Purpose of Inner Journey

Here are a few questions asked by my good friends about Yoga and Meditation practices I do.
My humble attempt to answer the questions :-) 

1. Does your life span extend?

I have read that Yoga and Meditation can expand life span. According to our ancient scriptures and all the great sages and yogis, the practice can help lead a life of peace and harmony.

I do exercise; practice yoga and meditation everyday so that I stay healthy and perform my day to day duties efficiently for a balanced life style. We know that Yoga can cleanse the cells in the body, make us more flexible, massage the internal organs, tone the muscles, and supply more blood and oxygen to brain and other corners of the body. It helps in preventing lifestyle diseases like Diabetes, Arthritis, Blood pressure, Heart problems, Obesity and so on. Meditation helps us purify the mind and to not become slaves to the 6 vices of Anger, Desire, Greed, Jealousy, Ego and Delusion. It can help with Anxiety, Depression, Hypertension and many other psycho-somatic disorders. My goal is that I don’t want to be a burden to anyone in my last stages of life. And I feel the preparation for it starts very early, so that we can sustain a healthy and peaceful life later. Prevention is better than Cure 

2. Isn’t everything in life coming and going?

This is the Absolute truth. Nothing is permanent. The entire universe is going through this cycle, we are no exception. Stars & Planets are created, Galaxies are forming and many more are destroyed and dying every moment. Thousands of cells in our body are dying every moment and new cells are generated. So knowing that everything that is born has to die is a powerful simple truth that helps us lead a life with peace and less worries. Realizing that we are like a small speck of dust in this mega universes/s makes us more humble and less egocentric :-)

3. What will you do after everything?

I am also not sure if there is an end for anything. I feel this is a life long journey of knowing my real self. Learning is a process that will continue as long as we live in this world. When I look back, I know who I was 8 years ago; I know who I am today. I know the difference in my personality, my interactions and transformation from within. Probably I will be able to reflect back again in another 8 years and observe the changes. Self Realization does not end ever. Evolution is a continuous process and does not stop at any given time. We all evolve, sometimes we are aware and sometime we are not, but at the end Change is the only constant in life. It’s fun when we are aware and work towards it for a better Self :-)

4. Will you change society with your sentiments?

No, I realise that I cannot change anything except myself. May be 8 years back I used to think that I have to change the people and the world. When I met Master Sunita 8 years back, I told her that I want to do so many things and change the world. She smiled and said “First change yourself and then everything around will change”. Infact Master’s Sookshma program is about working on the Self, It was hard to understand initially. But I realized it in couple of classes and started to work on myself with her guidance. I realized after these practices, that I cannot change anything outside in the world, except myself. So I deeply believe in ‘Be the Change’ :-)

My past 8 years has been a research on my 'Self '. Yoga and Meditation are the tools in this ‘Self’ research. The research began with a few questions in my mind, like, who am I really, where did I came from, where do we all come from, why do we go through cycle of pain and joy, why can’t I be always happy, why I am here, what is my purpose in this world and where I am going after death.

These questions have set me on the search of the truth behind all the events in my own life and in the world.

In these 8 years of research, I have come to know my true nature. I experience a state which is beyond the mind and body. This state is common to all of us. Mind keeps changing as well as body, but there is a third dimension which is called by different names by different cultures. This third silent witnessing dimension is Pure Awareness. This awareness is a common bridge between all of the humanity. True Meditation can help us experience this state. As we experience this state more profoundly in day to day life, there is a sense of oneness that develops which helps us to see the unity in diversity. All my writings and postings on the social media are a journal of my journey. But there is no intention of trying to change someone. The goal is to find people who are in a similar journey and relate to their experiences :-)

5. I wonder, don’t you ever get angry, feel bad about things or other 5 emotions you talk about.

Yes, I used to be affected by all the emotions and vices, but as I embarked on this journey of Self Realization, they slowly started to peel off like layers on an Onion. It’s not an easy journey. It is a lifelong training. It is not like ‘I reached the goal and I am all good now’. The moment to moment awareness is essential. It needs regular practice, constant self reflection, self awareness and guidance from a good Master who can work with you compassionately. Mastering the Mind is the most difficult thing in the world. Imagine the kind of Master you need and the dedication required.

Especially, living with moment to moment awareness in the world while performing day to day duties is a very tough challenge. As they say, nothing is easy. One has to work towards it slowly and steadily. There is lot of conditioning that happened for so many years and probably so many births. To unwind all the accumulated vasanas (attitudes/tendencies) takes lot of time and effort, and may take many lifetimes. I am still Work in progress. :-)

But I have come to the realization that we all come from same Source. Each of us is unique and different with special capabilities that we can offer to this world. Like there are different types of colors, flowers, animals, planets, stars, each of them with a different purpose but all part of this beautiful creation. This understanding builds more compassion and love for all.

Also this world is like a class room, each person with different levels of understanding. Not everyone can be class first; there are people who are at various phases of learning. With this realization we can increase our capacity to accept everyone and everything as is. Then there is nothing to feel good or bad about. All Is Well As It Is :-) But to put this in practice is not that easy. This is where purification of mind needs to happen. In the Pure Awareness we can easily see things as they are, not as we want them to be.