Essence of all life is God, says spiritual coach

Nandinii Sen, a spiritual coach, feels the reason human beings suffer is because of narrow vision which comes about as we are confined to our human bodies.

I believe there is God in everything. The essence of all life is God.

The Law of Cause and Effect is part of that. There is goodness in everything in creation. The reason human beings have to suffer is because of our narrow vision which comes about because we are confined to our human bodies. However there is a way out — which is not to have either too much attachment or too much aversion to the highs and lows of life. Ups and downs are a part of life. So is death.

Sathya Sai Baba put it very beautifully when he said, “Life is a preparation for death.” The cause of the Buddha’s awakening to spiritual life was viewing the dead body of a man.  But we tend to ignore issues like death and shove them under the carpet. We need to teach our children life issues like this in school itself, as we need to teach them the correct way to live one’s life.

From an early age we should introduce the right kind of thinking among children. Which is primarily the practice of showing loving kindness. To show loving kindness first to oneself, then to one’s family and after that to the people in our environments is the way of someone who is truly human.

I run workshops on meditation and spirituality from time to time and I believe that the most important thing is to spend even five minutes quietly by oneself each day.

One had to reach out to people in one’s environment with one’s loving thoughts for them first — even if it is effort in the beginning. One you become adept at this, your relationships begin to shift for the better on a material plane. Even with people one dislikes if one can  have positive thoughts about on a mental plane for a brief period, relationships begin to change.

Today’s world moves so fast and adults and kids are doing a dozen different things during the course of the day.  But the most important thing of all we need to seek is to have loving relationships with the people in our environments — our families and our friends, for example. And to validate oneself from within.

To do this one has to love oneself first and appreciate oneself when spending time by oneself. Really appreciating yourself has nothing to do with having an ego because they are from two different spaces. Ego is the small self. On the other hand when one shows loving kindness one is coming from a space where one wants to serve, to help others, to take responsibility for one’s life. And very importantly, to avoid anger because anger is the most destructive to the person who harbours it.

The biggest gift I have received is the freedom of living in the present moment. And in this moment, in this breath I have the choice to be happy, to be grateful. So I ask everyone to Be Happy and Grateful.

— As told to Ashish Virmani