On Loving Discipline

Tags

awareness, freedom, spiritual practice, spirituality

Have you ever thought that “discipline” was invented to put you in a “box”, restrict your freedom(s), prevent you from living the life that you were meant to live? Have you ever met someone who is allergic to, inherently resists the idea of “discipline”?

In my younger (read ‘teenage’) years, discipline was perhaps the last thing that I wanted to be subject to. The very notion that I was expected to make my bed before I went to school seemed like an injustice. And the bus came at 6:30am! In high school, there was no ‘sleeping in’ on weekends. Saturday morning discipline included going shopping for milk, vegetables and groceries. Then there was the choice of dusting the furniture and bookcases, folding the laundry, putting away the washed dishes, setting the table for lunch or dinner, clearing the table after the meals, and much more. There was no escape from the seeming prison of chores and discipline. And I haven’t even talked about the take- no-prisoners attitude of discipline of some of the teachers at school!

But little was I to know that it was all preparation for what was to come my way a few years later. On my arrival as a graduate student in the USA, I realized that the ‘prison of discipline’ in my aunt’s home in India had taught me self-awareness. I was pleasantly surprised that I knew exactly what it would take to thrive on my own in a foreign land. I was able to work out chore-sharing with my roommates, just like I chore-shared with my cousins growing up. I quickly became aware that grocery shopping, laundry, dishes, cleaning, and even cooking, were all things that I was already good at. I actually began to fall in love with the idea of discipline!

After the self-awareness, I began to realize that freedom from the ‘prison of discipline’ had led me to the practice of self-discipline. The more I practiced it, the more my self-respect and self-image grew. With this growth, I found that I was comfortable in reaching out and making friends with all sorts of nationalities, and particularly the Americans. The land that I considered foreign, adopted me over time.

I believe that this two-way adoption happened because self-respect grew into self-love. It took self-love to keep an open mind to learning about western customs and culture, and harmonizing them with my eastern foundations.

As a parent and teacher, I began to consider that most of our parents’ (and teachers’) discipline is perhaps borne out of love for us. By by ‘drawing lines’ for us, they are teaching us self-awareness, self-respect, and self-love. Theirs, and now mine, is evolving into a loving discipline indeed.

Loving discipline manifests because true love takes some discipline, and true discipline takes a lot of love. What’s your take on ‘loving discipline’?

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. join us for our weekly #SpiritChat gathering – Sunday, Aug 11 at 9amET – I will bring some questions on discipline – with love 🙂 – Namaste. Kumud.

Nature’s discipline takes many forms – mostly of a loving nature!

The Heart’s Mystical Music

Tags

freedom, healing, music, spirituality

My very first deep friendship on Twitter was with Wayne Mcevilly. A fascinating gentleman who was as comfortable talking about Sanskrit and chanting SamaVeda shlokas, as he was fluid in playing Bach and Beethoven. It was his direct, honest, authentic as it gets approach to life that kept me around on Twitter when I was barely sure about what I was even doing on the medium. I finally got a hold of his “Bach Preludes and Fugues” on piano, and classical music entered my awareness. Among many phone conversations, I have learnt much from the journey of this musical mystic. (my interview with Wayne)

In his own unique way, Wayne taught me that we are all have a bit of the musical mystic within us. From the very dawn of our awareness in our mother’s wombs, sound is an integral part of our being. When sound find arrangement in pitch, tone, meter and such, it can become music. What are some of your earliest memories of sound or music?

The line between music and noise is often as fine as the tuning of our ears, the state of our mind, and the station of our heart. Indian classical music thus has different classes of musical compositions (called ragas), each of which are best suited to a particular time of the day, or even a particular season. Are there particular genres of music that you tune into, are attuned towards, depending on your mood or the state of your life?

One gift of music that has words attached to it is that we can be influenced by the words as much as we can be moved by the instruments. Some of the earliest mantras and shlokas (Sanskrit collections of syllables, words and hymns) were set to music in the form of meters – the most famous being the eight-step Gayatri. The rhythm of meters enabled for smriti (memorization) , and hence the ancient ‘scriptures’ were preserved through generations. What are some songs, prayers or hymns that were ‘passed on’ to you and have perhaps become an integral part of your life?

Beyond the external sound of music, of nature and the noise of our daily living, there is the incessant internal rhythm within us.

“Within ourselves is this eternal voice speaking of eternal freedom; its music is always going on!” – Vivekananda in ‘Practical Vedanta’

Our spiritual work, if we so choose to do it, is perhaps to take time, make time, to create a space of silence and stillness so that we can hear the musical rhythm that leads us to freedom. It is often in the company of fellow seekers (satsang) that we can find this space where we can do a ‘group sing-along’ (kirtan) in the presence of sound and light, embracing joy and bliss in our harmonious energies that contribute to the orchestra of community.

And who knows, someday, we may even learn, through sustained (inner) musical practice, we may discover anew some music, and even learn to sing some of the most difficult songs of life. And in the singing, we shall laugh and love life deeply again, as the healing spreads through our heart, and radiates to all who connect with us, in new radiant connections.

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Join us for our weekly twitter chat – Sunday Aug 4 at 9amET in #SpiritChat – bring your favorite music to the kirtan and I will bring the tea and questions – Namaste – Kumud

A location, where my heart often tunes into its inner music…

Gifts of Freedom

Tags

celebration, freedom, remembrance, spirituality

The waxing first quarter moon flirted with me from outside the upstairs window as it emerged briefly from behind the clouds at late twilight. I had just finished my evening meditation, and was slowly emerging from the gift of freedom from being immersed in a deep peace from the stillness beyond light. The gift of the moon made my heart feel like a lotus that opens its petals at the first signs of light.

I needed to see more of her magic, so I walked downstairs, and on to the deck outside, just to catch a few clear glimpses before some dark clouds engulfed her for the night. Just as I was to walk back inside, out of the corner of my eye, I saw yet another gift – the first summer sighting of a firefly in the grass. And as I swept my gaze towards the trees, I saw a forest full of fireworks – hundreds of fireflies silently floating, dancing, sharing their light from within. The Fourth of July fireworks from a distant suburb that sent ‘lightning’ into a clouded sky barely held a candle to this gift of Mother Nature.

So often it is the inclination of our human nature to get focused on, get trapped by, or even become despondent in despair about our lack of freedom, or the state of our independence in the world. When we forget about our gifts, it often takes a few courageous men and women to stand up and say – enough. Inspired by divine providence, they draft a new declaration, and then pledge to it their lives and sacred honor. Then, the battle to reclaim the gift of freedom, truly begins.

Such is often the state of our inner world too, isn’t it? Immersed in fear, doubt, anger, envy, and our desire for likes, we forget the gifts of our truths. It often takes a new declaration, a new resolve, a new inspiration for us to be (re)awakened to walk our path of constant remembrance of the gifts of our freedom. It is when we are awake to our inner gifts of peace, joy, silence, stillness and more, that we can pledge to share the same with our fellow freedom fighters.

That is perhaps the significance of the Fourth of July, Canada Day (and similar ‘Independence Day’ celebrations) to me. In addition to the fireworks, the concerts, the picnics, the road trips – it is the freedom to observe and embrace the gifts of light, however small or slivered they may be, that glow constantly within my reach.

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Join us for a community celebration of our gifts of freedom – Sunday, July 7 at 9amET on Twitter in #SpiritChat – Namaste. – Kumud

A (de)light gift of summer that burst forth this weekend!

The Freedom of Forgiveness

Tags

choosing love, forgiveness, freedom, healing

– by Sharon Kathryn D’Agostino

I believe in the healing power of love, in the transformation created in our lives when we allow ourselves to give and receive love with our hearts wide, wide open.

Life events this year have led me to examine more closely the various aspects of love, and to feel love even more intensely. In the process, I have been exploring forgiveness, an aspect of unconditional love that is sometimes overlooked. We may lose sight of the fear, anger, resentment and sadness associated with our decisions not to forgive others, or ourselves, for the conscious or unconscious hurts we have experienced. Some of us carry the burden of past hurts around with us for years with little awareness of their weight in our day-to-day existence. Fleeting or persistent thoughts about hurtful things that were done or said to us, thoughts pushed aside but not truly addressed, can sap our strength and energy, and they can interfere with our ability to experience joy in our lives.

Forgiveness has the potential to free us from these burdens, though the act of forgiving may be more difficult than we think. For the most hurtful experiences in our lives, the advice to “forgive and forget” misses an essential step even when our intention to forgive is genuine. Once we decide to forgive someone, we must take steps to heal the hurt, to truly let it go, before we can move to the step of forgetting it. We need to release the pain, the anger, the resentment that resulted from the actions or words that injured us. This release may come through meditation, through prayer, in conversations with a friend, in therapy, or by any of the ways we move through our important life lessons. Releasing the hurt must be intentional, as it is highly unlikely that the pain will magically disappear simply because we made the choice to forgive.

In our personal exploration of forgiveness, we can also benefit greatly from understanding the things for which we blame ourselves. That list may be short or long… the experience of not meeting the expectations of ourselves or others… the feeling of letting others down… the could haves, should haves… all of the hurtful words or actions for which we hold ourselves responsible. Self-directed blame, disappointment, and anger can be the most significant burdens in our lives and often we carry them without asking ourselves why we have not chosen to let them go.

Our choice to forgive frees us. Our requests to be forgiven free us further. Forgiveness gives us the space to love others and ourselves more fully. In every moment, we can choose the freedom of forgiveness and thereby open our hearts completely to the healing power of love.

Sharon

Sharon Kathryn D’Agostino believes that love and compassion can and will save the world. She is the founder of SayItForward.org, a web platform where women and girls are invited to share their stories of empowerment. Sharon can be found on Twitter at @SharonDAgostino, @SayItForwardNow and @AwakeningTrue

Editor’s Note: Please join Sharon as she steps up to host our weekly twitter chat on Sunday, Dec 9th at 9amET. Sharon is a long-time regular in our Sunday morning gatherings, a great proponent for women and for choosing love, and a wonderful friend of the community. Thank you. – Kumud @AjmaniK

On Dreams and Dreamers

Tags

dreams, freedom, purpose, spirituality

For a long time, for what seemed like months, as my morning meditation practice grew, the dreams had stopped coming while I was asleep at night. I have always been a good sleeper, but these dreamless sleeps had taken it to a greater depth of dreamless sleeping. I would awaken greatly refreshed, ready to go upstairs and begin my day with meditation, and so on.

But then, over the last week or two or so, as is the wont of change that often comes suddenly, the ‘dreaming while sleeping’ returned. The seemingly ‘on-the-surface’ yet ‘active’ dreams took me on journeys with long-out-of-touch friends and long-departed family members. How ‘real’ they seemed while I was “in” them, and how quickly they disappeared on the first early-morning awakening out of broken sleep! And as is also often their wont, the more I tried to remember them, the more they slipped through my awareness like water flowing through fingers. And the net result was that I awoke tired, even lethargic.

Lethargy is not this seeker’s friend. Or of the wanderer. Of of the explorer. Or even the sitter. So, being the engineer and analyst that I am, the one whose propensity is to ask “why”, I asked – why did they return? Was it because of my increased work-related tasks, my staying up later and later before bed, the usual uptick in reading during summer, or the general cluttering of the brain? Regardless, I would like to return to my dreamless state, so I can wake up to my previous, non-lethargic, jump-out-of-bed and ready-to-go state?

But, I digress a bit (as is my wont). From a spiritual perspective, our ‘dream state’ goes beyond the surface dreams that occasionally may come. We are immersed in the deep, deep ocean of this great dream that you, the reader, is somehow fundamentally different than me, the writer. And hence, we live most of our physical life immersed in the ocean, like fish in deep water, whose awareness knows only water, and more so, its immediate waters. We may even claim ‘privilege’ of prosperity, of wealth, of knowledge, of (yes) spirituality, over those, some of whom we may even call family, friends and neighbors. We are unaware, or have lost awareness that our differences, our dreams, depend simply on our degrees of manifestation. Is this not simply a deeper dream state that we can perhaps awaken from?

Perhaps this awakening to reality is the purpose of the work of our spiritual practices.

For what is ‘reality’? Is it not the awareness that we ALL are “Infinite, Absolute, Eternal, Knowledge, Existence, Bliss”? If this reality is our truth, then perhaps we can let go of our current dream-state of illusions and delusions. If not, then immersed we shall remain, until, perhaps, grace finds us, ready to return us to a dreamless state.

For no matter how sweet my dreams may be, I feel an awareness, a knowing, that walking in an awakened reality is going to be sweeter than the sweetest of dreams.

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. This post was heavily inspired by my stumbling upon the essay, “Vedanta and Privilege” by Swami Vivekananda. Do read if you have a chance. And then join us for #SpiritChat on Twitter – Sunday August 5 at 9amET/ 630pmET. Namaste. – Kumud

What is the the flower’s dream? What is its reality?

Our Attitudes to Freedom

Tags

attitude, balance, freedom, harmony, spirituality

There is an Indian dessert called the gulab jamun. It is like a donut hole of a very soft consistency, that is deep fried, and then immersed in a vat of sugar solution. It is ideally eaten warm, so that the sweetness of the solution thoroughly pervades the senses. In the ideal gulab jamun, there is very little to distinguish the solidity of the “donut” from the liquidity of the solution that it is immersed in.

Our lives are a little bit like the gulab jamun. We are immersed in the sweetness of our attachments and desires. And yet, we claim “freedom”, even celebrate it on an annual basis, while we continue to get more and more entangled in the web of our own creation. Our social and work commitments, our hobbies, our networks seem to keep expanding. The result is that we keep finding ourselves starved for time and energy for (inner) growth that can lead us to real freedom.

So, perhaps this Independence Day (July 4th in the USA), we can choose to re-examine our attitudes towards real freedom. We are all born with certain attitudes, qualities (gunas) and energies. These are the attitudes (or aptitudes) of activity or aggression (rajas), of lethargy and heaviness (tamas), and of purity or lightness (sattva). Our overall attitude in life at any given time, can be said to be a dynamic mixture of the proportion of these three energies within us.

It is when the attitudes of individuals (and societies) trend towards agression, overactivity, and heaviness, that we tend to move away from freedom. Our inner core of softness starts to melt away, and our attitude trends towards accepting less and less freedom. We rationalize to ourselves that this state must be the “new normal”. But it does not need to be so!

A true celebration of independence means that we make a decision to change our attitude towards freedom. We decide to balance our commitments, and discard those which further enslave us. We commit to those actions that tend to increase inner purity, lightness, softness and kindness, or sattva. It is in becoming receptacles for grace, by lowering the heart’s barriers to love, that freedom can come home to us.

Yes, warm gulab jamnun, like apple pie, is one of my favorite desserts. And I have discovered that it is particulary good when eaten over ice-cream, with moderation. This new attitude is unfolding the path of freedom dessert-sattva for me. How is your path unfolding?

Namaste,

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly chat, Sunday July 1st at 9amET / 630pm India in #SpiritChat ~ I will bring some gulab jamun and ice-cream to share, and we shall share some stories about real freedom… Namaste.

Attitudes to Freedom – Pausing and Celebrating on the Path

On Freedom and Reality

Tags

freedom, reality, spiritual practice

Just like that, it is the first of July and we step into the second half of the year. Time has an unerring way of bringing us face to face with reality – however we may define reality. In the USA, the onset of July brings us a celebration of “Independence Day”, and our kindred neighbors to the north in Canada celebrate “Victoria Day” (Happy 150th, Canada!). On these occasions, it is natural for many of us to reflect upon our personal freedoms, and the practical realities of said freedom(s) in our daily lives and actions.

As long as we do not live alone on a deserted island, the reality is that our friends, families and communities affect our daily freedoms, and their exercise of it. This effect manifests in the decisions that we make when we live in a civil society. In order to add value to their lives, and often for greater good, we often accept the reality that our personal freedom of external action may not be absolute. It is relatively easy to make declarations of our Independence, but we need energy and commitment to fight for “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Commitment conveys our declarations from mere intellect to reality, frees us to take action.

It takes even greater energy and commitment to preserve our freedom. The freedoms gained also need a constitution – a governing agreement among people – for their preservation, in order to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. In order to anchor themselves to reality, and recalibrate their freedom(s), organizations, communities, families and even individuals, may establish constitutions. From these frameworks can emerge the governing principles of our live, the values that fuel our actions, and measures of our personal growth.

For most of us, the demands of living in the external world subject us to space and time. Even as I write this, there are small decisions that I need to make over the next few hours that will affect what I and my family will do this weekend. These small decisions aren’t made in a vaccuum, and a give and take of personal freedom(s) of all family members is necessary in order to maintain a dynamic family harmony. Does this reality sound familiar to you?

So, where does true freedom, if it exists, exist? For the most part, our external world seems to be devoid of it. We can intellectually read about and even talk about ‘freedom from fear’ and such related things, but how much of our daily decisions are informed by fear? And how about our internal world? Is it possible that unfettered freedom exists within us? If so, have you experienced the reality of inner freedom for yourself?

As I develop my daily practice of meditation, there are occasions where I find disconnection from the transient and (re)connection with the permanent. While the state of reconnection with the permanent is often fleeting in itself, it is the closest that I have perhaps ever felt to true freedom. Even though the reconnection is fleeting, it brings one great Joy to realize that true inner freedom is indeed an experiential reality. How about you? What have your experiences of ‘real freedom’ – external or internal – been like? How do ‘reality’ affect the exercise of your personal freedom(s)?

I invite you to visit with us in #SpiritChat on Sunday, July 2nd at 9amET/1pmUTC on twitter, as we share and celebrate freedom and reality. I will bring some real questions and virtual cookies and sparklers. You are free to bring whatever you wish to share.

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

A new experience of freedom this week, as I discovered a new reservation with unexplored trails and bridges…

Creating Freedom through Creativity

Tags

creativity, freedom, socialmedia

For virtually every Sunday of my short life on social media, I have had the privilege of spending an hour or so on twitter, being part of the #SpiritChat community. In the form of questions and answers, with guest hosts and friends who step up to host in my absence, we the people have stood fast to our goal of “transforming the spirit with conversations in social media”. Over the years, many (hundreds?) have come through the virtual doors that formally ‘open’ every Sunday at 9amET to share their ‘answers’ to ‘questions’ posed during our gatherings.

As we research and probe and pry open our hearts and minds in the company of those of varying life backgrounds and experiences, we manage to take a deeper look at our beliefs, our faiths, our values and our actions. We may not always like what this self-exploration may bring us face to face with, but my thesis is that we all somehow walk away from our community experience with some agglomerated wisdom that sticks our hearts opens a little bit more every week.

It isn’t that the #SpiritChat community is some kind of homogeneous community with a single mindset. In fact, we are perhaps all grateful that it is exactly the opposite – a kaleidoscope of heterogenity! At the end of the day (or the hour), the issue is not whether we agree or disagree with each other – it is whether we can look at each other with a little bit more love in our heart’s eyes. And if we walk away with a little bit more empathy, a sense of friendship, an attitude of joy, or even a realization of the cause(s) of the pain and hurt that we carry around with us, then it is indeed time well spent in sharing and learning within a safe space.

I have often felt that I am the greatest beneficiary of the community’s loving heart. If the amount of stretching that often occurrs for me – before, during and after the chat – is any indication of ‘progress’, then I have the ‘spiritual stretch marks’ to show for many a new self-birth over the years 🙂 The creative energy of the community ensures that we all keep growing and evolving and involving. I am grateful that my stories of ‘walking’ and photos of being in nature and my attempts at poetry are received with grace by the community. In symbiosis, the creative energy of the community continues to inspire many to experience even greater freedom in their practice and work.

As some of you know, it was @waynemcevilly (piano viruoso extraordinaire) who inspired me to create the Sunday #SpiritChat on twitter, five years ago. Wayne’s creative, fun-loving and carefree attitude taught this staid, lackadaisical engineer to lighten up and learn to ‘go with the flow’. I have learnt the virtues of ‘practicing patience’, ‘art of showing up with a smile’, ‘this too shall pass for that is nature’s way’, ‘be kinder to yourself than you expect others to be towards you’, ‘don’t try so darn hard because a lot of it is beyond your control’, ‘give people time and space and that includes you’, ‘talk about the good stuff for there are many out there talking to them about the bad stuff’, ‘always and never are like hot chili peppers so use them sparingly’, ‘make time for tea and cookies’, and much more. All this agglomerated ‘wisdom’ from hosting the chat and associating with all of you – every single one of you!

And so, it continues. The need today to have conversations that ‘transform the spirit’ is no less, perhaps much greater, than it was in July 2011. I know in my heart that our conversations have just begun. For if the conversations that I have with myself after the #SpiritChat hour every week are any indication, there is an infinity of creative freedom that remains to be expressed. And who better to transform the ‘spirit of conversations’ in our world at large than some of the most kind, loving and generous-of-heart people that I have had the privilege to connect with?

Namaste, my friends. Stay tuned. For the best of our creativity is yet to come…

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. ICYMI The first #SpiritChat blog post (July 29th 2011) – On Slowing Down. And do join us, Sunday July 31st 2016 at 9amET on twitter – bring a sample of your creative energy to share with the community. Cake and cookies are always welcoome too. Thank you!

On Friendship and Freedom

Tags

freedom, friendship, spirituality

Friendship is a many splendored flower that blooms when hearts connect. Regardless of their origin, their depth or their breadth, friendships have roots in connection. Wherever there is more than one gathered, the potential for friendship exists. Two may create interdependence, codependence or independence, depending on the health of the friendship and the interactions.

From a spiritual perspective, the Indian sage Patanjali (said to be the organizer of Yoga principles), refers to friendship in the precept of maitri. In one of his oft-quoted aphorisms, maitri inculcates the ’attitude of friendliness to increase the level of happiness in our world’. In particular, we can raise our awareness to be friendly towards those who are friendly towards us – reciprocity with a friendly attitude waters the seeds of friendship. The more we develop this attitude within us, the more our heart consciousness grows.

As I look to some of my own personal friendships over the years, some key characteristics seem to emerge among the ones that have sustained the passage of time and space. Mutual respect and an unwritten agreement to ‘live and let live’ is one key. Commonality of values, ethics and principles – even though their implementation may be different – is another key. The ability to speak our heart and mind to each other, particularly when we disagree, is another key. The celebration of each others’ successes, and the sharing of lessons learned from our ‘failures’, is yet another. What are some ‘key’ characterestics of your enduring friendships?

In all of the keys listed above, one common theme seems to be that my friends and I let each other ‘just be’. I am free to be myself among them, whether they be in the physical world or the virtual. A corollary is that the ones whom I do not feel free with, fall off the friendship realm. It does not mean that I abandon my attitude of friendliness towards them (unless they are openly hostile towards me and mean me harm) – it is just that the depth and breadth of the actual friendship changes over time and space. Have you ever had a really ‘good’ friendship unravel quickly? How did that happen and what did you learn from the experience?

As we enter the final week of July, I reflect on some of the friendships that have formed within the #SpiritChat community online. Some of these have ‘graduated’ to wonderful offline friends who value, support and communicate with each other on a regular basis. It should come as no surprise that folks who share their hearts in an open forum on topics of interest to them would form friendships that enhance each others’ freedom. As we approach the end of our fifth year online, I propose that the week between July 24th and July 31st be celebrated as ‘friendship week’ – both online and offline.

Join me. Let us reach out and grow our attitude of friendliness and raise the vibration of happiness in the world.

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Join me as I host #SpiritChat on July 24th 2016 at 9amET/1pmUTC on twitter – ‘Friendship and Freedom’. Next week, July 31st – Celebration! Thank you for all your support – whether you have just joined our community, or you have been us for months and maybe, years.

Friendship – Passionflowers (photo by Marcia Nelson Pedde ~ @tomarciamae – My friendship with Marcia and her husband, Mike goes back a long way on twitter. Check out their beautiful blog at M&M Musings 🙂 )

On Guidance and Guides

Tags

freedom, guide, guru, spirituality

Most of us will readily accept and acknowledge that we often get ‘stuck’ at some waypoint in our lives. The guidance of a mentor or guide in these instances has the potential to greatly reduce the life energy that we may expend in getting ‘unstuck’ from our situation. The quality of the guidance that we receive in these moments can even mean the difference between (spiritual) ‘life’ and ‘death’.

My first year working at NASA, I was fortunate enough to find a guide who was willing to train and mentor me. These weren’t just engineering lessons, mind you. They were career and life lessons, inside and outside of the work environment. Over the years, the lessons that I learnt from him served me well, and encouraged me to be open to training and mentoring those who were willing to ask and listen. Now that I look back, I am glad that I did not listen to the ‘work whispers’ about him being a ‘tough guy who expects a lot from his students’ and so on. I am glad that I chose to evaluate whether he was the right guide for me from my own experience with him. After my graduate school thesis advisor, he was the second person who I trusted with my professional life and career guidance.

So, what was it that made my relationship with these guides in my life stand out from acquaintances and friends? They were willing to help when asked, without any hesitation or even a hint of a negative attitude. They showed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, by their actions, that they had my best interest at heart. They did not ask me to serve them – they were always serving me. They wanted me to accomplish bigger and better things than they had accomplished. They were willing to share some of their life stories, about moments when they themselves were ‘stuck’, and how their guides helped them to get past those roadblocks. They opened their hearts and homes, their families and friends to me, and we became family.

This is not to say that a good guide, in order to provide great guidance to you, needs to meet ALL of the above criteria – although, it does not hurt if you develop that special relationship with them. One thing is for sure. In order for us to accept guidance that we will actually act upon, the guide has to convey that they have our best interest at heart. Their highest, an perhps only ‘agenda’, is for us to succeed and not remain ‘stuck’. They do not want to necessarily hold our hand all the time, although they are willing to do even that if that is what it will take for us to develop trust in their guidance.

The great guides have walked the path, are present when called upon, point the way when asked, give us the tools to remove that which blocks our progress, and serve us with a loving heart so deep that it takes our breath away…

Some of us may question whether we even need an ‘external’ guide in our lives. This happens because some of us may have been led astray or been caused egregious harm by a guide that met seemed qualified to provide good guidance. Our heart and spirit refuses to ‘trust’ the external, and so we retreat to the internal guide. Our own ‘inner compass’. Yes, there are some among us who have that inner strength and reservoir of spiritual energy to be able to get ‘unstuck’ by themselves, to carry their own map as they climb the mountain. And I say, more spiritual power to them. For me, I am the Edmund Hillary who would not dream of climbing the mountain for the first time without my trusted Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay. I submit my welfare and well-being into the sherpa’s hands.

How about you? Are you ‘going it alone’, relying purely on ‘inner guidance’? Or do you have an ‘external’ guide – or maybe even a team of them – who walk the path with you? How did you find your guide(s)? What criteria did you use to determine that they were the best guide(s) for you? Have you ever been disappointed in a guide that you chose and then switched to different one? How did that change your life and what did you learn in the process?

In this month of July 2016, we have been talking about freedom in our weekly #SpiritChat conversations on twitter. One could ask – how does our reliance on a guide impact our ‘spirit of freedom’? Join us Sunday morning, and share some of your guidance with us.

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. For more about the student/teacher/Guide/Guru ‘principle’ in Indian culture, do see this Wikipedia article about the Guru Purnima Festival, which falls on July 18th/19th this year… Also see, Celebrating the Guru (Guide) in Vedic Tradition. Namaste.