Illuminating our inner vision

Today, many facets of our life have the quality of steadiness. We have a set pattern of activity and a regular routine. So, externally our life seems to be under control, but internally it is shaky and variable. The way we act and react to each situation and our interaction in our relationships decides whether we feel happy, peaceful, irritated or inspired. Right now, our feelings towards ourselves keep fluctuating. Our mind decides our life’s quality.

This is because we are not aware about the existence of our soul—consciousness. The way we experience life depends on the state of our mind and intensity of focus. Focus depends on the quality of our intellect. When the intellect lacks tenacity, focus shifts from one goal to another and we can neither progress in the outer world, nor evolve in the inner world. We are bombarded by stress, tension and mental fatigue and thereby depend heavily on external stimulants like tea, coffee and appreciation from others to motivate us. No external environment can give us stability. It must spring from within, independent of external situations. That is why the sages gave us so many spiritual traditions and practices to maintain connectivity with the soul. When we follow these spiritual traditions, our focus acquires the phenomenal quality of dhriti. Dhriti is steadfastness, sharpness, stability, determination, firmness, precision of mind and intellect. With dhriti our focus becomes like a traveller in a jet plane.

Though the plane is covering vast distances at high speed, the traveller inside is sitting still. Likewise, though our life moves at high speed towards progress and perfection, our focus remains calm, relaxed, but completely aware of all that is happening. We start believing that all our problems got over yesterday. Then, we can see and feel that the quality of our life inside and outside is progressing quickly. Lord Krishna prompts Sanjaya to affirm to Dhritarashtra, just at the onset of the big war, that, “In today’s world and even the future, ignorant unjust people will be spiritually blind because of their selfish thinking. They will not accept reality of the intuitive prompts that come from their soul and thereby block their own progress”.

Dhriti peels away all our selfish, unjust thoughts, layer by layer and bores through our karmic ignorance to make us feel the presence of the soul within. It brings great clarity to our perception. It gives us an extreme sense of stability internally as well as externally. When we imbibe dhriti or focus by basing our lives on spiritual traditions, our inner vision is illumined. ashram-india@ shrinimishamba.org