Ruzbeh N. Bharucha
Channeling has given me the opportunity to interact with innumerable people, week after week, for over sixteen years now. I started out when I was twenty eight or twenty nine and now I am nearing fifty, none the wiser, but enriched with individuals who have opened their hearts and lives to me.
Yes, often after the work is done, there are many who have never kept in touch, but that is understandable. Why would you keep in touch with a doctor once the illness has either been outdone or worsened? But no matter for what reason people have walked into my channeling room, the fact is that they have enriched my life more than I have theirs.
I only wish I could answer more letters, phone messages and be there more for those in need but I know am failing miserably in this department. I am trying my best and I know that my best is not enough but it isn’t for the want of effort or inclination. My silence has infuriated some to the extent of making reasonably sane folks behave in an unreasonable a manner but I guess for each one of us, our problems are an emergency and if not given that due attention, a certain anger could project itself through unbecoming conduct.
So if I have in any way made anybody feel neglected or ignored, I am sorry.
As usual I have rambled away from what I wanted to convey. So here goes. I have realised that spirituality means different things to different people.
There is a large growing populace who are into the field of Light and Energy, stuff like meditation, Kundalini, Chakras, crystals, various methods of healing and they are experiencing various visions and communications, even miracles and I am truly happy for each one of them. For them, spirituality is the realm of the ethereal and there are two worlds, one of the physical with Laloo Prasad Yadav and then the other of life after death, auras and one to one communication with the Lord, Goddess, Master, Angels, and various resident and non-resident spirits of the netherworlds. The inherent issue with this part of the world is that very often real visions co exist with the play of the sub conscious, the power of suggestions; thus the by-lanes where reality ends and illusions begin, are very strong and real, making many of this sweet breed as cuckoo as a clock.
Then there is a section which believes that all this talk about the paranormal is poppycock and they do not think much of all this esoteric stuff and look aghast at anybody who believes or indulges in ‘esoteric mumbo jumbo’ and their philosophy of spirituality is hard core charity and spreading The Light via the means of financial help. They are convinced that to feed a hungry mouth is far better than all the intellectual or paranormal stuff floating about, very often making this section closed and encaged in their own intellectual or do-gooder power play.
I have a huge group that only walk the path of destiny and ascribe to the laws of Karma and they believe that neither healing, Energy work, charity or feeding is going to make any difference, as they believe that what is destined is destined and each one has his or her karmic blueprint to experience, crosses to carry, mountains to climb, family jewels to be nailed to the ground, tears to shed and one can only go about it calmly and wisely and be done with this backlog and try not to create new nonsense and that’s that. Spirituality is going through Karma in a similar manner in which a woman goes through the pangs of child birth….the pain is freakishly mind numbing and excruciating but yet joyous….as all is going to be worth it with the birth of the child who though looks suspiciously similar to a disgruntled squirrel, to one and all, yet for mommy is more beautiful than all the Angels put together. The fear of becoming fatalistic or even cold to the problems of others is a reality, where individual Free Will then ceases to exist which is a danger and I have seen sensible folks then succumb to the power of ‘what has to happen will happen so why stretch beyond a point’. This makes them annoyingly fatalistic to the point of becoming cold to the hurt and pain of others.
Then there are those who believe in prayers and chanting. For them spirituality means time spent in prayer. More they pray, the more they feel closer to Goddess, God and Guru. They may or may not believe in all the above varied spiritual paths, but for them, prayers and more prayers is the way to embrace The One. For them you can either personally or via skype communicate with your Master, do all the charity, practice the path of ‘as you sow you shall reap’, but it is prayers and chanting that is going to lead to one’s salvation. I believe in this path too but one has to give one’s best and pray for the right reasons, being aware that very often prayers might soften the blow but the blow for sure is not going away anytime soon. The danger of getting disillusioned with The One for not answering prayers is something I have seen happen too often than not and it is heart breaking to see somebody throw in the towel and become an agnostic or even an atheist just because prayers have not been answered the way they want them to be answered.
Then we have those who do not believe in charity but are convinced that giving of themselves to serve those in need and the less privileged is the way forward towards their Lord. To physically push the borders of their will and their endurance by stretching themselves, breaking their backs to bring back the smiles and laughter in those who had forgotten joy and comfort. The fear with this section is that very often they have a tendency to look down upon those who pray or follow rituals or practice esoteric healing or communication with the other side.
And then there is a certain section which believes in all the ways mentioned above and strives to reach The One, using each pathway, unprejudiced to any of the above highways of spirituality. S(h)e is certain that to be the perfect disciple, one needs to assimilate each of the above mentioned ways of spirituality and stitch them all into one humble cloak and walk the path. S(h)e doesn’t care to judge or debate about the superiority of one path, but uses every by-lane, every nook, every crevice, every ravine and peak, whatever it takes to put a smile on his or her God, Goddess and Guru. I like this group. Any and every way to please The One is indulged in, as long as they have given their best to please Boss Man up there.
For me spirituality is like the Sun. The Sages of Sages, Agastya Rishi, who gave Lord Ram the famous Hymn in praise of the Sun, the Aditya Hridaya Stotra, just before The Lord went to battle Ravana and army, was clear that the Sun was the embodiment of all that which was good, noble and divine. Though the sunlight seemed the same, there are seven different types of rays or colours that come forth from the sun, each ray or colour embodied with a characteristic, each individualistic but it takes all seven rays or colours in unison to make forth The Divinity of the Sun.
Similarly, I believe each one of the paths of spirituality are unique in their singularity and individuality but one needs to embrace every aspect, each path, not looking down upon any, but in fact certain that there is a unifying thread which passes through every path, all leading eventually through that one door.
Even the yogi who meditates in the Himalayas, is serving all of mankind, as through his meditation, the vibrations emitted sends forth first ripples and then waves upon waves of wellbeing, peace, tranquility and harmony for all of Creation. If the yogi were only concerned about his or her own salvation and the rest of Creation could go boil their ludicrous head, the yogi’s journey for salvation would be slow, arduous, taking lifetimes, with its fair share of trials, cramps, arthritis and hemorrhoids. But the moment the yogi seeks not just his or her salvation but peace and wellbeing of all of Creation, the Cosmos smiles and helps the spiritual mule with momentum never experienced before to achieve not only his or her own goal but also to help all of Creation.
All the Masters first put the wellbeing of all of Creation before Their personal interest. The very fact that Masters do not take the final leap into The Great Fire that allows Them to merge with The One and thus become The One, is because They love Their children so much, They want to help each and every one to merge, and only then Their work would be complete. As mentioned before, The Great Taj, Tajuddin Baba, was very clear when He said that till He did not help in making one lakh twenty thousand Saints on Earth, He would not rest or take the final step towards liberation of one’s own self by merging with The One; call it Mukti, Moksha, Merging or whatever.
Thus, all spirituality has to be holistic and not individualistic. If we meditate or pray only for oneself or one’s near and dear one’s and not for one and all, it means we adhere to the philosophy of diversity and individuality and not true Oneness. If our prayers do not involve those not in our orbit but the unfortunate, the dying, the starving, the meek, the damned, the bullied, the tortured, the ailing, the alone, the hungry, the homeless, the heart broken, the earth bound, the defeated, the left behind, those in the physical plane, those in the spirit plane and those in between, we are driving a stationary car. Not really moving. If each moment is not spent in spreading the Light and Compassion of The One in one’s own way, then, there is something we are doing wrong. Just prayers. Just charity. Just visions. Remains just that….Just. It has to be a composition, a symphony of all the right notes on all the right sounds by all the right instruments played by you, the musician. If we do not use every bit of our self with every little of all that which we have got, then the scenery keeps changing due to the illusionary projector behind but we are rooted at the same spot, like those olden day photography studios, where cut outs of cars and planes were kept and one sat in them and were photographed with changing backdrops of monuments, snow mountains, the beach, but in reality it was all shadow boxing. Nobody went anywhere.
Whether you communicate with your God, Goddess, Guru or every known and unknown spirit in Creation; whether you pray or heal or provide financial help or your own time, the essence of spirituality is enriching each moment, not just yours and mine but all those with whom we are associated directly or indirectly and it needs to be embraced in its totality. Like a meal, that needs various ingredients, some in minuscule quantum, so minuscule that a bystander might think it really makes no difference whether it is a part of the dish or not, but the chef knows that every ingredient helps in creating that Master Dish, similarly, spirituality is all about embracing and unifying. The Sun would lose its radiance if one of the seven rays were missing from It.
I understand that all of us cannot do everything. There are some who truly can’t contribute financially as they themselves are trying their best to keep body and spirit together. But they can give of their goodness, their kindness, their smile, just being decent individuals, spreading love and laughter and tenderness. Their contribution or charity or projection of compassion, may not be in cash or kind or even their time, but of their very essence and that divine spark that lurks in each one of us, very often in the distant nether-land, but it does exist. A short prayer for the wellbeing of those going through pain and discomfort of various intensities does not take too much of time. Chanting in the mind while going about one’s day takes only love and discipline. Keeping silent within is our natural state, the most profound method of meditation.
Early days and even today, we can see this kind of spirituality where a woman or a man, takes care of a home in a manner that is so simple but still so pure, putting every aspect of all spiritual tenants into practice and making life and home into a place of worship. I am sure that most of us have had somebody in our lives or family that have without even knowing it was more spiritual than most, including the so called present Masters.
Spirituality in all its totality is the only way to go forward on this beautifully infuriating journey back home. For me, the very word spirituality comes forth from living a life knowing that one comes forth from the Great Spirit which makes one ‘Spiritual’ and to give each moment one’s true essence in all its ‘Totality’; Spiritual in Totality and when you marry these two words, you get Spirituality.
Be blessed always.
Ruzbeh N. Bharucha