There is much more to this life than we realise. We are given this human birth to know ourselves as soul and to know God, and then realise the merger of our soul in Him. The Divine is within us, and we can experience Him for ourselves when we embark on the inner spiritual journey. For this, we need to learn the right technique. This process, also called meditation, whereby we take our attention away from the physical world and focus it within, allows the inner spiritual worlds to unfold and connect us with God’s love and Light. As we take steps on the road that leads to the Divine, we will come across many obstacles. Thoughts and desires will distract us. As a desire is fulfilled and brings about a fleeting sense of happiness, it may lead us to erroneously believe we have achieved our goal when we are simply approaching a bend in the road. We need to learn to discern the bend from the destination. We should not pause but keep going in pursuit of our goal. We are all here to grow spiritually; to do so, we need to sit in silence. The process of sitting in silence may seem easy, but when we sit down to meditate, we find that many distractions come our way. We are bombarded by thoughts about responsibilities, obligations and chores; before long we question our ability to meditate. Many of us are unable to still the body and may give in after a day or two of trying. Yet, when we observe ourselves in the physical world, we notice that we can stay still and engrossed in a painting, a piece of art, a song, a musical rendition, or even a poem for hours on end. Why is this so? The arts entice the senses, namely, the sense of sight and sound. They bring us joy at the physical level. When we sit down to meditate, we are readying ourselves to enjoy the sights and sounds of the inner spiritual worlds. The beauty that we enjoy through our physical senses is a mere reflection of what awaits us in the inner worlds. Rajinder Singh
