Khambrel Marshall
Welcome to the Houston Newsmakers show this Thanksgiving weekend. It’s certainly far from a normal time of celebration with our families. Covid-19 has changed all of that.
Many of us are searching for ways to find some sort of peace, whether it be through faith or friends, or perhaps spirituality.
That question had me thinking when I ran across the book, “Happy soul. Hungry mind.” written by Ravi Kathuria.
It got my attention when he wrote about the pressures of modern life and techniques for calming the mind, and a statement that religion discriminates, spirituality does not.
Ravi Kathuria is here this morning. He is president of the Houston Strategy Forum and author of the book "Happy soul. Hungry mind."
Good morning to you. Good to see you.
Ravi Kathuria
Thank you for having me on your show and for inviting me. What an honor, sir, to be on your show, thank you.
Khambrel Marshall
Great to have you here. What led you to write this book?
Ravi Kathuria
Khambrel, five years ago, I had a choice whether to work on a business endeavor, which would take me five, 10 years. It was to develop software for my consulting practice or focus on what really is the purpose of life.
I’d been spiritually inclined all my life and I decided I should not delay work on my spiritual progress. So, I decided to take the fork in the road and write this book on spirituality.
Khambrel Marshall
You talk about the difference between religion and spirituality. What is that difference and can they go hand in hand?
Ravi Kathuria
They go hand in hand. Let me provide a context.
Think of religion as ground transportation to the airport. You could take the train or the bus to the airport. Or, if you do not believe in religion you could drive yourself or walk to the airport.
At the airport, the gate agent doesn’t ask you how you got there. They check your papers and then let you board the flight.
Spirituality is the flight. The flight does not care what was the means you used.
Religion is one of the means to get to spirituality.
Spirituality is a million times more powerful than religion.
Khambrel Marshall
Do you see that people who are seeking a religious connection should actually be searching for spirituality if they’re trying to find a connection with God?
Ravi Kathuria
Yes. Religion cannot get you the God-experience. Only spirituality can.
Religion can help you move towards spirituality, and that’s what we have to remember.
Religion has a place in our life. Religion is very helpful.
But we have to be careful. Like any other tool in life. If you do not understand the context, and if you do not understand how to use the tool, then that tool can actually become a hindrance.
Khambrel Marshall
These days, I think everyone, is certainly under a tremendous amount of stress and angst and searching for ways to find a center, inner peace if you will.
What do you say to people who are trying to find that and may want to search for some level of spirituality to make that happen? How does one take those steps?
Ravi Kathuria
What a beautiful question, Sir.
We’re all searching for peace, and 2020 has been an -- oh, God, -- nobody could have imagined this year -- the amount of stress and anxiety.
Even in my book, "Happy soul. Hungry mind." the two characters have a lot of stress in their life. So, spirituality is practical. It is here to help us in our day-to-day lives. Center us and get ourselves closer to peace.
I released a video on my website and YouTube channel on 18 steps to reduce stress.
But we have to understand -- this is the key difference -- all our stress and our fears come from our minds. When the mind is afraid, then it takes over.
We have to understand we are not our minds. We are the owners of our minds.
When we begin to distance ourselves. When we begin to observe the mind and say — the mind is experiencing fear, the mind has anxiety, it gives us a little more control over the mind. It allows us to manage the mind and then chart it towards peace.
And there are several steps on how to become peaceful.
One is to create a little distance between the situation and you.
If you’re watching the virus news 10 hours a day, trust me, it will have an impact on you.
So, keep up with the news, but do not allow you to overwhelm yourself.
Allow yourself to be able to turn off and say, let me maintain a distance.
It may be the virus news, it may be a stressful situation at work.
Generate some distance between you and the work situation.
Khambrel Marshall
The book, "happy soul. Hungry mind." how do you set that up? What does the reader see when he delves into the book?
Ravi Kathuria
The book is the story of a young entrepreneur who’s facing business challenges and has gone through some tragic family events and he’s completely torn apart.
It’s the story of him and a senior executive who was a mentor in his prior life, but the mentor himself has problems of his own creation.
So, it’s a series of contentious conversations and debates between these two men about life, spirituality, religion, and how to find peace in their situations.
And the story takes you along -- it’s a very emotional story but it’s a humorous story.
You get to understand the two men and their struggles, but it gives us lessons, and most importantly the book shares spiritual truths that can help this world become peaceful and raise the quality of our life.
Khambrel Marshall
What do you want people to get from this book? How do you want them to be impacted?
Ravi Kathuria
I want them to remember that:
- Spirituality is practical
- Spirituality is simple
- Spirituality can help you right now
- Spirituality does not discriminate
And at the end of the day, our purpose in life is to find and experience the peace within.
We have an ocean of peace within that we must experience.
If we do that, our quality of life can go up way higher.
Khambrel Marshall
The book is "Happy soul. Hungry mind."
Thank you for your time this morning providing us with this great food for thought after thanksgiving.
We appreciate you. Thank you.
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