I have been doing yoga for quite a few years now. I always found yoga sessions extremely powerful in every aspect from physical to mental health. But the most important aspect which always stuck to me from the the beginning is the spiritual aspect, which is very rare in this modern world. I feel extremely blessed and lucky to find a yoga teacher who is not only a doctor but an enlightened soul. This means she can guide us from a scientific point of view as well as a spiritual point of view. She always follows the things that she speaks to us about and you could say that they are tried and tested. I have always given extra attention to all the things suggested by her to become a good human being by telling us either moral and mythical stories or practical examples . Over the years, she has given me massive support and guidance on a personal level too. She has always guided us to stay positive and live in present.
I have actually learnt the true meaning of Yoga, which is the real union of oneself with the divine, which people don’t normally understand after years and years of practice .
During lockdown, Yoga classes managed to keep me and many more positive and sane. Lockdown was the best period of my whole life, as my spiritual journey moved to the next level. She always says that the seed was sown within me, it’s just got the golden opportunity to go deeper. We started doing online classes due to the covid-19 from March. After an hour of physical yoga, we started satsang in which we started discussing mantras, shlokas, famous gurus, saints and spiritual stories.
During the lockdown period, I felt that I actually got the chance to put in practice the things I have been learning for a long time and understand the deep spiritual meaning of it too. I would like to share a few things which I have started practicing in my everyday life and feel everyone should try it too.
For all these years, the first sentence we repeat is ‘I am not the body or the mind but a pure soul.” It feels like I have been saying this like a parrot whereas now I am trying my best to mean it.
Another example of this is how she always tells us that we need to live in present moment. The past is dead and the future is unknown so what’s the point of thinking of both? This week, I went for a walk in the evening by myself. I randomly remembered a sad or disturbing part of my life which happened exactly last year. I was about to start getting in the loop of depressing thoughts and just remembered her words about living in the present. I thought to myself that there is no point of thinking that, as it is going to ruin my present and that’s the past, which is dead. I was quite impressed and felt happy with myself that I actually put her words in practice.
I am also constantly in the process of working on 6 qualities which she keeps reminding us constantly in different ways, which are faith, patience, tolerance, self control, detachment and contentment. I had faith in God but now with her help, my faith has become stronger. I learnt that no matter what condition we are in, is the god’s wish and happens for the best. So I try and practise to keep myself content.
I always feel that all those qualities are quite difficult to completely achieve. But somehow I always find that detachment is one of the toughest qualities to achieve by being in grahasthashram. She always says to us that we should all do our activities thinking that God is the doer who is working through my body. I am trying my best to do things for my family without any expectations and nothing in return. In the past few months of satsang , I am getting less angry or upset as whatever I do have no expectations. Even at points if I get upset if agitated, I try to surrender to god and ask his forgiveness. Forgiveness reminds me something quite important which I asked her during our satsang. I said that forgive and forget seems quite difficult. She explained beautifully how to forgive and forget. We need to surrender to God and ask to forgive us and the person who has hurt us and move on in life.
Before going to bed, I have started going over the whole day and analysing where I have done something wrong or upset someone. I surrender to god and ask for forgiveness and repeat the golden sentence – I am not the doer, you are the doer.
I still need to work on all the six qualities which I haven’t got them 100% but working on them so they get stronger before I go to face the real world and will be able to continue too.
Another amazing thing she always reminds us to do is charity and its importance. Charity is not just giving money. It could just be giving your beautiful smile to someone or looking after our nature like birds and trees.
During satsang, my belief became stronger that all religions teach us the same. God is one and everyone has different way of worshiping. People may take different forms of transport to reach one destination but they reach there in there end.
Last but not least, to actually progress in everyone’s spiritual journey, you need to wake up in Brahma Muharat, which is between 3-6 am. She urges us every single day without a fail to do this, which I really struggled to follow these years. But I have just started to practice and I could see the difference in me. I can focus better as there are less thoughts in the morning and you get more time during the day as well with full energy. It also helps you to keep your batteries charged for the rest of day. She always says when you take one step towards God, he walks ten steps towards you. God helps us to wake up even without the alarm, like we say when there is a will there is a way!
There is still a long way to go in my spiritual journey. I still need to work on the complete surrender to god and stay in his name all the time. I need to fully believe that God is the doer and working through me.
I have not got enough words to express my gratitude to her for giving me the real essence of Yoga and sowing the spiritual seed within me and is always there to guide me every step of the way of my spiritual journey. Sashtang dandwat pranam.
