Inner peace within us will help deal with violence in the world

 

Some years ago, I went to Iraq to take stock of our relief and rehabilitation work there. We were asked to stay in the Green Zone, the safe zone. There were 12 vehicles and two tankers provided for our security. They said that the Red Zone was quite risky and there had been bomb blasts a few days back. But I insisted on going there. They were worried but since I was their guest, they could not refuse. There, I went to a village that had only Shias because all the Sunnis had been driven away from there. They welcomed me. I sat and spoke with them and told them I wanted to bring a guest that evening and they agreed. So I brought with me a Sunni imam who was among those driven away from that village. When they met and spoke to each other, the villagers decided, “We will welcome back the 8,000 families that were driven away from here.”

When there is a conflict, there is a breakdown of communication. There is no trust. To bridge this gap, you need a channel of communication, a way to connect with all the sides of the conflict. There are some who are extremely sensitive and lose their temper and then there are those who think they are ‘sensible’ and righteous to such an extent that they don’t care about the impact of their actions or inactions. Neither can make good communicators. We need a blend of sensitivity and sensibility. A crucial characteristic of a peaceful person is how best he can connect with everyone.

Corruption begins where a sense of belongingness ends. You will see that people take bribes only from those they have no belongingness with. Nobody takes a bribe from their loved ones or those they connect with. Another example of connection can be, how you probably behave when you go abroad and you meet someone who says, “I also studied in XYZ College.” What happens to you? You feel a sense of connection and this connection improves communication. Then conflicts simply disappear.

‘The other’ is always a threat. But with multi-religious and multi-cultural, value-based education, the threat can disappear. Ultimately, the thought process changes when perception changes, opening the door for cooperation and peace.

We have many identities in life. First, we are part of one light, one human race. Our subsequent identities are with gender, nation, and religion. There is violence in the world because our priorities have been reversed. For these identities to be in the proper order of priority, we need inner peace so that we are sensitive to others’ needs and respond appropriately.

Glimpse of the soul

Life is full of interruptions. We need to keep moving. We park ourselves somewhere and then we move again. Now if you park in a wrong place, you need to move sooner, and if you park in the right place, you have freedom to move when you want to. Similarly, you have to park your mind in a safe place. If you have parked your mind in your own garage, nobody can tell you when you should move it. But if you park your mind in somebody else’s garage, they will be after you.

Don’t place your life’s authority in somebody else’s hand. If you do, you will have no freedom. And when you lose freedom, the next thing you lose is love and compassion, because someone who is stifled cannot express their compassion or love. So, take care of the car called mind which drives you. You should drive the mind rather than the mind driving you. Wisdom empowers you to drive the mind. Otherwise the mind is driving; it is an automated car which goes on its own. 

You are sitting, observing that while you want to go left, the car is going right, and you feel helpless. Most of our life is like this. We don’t know what we are doing, we don’t know what we want, and we don’t know where we are going. So we need to take a look at, ‘From sitting behind, how I can jump into the driving seat. How can I make that leap?’, and that is what spirituality is. The essence of the Bhagvad Gita, is “your soul is imperishable; repose in the self”.

Lord Buddha said, “Life has sorrow and sadness, but there is a way to come out of sadness.” Discontinuation of sadness and attainment of happiness both will happen through meditation. The body, the mind, and the intellect have changed, but there is something within us that has not changed. That is a glimpse of the soul.

How to fast during Navratri

 

We fast to cleanse our body as it is essential to give our entire digestive system a break. Here are some essential tips to follow:

1. Fast with the right understanding. Either we overeat or fast too much. Neither is good.

2. Fast for yourself and not to please God! Fasting is to detox your body and feel rejuvinated.

3. Fast because your body needs rest. All year through, you overwork your liver, pancreas and stomach. If there was a labour court for the body, these organs would have complained there!

4. While fasting, eat fruits or light food that is easy to digest. Don't eat anything or everything, just because the food has been tagged as "fast" food.

5. Have a lot of water. Purifying the body with water can bring a lot of balance in the system.

6. Fast as per your body type. Check with an ayurveda doctor to know your body type.

Follow the above and dive deep into the vastness of the consciousness to discover your inner beauty. Happy Navratri!

Surrendering the storm of emotions

Every emotion has a definite sensation in the body. Many a times, we get carried away by thoughts, or feelings and we do not observe the sensations. One should learn how to handle one’s self. We make so many affirmations: “Oh! I will not do this. I will do this.” But, when the storm of emotion rises in us, we find ourselves lost. There is a strange relationship between thoughts and feelings. Thoughts provoke feelings, and feelings, in turn, can bring about some thoughts.

Feeling is subtler than thinking. You cannot have the same feeling all the time, feelings change. When we feel high, we have no problems. The problem comes when we feel low. When one feels low, then the more one tries to feel high, the more the low feelings persist. When you feel low, jump into the lowest. Be like water. The nature of water is humility. It always goes down. Water means acceptance with motion, with dynamism, with readiness to jump up.

The ocean is the lowest. How has the ocean become an ocean? It has accepted the lowest. All rivers from the mountain flow down to the ocean. The ocean is full. The humblest is the greatest. Have you ever loved your low feelings? You have always fought with them. Just close your eyes and go into that low. Do not do any action but just agree. How far will you go down? You will find the ocean there. You will start rising up in no time. Depression and low feelings cannot touch you.

However big the clouds are, they cannot overshadow the sun. It could be the darkest day, but still it will remain day, and those clouds can never make it night. Just go deep, observe and you will see a lot of sensations rising up. Some fears come up. Fear is just a sensation in the body. Agree with it. An amazing thing happens within you. If you try to fight with your feelings, they take a longer time to clear.

There is only one way, “let go” or “surrender”. Surrender means that which you cannot handle, keep it on a plate and offer it. You cannot handle your own feelings, you cannot handle your own thoughts, your own confusion. When we are aware of our confusion, we offer it. That is what is called surrender.

This post is dedicated to the memory of sr. AOL teacher, (late) Sh. Pankaj Suresh Mirgh (1st July 1971 - 28th September 2021).