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Being Rooted in Ourselves

These are few questions which will put us in touch with our true self, our essential nature. The following can be a simple, but powerful daily meditation.

- Are we the constantly changing life situations that we go through or are we the constant underlying life below the life situations?

- Who are we? Who were we before this life, who will we be after this life?

- Who are we without our names and our life stories?

- Are we human beings with a spiritual experience or spiritual beings with a human experience?

- Are we our feelings or the feeler of our feelings?

- Are we our thoughts or the witness of our thoughts?

Answers to these questions are beyond the grasp of the mind and intellect, they put us in touch with our true spiritual nature, our very soul. 



As long as our sense of identity comes from our life situations, thoughts and feelings, we will be constantly tossed around, face constant anxiety and instability of mind. But if we derive our sense of identity from our spiritual nature we can hope to experience stability and peace of mind irrespective of our external situations, just like an ocean, which appears very rough and agitated on the surface but deep down it is calm and serene.

We need to learn and practice the techniques to connect to our inner world on a regular basis. A tiny glimpse into our true nature is all that we need for the puzzle of life to fall in place.

As it is said - The only way to solve the problems of this world, is to transcend it.

- Achyut Gopal Das

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