Sometimes we have to stop and ask ourselves, ‘what is stopping me?’ What is stopping me from beginning a spiritual journey or what is stopping me moving forward on the spiritual journey I have started? It requires courage to ask the question, and it requires courage to hear the answer, from within.
However, this kind of understanding is born of knowledge, and knowledge requires silence, because truth is deep, very simple, but very deep. We have to find time for nourished moments of stillness. This will help us to keep every day fresh and see each one with new eyes, because every time we meet, we are all different.
There are two aspects that might be stopping us from moving forward: wastage and lack of acceptance. Where there is wastage there is a burden and heaviness. If I waste time, or money or my thoughts, there will be a burden on my mind. An honest soul, moving forward spiritually, will use everything they have in a worthwhile way.
All this could be on a very subtle level. I could be holding back from taking the journey, or the next step on the journey, because of fear, or because of sorrow or because of a subtle weakness that accompanies me constantly, of which I am unaware. It could be because of guilt or it could be that I am very cosy in my comfort zone and a subtle inertia creeps in. In this way I continue to not fulfil my potential. This is a waste of who I am.
I also need to accept the way the story of my life is unfolding. I can only direct my own life, not that of others and not the situations that appear. I can only play my own part, be my own self and then I am truly free.
Acceptance of the self does not mean that we can sit in that comfort zone. I need silence, knowledge and deep understanding of who I am and then I receive the power to become who I really am capable of becoming. I must make sure that I stay alert and aware, not just be busy ticking boxes and getting distracted from the journey. I must make a daily endeavour to practise meditation in the early morning, fulfil my responsibilities with love and no attachment to the outcome, spend time understanding the truth of spiritual knowledge and practise meditation in the evening as I do a stocktake of the day.
Our fortune is created through our incognito, quiet and powerful commitment to God. This needs time, silence and understanding. Then the soul is free, light, powerful and it enables others to be the same.
BK Dipty is the coordinator of the Brahma Kumaris centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.