Use surroundings and situations for betterment

As human beings interacting with many people, we quickly absorb many things from our surroundings; we form new habits, let go of some habits, gain new ideas, and let go of some ideas. While all this is very common, it's essential to know if we are heading in the right direction.  We must question whether people, surroundings, and situations are making us better or bitter. 

We can't just allow ourselves to be carried away without applying our discriminative ability to become a better person than we are. While it's important to improve ourselves, learn new things, and expand our horizons, it's equally important to stick to our values and fundamentals. Flexibility, adaptability, and cooperation should also be coupled with clarity, awareness, and willpower.

Say, for example, if simplicity is your trademark,  be aware that simplicity is a virtue; even if your surroundings are different, don't get pulled by that; at the same time, accept the people and things entirely as is while still being aware not to get pulled down, we should always move towards betterment. Many times, you may not be appreciated, acknowledged, or thanked. In fact, you may face tests in the form of noncooperation or criticism.  But be strong-willed not to become bitter.

There are other times when the pull does not come from our surroundings but from our ego. Say you are a lover by birth; go ahead and keep loving and living, irrespective of the reciprocation from the other end. If helping and caring is your nature, be that way. Don't compete with people because you feel hurt or offended; learn the good things for betterment. 

Be it simplicity, love, care, generosity, or any other thing, the blessing is to live in such consciousness and apply it in our day-to-day life. "The joy of love is love itself. " The same applies to every other virtue. Protect yourself from all kinds of demotivation, confusion, and doubts, and cheerfully keep going to become the best version of yourself.  Let all people, surroundings, and situations help you become a better person and not a bitter person. Don't unquestioningly adopt everything,  but only adapt what is aligned with your goals/ higher purpose.

Be courageous to walk towards your goals and higher purpose, even if you walk alone.

Trip to Kanha Shanthivanam - April 2024

Me and my family had been to Kanha Shanthivanam, Hyderabad (Heartfulness Global headquarters) for five days. This is my 5th visit to Kanha, and every visit is all the more fulfilling. 

The natural environment at Kanha is something every human should enjoy in their lifetime.  The lakhs of trees, plants, colorful flowers, birds chirping, perfect silence, an atmosphere filled with peace coupled with the comfort of a good stay, tasty food, and required facilities for people of all age groups make it an ideal destination for every family.

Taking time to witness the trees, the fragrance of different flowers, sunrise, sunset, birds chirping, the wind, and the purity and simplicity of the atmosphere would make everyone feel relaxed. There are two meditation sessions at Kanha, one in the morning and one in the evening.  The external atmosphere sets the ground for us to fully dive deep into the group meditation sessions where we touch base with our inner selves and connect heart to heart with the like-minded fellow spiritual traveler, breaking all the external barriers.

Each one of us takes from there based on what we need then. For some people, it could be a time to unwind from the day-to-day routine and feel relaxed; for some, it could be an opportunity to connect with nature; for others, it could be a tonic to move on towards reality; for some, it could be an opportunity to become a better version of themselves, and for some others, it could be a time to heal and move on with life. Whatever your need, it never goes unfulfilled for sure. As the rain pours into the entire forest and each plant or tree takes as per its own need, Kanha Shanthivanam is where each receives based on what they need.

Something that struck me from within was the words " From peace to harmony." Yes, peace within to harmony around. Tolerance is only a refined external attempt to create harmony, but when the heart is filled with peace, we become harmonious with our surroundings effortlessly

When there is peace within, acceptance, empathy, compassion, kindness, flexibility, adaptability, and cooperation are spontaneous and natural. Liberation is not to run away from the world. But liberation is to truly live a harmonious life with our family, friends, neighborhood, colleagues, humanity as a whole, and also all other creatures. Harmony is directly proportional to our inner peace. The more peaceful we are within, the more we become one with our surroundings. Meditating makes us aware that the fix is always inside out. 

The aggressive ego commands and explodes to protect itself, and the defensive ego avoids people and situations to protect itself.  But spirituality teaches that we don't have to command nor do we have to avoid but fix things within us as our awareness shows what is to be fixed within and sit back and witness how the external things fall in place.

While at Kanha, I witnessed my thoughts get silenced, my worries disappear, and my mind is in the present moment. All I had was thanks and thanks for my guru, who made it possible. Undoubtedly, Kanha is a heaven on earth. While it's not likely to physically be there forever, all we can do is to create the atmosphere of Kanha Shanthivanam wherever we are by fixing things from the inside out.

" Be contagious with your inner peace, joy, and calmness " - Daaji

Constant Remembrance

Constant Remembrance begins with dependency,  matures with responsibility, and leads to refinement of tendencies. 

Dependency: A prayer for protection for mundane activities in our day-to-day life,  seeking clarity in dairy writing, talking with the internal master , pouring our heart to master in moments of pain all these things show our dependency and knowingly or unknowingly we are in His Remembrance. 

Responsibility: We have multiple responsibilities as abhyasis.

1. Practicing: 

The fundamental responsibility is regularity in spiritual practice. Prioritizing a spiritual way of life and giving it our time. The practice is designed by master, we remember Him by following the practice. 

2. Knowing : Knowing the teachings of Guru by reading books, or listening to speeches. 

3. Feeling : Being sensitive to what happens during meditation,  after meditation and all through the day. Sensitivity is directly proportional to one's interest. Feeling the condition bestowed paves way to Joy. We remember the Guru by developing sensitivity to inner condition because the condition is bestowed by the master. Daaji is our inspiration in developing sensitivity.  His book spiritual anatomy speaks volumes about His sensitivity.  Daaji calls Himself as 'a student of spirituality ' and He is an example for every student of spirituality to develop sensitivity. 

4. Understanding : It's taking time to introspect and let the awareness grow , enjoy the expansion of consciousness with a feeling of wonder. Day after day , year after year conditions  are bestowed,  to retain the condition  understanding has to develop. Babuji says " My abhyasis are faster than me. How much ever time I take to put them up, they come down even quickly". When understanding develops we will be able to identify our patterns, our weekness,our shortcomings. understanding puts us on the right direction. It's like when we know where is the leakage in a bucket of water, it's easier to fix it.

5. Applying: Chariji says " Live wisely". Wisdom is application.  What we know through masters teachings,  what we feel, what we understand,  we need to apply it in our day to day life during moments of choices. We remember the master by remembering His teachings and applying it.

6.Thanking : The joy in condition, the wonder in consciousness leads us to feeling of gratitude to Guru who has generously given it.We remember the master by giving thanks.

7. Contributing: When the heart is overwhelmed with gratitude,  a need to contribute arises. Volunteering by contributing our time, resources, skills helps us to remember the Guru. Babuji defines service as constantly thinking good for others.  Daaji has given us practical way to do that. The prayerful suggestions. We can contribute by applying the suggestions wherever we are.We remember the master by continuing in whatever way we can.

 We are in a towards infinity project, dependency and responsibility is also on and on.Dependency refines , Knowingly or unknowingly Dependency which might have been demanding and  gradually becomes a  dependency without demand where the heaviness of personal likes and dislikes fade away.A conviction develops that whatever happens to me is through Him and that is what is best suitable for my evolution. Can we call dependency without demand as "Cheerful acceptance". We remember the Master as we practice cheerful acceptance which He has taught us.

Since we are in a journey towards infinity,  it's important for us to understand the crucial role of  perseverance to enable us go on and on as everything is repetitive with different intensities. For this utmost dedication and commitment is required. Babuji says " Don't use spirituality like a washroom ", means its  ot to be used only when we are sad or going through tough time. A spiritual journey requires a nothing less than our 100 percent and an eternal commitment. We remember the master on and on in this journey towards infinity.

Daaji says " The best gift we can give this universe is our transformed self" and constant remembrance is the key to this transformation. 

Courage

 Courage: 

Courage is not blindly jumping into something in a state of ignorance or lack of awareness. Courage is not keeping on trusting that my desires are going to materialize or the ego is going to be protected.

Real courage is the ability to trust the universal flow of life while surrendering the outcome of a situation/ event.  Courage frees us from the heaviness of ego and desires.Courage is adaptability and flexibility to move on with the flow of life. Courage is the ability to find an opportunity to evolve in whatever situation life places us. 

The real freedom begins with courage.For a courageous person the thoughts, words and actions are always aligned. Courage is acceptance of what was, what is and what will be. Courage is the ability to  live in the NOW with gratitude while giving our best ."Acceptance without the idea of acceptance" is called courage. Worry is inaction and energy draining whereas courage is taking the right action. 

All my life I had prayed for protection and Master out of His generosity has always protected me. Suddenly there came a attitude shift.Instead of avoiding or resisting a situation should i not face it, go through it and learn from it.How kiddish it is to be stuck with my resistance or fear or lack of willingness to move on.Dependency on Master creates love in the early years of practice but at a later stage love is Responsibility. Self responsibility for self refinement leads to self mastery and this process demands courage.

"I need lions, not sheeps"  - Babuji 

Ego and humility

 Respect

Let's learn respect before we learn love. If we understand how disrespect happens, if we avoid disrespect, maybe respect and love naturally follow. 

"Our job is not to seek love but to try and find all the barriers which we have built against it " - Rumi.

1. Feeling of inadequacy that emerges from us makes us disrespect another person. Ego always likes to feel adequate. Aggressive ego goes ahead and verbally criticizes or does things to put the other person down to boost oneself. Defensive ego tries to avoid the person or situation to prevent feelings of inadequacy. 

Ego makes us feel inadequate, but humility helps us be inspired by those better than us.

2. Prejudice: Differences need not be external differences like religion, language, nationality, or culture. Differences could be differences in behavior, values, and principles that contradict with our values, principles, and lifestyle. Ego does not like it. Ego likes to believe that its way is the right way. That is why it's easy to get along with people similar to us and challenging to get along with people different from us.

Aggressive ego goes ahead and keeps telling aloud that my way is the right way, and your way is wrong. Defensive ego keeps the thought within, but thoughts manifest into actions, and our vibrations speak for themselves. A defensive ego does the damage a little slower than an aggressive ego.

Instead of ego, when there is humility, we accept differences, appreciate differences, and then go ahead and embrace differences. 

3. Being disrespected: When someone disrespects us due to their prejudice or their feeling of inadequacy.

Ego gives tit for tat offensively or defensively.  It is like someone initiates building of a wall and we support them by giving bricks. 

What does humility do? 

At the first stage humility does not react to disrespect with disrespect. Humility will try to understand why the other person did not treat us right. 

Second stage humility forgives the wrong doings of others. 

At the next level Humility will be compassionate towards the one who is already suffering from inadequacy and prejudice and goes ahead for praying for them to get relieved from those qualities.

4. Disappointment due to unmet expectations: When a human does not get what they expect they feel offended easily. 

Ego immediately builds walls. Humility understands that it's ok when expectations are not met and corrects one's own expectations. 

5. Accomplishments: It's nice to have a goal, work towards it and feel accomplished but ego thinks that its great and already there whereas humility thinks that there is always more to learn, know, do or become.

6. Subtle ego in excessive positivity: At times ego acts in subtle ways thinking or projecting to the world that life is a fairy tale, everything has fallen into place. Some people's ego never allows them to share the bad side of their life but only keep sharing the good things to the world. Positivity and appreciating what we have is a good trait, but the silent ego should not make us unrealistic.  

Let's think about how humble we are and how to move towards more humility.  It seems the only way to break all the walls. Heart to heart connection already exists between us and all of God's creations.  Our task is only to remove the self-built walls by adopting to a humble attitude.