A perfect 20
January 2016
By Dada Vaswani
Life Positive has served the people for 20 years. It has shown to thousands that the right way to live is to live the life that is life indeed – a life of simplicity, sympathy, service, of self-effacement and self-realization.
The more I think of it, the more I feel that most of what we call modern, is negative. It is a comfort to know that there is a magazine like Life Positive which suggests meaningful solutions to people’s problems. It is at once a joy and a blessing to congratulate our dear friends and sisters, Suma Varughese and Jamuna Rangachari, and the entire team of Life Positive on the auspicious occasion of this wonderful magazine’s 20th anniversary.
Today, so many seem to believe that life with all its hatred and strife has come to stay. I believe that the universe keeps on changing from day to day. But even if it did not change, our perception of the world keeps on changing.
Perception is more important than facts! When your perception changes, you will rediscover the magic, the wonder that is life. You will take nothing for granted; nothing as given; you will learn to appreciate and be grateful for countless blessings that the Almighty has so generously bestowed on you – including the air you breathe, the wind that caresses you softly, the lovely smile on the face of the children you see in the neighbourhood, the song of the bird, the bloom of the rose, the scent of rain on the earth… and oh, a thousand other things which you will rediscover with a sense of wonder and gratitude!
Every single issue of Life Positive tells stories, inspires, instructs, and guides the reader to feel in body, heart, mind and soul how man and God are partners in this endless adventure of existence.
A positive attitude cannot be taught, it must be caught. Therefore, we have to be extremely careful about what we read and how we spend our leisure time, and the company we keep. If we take to the habit of reading positive literature, we become automatically associated with the fellowship of people with a positive attitude, and their positive vibrations and energy will influence us to change negative thinking and pessimism.
This positive perception, this attitude of gratitude is what Life Positive has been working for, steadily, surely. In my manual of spirituality in daily life, the daily reading of positive literature plays a very important role: I am happy that there are magazines which fall into this rare and precious category of positive literature!
As I write this, I glance at some of the headlines that caught my attention over the last few months: The Art of Kindness, Hope for the Hopeless, Find your Purpose… and many more. We need to see and hear and read such things, if we are not to drown in the sea of despair and pessimism that is ever waiting to overwhelm us today.
As a firm believer in the psychosomatic unity of the human being, I have always asserted that holistic healing is what helps us: you cannot treat the body as if it is a separate physical entity and hope to enjoy good health and well-being! It gives me great satisfaction to know that Life Positive has adopted this approach from Day 1: its insistent emphasis on integrated personal growth is something all of us need to follow. And to someone like me who has stuck to my tried and tested healers, Dr. Diet and Dr. Quiet, Dr. Sunshine and Dr. Laughter, it is a matter of great satisfaction that Life Positivehas brought alternative medicine and healing into the limelight.
There are two things I urge my friends to do: 1. Think positive! No matter what your concerns relate to – your family, your work, your personal relationships, your health or your future – let your thoughts be positive or nothing! 2. Choose Happiness! We can choose to be happy, healthy, helpful and positive. Or we can choose to be dull, depressed, miserable, selfish and negative.
We can choose what we like! If we make the right choices, we will grow in health, happiness and vitality. If we make the wrong choice, we suffer from disease, loss of energy, loss of vitality, loss of creativity and loss of enthusiasm.
Inundated as we are in this age by information, we come to crave the wisdom and love born out of silence.
What will you choose? Let me say to you, reading this beautiful magazine, Life Positive, will surely help you make the right choice!
About the author : Dada J P Vaswani heads the Sadhu Vaswani Mission and is the author of over 50 books in English and many more in Sindhi with practical tips for happy, successful, spiritual living.