So lets break rituals, and instead live and act in the spirit of things

Dhaval Dalal's Weblog The Mother's Birthday and Room Darshan

Feb 22 2007, 10:34:42 PM IST in category [Thoughts & Philosophy]

Though I have been to Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Society, Pondicherry many times, it was the first time that I got the opportunity to visit The Mother's room on Her birthday - 21st February. Day before the Darshan, I got a chance to listen to the ongoing talk-series on Savitri by Dr. Anand Reddy in the Hall of Harmony, Ashram School. He utilizied last fifteen minutes to enlighten and to prepare the audience to not treat "Room Darshan" as a "Ritualistic Room Darshan", in fact he expressed his reservation against the use of the word "Room Darshan".

Let us take example of a simple pranam. When a person goes to temple or samadhi or any such pious place, he/she bows down before the deity/guru and in many cases, such a movement is largely ritualistic. One may wonder...how? Usually, when there is a deep aspiration or when a prayer rises from the heart (and not mind) or when expressing gratitude or any feeling of surrender, the body will automatically participate and its culmination will be a pranam, such a pranam is a non-ritualistic one, instead when the pranam is directed by the mind upon seeing the deity/guru, it becomes a ritualistic pranam. So lets break rituals, and instead live and act in the spirit of things.

Every once a while we have the habit of treating ourselves to good things that we enjoy and most of the times we would like ourselves to be in comfort zone of operation. However, we need to be harsh with ourselves and then only can we progress in our lives. I believe that this not only applies to the spritual sphere of individual's development, but in all the spheres of individual's progress be it Professional, Soft Skills etc... to name a few. In my view, to be harsh means to introspect (all thoughts, actions, interactions, and professional work that we carry out on daily basis) and give a ruthless unsympathetic self-feedback, this in turn will enable us to make right choices and act decisively next time around. So, how about turning - "being harsh" in to a habit?

Never before have I come across such a crisp and concise explanation which I found in the book: The Mother Volume 3 - Questions and Answers. I have noted this down here:

"You are to be conscious of yourself, you must awake to your nature and movements, you must know why and how you do things or feel or think them; you must understand your motives and impulses, the forces, hidden and apparent, that move you; in fact, you must, as it were, take to pieces the entire machinery of your being. Once you are conscious, it means that you can distinguish and sift things, you can see which are the forces that pull you down and which help you on. And when you know the right from the wrong, the true from the false, the divine from the undivine, you are to act strictly up to your knowledge; that is to say, resolutely reject one and accept the other. The duality will present itself at every step and at every step you will have to make your choice. You will have to be patient and persistent and vigilant - 'sleepless', as the adepts say; you must always refuse to give any chance whatever to the undivine against the divine."

Indeed, such jolts are needed to shake people (including me) so that they become more introspective and point inwards towards deeper self-scrutiny. Permalink Comments [1]

Comments: Hello Mr. Dalal, Very well protraited saying on your article above. A inspiring one it is indeed. With best regards H.Vyas Mumbai. Posted by Hemang Vyas on February 23, 2007 at 11:50 AM IST #