The flow of life!

Hello all,

Namaste! I want to let my blog readers know about my new website-swaroopa.net. It came live on Vijayadasami day, the last day of Navrathri, 7th of October 2019. This is my way of offering my services to anyone who needs it. The details are described on the website. The actual service offering may take another few months while I figure out the remaining technical details. Every blog post can be accessed from my website under the tab, Blog. This, makes remembering my blog posts and website very easy. Just simple swaroopa.net, not the complicated blog id address. Now to the post.

Last week, we discussed how our intuition comes as the divine guidance to show us our path through the jungle called life. But many times we find it utmost difficult to trust ourselves. We were very good at trusting ourselves during our childhood. But then years of familial, societal and cultural conditioning made us to trust more our outer reality than our inner reality. Yes, we do have to trust our outer reality. When we are driving, if a truck is directly in our path, if we don't take every action to move away from its path, we are sure to be dead.

The inner reality: So, it is not to ignore completely our outer reality to totally embrace our inner reality. But to work with our inner reality so that our outer reality starts to reflect our inner reality and what we want for ourselves. Yes, the concept is a bit complicated. I will try to explain it in very simple terms. Hope the Divine lends me her words. (As mentioned before, I like to consider Divine as she, the Divine Mother Goddess - Sri Lalitha Tripurasundari, Lalitha, the one who plays with her energy dynamics.)

As of now, let each of us look at our own life. Is it where we want it to be? If it is, great! Don't do anything about it. Not a single thing, don't even lift a finger. But in case it isn't, then what to do? This is where first we have to access our intuition. To ask it what we are meant to do. As we have ignored our own intuition for a very long time, it would be a feeble voice. Sometimes it comes as more like an 'inner knowing' this is what we are supposed to do. When we start to listen to it, this inner voice/inner knowing becomes stronger and stronger.

How do we know what our intuition telling to us is correct or not? Here is where our feelings need to be acknowledged. Feeling are the true barometer whether some thought or action is correct or not. With a correct thought that comes up in our mind, a strong good feeling would be attached. Don't think this is something that falls into our lap. With the intuition there is always the actions regarding purpose or Dharma attached. 

As we have discussed before, 'there is no free lunch' in this Universe. For anything and everything we have to perform our inner or outer work, either in this or another lifetime. As the consciousness evolves more and more, the work becomes more mental and emotional- subtler and subtler. For example take a company like Apple. The person at the lowest rung of the organization would be assembling the laptop (physical work), while the middle managers would be doing aspects of design, modelling, sales and marketing. The top executives would be dealing with financial management, business decisions, which country to next launch the product in or how to convey the profit/loss to the share holders.

The progress of the evolution of the Soul becomes more subtle!
Image credits- Pixabay.com

Same way as the evolution of a Soul happens, the work becomes more and more mental. The planes or dimensions of work becomes subtler and subtler. So, when we normal Souls do our Dharma as physical jobs whether teaching, driving a truck, coding, constructing a house, or even being a top-level employee in a company, Masters like Ramana Maharshi or Paramahansa Yogananda tackle more of the mental and emotional realms. 

The work here is much harder as the mind interferes a lot and tries to topple a person from their path. The mind is the 'Markada'- the monkey. Whether we like it or not, this is where every single one of us is proceeding to, in this lifetime or another lifetime. Back to the inner reality.Let us say, as of now we are not happy where our life is. We have started listening to our intuition. It has started to voice it's input. As we start to listen to it more and more, our sacred energy centers starts to open. We have discussed about this before.

In the middle of the forehead between the brow there is a sacred energy center called the Ajna chakra. Ajna, in Sanskrit is to 'command'. This center starts to open up. Soon, we start to feel, there is a 'vision' that is evolving for our own life. This vision becomes the command center for our existence. The vision to manifest many times takes long time, decades in the making. Mahatma Gandhi at the Pietermaritzburg railway station in South Africa, when was pushed out of the train, was shown a vision of- what can be.

Most probably due to the deep embarrassment and pain, an educated, lawyer Gandhi had to go through that night, the intellect, conditioning of the mind as well as the mind got removed from the picture. Gandhi, the pure human essence underneath came to the forefront. Most probably his thought process would have been, if a western well-educated Indian like me is treated like this, what about the uneducated, illiterate Indians? They would be treated like mere hunted animals. This made him to capture the true heart of India and history was made in another fifty-four years.

The being: Many times we get this vision for our life only when we lead life with our heart, not our mind. Mind is a monkey. It needs a strong anchor to latch it to a post. Otherwise, it would fly all over the mental sky like a string cut balloon. Every place becomes its home, whether it is on the internet, social media, news, politics, religion, or parties. We lose ourselves in all the noise life can bring, Maya! When there is no strong anchor, the balloon can go anywhere, isn't it?

Can we realize what is happening with the world nowadays? We are living in a lot of noise that does not add much value to our life. In this living from a 'Markada' (monkey) mind, we have lost our inner core, anchor, and we are a flying balloon all over our mind space. Because there is no anchor to stabilize us, eventually we get lost in the emotions, circumstances and conditions of our life. We become bewildered and confused. Is there any wonder people are flocking to doctor or psychologist's office?  

The interconnected world of the mind!
Image credits- Pixabay.com

We, in the rush to make something out of our life has lost our deep connection to our heart, our intuition. The actions of the being should come from their core, true heart. When the heart or intuition itself is not in the picture, where is the energetic being? The being, the Soul is negated and just the attached mind is functioning. Is there any wonder we as a being is feeling depleted and energy less?

This is where it becomes extremely clear, we, the beings are not our mind. The being or our Soul comes with our own connected mind. The beings should use our mind to bring desires we want for our life. But instead, the true being sits still and allow the mind to take over the show. The servant becomes the master and runs the true master. Yes, I also was very much a prisoner of my mind, ignoring the desires of my own Soul. That is why it is said, life experiences are the true masters. They deeply teach us.

Again coming back to the vision, only when we live from our heart, our intuition comes to help us. Other times also it pokes us. But we simply ignore it. Slowly a vision starts to develop for our life. It becomes our utmost duty to listen to it and take actions. The Soul has been provided a physical body, the total package, so that it gets the hands, legs and sense-organs to do the actions. We are the physical body along with our Soul. It is not that a Soul is there within our physical body. We have been provided the body to do our Soul's work. Not the other way around.  

But within that criteria, living a very physical life through our Soul also is involved. But many times we forget the Soul part and give importance only to the physical part. Again this becomes a mistake. The Soul is again removed from the picture and the core or our true heart gets lost. See, how we can many times fall off the cart. We give importance to the mind or the physical body or to both. But what about our heart? We just push it off the painting. Our life, the painting becomes heartless. It becomes just a wall paper.

The present moment: How do we bring our vision into existence. Here is where another important concept comes into picture. The reality of the present moment. Many times we forget the fact that as a physical being we only have this one second in our hands. Truly, in total reality. At this very second, I am writing the next word and the sentence. Same way, you are reading the next word at this present moment. That is all we have. The present second or moment we live in. Our mind conjures up some decades in the past or some decades in the future.
 
But in reality, our past is in our memories, already gone, never to come back. We can of course always go and live in our memories. But that is called 'living in the past'. Not good. Then the future is yet to come. If we are living in the future, we always miss the present moment. In the search of the future, we miss whatever the present moment has to bring. That also is not true living, as we forego all our precious life moments.  

The gift of the present moment!
Image credits- Pixabay.com

If we are truly aware, we realize, whatever has to happen in our life happens in the present moment. In the 'now'. It is also important in what mode we capture this 'present moment'. It is a given in life, circumstances are going to change. Things happen. Scenarios change. People come and go. Yes, it is life. Now, it becomes the choice of the being how to live their life. We very well can crib, cry and whine about the glorious past days that went away, or we can always be waiting for that great future that is yet to arrive.  

The first one is the energy of regrets, disappointments and frustrations. The second is the energy of eternal wait for things to happen. In both, we, the beings are not really acting on the present moment with deep will and intention. The energy of past and future makes the 'present' slip away through our fingers. By the time we realize, many present moments would have gone and we have almost reached the end of our physical existence. Is that good enough? No.

The flow of life: This is where the flow of live comes. In the present moment, we have to flow with whatever circumstances life throws at us. Sometimes it may be happiness. Sometimes sadness. Other times it may be chaos, terror, pain, pure joy or bliss. Emotions and circumstances come and go. Without holding onto anything we live in the present moment. The second we started to think about the previous second or past we have lost the grip on our present moment. Same with the future.

But here also if we 'think' we need to live in the present moment, that thought is the realm of the mind.The mind has again come into the picture. Instead we have to 'feel' the life that is captured in the moment. The feeling is from the heart. That is why many times we remember some moments that we feel were precious in our life. In those moments our heart was fully involved in what was happening. Hence we remember that feeling well. But this we do many times very unconsciously. We have no awareness. 

Instead, why not flow with life from the heart with full awareness. This is what many of the sages and masters say as the magical flow of life. That magic of capturing life fully only happens in that moment of 'now'. Not before or after. When we start to live like that, the grip of past on us loosens. The hold of future on us unclasps. We become free to be totally and fully who we are. We are not bothered about the past or the future. 

Life should flow like water!
Image credits- Pixabay.com

Standing in the present moment, being in the flow of life we capture our life fully. When we are living our life fully in the moment, won't we take the very best effort towards our own life? If we are putting our cent percent into our own life, do we need to worry about the future? We flow towards our own magnificient future, the way all the Masters always talk about.  

Now, let us finish with a quote from the Bible- Matthew 6:26, "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature." If we put the 'his' as our own life, does worrying about future add even an iota of anything to our future? No. Same way does regrets bring or change anything? No.

So, isn't it useless to worry about the past or future? Instead shouldn't we flow with the life, capturing the present moment to the fullest? Shouldn't we be as free and living as the birds that fly in the sky? Then, of course, it is always the choice and free will of the being!

I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Be the Eagle!

Credits: Wikimedia Commons and  Pixabay.com