A Journey towards SELF

The Year 2020 has brought new words in our vocabulary. LOCKDOWN, SELF-ISOLATION, QUARANTINE, SOCIAL-DISTANCING, BE-CAUTIOUS, TRAVEL-BAN, WORK-from-HOME, SCHOOL-at- HOME, WEAR-MASK, SHELTERING-in-PLACE and MARRIAGE-from-HOME.

We heard the word LOCKUP from movies but never heard lockdown before. Now we know that LOCK-DOWN is SELF LOCKUP.

Work from home (WFH) was a distant dream and unimaginable. But its almost more than 20 months that WFH still exists. WE all are on the same boat preparing ourselves and our family to weather the difficult situation and to be cautious as much as we can. We have minimised our contacts with the external world and interactions in physical sense are limited only to survival needs. COVID 19 does not discriminate in religion, faith, caste, country, gender, economic background. So let us be kind and compassionate to all.

The word social-distancing is oftenly used during this pandemic. What is social distancing?
Social as we know is companionship. Humans are social animals. They live and exist in communities.

Distancing means being separate. When we simply concatenate social and distancing, it means to maintain the distance with ourselves and others whether we are affected by the disease or not. Very similar to Untouchables. Gandhiji called them as Harijans – people of God. We are maintaining social distancing with each other.

Wait! But is it the social distancing we have been asked to do?
Not exactly! Physical distancing Certainly Yes.
Does that mean our social structure has fallen apart?
Now, keeping physical distancing in mind are we also emotionally distancing ourselves.

Previously also physical distancing existed, is it not. Father worked in another city. Son joined army and left home. Husband left home to get a job in foreign land leaving family behind in homeland but still people were in contacts socially and there were strong emotional bonds. Infact, even before mobiles existed there were strong social and emotional bonds. A son , working in army or defence forces got married and within a month when he is called to join back immediately as war broke and country needs him. After a year when he returned back home, he holds his baby in his arms with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face. That deep and strong were the emotional bonds. So physical distance existed previously also and bonds were also no doubt very strong even when family members were separated by distance.

Then how is the present situation different from that. WORRY!

Perhaps it’s the worry. We worry about our older parents. We aren’t able to take care of them. We are so helpless. We cannot comfort our near and dear ones.

Then, How can we maintain social distancing without emotional distancing? The answer is encapsulated in one Word and that is “HeartiCulture “.

We have to enhance our emotional bonds. See the advantage of the situation. People started praying for their loved ones for their safety and existence. Pollution level came down. Birds chirping could be heard from very far. People from very far were able to spot Mount Everest.

Taj corridor went clean. Animals freely moved to cities thinking that forest area has extended. Aquatic animals were seen at sea shore like sharks, sealions and dolphins. We started to hold pen and scribble something in pad. After bath we took an aarti plate to temple at our own house. We sat at window and started to stare at the silence outside. Silence became an acceptable part of us.

These all things talk about us and we were not used to focus in dealing with ourselves with silence in this way because here Worry was encapsulated in this silence.

This is a wake-up call to be aware of SELF.
How shall we do this? How shall I culture my heart with love and compassion for all? How shall I connect Heart-to-Heart?

Hearticulture connects you Heart-to-Heart, a life full of peace and happiness. When we can mould our life to our culture, our food, language, festivals, dressing style, and so on , induced in us and inculcated by our parents and environment, why not also culture our heart with kindness and compassion for all. Inculcate SELF to be generous.

We all are unique in our own ways. This means we all are different from others, but are we ready to accept others differences with generosity or infact, our own self. Many times, we don’t even forgive ourselves. With Hearticulture, we rise above differences and our heart becomes very generous. In Hearticulture along with generosity we also get humbleness. There is no place better than to be humble. Unfortunately, the person very close to us, we are usually very hard to them because we take them for granted. In Hearticulture the word ‘I’ is replaced by “WE” and the result is that there is no blame game and LOVE prevails here giving rise to tenderness in communication. We keep our tongue very tender and maintain sweetness and softness in words that we speak. We start to use words softly with Pure and clean heart and once we reach to this stage, we start referring to our own heart for our own decisions with confidence and courage.

How shall we proceed from here. Very simple. Take a minute to sit in a comfortable position and gently close your eyes. Think of your close ones and pray for them. Connect your heart to their heart and see the difference. You will feel very light, pure and peaceful. Your prayers reach to your loved ones and that’s how you remain connected heart to heart. Your loved ones can feel the difference too. Loved, cared, Safe and Assured. Let’s experience Hearticulture atleast once and see the difference. When there is so much of stress in life, Heartful meditation is the way of life.

Meditation is very invaluable. A simple path enlightened for all of us. Give a try in life from Stress to Self-realization.

Visit : https://heartfulness.org/en/

Thanks
Kavita Unnikrishnan B.Ed. First Year S.N.D.T. Pune 15.12.2021