Midnight Journal: Prakasha (Career vs Calling)
Post: 6/12 - Be guided by the light within
Last week, I was in Kasol, Himachal Pradesh, on a short trek with my wife and five-and-a-half-year-old son. As we walked through the mountains, I asked him, What did you like most about this trek?
He said, The pine trees, the river, the flowers, and the people selling fruits. I liked their smiles.
Then I asked, If you wanted all of them to know that you liked them, what would you do?
He thought for a moment and replied, I would draw a picture of myself and paste it on all those pine trees along the way with a message: I am staying in this hotel. I like this village very much. Please come and meet me. I want to hug you all.
As we grow older, our minds become crowded with boundaries and differences. We learn to separate me from you, mine from yours. But children remind us of a deeper truth & connection with people/nature: beneath all, there is a light of love, belonging, and openness.
This inspired me to write a love letter to the Universe expressing my happiness as a love letter:
Dear Universe,
Today, in Kasol, surrounded by forests, mountains, birdsong, the river, and the gentle wind, I feel your presence in every direction.
A wind chime hangs nearby. The wind moves naturally, and the chime responds according to its own. Together, they create a melody.
The river flows, the mountains stand, the birds sing, and the wind dances. Everything is in a state of flow.
Thank you for reminding me that I, too, am part of this symphony. When I stop resisting and align with my nature, life becomes music.
With love,
One note in your infinite song (Music is Medicine)
When we work on our inner light, we naturally become aware of what helps us grow and what holds us back. We learn which people, places, and experiences energize us, inspire wisdom, and help us shine - and which connections dim our light. Affirm while working on your light:
I am a divine expression of light; I embrace my flaws and shine anyway.
While working to uncover (not discover) our inner light, it helps to ask ourselves: What truly makes us shine? Think back to childhood days: what came naturally to you, something that you could do effortlessly for hours without feeling tired? What was so deeply a part of you that it felt like a pure expression of your soul? Often, our deepest gifts are hidden in those simple, natural inclinations. They are not merely talents; they are ways through which we express the divine within us.
Don’t confuse this with a career. A career is what you do for a living. A calling is what you are meant to bring into the world. One may provide a livelihood, but the other gives life meaning. Your calling is the unique light that only you can share.
Now the question is: How do we discover what truly lights us up?
The journey is much like creating a mandala or going on a trek to Mount Kailasha. You know the destination.
A mandala does not emerge all at once. It unfolds pattern by pattern, each stroke detailing a symmetry that was always there, waiting to be expressed. In the same way, our calling reveals itself through curiosity, joy, and the moments when we feel most alive.
Steve Jobs: You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
Every experience, every passion, every challenge becomes a piece of the design. Slowly, what once seemed random begins to align into a beautiful, harmonious pattern. W
Trust the process. Follow what energizes you. Pay attention to what makes time disappear. Your inner light is not something you have to create- it is something you uncover, not discover.
Requesting my readers to like, share, and comment. Your feedback matters.
As I was reading this, I found myself feeling the wind, the sun, the river, and that strange sense of expansion that sometimes appears when we stop thinking for a moment and simply experience being alive. 🌱 For me, that’s become a compass. When something brings me closer to that feeling of aliveness, openness, and presence, I pay attention. More often than not, that’s where I find what genuinely lights me up. 🥹✨
Beautifully expressed. It resonates with the idea that life is less about “becoming” and more about uncovering what already exists within us. The mandala analogy and the notion of flow in nature were particularly striking. It leaves you thinking about how much of life we spend reconnecting with something we already knew as children.