Healing Everything Outside with Power Within

I recollect a story of a woodcutter that depicts the message of this topic really well. A
very hard working woodcutter lived with his family in a village. He typically chopped 15-18 trees a day. His hard work allowed him to feed a family of four. Overtime, the man could only chop 10 trees even after putting in more hours at work. He started sleeping early to get enough rest, but after few weeks he could not even chop five trees in a day. His debts started increasing, body was hurting, and family was almost starving. One of the friends of the woodcutter inquired about his ill-health and misery. After hearing the story from the woodcutter, the friend advised him to get the axe sharpened. The woodcutter said he had no time to go to the city and get his axe sharpened. The friend felt compassion and hoped that the woodcutter got some good senses of taking care of things that were more important. Many times people say they have no time for taking care of the self because they have too many responsibilities. At Brahma Kumaris we are taught that it becomes even more important to take of the self if the list of duties is big. How can a weak being lift the load of gazillion responsibilities? I found out that giving quality time to the self does not mean going on shopping, spa, or vacations. There is nothing wrong in doing all that, but is that really taking care of the self? Taking care of the self, or healing the self, means ensuring that the soul is staying healthy (happy and peaceful). Just like the body stays healthy by eating nourishing food and exercising, the soul stays healthy when it is given the food of spiritual knowledge and exercised through meditation. A sign of a healthy soul is that the natural qualities like peace, love, and happiness are freely and abundantly flowing from it. Let's understand how a healthy soul is able to heal everything outside with its inner power.

Healing Relationships

What causes relationships to become unhealthy?

The key ingredient for any relationship is undoubtedly love (and its brothers and sisters respect, kindness, compassion, etc.), and along with it other ingredients like trust, honesty, and loyalty are needed. I have heard many complain (including myself) that we are respecting and staying loyal, but others are not reciprocating our feelings. Hence they do not deserve our respect. Is relationship supposed to be a business deal where one gives only when they receive, or gives only as much as they received? I was fortunate to receive a divine insight that this business deal like thinking is very damaging in relationships. Our ability to create unconditional love is lost when we think others are not deserving. At that moment, we are instead generating negative emotions like hatred and resentment. Are these negative feelings good for us, body, or relationships? At Braham Kumaris we are constantly taught to be a smart businessman and do everything to ensure that the spirit is growing. Creating negative emotions for others (even if they deserve it) is taking away our power. Why do something that bring loss to us? The tit for tat method is used by many because of the myth that this is the only way to bring change in others. How can any negative method bring positive result? The reality is power of love is the only way to transform others, and that power can change a stone hearted person to a warm hearted one.

Why are we not able to maintain love consistently in relationships?

It is body consciousness that causes us to expect love from others, and when we are

expecting (meaning we are empty of love) then at that moment we lose the ability to give love unconditionally. Body consciousness is incorrect identification of the self like, I am a mother, a software engineer, or an Indian. In these identities, the ability to feel self respect and give respect is inadvertently dependent on others meeting certain criteria. Can a parent feel love for their children if their expectations like kids need to be smart, disciplined, or respect them is not fulfilled? Can a software engineer feel self respect when the manager micro manages them, colleagues step on their toes, or recognition is given to the undeserving ones? Our awareness is filled with ‘Life is all about hoping, wishing, and expecting’ due to body consciousness. Many thoughts and feeling that align with the consciousness start getting generated in us.

• Why should only I have to adjust? (resentment)
• No matter how hard I try, they are never happy. (frustrated)
• They never listen to me or care about me. (disappointed)
• I don’t wish for anything big, but dont’t I atleast deserve a little bit of acknowledgement (miserable)?
• They never wish me on my birthday, why should I wish them? (anger)
• I do so much for everyone, and they can’t even say thank you. (sad)

Our ability to consistently create love, and allow it to flow from us to others is tampered when we put
conditions on our giving. If love is not flowing from us then the negative energy (thoughts and feelings above) is being transmitted to our dear ones. Can any relationship blossom in such an environment?

How do we consistently transmit unconditional love to everyone?

The antidote to expectations (Life is all about hoping, wishing, and wanting) is benevolence (Giving is receiving). It is a no-brainer that any relationship will blossom if unconditional love exists between the parties involved. Love can be felt only when we create loving thoughts (she is such an adorable baby or he is always so helpful). Let's look at our design and see if the ‘Giving is receiving’ mantra will help in consistently generating the power of love.

How is love received by us when we are giving it?

We cannot give love to others till we create love through our thoughts and experience it first. The love is felt by us first when we create loving thoughts for others. Then, we give it to others, and receive it again in the form of blessings from them. The key is to maintain full faith that we will receive the energy we transmitted. There can be some delay but it will certainly come back to us. Isn’t receiving the power of love twice the most profitable business? It is our choice to keep expecting, and creating love only when someone meets our expectations. Or, we create unconditional love for others, and receive it twice. The latter method is based on utilizing our design in the most profitable manner, and it guarantees the generation of the maximum power within us. Why would any relationship not work when so much love is unconditionally flowing from us to others? The power of love even heals the relationship with the self because we are no more dependent on others to create love. We are not begging, demanding, or requesting love anymore. Instead we are unconditionally giving it to everyone and receiving it twice. Self respect reaches its peak, and the soul is free from expecting love from others. It is instead busy giving love to others.

We can reach the epitome of creating unlimited love when we remember our divine heritage of belonging to the Supreme being.
The quote that 'we are all brothers and the world is one big family' becomes a living reality when we deeply realize that we are
all children of the one Supreme being. All hatred, resentment, and ill feelings finish when a soul fully realizes that its emotional
configuration matches with the ocean of love, the supreme soul. The supreme soul maintains his power because he is ever loving,
peaceful, blissful, and benevolent. In Raja Yoga meditation, we are taught the method of connecting to the most
benevolent being, the supreme being himself. I noticed that as I stayed in Supreme being’s company, the color of his qualities started showing in me. I started experiencing the power I had never felt before. I had made many unsuccessful resolves to be compassionate towards people who judged, opposed, or belittled me. Finally I had accumulated enough power from the Supreme soul (point of light), and I was able to create benevolent feelings for people that were critical of me. I felt pure pride in creating such noble feelings, and thanked the Supreme soul for charging me up with his power. Are you ready to connect to the most powerful being and power yourself up with his energy?

Tips for generating love consistently within us:

• Creating compassionate thoughts and feelings for yourself, close relations, friends, and then every being in this world (10 minutes)
• Do a self reflection exercise, and slowly bring your close relations, friends, and acquaintances in your awareness. Check if your feelings went negative towards any of them. If it did, ask yourself why, and come up with a plan to change it to a benevolent feeling.

Meditation Commentary

Free to forgive

I trust