Life and Movement

জীবন ও গতি (Life and Movement)

A Devotional Reflection for the Sadhaka

In truth, a human being has only one prayer to Bhagwan: "Whatever punyakarma, paapkarma, past life samskara, or the karmas I carry in this lifetime let all of it guide me, at the final moment, toward the right gati, the right destination. Let my next birth be lighter, freer or let there be no birth at all."

For the sadhaka, this prayer never remains limited to oneself. He must also carry within his heart all those forgotten by society the orphaned, the wounded, the sick, the incurable, those who have wandered away from the path, those whose lives have become shadows of their own suffering. To think of them, to pray for their upliftment, to wish that they too find their true gati this alone purifies the heart of the sadhaka.

But gati has another meaning, a more intimate one: flow. The movement of life. The pulse that keeps the soul awake.

As the saying goes, "Gati hin jivan mrityu saman" a life without movement, without direction or flow, is nothing short of a slow, silent death.

So keep moving. Keep acting. Keep creating. Let the river of your life remain in motion till your very last breath. For the moment the flow stops, the moment the current freezes, life does not remain life anymore. It becomes a still body, a corpse waiting to be carried away by time.

To live is to move. To move is to grow. And to grow is to walk steadily toward the gati that Bhagwan has written for you step by step, breath by breath, until the journey becomes its own liberation.

~ Paraguru Shyamakhyapa