The Spirit of Loyalty

Tags

heart matters, loyalty, poetry, service, spirituality

“I am loyal to the throne. Who are you loyal to?”

It is interesting that we can watch a two-plus hour movie (during a polar vortex shut-in) filled with action, and the one fragment that adheres to us, days later. In the movie “Black Panther”, the question above was asked by Okoye (the General) of Nakia (the future Queen), in the moments after there is upheaval in the country of Wakanda.

I thought about the question that evening, and it kept returning to my brain box for a few days. I am still thinking about it. Let us begin at the beginning. What is loyalty? One definition of loyalty is a strong feeling of support of allegiance. The other synonyms are faithfulness, obedience, adherence, devotion and the like. It would seem that loyalty would be a good quality or virtue to develop in our character, yes?

Before we answer the original question (who are we loyal to?), maybe we can reflect on some related questions. Where does our sense of loyalty come from? What qualities in others incite, grow and sustain loyalty within us? What makes our loyalties wax and wane over time? Have you experienced real-world examples of long-term, unwavering, even permanent loyalty in your life? If so, how did such examples of loyalty influence you, your life?

Now that we have put the questions out upfront, we can reflect on them and probe for the answers. If we choose not to probe, we can cast the questions out like seeds, and wait for the answers to bloom in their own time. Either way, if we remain loyal to the process of asking, and then provide space and time for the answers to be received by us, the process has a chance of working. In this increasingly hurried world, we can perhaps reflect on the question – how loyal are we to the process of receiving (answers)?

But I digress a bit. As I asked myself some of the questions about loyalty, one common answer that seemed to emerge was that a lot of our loyalties, allegiances, adherences, even devotions – are transitional and transient in nature. Time and space and relationships change as we transit through life, and so do our loyalties. Even the long-term loyalties of satellites (moons) to planets are constantly changing (albeit ever so slightly) over time. (Aside: what examples of ‘deep loyalty’ may Mother Nature reveal to us?) So what chance do we mere mortals, of finite life-spans, have of developing and honoring permanent loyalty?

Maybe we need to look beyond, if we are to experience a permanent sense of loyalty. Our physical frames of existence and our actions within them, bound as they are by time, space and causation, are bound by impermanence. Hence, the resulting loyalties are (mostly) impermanent. What if we were to go beyond the physical, and into the spiritual domain? If we were to become and be meditative, examine our heartspace and feel our heartsense, what deeper loyalties may be revealed in That light?

Before she asked that question of Nakia, Okoye actually said… “I am loyal to the throne, no matter who sits on it“. If we ask the same question of our heart, what will be the reply? Who sits on our heart’s throne? Who are we really loyal to? Does that relationship have a nature of permanence?

Kumud @AjmaniK

On behalf of the #SpiritChat community, I invite you to join us for a conversation on this topic – Sunday, February 3 at 9amET / 730pm India. We would love to know – who sits on your heart’s throne? Namaste.

Postscript: Fragments of a poem, that keep coming, as answers to the question… if you can think of additions, please share in the comments… Namaste…

There may be be love without cause,
Just because…
But what is the nature, of cause without love?

There may be clouds without rain,
With loud refrain…
But what is the worth, of rain without clouds?

There may be heat without light,
Warming the night…
But have we felt the love, of light without heat?

There can be sight without vision,
A heart’s decision…
But can there be vision without sight?

– A Traveler’s Loyalty

The Spirit of Loyalty

Tags

loyalty, spiritchat, spirituality

I was never much of a “dog person”. Or a pet person, for that matter. Perhaps a big reason for that was that growing up in India, there really was not much room, or time, to have a pet – no less a dog – in the home. So, when my fast-growing-old daughter started asking me – “Dad, can I please have a puppy” – my initial reaction was a resounding “No”. Of course, that did not faze her.

She kept asking. My answer changed from “No” to “when you get older and are able to take care of a puppy”. She kept asking. She kept researching the “perfect puppy” using “Dr Google” with Mom and a menagerie of iPad apps. My answer changed to “OK. You and Mom decide the breed and let me know”. Then, just like that, it happened.

Just before the fourth of July this year, they identified the breed, we started looking for local breeders – and within a week, we had a ten-week old “Havanese” in our home. For those of you who are pet owners, you know what happens next. You try to train the new pet, but, most of the time, the new pet trains you. You try to teach eating about eating, sleeping, walking and more – and they teach you a lot more in return. And what is one of the biggest lesson that this now seven month old has taught me?

That lesson is about loyalty. Yes, I had heard many many times that “a dog is a man’s best friend”. But it is one thing to hear it and quite another to experience it. It does not matter how long any of us are gone from the home – our return is greeted with such enthusiasm and joy that I simply shake my head. He weighs less than ten pounds, but the ferocity with which he “protects” my daughter is a sight to behold. I could go on and on, but you are probably wondering – what does this story have to do with spirituality and #SpiritChat?

Good question. As I have been watching the loyalty of our puppy develop, I happened to also watch the movie called “Hatchiko” this week. And my whole concept of “loyalty” reached a totally different level. It made me realize that while we may think and intellectualize about values like love, devotion, gratitude and loyalty, our pets simply practice them.

The whole set of experiences has made me ask – what am I loyal to? And where does my loyalty to my values come from? Is my loyalty a result of service that others have provided to me? What life situations make loyalty a burden to me? Is my spiritual evolution hampered by my loyalty to my upbringing?

I am not sure about the answers. But one thing I am sure about – this puppy licking my fingers as I type this out, simply does not care. He is simply loyal.

Kumud

Want to share your thoughts on loyalty? Join us Sunday, Dec 1st at 9am ET for our weekly twitter chat in #SpiritChat – or leave us a comment below. Thank you!

A Spirit of Devotion

Tags

devotion, enthusiasm, loyalty, spirit, spiritchat

The month of August has been full of rich discussion and conversation in the #SpiritChat community. We have talked about trust, about the role of a student, about inner contentment and about reinvention (second acts). On the surface, all of these topics seem unrelated to each other. However, the common thread that runs through all of them is the engagement of the people who share in the live conversations every week. Some of these people have, over time, taught me a lot about loyalty to a cause, a community, and to each other. One may dare to even call it devotion as in the context of faithfulness, constancy, commitment, or dedication. According to the dictionary,

Devotion is love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause

In the spiritual context, devotion may refer to thoughts and/or actions of piety, religiousness or sanctity. In my native language (hindi), devotion is perhaps best described as shraddha or bhakti – a state of the heart where one is in surrender to a higher state of consciousness. I am sure that there are many interpretations of devotion, particularly in the spiritual context. Some of these interpretations may even be considered negative – for extreme devotion can open the door to, say, fanaticism.

So, what is the purpose of devotion? We have all heard that “loyalty has its rewards” and so on. In the spiritual context, what rewards does devotion bring to us? And how do we decide what cause, community or person to be devoted to? Or are the object(s) of our devotion decided for us, as we live our daily lives, walk our spiritual walk? How do we know when our devotion is becoming extreme? How do we balance the ideas of being “free spirited” and being “in devotion”?

As I have been doing (mostly) every week for a while, I invite you to join me and the #SpiritChat community as we examine some of these questions in our weekly chat on twitter – Sunday, September 1st at 9am ET. I appreciate your enthusiasm, your loyalty and your love. Namaste!

Kumud

Update: Here are the questions asked during the chat. Feel free to answer in the comments… The full transcript and statistics are available at http://bit.ly/sc-tr-0901 . Enjoy!

Q1. What does “A Spirit of Devotion” mean to you? #SpiritChat

Q2. Where does a spirit of Devotion originate? How does it develop? #SpiritChat

Q3. What would our journeys look like if we lacked a spirit of #devotion? #SpiritChat

Q4. Can too much devotion distract us, hinder spiritual growth? Why or why not? #SpiritChat

Q5. How does the devotion of others towards us affect our spiritual journey? #SpiritChat

Q6. “Perpetual devotion to One come at the cost of perpetual neglect of others”. Agree or disagree? #SpiritChat

Q7. What are some blessings of being devoted to a person, project or purpose? #SpiritChat

Q8. Who or what invokes a spirit of devotion in you? Why? #SpiritChat

Final Q9. What action steps will we take, to be empowered by devotion? #SpiritChat