of love and this time I felt all the space around me filled with his peace and quiet and love.
I sat down again on the empty yellow cushion, my cushion, and Guruji handed me a cup of the fragrant ginger tea:
“I’m happy to see you, Tara.”
I looked into his lotus eyes and my heart jumped for joy.
“And now”, began Guruji, “ we will set off on a journey together, a journey of discovery into the most hidden nooks and crannies of your spirit. You will learn to free yourself of opinions, prejudices, and fixed mindsets which you have burdened yourself with throughout the course of your life. Your old baggage will be thrown away. We will start as if we knew nothing.”
“Guruji, you asked me when I am really happy. I know it now. When I’m here. Yes, when I’m here on your raft with you, then I’m really happy.” I looked at him affectionately.
“That is good. Now you already have an idea of what deep happiness is.
This kind of happiness is something you can always carry around in you. This happiness comes from your soul, Tara. All you have to do is tune into your soul!”
“What is the soul exactly?”, I asked hesitantly, for in all honesty I didn’t really know.
“In Western civilisation the common wisdom is that a human is body and has a soul. That’s not quite right. On the contrary: It’s exactly the other way around.
A human being is soul and has a body.
The essence of us humans is our soul. Our body is only our tool. Our body is more or less the vehicle which transports us through our life.
A child is born – it is one with its soul. But then along comes society. Material things begin to gain importance. Just like the skin layers of an onion, they wrap themselves around the human being and preoccupy his conscious spirit, his powers of reason – house, possessions, wealth. The soul, the unconscious spirit, is in danger of suffocating under these layers.
A human being lives like a captive in his own body. He who only loves his body, loves his own prison. But we are not only defined by our body. We are boundless. The secret of happiness is to not limit oneself and to develop an awareness of one’s own soul.”
I hung on every word that came from his lips and wanted to let them flow through me.
All our egoistic motives,
all our personal desires obstruct
a clear and true view of our soul,
because they only reveal our own
pitiful ego.
When we become aware of our soul,
we become conscious of the inner being which
transcends our ego and possesses
the deepest connections to the unity of all things.
This profound quotation comes from the Indian poet and thinker Rabindranat Tagore. Can you imagine and recognise what it means?”
I nodded eagerly. But could I really?
Guruji stopped for a moment. He seemed to be deeply absorbed, and then suddenly he beamed at me again.
“Perhaps this is all a little too much for you, my dear Tara.”
“No, no!”, I hurriedly contradicted him, taken aback. I wanted to stay here and immerse myself in this new world.
“You were already like that as a little girl, Tara. You’ve always tended to overdo things, whether at work or when learning. Your mother always had difficulty getting you to let go of what you were concentrated on.”
Yes, that was right. But how did Guruji now also know things about my childhood?
Instead of answering my thoughts as usual, he simply smiled at me enigmatically. I was just going to ask him about it, when he said: “Later, Tara! Later.”
“Now I shall introduce you to the secrets of stillness and peace and quiet.
The most important thing you must learn is not to constantly increase the speed of your life.
The first step is to learn how to enter into stillness and peacefulness. For these two are your entrance ticket into a wonderful and happy life.”
Guruji handed me a note containing a quotation:
Stillness is a great blessing,
it clears up the mind and lends it vitality.
And this stillness is a source of great energy,
not only the energy of thinking or the energy
of machines, but unspoilt energy
that has immeasurable powers and abilities.
This is the place where the very active mind can be still.
It is exactly this intensive activity
of the brain that embodies the character
nd beauty of stillness.
(Jiddu Krishnamurti)
I read the quotation through several times and considered it.
“Is that where the saying ‘In stillness lies the key to strength’ comes from?”
“That too. The world has become noisy. And in order to recognise the secrets of life you have to be quiet, otherwise you cannot hear them!
It’s important to give yourself some time out every day. Give yourself the luxury of stillness, having a bit of time and doing nothing for a moment! Do it for your own sake! Learn to listen to your inner voices again! In stillness you free yourself from the distractions of this world and enter a wonderfully exciting place. Silence gives you the power to be active and creative. That’s when you hear the whispering of the gods.”
His words sent shivers down my spine. The ‘whispering of the gods’ sounded thrilling. “What do I have to do to hear these whispers?”
“Take a bit of time every day to meditate, in other words find a time for peace and quiet. Sit down and relax, settle down and listen. Listen to your inner voices.”
Guruji closed his eyes and, in only a moment, seemed to be deeply entranced. And all the while he radiated an incredible and absolutely intensive stillness.
I copied him and closed my eyes too. I was so hungry for inner peace and wanted nothing more than to fall into this state of quiet and stillness myself.
But it wasn’t quite as easy as I had imagined. Inside my head things were not quiet at all. I kept having to think of this or that event or some task or other.
I
