The Secret – How it worked for me. (PART - I)

Last month a youth asked Guruji a question in the Q&A session in the ashram satsang:

Q: What is your opinion on the new age knowledge in movies like ‘The Secret’?
A: I have been talking about this for last 28 years. INTENTION – ATTENTION – MANIFESTATION. (This is not verbatim)

I have a clear-cut intention behind writing this blog: Upon perusing my experiences of utilizing the law of universe in my life, the reader goes and gets a copy of the secret book or DVD for herself asap and starts experiencing the secret in her own life. Additionally picks up the CD of Gurudev’s talk entitled “INTENTION – ATTENTION – MANIFESTATION.”

This is how I made the secret work for me…

(WARNING: To the reader it may seem utterly selfish that, I used the secret to achieve my own personal ambitions / material world comforts; but it served me as a proof that the secret really works and so I can go ahead and recommend it to others around me and use to for the betterment of the society in many more harmonious ways. E.g. The other day in ashram satsang someone brought up the issue of war going on in Sri Lanka and Guruji told us all to pray for the safety of the civilians caught up in war between the army and LTTE. A few moments of sincere prayer for our troubled brothers and sisters around the world after finishing our sadhana really helps coz they say - faith moves mountains!)


The basic reason behind most of our decisions and actions is – to gain happiness. Whether our actions come out of Love / Fear / Greed, the ultimate goal is to be happy, peaceful, joyful, etc. Let’s start with discussing what are the THINGS that we THINK can make us HAPPY. Obviously I’m thinking from the perspective of a young person, it would vary based upon what stage of life the person is, what are his/her experiences about life so far, and what is his/her views about what life has to offer to them in future.

So to keep it simple, for me it was to get a “good job” while continuing the progress on the spiritual path...
Good job = 1. Interesting/challenging work. 2. Nice work place and colleagues. 3. the most important of all - loads of cash in the bank account at the end of every month.
And other desired perks include flexible work hours, business trips abroad, and so on...

So I wanted a really “GOOD JOB”. Not to mention that ever since I did the Art of Living course and started practicing the techniques, grace has been overflowing in life and the more I immerse myself in Sadhana – Seva – Satsang, the more I experience unlimited showering of grace in the life…

So I get surprisingly good grades, I get a good start to my career, find nice people with similar interests where ever I go, and then a better job, and then even a better job with a bigger pay package and the story continues just like with any one else who has come under the umbrella of a true master.

Now comes the part where I experimented with exercising The Secret…

From 2004 till 2006 my base was in the city of Pune – a very active city on the map of Art of Living. And I got this strong desire in me that I want to be more in Guruji’s physical presence while He is here in this lifetime. This was my #1 thought during the times after the Silver Jubilee celebrations in 2006. This was followed by thought #2: to get a job in Bangalore with the following requirements:

1 The work must be matching my interest.
2 The job must involve business trips to US.
3 The package must be unbelievably excellent.
4 The office must be very close to my residence.
5 The company must be a promising product startup.
6 I should get to play a leading role in the built up of team.


The secret says that one has to be absolutely clear about what one wants when taking the first step i.e. Ask. Then it says that one has to prepare to be in line to Receive what one has asked from the universe. So in my search for the new employer, I first filtered out companies that were not “a new network security product startup in Bangalore with HQ in California”. Then I went ahead and checked their websites to see there office location in Bangalore, and found out how far it is from the Ashram using google maps. After getting satisfied with these preliminary aspects, I started interviewing with the selected employers. I have to confess that I interviewed some other companies that did not perfectly fit the above criteria; but that was mostly done either to get some interview practice or to get a sponsored trip to Bangalore in the pretext of personal interview with the company – the real reason being to visit ashram and meet Guruji.

One more wish I had at that time was to visit the land of opportunities – the united states of America! Because, at that time many of my classmates had flown to the states, either for higher studies or as part of their jobs. So I decided to put ‘the secret’ in practice, and said, “I don’t know how, but I’m getting the next job which sends me to US on short business trips”.

So I got not one but a couple of offers lined up for me to choose from, both offering most of the things I had in mind! And I applied the secret and used even more filters like…
a) Which company has less work pressure - so that I can get ample time to visit ashram / do more sadhana seva satsang!
b) Which company has more opportunities to visit US,
c) Which company offers a better pay package and a better leave policy – very important if you wanna take at least 2 advance courses a year + do other courses like TTC, Blessings course, etc.
d) Which company had a nicer set of people in the management and so on and so forth…

If it would not have been for the knowledge of ‘the secret’, there was no chance that I was going to think of myself to deserve such a dream job. I mean if you say I want huge salary but less work and more fun! anybody is going to say it is an unrealistic expectation. So if I had no idea about the universal law of nature, I might not have landed such a Picture perfect job!

Of course everything was not a piece of cake and I had to make intelligent choices and take steps towards fulfillment of my desires. I had to take a fair amount of risk, be alert to grab the right kind of opportunities, and most important of all be extremely patient while the things worked out over a span of a couple of months. For example the company I joined at that time PacketMotion, Inc. was opening its new office in Bangalore. So I was going to be one of the first few people to come on board! Those who have worked in fast-paced product startups know how grueling it can be work in such company in the early stages of its lifetime. Just to prove the point, let me give you the full picture of the recruitment that happened at PMI… I was interviewed (together with around 25-50 other candidates) by the CEO, COO, CFO, CTO, and the CA (Chief Architect) of the company in their newly setup office (although it hardly sounded like an IT office with no visible computer hardware on the floor). And they made offers to around 10 prospects including me. This list also included the GM who was to manage the team in India. But in reality when I joined, I realized that I happened to be the first and only successful engineering recruit of their India development centre among those offers! bcoz all the other guys including the GM did not dare to join and chose a safer option somewhere else!
I wish they would have known this beautiful proverb – “The ship is always safe at the bay but that is not what is is made for.”

I still remember the day I got the call from one of the companies that made me an offer… That day Guruji was in town and a bunch of us Guruji’s fans or fanatics whatever you may call us (me, my parents, & Shreejith’s parents I think) went chasing Him all over the town! Early in the morning we were present amongst a small set of people to witness Guruji’s visit at Anand’s spice factory, where He happily accepted my request to garland Him for the first time in my life!!! Then on to the renowned college campus of MIT on the other side of the town (this college is owned by the same trust which awarded Gurudev “Shri Saint Dnyaneshwar World Peace Prize later that year), where Guruji addressed thousands of students and guided us into a beautiful meditation. By this time I had given a surprise leave notice to my boss and was on the way to the Airport to bid a farewell to Him for some time. And while we were awaiting his entry into the airport, I got the confirmation call of the new job offer!!!


PART II of this post coming soon... So keep checking:-)