The view from the top

The view from the top

November 2014

By Megha Bajaj

When we take an aeroplane view of our lives, we are released from the humdrum and see life in its magnificence and beauty, says Megha Bajaj

I find it very awe-inspiring to press my nose against the aircraft’s window at the time of landing. Especially at nights. It’s like suddenly from the inky skies and nothingness, you start spotting the twinkling lights of the city below. It looks so distant – and then gradually certain shapes start to form. You can see the roads, the bridges. A little closer to the ground and you can actually identify the bus from the rickshaw, the street lights, that lone man on a cycle, and before you know it, it is touchdown.

To me, it is nothing less than a spiritual experience. When we look at our lives too closely, everything seems so big. The challenges appear like a large abyss, and try as you may, you feel  you cannot straddle it. And yet, the aircraft gives such a perspective. There is vastness – the Universe is just so huge. Each of us actually are just specks, little bits of cosmic dust that is moving together in time and space to make something of our lives.

Clichéd as it sounds, if we can remember we are not human beings here for a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings here for a human experience we learn to see life in the right perspective. We learn to see ourselves as a part of everything that is, and apart from nothing. We learn to keep small things small, and enjoy it for what it is worth.

In the humdrum of routine, and the myriad roles we play we forget. Who we are. What we are. So tiny, and yet so expansive. So momentary and yet so eternal. The need is to step back – every now and then – at least for a few minutes each day to remember.

How seriously so many of us take life. Not realising we are just a speck – an important speck but a speck nonetheless. How egoistic we get in our relationships – not realising that the only way to feel the entire cosmos within us is through love, through peace, through Silence.

We learn to see ourselves as a part of everything that is, and apart from nothing

There is a video about a man who speaks about his encounter with aliens who know much more about the Universe than we do. He says that the biggest challenge that humanity faces is not population, or pollution – but noise. Noise in the world outside and most importantly the noise in our head – the incessant chatter that makes you believe  that life is all about getting up, earning a living, and bringing up children. He says if somehow we could quieten ourselves – each one of us, just a little – we would realise our Truth and all the crisis that the world is facing will dissolve, and resolve.

I, for one, see immense truth in this theory. If all of us were a little more realised, a little more spiritual, a little more happy and peaceful – wouldn’t we think differently? Would we continue to do all that we are doing to the world, to people around us, and most of all to ourselves?

Every paradigm shift first begins with us. Can you find some time out from your schedule to just feel the Silence? Just be with yourself, in nature, under the skies and see yourself through the eyes of someone watching from an aircraft. Objectively. From a distance. And you will see yourself for who you truly, are and learn to live life in a much more detached-attached way – living every moment, and yet, attaching yourself to nothing. That, my friend, is called, “a beautiful life.”

About the Author

Megha is, above all, a seeker. These days she is attempting to find herself in the role of a teacher through the online writing course designed by her.  You can know more about her on www.wonderofwords.org