What a Siddha yogi and ‘PK’ taught me about ‘my’ God

Learn to value and celebrate the divinity within you. It may not solve your problems but will show you a better way to live with them!

Yesterday, I heard of the demise of a good friend of mine, Kavi Rajan, who was a Siddha yogi and was only 47 years old. We first met him 10 years ago when we had gone to him “seeking solutions” to our debt problem. He said, rather simplistically: “Embrace your debt. Love it. It is a guest in your Life. It has come to teach you something. It will go away just the way it has come.” Initially I resisted his advice. But, over the years, I found his call to “accept Life for what is” very meaningful. This drew me and my wife closer to him. We met him probably once or twice in a year. But each time we came away enriched and energized. He was not the bearded, saffron-clad yogi. No, he was not a Godman. He wore a lungi, a sleeve-less vest or a shirt, smoked a beedi and led a normal, worldly Life with his wife and two young children. But he was a man who, according to me, certainly had realized his God. He would tell us: “Don’t make me a guru and don’t think I am your God. Realize the divinity within you. I am only a means to your spiritual awakening. Once you are awakened, you won’t need me.” My wife and I will miss him in his physical form but we are sure we will always feel his presence in our lives.

Aamir Khan in 'PK'
Picture Courtesy: Internet

I only wish many of the seekers out there get an opportunity to be guided and awakened by evolved souls like my friend Kavi. What is unfortunate is that almost every religion’s preachers today claim to find “solutions” to people’s problems and in turn make them fearful and confused. In the name of helping them reach or connect with God, those who have made religion their business, exploit gullible people of their money, time, resources, emotions and faith. This is the central theme of a beautiful movie I saw yesterday – Aamir Khan’s PK (2014, Rajkumar Hirani). Khan’s character PK makes an impassionate appeal to all of us. He says, that there is no problem with the creator, the one who created the world and its people. The problem is with the God that man created. That God, he said, was a hostage of individual religions and the self-proclaimed custodians of these religions are exploiting mankind. PK urges us to snap out of our stupor and awaken to a more meaningful way of living our lives! He makes a pertinent and sound case for a world without religion, where all people are equal – just the way they are created – and who respect the divinity in each other.

Indeed there is a divinity in each of us. This divinity is nothing but the Life energy that is powering us – because of which we are alive and are capable of experiencing the abundance in our lives and in the Universe. But we miss this abundance because we don’t realize this divinity. We are trapped in our self-defined world of limitations – our anxieties, insecurities, grief, guilt and fears – and in our elusive search for a God outside of us. Only when we break free from our limitations and look within – a journey which can commence through self-realization and awakening – will we find lasting inner peace and happiness.

When you realize yourself, you will appreciate and celebrate the fact that there’s no greater God than the one you see in the mirror every morning. You will understand that there is no better way to live than to accept what is or whatever is happening to you. You will then value each moment and begin to live your Life fully – without fear and without expectations!

Have a complex problem? Consider a simple solution – simply ‘accept’ the problem!

Complex problems need not necessarily have complex solutions. In fact, if you accept – and not deny – that you have a problem, the solution to any problem situation is often downright simple.  

Some years ago, deep in the throes of a our Firm’s bankruptcy, my wife and I were advised to meet a Siddha Yogi on the outskirts of Chennai. I was reluctant to meet him. My logic was that ours was a complex real world problem – 179 creditors, $ 1m+++ in debt, no work and no income in sight and no cash. How could worship and prayer repair our situation? Not that we had not tried those. We had. And nothing had really worked. But we still went to meet the Siddha Yogi because a close friend was insisting that we meet him.

We arrived on the appointed day and time at the Yogi’s place, some 35km from Chennai on the Bangalore Highway. I had expected to see a ochre-robe-wearing person with matted hair and flowing white beard. But the one who received us was wearing a lungi, a torn half-sleeved banian, had a stubble and was smoking a beedi! We were told that he charged nothing, did not ask for any money and spoke randomly – just the way thoughts came to him. So, as he received us, he said, “You have a debt problem. Embrace your debt. Accept it. It is trying to teach you something. Learn from it. Treat it like you would treat a guest at home – with respect and care. It will go away just the way it came, on its own!”

I was bewildered. So was my wife. “That’s it?,” I asked, wondering, “Is there any prayer or penance or ritual you would like us to undertake?”

The Yogi replied, repeating himself, in simple Tamil: “Embrace your debt. Accept it. It is trying to teach you something. Learn from it. Treat it like you would treat a guest at home – with respect and care. It will go away just the way it came, on its own!”

I remember coming out of that meeting in utter disbelief. How could a complex problem as the one I was faced with have such a simple solution? Besides, who would want to embrace their debt? It was a ghastly suggestion I thought. Why would anyone want to embrace whatever was causing them pain? Why would anyone want to embrace their problems?

Although I began thinking about it right away, it took me several months of resisting, suffering and refusing to accept my problem – which is the fact that we were bankrupt and were in deep, deep debt – to realize the value of what the Siddha Yogi had prescribed to me in just a few minutes. I had rejected his sage counsel because his solution was too simple and I felt it perhaps did not apply to my complex business – and Life – situation. But when I finally understood what he had told me, I found it very, very meaningful.

In saying what he did, the Siddha Yogi, had actually championed acceptance. He was saying that whatever be the situation that Life has placed you in, accept it. Because there is no way your situation is going to change even if you chose not to accept it. It is what it is. Always. What he said mirrored what the Buddha too has said: “Accept the pain.” When you accept whatever is causing you pain, you don’t suffer. And when you are not suffering you can deal with your pain, with whatever situation you are facing, with enormous clarity and focus.

True. Our business and Life situation is far from being repaired. But acceptance of our problem has given us the equanimity to deal with it daily. I have shared my learnings and experiences of this awakening into self-awareness in my Book – ‘Fall Like A Rose Petal – A father’s lessons on how to be happy and content while living without money’. An important and unputdownable learning is that complex problems need not necessarily have complex solutions. Simple solutions too exist. And often while those solutions don’t immediately solve a problem situation, they help deal with the situation – any situation – better!