How important is spirituality in your life?
Spirituality has always been a topic of mystery and interest to me. I have not delved into its universe much but I know it exists. There have been some amazing people who have been able to reach a state of mind where they have been able to venture deep into the spiritual aspect of life. I have always thought music was my path to it, sometimes I put on my headphones and play calm soothing music, soon I find myself in another world. But that is just a vague experience I have of it. I have talked to several people about it in order to understand it better, I’ll share the answer I got from two such people.
I came across a gentleman named Shib K Mukherjee. Mr Mukherjee is an everyday working man, I often observed how he was a man of few words and throughout everything was always able to maintain his calm. Many people took his advice due to the sensibility in his words. It occurred to me that this gentleman might have an answer to what spirituality is or maybe he had brought it into his life in some way, and I was right. I learnt his spiritual aspect when I had a talk with him. Mr Mukherjee had a creative side which had led him to a hobby which was that of a theatre artist. He would come back from work and along with his friends he would practise their next act almost every day. He truly loved doing it. He said one day on stage while performing one of his roles, he found it, the spirituality of life when a thought occurred to him. In that thought he was thinking about all the different people who had come from different corners of life to see him and his friends perform, and maybe they found happiness, peace, a moment of relief from the hardships of their lives, a reason to mend broken relationships, or maybe perhaps a heart filled laugh. The thought or realisation gave Mr Mukherjee’s hobby a whole new meaning, which also poured into his life and brought betterment like never before. And now everytime he goes up on the stage and speaks his lines, he feels it within his heart, mind and soul, the spirituality of life.
The next gentleman I had the pleasure of meeting was Mr Gouri S Mahapatra. He was a proud owner of a sweet shop which he ran with his son. He was always very jovial and kind to people, even distributing sweets to school kids passing by without any cost. There was almost none in the area who wouldn’t love to recall their talks with Mr Mahapatra while enjoying his sweets fondly. I thought this person who has had this beautiful impact on people’s life had certainly gained a spiritual strength in life. Thus I approached him to learn his side of spirituality. What I got to know was another aspect of spirituality. Mr Mahapatra was a religious person. He was from a village where he lived in a joint family. Mr Mahapatra was one of the few primary earners of his family in fact the person upon whose earnings his family was majorly dependent. Despite all his hard work the lack of good earning in a village environment meant there wasn’t enough for the requirements of a big family. One day while walking back from work he heard people singing prayers and he stopped to listen for a while and found immense peace in his mind. He decided to proceed on his newfound path and even established a small dedicated place for it on his property. He dedicatedly prayed every day, and while praying he had his experience with spirituality. He realised how hardships were part of everyone’s life and how little people understood of it. So many people remained isolated, unable to truly express what was going on within them. Thus, Mr Mahapatra decided to move out of the village and open a sweet shop and he made sure none of his customers left without a smile and they always felt they could talk to him whenever they want. This made a big change not only to the people whose life he impacted but also in turning circumstances into a better one for his own family.
Early Morning Memories 