It is simple; it is complex; it is also, at times, prickly. You guessed it right — our life is like the seasons. Yet, in the midst of happiness, or chaos, it is as exciting as a nail-biting Twenty20 cricket match. It seems like everything in life is happening at the same time — job upheaval, looking for better accommodation, children’s education, or marriage, improved finances, or managing ill-health. To make matters all too knotty, one of us in the family may be at a different plane, or season, while someone else may be perched at an equally different level. The important thing is one should understand what we are going through — to bring balance. If we don’t, for whatever reason, we get emotionally isolated. This triggers anxiety, pressure, and also stress.
Our life is also like cycles of several seasons overlapping each another. The only way we can bring stability is by way of a connect — we need to connect with ourselves and with others around us. This, too, is part of a set of scales, or balance. Because, our sense of spirituality forms the fulcrum on which relationships, values, and a meaningful purpose in life are all founded. This is best described as mystical; it includes all things that cannot be fully explained. Ironically, it takes the backseat, because of our inability to comprehend the unique ‘connect’ that exists between us and divinity.
Each of us is unique. We are also as distinct as our fingerprints. This and other equally characteristic features, such as our temperament, likes and dislikes, or even idiosyncrasies, define each of us. This includes our own mystical side of spirituality — of all the experiences and happenings that we know happened, because we experienced them. Dr Carl Gustav Jung, the psychologist-philosopher, called this a ‘jig of faith,’ or synchronicity — you’d call them extraordinary moments, or mysterious phenomena.
Jung’s explorations into mysticism provided him with the grist to explain the thinking mind as the conscious mind that discarded “that which it does not understand.” He, therefore, chose not to reject it. His argument — just because we don’t understand something, at a given point in time, it does not give us the ticket to dismiss it as bunkum. His insightful observations echoed the words of philosopher-theologian St Augustine, “Miracles do not happen in contradiction to nature, but in contradiction to what we know about nature.”
Put simply, human spirituality is all-inclusive; it is not constrained. When we abandon the mystical aspect, or nature of things, we have done ourselves a disfavour. We have punctured, or debased, our own faith, or belief, in a miracle called life, or living. Remember, mystical experiences happen in modern life, just as much as it did aeons ago. It is as common as political, or sports triumphs, or successful sales calls.
Have we all not experienced the portent of an intuitive dream — one that predicted an outcome that actually occurred days later. This is not just your story, just as much as it is mine. We have also heard of innumerable tales celebrating the present-moment, not the wonders of a past, or futuristic, event. According to some philosophers, this is akin to searching for cosmic signs on the path of spiritual development, or looking for pointers to the labyrinthine mysteries of life. It is all part of the jigsaw puzzle, all right — not the actual portrait. Yet, it is a component of everyone’s life. To experience it, you need not be a mystic. You just need an open mind and the willingness to embrace the mysteries of life without the need to fully understand the ‘hows’ and the ‘whys’ of the cosmos.
