Book of the Week: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra

The book is a quick powerful inspirational read, perfect for in-flight reading or if you are in-between flights, only 100-pages short. Your trip will be memorable not because of the outcomes you created but because you read this little book. 

Deepak Chopra is a world-leading expert in the area of human potential, health and well-being. In this book he shares principles that have helped him and countless others (that includes me and my clients) to achieve both material success and joyous fulfilment. 

These principles will help you to live your highest potential, make a big impact in the world through your work or business, make a difference to the communities and country you are part of, become a key person of influence in your industry transforming the industry itself.

If you are someone who is committed to lead your business from good to great from a state of grace, understand and implement these principles.

The book begins with this beautiful quote from Upanishads, a part of Vedas which are the most ancient Hindu scriptures:

You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.

Of course, the question is whether you will nourish, grow and evolve yourself physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually to allow your destiny to fully bloom.

Here are few excerpts from the book to inspire you to read the book from cover to cover:

1. Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals. Success is the ability to fulfil your desires with effortless ease. ... There are many aspects to success; material wealth is only one component. ... success also includes good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional and psychological stability, a sense of well-being and a peace of mind.

2. ... pure joy ... pure knowledge, infinite silence, perfect balance, invincibility, simplicity and bliss. This is our essential nature. When you discover your essential nature and know who you really are, in that knowing itself is the ability to fulfill any dream you have ...

3. The need for approval, the need to control things, and the need for external power are needs that are based on fear.

4. The ego ... is not who you really are. The ego is your self-image; it is a social mask; it is the role you are playing. Your social mask thrives on approval. It wants to control, and it is sustained by power, because it lives in fear. You true Self, which is your spirit, your soul, is completely free of those things. It is immune to criticism, it is unfearful of any challenge, and it feels beneath no one. And yet, it is also humble and feels superior to no one ...

5. ... if you want to make full use of the creativity which is inherent in pure consciousness, then you have to have access to it. One way to access the field is through the daily practise of silence, meditation and non-judgment. Spending time in nature will also give you access to the qualities inherent in the field: infinite creativity, freedom and bliss.

6. And then you create the possibility of dynamic activity while at the same time carrying the stillness of the eternal, unbounded, creative mind. ... This coexistence of opposites - stillness and dynamism at the same time - makes you independent of situations, circumstances, people and things.

7. ... if you want joy, give joy to others; if you want love, learn to give love; if you want attention and appreciation, learn to give attention and appreciation; if you want material affluence, help others to become materially affluent. In fact, the easiest way to get what you want is to help others get what they want. This principle works equally well for individuals, corporations, societies and nations.

8. Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind ... what we sow is what we reap. And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruits of our karma is happiness and success.

9. Whether you like it or not, everything that is happening at this moment is a result of the choices you've made in the past. Unfortunately, a lot of us make choices unconsciously, and therefore we don't think they are choices - and yet, they are. ... your future is generated by the choices you are making in every moment of your life. ... The more you bring your choices into the level of your conscious awareness, the more you will make those choices which are spontaneously correct - both for you and those around you.

10. ... when we harness the forces of harmony, joy and love, we create success and good fortune with effortless ease.

11. An integral being knows without going, sees without looking, and accomplishes without doing. - Lao Tzu.

12. Least effort is expended when your actions are motivated by love, because nature is held together by the energy of love. When you seek power and control over other people, you waste energy. ... When your actions are motivated by love, your energy multiplies and accumulates - and the surplus energy you gather and enjoy can be channeled to create anything that you want, including unlimited wealth.

13. ... most of our energy goes into upholding our importance ... if we were capable of losing some of that importance, two extraordinary things would happen to us. One, we would free our energy from trying to maintain the illusory idea of our grandeur; and two, we would provide ourselves enough energy to ... catch a glimpse of the actual grandeur of the Universe. - from The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda.

14. This moment - the one you are experiencing right now - is the culmination of all the moments you have experienced in the past. This moment is as it is because the entire Universe is as it is. When you struggle against this moment, you are actually struggling against the entire Universe. Instead, you can make the decision that today you will not struggle against the whole Universe by struggling against this moment. This means that your acceptance of this moment is total and complete. You accept things as they are, not as you wish they were in this moment. ... You can wish for things in the future to be different, but in this moment you have to accept things as they are.

15. When you feel frustrated or upset by a person or a situation, remember that you are not reacting to the person or the situation, but to your feelings about the person or the situation. These are your feelings, and your feelings are not someone else's fault. When you recognize and understand this completely, you are ready to take responsibility for how you feel and to change it.

16. Responsibility means not blaming anyone or anything for your situation, including yourself. Having accepted the circumstance, this event, this problem; responsibility then means the ability to have a creative response to the situation as it is now.

17. Whenever confronted by a tyrant, tormentor, teacher, friend, or foe (they all mean the same thing), remind yourself - "This moment is as it should be." Whatever relationships you have attracted in your life at this moment are precisely the ones you need in your life at this moment. There is a hidden meaning behind all events, and this hidden meaning is serving your evolution.

15. If you just relinquish the need to defend your point of view, you will in that relinquishment, gain access to enormous amounts of energy that have been previously wasted. When you become defensive, blame others, and do not accept and surrender to the moment, your life meets resistance.

16. ... if you stop fighting and resisting, ... if you embrace the present ..., joy will be born within you and you will drop the terrible burdens ... of defensiveness, resentment and hurtfulness. Only then will you become lighthearted, carefree, joyous and free. ... When you have the exquisite combination of acceptance, responsibility and defenselessness, you will experience life flowing with effortless ease. When you remain open to all points of views - not rigidly attached to only one - your dreams and desires will flow with nature's desires.

17. Attention energizes and intention transforms. Whenever you put your attention on will grow stronger in your life. Whatever you take your attention away from will wither, disintegrate, and disappear. Intention, on the other hand, triggers transformation of energy and information. Intention organizes its own fulfilment. ... Intention is the real power behind desire. Intent alone is very powerful, because intent is desire without attachment to the outcome. ... Intention combined with detachment leads to life-centered, present-moment awareness. And when action is performed in present moment awareness, it is most effective. Your intent is for the future, but your attention is in the present. ... The future is something you can always create through detached intention, but you should never struggle against the present.

18. One-pointed intention is that quality of attention that is unbending in its fixity of purpose. One-pointed intention means holding your attention to the intended outcome with such unbending purpose that you absolutely refuse to allow obstacles to consume and dissipate the focused quality of your attention. There is a total and complete exclusion of all obstacles from your consciousness. You are able to maintain an unshakable serenity while being committed to your goal with intense passion. This is the power of detached (present moment) awareness and one-pointed, focused intention simultaneously.

19. ... in order to acquire anything in the physical Universe, you have to relinquish your attachment to it. This doesn't mean you give up the intention to create your desire. You don't give up the intention, and you don't give up the desire. You give up your attachment to the result. ...  Detachment is synonymous with wealth consciousness, because with detachment there is freedom to create. Only from detached involvement can one have joy and laughter. ... Without detachment, we are prisoners of helplessness, hopelessness, mundane needs, trivial concerns, quiet desperation and seriousness - the distinctive features of everyday mediocre existence and poverty consciousness.

20. Every single problem that you have in your life is the seed of an opportunity for some greater benefit.

21. Everyone has a purpose in life ... a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstacy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals.

Wishing you the clarity to march forth on your Hero's journey to fulfil the purpose of your life. 

Love, Jyoti.