An evening with Mr Yateen V Joshi
On September 26, we had an insightful session by Mr Yateen V Joshi. He spoke about the deep insights of Yoga Vasishta and how we can apply them in our day-to-day life.
About Mr Yateen V. Joshi
Mr Yateen V. Joshi has over 22 years of experience in the IT industry, having worked with leading organizations such as TCS, Starent Networks, and Cisco in diverse technical and leadership roles. At Cisco, apart from serving as a Technical Architect, he also led the Pune Chapter of Cisco’s Civic Council, spearheading CSR initiatives for the community.
Since 2008, Yateen has been deeply immersed in the study of Śrī Yoga Vāsiṣṭha. Inspired by the timeless wisdom of this scripture, he took a bold step in 2021—resigning from his corporate career to dedicate himself fully to spirituality and social service. Through his discourses, he has touched countless lives, helping individuals cultivate psychological resilience and find solace amidst life’s challenges. His Hindi book, “Vairāgya Se Puruṣottam Tak – Yoga Vāsiṣṭha”, has been widely appreciated, often gifted on occasions such as birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries.
Mr Joshi actively shares his insights on his YouTube channel which features over 900 videos with more than 2,21,000 views. Alongside his talks, he offers counselling to people facing grief, suicidal tendencies, marital conflicts, and parenting struggles, guiding them with compassion and practical wisdom. He is hoping to complete his Ph.D. on Yoga Vāsiṣṭha by December 2025, further deepening his lifelong commitment to this path.
Parallel to his spiritual work, Mr Joshi has been engaged in stock market trading and technical analysis since 2002. In 2019, responding to popular demand, he launched his own training program in technical analysis, which has successfully empowered clients across the globe to generate significant income.
A passionate teacher, Mr Joshi has also been associated with the Art of Living Foundation as a faculty member, conducting breath and meditation workshops. During the COVID-19 pandemic management he helped the Pune Police in critical relief efforts—conducting peace workshops for over 1,500 personnel, supporting labour migration management, and helping design isolation and care protocols.
Driven by a love for service, Mr Joshi believes in making the best use of every moment. As he often says with a smile, life has become even busier after leaving his job. There is so much meaningful work to be done in the short span of human life.
Yoga Vasishta: An introduction
Yoga Vāsiṣṭha is an ocean. It is a Hindu philosophical text with 32,000 verses. For perspective, the Ramayana has only 18,000 verses. Yoga Vāsiṣṭha covers various aspects of life. It is essentially a dialogue between Lord Rama and Sage Vasishtha. The book explores consciousness, existence, and liberation. One who studies Yoga Vāsiṣṭha gets liberated.
The Yoga Vāsiṣṭha has six parts: -
Vairagya (Dispassion): This part introduces Prince Rama's existential crisis, highlighting the transient nature of life and human suffering.
Mumukshu Vyavahar (Life of a Seeker): It focuses on the qualities required for spiritual liberation, emphasizing self-effort and the desire for moksha.
Utpatti (Creation): This section delves into cosmology and the spiritual awakening of Rama and explores the origins of the universe and consciousness.
Sthiti (Sustenance): This part discusses the nature of existence, free will, and human creativity.
Upasham (Dissolution): This part explores the practice of meditation and the dissolution of dualistic thought, guiding the seeker toward inner peace.
Nirvana (Liberation): The final part describes the state of enlightenment achieved by Rama and offers insights into the experience of nirvana and the nature of ultimate reality.
Yoga Vāsiṣṭha features 53 interconnected stories. It explores multiverses, gravity, time, and relativity. It is remarkable that these modern concepts were known to India hundreds of years back.
Why is Yoga Vāsiṣṭha so special?
The Yoga Vāsiṣṭha is the source of many modern concepts. Modern movies and books (Inception, Matrix, Secret, etc) draw inspiration from it. It explores mindfulness and manifestation techniques. It offers psychological insights and success tips. It provides insights on how to get mental stability. The Yoga Vāsiṣṭha is indeed the best book in psychology.
Mr Joshi gave some practical examples to illustrate mental stability. Do we get upset if our wife does not make a cup of coffee for us in the morning? Do we get upset if our husband does not get what we need from the store? If we do not get upset, we have achieved mental stability.
The beginning: Rama’s pilgrimage - Bhramaṇa
We want happiness but do not get it. Even when we get what we want we are not permanently happy. We desire more. We should dispel the illusion. Bhramana means dispelling the illusion.
What is the message for leaders? We should connect with people at all levels in our domain. We should understand their problems and expectations. We should explore things around us. We should not be confined to our own world.
Wisdom
What is Wisdom? It is understanding the purpose of our life: to achieve Moksha. In contrast, ignorance is running after desires, trying to fulfil them and being born again and again.
What is the message for leaders? We should understand that there have been leaders before us. We should not be attached to the position. We should understand our real purpose.
Liberation
The moksha for leaders lies in achieving the goals, however small they may be. Achieving the revenue target is an example of liberation for a corporate leader.
The Gatekeepers of liberation are:
● Self-Control (śama): We should not be impulsive. What is worrying us may not be that important. We must not get carried away by emotions. We must be emotionally stable.
● Contentment (santoṣa): We want to achieve many things. We may have high targets. We should certainly try to achieve them, but we should be happy with what we achieve. Lack of contentment makes us mad. The mind must be calm.
● Inquiry (vichāra): As leaders, we should think about the organization, the targets. Our thoughts should be aligned with the needs of the business.
● Company of likeminded people (satsanga): The right company will take us forward. We should choose our company wisely. For example, IIT JEE aspirants should not be moving around with people from Bollywood. We should interact with people at a higher level. A technical architect should interact with a senior technical architect. The best interactions happen when we are at a happening place.
The Yoga Vāsiṣṭha features several important personalities and the lessons we can earn from them.
King Janaka: He aspired for success but with detachment. He contemplated and realized that many kings had come before him and despite all their successes, few remembered their names. So he asked himself: Why am I so crazy about success?
King Bali: He had all the pleasures but was not happy. Success does not guarantee happiness. We must operate with a sense of detachment.
King Suraghu: For him, punishing the subjects posed a dilemma. The lesson for us is that ego, I-ness should not come in our way. We should follow our dharma. The I should not get in the way.
Lifestyle
● Exercise
● Yoga
● Pranayama
● Meditation
Yoga, pranayama and meditation are even more important for health than exercise. Physical exercise like running may strengthen the cardiac muscles but there may still be blockages in the heart. We should take time to go within ourselves. We should attend workshops like Art of Living and Vipasana. We should enjoy the silence that is an integral part of these workshops. We should remain away from distractions including mobile devices.
Career Path
Initially, we may be spending 50% of our time on self, 25% on study of scriptures and 25% on service to the guru. We should move towards 25% on self and 75% to the guru. We should interpret service to the guru in a broader way, i.e. service to humanity.
We are spending 75% of our time on the organization. But there is life beyond work, for the self and for others. We should not be too hard on employees if they fail to meet the target. Compassion is common to Gurus (Leaders). But this does not mean we should forgive nonperformers. When we take action in the best interests of the organization the ego should not get in the way.
For us, Moksha is achieving our goals. We should be focused and not get distracted. We should be consistent and think long term. For example, Mr Joshi has been focused on YV since 2008. And yet, we should remain detached. One day, we will drop it and move out. The I-ness should not take over.
Mind is Everything! We should keep it calm. We should understand the subtle power of the mind. If we consistently think about what we can achieve, it will happen.
Peace of mind is the most important thing. So many people have come and gone. Nothing really matters.
Q&A
It was 2008. Mr Joshi was facing a lot of work pressure. Someone advised him to read Yoga Vāsiṣṭha. The book inspired him. He realized that this was the book he had to take to the people. He kept reading and conducted sessions. He realized he wanted to do something which would make an impact. He did not want to go to office and work till 58, when he would be asked to retire.
When he decided to quit, his wife was cynical. They had two school going children. So, she wanted a regular monthly salary. But Mr Joshi had financial strength. He also figured out ways to make money in the stock market. Thus, he became the first one in the family to go into business. The power of mind really works. If we keep thinking about something, and we are passionate about it, things will happen.
Mr Joshi’s advice is that we should quit our job only when we are clear about why we want to do so. Not because of any negative thoughts: the job is boring, repetitive, politics, etc. if we cannot handle negativity in the current job, how will we handle it in some other endeavour?
We intellectually understand what we need to do. But we don’t practise it. Why is this so?
What holds us back is fear. We can quit our job and try something else if we really want to. In business communities, no one is afraid of going into business. But in other communities (like the Marathis), there is fear. Their cultural tuning is different.
It is all in the mind. If we realize that we are part of the Supreme, we will get the strength and confidence to do it. Somewhere, we have a mindset that we are born to serve. Hence, we are unable to take risk. But we can change our thought process.
Yoga Vāsiṣṭha was once popular in India. it was read at every home in the olden days. But it expanded to 32,000 verses. The concepts are very complex and that is why nobody touches it today. That is most unfortunate.
So how do we make it popular and accessible and a household practice? Mr Joshi has written a book in Hindi, and is trying to translate into all possible languages. That is why he has set up a network of people who are reading Yoga Vasishta regularly and he is taking help from them. He is planning to train them so that they can take this forward. His goal is reaching Yoga Vāsiṣṭha to every household. Even if people understand a bit of it that is a good enough starting point.
We should not see it as a crisis. It is only a situation and quite normal too. It is not something new. It has taken place, is taking place and will take place with billions of people. So, what's so special about it? We should not call something which is routine a crisis. If we understand this, the anxiety levels will come down.
We should address a problem as it comes and not think of it as a crisis. We must accept the situation as it comes and address it as we can. If we don’t accept things and start questioning what is happening, we will be emotionally disturbed.
Whatever happens in life is for our good. We should accept things and not challenge them. Suppose our mother is a diabetic. She wants to eat a jalebi. We need not argue too much with her. Quarrelling might increase the sugar level more than what it would have increased by eating a jalebi.
We should believe in the scriptures. There is no need to become more intellectual than necessary. We need not understand everything and go into too many details. We should first make our life normal and then only go deeper.
Contentment is individual. We can’t change others. We must focus on ourselves.
We must do our best and not question our abilities. We should be happy with what we achieve. We should have fearlessness. We should not worry about losing a job. We all have the capability to do something even if we lose our job.