Timely realizations

When you read philosophy, you always will come across the adage – time and space are a construct of your mind. Don’t ever tell this to Einstein (although I am sure he knew it), who wrote several theories propounding the importance of these 2 variables to the universe and it’s functioning. It’s easy to say time is a construct of the mind but in everyday life, we barely understand it. At least I barely understood it. Try telling that to your boss when you are 10 minutes late to work or when your family is asking - you are well past your age, why aren’t you married? Or when your parents say this is really the right TIME to have kids. I am not venturing into the physical benefits/aspects of having kids at a certain time, which I understand are necessary but looking at the issue from purely an out worldly perspective.

This weekend I got a glimpse into how my mind binds me and creates the fallacies of time. To provide some context, I spent the weekend at The Vivekananda Retreat Ridgely in Stone Ridge, NY. 83 acres of land for your spiritual pleasure! Unlike other retreats, at this ashram there is no fixed schedule which enables you to do whatever, whenever. I followed most of their events (except the ones at 7am) which included chanting, lessons on the Gita and Tantra, evening aartis and recitation of the Gayatri mantra. The main house – Manor House – has a shrine devoted to Vivekananda, who visited this estate 3 times in his lifetime, along with Ramakrishna, his guru, and Sharada Devi, Ramakrishna’s wife.

Manor House

Swami Vivekananda's bedroom when he visited Manor House

His couch

Pine tree under which he taught in Maine. The coves were grown into a tree at Ridgely.

I was indeed spellbound to discover that 1.5 hours away from this noisy city I live in, there is such serenity. The place is of course quiet but more than that it exudes spiritual warmth, a welcoming feeling where aspirants are free to explore and take their spiritual quest further. There were many insights, many aha moments for me, some I probably don’t even remember and others I will share separately but the biggest aha moment was there is no need to rush. A friend visited yesterday and she put it succinctly – one life time is not enough to understand and learn. And at that moment the skies opened up for me. One life time isn’t enough so it’s best that we don’t rush but rather take our time.

A message from Thich Nhat Hanh hung in the kitchen emphasizing the importance of doing dishes. In a wonderful way he expressed why doing dishes is so important. It is important because at that moment, that’s what you are doing and if you cannot enjoy it because you are thinking of the dessert you are about to eat then while eating the dessert you won’t enjoy that either. Your mind will be on the next thing you have to attain. Made me think of everyday life – where we are so concerned with rushing we forget where we are and oft miss out on everyday miracles.

By no means am I enlightened or claim will never again fall into the traps of time. But this weekend served as a gentle reminder that is far removed from my daily life. You don’t have to scream to be heard, you can live in silence – both in your surroundings and in your mind so your soul can speak and come what may, time is not important. Love is and I am so happy to have found it.