Come out of the Cave (sic) Grave

 Some day you have to choose to come out of the tunnel. And see light. I do the same and have never fallen short of congratulating myself for doing so. I smile and have a restful inhale of the fresh air. I open my arms and embrace this world, my world. It welcomes me back with a brotherly hug. I smile again and close my eyes to look inward. I take a sip of peace from the sea of tranquility and open eyes. The world has changed. It’s far better now. I have changed my eyes to look at it differently.

It was dark and intimidating. It was as much frightening and menacing as it was painful. The tunnel was as much dug by the external circumstances as the negative tools of my own mind. I had entered a cave. A little recess in the mountainside of life. An anguished escape from the routine troubles in life. Then I became my own enemy and started digging earth in the direction I shouldn’t have. I was digging a tunnel. An aimless futile struggle. My depressed, bruised mind removing earth faster and faster. It was taking me deeper into the womb of darkness. It was like digging my own grave. A bruised brain and injured mind are the potent tools of a self-grave digger.

With sweating body, soiled clothes and aching limbs, now I come on the other side of the mountain of life. Out of the self-dug cave that almost became a grave. Life has changed its meaning. The poles have reversed. I take credit for the small act of having kept on the digging job.

It’s a new beginning. I know myself better. It’s a new sun. The air is so fresh. The earlier life seems a little book of lessons. This entire self-grave digging job can make or break. There is a very thin line. One can have a threadbare escape if the realization strikes in the nick of time. I feel blessed and lucky that it did in my case.

As I close my eyes, a feeble smile on my lips, and inhale the essence of a new, redefined life, the journey seems worth it. Life is almost on a pause now, so slow in motion that I see the marvels of nature around. They are for me as much as they are for anybody. The spring sun kissing the winter-beaten leaves. Songs of birds. Gentle breeze and the swirls of a footloose bird in the sea of cool air. Bits of peace lying around. Watch closely, there are countless pieces of beauty floating around in the eternal sea of time. All we need is to stop to observe and own the great artwork of existence waiting to be possessed.

I inhale the fathomless fragrance of peace, harmony and integrity from the farthest part of the cosmos. Cosmic harmony. Endless orderliness in orbits. Ever-going periodicity. Supportive synchronization. Fury of explosions and astronomical speeds tamed to harmless, slow acts of space-time continuum. Me and my environment feel like an iota of this cosmic harmony.

I allow myself a gentle smile. Ripples of peace cascade through my soul. I close my eyes again and look inwards, deeper than the superficial world of my body and the worldly circumstances. I can travel far deeper than I ever thought. There are undisturbed paths leading to my true self. It’s a replica of the cosmic orderliness. I am on the path to meet my true self, the self that is destined to be happy and at peace with itself.

It awaits there, the self, with unlimited dose of happiness, comfort, compassion and peace. We only deny ourselves the dose of this cosmic healing pill by looking out on this world, the superficial world of frustration, jealousy, hate, futile rat race, mundane cravings, illusions, assumptions, fears, apprehensions and cravings. It doesn’t allow us to smile, to close eyes and start the journey inward. No wonder we have hardly travelled in the real sense even if we are lucky to spend hundred years of chronological time in a lifetime.

The journey to the real inner self, on the other hand, is not bound by the puny limits of time and funny horizons of space. It’s open and there are unlimited dimensions. In minutes one covers cosmic distances. And when you smile and look at this world outside, you see a replica, a reflection of the inherent beauty. You are better now and happier. You look at this world with a healthier mind and sturdier brain. More importantly you have a better heart. You are capable of loving more and hating less, the hallmark and definition of a real human being.

Fight for Love as a Soldier of Peace

 

Norman Schwarzkopf says, “The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.”

Strictly at the personal front, the more you put up a concerted effort to be at peace with yourself, the less will be the burden on your life through the shady agents of hate, jealousy, anger and greed.

Mother Teresa says peace begins with a smile. So take the first step. Smile. Universal peace and harmony is looking for your peace of mind. Anger, resentment, war and strife are not anything in themselves. They are simply absence of peace.

Inner abundance presents itself the moment you decide to be aware of it. With a bit focused attention, you will see that brotherhood, grace, generosity, peace and nonviolence are simply the pictures reflected on this inner screen. Let there be disturbance in this pool of peace, you see power, possession and pleasure taking the front seat and drive away love and joy from your life.

For the things to fall in place, there has to be a starting point. The world outside is infinite, so who will decide and judge where to begin from? It will take million years to decide. Cut it short. We can start from ourselves. Like cells make the body, we constitute the human and the overall system. Peace in your heart and love in your eyes is a good diagnosis for creation. Feel proud of your contribution. And mind it, before you go searching for the rewards of a heart at peace, remember that peace is its own reward.

Dalai Lama: “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.”

If avoidance of fight and quarrel is cowardice and escapism, then biting back a dog that has bitten you is bravery. If running away from fire is defeat, then standing in front of a speeding car is bravery.

Acceptance doesn’t mean defeat. It means taking control of yourself, sympathize with the self, giving yourself an understanding pat on the back, pause, sit down, rest and allow the storm to pass over. And then you see the light. Believe me, storms burn out too fast. While peace drags the moments to eternity.  

When you get caught in the quagmire of adverse situations, the more you struggle, the more are the chances of drowning. The perilous eddies are most dangerous on the surface. But sometimes allowing yourself effortlessly to be sucked in gives you a chance to slip out of the vortex, because the base is very narrow. Similarly, problems have an apparent broad surface, but in reality have a very tiny base below the surface. So don’t choose to waste yourself on the surface of issues and routine headaches. Just dive down. There you see the reality. Most of the seemingly mammoth problems eddy out of a very small, funny base.

So the cool soldier, be on your guard, lower your head and dive to survive and see your glorious sun some other day at some other point. And don’t forget to smile when you see the light. Love will be your destiny because bitterness will be dissolved in the process.

Dissolve in Loveful Trance through Sufi Meditation

 

You have to accept the calling of a path that is receptive to life, love and peaceful living. Sufism is calling attention to the inherent unity under different caste, class, creed and religions. It unearths love, which in turn melts pride, prejudices and ignorance, the breeding grounds of hate and jealousy.

My father named or nicknamed me as Sufi. As a Hindu, I rate it as a great syncretic sentiment. And why not, probably I am the only Hindu in Haryana who is called Sufi.

Coming to Sufism, it’s the best mystical offering by Islam to the overall humanity. The strands of unity, oneness, universal brotherhood and love for all waft around from the esoteric incense of Sufism. So, I am happy to be called Sufi.

Music plays a big part in Sufi meditations. Meditation is nothing but being vigilant and aware of your loving self in a totally relaxed body. No wonder it is the best exercise for the soul. Play some soulful Sufi music on a higher volume so that it swathes you in its gripping, haunting pools of melodious surrender to the ultimate. I am going to explain the steps of a simple Sufi meditation technique. This meditation is best done in a spacious room or hall because it involves swirling around.

Listen to the initial notes and you will feel some spiritual haunts spreading from the central Asian lands. It is about connecting to mother earth, and from her to the solar system, galaxy and the ultimate. So perform it on naked feet, or be in socks at the most if the climate in your part is too harsh.

Stand still as you listen to the build up of the Sufi melody. Just relax and look within, taking the enchanting trilling of the music seep into you. Now spread your right arm by your side, raise the arm to the level of your shoulder, elbow turned at an angle and the hand raised up, palm facing upwards . Your elbow shoulder and chest being in a line. Spread the left arm to the other side, keep it comfortably straight, without putting strain to straighten it. The palm spread out and pointing to the ground. The hand dangling at an angle from the horizontal.

And start swirling, go round and round on your feet in anticlockwise direction. Just slowly build up the momentum. There is a difference between exercise and meditation. In the latter, your spirit is involved. The body is just the starting point. Keeping the hands as mentioned above, as you start swinging, swirling, allow the divine forces to take control of your body. If you really do it, believe me you won’t fall, because there are balancing forces all around you.

When we stand, we think we are in control of our body and only we are managing its position. Little do we realise that our apparent control is just an illusion. The all-balancing forces of eternity are what which maintain our standing. And look at the eternity’s grace, it allows us to think that we are solely responsible for maintaining our posture.

Your body will be swinging in circles, like a swinging top, but that is just the outer periphery of your being. After a time, you will realize that just the matter or food body is going in circles. The real you, the axis of your being, the consciousness, remains immovable. Just like a swinging top swirls around a central nail, you will go within to the immovable point of your being. The externalities will be swung out by the centrifugal forces of divine realization. The centripetal forces will suck you into the core of your being. And the apparent objectives around you—and so will the illusions—will just merge into an all-pervading continuum, one layer of energy, which even quantum physics has verified.

The differences will melt. Going in circles around the point of your consciousness, you will realise it is all just one energy, spreading, transforming, altering, from here to there. If you maintain that equipoise of spirit, soul and matter, you can build up the momentum to continue forever! Well, you need not do that of course. Haa Haa.

So continue as long as you enjoy the deep sips of solace. After that lie down on your stomach. Surrender to mother earth and grandmother eternity. Just lie like a child. You will have glimpses of that cosmic security and protection when your mother carried you in her womb. Remain like this till the momentum of mystical oblivion embraces you.

Open your eyes later. Take a turn to lie on your back. But move very gently, without giving any jerk to the body. Be so soft as if you want to preserve the softest things in you. Rub your hands. Place them gently on your face, smile, be thankful to the eternal law for the moments of peace. 

Learn the Art of Emptying

 

Well before you take steps to fulfill your dreams, learn the art of emptying, of letting go, of letting out unwanted mossy dregs in the container of your destiny. Emptying isn’t defeatist in nature. It’s not surrender. It’s a calculated step towards victory, towards fulfillment, towards love. It’s the preparation for gain, the beginning of filling up. Instead of running after the mirage of fulfillment, first focus on emptying. Fulfillment is just a step away.

Fullness starts at the moment of complete emptying. Wash, scrub, rinse and drain out the muck from the pot of your destiny. Wash away hate, anger, jealousy, ignorance, unrealistic desires, phobias, complexities and overblown ambition. Drain these out. Let it be a perfectly clean and swanky pot of emptiness. The universe is expanding. It wants clean chambers to pour its energy into. It will sneak into the clean house in the form of your dreams and aspirations. And love of course in a form spread out in an unimaginable way.

The swabs clinging to the bottom are the repellents to fulfillment. Clean these. Work on emptying. Work on emptiness and you are in fact moving towards fullness. In a perfectly clean container, there is no limitation on fulfillment, no hurdles to materialization of dreams, no restrictions on the infinite cosmic harmony pouring its vastness into it.

A scribbled canvas has limitations of painting, but a clean one has infinite possibilities of shapes and pictures. Scrub the slate clean before you start the journey. Even if it means a lifetime of emptying, it still will not be a loss. Even a second of fulfillment will be worth it. It will still be better than pouring the nectar of your efforts into an unclean pot, and just adding to the stinking broth that never gives happiness and satisfaction.

A clean empty house is a magnet. It pulls positive forces by itself. It's natural like gravitational force. It invites fullness. Complete emptiness invites complete fullness. Put your house in order. Set up your invitation to fullness on the door. Forget about the rest. Very soon, you will hear the knock of fortune and love on your door. Like water flows to pits and hollows in earth, good luck naturally flows to clean, emptied and tidied containers. Come on, let your share flow in! Love will be its major proportion, don’t worry!

Love your Duties to Retain your Footing

 

Our duties, responsibilities and commitment are the roots that keep the tree of freedom and rights standing. The tree of rights falls without the roots of duties. Read the constitutions anywhere in the world and you will realize what I mean.

Loving one's job and many other duties is a huge step in self improvement. You hardly realize when you step over from the small stage of individual duties to general to universal responsibility. I call this sprout of love. Love sprouts.

The weeds of hate and anger are growing too rapidly. Don't we need more and more love sprouts? Once you start loving your commitments, gone is the discontent, brighter turns the light inside, and happier you are. Love is the destination where one can enter from so many alleys open on all sides.

Phillips Brooks says, “Happiness is the natural flower of duty.” Even George Washington found happiness and moral duty inseparably connected.

Your sense of responsibility fuels your flight of independence. The ability to respond (responsibility) is the price you have to pay to achieve your own type of grand greatness. The more your sense of responsibility, the lesser you are prone to blame others. With less blame in your heart, and lesser grudges, there will be more reasons to smile and accept others as they are.

All the talk of universal brotherhood, love and sense of responsibility are incomplete without your own contribution, your love for your responsibilities. And mind you, privileges, responsibility and opportunity are part of the same system. They sustain each other. You just cannot have one of them and stay happy. Not sustainable man. 

Seen the fate of a free kite? It falls man. A stringed kite is better than a free flier. Any day.

We can fly and rise higher only if we are tied to certain responsibilities and commitments; our freedom-lorn spirit tamed to an extent by tolerable social conventions, individual values, family setup, the sweet-sour tides in our offices, etc. But most of the time we find it as a drag on our real enjoyment of life. We just feel how great life would be without all such irritating stuff of the mundane life. But guys tell me, can a stringless kite fly? The kite flies because there is a string pulling it down to help it rise higher in the sky. It also tries to negate the limitations set up by the string. It shakes its head in negation. OK! No issues. It has every right to create a scene. But tell me, what happens when its dream to be string-free become true? It just takes a few ecstatic circles in air and falls onto the ground. Those free swirls of its dreams prove to be its death dives.

We are the stringed kites fella. We fly and rise high only because our destructive passions and straying traits are tamed and tied to a string. So love your commitments, your responsibilities, and your struggles for small-small things in life. The moment you love and like the stage on which you slog out to carve out the things that define your life, everything turns loveable. Try it. A very simple cause and effect phenomenon.

Love and liking go a long way together on the synonym path. Increase you quota of likings for the things that define your personal and professional lives. You will be free to harvest your love crop under the beneficent sun of your heartfelt likings. All the best!