Category: Personal

Today, my mom and I went to Ashram to take a Level 2 Kriya Yoga class. So, basically Kriya Yoga is a path of spirituality, like the Gyan Yoga, or Bhakti Yoga. To get initiated into Kriya Yoga you are required to complete 4 levels, and 9 – 11 classes. So, my parents and I had taken L-1 together, around 3 months ago, and my dad had also completed his L-2 last month. 

But this time I felt the teacher was not that good. Like many people won’t come back, simply because the class failed to touch their hearts. This event reminds of a quote, I wrote about a few days ago:- Life should be chiefly service. Without that ideal, the intelligence that God has given you is not reaching out toward its goal. When in service you forget the little self, you will feel the big Self of Spirit.” On the first line I had written how Yogananda Ji, means to develop a seva attitude in everything we do. There is a nice story from my Vrindavan trip related to this

On Janmashtami a group of the volunteers were decorating one of the ashrams. So everybody was trying to decorate the altar, because that would be the center of attention. I was blowing balloons with another volunteer. Inwardly I was thinking, ‘what an insignificant job, I want to do something important too.’ Naturally with this thought process even the action was being done halfheartedly, Then, a bit tired I  went around the Ashram to take a look as to what was going on. When I came to the entrance I saw that some of the staff were decorating it, and they all were working hard doing a good job. So, I got inspired to help them. I noticed that there was a shortage of balloons. ‘Oh, so this is where they were getting used” I thought. I quickly went inside and blew up many balloons of different colors and helped them decorate the entrance. Decorating the entrance was as important as decorating the altar, after all the entrance was going to be the first impression of anybody that was going to come. That day I realized that even blowing balloons was such animportant task, its fruit might not be taking place in front of me, but I was helping someone. This means that all jobs are equally important, and everybody should do their work diligently and honestly.

Coming back to today’s L-2 class. Today, the teacher had a very important job, she was preparing everyone for initiation into Kriya. Unlike the L-1 class, which was taken very nicely and almost all students had come back for L2 and L3, I don’t think there will be this much success rate in this class. There was no personal interaction, no proper explanations, etc. Because she lacked that enthusiasm, that thought of “oh, today I just want to fill these people with the essence of kriya yoga” was not there.

So, this is why I consider doing your job correctly the greatest spirituality. Today, she could transform some people’s lives and consciousness forever but she failed. Similarly if governments functioned honestly, parents parented correctly, schools thought properly, we would live in a different world. Think about it. Are you doing your job properly?