Q. Why do we need to simplify our lives today?
A. When life is simple, we breathe easy; we breathe easy in rhythm. When we breathe easy in rhythm, we are calm, cool, collected and the joy of living surfaces. The joy of living is very buoyant and yes, we are the most creative and most productive in such moments and sailing through life is the biggest joy too. So, let’s keep our life as simple as possible. When life gets complicated, it cannot be celebrated. A life to be celebrated has to be kept simple.
Q. What is the Shoonyam Quotient?
A. When you stop running towards and stop running away from anything and everything in life, you know you’ve arrived in the Shoonyam Quotient. The Shoonyam Quotient is the pleasure, the fun, the joy of being and of course, the automatic becoming. Spontaneity comes to you, the flow comes to you, no sooner do you become detached to the outcome of all things, all scheme of things in life and simply enjoy the process of living, the way life goes. Look at it with love, compassion and wonder and you’ll keep being happy and find happiness in the smallest, nicest things and you’ll find joy.
The Shoonyam Quotient perhaps which is why is a point where there’s an absolute blank slate; a point where there is nothing but there is a probability spectrum of becoming everything. And in that point, I would like to say explore and exploit your fullest potential of everything you have imagined and everything you want to imagine and life will take you to a point which is unimaginable. So be in the Shoonyam Quotient to keep getting surprised by life and all the surprises will be pleasant I’m sure. Let your surprises be optimised, be in the Shoonyam Quotient.
Q. We live in a materialistic and narcissistic world. Is it easy to find this zeroth state?
A. Yes, I agree we live in this world full of “me”, full of “I”, the narcissistic world. I am too, to a very great extent a part of this world and a little entangled being here but I am trying. Which is why I have written I’m trying because I believe and because I am trying I will get there where I will find the absolute Shoonyam Quotient. I would request, urge and plead all that try and get there. When absolute humility comes to the fore, you must know that you’ll be in the Shoonyam Quotient and you will know the pleasure of life and living. You will know the pleasure of living and sharing; caring, love, empathy, sympathy. And you’ll know the pleasure of being creative —creating abundance, creating joy, creating happiness. This is not a utopian state. As you start, grow and walk this path, you will get there and the more it grows on you, you will delve deeper into the Shoonyam Quotient. The Shoonyam Quotient is the emptiness you will seek some time, some day very soon as you start practicing it and a day will come, when being empty will give you the maximum fulfillness.
Q. You’ve spoken about the importance of rejuvenating via sleep and proper nutrition. How can this be achieved with a jet-setting lifestyle and fast food culture?
A. Centre of the storm is always silent, quiet, where there is no movement, no motion. The Shoonyam Quotient is a point which is the centre of every storm… Despite the hectic movements, if we were to be absolutely aware of what we are doing, where we are headed, what we should be eating, how we should be resting—I think we will put it in the right perspective. I think everything will fall in place and while everything falls in place, your life will move. Of course, there will be turbulences and turmoils but gradually your food choices, food timing and food quantity along with your sleep—appropriate sleep, appropriate way to sleep and sleeping sound with emptying yourself, breathing out everything—will all happen very naturally. The rhythm of your being will get synchronised with the rhythm of this entire cosmic being and that is the time you’ll feel that yes, though being a part of this jet-setting world, if small corrections are made every day, every week, every month, you’ll get there someday. Maybe you won’t get there absolutely the way it is supposed to be in the Utopian state but at least very, very close to it. And that proximity will be good enough for you to be happy, in harmony.