Enjoy the Journey

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A man visited a Sufi Guru. On entering the Guru’s room the visitor felt uncomfortable as there was no chair for him to sit.

Visitor: You could have a chair at least.
Guru: Where is your chair?
Visitor: My Chair? I am journeying
Guru: So am I.

We are all journeying. “Life is a journey and not a destination” are the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The beauty of this journey is that it has no destination. The problem of having a destination while journeying is we get fixated on it and ‘the moments’ lose their significance whereas to journey without destination is to enjoy the vitality of each moment.  Live in the moment is what I would urge my readers to adhere to this lent. We may either look back, brood on our past and lose our spontaneity in life - to put it in biblical rhetoric, become a pillar of salt (Gen 19: 26) or we could be anxious about future and make life chaotic. In both the cases we are compromising the joy of this journey. How conveniently we have forgotten the words of William Aloysius Keane, better known as Bil Keane, the American Cartoonist:

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, today is a gift, which is why it is called Present”

Life becomes worth living when we start accepting reality – not passively but actively. Do we have another choice? It becomes peaceful when we start celebrating both victory and defeat. It becomes enthralling when we choose to be happy as happiness is a choice we make. No one in this world cares about our happiness rather than us.

This journey is a blend of spirituality and secularity. Contemporary times have separated these two. Consequently spirituality lost its depth and secularity its fragrance. This journey is primordially about edification of souls and transition of prayers. Nikos Kazantzakis in his autobiography entitled ‘Report to Greco’ mentions three kinds of souls with three prayers. They are indeed fascinating:

1. I am a bow in your hands, Lord. Draw me, lest I rot.
2. Do not overdraw me, Lord. I shall break.
3. Overdraw me, Lord and who cares if I break.

Lent is a time to enjoy our journey with God. St. Francis of Assisi remarked beautifully "God is simply the search for God" which corroborates the importance of this journey. The moment we subject God to rational and logical reasoning we end up abandoning ‘him/her/it’. If God is abandoned then life becomes meaningless. Fritjof Capra in his book ‘The Tao of Physics’ reckons,

Throughout history it has been recognized that the human mind is capable of two kinds of knowledge namely Rational Knowledge and Intuitive Knowledge. Former has been favoured by the West and the latter by East. Eastern mystics repeatedly insist on the fact that God can never be an object of reasoning or of demonstrable knowledge.
The Upanishads also testifies:

There the eye goes not,
Speech goes not, nor the mind.
We know not, we understand not
How one would teach it.
Christ, during crucifixion, acts as a pendulum oscillating between the two extremes of God search. Oscillating from ‘My God, My God why have you forsaken me?’ to ‘Abba into your hands I submit my spirit’. He is also erected between the two extremes in the form of two convicts. One convict denies the viability of the Divine and the other affirms. In the due course of our journey there lies immense possibility for one to deny God and reiterate along with Frederick Nietzsche “Is God a blunder of Man or Man a blunder of God” or to implicitly affirm God like Thomas the Apostle “My Lord My God”. Both these attitudes are exemplified by either convicts on either side of the cross of Jesus. Interestingly, whether we affirm or deny, Christ will always be by our side but remember the experience of Paradise was offered only to the convict who believed implicitly.

We need to pray for this discernment. What do we mean by prayer? Prayer is the name of that angel who inspires us to face our destiny with utmost courage. This is the simplest way in which I could define it. Prayer is not a hamlet where one could seek shelter eloping from problems rather prayer is the strength for those who want to face the problems fearlessly. Jesus prayed “Father if you are willing, remove this cup from me” (St. Luke 22: 42). Was it removed? No. What happened instead? “An angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength” (St. Luke 22:43). Prayer is the assurance that we are never alone but we always have the angels of God by our side which give us the impetus to move on.

After the days of Lent when we leave our cocoons of meditation, feel the breeze of a new reality and fly high, may the flapping of our wings echo ‘Enjoy this journey’.    

Let us pray
Sojourning God, may we enjoy each moment of our life journey with you. Treading fearlessly with your Son to the crossroads of randomness may our life be impregnated with impeccable and transformative experiences. For Christ’s sake we pray. Amen

Prayers
Dn. Basil Paul


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