To view this newsletter in the browser, click here                 Issue #201       A newsletter from Creativegarh to help you live a life of passion, purpose and meaning.         Come from joy, not for joy.                     One who is happy within, who rejoices within, who is illuminated within - that yogi attains the supreme liberation. ~ Bhagavad Gita 5.24           On the spiritual path, the biggest shift happens when you realise that joy is an inside job.           But we are trained to live the other way around. We keep changing the outside in the hope that the inside will finally settle. A new job, a better boss, a more exciting city, a different partner, a better holiday, a fresh plan, a new aesthetic, another version of life. We keep rearranging the furniture of our outer world, hoping the inner room will feel more beautiful. And sometimes it does, for a while. But that kind of excitement is short-lived. One day you realise you have run out of things to change outside, and still something within remains restless, dull, unsatisfied.           This is where Krishna’s teaching becomes deeply practical. He speaks of the person who is happy within, who rejoices within, who is illuminated within. He is not describing someone who rejects the world or stops enjoying beauty, love, food, friendship, music, or success. He is describing someone whose main power source is no longer external. Their peace is not entirely outsourced. Their joy is not waiting for life to finally behave.           This becomes most important on those days when mornings do not feel like mornings, when grief still sits in the chest like a stone, when old pain seeps into the bones, when uncertainty invites anxiety to perform its circus, when nothing seems to be going according to plan. Even then, you still have free will. You can still choose. And one of the most sacred choices available to you is to choose joy.           Not the joy of pleasure, stimulation, dopamine hits, likes, applause, goals achieved, cars bought, or holidays taken. But the quieter, stranger joy that is intrinsic to your being. The unreasonable happiness caused by nothing but your own aliveness. Joy that becomes your inner compass, your spiritual GPS, the true north star you had misplaced while living by everybody else’s map.           A practical way to live this is simple. Stop asking every moment to entertain you from the outside. Give yourself one pocket of inside joy every day. Sit quietly, journal, breathe. Make tea with full presence, walk without your phone. When the impulse arises to seek another external fix, pause and ask what you are actually feeling. Then ask a more important question - can I come from joy here, instead of waiting for joy to arrive?           That is how the inside light returns. You pour your love into what you are doing. You give it complete attention. You become present enough that even ordinary life becomes luminous. Then joy stops being something you chase and becomes something you bring.           Perhaps this is what Krishna means. Freedom begins the day your happiness, rest, and light no longer live entirely in the hands of circumstance.                 Vand Chhakko.     Share your food.     Share your love.     Share your gifts.                     There’s another beautiful gem in Sikhism - one of the spiritual tenets - and it’s called Vand Chhakko.           Vand means to divide, to distribute, to share. Chhakko means to eat, to consume, to partake. So the deeper ask is to share what you have, and have it together.           Vand Chhakko means sharing your food, your earnings, your table, your roof, your resources. It means not consuming life as if everything you hold is a private possession. It means understanding that what comes to you was never meant only for you.           It says, If I eat, let me see who can eat with me. If I know, let me see who can learn with me. If I rise, let me see who I can lift with me. If I heal, let me see where that healing can become shelter for another.           It’s a gentle reminder that abundance is not what you accumulate but what you can circulate. Because the deepest wealth is not possession but participation in the flow of life.           Also, Vand Chhakko is not only about material things. You can Vand Chhakko your attention, your kindness, your listening, your encouragement, your network, your seat at the table, your faith when someone else has lost theirs. Sometimes, the most needed sharing is not food or money but hope, warmth, and someone holding your hand and softly saying, come, sit, eat, breathe. You do not have to carry life alone today.           Vand Chhakko also goes far beyond sharing the material world and your love. It also means sharing your dreams with the world and not hiding them in the dark corners of self-doubt.           Share your art. Share your poems. Share your books. Share your ideas. Share your gifts. Share your talents. Share the music that came through you. Share the story that chose you. Share the business idea that could change someone’s life. Share the healing that softened you. Share the light that visited you.           Because you never know when your creations become healing for someone out there. You will never know how expression shows light to someone who is in the midst of depression.           That too is Vand Chhakko. To allow what has been given to you to flow through you. Because what comes to you was never meant only for you. That is how grace moves - into you through someone and through you for someone else.           So feed someone, yes. But also publish the poem. Serve the langar, yes. But also sing the song. Share your bread, yes. But also share your idea, your medicine, your story, your becoming.           That is Vand Chhakko. Not just to eat together. But to live, create, dream, heal, and rise together.             Our upcoming retreats                         Kolhapur Sold Out 12th to 18th July     Escape the city's clamor, reconnect with your inner light. Indulge in a life changing retreat, experiencing the discovery of your true self, within the arms of nature.   More details     Reignite conversation     Munnar Last 2 Seats Left 4th to 10th October     Sitting amidst lush landscapes and misty mountains, Munnar offers the perfect backdrop for a retreat focused on self-discovery, growth and renewal of life purposes.   More details     Reignite conversation     Andretta Registrations Open 15th to 21st November     To reconnect to your inner child at a beautiful hillside retreat with 14+ soulful individuals will make this a life-transforming experience. See you at Andretta!   More details     Reignite conversation           This week, let's revisit     Jodhpur February 2024                         Experience a life full of purpose                     The purpose of my life is to educate, enable and energise young entrepreneurs to help them fast-track their careers and businesses.   Hemant Gholkar Tirthan Valley, December 2022         The purpose of my life is to help people rediscover their self-love through storytelling.   Swati Gandhi Nainital, May 2022               For a daily dose of Creativegarh and our retreats, follow us here:                           Mantra Gold Coatings & The White Paper Creative         Sunita Somani         Pedal On               View Our Collabs for Joy                   creativegarh.com             You are receiving this newsletter because either you have subscribed to it through our website, interacted with us by filling an invite form or because you have asked us to put you on the database. 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