Me

and they make me see what is truly beautiful in life, because they have taught me that the only thing one really requires to live is the urge to breathe.
    Everything in life arrives at its moment. Those girls came into my life at the time when I most needed them, to ground me and show me a touch of simplicity. They forced me to reassess my priorities and they showed me that true beauty in life usually exists in the simplest of things. They appeared at a time in my life when I wanted to please my record label, the members of my band, my family, my friends . . . but what I didn’t realize was that by trying to please everyone else, I was betraying myself, because I was not thinking about myself, about what I really needed to be happy. I believed that my happiness consisted of pleasing others, and that ruined me for a long time. With the girls I learned that happiness really appears at the times when one is finally able to detach from all those types of complications.
    They would say to me, “Come and sit on the floor. We’re going to play.” They had only three pebbles, and that’s what we played with. So how is it that we need all of these things—computers, video games, televisions, sound systems, cars—to have a good time? These girls taught me that if my clothes are ironed, it’s fine, and that if they’re not, that’s fine as well. Most of the things we often consider “important” really aren’t that important in the big scheme of things. Life is as simple or as complicated as we make it.
    After I met the girls and discovered the simplicity with which they lived and the innocence they carried in their souls despite the hard lives they had lived, I felt an immense desire to reconnect with Kiki, that boy I abandoned when I got on a plane on that rainy day in San Juan. There is something so beautiful in the innocence of youth, and it breaks my heart to know that there are so many children out there who are stripped of their basic right to just be kids.

FINDING BALANCE
    WHEN I LOOK back, I realize that those trips to India marked me in a very profound way. One might think it was all a big coincidence that I went through both of these experiences in this extraordinary country, but deep in my heart I know it is not the case. I know that the cosmos sent me these lessons because that is how it had to be, and because there is something in that country, with its colors, its people, and its energy, that vibrates with the same frequency as my soul.
    Everything I ask of the cosmos comes when it is meant to come. It took me a while to understand this, but now that I know it and have integrated it into my own philosophy, I live a much more peaceful life. Instead of worrying about what might be or what could have been, I stay focused on the present and on what I need to do to reach my own happiness, because whatever it is I may be lacking, I know the cosmos will ultimately send my way.
    It was thanks to the silence I found through the teachings of my swami that I could for the first time look at myself in the mirror and see who was really standing there. In the peace and tranquillity of the ashram, the daily rituals of cleaning, cooking, and meditation, I found the bubble of silence that I needed to reconnect with the boy I once was. I could open myself to the universe to hear what it was telling me, and what I found was a world of beauty and transparency. From that moment on, I found the equilibrium I so longed for, and for the first time I understood that what I want most out of life is to give—and to give in this very concrete manner—because ultimately, it is the very best way to receive.
    In India I found what I consider to be the three keys of life: serenity, simplicity, and spirituality. I was able to comprehend the enormous blessing that is my life, and I discovered that true wealth does not exist outside, but instead lives inside of me. From that moment on, gratitude became a huge part of my life, and instead of hiding all the things that caused me pain and discomfort, I started to look at them head-on, without fear.

SIX
    THE ROLE OF MY LIFE
    I’M SURE I’M NOT ALONE, BUT I SPEND A LOT OF TIME searching for my life’s purpose. Of course, I want to have the kind of work I am passionate about, a family that loves me, and friends who support me . . . but deep down, beneath all of those things that are more like needs than anything else, lives my desire to contribute to the world in a profound and