From Wellness to Heartfulness

I am going to complete seven decades of my life now. When I look back at my
childhood, what wonders me the most is, why as a child I never knew the
meaning of suffering. It was not that I had everything with me that a child would
wish to possess, nor that I never fell sick.
It took my life to get the answer. But I must say, the period from childhood to
what I am today, was the golden period of my life. It was this period that taught
me, how as an adult, I can be an innocent, simple hearted and un prejudiced
person like a child, who possesses all these qualities naturally and unknowingly.
It taught me, how to correlate suffering with learning. My heart has now learnt to
translate the word “suffering” to “learning”. I have reached a state, where I can at
least visualise the real goal of human life.
Before I tell you, how this happened, I would like you to read the following:
“If you knew there was a practical way to transcend suffering and fly into the sky
of hope and contentment, would you be interested?”
How would you react to this beautiful line? My heart began to palpitate merely at
the thought of transcending sufferings.
The sentence quoted here, has been taken from the preface for the book “THE
HEARTFULNESS WAY”.
This book is the result of candid conversations between Shri Kamlesh D. Patel,
popularly known as Daaji and Mr. Joshua Pollock, in which they explore the
practice and principles of something, they call, Heartfulness Way.
Daaji ssays “Hearfulness practice nurtures our soul, removes the weeds and mud
that keep them hidden and set free that spark of child like innocence and wonder
that makes life truly meaningful. And it starts with the simple act of meditation”.
After going through all these lines, who can resist himself or herself to turn more
pages of the book. And the same happened with me too.
The book consists of three parts. Here, I am concentrating on the first part only
“Why Heartfulness?”, because the biggest question that puzzles everyone, is,
“why meditate?”.
In the book too, the conversation begins with this very first question.
But Daaji immediately counters the question by saying, “Why not meditate?”.
“Well, each person’s reason will be different. In life, our goals tend to correspond
to our personal needs and tastes. But when people start meditation, they soon
begin to harvest benefits that far exceed their aims. Often, people are surprised
to report a profound sense of spiritual well being- a state reflected by the
presence of inner joy and even bliss. It’s as if a hungry person asks for a small
scrap of food, but then, someone surprises him with a banquet.”
These words of Daaji totally changed my perception for Prayer. I used to think
that asking God for worldly things is like begging. But now I have a clear
distinction between needs and wants. If a person is unable to feed himself and his
family, to whom would he ask for that? Obviously, his creator. Fulfillment of our
needs is our birth right. And our prayers will surely be answered, if they are for
our needs, not for our wishes and wants.
I also learnt that if I contemplate on any prayer, it becomes meditation. But the
results of meditation are so profound and amazing that some people reach the
state of bliss.
“ Meditation simply normalizes your inner state. It creates naturalness and
whatever unnaturalness is there in you, starts to disappear. There may be
thousand variety of unnaturalness, but there is only one naturalness.”
What a wonderful explanation by Daaji!
Isn’t this amazing that meditation removes all our abnormalities leading to a
normal inner state?
“Our goals change as we progress. Our wisdom grows. So,the journey is infinite.
The moment you think, you have made it, you stop growing. Evolution is a
continuous process. A highly advanced aspirant approaches the destination
without ever arriving.”
Oh. That means I might have started meditation with a different goal. But as I
meditate, my thought process evolves and I move on to some higher goal.
What a beautiful idea! But then, what are we going to arrive at, what are we
moving forward for? And, here is the wonderful reply from Daaji.
I quote his words. “From selfishness to selflessness, from restlessness to
peacefulness, from insistence to acceptance, from imbalance to balance, from
heaviness to lightness, from grossness to subtlety, from periphery to the core of
being, The Source, The Higher Self.”
When asked about the role of our own knowledge and experiences, his
explanation was so beautiful and simple that even a layman like me could get it.
He says, “knowledge and experiences only work at conscious level. This can
change our deliberate actions. But how to change subconscious action, where we
tend to encounter tremendous forces of inertia.”
“Meditative practice works at deeper levels of our being. And then change
happens on its own.”
Oh, that’s great.
That means knowledge and experiences both fail us because we have so much of
inner resistance. But as soon as a little practice of meditation is added, that
resistance melts away. We start learning from our knowledge and experiences.
Isn’t this so exciting?
Daaji calls this inner resistance as donkey’s stubbornness, our ego. It’s very
beautifully explained by him.
He says, “a time comes when there is no donkey either. I eventually realize that
there is a single factor that affects all my experiences: the way I handle my ego.”
“Actually, the world’s problems are very simple. They are lack of love between
human beings, lack of compassion, of tolerance, of humility and of acceptance.”
“But then, how to solve the problem of hatred e.g.?
“Can love and acceptance be legislated and enforced?”
“Can any law change the human heart? The heart only changes when it itself
decides to change. And that is an indivisual’s choice.”
Oh. Now I got the point.
The reason for most of our sufferings is that we always want others to behave the
way we like. But all people are unique individuals. And they will change only if
their heart is willing to change.
So, we should not, rather we can not enforce transformation upon others.
Instead, we should prepare our heart to accept change. For others, let us be nondemanding. Let us be content to love them as they are, to accept them as they
are.
And, this is the true humanity, the world sorely needs.
So, when love and compassion are there, a complete acceptance would be there,
acceptance for others & for circumstances. How can there be any kind of suffering
then? But, the only condition is, our own heart should be prepared to change.
“But, is this possible in such a simple way, just being Heartful?”
And, the answer to my query was lying in the last paragraph of the preface,where
Daaji writes, “that is exactly what Heartfulness offers- not by removing problems
or by shutting them out, but by transforming us from the inside out so that we
see the world in a new way, without the filters of our limitations.”
Wow, what an excellent explanation!
When I step into Heartfulness Meditation, my inner resistance slowly and slowly
melts away. Now I am prepared to accept changes.
Isn’t that all I need for my transformation?
The world is the same, as it was. But, my perspective towards the world has
changed. All my actions are heartfelt now and so, I accept the world as it is. My
individual identity is lost. I am dissolved in the Ultimate Source.
Isn’t that a state of absolute Bliss, a state far beyond wellness?

Dr. Usha Bhatia