A Million Thoughts: Learn All About Meditation from a Himalayan Mystic

dharitārājūtolīainivaisugaurā hoi.

aparādhīdūṇānivai jo haṃtāmiragāhi.

sīsinivāiaikiāthīaijāridaikusudhejāhi.44

Sweetness and humility, O Nanak, are the essence of virtue and goodness.

Everyone bows down to himself; no one bows down to another.

When you weigh it on the scale, the heavier side is always lower.

The sinner, like the deer hunter, bows down twice as much.

But what can be achieved by bowing the head, when the heart is impure?

As you begin to shed your ego, you become humble naturally. A humble mind is a beautiful mind. It’s far more receptive to spiritual growth and attainment than an egoist mind, no matter how learned. The tree laden with fruits is always a bit bent. Not because of any burden but because it has something to offer. Humility of conduct and speech take you closer to your source.

The more you have to offer, the humbler you are naturally. In the same storm where mighty winds fallgiant trees, the humble blades of grass dance and sway unharmed.

Bertrand Russell once said, “One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.”45

Humility keeps us away from melancholy. It helps us realize that in the vast, grand and eternal play of nature, no one is indispensable or vitally significant. Each one of us is a pawn in the universal game of chess. You may capture the queen or checkmate the king, ultimately though, everything gets packed and goes inside the same box.

Faith

A man, worried and paranoid, asked his enlightened master if everything would be alright in the future. “I know I should have faith but I can’t get around to let go. I’m still worried. What if things don’t go the way they should? Negative thoughts render me unable to enjoy my life. What if God doesn’t take care of me?” he said to his master.

The master took a rosebud, gave it to the disciple, and said, “Your task is to unfold the bud keeping all the petals intact.”

The disciple carefully began opening the rosebud. Soon, however, he realized that it was not possible to unfold it without damaging the petals. “It’s not as simple as it looked. I’m sorry, but at least some petals will be damaged,” he said to his master.

In reply, the master took the rosebud from him and said:

It is only a tiny rosebud,

A flower of God’s design,

But I cannot unfold the petals,

With these clumsy hands of mine.

The secret of unfolding flowers

Is not known to such as I.

God opens this flower so sweetly,

Then in my hands they die.

If I cannot unfold a rosebud,

This flower of God’s design,

Then how can I have the wisdom,

To unfold this life of mine?

So I’ll trust in God for leading,

each moment of my day.

I will look to God for His guidance,

each step of the way.

The pathway that lies before me,

Only God knows.

I’ll trust Him to unfold the moments,

Just as He unfolds the rose.

How much can you plan, after all? And how much do you want to plan? Why do you want to keep everything in your hands? It’s tiring. Who took care of you when you were in the womb? Who fed you when you didn’t even know how to speak? Who provided for you when you were too young to earn your own living? If you examine, you’ll find there was always someone there, a medium Nature had already chosen for you. Sometimes letting go is simply reminding yourself that you’ve done whatever you could and now you must free yourself from the outcome or the worry.

Faith is designed to give you the confidence, the courage to lead your life with grace and conviction. It doesn’t mean we can just confess and be done with our bad karma, rather, we should have the strength to do the right karma at the first place. I don’t think God will manifest to pay off your mortgage, your loans – karmic or financial – or to help you shed or gain weight. We must take responsibility of our own lives.

We are the result of our desires, choices and pursuits. Faith, with all its paraphernalia and practices, is for inner strength and not to please an external God. I don’t want to please a heavenly being and beg for favors in this life or hereafter, instead, I would give this life my best shot and let Nature take its own course. After all, if I truly have faith, shouldn’t I know that God or Nature’s way is impartial?

A quote often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte says, “When you fight, fight as if everything depends on you. And when you pray, pray as if everything depends on God.” This is faith in a nutshell.

Faith is supposed to complement, and not replace, our actions.

Ultimately, we are responsible for the choices we make.

Faith is the understanding that not everything is in my control. I’ll do everything in my reach to do whatever I can about things that are in my control and leave the rest in the hands of this vast universe. As Reinhold Niebuhr wrote in The Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to