“Apply for your YSS Kriya Yoga initiation soon,” Aunty who leads YSS Kandivali meditation center reminded me yesterday, Thursday.
“I dont think I am prepared for this.” I said with a pinch of self doubt
“Yes, you are,” she assured.
We discussed it further, and then I said “Jai guru,” took prasad, and left.
What I felt: Self-doubt. I will come back to it later in this article.
Then I went to Kandivali local market, a place where you can get fresh fruits and vegetables.
After meditation, I was feeling light like a free bird. There was a big smile on my face..so big that a couple of poeple noticed it.
With a clear idea of things I wanted to buy, I walked towards the market.
On left hand side of the road, there was some road construction happening, and amidst it, I noticed a face.
She was an old lady, thin, and shorter than me (I am 5’3″, and she must be around 5 feet). She was in a saree, holding a bag, and seemed to be not in great financial condition.
She had a couple of failed attempts to stop an autorickshaw.
I stopped there and asked, “Tumhala kuthe jayacha ahe?” (Where do you want to go?)
“Charkop sector 2,” she replied.
I signaled for two rickshaws, and luckily, one stopped. The rickshaw driver, an uncle, agreed to go to sector 2.
“Aho ya,” she called her husband in Marathi language.
In one minute, a person with a walking stick came. It was visible he was not well, but he smiled along with his wife and thanked me.
I felt good and continued walking. My smile widened.
“Roko roko roko” (stop stop stop), I heard her voice again.
The same rickshaw stopped next to me, and the same uncle got off it with a stick in his hand.
“Tula kuth jayacha ahe. Aamhi sodto tula” (Where do you want to go? We can give you a lift), aunty said.
“Nako nako, me chalat jate” (No, that’s fine, I will go by walk), I replied.
“No no, please come,” she insisted.
“No no thank you,” I replied again.
This continued for a good 60 seconds and stopped only when another senior citizen (the rickshaw driver uncle) said,
“Beta aa jao, baitho” (Come, sit).
Now my tongue glued to my upper jaw and could not said No again….it happens with me when an unknown person showers love or affection on me.
Now in rickshaw, three people were feeling grateful for each other. Me, Uncle and Aunty.
What we felt: Contentment, Gratitude
After grocery shopping, I got into another autorickshaw and headed back home.
There was traffic, but after some time, when the auto driver found an empty road, he throttled the accelerator.
“Bhaiya, please slow chalao,” I requested him.
He didn’t say anything. However, when we stopped at another road signal, he said:
“Kya bole aap” (What did you say?)
I repeated what I said.
After a brief pause, he started talking again:
“Madam, agar life main khush rehna hai na toh aapne kam pe focus rakhne ka. Main ricksha chalata hoon 12 saal se. Subhe 6 baje ghar se nikalta hoon, raat ko 12 baje ghar wapas aata hoon.”
Madam, if you want to be happy in life, keep your focus on yourself/your work. I have been driving a rickshaw for 12 years. I leave home at 6 in the morning and return home at 12 at night.
“Hmm,” I said to let him know that I was listening and also interested in what he wanted to share.
“Main TV nahi dekhta, baju wale ke ghar main kya chalu hain nahi dekhta. Dopahar main ricksha road ke baju main lagake 2 ghante ki neend leta hoon.
I don’t watch TV, I don’t know what’s going on in my neighbor’s house. In the afternoon, I take a two-hour nap by parking my rickshaw near the road
Madam, life main khush rehna hai na toh aapne khud par dhyan dena chahiye.”
“Hmm,” I kept nodding my head until I reached home.
“Thank you, bhaiya,” I said.
It seemed he was satisfied in his life.
Feeling: Contentment
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Here you can see, on the same day within 2 hours, I experienced 3 feelings: Self-doubt, Contentment, and Gratitude.
In day-to-day life, if you observe yourself, you may notice two voices in your head.
One voice will say “do it,” and the other voice will say “don’t do it.”
Let’s call these voices:
- Physical mind OR conscious mind OR logical mind
- Subconscious mind OR Spiritual mind OR Inner voice OR Higher self
The feeling that our spiritual mind gives us is called “instinct/gut feeling.”
Just as the physical mind guides the body, the subconscious mind guides the soul.
Question: What is the function of spiritual mind?
It warns us when we are about to make a choice that is spiritually wrong., therefore it guards our soul.
By giving us subconscious mind, God has given us protection from wrong things.
Our subconscious mind must control our physical mind.
Question: If god has given spiritual mind to everyone on earth, then why do some people follow wrong path?
The reason many people do wrong things is because their subconscious mind has shut down.
The subconscious mind cannot and will not permit a person to do something spiritually wrong. However, people listen more to the physical/logical mind and ignore the inner voice of the subconscious mind.
They refuse to follow inner guidance and continue on the wrong path.
In this case, the subconscious mind cannot tolerate this, so it sleeps.
If a person continues to ignore it, the subconscious mind eventually shuts down.
That’s why we say we don’t get gut feelings/inner voices.
Let me explain this with a simple example:
Suppose we hurt someone; our subconscious mind will warn us, and we will feel guilty.
This means our subconscious mind is working.
We should not let that guilt consume us.
That guilt has a specific purpose – to make us want to correct our mistake.
We should learn the lesson and never repeat the mistake.
Once this is done, the guilt will go away. This is the right approach to work with guilt.
But suppose we ignore/suppress our guilt even though we know we have done something wrong.
By ignoring our guilt, we are telling our subconscious mind to keep quiet, rejecting its advice.
When we keep on doing it multiple times, the subconscious mind shuts down.
There will come a point when, even if we commit a serious sin, the subconscious mind will no longer warn us.
The guilt will not come, and we might even fool ourself into thinking that because we don’t feel guilty, we have not done wrong.
In reality, we have shut down our spiritual radar.
That’s the answer to “If God has given a spiritual mind to everyone on earth, then why do some people follow the wrong path?”
God has given free will to everyone, but when some people don’t take inner guidance of the spiritual mind, they take the wrong path.
I want to add a note here:
guilt does not always come from the subconscious mind.
There are people who feel guilty about things they should not be feeling guilty about.
There are times when our physical/logical mind makes us feel guilty even though we have done everything right.
We may feel as though we have done something wrong or that we are not doing enough.
This is a programmed guilt imposed on us by ourself, or by others, or by negativity.
To succeed here, one should have wisdom to identify difference between:
- guilt that is the guidance from the subconscious mind and
- the guilt that comes from the physical mind.
The former is a sign, and the latter is a trick, which exists because of wrong thinking or wrong beliefs and prevents us from growing.
Question: How can you make your physical/logical mind cooperate with subconscious/spiritual mind?
The logical mind is not bad, but logic and truth are not the same. Many people use logic to run away from the truth.
How? Lets see.
I know you are a good person, but just for example, let’s say you commit a sin.
Your subconscious mind will warn you that you have done something wrong.
You decide to rectify your mistake and learn the lesson.
Then your logical mind will take out one of its greatest weapons: ego
Ego makes you justify your wrong actions.
It will trick you and make you believe that whatever you did was not wrong but necessary.
It will bring brilliant logical arguments, and you will be influenced.
The inner voice of your subconscious mind will rise, but you will silence it because the logical mind has given you reasons.
It has told you that you are right through logic.
The logical mind gives us reasoning, and the subconscious mind tells us the truth.
The logical mind will make you justify temptation.
It will give you valid reasons to make you believe that temptation is a need instead of a want.
It will convince you that temptation is not spiritually wrong, and just like that, people will fall for temptations.
Another weapon the logical mind uses is DOUBT.
Do you remember, in the beginning of this article, I had “Self doubt” when aunty asked me to take further steps in my spiritual journey?
If I listen to my self-doubt created by logical mind, loss would be mine.
The logical mind will plant a seed of doubt within us that challenges our faith and wisdom.
The most powerful thing about the logical mind is that it is habit-forming and comfortable with bad habits.
Some people think that God punishes them.
The truth is that, their subconscious mind punishes them when they take the wrong path.
Because the subconscious mind knows the nature of our soul.
To open spiritual mind there some ways:
- Pray (keep the prayer short and do it with devotion , concentration. If its long , one may loose focus)
- Meditation
- Talk to your subconscious mind often. Ask for guidance -> Surrender -> listen
Question: Differences between subconscious mind and physical mind ?
The physical mind can become negative and work against the spiritual mind if not trained well.
But if used well, the physical mind can be a wonderful assistant to the spiritual mind.
The spiritual mind is always calm, provides inner strength, does not seek proof of God’s existence, and is eternal.
The physical mind can be anxious/unstable, it can make you weak with temptations, it needs proof & it doubts God’s existence, and is earth-bound.
By earth-bound, it means it dies when a person dies.
A person can have a highly developed intellectual physical mind but may have an underdeveloped subconscious mind.
Worldly knowledge can sharpen our physical mind but will not develop our spiritual mind.
Even spiritual knowledge will not help us evolve unless we put our knowledge into practice.
That’s why the key to spiritual growth is “Pure sadhana/ Pure practice.”
In the beginning of this article, I talked about an old couple.
Do you still remember that old couple who insisted me to get into auto?
Do you also remember I felt that they did not look financially well?
Despite this, they gave me a lift…they were returning from a hospital, uncle was not well.
In that condition also, he gave me a beautiful smile.
On earth, someone may not be financially rich, physically strong, or popular enough for people to recognise them.
However, if they have good intentions AND if they do actions inspired by good intentions, THEY ARE RICH IN SPIRITUAL WORLD.
Spiritual laws are great than human laws .
The path to God involves doing what is spiritually right.
The spiritual mind warns us when we are about to make a choice that is spiritually wrong.
That autowala who told me “Madam, if you want to be happy in life, you should pay attention to yourself.” , is living a simple, routined life since 12 years.
People like him, they dont have HERO personality or victim personality. Even if they leave average life they feel satisfied .
These people also spiritually rich than people who commit crimes and do charity hoping that their charity will wash away theirs crimes. It does not work like that.
If you wish to know more about spirituality then I would suggest to read books:
- Autobiography of a Yogi (our beloved Guruji’s book)
- The laws of the spirit world – by Khorshed Bhavnagri (Khorshed ji has done amazing work with help of her sons Vispi and Ratoo. This post is based on some concepts explained in her book)
If you choose to read these books then requesting you to keep your mind open. Give yourself some time to digest it.
Are you still here then thank you for stying with me.
This time, I am writing it on Friday. Its 7.55 PM.
My friend is getting married. I am going to GOA. Next week there wont be any Meditation sessions.
I check my cupboard for sarees. Selected three sarees Light green, Navy blue and Pink.
Two days back on Yogarati Instagram I asked people to ask me questions.
In this post I answered some.
This weekend post is long.
But I hope it will help people in some or other way.
Today for dinner. I cooked rice noodles with half cooked vegetables.
This week, after eating red dragen fruits I saved its seeds. Lets plant it in balcony.
Another update, do you remember those sparrows?
Now they enter in living area. I wonder what they want?
I wish you a wonderful weekend ahead.
Stay happy. Stay blessed 🤗
Much love,
Arati
