The Voice within the Silence

Silence answers some of the most difficult questions, that too with a smile. The silence of the skies, the stillness of oceans - Have you wondered why it brings someone peace, even if it is just a fleeting peaceful moment? Maybe our true, innate nature is that of silence and peace. But looking at our outer world today, it is difficult to believe so. I do believe that, ''What you seek is what you find''. When you are looking for something, your entire focus is on finding that one thing which is at that moment of utmost importance to you. All your energy is concentrated on bringing that aspect which you desire to life. And why this desire? Because you feel that aspect when enriched will bring with it what you truly desire - Happiness.

Our own voices keep talking to us, telling us things which mostly aren't true. Playing make believe with us and inducing fear. If we can learn how to silence these, and listen to what the voice of silence has to say to us, slowly we'll become aware of our inner nature which guides us through everything we face and holds the answers to all our questions. 

Unless we give anything a chance, we can not experience its potential. How many times do we choose being silent over blaming and accusing, whether it is with others or with ourselves. How many times do we stop to become aware about what we are speaking or the thoughts that are constantly running through our heads? I don't know how it works for everyone, because everyone is unique and will encounter and explore every experience in their own way. But I do know that it does work for all those who choose to give it a chance. One day, for one hour, try to make it not about 'my needs and problems'. For one hour at a time, one day at a time, learn to forget your constant worry and doubt and just see what you already have. Trust and listen to the voice inside your heart, which will only grow louder as you silence your own self. 

• © Sneha Singh 2010

Live your bubble inside out

''At the end of life we shall be judged by love, according to the love we have practised toward our Fellow man'' : Mother Teresa

What a beautiful thought from a wonderfully blessed woman who dedicated her life toward upliftment, healing and bringing joy to every person she met. 

As we know, Mother Teresa had her share of difficulties when she tried to work for Missionaries of Charities. She lived through a time not very different from today. At that time too, in every corner of the world there were sick, hungry, poor and orphaned. This day too, it is the same. It is easy to shrug these realities of the world off and live in your own bubble - which is what most people do. Or others get depressed and question the existence of God and the cause of all this suffering in the world. 

But at every step in our life we have a choice. A choice to adopt an attitude. A choice to let our heart guide our mind and our inner divine nature to lead our actions. If you choose to live your bubble inside out, you create a path of sharing, growing and prospering. As an analogy, if we look at our bodies, that itself should be a huge source of wonder and awe to us from the viewpoint of creation and growth. We all start out as one microscopic unimaginably tiny cell. And then that cell divides. And it divides again. And again. Creating beautifully what we call 'me' today. The source and stuff we're all made of is the same. We all are in essence, the same. Mother Teresa and other great spiritual individuals and healers recognise this oneness. They are aware of the true needs of an individual, which are nothing but happiness and love. We have a choice - To choose to first Love ourselves, then Love our families, then Love our neighbours, only because they all (including yourself) are beings looking for Love. 

Live your bubble inside out.

I believe that if you heal a person with Love and Compassion, that individual will awaken to Love and want to bring abundance in their own life by doing something worthwhile. Criticism is something our minds react to but Love is something our heart and our soul reacts to. There is no logic in Love. Because, Love just is.

It is difficult for people to walk this path of Love because, (in the words of Rumi), the flame of pure unconditional Love burns down the house of the Ego. All the stories we tell ourselves about not being good enough, about lack, about being incomplete are threatened. But, ones who realise that Love is the oxygen for nourishing the Soul and that it is the Soul that lives through our body, declining the stories in our head become easier.

The source of our existence, both physically and spiritually is Love. Let's cast away what the voices in our head tell us we are and believe what our Heart knows we are. :)

• © Sneha Singh 2010

No one over the other

I spent most of yesterday repeatedly listening to Bulleh Shah's poetry beautifully sung by none other than Abida Parveen.

And I think that one song has everything I've ever read or understood about surrender to God.

Bulleh Shah says: You've read a thousand books, but have you ever tried to read yourself? You've visited all the temples and mosques, but have you ever visited your own soul? Every day, you fight evil and negativity - but have you tried to fight your own negative intentions and your own ego? You aim to reach and touch the sky but have you tried to touch that which resides in your heart? Listen, my dear human being, you can destroy the temples and mosques all you want, but please to don't break someone's heart. Please don't break someone's heart, for it is therein that God dwells. 

Even Rumi said, that it is only from the heart that one can truly touch the sky. 

This knowledge, this awareness has been with us since centuries in the form of poetry, songs and sermons. Not just through the Sufi approach, but the Buddhist approach, the Hindu approach, the Christian approach. They all fundamentally talk of One thing. The One formless, Divine, Beautiful power of God. It is our conditioned habit as human beings to keep separating. Dividing. Looking for a separate self, then a separate city, a separate country. And we think that creating our world in this world will bring us joy.

Is it doing that? 

There is no superior motive. No competition. Who are you competing against? What will you get? How far will you go? Today you climb the ladder, tomorrow someone else will. We're only here for a short time. So, instead of measuring success by the number of ladders 'I' climb, try for once, to measure success by the number of people you help get up. My very amazing friend once profoundly said to me, ''Sneha, if you win the rat race, it just shows that you are a very fast rat.'' :) Well said my friend!

Your only job is to be true to yourself. That's all. Really. And if you don't know what to do, ask for help. Asking is not a sign of weakness or being a victim. It means you want to do something, and you're ready to do all it takes to get there.

Internally, we all know who we are, what we do and why we do it. Take responsibility, forgive yourselves and begin new. Every day, every moment presents you with an opportunity to start over. 

© Sneha Singh 2010

Hafiz and Rumi

The sun never says to the earth, 'You owe me.' Look what happens with a love like that - It lights up the whole sky. - Hafiz

This line has stirred me like no other in a long long time. That is what Love is. Love lights up our whole sky. The sun does not see the distance between itself and the earth. It does not say to the earth - Look, I shower you with constant light, warmth, life - you owe it to me. It is the innate nature of the Sun to shine and whatever comes its way will only glow in its radiance. 

People, too, are born with a light within them. They just somehow, sadly, lose it through their journey. And this light is the light of Being, the Light of the Love that we are. It is this inner radiance that we need to uncover. Lift the lid of fear, apprehensions, conditioning, and open yourself up to the vast and unimaginable pool of Love that vibrates in every particle around you. As Rumi says, We don't need to seek love, but merely seek the barriers we have built within ourselves against it. 

© Sneha Singh 2010

Some thoughts, Some Love.

~Let every particle within me open itself to the pureness of Love. This is my prayer today.


~Your love flows into me, like an unending stream, which holds no mud, and softens each rock on its way.


~ As I find my love for God, I find new ways to Love others and see how they are just another part of me.


~ My Love for You grows and expands each day, and as it does I lose more of myself, only to find myself once again.


~ When someone's presence in you overides your breath, know that it's Love.


~ Where there is Love, there is only Love - for it is an energy so vast that it leaves no room for anything else.


~ Within every layer of me, is a part of you stitched into me, and that's what makes me beautiful.


~ The Universe is supporting every breath in every cell of every being right now. When you take a deep breath,feel that run energy through you.


~ Let all your layers that you hold on to erode gently, then that which remains is who you truly are.


~ And when I feel just a little low, God shows me a bird, a flower and subtly reminds me how much He loves me.


~ When I surround myself with silence, the beauty that exists slowly appears.


~ See yourself in another, and you will see everyone is the same, in essence. Love, compassion, kindness doesn't operate with judgement.


~ Truth, Love, Peace, Grace are all infinite and intangible. You can only let them flow into you by expanding and opening yourselves.


~ The other is just another me. The true essence of everything is one.


~ Every moment, you have the opportunity to disregard Ego and embrace Love. How often do you do it?


~ Love is just EXACTLY that. It's just Love.


~ When you see yourself in another, lose yourself in another and love another like yourself, there is no 'other', just another part of yourself. And that's Love.




© Sneha Singh 2010

State

What are you right now? What am I right now? A bodymass of cells staring at a screen? Or, right now, are we a consequence of our circumstances? Our thoughts? Or are we, what we are right now, out of choice?

What state do I refer to? Mental? Emotional? Physical? Biological? Metaphysical? Spiritual?

So many questions, thoughts and trains rush through our heads each day, many filled with monotony. We try and deny it, but today we have become machines with a human dimension. Human Machines, not Human Beings.

Do we live each day or do we try to get by each day?

Do we trust the abundance that exists? Or are we so accustomed, so conditioned to living in a suffered, deprived state? - a state in which we want to constantly run toward more that we doubt the abundance, the answers which lie within us?

The state that we are in right now - whatever it might be - how much of it is circumstantial and how much of it is chosen?

Physical state, is, in essence, a mirror of your mental and emotional state. You 'feel' happy - you smile. You 'feel' sad - you cry. You 'feel' angry - you frown, or yell.

Ofcourse, external 'stimuli' trigger reactions which affect our emotional state, but do these triggers affect our emotional state or our emotional ego? Does our ego love the ''Drama'' and ''Attention'' we get from situations and people? If it does, does it live on this ''Dramatic Energy'' ? Is that its survival strategy? 

Who are we fooling? Only ourselves. We know that we all like the attention, the drama, the excitement, the thrill. How much of this is ''real'' thrill and how much of it is food for our ego?

I once read somewhere, that, Meditation isn't the way to quieten your mind, but the way to find the quiet that already exists within. This really struck me, and I started to think. 

Imagine the vast world that exists inside us. Numerous cells, breathing, nourishing, regenerating, evolving, dying, changing - every moment. The food we consume lends us energy. The air we breathe lends us energy. The thoughts we think, the emotions we feel, shapes the energy of our bodies. And, if energy is what it is ultimately all about, what kind of energy are you giving yourself right now? The more we travel inward, the more we realise - there is a space within us. There is a huge space within us. A space filled with fears, doubts, troubles which weighs us down. All these exist entangled with our ego. There is no one who can elevate you or cause you to fall. You do it. Accept this, and all else dissolves with ease. One of the toughest things to accomplish? Yes :) 

Our true state is buried under these different self created layers. Layers filled with judgement, malice, jealousy, doubt, regret, failure, bitterness. All the negativity which is ultimately an ''energy''. Negativity which finds its roots in Fear. Fear, which in truth, I believe, is the opposite of Love. 

The laws by which our inner universe operates in tandem with the outer world are very simple and clear. If we unmask ourselves of the face we know we are 'putting on', it teaches us more about our own self. It is no one's gain but our own. Where love exists, fear cannot. When prophets and religions speak about love, they speak of a love which is just that. Love. It knows nothing else. Love on its own is so powerful (when given the chance) that it needs no attachment, seeks no explanation and knows only peace. In truth, that is Love. And it is a Love that can only be Felt. The kind of Love which shapes each cell, breathing into it more energy, more life, making it more alive. The energy this Love possesses is overwhelming, and there are many who want Love but are not willing to give it a chance.

So, right now - Are you in a state of Love? Or a state of Fear? 

What's your State?

• © Sneha Singh 2010