Eat, Pray, Love . . . Now What?

I went to see the movie Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts last night, although I had not read the book someone had suggested that I should watch the movie.  Whenever, someone suggests a movie or a book, I know intuitively it is a “sign” from the Universe to take the action, so I did.

The movie had an interesting storyline about a woman (Julia Roberts) traveling around the world from Italy to India and then finally ending up in Bali in the hope of finding her spiritual connection with God.  Watch the  movie trailer here.

The cinema was full of excited women and my sincere hope is that they DO NOT believe that they have to make such an expensive  journey around the world, to find what is already “within them”.  Julia used a quote in the movie indicating India as The Source (for spirituality/God connection).   Hopefully everyone is aware by now that The Source is silently “within every heart”, and yes it does require a certain level of “devotion” to “connect to IT”.  In the movie a mantra or prayer was recited from the Indian Bhagavad Gita scriptures as a tool for daily devotion and connection. 

Every culture has a method of daily devotion whether that be reciting of prayers of singing to thank God/Creator/Energy. What humanity have forgotten is the act of ”remembering” to do this every day. The movie hopefully will remind people of the importance to find that sense of balance in their day to day life, and the importance to engage young children to do the same, as a daily practice.  We are  made of atoms, just try and contemplate on who holds those atoms together? That is who YOU should be thanking everyday and bonding with in a way that makes YOU feel comfortable and happy.

Contemplating the vast expanse of this Universe and our tiny little dot called Earth, we must take some time daily to be thankful for the air that we breathe, the water we are given and the earth that so lovingly sustains every need that we enjoy today.  This practice not only allows a sense of balance in our lives but also balances the energy around us.  A key reason why some people (eastern countries) awake at 3 am to start their devotional practice. Try it, notice the birds singing early in the morning, something you will not notice when the day gets fully charged with all the hustle and bustle.

I recall in England during school we would recite the Lord’s Prayer during morning assembly and before lunch the children would recite a prayer, again thanking God for the food we were about to receive.  The school systems today do not encourage that type of practice anymore, because people complain it is not “their God” or their religion. 

There is only ONE Light and we are all connected to the same Energy.  What if the world could just enjoy each other and love one another like brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, One United Family irrespective of colour, caste and creed and enjoy the Pure Essence of The Light Within Each Heart. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?

The spiritual practices enjoyed in India are valid only if the student is led back to their inner being. No Guru is going to be able to give you a “ticket to God” or wipe away your karma’s/mental programs that keep replaying, it is something that each individual needs to put some personal effort into achieving.  Yes of course listen and contemplate the teachings of a Guru/Teacher, but fair warning, YOUR experience is NOT the other persons and vice versa. We are all unique with a “story to to live and take ACTION on”.

Learn from your own experiences and seek answers from within yourself. You may find spiritual Guru’s or teachers across the world with astounding powers and tricks up their sleeves to impress you, but that is not the true Way or path of enlightenment.  And yes, it may surprise you, but we are ALL here to be enlightened, this was not just for Jesus, Buddha or other teachers we are ALL trying to find our way back home to the primoridal ONE Source. It is very important that we must put active effort into our spiritual awakening journey, sooner in life than later.

I only realized the importance of devotional prayer practice after my mother passed away, and now I wonder, what the heck I was doing for the earlier part of my life. I was clueless on the spiritual front acting out my thankfulness to God in a mechanical way.  I am not ashamed and will honestly say I thought God was up on a cloud somewhere not a personal experience or journey towards achieving the merging of my Light back to the ONE Light Source Energy.  But as they say, everything is planned and all the pieces of the puzzle came together, at the right time for every individual.

What did I gain from watching the movie?  A whole bunch of evidences and signs for my adventure/journey through life.  The Universe does communicate in numbers, words and even objects (read Seth Speaks – The Eternal Validity of the Soul, who describes how all images we see are visual signs contained as symbols and clues in forms of energy and various levels of the universe/planes a soul experiences as teams. Note the Seth book referred to a musical realm on page 23 that he had no knowledge of. The Sikh teachings are about singing praises (kirtan) of the Creator, this was an intuitive flag for me to take note.  Or read the Michael Teachings about karmic ribbons, the multiple levels/planes each soul has to pass through, and humanities ultimate goal being unconditional love and acceptance to return to the ONE Source Energy that we are sprung from. Still not convinced on past lives and the Immortal Soul, then read One Soul, Many Masters by Brian Weiss.  No one can make the choice but YOU to start your spiritual journey.

NOTE: All these books were very helpful on my spiritual evolution, BUT each book led me back to my own faith to explore and discover the deeper Truths contained in my own spiritual readings (see below), which had similar messages of multiple planes, the infinite nature of the universe, transmigration and karma.

Two numbers caught my attention in the movie and I wanted to share them, because I have a tool I personally like to use for my spiritual growth.  If I see a recurring number I like to enter it in The Guru Granth Sahib (Eternal Guru i.e. Teacher Enlightener) from Sikhism which is a book of wisdom containing poetry from devoted Saints including the famous poet Kabir and spiritual rebel/explorer Guru Nanak.  I like to refer to Sikh as SEEK, because for me it means remain a continuous learner throughout life. 

The Guru Granth Sahib is a book of wisdom and contains 1430 ANG’s which mean branches rather than pages. The Guru Granth Sahib contains parables, metaphors and mind bending poetic verses that really stimulate an individual to contemplate the meaning behind the written Word.  In some respects, the readings have helped me conquer my mind and stablize my thoughts (monkey chatter). It is hard to explain but somehow the words ”begin to work within you”.  You could say it’s heavy duty soap to purify and stablise the mind.

My belief in signs was further validated when I read an ANG called The Poem of the Alphabet by Guru Nanak, where he gives a poetic meaning for each Gurmukhi alphabet letter.  On his first day of school Guru Nanak challenged the teacher to give him the meaning of the alphabetic letter S. The teacher said it just meant the letter S. Guru Nanak started reciting the alphabet in poetic form and said the letter S was for the Sole Creator. Read the story here. 

I mention this because, what we are looking for in life is a personal experience or let’s say our Appointment with the Universe that will start to guide us with clues strewn here and there. Our job is to pick up on the clues which take us closer and closer to living and understanding the Essence of Truth in this lifetime and fulfilling our “promises” or “things we need to complete in this lifetime”. Completing these tasks helps our individual soul evolve so that we may eventually merge back into the ONE Supreme Soul (the Formless ONE) where we are all connected as brothers and sisters.  Look at your indiviidual self as a fragment of the ONE. Serving and helping each other along this journey of life is our collective experience and duty.

The Creative Formless Energy of ONE Lives in the Creation and is not separate. Contemplate on this, because if you GET THIS you will understand the entire purpose of life and the message that Humanity really is ONE.

The numbers that caught my attention in the movie were in a scene where Julia is storing away her personal “stuff” before she leaves on her spiritual trip. The numbers on the storage units were 322 and 323.  22 is often a number that appears in my “symbol bank” and 23 (by the way watch Jim Carrey’s movie 23!).  So when I noticed these numbers I intuitively knew they were clues to check into.

ANG – Branch 322

Quote: “To obtain the state of life of Nirvaanaa, meditate in remembrance on the One Lord. There is no other place; how else can we be comforted? I have seen the whole world – without the Lord’s Name, there is no peace at all. Body and wealth shall return to dust – hardly anyone realizes this.”

ANG – Branch 323

Quote: “O Nanak, serve the Infinite Lord; grasp the hem of His robe, and He will save you. Worldly affairs are unprofitable, if the One Lord does not come to mind. O Nanak, the bodies of those who forget their Master shall burst apart.”

It is my sincere hope that every person reading this post is connected to their Inner Light.  Be vigilant and stay in the present moment. Notice everything. Turn the cell phone off now and again and intuitively try and listen without your ears and see without your eyes, that is where the real magic of life is waiting to divulge its secrets to you. It is a personal “experience” BUT, share your story with others, because only then can people learn and connect with their own inner Truth.

Thanks for reading this rather long post.

Let Go. Simply Trust Life.