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.”
1 comment:
Very nicely put forth. Fully understand and agree meditation does give a strength to face tragedies more constructively and strongly. Your writeup actually boosted me as some situations still put fear in me but the path of meditation will overcome that as well.
Thank you 🌹🙏
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