UNIVERSE: Chance for a new beginning

Time is a continuum, yet we give enormous importance to natural markers like day and night or seasons. Not content with this, human beings have, across civilisations, developed calendars that mark days, weeks, months and years, and clocks of various kinds to mark seconds, minutes and hours.

Now that we are at the end of a year, it is as good a time as any to do some spiritual stock-taking, even as we look forward to the coming year. We will treat the New Year as a chance for a new beginning.

How do we begin? Gratitude comes to mind first. Any journey that begins with gratitude is fulfilling because it starts from a position of humility. Indeed, it is our ego that acts as a barrier to our spiritual awakening. As Guru Nanak said, manmukhs, or self-willed and unenlightened beings, are not true to their own selves, and they feel no gratitude for what they have been given. On the other hand is the gurmukh, who follows the Guru, is grateful, and worships daily. Such individuals fulfil their lives. “The gurmukhs meditate on the Naam; they eradicate selfishness and conceit from within,” says Guru Amar Das.

Our spiritual journey is inwards, and we proceed on it by meditating and performing sewa. Few things, if any, are more fulfilling than helping others, especially strangers, selflessly. Sewa is a fundamental concept of Sikhism, and indeed, we have many examples of how this service benefits others, especially in times of disasters, including the not-so-distant Covid-19 pandemic. People being what they are, often there is a competition for performing the most sewa, thereby doing good but negating spiritual gains.

As materialism and competitive spirit pervades, it is ever more important to insulate oneself from the pernicious influence of this mindset. Focusing on helping the less fortunate also makes us grateful that we can do so.

Self-help and self-pampering are quite in vogue these days. But why do we focus on pampering the body when it is the mind that we need to focus on? Meditation helps us cut through the ego and connects us to the Divine within. It is no coincidence that all faiths ask their followers to be humble. “With humility comes wisdom,” says the Bible. Guru Arjan Dev asks us to: “Take wisdom and humility as your supplies and burn away the poison of pride.”

There is no doubt that the world around us appears to be full of uncertainties, and we see a lot of negativity. We seem to be too insignificant to influence events. Indeed, at times like this, we need to look ahead and see ourselves as agents of change, one that begins within us and is shaped by universal values. We have control over what we pay attention to, how we perceive those around us and how we train ourselves to look towards the positive. A sense of loss caused by events beyond our control is a common phenomenon. The way to tackle it is by taking the journey into our own selves and learning the power of surrendering to God’s will. We have the power to change the world around us by changing ourselves through meditation, prayers and good deeds.

As we navigate life in a changed landscape of realities that we face, faith, in its various forms, is the foundation of the forward-looking individuals that we all want to be. May there be more compassion, humility and love in the world. Happy New Year!

— The writer is a senior journalist