Finding the "Switch"

My current favorite book is titled "Stumbling into Infinity" written by Michael Fischman about his experiences on the spiritual path, particularly his time with the Transcendental Meditation group and later with the Art of Living Foundation and HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. There were so many "wow" moments in the book that I cannot write them all out in this blog... But one (of the numerous) rather practical tips I came across was related to Michael's experience in India where he thought that no one in the Ashram was answering his questions because he was a foreigner. When Michael complained to Sri Sri about this, he just smiled and took Michael through a rather peculiar exercise of turning off a light bulb that was beaming directly into Sri Sri's eyes. Micheal was unable at first to turn off the light even though he thought he had tried all (four) switches. Guruji kept saying "you missed the switch!" After several attempts, finally, Micheal "found the switch." Although rather cryptic, Micheal got the message (albeit after a few hours of pondering) - in order to "make" people listen, he needed to make a "switch" in his own mind - namely, stop thinking that people were not listening to him because he was a foreigner! I could immediately relate to the story...

During my (endless) studies as a law student, I often had to conduct interviews and field studies and my approach was always laced with a conviction that no one in India would really answer my questions because (1) I am a girl and (2) I am an Indian! In accordance with this conviction, I did indeed get a lukewarm reception and response in most of my interviews in India. Reading Michael's story in the book, I thought - "Aha! I need to make a switch in my own mind!" I started talking to myself - "Maybe this conviction in my mind is baseless! Why should people not listen to me or answer my questions on these meaningless grounds?" But I was at a complete loss on how exactly to go about actually making this switch... there isn't really a switch that we can turn on and off in our own minds you know!! So how exactly does this knowledge function??

As I do when any such (spiritual) question confuses me, I mulled over it for several days... finally, I gave up and wrote a long letter to Guruji explaining my mental condition. Thereafter, I kind of forgot about it all and just went about doing all that was necessary to prepare for the field trip to India. I reached India as planned and started the seemingly endless rounds of interviewing people from one city to the next. When I was near the end of perhaps the 10th one, the senior gentleman I was interviewing said rather forthrightly... "We are helping you only because you are one of us, an Indian. We would not have entertained any foreign student if he/she were to ask for such detailed opinions!" While outwardly smiling and saying "thank you," from the inside, I was jolted and suddenly remembered my question: "How to make the switch?" I realised that without actually DOING anything, the switch had already happened! The thought that people would not answer my questions had not crossed my mind at all through out the trip! Indeed, all the interviews had been so fruitful, informative and detailed! The people were welcoming, friendly and more than helpful! How had the "switch" happened?? As I thought in amazement about this, I remembered one of the things that Sri Sri says often... Our own awareness is the first step towards overcoming any short comings and unwanted tendencies, habits and concepts. Once we become aware, most of the job is done! The key role played by spiritual practices (meditation, breathing techniques, yoga etc.) in our life, is to enhance this very awareness. In my experience, what ever the other steps are, all happen automatically, or maybe at a very subtle and unconscious level!

My husband was recently listening to a talk on the "Power of Intention" by Dr. Wayne Dyer. As the topic sounded interesting, I decided to listen for a while also... Dr. Dyer quoted several wonderful sentences from various spiritual, scientific and religious texts and paraphrased a lot of it as follows: "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change!" The phrase reminded me of my above experiences in India :) The talk (at least the first 20 mins or so that I heard) as well as the book are amazing! I'll leave you to discover the other treasures therein, on your own!

In the mean time, here is today's recipe, breaking through all concepts of what should or should not go into a muffin :D

Everything Muffins

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup Buckwheat Flour
1 cup whole brown rice flour
1/2 to 2/3 cup whole wheat or other flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt (unless the lentils/chickpeas below are salted, in which case, skip the salt)
2/3 tsp cinnamon powder


Wet ingredients
1 cup brown sugar/agave syrup/maple syrup (you can also skip this and use an additional banana instead)
2 or 3 very very ripe bananas
2/3 cup silken tofu
1 cup left over lentils, chickpeas or any other dal from the previous meal (you may wash away any extra masala from the chickpeas if you like)
2/3 cup oil or butter
2/3 to 1 cup assorted nuts and raisins (crush the nuts into desired size - I chose to grind them to powder)
1/3 cup milk/soya milk/almond milk, or apple juice
1 tsp vanilla

Veges and Fruits
1 whole apple or carrot - grated
1 whole zucchini (or any other vegetable) - grated


Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180° C. Place the muffin cups into the muffin tray or grease the muffin tray and set aside.

Mix all the dry ingredients really well.
Separately, mix all the wet ingredients - you can use a blender if you like, but do not blend for more than a minute.

Pour the wet ingredient mix into the dry ingredients and mix using a wooden spatula till smooth. Add the Veges and Fruits and mix well again.


The batter should be thick and difficult to handle and not of pouring consistency. (But not like cookie dough or dough for bread or rotis - if it is this thick, add some more milk/juice/water). Scoop out by spoonfuls into the muffin tray, filling each muffin cup till the very top. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or till a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Makes 12 large muffins.


Serve warm with butter or marmalade :)

PS: Although it may seem like these will be really strange tasting muffins, they are actually really tasty and of course, nutritious - with whole grains, fruits, vegetables and lots of protein. My daughter who had been fussing and refusing to eat anything solid, ate three of these muffins in one day very happily! :)