Do you have a friend who asks, “How are you, you ok?” In one fell swoop. Or maybe a mother who tires incessantly to hook you up with anything that remotely resembles a spouse (a pulse being the sole requirement). Are you acquainted with a vocabulary littered with the phrase “this thing” coupled with “and all.” Prepare to be astounded by the versatility of “this thing.” “This thing” can be used as a noun, verb, adjective, conjunction and even a person’s name. Should this resonant with you like the gongs of Big Ben, then you have accurately assimilated the social idiosyncrasies of South Africans of Indian decent.
Do I simply enjoy needling colloquial stereotypical prose or do I have a point? Indeed, I do. Every society consists of a complex myriad of psychosomatic dynamics which program individual and group consciousness. This heritage is hilarious bearing in mind such nuances of linguistics and culture are so alien to our true ancestry. Our family tree stems from the spiritual realm and our Father is begging and pleading for us to return home. Isn’t it unfortunate that we turn a blind eye and deaf ear?
It’s 4 :30am and you under covers on a wintery Monday, you close your eyes for 5 minutes and suddenly it’s 7:45am. Yet at 1:30pm at work, you shut your eyes for 5 minutes and it’s 1:31pm. We endure the daily grind not because we want to, rather we have to, for fear of starvation. We slave away for a boss we loath and a company in which we are but a number. I’ll share with you a secret, an open secret, openly spoken by those who know, to those who wish to hear. We have discovered a superior satisfaction, some say, a soothing of the soul. We hold the key to eternal ecstasy, that elusive commodity, which every being from an ant to Angelina Jolie, yearns for. You see, this is the eternal nature of the soul and it yearns for bliss. Spiritual life is the highest form of indulgence because it’s a decadence consummated in conjunction with God.
Please know when you stagger unceremoniously to your place of residence from a club at 4:30am, our party is only getting started and it’s not just on the weekends and or public holidays. We have come to learn that God is a DJ and we dance to His bhakti beat. This thing, dear friends, is ecstasy – the real heritage of the soul. It’s that which can’t be found at the bottom of a Johnnie Walker Blue or being first in line at a 75% off Louis Vuitton sale. The natural tendency of the soul is to crave pleasure. This euphoria is achieved via the medium of a spiritual practice, as it awakens the dormant love for the Supreme.
Bhakti Yoga is the process of reconnection of the soul to it’s Source. Allow me to pierce your perception of pleasure: there’s more to existence than running the rat race of life on the wheel of impermanence, all the while becoming consumed by that which we consume. Don’t be bewitched by the shimmering broken glass. Insanity will be bequeathed to successive generations if we do not shed the falsity of false identification. Let’s examine the alternative. Cultivate your eternally unique relationship with God and realize your birthright. Our true inheritance is a legacy of an eternal loving relationship to the Supreme.
Nov/Dec 2016 Hare Krishna News - Published by ISKCON Durban. Used with permission.
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