My Birthday Wish

Cooking Australian bread “pockets” using scrap wood

Gratitude on My Birthday

Feeling very blessed today from all the love coming from so many distant friends. Thank you so much! On my birthday, I’m especially aware that this love helps become fuel for my growth—encouragement that warms the heart and lights the next steps of my journey.

How the Past Becomes Fuel for the Future

Just as nature evolves according to the fibonacci sequence, we also evolve by taking a lesson from the past and applying it into our future step forward. The important thing to remember throughout this evolutionary process is not to remain too long in the past, but rather to look back just enough to gain perspective—like checking the rear-view mirror while driving—so the past serves as fuel for awareness instead of a place we get stuck.

Similarly, we should not reject the past, but rather burn it in the fire of lived experience and wisdom, allowing what once hurt, confused, or limited us to become fuel for compassion, maturity, and forward motion. In other words, the old and used energy becomes fuel for the torch that lights our path, fuel to warm our body, and fuel to create something new—so the past is transformed rather than wasted.

We are a product of the decisions, mistakes, and lessons from the past, and today I can honestly say that I am happy with my past and feel stronger than ever to become the best person I can possibly be, using it all as fuel to keep growing. We are interdependent beings, and so my personal journey is filled with the mercy and guidance of so many great souls. Some of them came in the guise of ascetics, while many others appeared as ordinary people, animals and insects. Of course, no one is truly “ordinary”. We are all sparks of a Divine Godhead, only covered in various layers of mental conditioning and karma, and the practice is to let those coverings be purified over time so that even difficult experiences become fuel for humility, gratitude, and love.

Thanks to My Teachers and Spiritual Family

Thank you to my spiritual teachers who blessed me from the start of my journey and who continue to pray for my success despite my shortcomings.

Thank you to all my spiritual brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, partners and so-called “enemies”, both inside and outside the Vaisnava tradition. You are many and so it will be impossible to thank you all by name. My body may be bound by the limits of this physical frequency, however, in spirit, my loving arms are wrapped around you, or my head is at your feet in absolute appreciation for the love and kindness you have shown me. Thank you. Every one of you who have helped me in some way or another to evolve.

My Birthday Benediction

If I have a benediction on this day, then let it be this: May all of you be blessed with peace, prosperity and the love of someone else.

FAQ

Q: What does it mean to turn the past into fuel?

A: Turning the past into fuel means using your experiences—decisions, mistakes, and lessons—as energy for growth rather than as a weight that keeps you stuck. The idea isn’t to live in the past, but to look back for perspective, then move forward with more wisdom, steadiness, and compassion.

Q: How can painful memories become fuel without denying what happened?

A: The post’s approach is not rejection of the past but transformation: “burning” the past in the fire of lived experience and wisdom. That means fully acknowledging what happened while letting the meaning you draw from it—insight, humility, empathy—become the fuel that warms you and guides your next steps.

Q: Why does the post mention the Fibonacci sequence in a reflection about fuel?

A: The Fibonacci reference is used as a metaphor for natural, patterned growth. In the same way nature evolves through unfolding patterns, personal growth can unfold by learning from what came before. The “fuel” is the lessons and perspective gathered from the past and applied to the future.

Q: What’s the “rear-view mirror” lesson, and how does it relate to fuel?

A: The rear-view mirror image explains balance: you look back only enough to stay oriented, not so much that you stop moving forward. In that balanced posture, the past becomes fuel for awareness—helping you choose better now—rather than becoming a place where you remain trapped.

Q: What kind of fuel is the author talking about—literal or symbolic?

A: It’s primarily symbolic fuel: “old and used energy” becoming the fuel that lights your path, warms you, and creates something new. The photo of cooking with scrap wood echoes that symbolism—something leftover can still be useful—without changing the post’s main focus on inner transformation.

Q: What is the birthday benediction and how does it connect to fuel?

A: The benediction is: “May all of you be blessed with peace, prosperity and the love of someone else.” It connects to fuel by showing what the author wants the transformed energy of the past to produce—warmth, love, and upliftment directed outward through gratitude and spiritual connection.