By Sparkian Dr. Gazal Goyal Bansal
Contributing Author for Spark Igniting Minds
You must be wondering why I have chosen this subject to write upon. Before I answer your question, I would request you to think about these questions and find answers within.
Don’t we feel suffocated sometimes within our own environment?
Don’t we feel astonished with our own behavior sometimes?
Don’t we feel upset with our own self and our surroundings?
Don’t we feel sad by our own thinking patterns?
Don’t we feel unhappy with our own actions and reactions?
You must have experienced these states many times in your life. I experienced the same whenever I felt dejected, deviated, distracted, and more demotivated.
Knowing that all these experiences aren’t good for our mental health, we feel that we don’t have any control over them. We feel enormous pressure within ourselves to break away from these agonizing mental patterns but seldom find any solution to it. We keep on lingering with these, thinking that these mental attitudes and patterns are universal in nature and they are part of the human psyche since the dawn of mankind on the earth. We can’t do anything about them. We are born with these states and as such can’t help ourselves.
It is here that we go wrong!
We have forgotten who we are and for what we are here. We have completely identified ourselves with our mental processes and thinking patterns and lost the real self. The point is we have stopped being natural.
We have conditioned ourselves too much with the dos and don’ts, haves and have nots, yes and noes, rights and wrongs, that somewhere we have completely lost the true essence of self and life. We have brought our own misery with too much self-identification, self-aggrandizement, and self-exaggeration. We have stopped living. We are just sustaining and surviving.
The question that arises now is ‘What needs to be done?’ The simple answer to this, which I have realized through my journey of life, is just yourself and that means be at ease and peace with yourself, in the same way, a flower is a way a new-born baby is, and the way the entire plant and the animal kingdom is. Does a flower while blooming think how I will look while flowering? What the other flower will think of me? How long will I survive? It just blooms, spreads its fragrance and dies. It does not think. It just lives.
What about us? We think too much and as the renowned spiritual author and teacher Eckhart Tolle says, “Thinking is a disease”. We are too much engaged and engrossed in thinking. It is to such an extent that we stop living in the present moment. Either we dwell too much in the past or we are too much concerned about the future.
We miss the present moment and live a sedentary life colored with illusions, delusions, and seclusions.
We miss the power of now and life happens in the now only.
We miss the present moment and leave rooms for regrets, repents and resentments.
This isn’t the life we are meant to live.
This isn’t for what we are here, we are here to enjoy, live every moment and spread peace and happiness around.
We all know this, don’t we? But are we aware of it? No.
Here lies the misery. We all know too much, thanks to our pro-active, pre-active, post-active, and far-active social media. The plethora of information and knowledge is available around every nook and corner, but awareness is completely missing and rather eluding us.
We are too busy listening to the voice in our head and not the voice within. You must be wondering what I am saying. Don’t you experience the same? There are always two voices within.
One is that of the ego and the other is that of you as a being.
All of us experience the same but seldom acknowledge or are aware of it. We listen more to the voice of the ego than the other way around. When we start listening to the voice that emanates from our being, the voice of the ego starts fading and we become more alert, more alive and more aware. That is the moment when creativity and growth happens.
I was thinking on the same lines until strong self-realization happened. It was when I came across some wonderful spiritual literature. It opened my eyes to the new dimensions of this beautiful life and changed my entire perspective on life. I felt so little and realized how narrowly and negatively we have conditioned ourselves mentally. If we just come out of our cocoon of conditioned thinking, we will be more relieved and relaxed. I know it isn’t an easy task. It needs practice, practice, and more practice. But won’t it be worth more practicing, if it changes your life for good, making it more peaceful and prosperous!
Just visualize or recall a moment where you have been very tense. Indeed many thoughts would have occupied your thinking space and too much mental and emotional agony might have filled up your heart. You must have felt that there is no solution whatsoever. What would have been your action and reaction at that time?
Probably too much thinking and evaluating a problem followed by the corresponding reactions would have brought in irritability, frustration and a dip in the energy levels. So, what we do at that time?
Either we continue with constant complaining and cribbing and worsen the situation more or we finally ask ourselves to take a break from the moment and stop thinking about it.
That is the defining moment. We get an answer when we listen to the actual me and that liberates me from every thought, emotion, feeling or perception. That silence and stillness provide me all the answers I am looking for. Then we wonder how it happened and sometimes are amused that what I have been thinking for so long had no relevance and reference at all.
I have been blaming and cursing life for no reason at all. What was that which was inhibiting me to move ahead and live my life the way I wanted to live, all the time? The reason for that is too much thinking and listening to what my mind dictates. The mind is only a subtle instrument of the soul. It is provided to us so that we can prosper more. But the reverse has happened. It has become the master and we have become slaves to it. Rather it should be the other way around and in that moment of mental agony, a strong realization happens. That’s when
We realize that all answers lie within. But the question is how does it happen? How can we live in the present moment? The answer to this question is ‘awakening happens when the ego dies’…. but how?
Let’s practice these….
Stop analyzing too much. Just live the moment as it is. The analysis does help but to some extent. Experience makes living more enjoyable and worth exploring.
Let nature play its own role. Too much interference obstructs growth. Believe in nature. On one hand, it grows a flower and at the same time, it helps you digest your food and circulate your blood. It knows its work beautifully as this world is a beautiful and unique creation of divine intelligence.
Practice silence more. Too much noise and voice clutter the mind, body, and soul. Silence is the key to find the answers within. Be in silence to discover yourself and your hidden potential.
Be yourself. Value the uniqueness within. Devaluation leads to degeneration and demotivation. You are an eternal spirit. Enjoy, evolve and explore that divinity inside you and salute that divine intelligence that guides you and protects you every moment.
Inspire more. Intrinsic inspiration leads to miracles and masterpieces. Inspire yourself every moment. You can be your own anchor and mentor. Let the spirit within you be the awakening force and guide you on the path of peace, harmony, and prosperity. Believe in yourself more.
Believe in the master plan. Divinity intended you here. Let the divinity guide you, direct you and prosper you. Doubts and Dogmas won’t lead you anywhere. They just hamper the spirit within. Release that spirit from every thought, emotion, and prejudice. Live life naturally and let it unfold itself.
Smile often. It costs nothing. We all know this but how often do we remember and remind ourselves of it. Smile reduces the pain inside and outside.
Confidence and courage are priceless. They are inside. Stop looking for them on bookshelves or in videos.
Relationships are valuable. Appreciate their real value and stop faking their face value.
Stress the stress, not yourself. Be a stress buster, not a stress creator. Everything is energy and remember, higher the energy, happier the soul.
Happiness is generic. Stop finding it in accessories, brands, luxuries, and acquisitions. Happiness is within. Stop looking for it outside.
Peace prospers. World wars, cold wars, and nuclear wars have proven otherwise. History itself is proof that it is in peaceful times when humanity grows by leaps and bounds.
Generosity removes scarcity. Focus on abundance and stop paying attention to lack. It is in giving, wherein lies the joy of receiving. You may not receive any materialistic thing, but you receive happiness, relief, and compassion. Apart from that, there is a feeling of fulfillment. Remember Alexander, Napoleon, all the mighty kings and queens left the world empty-handed.
Gratitude is the highest attitude. We all know but how often do we say thank you to the Almighty and others. The more we practice gratitude, the better will be the attitude.
Ignorance is bliss. Practice it often rather than preaching it. Unnecessary expectations from others reduce your own worth and the painful melodrama eats up your own energy and happy space. Be ignorant sometimes. It helps.
Love yourself the most. You are your own asset. The real source of happiness lies within you. Rest all is illusion!!!
Lastly, the ego does die a natural death when you stop identifying with it and stop feeding it with negative thoughts and emotions. The salvation of the soul lies being in the present moment and in conscious awareness and realization. When your thinking is no longer conditioned by future apprehensions and anxieties and when your present perceptions are no longer distorted by the past, you start living in the now and the awakening of the soul happens.
Let’s conclude this with a very profound lesson:
“Use the night hours as much as you can, and the early morning, and all free moments between demanding duties, to pray inwardly to god with all your soul: “Reveal Thyself!: Solitude is the price of god-realization. Wake! Waste no more time in blind believing, follow the tested methods of attaining self-realization, and know God.”
– Paramahansa Yogananda
Hare Krishna!!!
About Dr. Gazal Goyal Bansal
Dr. Gazal Goyal Bansal, Ph.D. is a Doctorate in Political Science, UGC (JRF), a Gold Medalist, A Certified ISO 22000 Lead Auditor, a Licensed Practitioner of NLP from The Society of Neuro-Linguistic ProgrammingTM & a Pranic Healer. She is the founder of Conscience Connect, a Life Coach and Speaker.
She is a radical enthusiast and a firm believer in the philosophy of conceptual pragmatism, logical reasoning, and the spiritual energy matrix. A staunch believer of the fact that before you speak, your energy speaks.