Quest for life

Rule 26: The universe is one being. Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible web of stories. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all in a silent conversation. Do no harm. Practice compassion. And do not gossip behind anyone’s back – not even a seemingly innocent remark! The words that come out of our mouths do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space and they will come back to us in due time. One man’s pain will hurt us all. One man’s joy will make everyone smile. Hindus have a fortnight dedicated to fulfilling the desires of their ancestors. It is called ‘Pitru Paksh’ (Fortnight of Ancestors). It is believed that whatever is donated in this fortnight straight away fulfils the unsatisfied desires of their ancestors. It has always been a confusing thing for me because we are always told about the life and death cycle of the soul; we are also told about the ‘moksha’ (Nirvana). So, why do we have this fortnight to fulfil the desire of the dead pe...

Rule 24: Hell is in the here and now. So is heaven. Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven, as they are both present inside this very moment. Every time we fall in love, we ascend to heaven. Every time we hate, envy or fight someone we tumble straight into the fires of hell Love, love changes everything  Hands and faces,  earth and sky, Love, love changes everything,  How you live and how you die    Michael Ball’s song ‘Love changes everything’ ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnLE0N87T6k ) seems to sum up what Shamz wants to say. Love changes everything around us and nothing seems to be same. We all know how it feels when one falls in love. All our senses are heightened. Days look fresh, our faces look brighter, and the whole world seems full of wonderful people and things. Heaven actually seems like a place on earth. However, is it the same when it comes to loving your neighbour, colleague or the person sitting next to you in some public place. I d...

Rule 23: The human being has a unique place among God’s creation. “I breathed My Spirit into him,” God says. Each and every one of us without exception is designed to be God’s delegate on earth. Ask yourself, just how often do you behave like a delegate, if you ever do so? Remember, it falls upon each of us to discover the divine spirit inside and live by it. What we are witnessing right now in India is not only unprecedented but also fury of ‘God’. Everyone has a tragedy to share, everyone is hurting because they have lost their loved ones to Corona-19. More than that they have a horror story to share about how Corona hits, about the mismanagement at every place; be it ambulance service, hospitals or cremation grounds. People are seeing the lowest and most dreadful face of humanity.  At the same time, we are hearing the positive stories coming from all corners about how people are coming together and helping others. The real-life heroes who are acting selflessly and more important...

  Rule 17 : “The whole universe is contained within a single human being: you. Everything that you see around you, including the things you might not be fond of and even the people you despise or abhor, is present within you in varying degrees. Therefore, do not look for Sheitan outside yourself either. The devil is not an extraordinary force that attacks from without. It is an ordinary voice within. If you get to know yourself fully, facing with honesty and hardness both your dark and bright sides, you will arrive at a supreme form of consciousness. When a person knows himself or herself, he or she knows God.” I have been avoiding to write an explanation about this rule for a long time. Although it seems simple enough, I did not know how to approach this subject. Is it about how every relationship is a mirror of our own personality? Or, does it have a spiritual tangent and shows it a perspective of quantum physics which explains how microcosm is macrocosm? Every time when I start ...

Rule 39: While the parts change, the whole always remains the same. For every thief who departs this world, a new one is born. And every descent person who passes away is replaced by a new one. In this way not only does nothing remains the same but also nothing ever really changes. For every Sufi who dies, another is born somewhere. Having lived with people from diverse cultures, I have realised that people and their emotions are essentially the same. Only the forms to express them change as indeed the cultures are diverse. This has always given me a base to interact with people without any inhibitions and prejudices. I feel that if I tap into the basic human emotions, I would find same kind of fountain of feelings everywhere, be it Iceland or Timbuktu. People have same needs, desires, fears, hopes and they act similarly to fulfil their desires.  So, when Shamz writes about the whole remaining the same while parts change, I think of it not only in spiritual terms but also in ...

Rule 1: How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame welled inside us. If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we. As I am growing older, I realise the true meaning of this kind of mirror aspect of Shamz. I am not sure if I saw God as the source of fear and blame but I definitely saw the world as something to fear and blame. I always had this sense of injustice. I felt that the world is not fair to me, that I am being short-changed despite my best efforts. I thought that I was not being treated fairly despite me being honest and fair and despite my hard work. This sense of injustice gave rise to fear and insecurity and the more I felt that way, the more I felt that the whole world is my enemy. At some point, things started transforming within me and the inherent compassion (which I have inherited from my father) started showing me another picture of the world. A w...

Rule 14: God is busy with the completion of your work, both outwardly and inwardly. He is fully occupied with you. Every human being is a work in progress that is slowly but inexorably moving toward perfection. We are each an unfinished work of art both waiting and striving to be completed. God deals with each of us separately because humanity is fine art of skilled penmanship where every single dot is equally important for the entire picture. Why does Shamz say that we are ‘work in progress’ and what is the ultimate completion? In spirituality, it is said that souls come to earth to learn and slowly strive towards becoming ‘pure love’ or ‘infinite’ or ‘to be in a state of eternal bliss’ or maybe ultimately attain Nirvana. This process may take many phases, and many lives. It also can be hindered and accelerated by understanding that we are indeed the ‘work of art’ and that we have a purpose in this life.  Even if we leave aside the spiritual part of being a ‘work in progress...

Rule 9 : East, west, south, or north makes little difference. No matter what your destination, just be sure to make every journey a journey within. If you travel within, you’ll travel the whole wide world and beyond. My journey of self-development started 10 years back but for many years it remained quite superficial. The goals were to be a better person but underneath there were always material goals like becoming better in communication skills to get better at sales or dealing better with stress to be able to cope with office issues etc. Increasing focus meant paying better attention to work or a movie or a song: in short anything which engaged my senses. There was always something to be gained in terms of mental, physical or financial health by engaging in the tools of self-development.  The actual shift in my perspective started when I started doing meditation. Practicing meditation was kind of a natural progression once I started formally learning about yoga more deeply....

Rule 29: Destiny doesn’t mean that your life has been strictly predetermined. Therefore, to leave everything to the fate and to not actively contribute to the music of the universe is a sign of sheer ignorance. The music of the universe is all pervading and it is composed on 40 different levels. Your destiny is the level where you play your tune. You might not change your instrument but how well to play is entirely in your hands. “Everyone believes the world's greatest lie..." says the mysterious old man. "What is the world's greatest lie?" the little boy asks. The old man replies, "It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate, by our destiny. That's the world's greatest lie.” This is an excerpt from one of my favourite book,  The Alchemist . I like the way Paulo Cuelho has articulated this concept of destiny or fate. He says that ‘at certain point in...

“I am going for Vipassana!”, I told one of my friends. “Really? Will you be able to stay without speaking for ten days?”. Anyone who knows me, knows what kind of a chatterbox I am. Speaking and being open about my feelings to anyone and everyone comes easy to me. Although I know fully well that it makes me vulnerable but then trusting people also is one of my qualities. Anyway, my decision to go to Vipassana, a ten days meditation course came as a surprise to a few of my friends. This was not so much because they couldn’t think of me doing meditation but more because they couldn’t think of me being silent for a day, let alone for ten days!  Despite my dedication, I was afraid that I would chicken out at the last moment. I had done it five years back; I used my broken leg as an excuse. This time, however, I was determined to go and requested the center to prepone my course so that I did not have time for second thoughts. Luckily, they contacted me back and said that I coul...

Rule 22: Life is a temporary loan and this world is nothing but a sketchy imitation of Reality. Only children would mistake a toy for the real thing. And yet human beings either become infatuated with the toy or disrespectfully break it and throw it aside. In this life stay away from all kinds of extremities, for they will destroy your inner balance. Sufis do not go to extremes. A Sufi always remains mild and moderate. In July, I went for a month long yoga course. There was one prayer which we had to recite almost every two hours and it goes something like this: “I commit to maintain a balanced state of mind all the time, for it is in this state that my highest self-development is possible.” Before I went to the Yoga School, I did know that balance in life is necessary and there should be a work-life balance etc. I never gave much importance to a “Balanced state of mind” however. In fact five years back, my coach had told me that one should have a balanced state and not a happy sta...

Rule 15: It’s easy to love a perfect God, unblemished and infallible that He is. What is far more difficult is to love fellow human being with all their imperfections and defects. Remember, one can only know what one is capable of loving. There is no wisdom without love. Unless we learn to love God’s creation, we can neither truly love nor truly know God. When I read this rule I remembered John Legend’s song ‘All of Me’ where he sings , “Cause all of me Loves all of you Love your curves and all your edges All your perfect imperfections” Is it so easy to love imperfections of a fellow human being where all of you loves all of the other one? How many of us are capable of this kind of love for our near and dear ones and humanity at large? What is perfect anyway? Is God perfect? Or we make the image of God in such a way that it seems perfect to us?  It is true that it’s easy to love something or someone that is perfect or in other words conforms to our expectations an...