In 2002, just after finishing my twelfth board exams and right before joining college, I got very seriously involved with Reiki, which I had been practising for the previous four years. Our Reiki centre, headed by my Reiki teacher, was expanding, and he decided to rent a small house in Bhopal to operate from. It was a dusty, dinghy little place when we got it, but one of the senior teachers in the group had been a popular interior designer earlier - under her watchful eye, we gradually moulded the house into a space that became my home away from home. A lot of my school friends had been learning Reiki along with me - all of them also used to chip in with the work. Nobody felt burdened or put upon because of the efforts: industrialists, retired regional bosses of LIC, police officers, students - we all worked together under our teachers guidance, and the efforts bore rich fruit: the centre became a vibrant hub for meditation and self-development. There were so many summer days I spent sitting there in the sun when the centre would be packed with visitors and students and there would be no space for sitting, but not feeling the need to complain - we veterans sat together easily in silence, practising Reiki through the day. Being at the centre and helping was always fun and a learning experience: I remember, one of the students, a cheerful Punjabi aunty ji, cried as she said that all her life, nobody had served her freshly cut and peeled apples the way we did (it was my turn at kitchen duty - I was grateful that clumsy as I am, I didnt slice my own thumb with the peeler) Life moves on - after a few years, I left Bhopal for Delhi, with a regret that I would miss this beautiful experience elsewhere: the peace, the calm that the centre emanated was palpable, and little else can ever come close to that sense of stillness once one has experienced it. Why do I speak of all this? Because tonight, after my clients left and I was clearing up after a late night dinner meeting, I thought that I would gladly forego a hundred such meetings and a thousand such jobs if only I could go back in time to those happier, more peaceful times. But then I remembered what my teacher always said: Be grateful wherever you are - you are there for a purpose and for learning. Once you learn, with gratitude you can move on. Be grateful to your situation and the people in your life at that moment: who knows when you may have to leave. I hope we all find our own sanctuaries of peace and gratitude inside and around ourselves, wherever we are. Good night, people :)
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 19:57:49 +0000