Weekend Reflections – October 12, 2025

Dear Blog,

Picking up from where I left off, today I want to talk about the "Harajuku moment."

This term was coined by Tim Ferriss in his book The 4-Hour Body. It refers to a crucial turning point—a sudden understanding that transforms a goal from a passive "nice-to-have" into an absolute "must-have." It’s the moment when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of making a change. This imbalance creates powerful motivation, enabling us to finally commit and follow through.

The term was inspired by the story of Chad Fowler, a successful CTO and a friend of Ferriss. Fowler had been obese for over a decade. While on a business trip in Tokyo, he went shopping with his companions in the Harajuku neighbourhood, famous for its street fashion. It was there he heard himself say, "For me, it doesn't even matter what I wear; I'm not going to look good anyway."

The helplessness in his own words sparked a sudden realization. He thought to himself that while he was successful in most areas of his life, when it came to his health, he had become the very "limp, powerless ego" he despised in others. He decided to change and, in less than a year, lost more than 70 pounds.

My Harajuku moment came when the reading on my weighing scale hit 111 kg (my height is 183 cm). I realized this was the heaviest I had ever been. If things continued on the same path, I knew I would be 120 kg before I knew it, and lifestyle diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes would inevitably follow.

Simply knowing what to do is not enough. We all know what's good for us, yet we often fall back into habitual, self-sabotaging behaviour. We don’t need more information; we need strong emotional fuel to push past complacency and take action. This is why reading countless insightful quotes and self-help books often has a near-zero impact on our lives.

Working in tandem with this raw emotional fuel is another crucial element: tracking progress. I already knew the importance of tracking from my reading of David Allen’s Ready for Anything, but I didn’t use the calorie-counting method Fowler used. I have always found counting calories to be incredibly soul-destroying.

Instead, I used a graph designed by Phil Libin (the CEO of Evernote from 2007 to 2015), which was provided as a resource in The 4-Hour Body. This graph offered a minimal-effort tool to track and visualize my progress. Its beauty lies in leveraging the power of psychological feedback rather than willpower, which is a limited, tyrannical, and unreliable resource.

The graph has a "buffer zone"—as long as you are within this zone, despite minor fluctuations, you're on track. It is important to mention, however, that this graph is a psychological tool, not a medical one.

Finding your Harajuku moment is the spark; without it, nothing will happen. But tracking is what will keep the fire burning.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical expert. This post reflects my personal experience and should not be considered medical advice. Please consult a healthcare professional before making any health-related decisions.

Weekend Reflections – October 5, 2025

Dear Blog,

Before I received the Kriya Initiation, I just wanted to get it somehow and start my journey toward enlightenment or self-realization as soon as possible. I thought that at 38 years old, I was already late. The intellectual gymnastics of overthinking and knowledge-gathering at the cost of taking action and finding out for myself have always been a big problem for me.

I don’t want to be like people who, after leading a life of moral and ethical corruption, suddenly turn religious or spiritual when they retire at 60. I believe that gathering all the spiritual or philosophical knowledge in the world is nothing compared to the direct experience of truth.

I want to experience non-duality, bliss, peace, and the unfiltered reality that realized masters talk about. The exoteric religion of rituals, myths, superstitions, traditions, and easy answers doesn’t satisfy my soul. Its superficiality irritates and agitates me.

The Acharya who initiated me advised me to practice Kriya twice daily. The Kriya he gave had ten steps, along with a short form consisting of three steps (to be used when short on time). I haven’t been practicing it twice daily, nor have I been doing all ten steps regularly. But I have been practicing the short form almost every single day since my initiation on April 12, 2025.

Whenever I feel disappointed for not doing Kriya twice a day or completing all ten steps, I remember Tim Ferriss’s words from The 4-Hour Body:

“The decent method you follow is better than the perfect method you quit.”

However, once the initial enthusiasm faded, I felt I was just doing Kriya for the sake of a tick mark on my to-do list. As soon as you sit down to do Kriya—or for that matter, anything meaningful—the mind starts throwing distractions or other tasks at you. Many times, when I sit down to do more Kriyas, say eight, my legs start aching. So it’s not just a battle with the mind but with the body as well.

Lately, I’ve been using the mental model of the Internal and External World to sustain longer sittings, a concept I picked up from the introduction to Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer. From the beginning, thinkers have distinguished between the apparent world (what we see and experience) and the real world (the hidden, fundamental reality).

Immanuel Kant believed that our mind imposes the categories of time, space, and causality on whatever we perceive, creating the phenomenal world we experience. Beneath it lies the unknowable thing-in-itself—reality as it is.

Schopenhauer accepted Kant’s idea of the phenomenal world but went further. He said that we can gain insight into the thing-in-itself by looking within. By looking inward, we find a blind, striving, and ceaseless energy—one that exists not just within us but throughout all of nature and existence. He called this energy the Will.

The Will makes us chase one desire after another. If we lack what we want, we suffer. If we get what we want, the satisfaction is brief and underwhelming, soon replaced by boredom. Thus, life swings like a pendulum between the pain of wanting and the emptiness of having.

So whenever I sit down to meditate and my mind tries to pull me elsewhere, I remind myself that my mind, fueled by the blind Will, is dragging me toward the external world of pain and boredom. At that moment, I must use my intellect to nudge my Will to retreat inward.

The relationship between the Will and the Intellect is that of Master and Servant. The intellect can only hope to persuade the Will—it cannot command it.

Schopenhauer said that Art, Compassion, and Asceticism are the three ways to achieve temporary relief from the suffering caused by the Will. So when I sit longer in meditation, I’m practicing Asceticism—denying and mortifying the Will, striking at the very root of suffering. And yes, I have experienced peace during longer sittings. In those moments, I don’t feel like getting up or doing anything else. I simply want to be. My hope is that one day my intellect will completely turn the Will inward. Reading Schopenhauer, for me, has been nothing short of a genuine spiritual experience.

Another thing that has become firmly rooted in my mind—thanks again to Schopenhauer—is this thought:

“Health so far outweighs all other blessings of life that a truly healthy beggar is happier than a sick king.”

I’ve decided to make health my number one priority in life, even ahead of my career. I’m writing this so I don’t forget.

The turning point came last year when my weight reached 111 kg. I was mocked and advised to lose weight not only by my colleagues but also by my own family. I hated seeing myself naked in the mirror during my morning showers. I decided then to take action.

I started reading The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss and following the Slow-Carb Diet. Even before reading the book, I watched four summary videos to get started quickly. I also joined a gym. Later, reading the book gave me more nuance, though I haven’t finished it yet.

The book taught me that my goal shouldn’t be weight loss but body recomposition—building a better physique by both losing fat and gaining muscle. Because of this, the number on the scale can be misleading. Currently, my weight is approximately 87 kg—just four kg short of my goal of 83 kg—but I’m not obsessing over it. This framework radically simplified my diet, and the results have made the process addictive, despite its monotony. I now have a system in my head that makes food decisions for me, saving time and energy.

My transformation: Feb '24, Jan '25, Jul '25 (clockwise).

Recently, when I went for a short walk after lunch with the same colleagues who once mocked my weight, they laughed again—this time because I refused to have a Gulab Jamun or Kachori after lunch. On another occasion, they called me an "extremist" for refusing snacks. People will always laugh or criticize, driven by ignorance.

This isn’t the first time I’ve lost weight. My relationship with weight gain and loss spans over a decade. Since joining my organization twelve years ago, I’ve lost around 20 kg three different times using different methods, only to regain it all back each time.

Most people in my organization (and similar ones) have a typical body structure that I find unpleasant to look at. For men, it resembles the belan (rolling pin) used in Indian kitchens. Why does it disgust me? Perhaps because it’s the physical manifestation of the mental inertia these people suffer from—a quality famously described as Tamas (darkness) in Indian philosophy.

I think I should wind up now because I have other tasks to do. But I’ll pick up the thread next time—I have more to say on this matter.

Disclaimer: Just sharing my personal journey here. I'm not a doctor or nutritionist. My results are based on my own experience with the Slow-Carb Diet. Please consult a healthcare professional before making any major changes to your diet or lifestyle.

Weekend Reflections – September 28, 2025

Dear Blog,

One of my primary motivations for starting this blog was to help myself to think more clearly. This week, I want to write about what I think of the news.

I hate following the news these days because it has morphed into something truly ugly. In my school and college days, my father and teachers told me that watching and reading the news was important for competitive exams and for increasing my general awareness. My father, in particular, advised me to focus on editorials and op-eds to help form well-reasoned opinions. I still follow this advice; although I don't read the newspaper often, whenever I do, I make a point of reading the opinion section.

I would divide my formative years into two distinct parts based on the evolution of news. The first was a time of simplicity. There were no 24/7 news channels or social media. We had cable TV, but my family was somewhat opposed to it. I remember watching the nightly Doordarshan news with my father. The news presenters were extremely graceful, and we preferred the English broadcast. Even on cable TV, news was confined to specific timeslots. Besides television, we read newspapers and magazines like The Tribune, The Indian Express, Outlook, and India Today. My father always praised The Hindu, and I don't disagree with him, though it wasn't easily available in North India at the time.

The second part is the current age of the 24/7 news cycle and social media. I believe that the non-stop relay of news has severely diluted its quality, and social media has turned everyone into a broadcaster, creating a chaotic environment.

I think what matters more than the news itself is context. Only with context can we make sense of what is happening. A recent example comes to mind. I saw a YouTube video where Yuval Noah Harari was asked for book recommendations, and one he mentioned was The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher. I haven't read the book, but I listened to a summary explaining how social media algorithms, designed to maximize user engagement, actively promote outrage and tribalism. Then, a few days later, I heard about political collapse and horrific violence in Nepal—sparked, lo and behold, by a social media ban. This news made immediate sense to me because I had the context. The book also detailed the role of social media in spreading harmful lies and fanning violence in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and the U.S.

I’m not suggesting the violence in Nepal was entirely due to social media. Here, we need to distinguish between root causes and proximate causes. The root cause was most certainly the failure of the Nepalese government to offer its young, educated citizens jobs and a dignified life. Governments in societies experiencing a 'youth bulge'—where a high percentage of the population, say 20 percent or more, is crammed into the 15-24 age group—must address unemployment and underemployment seriously. Otherwise, they are simply walking on thin ice.

I have much more to write about, but I will wrap up here, as it's already past midnight and I have an early commute tomorrow. However, I have kept my commitment to write at least once a week.

Weekend Reflections – September 21, 2025

Dear Blog,

Although I promised myself I would write at least every weekend, I didn't write last weekend, despite having a wonderful experience to share.

Last week, due to terrible rainfall in the evening, I couldn't go to the gym for two days straight (Thursday and Friday). My minimum target for hitting the gym is four days per week, but I usually go for five. I work on various parts of the body from Monday to Friday in the following sequence: Back, Shoulders, Legs, Chest, and Arms. So, I decided that on Saturday morning I would work on my chest and just forget about arms for the week.

While I was working out my chest, whenever I felt weak during a set or felt that I couldn't lift a heavier weight in the next one, I simply thought about the things that had given me grief in my life. Suddenly, I found the power to finish the set or lift heavier in the next. Usually, I only work on a single body part per day, but as soon as I finished my chest workout, I thought to myself that I could work out my arms too. Tapping into my grief had unleashed a beast within me. I was literally pulsating with energy. I felt some mental resistance, but I ended up working out my arms as well, and very quickly at that. I forgot to mention that I had also done some dumbbell swings with my chest workout, so I ended up doing eleven exercises in total.

I had a similar experience a few days earlier. Frustrated with the regional accounts in-charge (the one I mentioned in my previous post), I worked my shoulders incredibly hard that evening. In fact, it was the hardest I had ever worked them. I did a shoulder press of 80 kgs that day. That time, it was a spontaneous result of my anger, but last week, it was deliberate.

I later tried tapping into my grief to force myself to do more Kriyas during my Kriya Meditation. Lately, I'd felt I was just going through the motions with no real feeling. On the first day, I did eight Kriyas and felt such a deep peace at the end that I now look forward to reaching that state every day. Today, I did nine Kriyas in total, despite all my mental resistance and the pain in my legs from sitting in Siddhasana.

However, there is a downside to this technique. As a result of thinking about things that had caused me pain in the past to power demanding activities in the present, I am now recalling bad experiences in vivid detail from the dark recesses of my memory. I'm worried that if I keep doing this, I may end up a bitter and vindictive person.

But then again, maybe I already am.

Weekend Reflections – September 7, 2025

Dear Blog,

This week, I received the package of the imported multivitamin supplement that I had ordered recently. I've been taking multivitamins for the past couple of months because I follow a restrictive diet and feel I've been falling short on some essential vitamins and minerals. I was taking a different multivitamin before, but I gave it up because I wasn't feeling much of a difference. After some research, I found that this brand uses superior forms of certain vitamins (like B12 and B5) and has a much better overall profile.

I've taken half the dose for the past two days, and the most immediate effect I've noticed is that my dreams have become incredibly vivid. I haven't had dreams like this in a long time. Maybe this has to do with the high level of Vitamin B6 in the supplement; I remember reading years ago in a book on lucid dreaming that B6 can help boost the chances of having them. However, on the first night, I was actually jolted awake by a scary dream. Another thing I noticed is that I've been sleeping very deeply, which might be due to the Apigenin in the supplement. I recently heard on an Andrew Huberman podcast that apigenin is part of his recommended sleep stack. I have some prior experience with it from years ago when I drank chamomile tea (which naturally contains apigenin) and I used to consistently feel sleepy all day because of it. Right now, I do feel slightly groggy as well.

I've seen concerns online about this multivitamin having mega-doses of certain vitamins, but I figure I can counter that by taking only half the recommended serving. I've also heard about studies saying multivitamins have no effect, but I'm sure there are just as many studies that say the opposite. Sometimes, too much information can lead to a kind of mental paralysis, making you unsure which path to take.

The second thing on my mind is the frustrating kind of people I have to deal with at my organization. I work in a Public Sector Undertaking. I won't go into too many specifics, but one recent incident makes my point abundantly clear.

My Reporting Officer (a Regional Manager) was recently transferred on promotion. I sent an email to the Personnel Department as early as June 30, 2025—when I had to take a half-day leave after getting drenched in heavy rain on my way to office—requesting that my Leave Supervisor in the system be updated. I didn't take any leave after that until August 27, the day my nephew was born. When I applied for a half-day leave that afternoon, I saw that my leave supervisor still hadn't been changed.

I called the relevant person in the Regional Office and explained the situation, mentioning that I had already emailed the department in-charge (who right now was on a long leave abroad visiting her daughter) back in June. She told me to call back after September 1st, once the HR portal reopened. I said I would send her an email right then as a reminder to follow up after the 1st. She seemed hellbent on stopping me from even sending the email. I sent it anyway.

I received a weird response from her that very day. She noted the time of my call and my email, and complained that despite her telling me "repeatedly" the portal would open after the 1st, I had emailed her. I replied clarifying that my email was simply a continuation of my June 30th request, and that "at your earliest convenience" didn’t mean "immediately." I am surprised that the regional office's personnel department doesn’t have a ticketing or tracking system for employee issues.

I had to take another leave on September 5th. I applied for it the day before, and still, no change had been made. I’ve decided to CC her and the regional manager on all my leave requests until she does what’s needed.

I have a rule for dealing with people like this at work: once I encounter them, I never speak to them verbally again—everything must be in writing over email. You might say I’m generalizing based on one person, but I have another, much worse recent example involving the regional Accounts In Charge—though that deserves a blog post of its own.

Why do people in higher offices look down on those of us on the frontlines? Why are people so petty that they get egoistic over a simple request to do their job?

The last thing I want to mention before I conclude (though there’s so much more I could talk about) is the disastrous 2025 monsoon in the Himalayas. This weighs heavily on my heart because my soul is tied inextricably to those mountains. While the root cause is climate change, the enormous damage from heavy infrastructure development—like four-lane highways and hydro projects—and unregulated tourism cannot be denied. The recent warning from the Honourable Supreme Court on July 28th felt late, but necessary: “If things proceed the way they are as on date, then the day is not far when the entire State of Himachal Pradesh may vanish in thin air from the map of the country.”

I’d like to go to sleep now—it’s already 11:45 PM, and I have to travel to work early tomorrow morning. I hope it doesn’t rain on my way. Another reason I’m concluding hastily is that I just need to publish this. I decided to write again after eight years, and I won’t let the pressure to write a perfect post stop me. Having too many things in my head to write about often stops me, too—I couldn’t finish the blog post I started on August 3rd for exactly those reasons.

Good night!

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, doctor, or nutritionist. The mentions of supplements and their effects in this post are based solely on my personal experiences and independent research. This is not medical advice. Please consult with a healthcare provider before starting any new supplement regimen to ensure it is appropriate and safe for your individual health needs.