What is foremost on our minds today is safety and protection. We have armed ourselves with soaps, masks, sanitizers, and shields, adopting standards of hygiene which are essential for health and well-being. Washing hands has now become the favorite occupation for all of us. Amongst families where earlier there was disinterest in doing household chores now there is a rush to wash the dishes or the clothes and clean the house or cook the food and chop the vegetables. This is the most relaxing way to spend your time as well as the most useful way to keep washing your hands and protect yourself. If there are others around it is essential to wear a mask as well. This protects you further. You can make the mask yourself or just cover your nose and mouth with the beautiful angavastras you have received at Rikhia during your many memorable visits.
I wonder what will happen when summer is at its peak and the taps run dry. When you don’t have access to water, sanitizers are the next best. In rural India, as we see here in Rikhia, villagers don’t even have taps let alone water which they have to fetch from far-off wells. So they know very well how to manage with the least amount of water. If they need water, it is for their fields. If they can get that they need little else as their needs are very few.
Personal hygiene is a basic requirement for protecting oneself from any disease and one of the best habits one can inculcate. And this should start in childhood right from the very beginning. This one quality alone, Shaucha, cleanliness, can make everything you do impactful. They say cleanliness is next to Godliness that is why it leaves an impact. It touches you. Yogic lifestyle gives great importance to shaucha. Cleanliness has to become one’s first nature. So let us resolve to be clean. It is always good to make a sankalpa or resolve when you start something good and auspicious. To be clean is the new fashion trend which Rikhia upholds all the time and Rikhia is a trendsetter.
The next armor we have which is the strongest and most effective one is social distancing. Many do not like this word or the idea it connotes. But I feel very comfortable with this word. Because I have seen Swami Satyananda live that life here in Rikhia. He totally distanced himself and lived in isolation. The difference is that he lived that life voluntarily; he chose to live in isolation.
We on the other hand have adopted social distancing because we had no choice. Perhaps we had to, because it was mandatory, or out of fear, or to protect ourselves from disease. Whatever the reason behind it we should realize that separation does not mean dis-connection. Paramahansaji lived in isolation, but he did not dis-connect. Instead his isolation connected him with others in a much deeper and profound way. It can be called an Atmic connection or in modern terms an Atomic connection. This is what I learnt from him that distancing does not mean separation. In fact the connection can be made stronger. Stronger ties can be forged. There is a saying
“Distance makes the heart grow fonder
So some people say …..
Swamiji never met anyone while he lived in RIkhia. He did not meet the villagers or talk to them. But the connection and bond he developed with them was strong and deep so that even today long after his Samadhi he is still alive in their hearts. Connection is born out of love, care and trust, not physical proximity. He cared for them. We too should care for one another whether we are related or not. That was his teaching to us. Learn to care for others. Serve others selflessly. Love without any boundaries. Give with an open heart.
He did not say it just in a moral sense but in the context of a personal as well as social sense as well. He said, “When you think of others, God begins to think of you”. You begin to receive the protection, the support, the strength and a path opens before you. Along with soaps and sanitizers, this too can become your armor to protect yourself and lead to the discovery of a way to overcome any difficulty.
Swamiji used to tell me, whenever you get an opportunity to help another, think that God has showered his special blessing on you. An opportunity has fallen in your path to rise above your difficulties. As soon as you begin to think of others your difficulties will begin to fade and disappear. Good ideas will come to you, good associations will come your way, and good opportunities will find their way to you.
This will give birth to Self-confidence or Atma-vishwas. It is lack of self-confidence which generates fear and causes us to falter. Fear makes us weak and indecisive. It confuses us and we lose clarity and focus. Self-confidence gives inner strength, balance and equanimity. When there is atma-vishwas or self-confidence, fear vanishes. This is an armor which should be invoked as well.
To develop Self-confidence or Atman-vishwas we have to become self-reliant or atma-nirbhar. What this time has taught us is self-reliance. The tremendous resilience of the human spirit to meet challenges of every kind and not lose hope or cease to dream is what makes each one of us self-reliant. It is a very important quality or trait that we are developing in ourselves at this time of immense tragedy that we see around us. It is a blessing in disguise.
This is the time to become self-reliant and take responsibility for our own health and well-being. To become self-reliant you have to develop self-restraint or atma-sanyam. This time when we are forced to remain indoors is a good introductory lesson of self-restraint for all of us. We should utilize this lesson to become strong and not weak out of fear or anxiety about what will happen. Self-restraint leads to simplicity and purity. If we live life with simplicity and purity we will be healthy and strong. So, Atma-vishwas, Atma-nirbhar and Atma-sanyam are also armors which we should think about at this time for self-protection.
In a social context too how long can one ignore the fire that is raging out-side. One day it will scathe all of us by entering our homes and our lives. To extinguish it then may not be possible. So the onus is on each one of us. To put the fire out is the responsibility of each and every one. To look after those in need is not just a social necessity but the clarion call which emerged from Rikhia of a Paramahansa. It is an enormous task because those in need far outnumber those who are not in dire need. It is good to care for the world we live in and those who inhabit it but more than that it is the need of the hour.
Every challenge, every difficulty comes with a lesson. As soon as the lesson is learnt the difficulty begins to disappear because the purpose for which it came has been fulfilled. If the lesson is not heeded it will return again perhaps with greater force. This is a law of Nature. So it is imperative that we pay attention to the lesson that we are receiving from Prakriti or Mother Nature.
If you look around you will see the wonderful display of Prakriti or Mother Nature. Just open your eyes to the beauty Nature is displaying all around us at this time. This is a time for healing. Prakriti is restoring and actively helping us at this time by cleaning and energizing the land, water, air, and ether or space that we inhabit along with all other beings.
There is a great integration taking place between Mother Nature or Prakriti and her creation and we are part of that chain. The flora and fauna has acquired a new look, a new hue, a new radiance. The flowers glisten, sing and speak to us now. Plants that may have been decaying are coming alive again. Animals and birds that are not caged in homes are out with their families in parks and swimming-pools, visiting bars and restaurants, malls, cinemas and salons. You may say they are coming out of hiding and reclaiming their space, which we had invaded upon. It is a wondrous spectacle which compels every sensitive human being to introspect on where we have gone wrong.
We do not have to be afraid, we have to take precautions. Do not have fear, have faith. It is faith and belief that makes us positive, strong, self-confident and self-reliant. Eventually we have to look within and introspect, we have to pick and choose what is necessary to sustain life not destroy it. Sickness, disease is an outcome of erroneous living which can be corrected and rectified if we give importance to the lesson that the sickness brings with it.
Now when the whole word is re-booting and re-setting itself, let us emerge out of this calamity with the values and sense of purpose that will help us preserve life rather than destroy it. Let us not accept anything less than that. The responsibility for this does not lie with governments alone, but on each and every one of us. We are responsible for the world we live in. We make it into a living hell or a beautiful heaven. The tendency we have is to always wait and hope that someone will come along and do this for us. There is a saying that God helps those who help themselves.
There is a lesson out there for each one of us from Mother Nature, who in Her most magnanimous way, along with teaching us, is also guiding and assisting us at this time. The lessons may differ for each one of us according to the class we are enrolled in however one lesson loud and clear is for all of us and that is –”It’s time to wake up”. The alarm has rung. Those who remain asleep will repent later, so pay heed to the alarm. Develop Self-restraint, be Self-reliant and become Self-confident.
