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Actually, you aren't alone in this. Life, or God, or the Universe, however you wish to define the Supreme Force, has always been prodding you in this direction. Every last thing that happens to us from the time we take our birth is oriented towards the ultimate purpose of making us realise our true selves.
So quite possibly, you may already have had a hint from the Power above. Here are the typical symptoms: Do you feel a sense of restlessness that dissatisfies you with your present way of life, no matter how satisfactory it may be on the outside? Are you looking for something more to life? If so, read on. On the other hand, are you in the depths of sorrow or pain? Do you feel that everything you knew about life or took for granted cannot help you in your predicament? That life makes no sense? You too are in line for a breakthrough, so keep going.
In this installment, I'll give you a thumbnail sketch of all the major systems and techniques out there in the spiritual bazaar.
The top slot, at least in India, goes to yoga and meditation. It is not for nothing that the two are linked together. As a matter of fact, meditation is part of the eight limbs of yoga prescribed by the sage Patanjali, in the second century BC in his Yoga Sutras.
The eight limbs are as follows: yama and niyama (dos and don'ts), asana (postures), pranayama, (breath control), pratyahara (sense withdrawal), dharana (one-pointedness), dhyana (meditation), and finally samadhi, (superconsciousness), the sought-after goal.
The other wellknown path is that devised by Gautama Buddha, which also has eight adjuncts, called the Noble Eight-fold Path. These include right view (perspective), right aspiration, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation. The Bhagvad Gita gave us three more systems, karma yoga for the active, bhakti yoga for the emotional, and jnana yoga for the intellectual. There is also naam japa (chanting), which reportedly yields sound dividends. Zen Buddhism throws you questions called koans that have no answer at the level of the thinking mind ( for instance, what is the sound of one hand clapping?) forcing you to transcend it. The Advaitists and Taoists have a way too, which is no way. You already are what you seek, they serenely assert. You just have to accept it.
Right now, there is a plethora of innovative meditation and personal growth techniques, which anyone can successfully use to move into spirituality. Reiki is proving an icebreaker for many novices. All it requires is that you lay hand on 24 different spots of your body housing the chakras.
Then there are the breathing and meditation workshops run by various groups. The most high-profile right now is the Art of Living Course, run by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a Bangalore-based guru; also promising is Siddha Samadhi Yoga, introduced by a former computer engineer called Rishi Prabhakar. Swami Sukhbodhananda, again from Bangalore, runs the Life programme, which successfully integrates spiritual techniques with managerial processes. Vipassana, a ten-day Buddhist meditation course run in Igatpuri and various other centers including one in Hyderabad, and taught by S.N. Goenka, offers unbeatable value in my opinion, but is pretty rigorous. Various spiritual organisations such as the Brahma Kumaris, the Radha Saomis, the Yagoda Satsang Society, the Ramakrishna Mision, the Chinmayananda Mission, offer their own brand of yoga and meditation to followers.
There's no shortage of options. So get going.
BY SUMA VARUGHESE
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Window-shopping at the Spiritual Bazaar