Womens Spirituality: Women Need to Find Time to Meditate  

By Rashme Sehgal  

Womens Spirituality: Women Need to Find Time to Meditate  

Stress for working women is multi-dimensional. A normal working day means she works three shifts: at home, doing the morning chores before leaving for office, then at work in the office, and then again at home, helping children with their homework and doing the evening chores and putting together the family meal.

A meditation teacher gave a brief introductory lecture about the need to keep one's mind focused with the help of pranayama breathing. "Meditation", she emphasised, "helps to make one become peaceful inside; this sense of peace would then spread to other members of your family and also in your workplace."

I mulled over words. Her message was so simple, yet it was also so profound. If sitting in one place for an hour or less and spring cleaning one's mind could help transform one's life, I told myself that I must make the effort to incorporate this practice in my daily life.

I tried hard. My teacher provided me with sufficient motivation. After a few weekly sessions, she encouraged me to attend a day-long meditation retreat session. How would the kids manage without me for the whole day? Would not the house fall apart without my presence?

Nothing of the kind happened. In fact, they behaved much more responsibly without my nagging them all the time. My elder daughter even decided to try her hand at cooking, something she had avoided doing all along.

My day-long retreat proved to be an eye-opener. Just sitting in a darkened room with soft music playing in the background helped create a sense of calm. For the first time in my life I began to understand that establishing a faith in God tacitly implied that He was there to take care of me.

I remained alone with my thoughts for the whole day. I made a conscious effort to chant consistently, but often, various thoughts would pop up in my mind. I had to make the effort to resist the temptation to step outside and call my home to find out if all was well. I finally began to understand that every individual requires his or her own space and meditation was one important way of creating this space.

The teacher spoke about the need to do daily sadhana . She spoke about shaktipat, and kundalini awakening and shaktipat diksha, a spiritual initiation given to a disciple through kundalini awakening.

I listened to this talk without understanding its real meaning. All these concepts were as vague to me as was Einstein's law of relativity. ' Shaktipat diksha' and 'kundalini' did not form part of daily lingo and I knew it would take some time for me to comprehend these concepts.

What I understood, as the day sped on, was that several subtle changes had come over me. The most important was that I came away with the understanding that I must discover what is good inside me; just as I must discover the same for those around me as well. A subtle refining process had been going on inside me for all the hours I had spent in dhyan and it was this which would have to be worked upon in order to maintain the momentum. Linking meditation with spiritual awakening, Swami Muktananda wrote in Ashram Dharma:

"Wherever a great saint dwells, he endows that place with the character of his profound inner sate. In fact, each abode of a Siddha bears the impress of his unique state... Partaking of the water, food and fruits of such a sacred place, even smelling its flowers, awakens the spiritual energy in a human being."

Time and discipline are prerequisites to meditation practice. So it's a bit difficult for women to make the time for meditation what with work and home-related pressures. But I do try every few months to attend a meditation retreat. It helps me unwind and come to terms with myself.

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More from same author see: Rashme Sehgal  

See also: Womens Spirituality, Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)