(Below is the continuation of the post The Art Of Listening To God)
If a doctor tells me that I have to be with patients all day, what can I say? It is a sacred job! If you are working with people who are feeling sick, negative, and stressed; in such an environment, if you have a calm and positive state of mind, then you will be the most needed person. Please don’t run away from there, they all need you. What you can do to alleviate the environment, is to make your colleagues take one or two doses of M&M (music & meditation sessions).
The police force, the military forces, and for that matter, even schools and colleges are places of high stress. Do you know, the latest statistics in Europe show that 40% of the school teachers are depressed? Are you surprised to hear that? If teachers are depressed, what will they give to the children? It is alarming! We need to bring meditation to the teachers, the armed forces, the police; everyone needs it, because we are living in stressful situations!
Do you know the definition of stress? Too much to do, too little time and no energy - this is the formula for stress. Meditation helps overcome stress!
Love is in your heart only, isn’t it?
If your actions are being challenged, then look into them -- are they alright, did you do something wrong, can you do any better, or is it just the other person’s perception?
When people criticize you, welcome them with all your heart! Why? Because they are putting their friendship with you at risk, being bold and brave enough to comment so that you improve! Don’t they need some appreciation? If they are doing it out of jealousy, or if they are upset with you or at your accomplishment, then you can spare some compassion for them.
Whenever someone criticises you, first welcome their criticism, thank them and stand up to it! No one has any interest in putting you down, why would they do that? A normal healthy person will not try to put someone down. People either need your compassion because they are not normal, and if they are normal and healthy, then they need your appreciation, I don’t see a third angle here. Life cannot be goody-goody all the time. Challenges exist, and it is for us to take them with a smile. What do you say?
Today, let us all take up this one intention, "Come what may, I will not lose my smile, my spirit, and my enthusiasm!" Then you can be of great help to people around you. You will be a guiding light in your family, to your friends circle, in society -- everywhere! You will be the most 'wanted’ person, in the good sense, not in any other sense.
In Hindu temples, an ‘aarti’ is performed, i.e., a wick is lit up and taken around the deity. Do you know why they do that? Because life is synonymous to light. When you light a candle and turn it upside down, where does the flame go? Up or down? The flame always goes up! Similarly, the meaning of ‘aarti’ is ‘let the light of my life always go around the divine; let me see divinity everywhere, let me see light everywhere!’ This is the purpose of aarti.
This is because of some prejudice still prevalent in some circles. When we started teaching meditation 35 years ago, many thought that it was not for the so-called ‘normal’ people. This is because we all lived in our own little isolated concepts, and friend circles. We were not exposed to the diversity, multitude, and magnanimity of our beautiful planet.
It does not matter what you call it; if you are doing it right, that is all that matters. There are people who may call this piracy!
Meditation makes you anxious? Then you are not doing it right! Today, I don’t know what all is done in the name of meditation. There are so many schools of thought on yoga, meditation; so many things are prevalent. As a result, the Government of India has recently made me the chairperson for a QCI (Quality Control for India) for yoga and meditation. We had a real hard time putting things together to bring about a standardization. You should sit with a qualified meditation teacher and ask why you feel that anxiety. They can explain the right way, and correct your mistake.
Why do you want to know? I don’t want you to feel bored afterwards. It’s like knowing everything about a movie before you go for it, then there is no thrill in it. Have some suspense. There is so much to know about life. If we don’t know what life is now, and want to know about it after death, you will come back again. It will be like that movie, Groundhog Day. Let us see what life is!
If you go deep in meditation, there will be no fear of death. We will leave this body with a smile, with contentment and become richer souls. A dimension which is so huge, so beautiful will be ours. Our life here is just a tip of the iceberg. Let’s live this life with contentment, love, sharing and caring; doing service to everyone around us!
When you are facing the light, you do not see your shadow; it is only when you move away from the light that you see it. Evil is just the shadow, and a shadow does not have an existence of its own!
If you look inside each culprit, there is a victim crying for help. If you heal the victim, the culprit will disappear. If only we had educated the people who have gone into terrorism with a broad mind set, taught them human values, do you think they would be treading the path of violence? No way! I see them all as victims of ignorance. If you see from my eyes, inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help!
