On the evening of September 5, 2024, while on a spiritual journey in Nepal, my guide, Sanjay Nepal, took me to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha. As we were walking to this holy site, a little monk of about eight years old walked in front of me holding a candle that was burning. We went to the tree under which the Buddha was born and I began to meditate.

While sitting in silence, the image of the little monk holding the candle floated into my mind. It occurred to me that I should have said "Namaste" - a Sanskrit word which loosely translates to "I bow to you" - to the little monk.

I thought of something that Sanjay had said: "Our soul is eternal and only our body perishes. Our internal soul is a part of the divine." Musing on those words, I saw that all of us are part of the divine - not in an egotistical sense, but in a real physical and metaphysical sense. We are the divine, and the divine is within us and all around us.

 

When I told Sanjay about this experience, he said to me, "With great enlightenment comes great responsibility."

 

That night, I reflected further on this profound experience. I began seriously considering selling off my worldly possessions and moving to a monastery in Nepal.

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We returned to the Buddha tree the next day. While meditating under the tree, I received another insight. I felt as though the divine was communicating to me that my destiny would not be fulfilled at a monastery but in the outside world.
 

Two days later, I had the opportunity to travel to an orphanage in Kathmandu, where I met 45 children ranging in age from 3 to 16. When I met the children, I felt as if my entire life was leading up to that moment.

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I was told that it costs $500 a month to feed all 45 children. As I recalled some of my recent purchases, I started to add up how much food that money could have provided to these children. I knew then that I had to do something. As such, my firm has decided to sponsor the orphanage and set a financial goal to help these children get the nutrition, education, housing, and healthcare they need to thrive.
 

Namaste 🙏