The Sea Beckons...

It’s tradition in our family to travel to a new place for every New Year’s Eve. It’s the time we all get a muchneeded break and good amount of family time. Last year we visited Bali. We were staying at a beautiful hotel. Our balconies faced the vast ocean and it was a treat for the eyes every day to witness the beautiful sunsets of Bali. But I will make a confession that Bali wasn’t my first preference.

I have, or I should say had a tremendous fear of water. However, this trip had something else in store for me. While I was sitting by the ocean enjoying the view one morning I started to feel the currents of the ocean drawing me towards them. I felt a strong sensation in my Swadhishthana chakra (This chakra is linked to water element). And suddenly the energy of the water started to interact with me. As I heard the water I went into deep meditation.

The sound of the waves was becoming clearer gradually. They were making the sound of So-Hum. While the wave was being formed it sounded So and when the wave broke it sounded Hum. This is also the sound of our breath. Inhaling is So and exhaling is Hum. When I coordinated my breath with the waves of the ocean I experienced complete silence and stillness.

This took me deeper and deeper into my meditation. If one has to draw an analogy, the waves are like thoughts and the shore is like the mind. Just as waves will only break at the shore, thoughts will only break at the mind. If there is no shore, there are no waves – If there is no mind there will be no thoughts. The ocean seems calm until it reaches the shore and that’s when it breaks into waves. One has to realise that waves will come, break on the shore and again return to the ocean. They do not remain at the shore forever.

Another metaphor the ocean gave me that day was that one has only two options either to tide over the waves or let the wave take you in. This is exactly how one must deal with disturbances in life. Either experience them fully or completely surrender to the divine plan.

A human being must strive for the state of the sky to become awakened. He must only be a witness. The strongest sensation I felt during this state was in my

swadhishthana chakra. 78-80% of our body is water and 75-80% of the planet is water. Water bodies soothe the swadhishtana chakra. This chakra is emotion based. Water is responsible for either stirring up emotions or calming them. We need to keep the swadhishthana

chakra in balance to help it do its job right. I started to experience water in a different way from that day onwards as this realisation dawned upon me. It was the energy of the ocean that helped me. It soothed my swadhishthana chakra. I won’t say I can swim now or can jump into mid sea, but I can definitely feel no sense of fear towards this beautiful element. All there is left to feel is gratitude.