Quest for life

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 importantly s

  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 expl

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 term

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’, m

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. I r

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