by Aditya Ahluwalia

Despite long-delayed salaries and elusive profits, the LIFE POSITIVE publisher explains why the magazine has been going non-stop for 15 years

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I have been spiritually curious since age 16 and began exploring various traditions and philosophies outside my religion of birth.

Publication of Life Positive was a milestone on my journey into spiritual curiosity.

Though the primary motivation behind launching Life Positive was a desire to help create a community of seekers who would come together to understand spirituality and journey together, there was a clear understanding that the venture needed to be self-sufficient and commercially viable after some initial hand-holding. Three years and crores of rupees later, I realised that the magazine may never be commercially profitable. This realisation having dawned upon me, it has been a struggle to keep the magazine alive till now having exhausted the initial corpus of funds kept aside for it. But to the credit of the magazine, its founding editor Parveen and senior colleagues Suma and Venkat, we never missed an issue even during its most tumultuous period.

The entire process of publishing the magazine on a very tight budget has been an extremely humbling experience. The support of wellwishers like Shri Kaarthikeyan and my other colleagues have made all my efforts pale in comparison. The team continues to work with complete dedication and focus, despite some having built up a backlog of overdue salaries. They have thought of Life Positive as their own baby with little regard for their own financial welfare or better opportunities. I realised the enormity of the task we had taken ownership for, and during these times, letters and words of encouragement and support of our readers were our biggest motivation.

Even today, I feel humbled and privileged to be a part of such a group of people. As humbling as this experience has been, it gave me an insight into the courage and tenacity of a human being – we can achieve and sustain so much if only we have the strength and resolve to do it. Over the past 15 years, through Life Positive, I have met many noble souls and masters whom I would have never had the chance to meet otherwise. They have left an indelible mark on me and enriched my life. They have enhanced my journey of spiritual curiosity and learning.

A few years ago at one of the Life Positive Expos, one of the great masters asked me: “Adityaji, what would you like? Ask for a wish!” I was a little taken aback but my automatic response was: “Nothing but your blessings.” Fifteen years ago, would my response have been the same? I guess I will never know, but maybe not. My wish would have most likely been a material desire.

This journey with Life Positive has impacted me at both internal and external levels. I practice yoga, meditate more regularly and have turned vegetarian (not an easy feat being raised in a true blue Punjabi meat eating family!). At subtler and inner levels, I still cannot fully comprehend or expound upon the impact of this voyage on me. But maybe in the next fi ve years, who knows, I may. So please keep reading till then!

See more articles on Life at: http://www.lifepositive.com/Articles/Life