

Varna is not equal to Caste
Ritual is not equal to Religion
Religion is not equal to Dharma

Book review – Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss

21 Saturday May 2016

Posted by dr sweetyshinde in Biography/Autobiography, Constructive Criticism: Book reviews

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Bhagavad Gita, book review, hypnotherapy, immortal soul, near death, past lives, reincarnation, sankhya yoga, spirituality

Twitter review – With great expectations comes great disappointment.

First things first – the book is already a blockbuster seller. That relieves me from the sin of jeopardizing a newbie author. It also means the author can pull a Rhett Butler snarl upon my opinions.

So why am I reviewing it? B’cos a blog post is long overdue in my schedule 🙂

Premise– A blonde laboratory technician cum swimwear model Catherine (ahem!) is depressed. She is plagued by childhood demons, ongoing nightmares and an abusive married boyfriend. She turns up for hypnotherapy at Dr Weiss’s clinic and discovers a chain of prior births.

Catherine taps into 86 prior births in lurid detail, speaks foreign languages fluently for brief spans, finds past relatives reborn as current colleagues and generally re-falls in love with life instead of nitpicking over its brief grief.

Reincarnation-process

The novelty of the first 20 pages wanes rapidly as the process gets repetitive. Dr Weiss demonstrates more hand clapping and chest thumping than a sombre scientific approach.

To an Indian bred on the ‘immortal soul, mortal body‘ principle of Sankhya yoga (Bhagavad Gita), reincarnation concept is not a novelty. I was eager for the Continue reading →

Sparrows & squirrels: peaceful coexistence

11 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by dr sweetyshinde in My Pets, Spirituality

≈ 29 Comments

Tags

empty nest syndrome, peace, pets, soothing, sparrows, spirituality, squirrel, stress buster

sparrows-squirrel

This is the live streaming video I see everyday out of my balcony. Stress buster, soul soother, peace of mind bought at the price of a few Kang seeds.

The first guest to arrive is invariably Mr. Squirrel. Continue reading →

Atheism to theism – via a man and a meal.

07 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by dr sweetyshinde in Arjun Related posts, Mahabharata, Spirituality

≈ 45 Comments

Tags

Arjun Related posts, arjuna, Atheism, bhagvada, Bhagwad Gita, faith, God, ISKON, Krishn, Krishna, Mahabharata, maximum comments, religion, spirituality, temple

Born to a theist Papa and an atheist Mom, I had the luxury of choice. I chose to be an atheist.

Being  a science student automatically made me lean heavily towards ‘proof and results’. Temples contributed liberally to my disgust of theism. Think impatient Pujaris  (We are the proprietary middle-men to Heaven.) Think lecherous peddlers (A hundred rupees note will get you instant darshan, Madam!) Think repugnant God-men (I distinctly remember meeting one with red eyes, grey beard and saffron robes. When I and my brother refused to genuflect, his eyes darkened in incredulous rage. P.S: The only en’light’ment he saw must be at the end of his ganja–chillum!)

Meanwhile a wily God with a zany sense of humor decided to ensnare me with two most unlikely baits. A man and a meal… Continue reading →

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