One fine day, one of my friends asked me why I like spirituality? To be frank, till that day, I have never thought about it. It was just a feel-good factor which was driving me on this path of spirituality. But his question literally made me think – what’s in the spirituality which attracts me? why I should remain on this path of spirituality? what is spirituality all about? why spirituality, why not something else?
There were so many unanswered questions and to find the answer I must do something. So, I started the secret project of mine – “Experimenting Spirituality”. Yeah! I know, it sounds kinda interesting. This project was divided into 3 different parts:
- Swadhyay (Self-Introspection)
- Life “Before & After”
- Finding the answer to “Who Am I? and What Is My Purpose?”
Swadhyay (Self-Introspection)
Spirituality has many definitions and many theories. I believe in the one which connects to the self. What’s happening inside? Why it’s happening? What’s the source of it? What I am doing? Why I am doing? So many questions are there when we sit for self-introspection.
My journey of spirituality started in my 10th grade when I attended the Art Of Living’s Youth Empowerment and Skills Workshop (YES! Course). I learned a beautiful breathing technique called Sudarshan Kriya in that program. Sudarshan Kriya is a systematic breathing technique which helps to improve immunity, improve sleep quality & decrease stress hormones (You can read research papers here – research.artofliving.org ). I started practicing it from that time and it helped me to go deep in meditation & thus helped me to bring clarity in my mind.
Today, after years – When I asked myself, that why I landed up in this program? My answer was “Common Sense”. My sisters used to practice Sudarshan Kriya & I used to see that it is helping them. I used to have severe migraine earlier. I Googled about Sudarshan Kriya and found my research papers and thus decided to do the program. It was just pure simple COMMON SENSE. That if so many people are doing it and it is helping them and it does have the scientific studies to justify the effects – Let me do it then!
& then to many other questions in life – I got the same response to almost all the questions, that is – “COMMON SENSE”
For me in Swadhyay (Self-Introspection), I realized SPIRITUALITY is all about COMMON SENSE. Yeah! Common sense is not so common & so spirituality as well.
Spirituality is everything about common sense if you don’t have the latter forget about the earlier
Life (Before & After)
It was a sunny day and I was playing on the terrace of our apartment. I was 13 years old & was enjoying my teenage. Out of no-where, the black clouds came and covered the whole sky and it started raining heavily. Yeah! As a kid, I used to love rains a lot. I stayed there for a few minutes and then went down. That night, I experienced some terrible headache. In a matter of a few minutes, it grew so much that I almost lost my eye-sight. Three people were holding my head. I was admitted to the nearby hospital. Doctors gave me heavy dose injections to make me sleep. That day – my severe migraine problem started.
For the next 3 years – every rainy season I used to be in house-arrest. Still, for some odd incidences I got wet and thus got admitted in hospital latter. Those years were the most deadly ones for me. I might have experienced near-death scenarios many times in those migraine attacks. Doctors had given me tons of instructions about what to eat and what not to. What to do and what not to and I was supposed to follow them.
As a growing adolescent kid – I need to impress to make someone fall in love with me. Bloody, hormonal changes. They don’t let us be us many times. I started drinking Coke & Pepsi and many sorts of carbonated drink, which were supposedly banned for me. But what to do, “Yeh Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahi” (This heart doesn’t listen) or actually if we can say – This mind is sick! It is never under control.
The mind is such a weak thing. It’s never under our control. It does exactly what we don’t want to. It is ridiculously busy in chatting with itself and drains hell lot of energy. We just give up to it as we don’t have any courage to stand against it.
But! I got a secret. The secret lies under our nose. Breathing! Never knew that it is so strong. That’s the start of my spiritual journey. Closing eyes, taking some breaths and then just being at peace (meditation). It took a considerably good amount of time to realize that this aspect of spirituality (knowing yourself) helped me quietened my mind a little much. Actually, the mind is still on the radio mode – it’s just, I don’t get bothered by it & believe me it’s such a relaxing thing.
It’s your mind which is the power house of everything. To control it – take some deep breath in and just relax. Mind to ‘un’mind is the SPIRITUALITY.
Finding the answer to “Who Am I? and What Is My Purpose?”
In the third part of my experiment – I decided to undergo the Advanced Meditation Program of the Art Of Living (once again…). Why? Because last many times whenever I did that program it connected me more to my own self. It made me realize that I am “love” and my purpose is to “spread the love”. It looked like an unimportant discovery to me earlier but today with this question in the mind – I hoped that I will get some practical answer or result in my pursuit.
It was the first day of the course. I was walking alongside some of my other friends who were also there to do this program. While walking the person who was just walking side to me slipped & without any thought in my mind, naturally, my hands went to catch him, to save him from falling on the ground. It made my belief strong that “I am LOVE” but then days passed by, we did some amazing and very powerful meditations and amidst that, I felt – I am not just a LOVE, I am something beyond. Love is limited! A soul cannot be limited. It can never be limited.
There’s this question basket in every Advanced Meditation Programs. I wrote my question – WHO AM I? WHAT IS MY PURPOSE? WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY?
Teacher, who was conducting this course laughed while reading this question and answered in a very simple manner. He said – “Questions are good. One is very lucky if he/she is finding answers to this. Spirituality is finding answers to these questions. No one can answer these questions for you. You have to just keep moving ahead & enjoy the life”
I was like – That’s not what I wanted to hear. I was disappointed. But then an interesting thing happened. I result got announced and I failed in one practical exam. Never ever in my life, I have faced failure in any academic subjects. But then it didn’t affect me a lot. I was still at ease. Normal than usual, to be precise. I asked myself – Why So? and only thing which came to my mind was “This is LIFE, one thing cannot decide what’s right and wrong or if I lost my purpose or any other thing which matters… Let’s just keep moving ahead. It’s OKAY. It’s LIFE”
Spirituality is LIFE. Just keep moving ahead. Who am I and What is my purpose? will keep you moving on this track. The day you get the answer to these questions – you would have served your purpose. You will be enlightened. (Though, Who am I? will lose it’s value that day & so is the purpose thing)
So, in a nutshell, if I want to conclude this answer to the question “Why I like Spirituality?”
SPIRITUALITY IS GIVING LIFE TO LIFE.
I hope you liked my article. Please do share it ahead!
Love,
Prasad K.
