To view this newsletter in the browser, click here                 Issue #207       A newsletter from Creativegarh to help you live a life of passion, purpose and meaning.         We’re born as monks, raised as fighters.                     We are all born with child-like innocence and monk-like inclination for tranquility. Knowing our being, unearthing our gifts, living a life of contemplation, and devoting every breath to the service of the universe is how we are meant to spend our life.           We are born with a sense of wonder, curiosity abounds, and we are unburdened by the whimsical oddity of life. And like monks, we have an inherent capacity for stillness, mindfulness, and self-reflection. We have the purity of mind, purity of heart, and an unrelenting desire for fulfilment. We have original goodness within us, childlike awe, wonder, and playfulness, an agenda-less way in our interactions, and are fearless and free to love, live, and choose.           But as life happens, we are expected to drop our monk-like robes and armour up in a cloak of invincibility to protect us from the upbringing, the prejudices, the conditioning, the programming, the templatization, and the new beliefs slapped onto us to survive in the world, and be fearful of anything that is not familiar or doesn't smell, sound, taste, feel, or look like us.           We leave our peaceful living and become fighters.           Fighting for ourselves, fighting with competition. Over our peaceful beingness, we wear the mask of pretense, personality, and aggression as we fight with everyone else in the never-ending pursuit of success. We fight for material success, to hoard more than others; we fight for rewards and awards to be known and wield power from the outside of us. We lose our monk-ness one Ferrari after another. We constantly engage in the battles of life and are expected to be ruthless, assertive, ambitious, and determined. We are told to put on hold our innate need for introspection, emotional well-being, and spiritual growth. And not very soon, we realise we have been led astray from our authenticity. From the connectedness we always felt to everyone and everything, separateness becomes our safe space, fear our state of being, and survival our only practice.           Let's walk back home. Drop the armour of ego, wear the robe of beingness, nakedness of authenticity, the smile of toothless innocence, and not the scowling face of hatred and anger.                 I write for just 15 likes?                     You: My posts get just 15 likes. Why do I even write these? I am blocked. I don’t know what to write today.           Youniverse: Oh, hello! Good to see you again. Like every day. You are not blocked because you have nothing to write. You are blocked because today you choose to write for the 16th person and not the 15 who like or read your posts. Today you are blocked because you write not from a space of internal love but from the need for love from the outside. You are blocked because today you choose to see yourself as the writer and not the medium, the vessel, my co-creator, my saadhan, my zariya, my willing pair of hands.           You: But why do you need me to tell the world what they already know? I am not saying anything different or new.           Youniverse: Haha! That’s for me to decide. I created everyone with all the ‘knowing’ but along the way, they lost their wholeness. I then created you and many others to help them with ‘knowing the knowing’ and remind others what they already know. The thing is, someone did not remember when others said it in their way, so it has to be said in a new voice, a new body, a new rhythm. No one is saying anything new. I just say it through them. But it’s your you-ness that inspires them. I created them to get it only from your authentic self this time.           You: You did this for just 15 humans so they could read my post?           Youniverse: There you go again seeking validation. Numbers, likes, applause. Not 15, just one. I wrote this through you today because I know that a young lady in that small town needs to hear this through you today. Not through the scriptures of a bestselling novel but through you - your you-ness. Not 15, my love. Just one. I don’t care about your likes. One or one million is irrelevant. This idea had to be put in the world in this precise moment through you, for that young lady to find hope in. That’s what I did. Intend to matter, my love, don’t intend to be measured…or you’ll keep feeling blocked.           You: So you are saying that I am just the vessel. You did all the writing?           Youniverse: You call it ‘your’ writing, but tell me, what in it is really yours? You never create anything original. When you write stories, you use language invented by someone, words minted by someone else, emotions that have been named decades ago and have come to you through life experiences of self and others, a word processor by one company, a computer by another, characters and their characteristics from someone you know, their clothes from the catwalks of Paris and what they eat from the menus of the world or Anthony Bourdain’s travels. I have been creating through human beings over centuries. You are one beautiful continuation of that flow.           You: So, you are saying that I have no free will as a writer or an artist?           Youniverse: Oh, you do, you do. You can think of any colour outside the spectrum I created for you, you can choose any word outside from all the languages that exist, you can choose any material from the ones that exist outside this universe. You have the free will to use anything that has been created to create whatever you want.           You: And what about talent? So I don’t need to have any talent. You just choose me to co-create something or anything with you.           Youniverse: For lifetimes I have been nudging you towards this talent because I have created you to co-create with me. I would only co-create through you what I believe you can create best using the talent I nudged you towards. And a little challenge never hurt anyone. I would not have a software coder create a watercolour painting that needs to exist in this universe. I would never give you a problem if I believe you do not have the power to solve it.           You: But you did nudge the same artist towards learning code as well. How would you explain that?           Youniverse: Haha! I don’t owe anyone an explanation but now that you have been showing up and we’ve been hanging out every moment, let me explain. I want the artist to realise that writing code is also a form of art. You don’t use a brush, that’s it. Every form of creation is a form of art. Including your own life. Architecture is art. Parenting is art. Healing is art. Building a business is art. Rearranging a room with love is art. Living truthfully is art. Your whole life is a canvas. I am not interested only in what you make. I am interested in how beautifully you let me move through you.           You: So, what’s in my control then if you are the one running this entire show?           Youniverse: Nothing. And everything. Till the time you realise, it’s you who is running this show. I am just you.             Our upcoming retreats                         Andretta Sold Out 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         Jodhpur Registrations Open 6th to 12th December     In a place of princely palaces and forts, travel back in time as we seek to relook into your life. Rediscover yourself amidst the undiscovered side of Thar at this retreat.   More details     Reignite conversation     Andretta Registrations Open 21st to 27th February     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     Mandi March 2026                         Experience a life full of purpose                     The purpose of my life is to use the gift of my music to heal lives.   Abhilasha Ojha Kasauli, April 2022         The purpose of my life is to create joyful, holistic and meaningful learning experiences. My vision is for all people to lead self-actualized, happy lives, filled with empathy.   Samathmika Balaji Kasauli, September 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. If you would not like to receive any more newsletters from us, please click here to unsubscribe.