The Journey

As we get older and our bodies don’t look, feel, and function the way they used to when we were younger. Oftentimes, we begin trying to find something that will restore our youthfulness.

We may change our diet –  eating only those foods that are reputed to be healthy for our body and reducing consumption of foods and substances that are thought to be unhealthy. We begin exercising our bodies and minds with determination. We perhaps start investing our time, energy, and money in some of those fabulous new products that are renowned for their restorative effects. While many of these efforts may actually help our bodies to look, feel, and function better, none of them stops the aging process. Our bodies still continue to get older and with this aging process, comes dysfunction and disease and eventually our bodies stop working altogether.

If we think we are the body, then this reality can be a source of great anxiety, frustration, and depression. If our happiness solely depends on keeping our body in the best condition possible so that we can enjoy it, then the older we get, the more desperately we will try to hold on to and revive our youthfulness.

However, if we understand that we are not our material body – that we are the eternal spiritual being that temporarily resides within the material body – we can be inspired by the aging of our body to look elsewhere for happiness and meaning. As our bodies, our minds, and the external world become less and less a source of material pleasure, we are often more willing to search elsewhere for satisfaction and joy.

Which is actually very fortunate because deep and meaningful happiness can not be had simply through stimulating our physical senses and mind. Superficial, temporary happiness can be had this way, but this is not the happiness that we long for. The happiness that we long for is happiness that lasts, that is deeply satisfying and fills us so completely that we can rest our hearts and minds in it. It is an altogether different kind of happiness.

The happiness that we are longing for is the happiness of the soul.

According to the ancient yoga scriptures and other bonafide scriptures of the world, we are not the material body or the mind – we are eternal spiritual beings temporarily wearing the material mind and body. The gross physical body can be compared to outer clothes and the mind or subtle energy body can be compared to under clothes. Just as we are not the clothes we are wearing, we are not the material bodies we are wearing either.

So, all these material activities that stimulate some kind of pleasure sensation in the mind and physical senses do not actually touch us, the non-material self within the body. The happiness we are seeking is not the superficial pleasure of the body or mind. Even if we could find a fountain of youth and enjoy material pleasure unlimitedly in a healthy, youthful body, it would still be unfulfilling. It is spiritual happiness that we seek and only spiritual happiness that can truly fulfill us to our very core.

In the ancient yoga system, the recommended method for consciously linking up with our spiritual source and cultivating the spiritual love and happiness that will completely fulfill us is mantra meditation. A true mantra is not something anyone makes up. It is the Absolute Truth in sound vibration. This spiritual sound vibration descends from the spiritual platform to the material world without losing any of its potency. In mantra meditation, a person hears and chants or sings this transcendental sound and thus is directly linking up with the Supreme.

Although our bodies and minds deteriorate with age, the spiritual happiness and love we experience in relating with the Supreme remains untouched by our material circumstances. It is not affected because it is transcendental to material nature. It is not dependent on the condition of the mind, body or anything else material. Even when our body ceases to function altogether and we leave it, we continue to exist and our connection with the Supreme and our happiness in this relationship remains.

This is the happiness we are longing for and what we are actually searching for regardless of the age of our bodies – happiness that is boundless, revitalizing, and satisfying to the very core of our being. This connection, and the deep spiritual happiness that comes with it, is an infinite fountain that we can drink from anytime. No need to wait until our bodies are very old or dysfunctional – we can begin cultivating this happiness now through mantra meditation and experience it throughout our lives. When our hearts are full with this nectar, the age of our body does not matter. We realize that we are already ageless.

Thank You!