We were going from Saint Petersburg (Russia) to Moscow by train yesterday. It took us 7 hours and it was a surprise for me that I was absolutely fresh and full of energy when we finally arrived. The trick was that while in the train I was looking through the window and enjoying the fields with fresh green spring grass, fluffy clouds forming different figures, tall slender birches with small leaves and the sun shining so brightly into the window. I had a very strong feeling that my Spirit was absolutely free and at the same time it was a part of the loving and caring nature.
And I also remembered the words of my old uncle suddenly uttered by him one day before his death, “The Paradise is here, on the Earth!”
I fully realized the meaning of what he had said only several years later when I had already started practicing Sahaja Yoga.
It is we who are making our life hell or paradise. These two notions are not some certain “departments” of the Heaven but the reality that each of us can live in right here, on the Earth.
I have recently read “Alive Thoughts” by Anatoly Nekrasov where the author points out that after death almost nothing changes in the way in which our soul treats the environment as it enters the other so to speak world with the same thoughts, habits and features of character the person has developed while “living” on the Earth. Dante in his “Comedy” spoke about the same things: he described the reality of our world.
So, this life is given to us to establish Paradise here setting our Spirit free. If we look within ourselves, we will find out so many “anchors” pulling us down. They do not give us freedom to have which is our right. And when everything is in order within, the world around also becomes Paradise full of love, joy and bliss.
I cannot say that I have fully reached what I am describing – my mind cannot be united with my heart, my Spirit, for 24 hours but I am on the way to it :). And the short moments when I really feel that I am a pure Spirit, when I feel pure joy and love, make me struggle against all the negativity within me to make these moments longer and more often.
And besides, it is so much fun to look at myself from aside and to see what wrong things do not let me be joyful. It is so much fun to see some of my spiritual achievements which have brought so much good into my life. And the latter makes me love and enjoy life, people around and the Divine so much!
“So I am making an airplane. I make everything. I put fuel into it. But it does not want to fly. What will you do with the airplane which does not want to fly?” (Shri Mataji). In the same way attachments, wrong conditionings, ego, fears and all the negative qualities and immoral things are holding us.
Thought for the day: “We don’t know our future but God knows it and the Holy Spirit guides us. The aim of our life is to become one with God. But temptations distract us: money, pleasure, glory and power. Thus, one should firmly stick to the main – to Love for God and people… Let’s overcome the impulses of selfishness, let’s learn to build fences against useless worries, fears and desires. And then we will hear the Holy Spirit. It will lead us along the road and there will be joy and peace in our soul”, say all the religions.
PS While going in the train I also fully realized that it does not matter what armchair you are sitting in (whether it is your home armchair, an armchair in a plane or somewhere else). Your Spirit is Eternal and It feels comfortable everywhere. And when you realize it, you stop getting tired. Our friend at the apartment of whom we arrived when in Moscow asked us in surprise, “Are you always so full of energy?” – and it was 12 at night already.
photo by Volodya Ivlev
Know Thyself 