It’s never until you stub your little toe on the edge of a cupboard that you ever really pay attention to that particular part of your body, isn’t it! & have you ever really looked at your wrists, & how they can twist & stretch so gracefully? Have you ever marveled at what a miraculous wonder your body is? We take great care of our houses, our cars, & other possessions, but when was the last time we really took time to properly care for our bodies? When was the last time you said ‘thank you’ to your body; for working 24/7, & for allowing you to experience this beautiful life? Besides being the vehicle of our being, our bodies are also messengers, albeit very silent ones. Everything is energy. So are our bodies. We are constantly exchanging energies with everything around us, whether we like it or not. Even by just looking silently at a flower, energy is being exchanged. So imagine the amount of energy exchanged not only in verbal conversation with another, but also in more intimate encounters! Have you noticed that your body feels differently around different people? Someone texts you & suddenly a sense of heaviness overcomes you. Or just the mere presence of a person, & there is a feeling of lightness & joy. Your body will tell you who, what or which situations you need to avoid, & which are good for you. Its messages are very subtle, but they are there. All that is required is awareness & sensitivity to receiving them. Some refer to this as a ‘gut feeling’. You can’t really explain it, but you somehow just know it. & how often have we overlooked this feeling & later on regretted it! Vibes cannot be denied. They can travel miles apart, & they override physicality. They move through silence & sound, they move through stillness & movement.
It’s time to be silent & start listening! This life is 100% your responsibility. Only you & no one else is accountable for your own well-being & happiness. Be ruthless if necessary. Your energy, time & space are precious & limited. Protect them. Love yourself enough to make yourself a priority. Even if you have to walk alone, do it. Life is too short for anything less than happiness.
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Inhale love, exhale gratitude. Think positive. Radiate your highest self. These popular spiritual quotes are very much appealing, but today I am here to tell you that no spiritual growth happens without a certain degree of struggle. In fact, the more growth you seek, the deeper into the darkness you will need to go. It sounds frightening, I know. The darkness still scares the shit out of me sometimes. There have been times I thought I would go mad. I’ve gone on emotional rampages - I’ve even curled up in a ball on my bedroom floor, crying & shivering with fear & sadness. But I have learned to love the darkness, because many beautiful things have come out of it. In fact, some of my biggest insights of bliss & happiness have come immediately after those moments of darkness. It is just a shedding of our old selves - the ego always puts up a fight to stay alive. The mind always wants to hold on to its beliefs, no matter how unreasonable they may be. But think about it for a minute: without our struggles, we would never be where we are today, we would never be the persons we are, we would never know the things we know. To learn a new skill, we must go through the hardships of learning. To advance to a higher level & rescue the Princess, Mario has to defeat all sorts of turtles, mushrooms & ‘bosses’! Spirituality is also a learning process. A learning to unlearn all the unnecessary knowledge we have accumulated. Oh, my dear friends, you don’t know how much junk we have covered ourselves with! If you are going through a tough time right now, gather courage. Salvation is near. Light & darkness are both necessary. Without the darkness, we would never know what light is. We would not be able to marvel at the beauty of light. There would be no nuances in life, everything would be bland, monotonous. Darkness allows for varying degrees of light, it creates shadows which brings depth to everything. Great pains need to be experienced in order to be born anew. It is like the pains of childbirth. The pain is the stimulus for the mother to push. & she tries with all her might, going through much hardship, because she knows that this is necessary. She knows that the pain is temporary. & after the baby is born, the pains of childbirth wither away. Looking at it from another angle: without pain, there would be no motivation, not even a slight indication that anything is to be done, & subsequently the baby dies in the womb. If you are going through troubled times, gather courage, dear friend. It is good. Go totally into it. Do not deny yourself this darkness. It is a blessing. As long as you are not hurting anyone. Pain is the trigger which sparks the process of rebirth. What you do with that pain, & how you choose to process it, determines the outcome. & no one can remove your pain but you. Because any external influence willonly hinder your growth. You may choose to escape these pains through various methods of distraction. But it will not help, mere jaan. It will only delay the very same pain, only to be repeated again. Better to deal with it in a single, swift blow, once & for all. Life is there for the living, beloved! Are you going to deny yourself the great joys of life? For real transformation to happen, you have to look within. It is not a matter of the other person, the situation, or any external stimuli. Don't throw your trash onto someone else. Go within, find the source of this pain. & sooner or later you will find that there is no pain. & what is left is freedom. Freedom is not a forgoing of responsibilities. On the contrary, it is the biggest responsibility you will ever carry throughout your life. Begin by accepting, loving & embracing your darkness. You got this. ;) ;) ;) As we walk the narrow dark alleys of Varanasi, chants of 'Ram Naam Satya Hai' echo from behind us, getting louder by the second. We quickly duck into the side of the alley, giving way to the troupe of men confidently marching forward towards the Manikarnika Ghat. I see their grim expressions, the bamboo sticks upon their shoulders, the brightly coloured cloth upon the deceased's body. Due to the winding nature of the alleys, they are quickly out of sight. But very soon, yet another call of 'Ram Naam Satya Hai' emerges from behind. I guess one should expect no less from a cremation ghat which operates 24/7. I sense we are nearing our destination when the tiny shops give way to huge piles of interlocking wood, meticulously stacked at least 10 meters high each. The sheer size of some of the piece of wood, combined with the height & width of the piles, somehow made the already dark night even darker. Turn a corner, & everything was illuminated red & orange. The funeral pyre nearest to us had a leg sticking out of it. There was no sadness nor grief in the air, but a very distinct feeling of solemnity. After spending a few moments taking in our surroundings from the top of the ghat, we decide to sit at a tea stall on the edge of the ghat. Walking pass the pyres, one inevitably feels the heat emanating from the large flames. From the tea stall, I can observe the Antyesti rites being carried out for each deceased person. At any one time, there are at least two fires burning, & numerous groups of men sitting around the ghat, waiting for the fire to perform its purpose, so that they can continue on with the rest of the ceremony. I see red spots on the ground a few meters in front of me. A cow is dripping blood from its right hock. In the distance, a few other cows & some dogs are foraging amongst the thrash. To my left, a cow sleeps peacefully, while a dog sleeps on the step beneath her, its nose touching her hoof. The cremation ground workers dutifully unload wood from boats, the priests prepare the bodies for the burning, there is soft music playing from a radio in one of the tea stalls. The flames transform into small clouds of smoke which billow up into the air, disappearing into nothingness... Seemed like just another day in the office for everyone. Which it actually is. We are all dying. Since the moment we took out first breath, we were already dying. Sometimes we forget the reality that death is approaching, & will show itself at any given moment. But is death something to be afraid of? Is it something horrible, something to be avoided at all costs? We seem obsessed with immortality, ever-lasting youth, & avoiding all discomfort at any cost. That which remains consistently the same, is not real. It is plastic, manmade, fake. & how can one compare the beauty of a living flower to that of a plastic one? By sheer coincidence, a friend of mine passed away the morning I was scheduled to leave for Varanasi. I bawled my eyeballs out for around an hour. But who & what was I crying for? Sometimes grief can be a selfish thing. It demands attention, it demands the reenactment of a certain connection/relationship/event. It demands control over a situation. But life stops for no one. You may kick & scream for all you're worth, but death will never delay its arrival. Even if you cry a million tears, or swear to perform a thousand good deeds; whether you are happy or sad, rich or poor, respected by society or not, life will never stop for you. Life is plain & simple. It is just up to you to remove all preconceived notions, expectations & judgments about it, & accept it as is. & along with acceptance of life & death, comes the ultimate flowering. To see the great irony of life; the futility of it all, yet the sheer beauty of being totally immersed in life in each moment... To come face to face with the reality that in the end, nothing matters, & everything goes back into the earth... To wonder, 'Oh my God, what the hell have I been doing with my life?' & make amendments if necessary... To realize that this life is only once, this life is so precious that each exhale may not be followed by an inhalation... All that is unnecessary falls away, & everything which is essential rises to the surface. Life becomes a sheer joy, a beautiful leela...& each moment becomes a reason to celebrate... We travel to foreign lands, only to return to our own homes - does that mean we should not travel in the first place? Similarly, we come from dust & we will return to dust. Just because this body will return to the earth, does not mean we should cease celebrating life. In the distance, the lights of the floating diyas sparkle amongst the gentle dark waves of the Ganga. Even in the belly of death, the playfulness of life refuses to surrender. Har har japo, pyare-a...Gur mat lay, Hari bol..! (Meditate on the Lord, oh my beloved, follow the Guru's teachings, & speak of the Lord!) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. - Psalm 23 - |
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About Prabh LehriI am a yoga teacher based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I am passionate about yoga as a form of healing on the physical, emotional & mental level. I have been on a yoga journey for almost a decade and have been formally sharing my experience in the last 4 years. Archives
December 2017
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