Gratitude

Hi Folks!

How's your Life?!

I've been having an absolutely marvellous time since the last 15 days!

Want to know what I am upto?!

Refer to the earlier post for - '3 Tasks To Do On Someone's Death.'

As Task 3, I wrote a nice, long mail to Ranjana about Ajit and my happy memories about him.

Then I wrote another nice, long mail to Ranjana about my happy memories with her!

Why wait to write to someone else - son or daughter or mom or dad or brother or sister?

True, their and my near one too, but someone else nevertheless, about the good times I've had with a person when they themselves are gone?

And what's the guarantee that I may not be 'gonehomeshubhayeri' instead of 'goinghome' before them?

Then they would never know !

So I started, tentatively, reaching back all those years ago when I'd first met Ranjan - and it was so beautiful and funny and nostalgic to remember all the mad things we did together and our journey till this moment!

I felt happy and blessed and uplifted!

Not one to let go of such good feelings, I carried on writing to other near and dear ones too!

I'm not done yet, and it feels good to know so many people mean so much to me!

They've enriched my life in many ways and are still adding to my joys and learning.

Its been a marvellous, energising trip and I and happy and content and recharged!

Try it, all of you, do!

Now let's look at some queries which have come quite some time ago but got put on the back-burner by Life - and Death!

There's a very practical and wonderful question from Arun.

'As one grows older and as each year passes, how can one ensure that one has progressed spiritually?'

By the time one has grown enough to ask such a question, one has achieved the state of discrimination between what can offer temporary gratification and what would ensure long-term peace of mind.

What IS a Spiritual life and what IS Spirituality?

Apart from being a Pandora's box of words and confusion?!

To me, it is having complete belief that I am a spiritual being residing in a physical body of my choice and trying to respond to all my chosen challenges and situations with this awareness, so that I am circumspect in my behaviour.

In not reacting like a human being, with the understanding that everyone is trying to work out their own lessons, many times, without even realising that there is a lesson to be learnt, to begin with.

This world is truly a stage and all of us are playing our parts towards a common goal of not having to come back again. And again.

Smart fellow, Shakespeare!

What brings us back to Earth, is our habit-patterns of behaviour which we want to change. Once here, we don't remember it, but somewhere, we do retain the memory of our spirituality, hence the questions, the search.

Look back on your life and check the patterns of your reactions, the things that keep happening to you often, those that now happen less often and your general state of mind at any given point.

Do you react to unpleasant situations with the same intensity that you did last year?

Are you critical, sharp and sarcastic when there is really no need to be, as you probably realise later?

Are you hard on yourself? Most of us tend to be, unknowingly.

Are you now more circumspect than you were some time ago? Do you now allow a margin of error to the other person too?

Becoming calmer does not mean becoming boring.

If you are withdrawing, it's the wrong direction. You need to be happy both inside and outside. Are you?

Check, what kind of an energy-stealer you are. The Poor-me, Aloof and Over-Enthusiastic ones don't realise that they steal too.

Find a technique of Meditation that answers all your queries and meditate twice a day every day to stay connected to the unending, pure Universal Energy. Then the stealing and being-stolen-from reduces and finally stops.

The lethargy and 'No time' is just the old habit-pattern that you yourself want to change. So stick it out until 30 mins in the morning & evening becomes a routine cleansing of your mind like a bath to the body.

Lets look at this question in another way.

The Root or The First Chakra.

This is at the base of the spine, literally means 'supporting the root' and is about our basic survival instinct, the life-force and energy and our earthing, so to say.

It is extremely important to be firmly grounded and a properly working Root Chakra gives us our identity with our surrounding, a sense of belonging, of family and society which is a pre-requisite for a balanced growth.

An out-of balance Root Chakra, whether overactive or under, will keep one off-kilter. If our basic fears are not addressed, of survival or emotional or social ones, there will be problems which will enter the physical body and start to immobilise us.

Many people find that one or more of their Lower three Chakras are underactive but the higher ones are active or even overactive.

It does not help to set off on a spiritual journey when the basic grounding is weak, the fears and insecurities are not addressed. One cannot push them under the carpet and they will not automatically go away as you walk what you consider to be a spiritual path. Basic issues have to be cleared first and if they are about safety, security, standing up for oneself, our core beliefs, ehical behaviour and justice.

If your problems are in these areas, work on your first Chakra.

There are many ways of balancing the Chakras.

Meditate or concentrate your thoughts on the location of the Chakra and breathe normally for about 15 mins.

Consciously list out the issues which bother you and start to resolve them.Many times we do start, but are unable to come to a closure. It is very, very important to close them and then, only then move on.

People and situations are not under our control. What we can control is our own mind and its reactions. We need to learn this through meditating and ensure our progress.

All the Chakras spin simultaneously and it is not that only after the first one is working properly that we move to the next.

There are innumerable examples all over the world of people who are otherwise very 'holy' but have uncontrolled anger or hatred or sexual urge.Unless they address these issues there will be no progress, whatever their beliefs.

You will find many, many books and videos on the net on balancing the Chakras.

Check them out and go for the simplest exercises.

There are many books available on amazonusedbooks.com.

'Anatomy Of The Spirit' by Dr. Caroline Myss is exceptional.

This post has gone on long enough!

So long for now -