~ Terrains to Trek ~

When we decide to witness a waterfalls, invariably we need to climb up a mountain. We may choose to go by walk or drive up the hill. The purpose of the journey is to witness and be there at the top of the falls which, let us say, have not seen but have heard from the ones who had been there. The description, excitement and their experience makes us even more eager to reach there. Who may want to miss anything that is full of joy.

We begin to start our trek. It is indeed not the same even surface that we are usually used to in our day to day life of commuting. We come across various terrains and attimes may even run out of breath. But then, the desire to reach atop enables the mind to accept and adapt to the various situations. The body and breath listen to the signals from the mind and keep moving ahead. Ofcourse, the intellect knows what to discriminate and chooses the way that is comfortable to trek. Finally, when we reach the top, no doubt, the senses do capture to satisfy your desire but mostly, one finds himself totally exhausted both physically and mentally and just crashes down.
Only when we regain our balance in body, breath and mind, the vehicle is ready to be present there to experience the abundance.

Let us see someone who also having heard about the falls begins to trek but he is not fixed with his destination but just goes along tuning in with every opportunity and thereby keeping himself open to the aliveness of the entire trek, the greenery, the birds chirping, movement of other forms etc. He may have begun the trek hearing about the falls but his attitude of freedom keeps all the possible doors of fulfillment , thereby letting in the abundance of Divinity freely enter from all quarters without limiting it to some destination fixed in the mind. Eventually, whenever he happens to reach the falls, he just plunges himself and drowns in it. There is no exhaustion.

In both cases, it is the same body, breath, mind and intellect which operate but the vital difference lies in its connectivity with its own self. When connected, every tiny little space rings the bell of Divinity. However noble reasons one may wish to justify their ignorance in the name of religion and spirituality, if one is not available to the present, then that which remains, i feel would be only exhaustion in the endless name as stress, dejection, rejection and many more.

We recently had a retreat with our Master trekking us on the terrains of "Pancha Koshas" and it was indeed wonderful for many of us to drown in our own selves. Ofcourse, it provides ample space and time to tune in , observe ourselves and also observe others, identify the connected, watch the results of exhaustion. As rightly pointed out by him, it is the continuity of remaining steady that one needs to watchout.

Terrains of layers we do need to trek but to remain connected with our source is the key of awareness. The beauty of the fall of river from a mountain is indeed wonderful. Both the mountain(layers) and the trek(connectivity) is essential to be the witness.