What do you do when you are cruising down the highway at top speed and suddenly you come to a road block. If you are unprepared for blocks you will come to a screeching halt. If you spot the roadblocks ahead you will apply the breaks in time. If you are better aware then you will safely take your foot of the accelerator press the clutch and change gears well in time and have a smooth and comfortable journey.
In the same way we, while cruising through life, come across path blocks. The paths we have chosen and are walking on get blocked. How we deal with it depends on the level of our awareness. If we are unprepared we wail and cry at our fate and if we are prepared we deal with the situation properly and effectively.
Obstacle management is a skill that everyone has to acquire. It is not enough to be able to cope when everything is smooth sailing and going as we desire. We must also have the skill to navigate through turbulent waters and come out unscathed.
For this we must know how to change gears. How do we live our lives? Do we live it in first, second, third or fourth gear. How often do we rest in neutral. Do we ever use the brake on life or are we only in accelerator mode all the time? These are questions we have to ask ourselves and be honest with the answer.
When you look around you see that most of us are never out of fourth gear. Even when resting and the body is not active the mind still is. Does it ever stop? It is constantly thinking, imagining, feeling, planning, plotting, judging, liking, dis-liking, reacting and so on. Mental movement is far more taxing and depleting then physical movement.
You can say that your battery is being used 24/7. Even when you are supposedly resting in bed, sleeping, your mind is over burdened with the residue of the events that have passed by. That may be okay, but if you do so, you must also learn to recharge regularly. You know what happens to your equipment if you don’t do that. It simply blinks and dies out.
Of course before dying out it gives a few warnings. We too get ample warnings in life of blocks obstacles and dangers lurking ahead on our path. But do we pay heed to them? Do we slow down, press the clutch and change gears or maybe slip into neutral for some time till they pass us by.
The warnings on our collective path in this world are clear, the blocks and obstacles are clear. It is not disease or the economy or pollution or any such calamity we find ourselves in that is the obstacle. These are only the warning signals. The block is in ourselves.
Why is everything crumbling around us. Is it because of circumstances? But then who created those circumstances. We did, individually as well as collectively. Why is there so much pollution? Because of us! Why is there so much war and strife? Why is there so much sickness and disease? Because of us? Why is there so much disparity? Why is the ozone layer getting damaged? Why is the earth’s magnetic field getting disturbed? Why are many important species for the ecosystem of flora and fauna and animal life disappearing? Why are people dying of hunger? Why is there not education for all? Why is there so much anger?
As people who live and run this planet we have to feel responsible for that. Each person has to feel the need to solve the underlying problems we are facing. Not just governments alone. Not just organisations and service centres. That responsibility has to start from the very basics such as I must not spit out in the open. I must use my phone selectively so that the frequencies and vibrations which surround and nourish me are not disturbed. We have all to become aware of what a great role we have to play in this process. It is a lifelong one.
If we realign ourselves everything will restore itself almost magically! But who is going to do it? That is the question? If each person begins to assume his or her role in this great process of re-alignment then the answer would be we ourselves are going to do it. It should begin with me. I should examine each and everything in my life. Keep what is necessary and discard what is unnecessary and that includes ideas and opinions and feelings and judgements too.
Re-aligning oneself amounts to acquiring the ability to change gears. We have to become skilled in changing gears according to the need and situation. When the path is clear by all means move into fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh gear but also know the knack of slowing down to first, second or third gear or maybe even rest in neutral when needed.
You will soon learn that slowing down doesn’t necessarily mean hibernation, stagnation or regression. In fact it can be a time to recharge and re-align our energies for greater clarity, focus, mindfulness, purpose and direction in our lives. It can be a time for healing. It can be a time to become more self-reliant. Slowing down results in a more integrated and balanced personality rather than living life at fast pace all the time.
People get alarmed at the thought of slowing down. I wonder what is there to get so alarmed about something which will be beneficial to us. Changing of gears not only allows re-charging it also offers us a new perspective, view and a broader vision of life. It reveals the larger picture.
A well oiled machine easily slips in and out of gears, in the same way we too should be adept in shifting ourselves to different hemispheres of our brain. Slowing down entails awakening hemispheres of your brain you may have never explored before. This brings about a subtle awakening in us which enlightens us about ourselves.
Our brains are wired in such a way that this skilful movement between hemispheres is easily possible. But it needs practise and this practise has to be undertaken in all the different situations we face in life. It has to have a practical application and not just remain a mental one of inner experience.
When your mind is agitated, when you are confronted with difficulties, when you are sad and disappointed or angry and bitter can you switch gears and become content and calm or happy and peaceful? This is the test you have to conduct on yourself. How skilfully can one change gears that is the challenge that each individual has the responsibility to fulfill.
Man’s brain is made up of multi-dimensional hemispheres. We speak of the left and right as the two major hemispheres that govern the mental and physical activities of man. But what about the psychic and spiritual hemispheres of your brain and mind. It is when we can navigate with ease in all dimensions that we develop into balanced and integrated personality.
Sadness, desolation, anxiety, stress, fear, insecurity, hatred, envy, pride are not permanent mental experiences. One can come out of them by changing gears. Some require you to slow down and some require you to speed up. If you are skilled you will know.
To slow down you have to let go of all that is unnecessary. So let’s say you are moving at top gear and enjoying all of it, the rush of adrenaline is high and you are on top of the world. Suddenly an obstacle arrives. To overcome it you will have to re-examine yourself and where you have gone wrong and cut off all the unnecessary stuff that has brought about this condition.
The condition we find ourselves in today is an upside down and topsy-turvy world. There is disease and dissension, angst and aggression, challenges and chaos, hope and compassion, effort and commitment, fear and insecurity. We certainly are carrying a lot of baggage.
Slowing down helps us to unburden ourselves of the overload. This is very very important. Unless we learn to change gears when needed and unburden ourselves we will suffer burn out! Imagine that! In that sense this time when we have literally been forced to slow down is a very valuable opportunity for us. In that sense I would not call it a lockdown rather I would call it an opening. Locked doors are opening within us, and we are re-discovering ourselves. We are becoming more versatile, skilled and self-confident. Facing challenges does not make us weak, it makes us self-confident.
But even after this time is over we should each one of us find ways to slow ourselves down and function from other hemispheres of our brain as well. Some may choose music and dance, others wild-life and nature. Some may choose yoga others mantra. But the best way to slow oneself down is to help others in difficulty; to become useful to another; to alleviate someone else’s pain.
To be creative in life engage yourself in opportunities to Serve, Love and Give. Love is the most creative principle. When you love something it draws out your most creative dimension, which is the field of the heart. To overcome the negative swirls we often find ourselves in we must awaken our hearts. Emotions influenced by heart are different to the emotions influenced by mind.
Emotions arising from the heart are divine in nature. Forgiveness is a divine emotion, it arises from the heart. The mind will never allow you to forgive and if it does it would be for some selfish interest. Faith lives in the heart, so does belief. The seat of the most cherished emotion LOVE is in the heart. Peace, happiness, devotion, illumination, effulgence, clarity, focus emanate from the heart.
Now more than ever is the time to awaken Love in our hearts. Pure, unadulterated and selfless love. This is what mankind needs at this tragic moment in our history. Love heals, love mends, love revives. It is the Amrit-Sanjeevani or the immortal life nectar which we must drink to save ourselves.
Gurudev Swami Satyananda gave the mandate of Serve, Love, Give to Rikhiapeeth thirty years ago. He showed us the way to live a life for others. He said it was the need of the hour as well a Yoga Sadhana just as all the Yoga Sadhanas that he gave to the world such as Hatha yoga, Raja yoga, Gyana yoga, Kundalini yoga, Kriya yoga. He called it the Yoga of the 21st century. In doing so he was fulfilling the mandate of his Guru Sivananda who gave Gurudev the universal vision of Atmabhava.
I call it the Yoga of Creativity. It can also be called the Yoga of Productivity. When you spend your time serving others with love you are using time productively. The Art of Giving with love is the Art of Living. Discover it for yourself by joining in acts of serve love and give to draw out your creativity and humane qualities. We may be human but are we humane? This human life is futile unless we make this discovery in ourselves and now is the time to begin.
