As I rummaged through my treasure trove of old photographs, autographs and other memorabilia,I stumbled upon a little green book..the hymn book.The one from which we religiously sang hymns,while we were in school .
I was transported into another world as I turned the pages of the book. Standing in the assembly hall, strains of “make me a channel of your love ,make me a channel of your peace ” my favourite hymn playing in the backdrop of my reverie . It had inspired profound feelings of awe and reverence in me. I had always been inexplicably drawn towards this hymn
As I returned from my trip in nostalgia, fondly remembering those days ,when we would all sing hymns and say our daily prayers before we went to our respective classrooms ,I began to reflect on the relevance of that hymn.
Somewhere on my subconscious mind,those words had had a deep and profound impression.They had conveyed to me the essence of our existence. To become channels of peace, of love and all that was good.”make me a channel…make me a channel….”.the words kept repeating in my head .
Make me a channel !
Imagine you are a pipe!
I really mean it! Just imagine!
A pipe of any sort or size, small or big,long or short ,thick or thin ,it is up to you to imagine. You are a pipe or a channel through which something flows!
Pardon me if I have taken the liberty of comparing you to a channel or a pipe ,but that was the picture conjuring up in my mind when I repeatedly heard the word “channel”
When I wonder why I have used the word pipe,it is because it is so easy to visualize. We see so many kinds of pipes in our day to day life and their function is so easily identifiable.
What flows through this pipe ?
The reason I have asked you to imagine you are a pipe,is simple .There is something that flows through you !
You are that pipe through which divinity flows!
At one end, you are connected to a divine source and at the other end, you are connected to the vast sea of humanity.
You are a channel which is supposed to ever grow and expand, as you grow in wisdom and consciousness.A day arrives, when finally you have grown so much, that you cease to remain just a channel .You become as expansive as the Universe itself!
The gifts you receive
Each and everyone of us has been blessed with some gifts.The gifts that your Creator deems fit for you, all flow through this pipe or channel. These gifts are in the form of the talents and virtues which you express to this world .
As you grow in spirituality, you expand in consciousness and the quantity and quality of gifts flowing through you increases .Are these gifts meant for the sole purpose of your upliftment, consumption and pleasure ?
No !
They are meant to be transported to as many people as possible .You were not meant to be a container or a storage for these gifts. You are just a channel for them.Those receiving these gifts from you, will in turn express their own gifts, or value which they will give to others.
Did you create these gifts ?
No !
You did not create them. You allowed them to be transported through you, by keeping your channel unblocked and clear.
Why does the channel get blocked?
You are all so familiar with blocked pipes and channels. When the blockages happen in your body it can create havoc.When they happen in your house ,you all know what a mess blocked pipes can create, be it in the kitchen or the bathroom or any other place .
When these blockages happen in the spirit, that is when divinity stops flowing through us .When our inflated ego makes us believe that we are the creators of these gifts ,that is the time we get blocked.Also when we ignore the call of our inner most voice ,our conscience, we begin to shrivel and shrink from all sides and do not remain the clear channels we were meant to be .
We begin to become unconscious
Slowly,we begin to become unconscious of the role of divinity in our lives .We begin to lose connection with our fellow human beings. We begin to stop transferring our gifts to the world,as now we assume that we are the producers and creators of the gifts which we possess.We feel,we have the liberty to decide, whether we want to give these gifts to the world or not.We get trapped and enmeshed in the ego’s net .We begin to think that these are our gifts. So we will decide what to do with them .But what we dont realize, is that the moment we get blocked, our gifts cease to come. We wonder why we can no longer create like we used to before .We never realize that it was not we who were creating ,we were just facilitating the Creator .
Our job is not to assume that we are responsible for creation .It is to understand that we are just a small part in this huge network. Our sole purpose is to ever expand so that we grow to gigantic proportions and unfathomable blessings flow through us .Our only endeavour is to remain clear and unblocked and grow.Everything else will then be taken care of .
Do not assume that the responsibility of the world you have created is yours, lying on your shoulders.It is not .The only responsibility on you is to remain open and clear like a channel through which there is a constant movement of all that needs to flow.
When we begin to think that we are so important, our sense of self gets distorted.We start laying too much emphasis on what other people will say.We begin to fear being judged .We stop thinking that we are mere instruments in the hands of the divine .This exaggerated importance that we give ourselves coupled with the feelings of inadequacy and insufficiency experienced by us ,drive us to destroy the instrument itself .Rip apart the pipe,obliterate the channel.
We become self destructive because ,now we feel we have not lived up to our standards and we are no longer held in high esteem by others. Believe me, each and every one of us goes through these feelings at some point of time in life .Each of us struggles with these feelings of inadequacy time and again
All that we need to do is understand our existence from the right perspective .Understand that even though we play a very important role in society, we do not control things ,events and happenings. The control is in bigger hands .Trust those hands, know your purpose and perform it humbly .The rest will be taken care of .
What is our purpose?
I know this is much easier said than done .I know to remain unblocked is the most difficult thing to do.It is not more learning that we need .We need to unlearn those patterns of behaviour which cause blockage and finally obliteration. .Life was meant to be simple .We complicated it .We were sent on this planet to be happy and live our purpose,but we misunderstood the essence of the truth.We began to assume that we were playing a far greater role in this world than what we actually were.This led to an unnecessary glorification of the self, and an unreasonable ideology that we are indispensable.
We were supposed to understand that we are just channels, as is so fervently sung in that hymn. We began to think we were creators .Creators of this materialistic world, creators of this mirage of happiness. Creators of this illusion of ownership.
How can we remain happy if we continue to assume our role of containers ,when we were meant to be pipes or channels? So aptly this analogy can be understood when we truly understand that we came inro this world with nothing and are going to take back nothing along with us .We were not meant to be store houses, neither of material goods nor of virtues and vices.
Let’s understand our roles better,let’s not assume we are responsible for far more than we actually are .Let’s form a beautiful network of clear unclogged channels through which flows the river of life, quenching us ,nourishing us and fulfilling us .
For that is our purpose ,to be a pipe .A channel for life to flow.Nothing more nothing less .