Perfection Has to Be Your Inner Experience

L P Bhanu Sharma is a renowned spiritual leader, educator, life and executive coach and social worker. He is the founding president and Spiritual Guru at Jeevan Vigyan Pratisthan, Nepal a leading institution in spirituality and leadership.

He is principal of Apex College – a premier business school in Nepal, initiator of Bagmati Cleaning Mega Campaign (Bagmati Safai Maha Abhiyan), director at Apex Life School, and chairman of Samriddhi Capital Ltd.

Being a spiritual leader, life and executive coach he has trained over 800,000 people on spirituality, success and meditation in Nepal, India, Myanmar, Malaysia and USA. His YouTube and social media programs watched by over One crore people all over the world. As an academician and teacher he taught over 60,000 students, He is also management and financial consultant. He is a CA by professional qualification, did Chartered Accountancy from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India with All-India Merit Rank-holder)

He is an enlightened mystic, forum leader on leadership, meditation, positive and right living programs.He worked as General Manager in Enarai Finance Limited (then Top-50 finance company in India)and Shree Investment and Finance Co. Ltd., a reputed finance company in Nepal. He is providing teaching courses on Accounting and Finance to CA, MBA and BBA students for over 15 years now.

Similarly, he also coordinated and contributed in designing and development of syllabus of various courses in Pokhara University and Kathmandu University He has published over 150 articles on Management, Spirituality, Yog and Positive Living Geeta Mahagyan:commentaries on Geeta Chapter I. Here we present the edited version of conversation with Mr. Sharma by our line reporter Santosh Khadka:

What is spirituality ?

Spirituality is the art and science of exploring our own inner being and understanding who we are and the tools to knowing our originality and developing our own potentials.

What is the right age to start spirituality ?

Every child is inquisitive and very curious.Spirituality starts right at the moment you have curiosity about something but slowly that curiosity is limited just to the world of objects and senses.You can help children to become and remain naturally inquisitive and probing at the age of 5 or 6, which is the right time to start spirituality. If not, the day you are aware of your life you can start exploring your own spiritual dimension.

How academic institutions (school, college and university) can promote spirituality ?

Spirituality can be explored in educational institutions through the curriculum,exercises and activities. There are three dimensions of human life -first is truth, second is goodness and third is beauty (Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram). If we start entering into the truth and not just the facts, we start entering into the goodness of life and know how good the life is. We start experiencing the beautiful aspects of life and then spirituality starts right at that moment. So, school curriculum must foster the sense of spiritual quest in the students.

What is the relationship of depression, suicide and meditation ?

If you don’t know who you are, if you don’t get back to yourself, your mind will wander around ceaselessly and creates so many problems. One of the problems is depression. Depression is basically an inability to express oneself. The very word depression also suggests you have suppressed and depressed something inside of you. The pain and the misery that depression and other mental problems bring results in suicide and related issues.

Both depression and suicide are the result of absence of meditation in one’s life. Meditation is entering in to one’s own true nature. Our true nature is blissful and loving compassionate. It is all about living a very peaceful and joyful life with absolute freedom. In our own meditative state we experience absolute freedom which is lacking in our normal life.

How can we manage the huge generation gap existing in our society? (Especially in context to parents and child relationship) ?

Generation gap is natural because every society is helping children to understand only the world and not themselves. Because of the advancement in science and technology and human thoughts the change in the outside is very fast, and parents and elderly people are unable to keep pace with the change. That is why there is a huge generation gap. Children are inquisitive and curious. They want to know everything first hand. They don’t rely on somebody else’s experience.

That is why there is always a huge generation gap. But if we have open sharing and dialogue in the family – very compassionate dialogue of children with parents and elderly people -there will be transfer of knowledge that takes place very automatically. That transfer is two way, from the grown-up people to children and from the children to grown-up people also. The knowledge transfer takes place very fast and the generation gap narrows down. So sharing is very important. Another thing I want to tell you is when generation gap goes up both the parents and the children should be exposed to spiritual knowledge because in spiritual knowledge there is nothing like generation gap.

In the external world you cannot expect perfection because the world is ever changing.External world is a process of birth, evolution and decay. Search for perfection in the outside world will make you mad and obsessed. Perfection has to be your inner experience.

If we ask what is the goal of human life only very few individuals will hardly say that happiness is their goal. Why such an exception for Happiness ?

Everybody knows from inside that s/he wants to achieve happiness, but slowly material positions and accumulation of wealth becomes predominant. People start forgetting that happiness is their own nature and they start thinking that happiness is a by-product of something that you do or earn from the outside.

But if you start looking into yourself, immediately you will find that you are in search of happiness. Very clear,spontaneous and very simple law is that happiness is within you. You will discover your own happiness in no time.

What is mindfulness ?

Mindfulness is becoming aware of your surroundings and what is happening in the body. We call it Sajagata in Jeevan Vigyan. The most essential human nature is being mindful that is awareness. So, mindfulness is an attempt to discover your own original nature.

What can be the upcoming best revolution for world and entire humanity ?

I think the only revolution that should now take place is meditation,the tool for entering into ourselves and experiencing ourselves first hand. Because once you start meditating you will know your blissful nature and your own true joy, true peace and your true loving nature. Then you will have complete fulfillment in life.

If human beings are helped to realize their own nature there will be minimum conflict, exploitation, war and injustice in the war. There will be peace, freedom, and love. So, meditation is the revolution that entire human beings and the society need today.

Today’s youths are inclined towards spirituality despite of several cut-throat challenges. So, what you think about the future of humanity ?

Today’s youths are inclined towards spirituality not despite of but because of the cut-throat challenges. They have seen that the challenges, competition, threats and problems everywhere and have started realizing that only spirituality might be able to solve this problem. I am very optimistic about the future of humanity because what I see is quite natural and spontaneous for people to discover themselves. They know so many things happening and challenges we are facing. People are starting to realize that they need to know who they are.

What are the most important human values for present and future world ?

The most important human value is love, followed by happiness and peace. If these three values find a place in our hearts, we will create a wonderful civilization no matter what we are going through right now.

True relationship happens only after you experience love with in yourself. In my view, only spirituality and meditation can solve the problem of isolation and lack of intimacy.

Everyone wants to be perfect. Do you think is it necessary to be perfect ? Why so much craziness for perfection ?

Everybody wants to attain perfection.You can get in to yourself through and reach your inner state of perfection. In the external world you cannot expect perfection because the world is ever changing. External world is a process of birth, evolution and decay. Search for perfection in the outside world will make you mad and obsessed. Perfection has to be your inner experience.

Today’s youths feel lonely in times of crises even among so many relationships like friends, family, relatives, teachers etc. Why such a deep mental isolation ?

The state of feeling lonely and state of losing your intimate relationship is something different. People feel lonely because they are unable to relate. Even in classroom there is competition between students. If there is competition how can you co-operate? If there is no co-operation how can you be friendly and make true friendship.

This is not going to go away unless we are able to develop the three values of love, joy and peace in individuals. True relationship happens only after you experience love with in yourself. In my view, only spirituality and meditation can solve the problem of isolation and lack of intimacy.

What is another perspective of any big Crisis whether that is individual, social or global ?

If we do not explore with in ourselves but try to fill up our heart from outside there will be crisis after crisis. If I explore my originality I can feel deep sense of completion and satisfaction along with peace and joy. This is without any external condition; so it does not go away. If this state of peace comes in every heart we are going to create a paradise out of this chaos.

What is the central question of human life ?

I think the most central question of human life is the search for authentic Happiness. Everybody is exploring this central question knowingly or unknowingly. Probably your heart has the answer. But we are seeking the answer outside of the heart. That is why we are not getting it. People are always asking questions like whom to marry ? Which college to join ? What to buy or not to buy ? What to eat ? But what they are trying to ask is will I be happy before/ after having that thing ? Once we start asking this question we will get back to our own source and we will have more satisfied and peaceful individuals in society.

Why was Jeevan Vigyan established?
The main objective of Jeevan Vigyan is to help human beings attain their goal of enduring happiness. Jeevan Vigyan is a spiritual organization that helps individuals explore themselves. We use different tools and mechanisms, including spirituality, management and psychology.

What are the major courses/ training programs Jeevan Vigyan is offering ?

There are two different types of programs in Jeevan Vigyan – School of Prosperity and School of Spirituality.Prosperity is basically managing our outer life to make it more productive, healthy and wealthy. School of Spirituality helps us explore our inner Core or Being. There are programs for people of all ages and walks of life.

What is the right age to start meditation ?

We normally think that you have to start spirituality when you become old or useless. This is far from reality. Spirituality is your own inner search of happiness for living your life. This must start at an earlyage so that the whole life become fulfilling, joyful and loving. Researches point out that the right age to start spirituality is five.