A Very Powerful Routine to Wake Up With. Do Read.

I am not a big fan of routines in life. I am more of the "Understand the life and go with the flow" kind of guy. But there are two very powerful routines you must adopt in your life to align yourself on the right path. Both of these routines have been partially passed down to me by my parents, and I have added into them as per my understanding of the mind.

There two routines are:

1. Routine upon you wake up

2. Routine while you are going to sleep

This post is about the routine you must adopt upon you wake up. All it is going to take is few minutes of your time but trust me, it will enable you for the rest of the day. This post is based on the power of expressing gratitude and anchoring your focus on the key sources of energy.

This routine relies heavily on the impact of language on the mind and in turn, your life. So a deep understanding of language, especially Sanskrit is required. In any case, it would be great if you invest time polishing your knowledge of grammar and pronunciation. The richer your language is, so is your life remember that.

As soon as you wake up, the key is to remind yourself that you are having fun in life. The basic philosophy behind this is that you appreciate the fun in life and are focused on the fun in life. The more frequently you laugh and have fun will add quality years to your life.

So the first thought to have as soon as you wake up is:

|| आज के आनंद की जय || Praise to the enjoyment that is today.

I learnt this phrase while I was living in a small quaint town called Kankroli in the Rajsamand district of a state Rajasthan. My father was posted there. The people over there lived a relaxed life. Most folks would go visit a temple over there called Dwarikadheesh Temple. There in the temple, the people would fold their hands and praise Lord Krishna and finish off their prayer with this phrase 'Praise to enjoyment that is today'. This phrase is based on the philosophy that every day you wake up and are bestowed with to live is a gift you have received. So the very first thing you do when you wake up is express gratitude towards the fact that you have been granted another day to live. Along with expressing gratitude towards that, you remind yourself that you are going to focus on enjoying the day as it is enjoyment that you are here for. Your duties are secondary. You are going to carry the duties anyway, the very first of the duties is to keep yourself alive. But along with doing all the duties, you are going to focus on enjoying most out of the day that you are bestowed with.

Second step you do after expressing gratitude for a new day and reminding yourself to focus on enjoying it while you are at it is to bow down to the learnings the day is going to bring with it. Every day you learn something new. You learn something new when take new initiatives. It is good to have a teacher while you are out to take new initiatives and learn something new. So you bow down to the greatest teacher of the world, i.e. Shiv. Now the concept of Shiv runs far and wide, but for now, its sufficient to know that Shiv is the supreme teacher and you are bowing down to him to take his blessings to start the day. So you say:

|| ॐ नमः शिवाय || Praise be upon Shiv.

The third step:

As I have already explained the rationale of the above second step in the routine, we are going to move onto a sub-step of the second step, which is to recite one of Shiv's mantras that has a really profound meaning as per Hindu philosophy. That mantra is:

|| ॐ त्रयम्बकं यजा महे सुगंधिम पुष्टिवर्धनम, उर्वारुकमिव बँधनाम मृत्योर्मुक्षीय मामृतात ||

Here, I would reiterate how important it is to learn language. Learning language is a major life skill one must learn from a very early stage in life.

Now to understand the rationale behind reciting the above mantra, one is to know the meaning of it. Here is the meaning:

We praise and worship the three-eyed one (check out the philosophical meaning of being three-eyed), who emits fragrance and who feeds us; we pray that that three-eyed one detaches us from the fear of death and takes us towards liberation just like a ripe bottleguard detaches itself from its wine.

The fourth step:

For the fourth step, we are going to bow down to Ganesh who happens to be a symbol of energy that removes obstacles from one's life. Why Ganesh is worshipped as a symbol of energy that removes obstacles is explained in the this post (link). To bow down to Ganesh, we recite this hymn:

|| ॐ वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय कोटि सूर्य समप्रभ निर्विघ्नं कुरुमे देवः सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा ||

The meaning of this hymn is: O the one with the huge body and a curved trunk (referring to Lord Ganesh) and whose radiance is equal to a hundred million Suns; O Lord we request you to remove all obstacles from all our endeavors at all times.

Here, the emphasis on removing all obstacles. Since we are going to engage ourselves in new endeavors of the day, we are praying to Ganesh to kindly remove all obstacles that may come in the way while pursuing those endeavors.

The fifth step is to recite the Gayatri Mantra. From this hymn onwards, we are going to pay homage to the female Goddess in Hindu philosophy gayatri who is the symbol of knowledge. Goddess Gayatri represents the wisdom that makes a man distinguish the right from the wrong. This is important for a person to have the wisdom of the right and the wrong, and the ethical fortitude to choose the right at all times.

The sixth step is to recite a Vedic peace hymn. This hymn will remind you that the universe is complete. You are a part of the universe, therefore you are complete as well. The hymn and its literal meaning is given below:

|| ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात पूर्णमुदच्यते पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवा वशिष्यते | ॐ शांतिः शांतिः शांतिः||

"That which is beyond this universe is infinite and complete. This universe is also infinite and complete in itself. From this infinity and completeness, you are born. Since you are born out of infinity and completeness, by default you becomes infinite and complete in your own capacity. Peace be upon all."

In a time when the entire world is trying to make you realize that you are not complete and projecting advertisements upon you to make you buy something, this hymn reminds you to relax because you are complete. When the materialism is not working in your favor to get you closer to yourself, this hymn inspires thoughts of fulfilment and helps you feel content. It also connects you to the infinity that is out there and within you at the same time.

The seventh step is to pray for the well-being for all. Here is the hymn:

|| सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामया सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चित् दुखः भाग भवेत् ||

The literal meaning of this hymn is very beautiful. It is:

"May everyone be happy and content, may everyone be free of diseases, look for the good in everything and everyone, nothing bad should happen to anyone."

This series of thoughts actually uplifts your state of mind and propels you towards a level that is reserved only for the Gods and Demigods. This series of thoughts work as a bridge to take you from a state of being an animal to being a Superman.

The eighth step is to take a look at your hands and remind yourself that your hands are the tools you use to create the world of your vision. It makes you believe in your capability and motivates you to be industrius. The hymn is as follows:

|| कराग्रे वसति लक्ष्मी कर मध्ये सरस्वती कर मूले तू गोविन्दम प्रभाते कर दर्शनम ||

"From the tip of the fingers, you count money (symbolized by Goddess Lakshami). From the mid of the palm, you hold books and musical instruments (symbolized by Goddess Saraswati), the base of the hand is like God Vishnu who is the nurturer of the world enabling the world to carry out all its functions just like the base of the hand allows the palm and fingers to function."

The ninth step is to bow to the greatness of the Mother Earth on which we live and thrive. It is very important that every person understands how much we owe to the Earth. We owe our entire existence to Earth. Here is hymn to remember that:

|| समुद्रवसने देवी पर्वत स्तनमण्डले विष्णु पत्नी नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं क्षमस्वमेव ||

The meaning: "Oh great Goddess whose garments are these mighty oceans and these massive mountains are whose bosoms. Oh the consort of Lord Vishnu, I bow down to you and ask for forgiveness as I am about to touch you with my feet.

This culminates the routine encompassing 9 steps that will enable you to have a grateful, joyful, purposeful and content day as a self-aware responsible human being.

Doing this every morning will just take 10 minutes, but it is so powerful that you will be amazed at the rate with which your life transforms for the better.

I do this everyday and feel really good. As soon as my eyes open, I do the first step. It has become muscle memory now. Then I usually sit up on my bed itself and carry out the rest of the eight steps. One could also lay and do these steps as the motive is to think of the rationale behind all the hymns and feel grateful. Sitting up or laying down, its all good.

Peace be upon all.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely yours

Siddharth Soni