Meet the tinseltown’s spiritual advisers

Showbiz has always had its share of spiritual seekers and practitioners. Even among the current generation there are those who perhaps because of the insecurity built into the business or even because of the uncertainties of life in general seek something that heals and soothes feathers ruffled in the rough and tumble of life.

Dilshad Pastakia, personal hairstylist to actor Shah Rukh Khan and to a couple of other Bollywood actors, says, “I have worked with ill people and I realise that disease is something that we create for ourselves with our thoughts. When the mind, body and soul are in harmony there should be no disease. Yet people have various issues in their lives starting from their childhood and I help them to re-look at their basic beliefs even if they are subconscious. The journey is always an inward one and though some people feel that’s a tough path to take, it’s easier than the outward journey into the real world. What’s more is that it’s also much more rewarding. It can rid people of their hidden fears and anxieties and help them achieve happiness.”

Shiamak Davar, choreographer and dance educator, trained for spirituality under his mentor the late Khorshed Bhavnagri, the author of ‘Laws of the Spirit World’. He carries on Khorshed’s legacy of helping people contact the spirit worlds through the medium of automatic writing bedsides bringing them into contact with universal spiritual principles.

Says Shiamak, “One has to really work for what one wants and then have the trust (in a Higher Force) that it will happen if it’s good for your life. You have to know your natural gifts and talents, work within your limitations and work out who you are basically.” He adds, “When I look around me and see so many people and how they’re suffering I’m truly grateful to God for all that I’ve been given.”

Pushtii Shakti, actor and sanyasin, like Dilshad, believes in the force of thoughts to create our realities. An Osho believer, she incorporates spiritual techniques from various spiritual schools to relieve people of their anxieties and traumas.

While she herself follows Osho’s concept of ‘dynamic meditation’ she uses everything from tarot and angel card readings to being a spiritual channel to advise people on their life questions. She tells about a new technique she’s learnt — rebirthing and breath work — that’s proving immensely valuable in her quest. “It involves teaching people to breathe right according to a particular pattern which they then adapt according to their own capabilities.”

It also helps her decipher the subconscious of the seeker and to help expiate them of their painful life experiences. It has helped produce real life results in the wondrous improvement in eyesight of her uncle who was nearly sight-impaired.

Actor and tarot reader Munisha Khatwani, discovered her gift soon after recovering from a near fatal car accident when she was drawn to the spiritual world, reveals, “For me spirituality is anything that brings me peace of mind and a sense of my own life. It could be meditation, exercise, doing a tarot reading, anything that brings me inner calm.” While advising others she is however careful to let them sort out their issues on their own.

Actress Tisca Chopra was one of the television world’s early converts to New Age Buddhism 13 years ago and has since then helped many other television stars enter the world of Buddhist philosophy. She says, “Self mastery is the goal of all spiritual activity. As a Buddhist I believe in the ultimate law of the Universe — that of the simultaneity of Cause and Effect. One becomes mindful of one’s causes in thought, word and deed.

And by changing these one can get completely different results in the world we live in.” She adds, “I used to be an introverted and confused person who had ambitions but no way of achieving them. Strong Buddhist practice made me sure of myself and the ability to write my own destiny. I see that I have deeper relationships than before..”

Art of Living (AOL) instructor Rhea Pillai has been propagating Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s philosophy for over a decade now. Teaching others in her environment, whether in showbiz or outside about the values of the spiritual life, Rhea says, “In our present age, while materialistic pursuits are important, the gentler aspects of life are being overlooked. I’d say we need a balance between commercialism and the humanitarian aspects of life. And we need to start by being grateful for what we have received in our lives.

There’s a procedure in our AOL courses called Bowing Down where we also thank our parents, our ancestors and even the sun for its life-sustaining light. It links up to really looking around you and seeing that one has so much more than what others around one have — no matter how well or badly off you are. The fact is that more gratitude one shows, the greater are the blessings one receives from life’s natural forces,” she says.