Here is an article that I had written for Speaking Tree on Meeting of Inner and Outer Sanctuaries which appeared on Sept 21, 2014.
Having been born, brought up and lived in the city of Mumbai most
of my life, I have always craved for the simple village life that I felt
deprived of. As a child, I would love to hear the stories that my friends had to
share about their visits to their home towns during summer vacations. Among
them, I thought that my friends from Goa where the luckiest people in the world
for being able to live in a sea-facing house surrounded by tall coconut trees.
So, I was very excited when we got the opportunity to buy a
beautiful small place of our own in the western part of Maharashtra admist the
heart of nature - not for the glamour
quotient of owning a weekend home, but because this presented an opportunity
for me to experience the simple village life that I craved for.
To me, village life meant a beautiful sanctuary where I could
plant my own trees and follow the rhythm of nature. A place where I could go
for a healing embrace of mother nature and come back afresh to handle the day to
day hectic city life.
Mother Nature has that kind of healing effect on us, helps us
transmute all our stored negativity that we carry around and has the capacity
to fill the crevices of our jaded souls. Allowing us to experience that just being is enough we don’t have to
constantly to be doing something.
We all feel the need to experience such outer sanctuaries in
various forms whether it is a simple spiritual getaway, a weekend home or a
relaxing vacation repeatedly to heal our splintered souls.
What happens for most of us is that after we come back from
such a getaway we immediately start feeling the withdrawal blues rightaway. The
peace that we experienced gets immediately washed away as soon as we are back
home.
Thich Nhat Hanh explains in his book ‘The Heart of the
Buddha’s Teaching’ that our object of perception is already inside us. When we
perceive the moon, the moon is us. The flower that we are looking at is a part
of our own consciousness. In this perspective, it helps to realise that this
outer sanctuary that we repeatedly crave for and the peace that it offers is
already contained within us. In our daily meditations by going within we can
access this beautiful place inside us.
Then we could be travelling in a train, or waiting for the
bus or sitting in the office, we can just simply close our eyes and visit this
beautiful sanctuary in all its beauty inside us and come back rejuvenated, well
equipped to handle the daily chores that lay ahead for all of us and fulfil our
roles with sincerity.
This meeting of the outer and the inner sanctuaries is
nothing but a profound realisation that whatever we seek for in the outside
world is already inside us, we just need to see it with the right eyes…
So much hard work for a bowl of rice.....
It's never too early for a bit of gratitude meditation
Or some contemplation....
Or seeing the connections and cheering for the snail.......
Home is truly where your heart is....
On that note it reminds me.. long time, no song, right? Listening to Samjhawan sung by Arijit Singh on FM right now. Beautiful lyrics and this Arijit Singh is a truly blessed singer.... Njoy, listen to each and every word with full awareness and Smile! Your smile is precious....
