gratitude

Talk to your stuff to increase their energy

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All the stuff that you see feel and touch is energy. The clothes, jewellery, books, even the umbrella that you use is energy. You wear your pretty pink bedroom slippers around the house and they also have their own energies to protect your feet. Strange as it may sound it would be nice to acknowledge these tiny energies you use around you once in a while.

Talk to your stuff

You live in your house, all you activities are centred around this focal point, you sleep here, you rest and rejuvenate. Your parents, husband/wife, children, your loved ones are linked to this place. It protects you all, gives you shelter. It may be a tent, an apartment, a bungalow or a shack, but it helps you and in its own way loves you too. So love it in return and acknowledge its contribution in your life. My Mom would do this on every full-moon day evening she would light a ghee lamp and apply kumkum, turmeric, incense sticks, flowers and unbroken rice/akshata to the main door of our house and express her gratitude. Every one likes being appreciated, even your house, so do something consciously at least once a month, it can be as simple as talking to your house! Stand in the centre of your apartment and tell it that you love it, it may sound silly, but the positive vibrations that you will generate with this simple expression will magnify and reflect back at you.

Your car is another big thing that helps you immensely. You drive around doing your errands, go to office, then pick up your child from school. It protects you while you are driving and helps you in so many ways. It would feel nice to acknowledge its contribution to your life. Most cars in India will have a small murti/photo of the deity Ganapati (this energy removes obstacles from your path) on the dashboard, and the person driving it will do a Namaskar and put a flower on this moorthi. This adds positive vibrations to the car as a whole. So as long as you are in your car, you get these positive vibes being reflected back at you. So do this once in a while, put your hands on the steering wheel and tell it that you appreciate its help. Tiny energies of gratitude multiply and eventually will come back to you in a big way!

Your workplace where you spend so much of your time, and you get so much out of it, money, a place in society, a joy of team-work and social interactions. Tell your desk that you love it. In India, we stick an image of our deity in front of us on the desk. Helps remind us of the divinity in our work! But tell your workplace and your desk how much you appreciate it, just once a week! It may be just words to begin with but as you say the words regularly, tiny things will change and turn bigger and nicer. Soon you will genuine love it and it will love you back too. You will see tiny but significant changes in your work environment, your behaviour and the behaviour of your office-mates too!

You may be rich or poor, you may not have much but ultimately you Are. And everything around you contributes to your existence. If you are aware you can make it better and more comfortable. Like you take care of your body, your water and food, things really important to you. But once in a while also acknowledge all the stuff that works in the background for you, the ‘props’ of your life.

We so often overlook the tiny things. But so many many tiny things get together to become a big thing. Do this too sometime when you are home alone, walk into every room of your house and check out all the things that make you happy and give you contentment. A silk scarf, a favourite book, your wife’s pretty dress, your husband’s happy photograph, your child’s exam-result, your new coffee-maker, your comfy arm-chair, the color of the carpet, the softness of the bed-sheets, the view from your window, your nice-smelling shower gel or even a cute hair-clip. Once in a while appreciate the texture of your clothes and run your fingers over the walls of your house. Express your gratitude to these seemingly inanimate objects, these are tiny packets of energy which help you in tiny but oh so very important ways.

These tiny expressions of your gratitude will also help you in your spiritual practice. As you recognise the energies of every tiny thing in your life you are training your mind. Moksh/Enlightenment is simply being aware of the energies of every tiny molecule to the largest of the stars. Sounds too fantastic right? But every huge thing starts with a very tiny little step.

Be happy and express the energy of your happiness and gratitude. As you send out so will you get back from the Universe. The butterfly effect!

 

Talk to your stuff

Guided meditation

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I have always got very good results with Guided meditation. This is not Dhyan but a tool to heal yourself. As usual if you go to a professional he will charge you and also make the process seem more esoteric and complicated than it is. You can do this at home yourself if you have a best friend or husband or brother someone whom you are comfortable with to guide you. Do this once every 2-3 months.

Guided meditation

Here is how you do it.

  1. Prepare your room, it should be clean, well aired and pleasing. You can use some light fragrance like camphor or musk or whatever you like. Set up 2 separate places on the ground, for you and your guide.
  2. Wear comfortable loose clothing, switch off your phones, switch off the lights and sit comfortably cross legged in your places. Face north or east.
  3. Both you and your guide should intend in your mind that the guided mediation brings you happiness, healing at deep levels and inner balance.
  4. Your work is now to breathe deeply and slowly, not forced breathing. When you breathe, your abdomen should move, not your just your chest. Keep your eyes relaxed but be ready to see whatever may be shown to you. Listen to your guide and visualise whatever he is describing to you. Use your native language in which you are most comfortable in.
  5. Now the guide should speak in a low clear soothing voice, with long pauses. The script goes something like this.
  • Relax the body and the mind – “You are comfortable. You are relaxed now. Feel your legs relax. Feel your back relax. Your arms and hand are relaxed. Now feel your neck muscles relax and your shoulders relax. Your head and mind is also relaxing now. Every part of your body and mind has relaxed now. You are at peace and willing to heal deeply/get your inner balance/restore positivity”.
  • Create a safe place – “You are at a Mountain top. The forest looks like …. The sun, weather etc…. . You feel the warm sun. You smell the flowers. You are relaxed. You see a lovely pool of water.. You go near. You see your favourite God (or anyone who inspires his faith) standing there. You meet your God and are deeply happy”.
  • Do the cleansing – “The God takes your hand and asks you to throw all the stuff that has been bothering you one by one into the pool of water. You do so, all the negative stuff has gone away from you. Now your God waves his hand and the pool of water vanishes into fire. Deep beautiful orange red flames consume everything in the pool now. Then the God waves his hands and the flames vanish and from the flames a beautiful jewel appears in his hand”.
  • Complete the healing – “The God smiles and gives it to you now. You hold it and see the beauty and the blessing. You wear this jewel now”.
  • Close the meditation – “The God now fades. The mountain top fades. Breathe deeply and feel the blessings, the healing and the balance”.

This script works generally for everyone, but of course the guide can speak/guide as per his intuition. It is possible that you may feel emotional or even tears may come into your eyes. Let it happen gently, it is a part of the healing, releasing process.

Then after this healing meditation, both you and your guide should remain in a meditative relaxed pose for some 10 more minutes.

The guide has a very responsible position here, a position of trust and kindness. If the guide is genuinely interested in you and wants to help you then this guided meditation can be extremely effective in releasing past traumas and blockages from the deep inner most recesses of the mind. Some one who loves you would be a much better guide than any professional. Both of you will learn something from this session. And after the session do remember to express your gratitude to your friend for being your guide. Or even better be his guide the next time.

You have the resources with you. You know yourself and only you can be kind to yourself. Be your own healer.

 

Guided meditation

Of the Dead

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In India, this Krishnapaksh/dark fortnight of Bhadrapad month is the Pitru paksh or the Mahalaya paksh. In these 15 days we remember our dead ancestors with gratitude and offer them energy in the form of water and food energised with mantras. This is a duty for every household and exclusive to the males. The women help by preparing the food but the actual exercise with the mantras and tarpan is done by the males.

Tarpan is the ritual performed to gain access to the dead ancestors/Pitru. A Puja is the ritual for accessing the Gods/Devata and the Dhyan is the practice done to access One’s own self.

During these 15 days the energies are such that the Pitrus who generally inhabit the “Pitru Lok” can enter and move quite freely in our “Martya Lok”. The Pitrus exist in the Pitru Lok until such a time that they have to come for another birth. If you can see auras or are sensitive to energies, for these 15 days evening twilight time can be quite heavy and oppressive. Avoid taking very young children out of the house during these few hours as they can sense energies and may get scared by what they may see.

Of the Dead

There is a tradition of calling the 7 generations of ancestors on the father’s side by name and the rest as “everyone else”. The Y chromosome is all important and this process of Tarpan is somehow linked to maleness. The Tarpan has 2 benefits, the male who is offering the energies benefits if his intention is clear and of course the ancestors benefit and take the tarpan energies if given with gratitude.

We are our ancestors. I am 50% my mom and 50% my dad, 25% of each of my 4 grandparents and so on. At the 7th ancestor level the contribution of each individual ancestor goes below 1%.

I have seen modern feminist women trying to show off by doing the rituals related to funeral rites and dead ancestors but there is no energy generated around them. It may be a plus to feminism but of no use to the dead for which it is being done and may actually harm the women who are doing it and their children.

If you wish to offer gratitude to your dead ancestors during this period, the easiest way is through a coconut. On Sarvapitri Amavasya, in the morning, in your puja room or outside or terrace, if you prefer, facing the south, take a coconut, shake it to feel the water sloshing inside, it should have water in it. Remove the fibrous material around it leaving only a tuft at the side of the 3 “eyes”. Hold it on your hands, offer some kumkum, turmeric, unbroken raw rice, flowers, etc on it. If you are married, ask your wife to also pray with intention touching the coconut. Intend that you are grateful to your dead ancestors and pray for their wellbeing. Keep it simple. And in one sharp movement dash the coconut on the ground and ensure that it breaks. Fold your hands and again repeat your intention. That is it! The broken pieces of coconut etc can be put in running water, or sea or if not possible under a tree somewhere. If you are a woman and want to show gratitude to your dead ancestors, do everything as above but ask your husband to dash the coconut on the ground to break it.

Ignored ancestors cause problems too, as during these 15days they have access to this world. Most commonly pitru related problems manifest as delays in marraige and delay or denial of progeny. In the horoscopes placement of Rahu/Ketu in the 9th house, or connected to the 9th house lord indicate pitru related problems. For these there are specific mantras and tarpans for which your pujari/pandit will scare you then charge you. But as I have always said Intention is everything and a coconut broken with intention also works fine.

Show gratitude, it will make you feel lighter. Our ancestors are linked to us by our blood and our DNA. They are us and we are them.

Everything and everyone resonates.

 

Of the Dead