Awakening The Soul

 

In his book, ‘The Practice of Immortality’, spiritual leader Ishan Shivanand talks about the need to go in inwards and link up with the divine energy for mental peace and happiness  

By Shevlin Sebastian 

In spiritual leader Ishan Shivanand’s book, ‘The Practice of Immortality’, opposite the contents page is a quote from the Bhagwad Gita: 

‘The Spirit is neither born nor does it die at any time. It does not come into being or cease to exist. It is unborn, eternal, permanent and primeval. The Spirit is not destroyed when the body is destroyed.’ 

And this quote sets the tone of the book. In the introduction, Ishan tells a story: ‘Two birds perch on the same tree, inseparable companions. One bird eats the fruit, while the other looks on. The first bird is our finite self, feeding on the pleasures and pains of its deeds, consuming all the anxiety, the stress, the overwhelm of this life. The second bird is our immortal, infinite self, silently and serenely watching it all.’ 

Ishan added, ‘The universe within us. All people already possess immortality within themselves — most are just unaware of it. I am setting out to wake them from their slumber.’ 

Ishan belonged to a long line of yogis. He spent the first 20 years of his life in an ashram. One day, his guru told him a parable: 

Glass can either be a mirror or a window. ‘When you look in a mirror, you see only a reflection of yourself; when you look at a window, you see through it to the beauty and infinity of the universe around you. A mirror is painted black on one side; a window is pure, unobscured. To change a mirror into glass, you must purify it, removing the paint.’ 

Ishan was initiated into the spiritual life as a child by his father, Dr. Avdhoot Shivanand, the noted yogic guru in a monastery in the deserts of Rajasthan, near the Aravalli mountains. 

Interestingly, and with a sense of humour, Ishan said that when people come to know he was a monk, they regarded him either as a healer or an oddity. Some people asked bizarre questions: Can you fly? Do you fart rainbows? 

As he grew older, Ishan came to a realisation. ‘There are only two kinds of people,’ he wrote. “The ones who have already realised the god within, and the ones who have the potential to realise the god within.

One of the pivotal moments of his childhood occurred when a flood destroyed their ashram. Father and son moved to the suburb of Dwarka in New Delhi. Dr. Avdhoot was building an ashram in a swamp. In this swamp, the locals threw their garbage and defecated into it. It was near the airport. So, the roar of planes flying in and out was incessant. And because of railway tracks nearby, trains thundered past all the time. Apart from all this, car horns blared constantly. Children shouted. Couples fought and screamed at each other. Ishan found it difficult to adjust after the tranquility of the ashram in Rajasthan.  

This is how he described it: ‘Humans are a little like sponges. We assimilate the energies that are around us. I would witness people who were angry, and, somehow, I would feel their anger, too.’   

So, how to reclaim mental calmness? Ishan’s way was to recite mantras. He said that is the surest way to connect with divine energy. ‘Mantras are the gateway to the supreme power,’ he wrote. 

Incidentally, after every chapter, Ishan offered a meditation practice: 

Here are a couple: 

No. 1 

Sit comfortably, relax your body, and focus on a memory of gratitude.

 Feel the positive thoughts and emotions of that memory. 

 Gently embrace and accept its energy, allowing it to flow into the past from the present. 

No. 2

Sit comfortably, relax your body, and meditate on the sun. 

Imagine the sun as a friend, embodying all the positivity, divinity, and strength you need.

Inhale for a count of three, feeling the sun’s light flow into your head and through your entire body. 

Exhale for a count of three, releasing everything from your body through your head and into the sun. 

One, two, three — inhale deeply, three-two-one — exhale fully. 

Repeat this cycle for ten minutes, keeping your breath as deep as possible. 

Ishan confirmed the problem with humanity is ego. 

He wrote: ‘Ego does not allow us to see what is obvious. In his book, The Gift Of Fear, American security specialist Gavin de Becker wrote: “Your intuition exists, in part, to help you stay safe — to recognise when something isn’t right and to guide you away from danger.” But the avidya, the ego, has a trick up its sleeve: it speaks so loudly that it drowns out the inner voice of your intuition.’    

And because of the constant strictures from society, people ignore their inner voice and follow the dictates of others. 

Ishan learned to activate the prana, the life-force energy that animates all human beings, with the help of a teacher, Mashe, who was a master of kalaripayattu.    

As he grew up, Ishan came to a realisation about his life journey. He would help people to go from avidya to vidya, to move from lack of knowledge to knowledge. ‘My job was to clean people’s minds,’ he wrote. ‘Once the mind was habitable, a person’s higher self could take over.’ 

Yet Ishan’s path has been unconventional. He has engaged deeply with the world even while he nurtured a rich inner life of meditation. He has deftly maintained a link between outer action and inner stillness.  

So, he is married with a boy and a girl. In Washington, you can see Ishan in a tuxedo; in Mauritius, he conducts his ‘Yoga for Immortals’ mental wellness programme for athletes; In the Himalayas, you can see Ishan swimming in a lake; he prays at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya; he travels the Atlantic Ocean by ship; and he meditates on a frozen lake near the Arctic Circle. 

In one photo on Instagram, Ishan is on his knees with folded palms seeking blessings from enlightened master Mahant Swami Maharaj of the Swaminarayan Sanstha, the proponent of Sanathan Dharma, which has its headquarters in Ahmedabad. 

Over his maroon monk dress, Ishan had put on a sleeveless waist jacket, which showed his bulging biceps. The Mahant Swami Maharaj looked at his muscles and said, “Ladka Balwan Che (the boy is strong).” All the swamis present along with Ishan started laughing. Then a very senior swami said, “A strong body and mind are needed for the work Ishan has chosen to do.”

The Mahant Swami Maharajji gazed at Ishan with compassion in his eyes and said, “You will succeed. I bless you.”

One can see Ishan doing weightlifting, practicing target shooting, hitting the bull’s-eye, and enjoying video games in a mall. With a thick salt and pepper beard, and a ready smile, he gives the impression of being in this world and not being in it as well. Apart from being a spiritual leader, he is an international public speaker and a performance enhancement coach. 

The yogi has earned a Doctorate of Philosophy in Humanities from the United Graduate College and Seminary International in Kampala, Uganda. 

This book is a reminder of the spiritual life that many of us are missing at this point. From early morning until late at night, we constantly distract ourselves with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube videos. And in this empty activity, we have forgotten there is a divine energy within us. 

This has also resulted in a grave psychological breakdown all over the world. People turn to drugs, alcohol, sex, power, fame, and fleeting relationships to fill the void within. But Ishan says, the simple answer but very difficult to implement is the path of meditation and inner awakening. 

He says the only way is the way inward. As Lord Buddha and Jesus Christ said thousands of years ago, ‘Know Thy Self.’ Through the book, you can get an idea of how to travel into the soul, and connect with the Divine. 

It is a timeless path to reclaiming your life!

(Published in kitaab.org, Singapore)