Guiding Light: Spirituality and mental health

Most of humanity experiences peace and stress in cycles. We return to that moment of peace either after an achievement or after a bout of sound sleep. Sometimes it is reading a passage or listening to a song, or words that touch the depth of our soul. We feel deep peace only to be overcome by stress once again. When one shuts off this intermittent peace by becoming conscious, one experiences a state of tranquillity, despite all the anxiety around us.

Although we will see misery and grief in people and circumstances that surround us, we will be unaffected as we become conscious with the realisation of the truth. The truth is simple. It is called sat. The truth is that we are not going to be here forever. There is no doubt that we will leave planet earth after the show of life comes to an end. We know beyond doubt that we are not this body that grows from a tiny zygote and ends up as ashes, as it returns to dust. We realise that we are not even the ME — the Mind and Ego that we seem to be. We become conscious that this is an illusion.

The money and the wealth, all the name and the fame that we are yearning for, is eventually meaningless. And it is this yearning that causes us to worry and be anxious. We are the divine soul but just like the bright sun gets covered by dark clouds, we too get enveloped with a blanket of ignorance and we cannot see the truth.

It is our ego that stops us from seeing the truth beyond, creating this illusory veil between us and the truth. But when we become conscious of the truth, despite the dark clouds, this realisation makes us Ever conscious of the truth — sat — and we realise that life is a cosmic drama that will eventually end. Thus, as we, like a monk, go beyond karma, living with dispassion, detached from people and possessions, we remain in that state of ananda, which even the millionaires and the billionaires, the presidents and the kings of the world fail to enjoy.

(The author is a spiritual leader and the founder of AiR Institute of Realization and AiR Center of Enlightenment)