1.I have read your Book "Rukmini and the Turning of Time: The Dawn of an Era" and I loved it. Can you tell us something more about her?
Answer: I have told many stories about Rukmini Ma in the book. What is interesting to me is how Sita Ma and Rukmini Ma manifested different personalities to reflect the needs of the time in which they were born. Both are avatars of Narayani and yet like us, each incarnation manifests a different personality. During Sita Ma’s time, humankind was separating itself from the natural world, developing more of an individualistic consciousness and one of the things she sought to do was imbed in the human mind love for the natural world so that we wouldn’t destroy it. During Rukmini Ma’s time, there was a darkening of spiritual consciousness and much mistreatment of people toward each other – oppression of women, increasing caste distinctions, etc. – and this became her focus, trying to instill in the human mind care for each other. She worked tireless and endless to care for those in society most vulnerable as well as to help each person advance in their spiritual unfolding.
2. What inspired you to write a book on Rukmini, an important but long forgotten character?
Answer: It was my love for Sita Ma that led me to Rukmini, knowing that she is the reborn Sita, just as Shri Krishna is the reborn Ram. I have always felt greater affinity with the Krishna of Dwarka than of Brindavan and wondered why there was not more written about life in Dwarka during his time. What is most touching to me is to see how these avatars impacted the personal lives of all with whom they came in contact. For sure, they influenced world events, but they came to help each one of us awaken, and that is real story behind their appearance in our world.
3. Every author when writes a story wants to spread some message and views through it. So, what are the messages that you want to give to your readers through your books?
Answer: There are many messages in this book but one is how the law of cause and effect works. What we do and think and aspire for in one life affects the next and then the next and so on. Often events from hundreds of years ago affect our life today. Rukmini and some of the other sages in this book help those individuals who have come to them, work through their karma and complete unfinished matters from the past. That is the true gift of an awakened one, to see the past and possible future of people and to guide us toward the best outcomes. The message is to not think of just this one life, this one personality, but to know that we have a long history behind us and a long future ahead. We can better direct that future if we begin to live more consciously.
4. There are many people who has just started on writing, what are your advice to them?
Answer: My advice to new writers is to think deeply about the messages you want to convey. Most of us like to learn through stories rather than philosophical treatises. So think of stories that convey your message and make the people come alive. And give yourself time for inner reflection.
5. Can you tell us more about yourself? How you started your journey as an author?
Answer: As a young child, I wrote poetry but as a teenager my interest turned to spiritual matters and for a number of years I didn’t write. I spent my time learning to meditate and reading sacred texts. Then in my thirties I had to write for a living and I did some ghostwriting and writing for an art journal. After doing that for about ten or fifteen years, I began to write my own stories, stories that would convey key learnings that have come to me through my meditation.
6. What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
Answer: Most of my research comes through meditation, where the inspiration flows. But often I check myself by investigating what I have seen. Since there is very little information about earlier times, I have to trust my knowledge of sacred texts and what I see in meditation. But there is always some searching to confirm what I have seen.
7. How many books have you written? Which is your favourite?
Answer: I am just finishing my fifth book and will soon begin another one. I don’t have a favorite although the Untold Story of Sita holds a special place in my heart. But I cannot explain why. It is just that when writing it, I was there with Sita. But I can say the same about Rukmini and the Turning of Time. While writing it, I was in the presence of Rukmini Ma.
8. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
Answer: My books are all connection because stories that are begun in one are continued and completed in another. There are many stories in Rukmini & the Turning of Time that relate back to the Untold Story of Sita. All of my writings are part of one continuous story and people who appear in one often appear in another in a new incarnation. My books speak extensively about rebirth and karma because if more people understood how these spiritual laws work, we would see a better world.
9. And last, What advice do you have for writers?
Answer: My advice to writers is to look inside oneself through meditation or some form of inner reflection. The stories are all within you. It is just a matter of discovering them.
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