“When a person dies his spirit is put on to rest but when the spirit dies person goes through hell. Person without spirit is good for nothing. The external energy will only help to rot faster. A good for nothing object. Every attempt to rejuvenate that person will go in vein as the energy within died. “, A fifty so old year man uttered when I met him in the Kamati Baug children’s play area. Any other day I would have avoided such conversation but today I came to the park with an intention to bring smile to one person within 24 hours. It’s kind of my personal 24 hour smile-a-thon. I found this old man wearing a kurta-pajama and sitting on a bench, watching kids playing would be an easier choice for my daily smile goal hence asked him, “Namaste Kaka, You looks so young and energetic, what’s the secret?”. I thought telling somebody young will always make the person happy. But his response shocked me but made me curious too.
“How the spirit dies while the man is still alive. Is it not the fault of the man to not keep himself motivated??, I responded.
“A human body has an internal energy called Shiva. Whose intention is to align itself with the external energy called Shakti. Symmetric union of these two energies creates enormous joy and enthusiasm in human to achieve anything and that is called spirit. Misalignment of these two energies creates either restless silence within or violence in some instances. The best example to see this is an Indian candle (diya). When the oil finishes or about to finish, the light either goes to a very low intensity and stays there for some time before extinguishing or burns with high intensity before extinguishing. The bigger reason for misalignment is when the internal energy is absent or low like oil in diya.”, He said in a way as if he would have said all these even without me asking. I was about to ask, “But where the internal energy goes?”
“Internal energy, spirit or motivation goes away due to unclear purpose. Absence of dream. Disbelief on self and/or satisfaction at the current state due to laziness. Usually people like me at older age when try to do things people obstruct or don’t really appreciate the effort or people really expect us to do nothing and people don’t want us to interfere as well. This causes the death of internal energy over a period of time because the body is already tired due to old age. But many don’t let that happen and continue fighting. Many young people reach to this stage due to laziness, confusion or lack of purpose. Just think of Arjuna in Mahabharata as described in Bhagvat Gita who left his armor at the middle of the battle ground despite all energy and power due to confusion. He has the backing of thousands of great warriors and he himself was equivalent to thousands. Many young people like Arjuna either unclear about the purpose or lost the purpose of going forward are present all around.”, The old man said.
“Ha ha ha!!! I don’t understand why everything comes back to some religious text. So you mean to recover from this we must pray god etc. etc.”, I said with frustration.
He continued saying as if he didn’t bother what I said, “The spiritual book (or Self help book) Bhagvat Gita is called spiritual because it helps rejuvenate your spirit or internal energy. The ultimate cure is to align ourselves with the external energy called Shakti through union. Called Yoga in Sanskrit. Understand your purpose, work towards it without fear of losing or hope of winning, If you don’t find a purpose then do your duty as if you are serving the person you love the most. “. he said.
Just then a kid came running from the children play area and pulled this old man’s hand and he got up and walked with support of his walking stick as well as his grand daughter (I assumed). I said, “Bye Bye kaka. Nice talking to you”.
The kid turned towards me and said, “My Grand father can’t listen or see. I am his eyes and ears. I will convey that to him.”
I found a strange force bringing purposeless smile on my face and enormous joy within. I thought I will make one person happy today and bring smile but this old man brought smile on my face unknowingly.
Namaste!!!
– Stray Dog
Life as Sakti 
27 thoughts on “Spirit – Spiritless – Spiritual”