by Suma Varughese

"In my earlier job I had a colleague who used abusive language towards me. I decided the environment was harming me and left the job, for I was confident that the universe would look after me. Sure enough, I got another job with a higher post within nine days.”
-Madhuri Gawande (37), Manager, S.V. Distribution

“My guru Swami Chaitanya Bharti was holding a group meditation workshop which used to begin every day at 5.30 p.m. In the middle of the sessions, he called me one day at 4.30 p.m. and asked me to take over that day’s session as he wasn’t well.

Instantly, my whole brain went into a spin. But fortunately, I knew what to do. The first thing is to say yes to such things. Then you have to boost the level of your awareness so much that your fears and inhibitions get sucked away. With that awareness I went and conducted not one but two sessions.”
-Saahil Surti, Bach Flower Therapist and meditator, Pune

“I was informed by a fellow professor that my junior, who I had supported and assisted from the time she was a student, was backbiting about me. However, the next day, I greeted her cordially. The professor who had told me about it asked me how I had stayed so calm.

In reply I said that I have taught the Bhagvad Gita for the last 34 years, and it would be a shame if I did not practise it. The incident made me aware that I did not need a certificate from anyone. My own conscience was enough.”
-Purnima Dave, Head, Philosophy Deptt, Sathaye College, Mumbai

“I have been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for the last seven to eight years. I am coping with it. I have not taken a break from teaching. Never succumb to a weakness.”
-Kanla Tina (65), a teacher of Transcendental Meditation.

Problems on the job, challenges, betrayals and illnesses. These are the very stuff of life. And as every spiritual teacher emphasises, the acid test of our Spiritual Intelligence Quotient (SQ). Even the most sublime philosophy or spiritual experience is of no use if it does not transform our lives. Spirituality in the truest sense is meant to be hands-on, experiential, applied.

It is meant to be the alchemy that can convert the dross of our everyday lives into the purest gold; the formula that can transform the uncertain wins and gains of our lives into the most glorious paean of triumph; the master key to the mystery of life. As masters like S.N. Goenka and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar reiterate, it is the science and art of living.

“Everything that happens to you in the course of your life is there to help you,” says Saahil Surti. “Everyone who irritates you is your best friend because whenever you get poked, it is a sign that you need to get cleansed.”

Neale Donald Walsch writes in his book Conversations With God that the purpose of life is: “Using all of Life-all of many lives-to be and decide Who You Really Are; to choose and to create Who You Really Are; to experience and to fulfill your current idea about yourself.” This perspective has never been more relevant than in present times.

As spiritual awareness becomes conspicuous and many of us awaken to its truths, we necessarily have to incorporate it within our schedule of feeding the baby, maintaining harmony at home, coping with cranky in-laws and bosses, handling draining commutes, stressful pilgrimages, but if we can bring God into the details of our lives, we can ford the gap between the spiritual and the mundane and fuse their essences.

So what is spirituality and how can it help us achieve all these wonderful things? Spirituality is the discovery of our true self. Hidden beneath the sheaths of our body, emotions, thoughts, and feelings and personality, is the subtle essence of who we are, immortal, immu-table, whole, perfect and complete-spirit.

The spiritual quest involves coming in touch with this aspect of ourselves and eventually to establish ourselves within it. In order to herald the true self, we must first eliminate the false. We must learn to disidentify with our body, emotions, thoughts, etc. We can only do this by becoming aware of the conditioning that has created these identities in the first place.

The sum total of our past thoughts, expe-riences, upbringing and genetic inheritance have created the likes, dislikes, interests, talents, habits and attitudes that we falsely believe is us. This conditioning must be allowed to unspool if we are to arrive at what is real and unconditional within us. Whatever be our technique, the common elements are likely to be awareness and acceptance of the conditioning.

We have to introspect upon our behaviour, thoughts, emotions, habits and desires. By accepting them, we reduce their control over us until they slowly leave us. As this painful and long process unfolds, we change. There is more space for us to be who we are, and therefore for others to be themselves too. We are less reactive, less driven by instincts, impulses and desires.

As the contents of the mind gradually dwindle we become more peaceful, centred and harmonious. Life becomes more meaningful and purposeful as we find that all the random events of our lives are adding up to a definite pattern. People and messages come into our lives just when we need them most.

The universe itself seems to be conspiring in the process. This creates awareness of the intrinsic link between us and the universe and between all living beings. Faith in the Creator accelerates and a reverence for all that lives pervades us. This is the blueprint of the life divine; the life each of us has the potential to realise. The question is how do we do this through everyday living?

Be in the moment

The Buddha sat on the dais, twirling a lotus in his hand. Peace, calm and presence radiated out of him in an almost solid force field. Amitabh strained for a closer look, his entire being concentrated on the act. The Buddha, who was scanning the audience, rested his eyes upon him for a second.

Amitabh smiled with delight and the Buddha burst into a smile so joyful and so loving, that he felt it entering him with the force of a shaft of sunlight. Rrrrrrr went the alarm clock.

Gradually, serenely, Amitabh swam to consciousness. The dream still clung to him like a warm cloak. He drank in the memory for a minute, and resolutely turned his attention to the moment. Parts of him were resisting getting up, resisting being in the moment.

Sitting up in his bed, Amitabh turned his attention inward and allowed his awareness to play on whatever was going through his mind. His breath became slow and still. Gradually, the thoughts dissolved, leaving quietitude behind. He breathed a prayer of gratitude for the gift of another day. Then he turned his attention to the morning that had just arisen.

To what he wished to achieve. To the attitude he wished to maintain. Fresh from a Vipassana course, he felt as if he had taken a bath in the waters of eternity. All hurry, worry, impatience, stress, seemed to have been sucked out of him. And he intended to preserve this state in the forthcoming days.

The quality we bring to every moment of our life is what creates the pattern of our days. Approaching each moment with an awareness of its uniqueness and preciousness, and a determination to wrest its complete potential can transform even the most insignificant act to something intensely valuable.

The great Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, offers a series of gathas (verses) to anchor us in the moment as we perform our morning routines. The Buddhists call this mindful living, being aware of each moment, moment by moment. Here is the gatha for waking up:

Waking up this morning, I smile.
Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.
I vow to live fully in each moment
And to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.

Imagine if we were to chant this to ourselves on waking up. Imagine if we really meant it. How much we take life for granted. Receiving the gift of 24 hours as we rountinely do seldom seems a cause for celebration, but ask a condemned prisoner at the gallows or a dying patient and they will tell you how unutterably irreplaceable these hours are.

In her book, Kitchen Table Wisdom, an American doctor turned counsellor, Rachel Naomi Remen, quotes a friend dying of HIV/AIDS, “I have let go of my preferences and am living with an intense awareness of the miracle of the moment.” How can we access such inten-sity?

For a permanent access to such immediacy we need to engage in the act of deconditioning mentioned, earlier but the beginning stage could well be the philosophical understanding of the tangibility of the moment. Present moment awareness is the focus of many contemporary teachers such as J. Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle, and almost all Buddhist teachers, but its stream of wisdom has permeated all paths.

The essence of this philosophy is that neither the past nor the future exist, we only live in the Now. By transcending the mind’s compulsive tendency to live in the past and the future, we can live fully, intensely and enjoy the bliss of enlightenment. Living in the Now means accepting every moment as it unfolds no matter what it contains.

Says Eckhart Tolle in his book, The Power of Now: “Why is it (Now) the most precious thing? Firstly, because it is the only thing. It’s all there is. The eternal present is the space within which your whole life unfolds, the one factor that remains constant. Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.

Secondly, the Now is the only point that can take you beyond the limited confines of the mind.” We can make a spiritual practice of watching our every thought, each action, every feeling. Each time the mind drifts away, we bring it back. We invest time and energy in being mindful of each moment.

Krishnamurti calls this act of constant observation, choiceless awareness: we examine the contents of our minds without judgement or preference. In the Indian tradition it is called Sakshi Bhav, or witness action. As the morning progresses we mindfully engage in our routine. Even going to the toilet, Thich says can be as sacred as lighting incense.

“To accept life is to accept both birth and death, gain and loss, joy and sorrow, defilement and purity,” he says. Being in the now means giving everything we do our fullest attention. Making chapattis? Do it as if your life depended on it. Folding clothes?

Bring as much attention to the task as you can. Shaving your chin, having a bath, walking, sitting, all these are opportunities for us to extend our sensory awareness to the maximum. When we are in the moment, we learn to celebrate the mundane, to see the extraordinary in the ordinary.

In this exalted state, a cup of perfectly brewed tea is ambrosia, putting a messy house right is sheer ecstasy.We see how every moment holds the potential for a tiny spurt of growth and we rejoice in it!

All is interconnected

At breakfast, Amitabh practiced mindful eating. He closed his eyes as he turned his attention to the taste of the hot buttered toast. He dwelt on its texture, the way his tastebuds exploded with the flavour.

Thich Nhat Hanh tells us to become aware of the food on the plate and to trace its connection with everything that helped bring it to life including the sun, the air, the earth, water, the labour of so many animals and people. “We can see and taste the whole universe in a piece of bread,” he says.

Real mindfulness can make us aware of how intimately we are connected with the universe. We become aware that but for the whole universe conspiring to make it so, we would not even exist! All of evolution has happened simply to bring you and me about! The interconnection of life is particularly emphasised in Buddhism, which talks of ‘interdependent arising’.

This concept can explode the scientific belief that the universe is fragmentary and separatist. Interconnection makes us aware of our relationship with all that exists and inclines us towards responsibility. We become aware that our action has an impact on the outer world, and that our welfare is tied with the welfare of others.

Such a perspective can free us of the self-centred perspective with which we normally view the world, considering that our needs are of supreme importance. The perceptions of Neale Donald Walsch crystallise the concept of harmonious coexistence: “You must stop seeing God as separate from you, and you as separate from each other… Everything is intrinsically connected, irrevocably interdependent, inter-active, interwoven into the fabric of all of life… This is the future hope of your race; the only hope for your planet,” says ‘God’ in Walsh’s Conversation With God.”

Closing the door behind him, Amitabh slips into the street, on his way to work. This is the first time he is commuting after Vipassana, and the human misery that confronts him at the railway station hits him viscerally. Little girls of five with tiny babies strapped to their bodies hold out grubby hands for money.

Emaciated old men and women in rags, hunched up on the overbridge stairs, look with bleary eyes. Till now, he pretended ignorance, but now awareness insisted that he look and take cognisance of the sight. His heart almost broke. But what could he do? Could he take care of them all? Could he keep giving them money?

As to more long-term methods, perhaps rehabilitation, he didn’t have the energy or commitment for it. And yet he knew that if he wanted to be happy, he had to reconcile their existence with his own. There was no looking away any more.

Interconnection makes us aware that we cannot be happy unless those around us are. A happiness based on turning a blind eye to the travails and turmoil of the world is at best transitory. But it is not always easy to take up the burdens that conscience demands. How do we cope until we develop the strength to do so?

Thich offers the following gatha while contemplating food.

This plate of food,
so fragrant and appetising,
also contains much suffering.

The gatha is to make us aware of the starving people in the world. Thich suggests that we heighten our awareness and use it to enhance our commitment to help those who are hungry. As we go through our lives, encountering the unpleasant realities of corruption, violence, injustice and suffering in all forms, we can use them to increase our commitment to changing the situation and also our own behaviour.

In this way, we become welded to the world. Instead of being exclusive we become inclusive, embracing the whole world in our arms. And we learn to see the bright side of darkness, the heroism in suffering, the dignity in deprivation and the love that struggles through the most miserable existence.

Father Lancy Prabhu, Head of the Department of Inter-religious Study, St Xavier’s College, Mumbai (India) recalls the time when he was visiting the Tata Memorial Hospital (the country’s premier cancer hospital) regularly to meet his brother-in-law who was suffering from leukemia.

Father Lancy says: “There were so many patients there including children. I experienced great sadness but also joy. The children, for instance, were so cheerful, running around and playing. And people were so good. A couple, for instance, whose own child had leukemia, was extremely supportive of my brother-in-law."

He continues, "The man gave him blood three times and when he died, they were devastated. The sense of community is strongest in the face of suffering. It makes you feel how can you ever be less than that in your daily life?”

Take responsibility for the situation

Amitabh got out of Churchgate Station, trying to smoothen his ruffled shirt. His spirit was even more ruffled. A ruffian had insisted on quarrelling with him, accusing him of blocking the entry. Though he tried to keep his mindfulness, it had frayed and flown to the winds, and he had given as good as he got. Now he took stock.

Why was he still so upset with that man? Had it been because he had not been able to maintain his cool? But that was his problem, not the man’s. Why be angry with him for it? Suddenly the anger left him. Amitabh drew in his breath.

Everything looked different now. All the blame he had been attributing to people and situations outside him had originated within him. He was responsible, not others.

“Earlier, I was very short-tempered, “ recalls Madhuri Gawande. “I used to blame others for my problems. Then I did a course in Brahma Vidya (Mental Physics). I learnt to become aware of my reactions, and to be a witness to them. Now I feel that I am responsible for the situations in my life. Now if I’m going through a bad time at the office, I don’t think about it. I meditate for a few minutes and things begin to flow.”

When we take responsibility for a situation, we move from being victims to victors. The awareness of us being responsible for our own actions creates a paradigm shift in our lives. Consequently, the things that irritate, frustrate or hurt us lose their power.

Mata Amritanandamayi of Kerala endured enormous hardships in childhood because her parents treated her as a servant, piling her with all the housework, and often banished her from home. Today, she speaks of them reverently as her gurus, who assisted her in developing high standards of efficiency and cleanliness. How easy it would have been for her to blame them, instead!

Purnimabehn Dave is facing an unjustifiable legal action that has continued for 12 years. “Standing in the witness box, preparing for a case that is constantly postponed, being summoned when one is not prepared-all these are very stressful, but I refuse to allow it to damage me,” she says.

“These are the tests that mould us. After all, only when gold is put in the fire do its impurities melt away.” Perhaps nowhere does taking responsibility for the situation help us as much as with relationships. Real freedom comes when we realise that the other is not to blame.

Says Saahil Surti: “My mother has the habit of rearranging my house, giving the curtains for wash etc., whenever she comes to stay with me. This irks me, so whenever she visits, I become very alert. My awareness is so high that the mind does not move. The flame of awareness burns away all mental impurities.”

Taking responsibility for the situation inclines us towards the detached action advocated by the Bhagavad Gita. Says Kanla Tina: “The minor irritants of life such as the maid not turning up, or unexpected guests for dinner do not faze me. I just do what has to be done, believing that it is in my capacity to do so. Once finished I forget about it and accept what comes.”

Taking responsibility for things also enables us to take risks to realise our dreams. In the book, Chicken Soup for a Woman’s Soul, a high achiever divulged the secret of her success: “I think of the worst thing that could happen to me by taking the chance and I accept it. I may make a fool of myself or I may fail. So what?” This attitude eradicates fear of failure, for failure then only becomes something to learn from.

All is holy

At work, Amitabh was having a rough time. A draftsman in an architectural firm, he had been given the most boring job-to fair up the drawing of a senior colleague. He chafed at the drudgery of it. A sharp metallic sound caused him to shift his attention to the office boy, sitting on a desk opposite him, who was opening his lunch-box.

Disgust filled him. It was not even 12.30 and he was already eating! Becoming aware of his thoughts, he squirmed. But how could he possibly accept boredom and slovenliness or the filth and degradation he saw on the streets without slipping in his standards? How could people defecate along the railway lines or leave piled up dustbins uncollected for days?

If we skewer our lives into the good and the bad, the acceptable and the unacceptable, we are condemned to the pendulum shifts of joy and sorrow, of aversion and craving. True happiness and equipoise can only be obtained when we can go beyond the need to judge and sift. According to Conversations With God: “There is no ‘bad’ where I Am. And there is no Evil. There is only the All of Everything. The Oneness.”

Says Eckhart Tolle: “Seen from a higher perspective, conditions are always positive. To be more precise: they are neither positive nor negative. They are as they are. And when you live in complete acceptance of what is-which is the only sane way to live-there is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in your life anymore. There is only a higher good-which includes the ‘bad’.”

Says Kanla Tina: “Last year my sister passed away from cancer. I was with her in Canada for nearly three months. Neither she nor I experienced any suffering. We were both so peaceful and calm and our talk concerned of spirituality. It is possible to accept death in a spirit of total acceptance.”

This understanding is not at all easy to obtain, and requires the diligent application of awareness and acceptance over a period of years before we can reach a stage that is free of prejudices, likes, dislikes, preferences and tastes.

But the philosophical base to it could be the Vedic truth that all is holy. This perspective is common to most mystical traditions, but particularly true of the Upanishads. “What is it that knowing in which everything is known?” a plaintive Gargi asks Yajnyavalkya in the Brihadaranayaka Upanishad. The answer, of course, is Brahman, the source of all existence and the subtle essence in all.

Brahman is not just the Creator but is also the created. Therefore all is holy, everything counts. This facilitates the process of feeling the presence of the sublime in the repulsive. The Aghoris, a Tantric sect, use this concept of indiscriminating acceptance as their spiritual practice.

Nothing, to them, is impure or defiled, neither defecation nor the cemetery where they reside. This thought can help us in our daily lives by making us see the sublime in what we shy away from. God exists in the lowest of living forms. He lives in the criminal and the rapist. Therefore all are worthy of our respect.

Says Brahmakumarni Vividisha Chaitanya of the Chinmaya Mission: “The Lord is the anchor of everything in my life. It has made me so much more tolerant and forgiving of people. As a poet, when people compliment me on my writing, I know that it is Krishna who fills me with his spirit and writes through me.”

Suresh Kothari, a businessman turned spiritual teacher, says: “If we study the miracle of life intensely, we will understand that God is in the creation. Inside us, blood flows for 51,000 miles daily. If we were to flatten the DNA, it would span from earth to the sky."

He continues, "A child is born with 320 bones. By the time he is an adult, he has only 200. Who did the fusing? God is already manifest in ourselves. If we think like this we will be amazed and this amazement will lead us to enlightenment.”

Your faith will make you whole

As the day progressed, Amitabh was coming to a gradual realisation. This was not the work he wanted to do. There had always been a nagging sense of dissatisfaction but the Vipassana course had made it all so clear. He had wanted to sing all his life. He had a fine trained voice but had taken up a safe career owing to insecurity.

But his spiritual journey underlined the importance of following the heart. And his heart yearned to sing for the Lord. He was eager to pay homage to the Lord through bhajans, kirtan, Vedic chants and so on. But would he have the guts to leave his job? How would he survive?

“I have implicit faith in my guru and God,” says Madhuri Gawande. “I face many problems at work. I spoke to Guruji about them and he told me not to worry. Nowadays, whatever happens I feel I will be taken care of. My father was very ill recently but I told my mother not to worry and that he would be okay. Sure enough, he is fine now.”

Vividisha says: “I used to suffer from a whole range of illness including BP, diabetes, thyroid, and gynae problems. Sometimes I used to despair, but I knew that God was teaching me detachment from the body and perhaps giving me a chance to work out my karma.”

Says Father Lancy Prabhu: “Sometimes I feel anxious and fearful but there is a trust in God that helps me overcome these.”

In the face of the unknown, or when crises befall us, faith in the Higher Power, in the righteousness of our own motives or our power of survival can be a tremendous source of strength and support. Faith tells us that an ethereal force provides animation to our existence and our alignment with it will prevent misfortune.If sorrow assails us, faith invests meaning in it.

Says Suresh Kothari: “I take it for granted that the Lord is helping me in everything. When my people need to book a hall for my discourses on a specific day, they get it. The Lord has to help. After all, it is His work I am doing. And if there is any failure, then I know it is karma. I have recently been diagnosed with a malfunctioning heart valve. I have reduced my activities but I am peaceful and calm. There is no problem if I die tomorrow. I feel complete.”

Surrender

Amitabh made up his mind. He would trust his fate to God. He would give up his job tomorrow itself and pursue an alternative career. Come what may, he was ready to stand by the consequences of his decision. He felt a willingness to embrace anything that may happen to him.

The step from faith to surrender is a small one albeit crucial. When we surrender we let go of all controls, all preferences. Says Eckhart Tolle: “Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life. …to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation. It is to relinquish inner resistance to what is.”

Dr Remen, who encountered thousands of critically ill patients, says: “Over the years I have seen the power of taking an unconditional relationship to life. I am surprised to have found a sort of willingness to show up for whatever life may offer and meet with it rather than wishing to edit and change the inevitable… When people begin to take such an attitude they seem to become intensely alive, intensely present.”

In her book, How to Master Change in your Life, Mary Carroll Moore recounts the experience of her friend Lyndra, who took her dog for a hike in the mountains and lost him. She searched fruitlessly for hours. Comprehending the significance of the incident, she decided to terminate the need for the dog.

When she realised that she would be all right without him, she surrendered to God’s will. There is an epilogue to this. Immediately after the surrender, the little dog appeared from nowhere. When we surrender, we are no longer focused on the outcome and are willing to accept what shows up. Often the very things we want, flow effort-lessly into our lives.

When we surrender, we no longer want trains to run on time, people to be clean-shaven, first-night-first-show tickets to be available, a particular dish for dinner, our spouses to be different or more money in the bank. We accept whatever life offers us. All the truths fuse when we approach surrender, for it is a compound of being in the moment, taking responsibility, and having faith.

Life is a game

It was late when Amitabh left the office. His resignation letter had been typed and kept ready. A friend had called and in the course of the conversation had revealed that his friend in a recording company was looking for singers for a new line of spiritual music. Amitabh had made him promise to fix up an appointment for him. Exhilaration bubbled.

The train was crowded as ever, and even as he stood, the man in front of him swung his briefcase behind and inadvertently biffed him in the midriff. Ooof! But before being irritated, he thought otherwise. Why not utilise this opportunity to grow in patience, in acceptance, in focusing on the other’s happiness? Why not be grateful to him instead?

Warm feelings of peace and joy flooded him. It was as if his life was no longer divided into two segments, the positive elevating, and the negative plummeting him, but had fused into one whole, all of it raising him incessantly. He could envisage a time when all conflicts would leave him, for everything that happened would only move him towards greater growth. The secret of life, the fount of all happiness and joy, was gradually opening to him.

When we see problems as opportunities we discover the alchemic secret of converting the negative to positive. In this stage, we live life with zest and playfulness, knowing that every single thing that happens to us has a growth potential to it. Says Purnimabehn, “ I don’t want an easy life. When we face problems and difficulties, life becomes colourful and interesting. It becomes fun!”

According to the yoga-Vedanta tradition, during meditation, you briefly go into transcendental or pure consciousness. It is called turya, literally the fourth, state of consciousness—the other three being waking, deep sleep and dream states that we routinely experience.

With regular practice, you go into turya more often and for longer periods. Its characteristic is absence of mental activity, but full awareness and total stillness. But that is not enough. If we feel peaceful and blissful during meditation and remain the same old troubled self when out of it, what is the use of meditation?

Fortunately, that is not so. With prolonged practice, the sat-chid-ananda (truth, conciousness and bliss), starts to flow into the waking state. We act, but remain centred. When the fourth state coexists completely with the other three states of consciousness, it amounts to a fifth state, varily called cosmic consciousness, enlightenment, nirvana. It is also self-realisation—retaining the awareness of the real self always.

Life ultimately is fun, lila, a great game and adventure that the Creator wants us to enjoy thoroughly. When an illness hits you, you see an invaluable opportunity to grow in endurance, acceptance, in commitment to health and above all, in appreciation of life; when the office bore waylays you, you rejoice at the opportunity to practice acceptance; when your girlfriend jilts you, you embrace the opportunity of focusing on her happiness; when great responsibilities are thrust upon you, you delight in the chance to enhance your strengths and skills.

Like a feisty rubber band, even if you are stretched beyond endurance, you bounce with an increased vigour. As the Bible says, you learn to “bless them that despitefully use you” and “to turn the other cheek”. This action is symbolic of a greater tolerance and acknowledgement of your growth potential.

And finally, when death beckons, you go forth readily, to embark upon your newest adventure. Here at this stage, you and life are one. Life is integrated with your self; in turn you use it to grow in wisdom, strength, joy and love, everyday!