Metamorphosis

You think you are on a path, 

A struggle, 

A road.

An obstacle we all need to overcome

So we can grow.

So, stretch, make room.

Let this push you till you disintegrate.

Let this fire, turn you into gold.

Let go, surrender,

Into this transformation.

Drop all the resistance you withhold.

Become the metamorphosis,

And your own observer.

Watch carefully, what He does

To bring you close.

© Sneha Singh 2010

The Real Challenge

As we grow in size and opinion, each day we are told by the people around us how difficult things are. How difficult it is to study and achieve a good grade, how difficult it is to get into a good university, how difficult it is to get a job, how difficult it is to get a good salary, a promotion, a car, a house. An almost endless list. How I wish people were brighter on their general outlook in life!

However, there are more people that have most of the things listed above, and yet do not have Love in their lives. They have pleasure, but not peace. 

So what is the real challenge?

Is the real challenge to become an achiever? A person who can get all these things? Or is the REAL challenge one which demands you to become a giver? A giver of unconditional Love? 

I meet many people each day - and each person remembers to tell me about the 'bad economic climate'. I understand it is a reality. But it is also true that anything is only as much of a reality as you accept it. It is very important to be mindful of the circumstances we are in, but it is more important to mindful of the fact that it is temporary. We've lived in eras of civil wars, world wars, the Great Depression, and yet survived. Not only have we survived, but we have given birth to more prosperous generations. It must be understood that many key individuals of these generations have tripped and given in to selfishness over selflessness. Therefore, the real challenge is not only to become an achiever and gain success. The real challenge is to know that achievement and success are temporary just like the person who has achieved them. There is a powerful choice that comes along with success that can make a enormous difference to how people in your surroundings, and even in the world perceive you. That is the choice of being selfish or selfless. 

Remaining grounded, and in unconditional Love, no matter what your external state might be - that is the Real challenge. And remaining in unconditional Love and humility, after being blessed with the strength to work hard and achieving brilliant success - that is an even bigger challenge. For the man that is poor by money makes do, and knows that his shining heart will definitely make the difference needed to help people around him. But the man that is rich is quick to forget Love and confuse it with pleasure.

Remaining within Love, that radiates from within, and using that as your powerful tool for transformation is the Real challenge. People remember and use their minds amazingly to analyse situations and people and create opinion. However, they forget they are blessed with hearts too, and that the intelligence of the heart is supreme because it is a mirror of the intelligence of the Creator. Your Heart, which is the seed of your life. 

The REAL challenge is to remain true to your heart, in all situations, knowing that all situations, in reality, are temporary. 

© Sneha Singh 2010

My Companion

"Looking at my life

I see that only Love
Has been my soul's companion
From deep inside
My soul cries out:
Do not wait, surrender
For the sake of Love."

-- Rumi

In truth, my companion since I have started waking up, and even before that, has been only Love. Without it, I am nothing. It is not an entity that we hold, but an ocean that flows through every molecule of our bodies. If Love were absent, we would fade away. The energy that holds our DNA together would dissipate. We are connected through energy, through Love. 

It takes great courage to step into Love, and then realise, you are home- where it is not about blood ties but about authentic relationships. Everything we receive is a gift of Love. Longing for loved ones is just as much of a gift as the Union, for without either, the whole essence of Love would be hidden from you. Every circumstance is here to open you to Love, each fall an opportunity to love your wounds. 

The most amazing part of this is, we all know these things in our hearts. But we sit in our dark holes, doing our thing, waiting for a 'Light' to shine on us. Meanwhile, we forget the Light we have been holding within us, the Light that fuels our existence.

Beautifully, Rumi says, 'Do not wait, surrender, for the sake of Love'. He says, Love is not about self, it is about annihilation of self, to be able to destroy who we think we are so we can become infinite, eternal Love.

Do not wait.

• © Sneha Singh 2010

Without Love?

Rumi says, ''A Lover only Loves. He has no choice". 

I am in awe of Love. Each day, it teaches me a new lesson. It reaffirms to me that it is on a journey of its own. I have no choice but to Love, no choice but to live in surrender. Surrender is a choice that requires immense love and strength, and it is not a sign of weakness. 

The only Love that is permanent in my Life, is the Love for God. Through that Love, all other love flows and I am only a channel. It is so simple, that all life, irrespective of form, seeks and lives through Love. We know it, but we don't understand it. Or maybe, we understand it, but we don't know it. Which one is true, I don't know. 

I don't know if we truly realise, that sadness, sorrows, trouble and tears bring with it the joy of patience, surrender, faith and peace? 

Each one of us is on a journey, no one's journey less important or more meaningful than the other. Thinking, that your journey has a higher place is not the voice of God within you that is speaking, but your Ego which wants you to believe that you, somehow, have a superior purpose. All purpose is simply that - Purpose. Effort shall be recognised and purpose achieved. That is the wonderful law of this Universe. 

In this journey toward my purpose, of which I still lose sight sometimes, I know that without Love I cannot cope. Without God, I cannot cope. And for your constant Light and Presence, I am eternally grateful. You break me apart God, so I can see the Light you have planted in my heart, for that I am thankful to you. 

A few more verses, 

 ‎"You try to be faithful
And sometimes you're cruel.
You are mine. Then, you leave.
Without you, I can't cope. And when you take the lead,
I become your footstep.
Your absence leaves a void.
Without you, I can't cope.

You have disturbed my sleep,
You have wrecked my image.
You have set me apart.
Without you, I can't cope." 

~Rumi~

• © Sneha Singh 2010

The Unseen

''This which I am faced with, how will it go away? How will it all detangle? Where will the strength that I need to face this come from? What do I do?''

Questions like these come up in our lives at every moment, where we're tested and we find ourselves spiraling into the circle of fear and doubt. It is, in times like these, that we need to centre ourselves and find that which is true within us, that which WE ARE. In the words of Eckhart Tolle, things we have can be taken away from us, but that which we ARE will always stay with us as our real strength, as our true virtue. The depths of an ocean are always calm, always serene, no matter what happens on its surface. The surface is lashed with lightning, storms, winds and rain, but in its depth, the ocean knows what it is. It takes what Nature gives it, and underneath it all, it remains calm. It knows, like all other storms, this too shall pass. 

It is the unseen, the unfathomed, the unknown that we all fear. In our careers, relationships, family - we don't know what is going it happen. In life, we don't know what is going to happen! And so we spend today in fear, creating a fearful, troublesome tomorrow. Have you tried just being thankful for the fact that you are alive and reading this right now? That you have access to a computer or a mobile device, which millions in the world don't? If you are still here, you're mission on this Earth isn't over yet. That, you must be sure of. But instead, we complain about what we think we want, what we think we need to make us happy. Your heart's real desire is created in God's image, and there is no other way but for it to come true. Think back at all the things you really knew you wanted, and those you 'think' you wanted. You'll see how it all came together, just right. Because there is something that we don't understand that works in our lives. Thank God for that!

The problem is we try to understand God. We try to analyse what will happen, how it will happen. God is too expansive, too amazing and too overwhelming an energy to be understood. I can't understand Math, how am I supposed to even attempt understanding God? But I have felt His Love, and that is REAL. How can I argue with that which is SO real? God's love is visible, just not tangible because it is a burst of energy traveling through all Creation. So don't get caught up in that which you cannot see, comprehend or understand. It might be dark, and so you might not be able to see the way, but when God's morning lights up the sky, the way will be crystal clear. 

Patience and faith, my love. :)

• © Sneha Singh 2010

Selfish Love/ Selfless Love

''Nit khair manga soneya main teri, dua na koi hor mangdi'' 

(I always ask for your wellness, there is no other prayer in my heart) ~ Sufi Song sung by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Sufi songs overflow with Love, where singers and poets talk of their piya (Beloved) and their unending quest to be reunited with their Supreme Lover, which is their Spiritual Master or God. These poets never aimed to be famous, but simply sang the song of their heart, and here we are centuries later, still humming these words. Such is the power of the Heart and the ocean of Love within it.

It is a well established fact now, that we all, every one of us, is looking for Love. It does however make me wonder, how many of us are looking to get Love and how many looking to give Love. THAT is the question. We look for Love so we can get Love, appreciation, praise, care. We give so we can get. Seldom do we give for the joy of giving. Thus, we fail to see that the 'Love' we think we fall in, is a selfish Love, which in truth cannot exist since Love by virtue is selfless. When we realise that the joy of Love is within it's giving, within it's flow and the purpose of Love within it's fulfillment, we will connect with True Love. A Godly Love, wherein the presence of Love itself is so overwhelming and powerful that you only pray for the wellness of your Beloved. Such a Love draws more Love unto itself, and we realise that, that which we crave for in a 'selfish' Love, we graciously receive in a 'selfless' Love, as a 'by-product' of giving. This evokes awe, wonder and deep gratitude for Love, the Lover and the Beloved for no longer now do they exist as three entities, but only One. 

Rumi beautifully says that the purpose of Love is total annihilation, complete destruction of self. It burns this house you call your own, to show you the wonder that exists beyond these physical and tangible forms. Love does not cage you into self, but frees you into abundance and selfless joy. Till you reach that madness, he says, call not your needy emotions Love. :)

When you truly breathe the essence of Love, you are so awakened that everything flows out of your being just as effortlessly as it flows into it. In the current of this flow, the selfish 'me' is destroyed and gone, from the ashes of which a New Love is Born.

• © Sneha Singh 2010

Welcome

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival. 

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

As an unexpected visitor. 

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight. 

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. 

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond. 

From Essential Rumi, by Coleman Barks

I've read this verse by Rumi over and over again in the past few days, and it made me aware of how I welcome joy, smiles and happiness but become laden with sorrow the moment things appear to start entering an unfavourable situation. The mind automatically starts judging and analysing, creating and spinning stories and outcomes which are often just as fleeting as the thoughts that give birth to them. 

I read once, that if we truly try to befriend everything and everyone that comes along, joy will never leave us. If we can understand what an important role sadness, solitude and disappointment play in our lives, we would never resist them or oppose them, but instead welcome their lessons with the same love as we welcome happy moments and contentment. For the minute we understand that they're all just different forms of a Teacher that has come to impart divine knowledge to us, all our resistance to it will disappear.

Just as the Rumi verse says, we have to learn to let pain in just as warmly as we open our doors for happiness. In 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle, the writer explains that when you truly befriend that which gives you pain, you overcome it. It no longer hurts or serves you. You transcend it. Welcome and love pain as a guide of what it has been sent to make you aware of within yourself - that is the real challenge, not overcoming the pain itself or resisting its transformation into resentment or anger. For every wound that hurts can only be healed by showing it some Love. :)

• © Sneha Singh 2010