Entrainment 23

 

In His presence,

In His embrace,

In His wisdom,

In His energy,

In His silence,

Drenched,

Soaked,

Awakened 

&

Reborn.

Entrainment 23, a celebration of ...

My year-long wait ended on the first week of September 2023. I could finally see, experience and hug my living guru, Mahatria, in the residential retreat, Entrainment 23. My preparation for the retreat was filled with exhilarating anticipation and excitement. There was a skip in my walk, rhythm in my lips, dance in my body and music in my heart as I waited for ‘the’ day.  The experiences I was blessed with in the retreat were beyond anything I could have ever experienced. It was refreshing, intellectual, introspective, emotional, transforming and soul-stirring. 

He always leaves me in awe. 

How does one simplify such complex spiritual truth? 

How does one make spiritual wisdom so relatable to day-to-day life? 

How does one think and equip us ten steps ahead when we don’t even know where we are walking? 

The retreat was full of hard-hitting one-liners, heart-touching anecdotes, jokes emphasizing life should not be lived so seriously, and experiences that left the eyes wet and the heart overflowing with gratitude. The wisdom that unfolded was a treat to the intellect and bliss to the soul. Here are some of my learning: Words are my way of freezing the experience for eternity.

Firstly, if spirituality has to be explained in one word, the word for it would be ‘Entrainment’. Entrainment means oneness, becoming one with. When our body, mind and soul align, we are in perfect harmony. Oneness with anything that we do is spirituality. We generally experience this oneness through art. We listen to music, watch a dance performance or paint a painting, and we get so lost in the experience that we lose our sense of time, space or existence. We become one with the art, and this experience is spirituality. The very first lesson in the retreat was to feel oneness with anything we do. Whatever actions we perform, our mind and body should be present, and we should do it wholeheartedly with complete focus to experience the oneness.

Secondly, my perception of God, rituals and religion underwent a huge transformation. The statement, ‘You cannot be a part-time devotee to a full-time God,” was so profound. God is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. Why do we then restrict him to an idol, a place of worship, or a particular time? Just as I was contemplating and trying to wrap my head around it, my Guru delivered his masterstroke with the question, “Is there mud in the mud pot?”, “Is there gold in the gold jewellery?” Isn’t there a part of the creator in every creation?  Mud is part of the mud pot; gold is part of the gold jewellery, and God the creator is part of us, the creations. Recognizing, accepting, feeling, embracing and becoming one with the one within is the journey of spirituality.

Thirdly, how does one realize and embrace the creator within? Mahatria explained we don’t need to do rigorous penance or isolate ourselves for this. Just by being true to oneself and authentic, we get closer and closer to the within. Most of the time, we live as a stranger onto ourselves. We don’t know the thoughts we are thinking, understand the reason behind the feelings, or recognize ourselves in moments of intense emotions. By growing in awareness about ourselves, we become conscious of the how’s, why’s and what’s behind our actions, feelings and reactions. Growing in consciousness, we grow closer to understanding and accepting our original authentic self. By consciously living every moment of life with awareness, we embrace the creator within.

My next biggest understanding was the privilege of living a human life. Of all creations in the world, the human being alone has the power to wonder, explore, transform, love, emote, inspire and, most important of all faculties, the ability to make choices. As human beings, we can choose and craft our life the way we want. A cheetah can’t swim, a fish cannot run, and a dog cannot climb a tree, but humans can choose to learn any skill we want and become anything we aspire to. But often, we don’t take responsibility for this faculty called choice. We don’t own it; instead, we use it to blame others. Humans have the power to choose. Why don’t we choose happiness over sadness? Why don’t we choose abundance over scarcity? Why don’t we choose growth over stagnation? Our life is a culmination of our choices, yet we find it easy not to own up to this and blame it on others. My biggest realization was that “I am the one limiting myself. My limiting beliefs are my impediments. And the beauty is, all it takes is one choice for me to break free and outgrow them.” Living is a choice, and we need to own up to it.

Mahatria gave us the knowledge and the things to be done in the ‘action’ domain to reach peak performance in life. Every question that started with a ‘how’ in my mind got answered when He explained the 11 attributes we need to work on to achieve peak performance in life. Here is my understanding of them.

11. Mastery: We often know what is right, yet we cannot do it. Mastery is about doing and following what is right at all times. To start with, focusing on the small and simple things is the best way forward. Simple things like not snoozing the alarm, exercising daily, not taking that extra cup of coffee, not giving in to that sweet or being punctual all compromise our ability of mastery. When we develop mastery of all the small things, we develop an attitude of mastery that flows into all aspects of life. 

10. Perceived reality: All of us know that every experience one goes through shapes our maturity and perception about life, yet we don’t change our perception about ourselves or others. We firmly hold onto our opinions and are rigid in updating our perceptions. When this happens with others, it strains our relationship with the world, and when this happens with ourselves, our self-confidence and self-image get impacted. Always be open-minded to update the perceptions and keep them positive.

9. People: Always relate to people from a place of love or inspiration. Growing in love is possible only by giving love. Start by caring and slowly allow the compassion to grow into love. Transformation is possible only when we feel inspired. Let us live a life worthy of inspiring the world around us. 

8. Tools: With technological advancement, different tools are available to make life easier. Use these tools not as a distraction but to keep the focus on the process to achieve the end objective.

7. Money: The hard-hitting truth is to become rich; the way is not to conserve money by only focusing on rationing the spending but also to create opportunities to earn more money. A slight shift in the perspective from only saving money to creating opportunities to make money is necessary to attract financial abundance into our lives.

6. Time: Most of our actions have an end objective. Some of it is to reach our goals, and many are to experience a sense of gratification. Gratification is a powerful feeling that drives our actions and behaviour. Gratification can be instant or delayed. Always go for the option that delays gratification. Most often, it is the right thing to do. Snoozing the wakeup call gives the instant gratification to sleep a few more minutes. But if we get up and finish our workout, we still feel gratified. This is delaying gratification by doing what is right. Just becoming aware that we are choosing instant gratification over doing the right thing goes a long way in helping us get back on track.

5. Emotions: The mind has two parts: the conscious and the subconscious. 1/8th of our mind is conscious; most of our logical reasoning and intellectual curiosity sit here. 7/8th of our mind is the subconscious mind, the seat to our emotional and spiritual self. Deep emotions drive the subconscious mind. Anything that we process intensely impacts our subconscious mind. By nature, human beings process negative emotions deeper than positive emotions. Our anger, hurt and sadness are much deeper than our joy and happiness. Just becoming aware of this and consciously processing positive emotions deeply and negative emotions shallowly ensures we keep our subconscious mind positive.

4. Intelligence: All of us have intelligence, so why then some of us can achieve more with it than most? There is a way to handle intelligence to get the maximum out of it. Here are the four attributes that Mahatria explained. Always give direction to the intellect. Have a purpose and allow the intelligence to work towards it. Always use the intelligence to think about the future and not dissect the past; let it be futuristic. Always focus your intelligence on getting the solution instead of focusing on the problems; be solution-oriented. Always use intelligence on the circle of influence (what you can control and do) and not on the circle of concern (what you cannot do or control, you can only worry and empathize). 

3. Energy: The world runs on energy. We run on energy. But many times, we feel a dip in our energy levels. We can increase our energy levels by energy conservation and increasing energy levels. Dissipation of energy happens in several ways. One of the biggest ways of losing energy is processing negative emotions. By focusing less on our negative emotions, we conserve more energy. Increasing energy levels is possible only through non-doing and becoming one with anything we do. When we approach anything in life with enthusiasm and intensity, we become one with it and becoming one helps us draw energy from the divine. Sitting in silence and focusing on one thought is another way to receive the universal energy.

2. Desire: Progress and growth happen because of desires. When we have a desire that is larger than life, that focuses on doing good to the world at large than our personal success, life has a way to favour and help fulfil such desires. So, the trick is to have a larger-than-life goal that can also serve our personal growth. Divine energy pours itself into a soul that beats for the greater good of the world.

1. Faith: Miracles happen not because of your God but your Faith in your God. Faith is that one emotion that takes us closest to universal energy. Having at least one spiritual connection beyond our judgment is essential for our growth. There are many times doubts, disturbance, and fear make their way into our lives, and having a spiritual anchor helps us to manage and come out of these situations. Deepening this faith has a very positive and profound impact on our lives.

Entrainment was an oasis of wisdom to my thirsty soul. Every moment was a celebration of our Guru, our path, our way of life and life at large. Yet, as I was coming back, my heart was overflowing with gratitude, and my eyes were brimming with emotions. 

How much should one love the world to give so much of himself to them? 

How much more can one love the world than he already has loved?

How much more can he give the world when he has already given over three decades of his life not just on such occasions but Sunday after Sunday? 

Yet he gives, the unconditional giver that he is and 

Yet he loves, the unconditional lover that he is. 

How is it physically possible for him to give so much of himself and always put us on the highest pedestal? 

To stand for 6 hours, without a break, with no food or water, with no thought other than to give, embrace after embrace, he poured himself into each of us with a smile and a sway.

There are no words to express, no way to give, nothing to do to ease myself out of this insurmountable indebtedness I feel. Yet the heart knows that He did it all, not expecting anything but my growth. 

Words fail, yet I must say, forever, in deep gratitude to my loving and living Guru, Mahatria.

Loving you so much!