This ones a lot to digest, but its something I’ve been trying to sit with and really dive into.
Loss, it’s a part of life. We cannot escape it, we cannot run or hide from it, it is just part and parcel of life. In the Gita, it says there are only four things certain in this world, those are birth, old age, death, and disease/illness. Yes, I know this all sounds a bit morbid and serious, but its purpose is to familiarize us with these concepts. If you become more familiar with something, the more you can come to terms with it and the easier it can be to cope. No, that doesn’t mean we don’t feel the pain of loss but what it does do is allow us to not live in illusion or constant avoidance of the inevitable..if you really think about it, all 4 of those are concepts are ones we try to avoid the most, the things we try to ignore until we have no choice but to face them. Hopefully, this will start the process of you changing your perspective of them all into something that isn’t AS scary. Swami Satyananda Saraswati once said, fear comes from lack of knowledge, I feel it really applies here because if we don’t understand what happens after death, if we don’t learn about the nature of the soul, if we don’t ask these kind of questions in life, then naturally the unknown becomes a source of fear. So asking those questions is actually step 1!
In the sensitive and early age of 12 I lost my loving mother and my grandmother. I denied my feelings and I couldn’t break the the anger, the emotional stress and the sadness I was holding inside. And then again when I was 19, right at the time I was about to spread my wings and make it as a photographer student my worse fear was real. Being alone completely and losing the last root that was keeping me grounded. My dad was gone too. It took me time to digest to co op and to accept and even now with COVID, I can see that fear is amplified and heightened in many at the moment, as well as me.
As I studied scriptures, listened to teachers speak about loss death, etc..one thing was consistent in all the teachings ‘death is not the end’ it may be the end of our physical bodies, the physical connections we have to people in our lives BUT the soul is eternal which means a soul connection can also be eternal and in my heart just reminding myself of that brought me a lot of calm peace and solace when i felt the anxieties creep up.
Another phrase I keep in my mind daily is
‘What is meant to be, will be and what is not for you, will never come to you.’
There is a verse in the Bhagavad Gita that says not even a blade of grass moves without sanction of God. This means all that we can really do is trust the process., We have to remember this every time we get caught up in our fears. The more we try to take control, the more we obsess over this control, and the harder it will be when life doesn’t go ‘our way’! My heart has deep deep faith in this principle and it definitely brings me a lot of peace and reminds me I am not in control of anything..its pretty much my go-to thought through any anxieties!
We are all spiritual beings, the soul is eternal and everything else from our body to our relationships are temporary BUT like I said before a SOUL CONNECTION can last longer than one lifetime and so focussing on building a soul connection with the people you love while we have the beautiful opportunity to. THAT is an eternal bond that will never be broken, beyond any relationship of human physical connection with another..that will connect you for lifetimes and beyond!
So this coming week try to think of the ways you can take the relationships with those dearest to you to another level..how can you build that deeper connection with one another?
it doesn’t take much..it can simply be discussing a spiritual topic, reading an uplifting spiritual book together, doing a prayer together…for example, my mum daily tells me what she has been reading that day or listened to as part of her spiritual nourishment for the day.. and we discuss it a little. Some days I Facetime in at the time my mum and dad do their evening meditation/prayers and I listen and sing along. Simple yet powerful!
My intention with this post was to encourage deeper connections with you and your loved ones but also, hopefully, help you to start unpacking this fear that most of us carry throughout our lives to something that is inevitable… I’m still at the beginning right here with you all..💛
