Concessions Acknowledged with Thanks

I am a speaker, and as a speaker on spiritual subjects, I am also a ‘preacher’ – the ‘do what I say, not what I do’ kind. Although I do not practice what I preach, I get away with it.


My mind might be still young, but my body is more than three quarters of a century old. As a speaker, I illustrate the points that I make with stories and anecdotes, and sprinkle my talks with humour. The content staying the same, the talks change, their titles change even more, but the stories and jokes seldom do. Thus, spicing the talks is essentially a copy and paste job. Like most people my age, I keep repeating my favourite spices and enjoy it. But unlike in their case, my audience neither finds my repeat performances irritating, nor does it start laughing midway through a joke. I get away with being repetitive because my audience keeps changing.


While for most people my age, their audience is their family; in my case my audience turns into my family. It is among those whom I preach, those whom I keep offering old wine in new bottles, that I discover my spiritual family. My spiritual family, made up largely of girls and boys at least half my age, loves me and expresses it by offering help that I may or may not need. I accept readily the help that I need, and reject rudely that which I don’t. I get away with both because their love is unconditional.


All karma has consequences, so I am told. The way the consequences of my positive karmas get multiplied manifold, and the way those of my negative karmas get wiped out is something that I only know. My gratitude to the Mother for all the concessions that I have been getting for as long as I can remember, and continue to get because of Her abundant Grace.


- Dr. Ramesh Bijlani

Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Delhi Branch, India


Keywords: Self-reflection, Spiritual family, Divine Grace, Integral Yoga practice

Comments

  1. Anuradha Agrawal29 December 2022 at 10:10

    Thanks Dr. Bijlani for sharing such a simple and honest self-reflection. I can resonate with it well for I too find myself in a similar situation of repeating the same concepts, the same anecdotes (the favourite ones at least) while facilitating workshops on self-development and Integral Education. The newness indeed comes from the audience and from offering each facilitation to the Divine Grace. The boredom - not just for the audience, but for myself (as I too have to listen to myself!) - is avoided by viewing the subject from the audience's perspective and striving to deepen my inner poise of engagement.

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  2. Anonymous29 December 2022 at 10:49

    Have heard you speak and agree experience sharing is very effective way to communicate the spiritual message on self-development by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo ... admire for your Humility and simplicity ...

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  3. Anonymous2 January 2023 at 18:30

    Thank you for a nice blog. It is not easy to speak on topics related to Integral Yoga , particularly if the audience is not familiar with it.

    ReplyDelete

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