The Spiritual Way People feel stressed out from the moment they get up from bed in the morning. Even a good night's sleep does not help to drive away the 'fatigue' of the previous day. Some cannot even sleep because of the fatigue. 'I dread the dawn of the day', said a person in anguish. A whole lot of people seem to be suffering from this. People come home, weary and tired. They have a good hot or cold bath. Some down a peg or more. Many are not inclined towards either. They may or may not succeed in driving away the body fatigue. And many are unable to drive away the mental fatigue. It is this mental fatigue that wears down a person faster. The mind does not relax even in sleep. This is because, mentally, even in their sleep, they are not able to shake off their worries, tensions, stress, their prejudices, and their feelings. Each person has a conscious and a subconscious mind. The conscious mind registers the rigors of a hard day left behind and these are imprinted on the subconscious mind. Each day adds one more layer to the previous imprints. Even though exhaustion forces sleep into their body and mind, their subconscious mind remains awake. The subconscious mind never sleeps. The impressions work on their subconscious mind. When they wake up, the conscious mind takes over and speaks out the first thoughts for the day. But these are the thoughts built on the impression in the subconscious mind. If the first thoughts are good, it is because the subconscious mind has been working with good impressions the whole night. The person starts the day well. The old impression surfaces and the present are only an extension of the past. In fact psychologists advocate the theory that one should not be watching a highly violent or a horrifying movie before going to sleep. Many are leading lives tormented by the memories of the past, of difficult times and problems at home or office or related to their family, or the society and they are not able to shake off these thoughts. The past puts a feeling of fear for the future. On the whole the past and the future plague the present and make his or her life miserable. People need to enquire into the root cause for all this. They need to learn to 'live in freedom' through a process of enquiry. There are many masters and spiritual teachers who have helped people find ways to overcome the stress and strain brought about by everyday problems. Swami Sukhabhodananda stands apart. He conducts a unique workshop called 'LIFE', acronym for 'LIVING IN FREEDOM-AN ENQUIRY, dealing with this very aspect. It is the only one of its kind, self-development programme, which prompts participants to go to the very genesis of their problems. "So long as you live there are bound to be problems. You cannot run away from problems as you cannot run away from this world. Even in Himalayas, the world is around you. So learn to live with problems. Everyone has a number of problems. If one is solved, another crops up. Hence one has to learn to live with the problems and not attempt running away or living in fear." He tell people who come to him. In today's world, the tortoise does not win at all. It is the hare's world. The business environment is fast changing, goals and aspirations are highly dynamic. The eighties were the days of Dale Carnegie and his 'How to win friends and influence people' series of books. The emphasis was on 'looking good', a typical western approach to life. Mid and late nineties saw a shift to 'feeling good' approach to life. This was the spiritual approach based on the eastern philosophies. Traditionally spirituality had no place in business. But the success of books by Jack Canfield, Deepak Chopra, Stephen Covoy, Shiv Khera, Anthony Robbins and Nepolean Hill tell its own tale. In fact seats in workshops conducted by Shiv Khera, Deepak Chopra, Stephen Covoy, are booked in advance without much sweat. People are talking of success and spirituality in the same breath. A person's ability and intelligence is measured in terms of his or her IQ. Higher the IQ, his chances of success were considered more. Gradually the emphasis shifted to the concept of 'emotional intelligence.' It is said if 'intelligence quotient' (IQ) helps to get a job, then 'emotional quotient' (EQ) helps to get promotion. 'Emotional intelligence' is the ability to understand one's feelings, empathy for feelings of others and tuning emotions in a way that enhanced the feeling of well being. Employees and management have discovered this truth and are finding it relevant in the fast changing business environment. Both realise that intellect alone does not guarantee success. Synergy of thought, feelings and actions has become prerequisite. Understanding one's emotions and other's around in the work place has become important. Employees have to be intelligent and also know how to manage their emotions. They have to learn to motivate self from within. In the 'dog eats dog' world, it's every man for him-self. Life has become more stressful and performance oriented. Understanding emotions has become the catch phrase. We have now moved a step further. Spiritual quotient (SQ) or 'spiritual intelligence' is now more relevant than EQ or IQ. Organisations that are more spiritual are becoming more profitable. They are able to get more from their employees. But spirituality has nothing to do with religion. People with good SQ are able to put their body, mind and soul into their jobs. The higher they go up the corporate ladder they see the need to tune up their SQ in addition to their IQ and EQ. It is this shift towards enhancing SQ that saw people throng to traditional or alternate therapies like Yoga, Praanic Healing, Reiki, Vipasana, meditation and Tai Chi. Swamiji's workshops have helped participants enhance the Spiritual quotient. An unassuming person, standing tall in his red kurta and dhoti, sporting a salt & pepper beard and a perpetual smile, Swami Sukhabhodananda espouses the value of goodness in life, trust in God-be it any religion and positive attitude. The eyes are calm and serene and seem to look at you from great depths. Merely being in the proximity of the great soul is enough of an experience and he is accessible to all as any other human being is. Swamiji had his education from the best of institutions in Bangalore and he has been a top-notch sportsman during his student days. Speaking in flawless English with perfect diction, he answers each participant’s question with the ease which comes with over 20 years of dealing with people, coming from diverse walks of life, vocations, and professions, in India and abroad. Swamiji talks of strengthening the Aura or the energy field around a person. He teaches different forms of meditations to help a person strengthen his or her aura. He has specific meditative techniques to purify the 'seven chakras' or the so called 'energy whirlpools' in our bodies. " A problem consumes you if your energy levels are low. If energy levels are high, you have the grip on the problem." He explains to the participants. Swamiji has his own unique style of delivering the message. He uses the story form to give his message. The interactive sessions with Swamiji help many to remove the clots in their minds. He helps them to remove the block that has been preventing them from reaching their full potential. Some of those who have benefited from Swamiji’s methods were nervous wrecks once and are now leading perfectly normal lives. Leading psychologists have been recommending Swamiji’s counseling to their patients. Many have come back subsequently, to testify all the good that Swamiji has done to them. Swamiji, puts them through a process, which he calls as ‘Vichaara suddhi’- purification of the thoughts and the thinking process. He has his own blend of logic and manner of expounding great truths. His favourite character is Mulla Nasruddin, a Sufi mystic. He recounts stories from Sufi texts built around this character and the participants go into raptures as he tells one after another. And they listen to him in awe as he speaks about the great Zen and Buddhist masters. There is a message in every word he speaks. "The mind should be calm, body agile and the spirit flexible. This is a Zen saying which is true of a Samurai warrior." He tells them. "No one can stir an empty cup. So if your mind is empty of thoughts, you can be calm, and never loose mental balance." He teaches them how to be calm. Swamiji has an interesting question to all. "Who are you?" "When you say ‘I am 'me', my body’, you mean you are the possessor of the body, meaning, you are not the body itself." " ‘I’, is separate from the body. This body belongs to me, but I am not the body." "Then is ‘I’ the mind? ‘I’ is upset when ‘my mind’ is upset. ‘I’ is calm when ‘my mind’ is calm. This means that 'I' is the possessor of the mind and not the mind itself. So ‘I’ is distinct from body and mind. Then who is ‘I’?" Many want to the recipe for success. Swamiji explains: "It is a myth that happiness is something that is to be achieved or acquired. Happiness is a very ‘human’ nature. Jesus says - The kingdom of Heaven is within you. In the second chapter of GITA, Lord Krishna says- ANTAHSUKAM - Happiness is right within you. We are unaware and unconscious of this and therefore are constantly searching for it in the world of objects. " "Happiness is not available in the objects of the world. Many feel that by indulging in an object, they are happy and the object is the cause of their happiness. It is like a child sucking his thumb. Force the thumb out of his mouth and he cries." He favorite message is ‘Can’ creates successes and ‘can't.’ creates failures. Fifty percent of the problems afflicting us are real. The other fifty-percent is the 'masala' added to it, which is a creation of our own minds. We have the habit of creating a 'map' in our minds and want every individual or situation to fit the map. We have a 'map' of how every person should behave and how every situation should develop. The misery is compounded when nothing fits the 'map'. Swamiji narrates an interesting story to explain this. There was once a person who decided to travel down a river by boat. He read books describing the topography, met experts and finally drew a 'guide map' of the whole area and the path of the river. He set sail armed with all this information. A few miles downstream to his surprise he found the river taking a left turn instead of continuing on a straight course. He got terribly annoyed with the river because it was not following the map. Nevertheless, hoping that the river would correct itself in due course, he continued. But again after a travelling a few more miles, he was more annoyed to find the river not following the course given in the map. This is very typical of all of us. We want our 'map' to be right always. Swamiji's messages are spiritual but not religious. Swamiji also uses modern management techniques like Mirroring, Focusing, pacing, etc. He uses sports psychology. His whole aim is to help people enhance personal well being, improve interpersonal skills, handle stress, enhance productivity and generally to lead a blissful life. Swamiji concentrates on helping people in creating a meaningful and enlightened balance between the four zones: the Intimate zone, the Family zone, the Work zone and the Spiritual zone. The individual learns to be an inner winner and also an outer winner. Swamiji firmly believes that if the 'internal ecology' is fine then the external ecology also tends to be good. Swamiji tells a Buddhist story: There was once a Buddhist monk who was famous for causing rainfall in places that had not seen rain for long period. There was one such village and the people of the place requested the Monk to cause rainfall in their village. The monk came to the place and choosing a spot started meditating. To the amazement of the villagers, there was good rainfall after some time. When asked how he did that, his disciples answered that the monk's internal ecology or being, was in such harmonious and natural state that wherever he meditated the atmosphere around him also corresponded to his internal state of being and became harmonious. Natural balance was restored causing rain to happen. Swamiji spent many years in Himalayas studying Indian scriptures. Through enquiry, meditation and self- discipline, he has emerged out as an inspiring person. He has set out to spread the message of peace and joy. Or else in the rat race of today, even if one wins, one continues to be a rat.
Copyright © 2001 Panangipalli S Murthy |