Growing up as a child in Australia from an Indian heritage, I always questioned the validity and usefulness of going to temples and praying to a multitude of Hindu gods. It didn’t seem to make any sense at all. As I grew up however, I began to appreciate the beauty and serenity of the devotion that people in India exhibited when going to the temple. Such bhakti (devotion) I came to realise was not something that could just be turned on. The people of these ancient cultures seemed to be born with it. It came naturally to them and it was unquestioning and unwavering in its expression.

Thankfully, a few of those seeds were sown within me from a dear family friend Dr Joshi, who taught us some of the prayers and mythological stories. Though I frequently found myself in the naughty corner for laughing at the unfamiliar sounds, somewhere I feel they left an impression, that subsequently ripened 15 years later when my mind became open to the realms of meditation, yoga and spirituality.

It was only after several years of meditation practice, that I felt the tenderness of devotion within my self. Now when I light the prayer lamp at our family alter or visit a temple in India, Thailand, Burma or Melbourne I feel very sensitively that we are just a small drop in a vast universe. Rituals are a gateway to a much wider and deeper  perspective. A hymn, a prayer, a reading, a candle, an incense stick are just reminders and symbols of a world much bigger than the small self.

In Health and Wellness

Ranjit