Power and beauty of mysticism.

Sit sown. Make yourself comfortable. Close your eyes and relax. No, leave the music; it only gets in the way. What you need is an empty canvas, so you can start painting a picture in your head. Take a deep breath and start dreaming. Imagine you have lost something very dear to your heart. An object of rare beauty. It has been stolen from you by an evil person, not out of need but out of pure greed and envy. Taken away while you weren’t looking and brought to a far away place that is hart to find. Nothing can replace this object and nothing will make you happy again till you find it, as it is a part of you. For the thief it’s just another plaything. For you a missing limb. You are overpowered by a flurry of feelings. On one hand you are depressed and helpless over your loss, on the other you realise that if you won’t get up and look for it, your life will lose its meaning.

Feeling restless, you gather some friends around you and set out looking for it. Time goes by. There are numerous obstacles on your way. Friends lose faith. You realise that those who don’t, are real friends, someone you can trust. There comes a point where you lose faith herself, but those real friends pick you up, comfort you and carry you further, giving strength. After some time you find yourself reaching a plateau, where you have got used to the idea of looking to such an extent, that you are scared to make the next step, afraid that if the object is found after this time and effort, your life might lose its meaning too. Or you may be disappointed, because the object might have changed. You may have changed. Your object may have obtained qualities it never had during its absence. You may have endowed it with qualities it never had, in your mind, having idealised it more and more, in your wish to get it back. With time, searching has become a goal, and what is life without a goal? Your friends lend a shoulder to lean on during this difficult time. When you grow weak with doubt, they take over, because with time, your goal has become theirs too.

Suddenly, a glimpse of hope and a ray of light point in the right direction. But you are weakened by travel; your eyes are bleak from tears and your heart heavy with doubt. Your friends know the way, but the object is still deluding you because it’s hidden well. The evil thief jealously guards it. The distance is great, and your friends know that only one of them is capable of accomplishing such a monstrous task. He, the chosen one, gathers his strength, goes over his own limit. With inhuman effort he makes his move and covers the distance. All for you. Knowing that the very last move to obtain your object of desire, you will have to make on your own, otherwise the satisfaction of having it will be marred. The thief will not give up his prey without a fight, and you will need all your strength to win. This is your job. To achieve what you longed for, you need all the help you can get, but the last move should be yours.

For those who recognised this powerful moment from Ramayana, the beauty of it is apparent. To me, it is the most empowering part in a whole book that should be told and retold, the “Magnificent Leap”. That very moment when the son of wind gathers his entire strength to jump over the great see to help a friend. It is is meticulously described to make you realise how seriously he takes his duty. To hold the momentum, the reader is offered a detailed description of surrounding and internal happenings. One almost feels how the mountain shudders under his feet and animals run away in panic. There’s a power within him that makes him grow enormous in size. His neck muscles swell, his eyes bulge and his feet grow so huge that the rocks crack under them and start to smoke. “He shook himself and roared, and it was like rumbling of a thunder cloud…he was so confident that he had no doubt in his ability”.

Seeing this manifestation of will power and strength, “Even the trees went with him some distance and it seemed as though they were well –wishers, who went with him to make the journey fruitful.”

This mystic journey is no different from myriad journeys we make in our life every day. Every single day offers an opportunity to come closer to our goal, why to find out what the goal actually is. But we need to learn to walk before we can leap.

We meet people along the way that play integral part in helping us to achieve our goals. The role of these people is not always clear in the beginning of this common journey, therefore it is of paramount importance to treat all those entering our lives with respect. What hidden strengths they possess, may not be clear even to them at a given time. It may be that only through the encounter with you, that they are able to unravel their potential.

As in many ancient myths, great deeds evolve from opportunity and the ability to utilize it, to recognize it as such and to mobilize your strength at the right moment. Mystics say that the ability to slow your thought processes is yoga. The ability to bundle your thoughts and to direct them to one point, is magic. In a nutshell, all you need to achieve certain things in life, has already been put in words. In beautiful words, you just need to find them.

You can open your eyes now. Almost forgot….