The other day, I was at the local bank, waiting to get my job done. But it took the bankers 2 long hours to sort out the problem in my account. During that “waiting” time, I started feeling impatient, hungry, tired, and frustrated. It was in that moment, I decided to CHOOSE to write about “what I was feeling thankful for”. That choice not only helped me shift my focus, but also helped me enjoy the “waiting” time. Later, I realized that, I had discovered that one can celebrate “thanksgiving” anywhere, anytime (instead of waiting an entire year for the 3rd Thursday in November).
Here is what I scribbled behind my rough-bank-notes-sheet.
A to Z of Thanksgiving
In this moment I feel thankful for,
Appreciating my ability to breathe, walk, sit, and communicate,
Believing in the power of my thoughts,
Contacting long-lost-friends,
Dear people in my life,
Enjoying nature,
Following my heart,
Giving the love (instead of expecting it),
Healing source within me,
Inquiring within,
Joyful moments,
Keeping focus on CHOOSING what makes me feel better,
Liking the “new way” I am dealing with the-not-so-like-able circumstances,
Meditating regularly,
Not complaining,
Offering gratitude prayers every morning,
Process of Self discovery,
Quite and still calmness deep inside,
Rejoicing in supreme security,
Smiling from my heart,
Trying to change my perspective about past, present, and future,
Understanding that ups and downs are default in life,
Victory over my energy-draining-thoughts,
Winning “such” little victories,
Xing (crossing) out “wants”,
Yielding while walking/driving, and
Zooming forward (with stronger faith).
To be honest, most of these experiences happen only “sometimes”. But since these experiences started from “hardly any time”, I guess I am thinking-in-the-right-direction.
I pray that all human beings start feeling more-and-more-thankful, under all circumstances.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Gunjan
Surrender, Listen and Give Contact at Contact@FollowThyHeart.Org
About Me
Monday, November 19, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Experiencing the Blessings of Constant Remembrance
Soul of this writing
This writing is about an eventful day of my life. That special day started off with an emotionally nourishing lunch with a close friend. As the hours passed, it turned into a stressful afternoon. Once the mishap happened, I allowed myself to be engulfed by the stress and tension trying desperately to rectify the problem. As a last resort, I remembered the divinity within and everything changed magically. I experienced a transformation instantly as my body relaxed, my heart smiled and the problem got solved.
Introduction
That was one eventful day of my life. I had had lunch at a fine restaurant with a very close childhood friend after 10 months. During our heart-to-heart conversation, we shared some of our old, new, good and bad experiences. After that emotionally nourishing lunch, I had gone for my physical therapist appointment at the hospital. There I was informed that I was healing great from my back injury.
Remembering all those pleasant events, I reached my daughter’s school about 20 minutes early. Since, I had some extra time I thought about walking down to a nearby store to buy some medicine.
Following my plan, I turned off the car and started searching for my cell phone inside my car. But to my own surprise, I could not find it anywhere.
Just then, another parent came up to say hello. I requested her to call up my cell phone using her own. She called up twice, but we could not hear any “ring” inside the car.
I remembered distinctly, that I had “it” with me, while I was having my lunch with my friend. After that, when did I use or see it, I simply could not think clearly.
Uneasiness begins with the search
I started feeling uneasy with the thought that perhaps, I had dropped my light-weight-sleek-brand-new-cell-phone either in the restaurant or in the hospital.
I decided to drive back to the hospital, which was nearer than the restaurant. During my 5 minute drive towards the hospital, I added fuel to the fire of my worrying-thoughts from each micro-meter-of-my-mind. I noticed that as I became more and more worried, my body resonated (in step with my thoughts) by tensing up more and more.
Once I reached the under-ground-electricity-lit-yet-dark-multi-level-parking-structure of that huge hospital, I tried to park exactly where my car was parked 20 minutes ago. But unfortunately, that parking space had been taken up by a “big car”. Therefore, I parked as near as I could and stepped out of the car.
Finally, in that ocean of cars, I spotted an elderly lady slowly walking towards her car. I requested her to call up my cell phone. I thought that could perhaps solve all-my-problems if I had (by any chance) dropped my dear-cell-phone near my old parking place. She helped me not only by calling up but also by bending lower to look under that “big car”. I felt inspired by her sincere efforts to help a complete stranger despite her grandma-like-age, frail-body and one-knee-surgery. I was touched by her kindness, as she bent down on the other knee (which was not hurting) on hearing that I could not bend down (to look under the car) because of my back injury. Even though her actions and intentions did leave a great impression on my heart, but they could not locate what I was searching for. I thanked her sincerely and scurried away.
I marched all the way to the hospital building main entrance, took the elevator going up and then walked out towards the physical therapy building. During those 7 minutes of rushed-walking I allowed my perturbing thoughts to blossom along with its fruits of anger and fear.
Once inside the building I looked around the waiting area, along the passage and inside the restroom. I went with my searching eyes to each and every place where I had been an hour ago. After that, I requested the receptionist to call up my-lost-cell-phone and to allow me to search for “it” inside the room (where I met the physical therapist). All those pleading requests, 3 desperate phone calls and my visibly worried face did not melt the heart of my cell phone to show up. With a heavy heart, I left a note detailing the description of my beautiful-cell-phone, along with my home phone number (to reach me) just in case they would discover “it” once I was gone.
Disgust increases as search continues
With this unsuccessful mission, I felt all the more disgusted. Following the same tedious path back, I reached the parking lot and with great hopes tried to peek under that “big car” (one last time) from very far away. But to no avail.
Driving back towards my daughter’s school, my logical mind started thinking about searching at the restaurant. It was my next and the last place for searching.
When I picked up my 9 year old daughter, she declared that she was very tired and hungry. Once I shared my pathetic story with her, she reluctantly agreed to be-a-big-girl and to help me find “it”.
We finally reached the sky-like-vast-parking-lot of the restaurant. My daughter hastily moved the front seats (of the car) back and forth with all her strength to get a glimpse of my “lost treasure”. But her hard work did not pay.
Standing there in that almost empty parking lot, I pleaded the 4th stranger (in half an hour duration) with the same request. She obliged, but nothing rang anywhere in that quiet-parking-lot.
Anxiety mounts up as search nears end
Then my daughter and I took fast steps towards our last ray of hope, the restaurant.
The hostess at the front desk was busy over the phone. The waiting time of 2 minutes seemed like hours. Once I explained her why I was there, she casually looked inside her over-crowded-lost-and-found drawer, while I anxiously breathed some shallow breaths. After a few minutes, I heard her saying that she could not dig out the “jewel” I was searching for.
The manager of the restaurant came around to help. He allowed me to search around the table, on which I had had lunch 2 hours ago. I found it 200% clean, minus my cell phone.
The waiter called up my cell phone on his own. Still, the “melodious ring” did not ring.
I left another note (like the one I left at the hospital) with the restaurant and expressed my depressed-heart-thank-you-with-a-forced-smile before leaving.
Reflection leads to calmness
Once back inside the car on my driver’s seat, I realized how much I had allowed myself to be anxious in that last hour. As a result, I was feeling physically tired and mentally exhausted.
During that reflection-time, it surfaced that, by worrying-worrying-and-more-worrying, I had CHOSEN to deprive myself of all those happy-thoughts gathered from the early afternoon. In that moment, it struck me, that I should have CHECKED those draining-and-exponentially-increasing-in-number-thoughts FROM GROWING.
I knew I had to do something different in that low-time. Therefore, I CHOSE to do what always works for me, i.e., Remembering Him (the divinity within).
Before turning on the car, I looked in my rear view mirror at my famished-dozed-off- daughter. I felt bad for her delayed snack and decided to let her take a nap. I started driving towards my 4 year old son’s pre-school. Her closed eyes provided me the-much-needed-opportunity to remember Him without any distractions.
What happened after that was something MAGICAL.
Even before, I could hit the freeway I felt my-body-relaxing-with-a-sense-of-ease, as I continued to remember Him with all my devotion. Before the next exit, all those-worrisome-thoughts had VANISHED. By the time, I took my exit, I even forgot about the most recent “mishap” in my life. I experienced a discrete change in my body reading from insecurity-to-security within those magical 15 minutes drive.
Calmness leads to healing
I picked up my son from his preschool and my daughter started narrating the RECENT MISHAP in her own-long-animated-story. To me, their conversation in the back seat was like the lawn-mower noise during my (occasional) day time mediation. I continued to use the-medication-which-was-healing-me, just the way I continue to meditate without getting distracted.
I realized that during the last leg (of driving), my body felt perfectly relaxed. The relaxation, I sometimes experience, after waking up with a joyful thought after a long, restful sleep.
Back into the real world
With the loud sound of the opening of the garage, I came back to the real world. The first question, I registered was from my son. He was inquiring about my plans regarding could-not-be-found-cell-phone.
I smiled at him and came out of the car. I picked up my home phone (from the garage steps) and as a last resort called up my friend (the one I had lunch with). I was wishing that my wishful-thinking would come true, that “it” went away with her. Unfortunately, the call went into her voice mail. I left her a detailed message, requesting her to call me up ASAP.
Following my heart in "search"
Since my home phone had been off the base for the whole day. I could see that it was in dire need of re-charging, just as much as my kids needed an afternoon snack.
Ignoring all those needing-charging-signals, I followed my heartfelt wish to call up my cell phone, one last time. On my dying home phone, I dialed the-most-often-called-phone-number-during-the-day, one more time.
But this time a MIRACLE happened.
The familiar-sweet-ring-tone of my cell phone started ringing from somewhere inside my car. That ring never sounded as AWESOME as it did in that moment.
We all jumped-me, my 9 year old daughter and my 4 year old son. My kids started clapping (while jumping) with excitement. Each one of us was screaming, “Found it. Found it. It is in the car. Found it.”
Just in that dramatic moment, my brave-home-phone crashed and it went absolutely blank. I kissed my dedicated phone, for taking away all my worries before SNOZZING OFF for the day.
Now, we knew that “it” was somewhere inside my-small-Honda-Fit. Even though, the surface area of my car was not large but in that moment it appeared, as if we were looking for a needle in a dorm full of hay stack.
Forgetting about their own hunger, my kids speedily brought out their lunch box, bags, tissue boxes, art and craft papers, jackets, just anything and everything from the trunk and the seats. But my-naughty-cell-phone seemed to be in great mood of playing hide-and-seek that afternoon. It continued to hide.
Then I sent out my 2 enthusiastic young soldiers, to request my neighbor to call up my cell phone. While they marched away on their bikes, I looked curiously at my mysterious car. I was wondering as to where could a silver-colored-cell-phone hide in the contrasting black-mats-and-seats of my car.
In that quiet moment, I followed my intuition and allowed my hands to pull out the only THING remaining inside the car. It was an empty white colored plastic “Wal-Mart” packet. That empty packet (with its open side facing the front seats) was lying on top of the mat directly under my daughter’s seat.
As I pulled out the packet, it did not feel as light as it seemed. When I pushed my fingers into it, they touched something cold.
“It” was THE long-lost-treasure.
My sleek-cell-phone was intact, one piece and was still-working perfectly.
Just then I saw my brave soldiers, my neighbor with her 2 year old son and her home phone walk towards me. They knew I had discovered “it” from the jubilant look on my face.
Re-charging all batteries
Once inside home, I served my kids their snack.
After that, I climbed upstairs towards the study to place my dear, dedicated home phone on its mother's lap (base of the phone) for re-charging.
Just in that instant, my home phone rang. I took the call from the speaker of the base. The phone call was from my friend. She was returning my voice message.
Even before, she could complete her sentence, I screamed out happily, “I found it.”
Then immediately asked her, “Guess what helped?”
She said, “Knowing you, it has to be God.”
And I replied, “Yes. You do know me pretty well.”
Understanding THE Experience
This experience happened about a month ago, but today when I look back, a lot of questions still remain unanswered. The most intriguing of all being, the one, as to why I could not hear my cell phone ring, when all those frantic phone calls were being made by those friendly-stranger-angles? This is striking, because the phone did "show" a long list of those missed-phone-calls.
But this and all the other questions need not be answered. To me, the only “lesson” worth learning out of this seemingly-long-ordeal was something I experienced first hand. It was the “drastic change” in my mind and body READING, the moment I started remembering Him.
I know that this “drastic change” cannot be described in words, it can ONLY BE FELT. But, in the following analogy, I am making a devoted effort to describe that divine-and-profound-change I experienced.
On a fine-shiny-clear-sunny-day, I was out for a casual walk in vast-open-field. Just when I was enjoying the fresh breeze and the warmth of the gentle Sun, suddenly, a heavy rain storm appeared from nowhere. When that happened, I felt frustrated and disgusted, because I was far away from my car and there were no trees, roofs or umbrellas to go under. The pouring heavy rain made me feel cold and wet. The slashing wild storm resisted me from walking towards my far-away-car. As a result, I started feeling miserable and exhausted.
But then something amazing happened in the moment I started remembering Him, calling Him devotedly. I felt as if an invisible umbrella appeared over my head instantly. That invisible-huge-umbrella kept on moving along with me. It protected me from the rain and the storm, while the rain storm continued. The pouring heavy rain drops could no longer touch me. The wild wind gently dried off my clothes. Plus, the fragrance of the freshly-wet-mud made my walk towards the car a joyous and a memorable experience.
To me, this analogy comes as close as it can to what I experienced, first hand, before and after remembering Him.
Assimilating the concept of Constant Remembrance
After this experience of losing and finding my cell phone, I feel that, I have ASSIMILATED the meaning of much-heard-and-read-about Constant Remembrance.
To me, constant remembrance is a different version of meditation. In this version, I do not need to make any commitment of time or place. I could be open-eyed with my body engaged in cooking, driving or any other mundane activity. All I need to do is to CONSTANTLY REMEMBER HIM WITH DEVOTION.
The result is His-security-blanket.
To me, this “special blanket” felt like my mother’s special-soothing-hug during some of my crying-trying-times.
While driving back from the restaurant to my home (via pre-school) on that eventful day, I feel, I was in THIS state of Constant Remembrance. The blessings appeared as a blanket of absolute security, which shielded me from all my worries, fears and frustration. So much that I started feeling all-relaxed-and-smiling.
To me, that dramatic experience was a simple and clear experiment, which “happened” to show me that His blessings DO get showered. Since, I experienced first hand how my un-ease-due-to-worries SWITCHED to ease-followed-by-remembering-Him. Therefore, I NOW believe in it with complete faith.
I feel blessed to have realized, that my-most-valuable-security-blanket is ALWAYS accessible to me, without involving any time delays or costing me any money.
Sincere Prayers
I pray that the next time, whenever I am worried, I am able to immediately move into “His Remembrance” without dissipating any energy on “worrisome thoughts”.
Perhaps, even better, for its promising blessings of heart-felt-smile and gentle relaxation, I think it makes perfect sense that I should make a CONSCIOUS EFFORT to CONSTANTLY REMEMBER Him with all my devotion.
Acknowledgement
I thank the divinity residing within me for teaching me this profound lesson. I feel privileged to share this insightful-experience with all of you.
Devotedly,
Gunjan
This writing is about an eventful day of my life. That special day started off with an emotionally nourishing lunch with a close friend. As the hours passed, it turned into a stressful afternoon. Once the mishap happened, I allowed myself to be engulfed by the stress and tension trying desperately to rectify the problem. As a last resort, I remembered the divinity within and everything changed magically. I experienced a transformation instantly as my body relaxed, my heart smiled and the problem got solved.
Introduction
That was one eventful day of my life. I had had lunch at a fine restaurant with a very close childhood friend after 10 months. During our heart-to-heart conversation, we shared some of our old, new, good and bad experiences. After that emotionally nourishing lunch, I had gone for my physical therapist appointment at the hospital. There I was informed that I was healing great from my back injury.
Remembering all those pleasant events, I reached my daughter’s school about 20 minutes early. Since, I had some extra time I thought about walking down to a nearby store to buy some medicine.
Following my plan, I turned off the car and started searching for my cell phone inside my car. But to my own surprise, I could not find it anywhere.
Just then, another parent came up to say hello. I requested her to call up my cell phone using her own. She called up twice, but we could not hear any “ring” inside the car.
I remembered distinctly, that I had “it” with me, while I was having my lunch with my friend. After that, when did I use or see it, I simply could not think clearly.
Uneasiness begins with the search
I started feeling uneasy with the thought that perhaps, I had dropped my light-weight-sleek-brand-new-cell-phone either in the restaurant or in the hospital.
I decided to drive back to the hospital, which was nearer than the restaurant. During my 5 minute drive towards the hospital, I added fuel to the fire of my worrying-thoughts from each micro-meter-of-my-mind. I noticed that as I became more and more worried, my body resonated (in step with my thoughts) by tensing up more and more.
Once I reached the under-ground-electricity-lit-yet-dark-multi-level-parking-structure of that huge hospital, I tried to park exactly where my car was parked 20 minutes ago. But unfortunately, that parking space had been taken up by a “big car”. Therefore, I parked as near as I could and stepped out of the car.
Finally, in that ocean of cars, I spotted an elderly lady slowly walking towards her car. I requested her to call up my cell phone. I thought that could perhaps solve all-my-problems if I had (by any chance) dropped my dear-cell-phone near my old parking place. She helped me not only by calling up but also by bending lower to look under that “big car”. I felt inspired by her sincere efforts to help a complete stranger despite her grandma-like-age, frail-body and one-knee-surgery. I was touched by her kindness, as she bent down on the other knee (which was not hurting) on hearing that I could not bend down (to look under the car) because of my back injury. Even though her actions and intentions did leave a great impression on my heart, but they could not locate what I was searching for. I thanked her sincerely and scurried away.
I marched all the way to the hospital building main entrance, took the elevator going up and then walked out towards the physical therapy building. During those 7 minutes of rushed-walking I allowed my perturbing thoughts to blossom along with its fruits of anger and fear.
Once inside the building I looked around the waiting area, along the passage and inside the restroom. I went with my searching eyes to each and every place where I had been an hour ago. After that, I requested the receptionist to call up my-lost-cell-phone and to allow me to search for “it” inside the room (where I met the physical therapist). All those pleading requests, 3 desperate phone calls and my visibly worried face did not melt the heart of my cell phone to show up. With a heavy heart, I left a note detailing the description of my beautiful-cell-phone, along with my home phone number (to reach me) just in case they would discover “it” once I was gone.
Disgust increases as search continues
With this unsuccessful mission, I felt all the more disgusted. Following the same tedious path back, I reached the parking lot and with great hopes tried to peek under that “big car” (one last time) from very far away. But to no avail.
Driving back towards my daughter’s school, my logical mind started thinking about searching at the restaurant. It was my next and the last place for searching.
When I picked up my 9 year old daughter, she declared that she was very tired and hungry. Once I shared my pathetic story with her, she reluctantly agreed to be-a-big-girl and to help me find “it”.
We finally reached the sky-like-vast-parking-lot of the restaurant. My daughter hastily moved the front seats (of the car) back and forth with all her strength to get a glimpse of my “lost treasure”. But her hard work did not pay.
Standing there in that almost empty parking lot, I pleaded the 4th stranger (in half an hour duration) with the same request. She obliged, but nothing rang anywhere in that quiet-parking-lot.
Anxiety mounts up as search nears end
Then my daughter and I took fast steps towards our last ray of hope, the restaurant.
The hostess at the front desk was busy over the phone. The waiting time of 2 minutes seemed like hours. Once I explained her why I was there, she casually looked inside her over-crowded-lost-and-found drawer, while I anxiously breathed some shallow breaths. After a few minutes, I heard her saying that she could not dig out the “jewel” I was searching for.
The manager of the restaurant came around to help. He allowed me to search around the table, on which I had had lunch 2 hours ago. I found it 200% clean, minus my cell phone.
The waiter called up my cell phone on his own. Still, the “melodious ring” did not ring.
I left another note (like the one I left at the hospital) with the restaurant and expressed my depressed-heart-thank-you-with-a-forced-smile before leaving.
Reflection leads to calmness
Once back inside the car on my driver’s seat, I realized how much I had allowed myself to be anxious in that last hour. As a result, I was feeling physically tired and mentally exhausted.
During that reflection-time, it surfaced that, by worrying-worrying-and-more-worrying, I had CHOSEN to deprive myself of all those happy-thoughts gathered from the early afternoon. In that moment, it struck me, that I should have CHECKED those draining-and-exponentially-increasing-in-number-thoughts FROM GROWING.
I knew I had to do something different in that low-time. Therefore, I CHOSE to do what always works for me, i.e., Remembering Him (the divinity within).
Before turning on the car, I looked in my rear view mirror at my famished-dozed-off- daughter. I felt bad for her delayed snack and decided to let her take a nap. I started driving towards my 4 year old son’s pre-school. Her closed eyes provided me the-much-needed-opportunity to remember Him without any distractions.
What happened after that was something MAGICAL.
Even before, I could hit the freeway I felt my-body-relaxing-with-a-sense-of-ease, as I continued to remember Him with all my devotion. Before the next exit, all those-worrisome-thoughts had VANISHED. By the time, I took my exit, I even forgot about the most recent “mishap” in my life. I experienced a discrete change in my body reading from insecurity-to-security within those magical 15 minutes drive.
Calmness leads to healing
I picked up my son from his preschool and my daughter started narrating the RECENT MISHAP in her own-long-animated-story. To me, their conversation in the back seat was like the lawn-mower noise during my (occasional) day time mediation. I continued to use the-medication-which-was-healing-me, just the way I continue to meditate without getting distracted.
I realized that during the last leg (of driving), my body felt perfectly relaxed. The relaxation, I sometimes experience, after waking up with a joyful thought after a long, restful sleep.
Back into the real world
With the loud sound of the opening of the garage, I came back to the real world. The first question, I registered was from my son. He was inquiring about my plans regarding could-not-be-found-cell-phone.
I smiled at him and came out of the car. I picked up my home phone (from the garage steps) and as a last resort called up my friend (the one I had lunch with). I was wishing that my wishful-thinking would come true, that “it” went away with her. Unfortunately, the call went into her voice mail. I left her a detailed message, requesting her to call me up ASAP.
Following my heart in "search"
Since my home phone had been off the base for the whole day. I could see that it was in dire need of re-charging, just as much as my kids needed an afternoon snack.
Ignoring all those needing-charging-signals, I followed my heartfelt wish to call up my cell phone, one last time. On my dying home phone, I dialed the-most-often-called-phone-number-during-the-day, one more time.
But this time a MIRACLE happened.
The familiar-sweet-ring-tone of my cell phone started ringing from somewhere inside my car. That ring never sounded as AWESOME as it did in that moment.
We all jumped-me, my 9 year old daughter and my 4 year old son. My kids started clapping (while jumping) with excitement. Each one of us was screaming, “Found it. Found it. It is in the car. Found it.”
Just in that dramatic moment, my brave-home-phone crashed and it went absolutely blank. I kissed my dedicated phone, for taking away all my worries before SNOZZING OFF for the day.
Now, we knew that “it” was somewhere inside my-small-Honda-Fit. Even though, the surface area of my car was not large but in that moment it appeared, as if we were looking for a needle in a dorm full of hay stack.
Forgetting about their own hunger, my kids speedily brought out their lunch box, bags, tissue boxes, art and craft papers, jackets, just anything and everything from the trunk and the seats. But my-naughty-cell-phone seemed to be in great mood of playing hide-and-seek that afternoon. It continued to hide.
Then I sent out my 2 enthusiastic young soldiers, to request my neighbor to call up my cell phone. While they marched away on their bikes, I looked curiously at my mysterious car. I was wondering as to where could a silver-colored-cell-phone hide in the contrasting black-mats-and-seats of my car.
In that quiet moment, I followed my intuition and allowed my hands to pull out the only THING remaining inside the car. It was an empty white colored plastic “Wal-Mart” packet. That empty packet (with its open side facing the front seats) was lying on top of the mat directly under my daughter’s seat.
As I pulled out the packet, it did not feel as light as it seemed. When I pushed my fingers into it, they touched something cold.
“It” was THE long-lost-treasure.
My sleek-cell-phone was intact, one piece and was still-working perfectly.
Just then I saw my brave soldiers, my neighbor with her 2 year old son and her home phone walk towards me. They knew I had discovered “it” from the jubilant look on my face.
Re-charging all batteries
Once inside home, I served my kids their snack.
After that, I climbed upstairs towards the study to place my dear, dedicated home phone on its mother's lap (base of the phone) for re-charging.
Just in that instant, my home phone rang. I took the call from the speaker of the base. The phone call was from my friend. She was returning my voice message.
Even before, she could complete her sentence, I screamed out happily, “I found it.”
Then immediately asked her, “Guess what helped?”
She said, “Knowing you, it has to be God.”
And I replied, “Yes. You do know me pretty well.”
Understanding THE Experience
This experience happened about a month ago, but today when I look back, a lot of questions still remain unanswered. The most intriguing of all being, the one, as to why I could not hear my cell phone ring, when all those frantic phone calls were being made by those friendly-stranger-angles? This is striking, because the phone did "show" a long list of those missed-phone-calls.
But this and all the other questions need not be answered. To me, the only “lesson” worth learning out of this seemingly-long-ordeal was something I experienced first hand. It was the “drastic change” in my mind and body READING, the moment I started remembering Him.
I know that this “drastic change” cannot be described in words, it can ONLY BE FELT. But, in the following analogy, I am making a devoted effort to describe that divine-and-profound-change I experienced.
On a fine-shiny-clear-sunny-day, I was out for a casual walk in vast-open-field. Just when I was enjoying the fresh breeze and the warmth of the gentle Sun, suddenly, a heavy rain storm appeared from nowhere. When that happened, I felt frustrated and disgusted, because I was far away from my car and there were no trees, roofs or umbrellas to go under. The pouring heavy rain made me feel cold and wet. The slashing wild storm resisted me from walking towards my far-away-car. As a result, I started feeling miserable and exhausted.
But then something amazing happened in the moment I started remembering Him, calling Him devotedly. I felt as if an invisible umbrella appeared over my head instantly. That invisible-huge-umbrella kept on moving along with me. It protected me from the rain and the storm, while the rain storm continued. The pouring heavy rain drops could no longer touch me. The wild wind gently dried off my clothes. Plus, the fragrance of the freshly-wet-mud made my walk towards the car a joyous and a memorable experience.
To me, this analogy comes as close as it can to what I experienced, first hand, before and after remembering Him.
Assimilating the concept of Constant Remembrance
After this experience of losing and finding my cell phone, I feel that, I have ASSIMILATED the meaning of much-heard-and-read-about Constant Remembrance.
To me, constant remembrance is a different version of meditation. In this version, I do not need to make any commitment of time or place. I could be open-eyed with my body engaged in cooking, driving or any other mundane activity. All I need to do is to CONSTANTLY REMEMBER HIM WITH DEVOTION.
The result is His-security-blanket.
To me, this “special blanket” felt like my mother’s special-soothing-hug during some of my crying-trying-times.
While driving back from the restaurant to my home (via pre-school) on that eventful day, I feel, I was in THIS state of Constant Remembrance. The blessings appeared as a blanket of absolute security, which shielded me from all my worries, fears and frustration. So much that I started feeling all-relaxed-and-smiling.
To me, that dramatic experience was a simple and clear experiment, which “happened” to show me that His blessings DO get showered. Since, I experienced first hand how my un-ease-due-to-worries SWITCHED to ease-followed-by-remembering-Him. Therefore, I NOW believe in it with complete faith.
I feel blessed to have realized, that my-most-valuable-security-blanket is ALWAYS accessible to me, without involving any time delays or costing me any money.
Sincere Prayers
I pray that the next time, whenever I am worried, I am able to immediately move into “His Remembrance” without dissipating any energy on “worrisome thoughts”.
Perhaps, even better, for its promising blessings of heart-felt-smile and gentle relaxation, I think it makes perfect sense that I should make a CONSCIOUS EFFORT to CONSTANTLY REMEMBER Him with all my devotion.
Acknowledgement
I thank the divinity residing within me for teaching me this profound lesson. I feel privileged to share this insightful-experience with all of you.
Devotedly,
Gunjan
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Why do I need people to be happy?
I am sharing the answers to some of the questions I meditated upon. To me, these are difficult questions and I could only find answers during deep meditation. I believe they are true but difficult-to-follow-solutions.
Today I woke up with the thought that all knowledge is within and some days ago I woke up with an idea that all happiness is within. During meditation, I asked Him, if it is true then, why do I need classes (or teachers) for learning (or guidance)? Why do I need people to be happy?
What I heard while meditating is that if one’s connection with the divinity within is true then one does not need and classes or teachers to learn from. But most of the time it is not true with most of the people. Therefore it is needed by those people. I realized that it makes sense that I am myself getting these realizations after close to 4 decades of my life. All these years when I did not have this connection, even I needed classes and teachers. In other words, till the time I did not realize that ALL KNOWLEGDE IS WITHIN, I did need teachers. Now that I have found this precious-sacred-connection-with-the-divine-source, I have realized a teacher within. I trust that this internal teacher will guide me with the correct lesson or lead me to the “right person” who can effectively guide/help me. Just like my external teachers have guided me all these years.
Further, I need people in my life to teach me how to understand and assimilate these theoretical-abstract ideas conveyed by the internal teacher. The people around me are like the gadgets in a laboratory which helps one conduct experiments to verify the theoretical concepts from the text books. It is through trial and error an experimentalist verifies the theory, but finally he does accomplish it. Similarly, the people acting as gadgets help me verify the lesson given by the internal teacher. It is a struggle to conduct these experiments, but with a faith that the lesson is correct and the gadgets are as they are expected to be, I need to carry on the experiments with persistence. Once I will complete the verification of one lesson, the true happiness will follow.
Today I woke up with the thought that all knowledge is within and some days ago I woke up with an idea that all happiness is within. During meditation, I asked Him, if it is true then, why do I need classes (or teachers) for learning (or guidance)? Why do I need people to be happy?
What I heard while meditating is that if one’s connection with the divinity within is true then one does not need and classes or teachers to learn from. But most of the time it is not true with most of the people. Therefore it is needed by those people. I realized that it makes sense that I am myself getting these realizations after close to 4 decades of my life. All these years when I did not have this connection, even I needed classes and teachers. In other words, till the time I did not realize that ALL KNOWLEGDE IS WITHIN, I did need teachers. Now that I have found this precious-sacred-connection-with-the-divine-source, I have realized a teacher within. I trust that this internal teacher will guide me with the correct lesson or lead me to the “right person” who can effectively guide/help me. Just like my external teachers have guided me all these years.
Further, I need people in my life to teach me how to understand and assimilate these theoretical-abstract ideas conveyed by the internal teacher. The people around me are like the gadgets in a laboratory which helps one conduct experiments to verify the theoretical concepts from the text books. It is through trial and error an experimentalist verifies the theory, but finally he does accomplish it. Similarly, the people acting as gadgets help me verify the lesson given by the internal teacher. It is a struggle to conduct these experiments, but with a faith that the lesson is correct and the gadgets are as they are expected to be, I need to carry on the experiments with persistence. Once I will complete the verification of one lesson, the true happiness will follow.
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