New beginnings
A moment of pause and realisation before them
So when was the last time we heard a clock ticking?
Are we trying to imagine now how that sounds? It’s tough to recall. After all, rarely does it happen that the stars of our destiny align a certain way, granting us the much-needed space from our polluted surroundings, a pause from the senseless bustle and a moment to make sense of the kind of life we’re leading. Is it worth it?
Bleak midwinters, silent nights as silent as death itself, piercing through that silence is the screeching noise of the second’s hand ticking – trying to remind you how you’re ending one second at a time – you the mortal being. Who even keeps an analogue wall clock in today’s digital times?
In many Muslim cultures, when you want to ask someone how they’re doing, you ask, in Arabic: “Kayf haal-ik?” or in Persian: “Haal-e shomaa chetoreh?” – How is your haal?
What is this haal that we inquire about? What do I wish to know when I ask this? Is it the number of items left on your to-do list that you’re struggling to check off before the day ends? (Or maybe it is us who’re ending – one second at a time) Is it the number of items in your inbox for which you are desperately exhausting your mind while forming an appropriate response?
Is it a simple formality based way of greeting each other that would make us seem rude if not adhered to? Or is it a hard to lose habit that we’ve picked up due to our pseudo sociability?
What is this haal that we inquire about?
It is the transient state of one’s heart in that very moment, at that very breath! I’m not asking how your day has been going, neither am I seeking a half-hearted yet most expected lie of everything being alright. I’m simply asking about the feeling that your heart is feeling at that exact moment, that very breath!
Tell me your heart is lost, tell me your heart is joyous, tell me your heart is afraid or sad or that it craves a breath of relief, a moment of peace, a moment of realisation, an assuring human touch. Tell me it seeks clarity. Show me that you remember that you’re a Human Being, not just a Human DOING. Tell me you remember that you’re more than just a machine, checking off items from your to-do list, more than a puppet at the mercy of your digital device, more than a victim of your own trap, more than a mere pawn in the larger scheme of things. Have that conversation, that realisation. Examine your own heart, explore your soul, and then tell me something about your heart and your soul. Or maybe don’t tell me, but let your heart tell it to you! Be the listener it needs. Give it that time, that space, that breath amidst all the chaos of this meaningless and fleeting life. Be a healing conversation, one filled with grace and presence. One where work isn’t an escape from the harsh realities of that ticking clock. One where time killing digital distractions are taken over by the sweet pain-relieving distractions of solitude that shake us up and wake us up from this bad dream that we are living – wasting our lives one second at a time.
A good man once said that dipping a sealed bottle of excreta into the holiest of rivers doesn’t turn it into an elixir. Such holds in most churned of the Sufi preachings of our land. Real filth is the one inside. The rest simply washes off. There is only one type of dirt that cannot be cleansed with pure waters, and that is the stain of hatred and bigotry contaminating the soul. You can purify your body through abstinence and fasting, but only love will purify your heart. Mawlana Rumi said, “While everyone in this world strives to get somewhere and become someone, only to leave it all behind after death, you aim for the supreme stage of nothingness. Live this life as light and empty as the number zero. We are no different from a pot. It is not the decorations outside, but the emptiness inside that holds us straight. Just like that, it is not what we aspire to achieve but the consciousness of nothingness that keeps us going.”
In the words of Mawlana Rumi himself – It is never too late to ask yourself, “Am I ready to change the life I am living? Am I ready to change within?” Even if a single day in your life is the same as the day before, it indeed is a pity. At every moment and with each new breath, one should be renewed and renewed again. There is only one way to be born into a new life: die before death.
There are more fake gurus and false teachers in this world than the number of stars in the visible universe. Don’t confuse power-driven, self-centred people with true mentors. A genuine spiritual master will not direct your attention to themselves. He will not expect absolute obedience or utter admiration from you but instead will help you appreciate and admire your inner self. True mentors are as transparent as glass. They let the light of God pass through them.
– Maj Jayant charan
