Tackling Life's Shocks

 

Photo Credit: Flickr | Abby Lane

Tackling Life’s Shocks

I was just over eleven years old when my father passed away in 1973 – I had not seen him since 1971 as he was working overseas. Even when we suffered this terrible loss, I was trying to cry – but tears did not come – I thought I was abnormal. But with the passage of time, I realised that whatever shocks life offered, I was always in a position to rationalise and smile – maybe it was something to do with my previous birth – I don’t know. Our family went through a lot of tough situations – we had no money after Dad died, his employers cheated my Mom of the amount due to him – we were literally on the streets, the only good thing then was my Dad had bought a house – so we at least had a roof over our heads. My eldest brother was the window which God opened when he shut the door on our family by taking Dad away. He worked his butt out to ensure my elder brother and I got a good education.

Then, much later, in college my mother started taking me to Swami Chinmayananda’s discourses, I started learning about Indian philosophy and then life happened again and all this fell away as we started dealing with one crisis after another – it was like a little rollercoaster, but each incident made me stronger and stronger from within – I would tell my mother not to cry as these days too would pass. I was a no-nonsense person with a great sense of humour right since my childhood, lying to escape situations was not my thing, though when I was working for a company, I ended up doing that and then paid a price for it too after I left. These are karmic debts one has to pay – no escaping it.

After I joined Samarpan Meditation in 2009, life changed dramatically – my earlier qualities of accepting life as it came became a boon on this path. Progress was steady, as my internal cleansing started. One thing I realised was that accepting life’s tragedies is far easier than resisting them. Acceptance helps you move forward to a better tomorrow. Witnessing life as it happens, facing it with a smile and moving on has helped me tremendously. I know it is tough, because the mind plays spoilsport all the time. What if this happens, what if that happens – it is out to scare the crap out of you – but then it is ‘your’ mind – the thoughts in your mind come from established fears.

With meditation, one realises that fear too is a thought – if you are able to reach a state where you have no thoughts, your mind becomes still then there is no question of fear either. With regular meditation you develop your energy body to such an extent that no negative energy comes to you – you remain positive and you become a source of positivity. Like the Greek philosopher said, “Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will – then your life will flow well.”