While I was a small child, I have witnessed tremendous amount of spirituality in my life. It was through my grandfather. My grandpa was one who instantly became my friend from the time I gained my consciousness. But I feel ashamed now when I look back and think of his last days when I had lost that spiritual connect with him. I could not be present on his funeral to say the final good bye to him.
My grandpa lived a life that could be considered spiritual owing to his actions. In his life, he gave primacy to the harmony, love, compassion and detachment. I would never see him mired in small family problems even though the people around him were seeped in their material existence.
He kept his sanity through his daily spiritual practices. I like to call them the nitya kriyas(Regular/Consistent Actions). When you do something over and over again not because it leads to some tangible benefit but because you find a deep spiritual connect, it becomes very easy and convenient to do that and maintain the consistency of doing it.
It is my belief that drives me to stay committed to a daily practice. I would believe that this is what gives meaning to my life. And doing this I experience an upliftment from my material existence. My grandpa always made sure that no matter where he went or where he was or no matter how hectic or troublesome his day was, he would chalk out some time for his spiritual connect. He would sit down and do the japas. He would make sure that he takes a kalash filled with holy water from his well and offer it to the Peepal tree in the village. This watering of the tree acted as a demonstration of his deep spiritual bond with nature.
Our environment remained safe and secure and the forests were protected from any kind of blatant abuse by these kind of blatant abuse that we get to see these days. The tribal communities still consider that the nature is their larger family and have deep relations with them. My grandpa after offering the water to the peepal tree would come back home and sit down at his designated place and spend some time in bonding himself with the super soul – the paramatma.
He would then take out the small pieces of nicely shaped beautiful pebbles that represented the lord shiva in the lingam shape. Give them the bath and place them in their asana. After that, he would lighten the lamp and chant some mantras. I would sit close by him as a spectator and watch him do all that. But my curiosity did not lie in his spiritual exercises but the bhoga( eatable offering to god) that he would be giving at the end of his nitya kriyas.
And he always found time to spend for 15-20 minutes for his spiritual practice. And what I saw in him was that he lived with the philosophy that life is temporary and our behavior should not be governed by emotions and actions by the forces of attraction, repulsion or indifference.
I think this is one single big influence that now drives my behaviour towards the process of running. Running is spiritual to me. I feel the upliftment from the life’s daily struggles while I run. Spending 25-30 minutes on tracks takes me into the state of super-consciousness where I am fully alive. When I am back to my normal self, I am energised and elevated to experience the feelings of joy, mental peace and immense gratitude to the discovery of this spiritual process called running.
