The journey of the Soul....

Many poets, philosophers, gurus, new age teaches have tried to explain simply the journey of our soul. Many of them have succeeded. I find this poem, the simplest and the most beautiful explanation there is to be found.............The poet T. K. Harvey wrote:

"They wove bright fables in the days of old,

When reason borrowed fancy's painted wings;

When truth's clear river flowed o'er sands of gold,

And told in song its high and mystic things!

And such the sweet and solemn tale of her

The pilgrim heart, to whom a dream was given,

That led her through the world,– Love's worshipper,–

To seek on earth for him whose home was heaven!

"In the full city,– by the haunted fount,–

Through the dim grotto's tracery of spars,–

'Mid the pine temples, on the moonlit mount,

Where silence sits to listen to the stars;

In the deep glade where dwells the brooding dove,

The painted valley, and the scented air,

She heard far echoes of the voice of Love,

And found his footsteps' traces everywhere.

"But nevermore they met! since doubts and fears,

Those phantom shapes that haunt and blight the earth,

Had come 'twixt her, a child of sin and tears,

And that bright spirit of immortal birth;

Until her pining soul and weeping eyes

Had learned to seek him only in the skies;

Till wings unto the weary heart were given,

And she became Love's angel bride in heaven!" Simply put, we are eternal. We are souls who have taken birth in the human form. We were born of great love, the love no one can duplicate. The Love of our creator. We journey on, from one life to another, accumulating pain, desires, doubts and fears. We make mistakes and learn from them. Slowly but surely, our soul begins to recognize our hunger, our desire, is to go back to the source of that incredible love. We begin to search for it through religion, spirituality, meditation, our paths maybe different, yet our destination remain the same. We ( our souls) cannot rest, cannot find peace or the elusive love for eternity, till the moment we allow the divine into our hearts, embrace him and become one with him again....

The two wheels of a bicycle

I have pondered long and hard on this one, once I became aware, my path was one of spiritual learning and teaching, I was torn about how to deal with the curve balls life threw at me. The more I read scriptures ( of different religions)The more my understanding grew, yet one confusion reigned. How do I apply learnings to my daily life. I ended up writing a book on it, yet, something was still amiss. I understood karma, karma balancing, karmic balancing, I understood various learning we have to achieve via our unique and individual experiences we go through in life. Yet there was a missing piece.

You see, to understand my predicament, you have to understand one thing, I question everything. If there is a missing piece I cannot rest. In Gita, Lord Krishna explained about karma. He did not prevent a war. He let  things happen, cousins killing each other, students killing their teacher and much more. I wondered, if we are meant to understand and practise forgiveness, how come one of the reincarnation or prophet allowed something like that to happen.

I have been practising, harmony, unconditional love, forgiveness, gratitude, all of it, everyday, in my real life. Yet a couple of things would keep cropping up. No matter what I tried, healing, affirmations, prayers nothing would make them either get resolved or go away. I had a sudden epiphany a few days back wham, there was a clarity.Karma happens in our lives, it goes back a long way. The learning, enlightenment, lessons, experiences happen at another level. They happen for the growth of our soul. We learn and we practise them, yet, the rules of karma are not bendable. Sometimes, even if you're unwilling you're caught in a war situation. It could be family or office politics or actual war to protect a loved one or your country. This is karmic balancing acting out. In case in some life, you've wanted to find your voice and speak out against the injustice of a tyrant, you're killed or other wise silenced, yet the desire is too strong. In the current life, this other soul will keep tormenting you. He will keep trying to provoke you, in order to balance the karma. No matter how hard you try to turn away, it will keep happening.

The thing is you can't play football with cricket rules. In football you do hurt the other player, in cricket it would be body line. The best way to deal with it, is to put into application your learning. Let go of the anger at the provocations. let go of the desire to hurt back. Without emotions involved, the action is just that "action" or "kriya" and not "karma", kriya becomes karma when emotional charge get attached to it. Do what needs to be done. Now without emotions involved, your desire to speak up against the injustice of another becomes a matter of stating facts. Its impassionate. You expect nothing in return. There ends your karmic cycle and you implement your learnings too...

What I understood, finally was, Krishna was not propagating war with your kin and yet, if that is what it takes to settle karmic balances ( because not every person is as forgiving as you), then play by the rules of war. Don't take on guilt because in a war you will injure and kill. This is rather an extreme, I still feel that way, but then unless scriptures tell stories in hyperbole, the point is never driven home. Jesus Had to be tormented, humiliated, whipped and more and crucified to explain forgiveness. They have to have larger than life scenarios painted out, so that we grasp the basic, moot point of the story.

I am aware, I need to write another blog to explain certain concepts I've written about for the uninitiated to the world of metaphysics, yet for those who are fellow travellers, who are aware, I thought I'd share this particular piece with you. The journey of the soul may or may not be different and at a different pace.The heart looks to restore balance, the soul seeks only enlightenment. Till such a point comes when they both are aligned. In the meantime, just know how to differentiate the two, and know what ever game you're entangled in, you need to play by its rules. Detach, from your emotions while you're at it....Like the wheels of a bicycle, the heart and soul turn together yet separately, they each do their work and take you forward. What you have to learn is the balancing act.