Peace and Welcome to the journey inwards!!!
When we practice our quietude or time in silence keeping in mind the following steps it helps better to journey inwards.
1. Who, why, how and when do we spend time in silence, solitude and recollection?
A path which every human being can walk on- families, adults, youth, children, singles or those who have chosen to a live life in solitude. Being single is absolutely fine but being lonely is the issue. Further many people are lonely in a crowd and even in marriages, so can we look at marriage as a solution for loneliness ? No relationship on earth will be able to fill the vacuum in our hearts in totality but the love a soul experiences through this path will restore a person’s mind, body and soul.
Why Silence- A lot of quiet time is required to be aware of the interior noise. Growing in this whole journey is about the awareness of the interior noise. Therefore spending time in silence is a good start.
One can sit in silence starting with minimum 30 min and slowly and steadily increase it to 45 min to 60 min or more.
2. How many times a day do we spend time in quietude
i. Before you start your day or even dialogue with others.
ii. Before you go to bed at night . (It would be good to disconnect from all communication 30 min before the quietude.
It is important not to have access to any mode of communication and taking a pledge that one will not get up from the place until the set time of Silence is completed.
(In case you have health issues and you are unable to sit, it is absolutely fine to lie down or take the most comfortable posture and keeping eyes wide open or even closed. This is not a time to meditate but just relax and not involve the mind. And if the mind is wandering it is absolutely fine.
iii. During the day whenever you get time or there is a lot to do, just being seated in a quiet place or even quietly in a noisy place with eyes closed is good.
iv. Further, whenever you have a lot on your mind or you are disturbed about anything just getting into your quiet zone is the best bet.
The more the time you spend in your quietude the more closer you are to liberation. Just being faithful to your quietude is the secret . You might be thinking, how is this possible? But it is true !!!!. *****
v. More work, more the time you spend in silence will make things super simple.
2. A quietude can have distractions and that is not at all an issue but disturbances or preoccupied thoughts could be a hindrance to the journey inwards – A negative thought about a person, thing, event, situations, past. If anything is disturbing you just offer it to the Deepest Center of the soul / The Divine. If you are disturbed by hurt, pain, grief….This is the time to surrender and bless the person and leave a positive thought about that person at the feet of the Divine. That very struggle to surrender will draw the Divine closer and we are moving closer to liberation, peace and rest.
It is about the intention of the heart being pristine and pure and that will set a soul free as a bird. Initially these things will be very difficult and it is fine if you can’t or do not want to address disturbances, let time pass. The more the thoughts, actions and deeds move towards love, humility and detachment, the more a person will be recollected easily and will enjoy Silence.
Michhami Dukkadam- It is a gesture of humility, seeking forgiveness from all living beings for any harm caused. It also serves as a moment to forgive those who may have wronged them.
Incase you one is not ready to seek forgiveness just preparing the soul to forgive inwards itself is boon. To accept a mistake and surrendering to the Divine is all that is required. To move towards peace, one could also continue surrendering those people to whom one could not forgive or seek forgiveness from and some may or may not be a part of our lives anymore or those souls who have left the earth. Further, it is important not to dwell on the past or memories but pour out the pain to Divine and release and seek forgiveness inward and this will add to the peace inward.
3. Recollection/ Focus
There are different ways of getting focused to the Deepest center of the Soul i. Sitting down once and for all quietly to enter into silence.
ii. Starting with a devotional hymn, Chanting, Reading a scripture from a holy book and reflecting on it. (If one of these steps helps getting a person into silence, a person is always free to adopt this method).
iii. Further, it is important not to linger on dreams, miracles, out of body experiences, prophecies, predictions of the future, visions, bilocation’s locutions, or spiritual gifts etc as these are experienced through the 5 senses. It keeps a soul focused on the peripheral or externals and that can become an hindrance to the journey inwards. Most of all whenever you get reminded of these experiences, it is good to thank the Divine for the gifts and move on and not to linger on them as the benefit was given only for that moment (i.e. when it was experienced only) and that does not last forever.
iv. Whenever a soul might feel crowded by disturbing thoughts, it might want to repeat the above mentioned steps to recollect and return back to the quietude. It is good to do whatever helps. As you grow inward, recollection will happen without any effort.
4. It is important that the Quitetude is not used to plan tasks or errands –Furthermore, it is important to ensure that the time one is journeying inwards is not a time to plan tasks or errands. In fact it is important not to execute those thoughts which come during the quietude but postpone them as much as possible. It is not about postponing immediate tasks, which you have to do. As much as one can postpone tasks it is better. When a person has forgotten all about it and If the same thought occurs out of the blue. It is a good idea to go ahead and execute it.
For instance – One has to cook and it is a need and that needs to be done but thoughts which might just pop up.. For instance- visit a friend or make an investment, anything out of the box it the best thing to postpone it.
5. What will be the result of postponing tasks be (those which flash during the quietude / as we journey inwards in Silence) ?
i. It may help healing of psychosomatic issues or Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD), loneliness, depression, grief , fear etc and the benefits are numerous . During this time we will start getting aware of what are the obstacles to our peace and what we are better off detaching from. One might start realising that these memories or future plans which disturb us are attachments which one might be clinging to or relishing them which in turn lead to pain, hurts and ultimately a person makes it a tool to hold on to survive and one is bound to it and gradually becomes a slave to it . And that turns into an obstacle to move towards liberation/ freedom inward.
ii. Detaching from what we do tasks or activities, our talent or works of our hands in which we might be taking pleasure will help us to unwrap the layers of self-love ( pride ) which in turn harms a soul. The more we journey inwards we will be able to easily identify those tasks or activities causing anxiety and it is important to detach from them. (We will deal with detachment in detail a little later).
iii. There are times we might be distancing ourselves from others by constantly wanting to grab the limelight. We are here working on the “I” factor which is very prominent in us. When we stop giving unnecessary importance to ourselves we will be liberated from all fears. Thus our layers of self-love are shredding and that is a big plus to journey inwards and the soul moves towards experiencing Love of the Divine which is liberation.
iv. As we journey deeper and deeper we start examining our conscience and start working on detaching ourselves from our attachments. As it is about holding our peace. It is all about the intention of our heart and we are constantly watchful about not having negative thoughts. One sure way to get detached is by not taking gratification from any of the tasks or anything we do and the path is to starve our 5 senses and avoid feeding them. And slowly and steadily we will be experiencing inner peace.
6. What will be the result of the tasks/ activities which are postponed (which occur during our quiet time).
a. The tasks will turn out to be better and we will know if we even have to pursue it.
b. It gives us time to do them better and it becomes a habit not to rush to finish anything. (Here we make an effort not to feed the urge to finish anything).
c. Most importantly we are to leave tasks unfinished to be precise without perfecting them. (The urge to perfect anything might be a big obstruction to journeying inward/ growth or liberation or to move towards the Divine) as we are boosting our pride/ self-love).
d. We learn to Let Go” and discern to prioritise tasks and not jump into any situation instantly and we will not have the urge to take on all the roles and perfect them. The result will be a doing only those tasks which are very important and not waste time on tasks which are not required.
Further if one is taking on all the tasks without prioritising there is very little time left to do important tasks and the soul is unnecessarily burdened . \
When a person is habituated taking gratification from urges or 5 senses, and takes gratification from works of his or her hands, lesser and lesser will the person be sensitive to the presence of the Divine or be in touch with the Deepest center of the soul. As layers of Self-Love do not make it possible to connect with the inner being. For instance -What’s app is a tool to take instant gratification.
e. In the effort of making it happen ( doing a task) or with this thought of being concerned or genuinely supporting others, we might have walked over people’s emotions or deprived others of their free will to make choices and unknowingly even added to their pain.
It could have been possible that the person was looking for exactly the opposite, just your presence and not for works of your hands. It is possible also possible that might have been an opportunity to empower others and I missed a chance. Sometimes it is better to watch and not do anything unless one asks for intervention. And there are times it is best to step back if the situation is getting a soul dragged into areas is need not venture into (which is others agenda). What is important is to hold one’s peace at any cost. ( And spending time in silence will help us understand this.)
f. A situation is better understood when we look at it from a distance. Stepping back helps as it is then that the Divine takes over that which is surrendered in quietude. When we do small things with great love,it bears the fruit that lasts. If a certain action which is meant to be for others has not borne fruit. It could be that those actions were coming from a person’s inner struggles, so it is not completely for others. And / Or it could also be that the person might have used it as tool to execute his or her agenda. Nishkama Karma: Actions performed without attachment to results, or selfless service, are considered to have a different impact than actions performed with selfish desires.
g. Let’s say we have postponed tasks and if they come back as a reminder second or the third time (during our quietude), it is most likely that a door is opening and It will bear fruit in its time . It is not as per our time but the time of the Divine.
समय समय बलवान, नहीं मनुष्य बलवान। काबे अर्जुन लूटीयो, वही धनुष वही बाण।
It is all about the time and not the strength of a man.
7. Craving for knowledge- If the craving of a person is to constantly gain or upgrade knowledge, a new stream or technique compromising the quiet time, then it would be a better option to spend more time in silence. Through this the soul will get led to what is to be done rather than spending time in trial and error as that could also be the result of a habit, addiction or a craving which one might need to conquer.
(Kindly remember this path is about being kind to yourself by relaxing) .
8. Following could be the reasons if one has a saviour syndrome and a person is always jumping into helping others which is a sure obstruction to journeying inwards.
i. It could be that I want to give importance to myself and that feeds my pride.
ii. Inner struggles projecting outside (as explained in (6). It is an attachment. (We will discuss more details about attachments later ). When the action is performed in a detached manner. It will bear the fruit, which lasts.
iii. By postponing tasks, I are working on Not taking any gratification from them. By not finishing tasks or leaving them incomplete , I am not feeding my pride or ego and backing out from the race to win a competition, I am holding my peace.
iv. As an when I back off from executing tasks/ activities, it will get clearer as to what is chewing me up. As time goes by I will be in a position to discern the areas I am not proceed or not to proceed.
In fact it will be just right to say wherever you find blockages in making decisions and don’t find peace it is best to sit back. It might not be the time, or it might not be the right thing to do or there might be a different way to do it. And this discernment will develop within the soul, which will last for ever and as the journey goes stronger, the discernment will get sharper.
Prathana an inward journey “The Path”
This is a path is about journeying inwards at your pace. It is about sitting at the feet of the Divine in Silence through the practice of Love (Charity , Humility and detachment in our thoughts, words and deeds.
Detachment- from external distractions to gain control over senses. Being sensitive to what is chewing us up rather than what we chew through introspection and reflection. Detachment does not mean renunciation. It is a personal choice. We will be discussing more on detachment later.
Quietude and Silence – Cleansing the soul, fostering self-acceptance and healing.
Self- Discovery- Love and humility balances personal life and empowers societal harmony.