Holiday or Holy-Day?

Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari

People go out to tourist places for holidays. Mostly for fun and not for much that is holy. Not much happens in their inner world. But we as householders should go to places where we can unplug from the fun of the sense world to the world of inner silence.  We need to realise that the world outside is a changing phenomena and any pleasures derived from that fleeting fun world couldn’t sustain the inner cry of the soul for retreat to its own heavenly peace inside.

Life is like a beautiful river, ever flowing, overcoming all obstacles but moving toward its destined destination, the Ocean. Knowingly or unknowingly we are all moving toward the ocean, the vastness, the unfathomable depth of the Divine within us. 

There is no destination outside, any luxurious vacation spot that will lead us to this peace. If there were, that is only to show us that we are all home sick. Most often tired of holidaying, living in Inns. The Home is missing, that is the mystery of life, a fish in the water crying and thirsty of water!!

We need to take meditation as a break, as the most enjoyable vacation possible from pressure, as a retreat into our own inner world of peace and happiness. We will not expect anything out of this holy-day within. That is its purpose.  When we surrender to doing nothing, to not-doing, our mind cannot whirl anymore.  It cannot calculate any more. It cannot add to our stress.  We allow the stress to melt away.  We let our mind be filled with peace.  Our mind and our stress melt into the flow of the universal rhythm of joy.

Live life inside out. That is the core principle of the art of a meditative, mindful, soulful life. Just take the leap. We don’t have to give up our home, family, job, pleasures of life, and retire to mountains and retreats and solitude for it. If we want to occasionally go to such places do go, but ultimately we have to give up every prop, every external holiday that we want to hold on to in the outside world. For as I said before, the key is in the mind and the treasure is hidden in the unconscious layers of our own mind. It is our consistency, our commitment, our deepest yearning to explore that inner home within us in a gradual process of self discovery that is the purpose of our human birth. Yes, we are here to discover the reality that true peace and bliss is in the calm and tranquil world of silence within by finding time for a holy-day within!