The stage is set and the curtain has been raised

God has chosen the conditions under which you are living your present life. It is like a play. The stage is set and the curtain has been raised for you to perform your part and advance along the spiritual path. Your present conditions are the best possible ones for your advancement.

Sri Chinmoy 1

I just love this quote, as it puts my life situation into perspective and helps me find gratitude for life, as well as courage and inspiration to move forward and make progress.

Once we were embarking on a campaign of giving meditation classes. To help improve our presentation, we shot a video of a class with the idea we would watch afterwards to see how it could be better.

After I managed to overcome my initial discomfort of watching myself, I was fascinated to see the difference between myself pre- and post-meditation. It was dramatic. After meditating, I had so much more poise, more focus, more clarity.

I had always considered myself to be fairly even-keeled, so I had no idea that there would be a dramatic transformation taking place every time I meditated. All of the things I wanted to be could be achieved through the simple act of being silent for twenty minutes or so.

I began thinking about this discovery and came to the conclusion that when I am in this post-meditation state, there is a much greater chance that the choices I make and the decisions that I take will naturally be far more in tune with my higher aspirations. Furthermore, it became clear that my life direction was not based on a few key momentous decisions that I had to get right or forever hold my peace. It is more like the cumulative effect of a lot of small decisions. Consequently, the more I can be in a good consciousness though meditation, the more likely I will make choices and decisions that will result in a fulfilling, illumining and enriching life.

You simply cannot plan for every contingency and meticulously carve out a perfect life. Instead, you can simply get in touch with your higher self and trust that you will do the right thing at the right time and be guided to a life of fulfilment.

When you open yourself up to spiritual light, your life becomes easier. I think this happens because you consciously begin trying to listen to your higher self and to use that higher self as a guide in the choices you make and decisions you take. Consequently, you become more in sync with your destiny and begin to live the life that God wants for you and not the life your emotions or desires want for you. Essentially, you take a different path.

This new path, at first, is not very far from the old path because, like a fork in the road, you are still somewhat in the same area. However, as time moves on, those two paths—your life’s old trajectory and your new one—diverge, more dramatically, and you see how beautiful, enriching and fulfilling your new life is.

When you soulfully meditate,
The first thing you get
Is peace,
And this peace
Marks the beginning
Of your heart’s journey
Along the path of perfection.

Sri Chinmoy 2

• 1. Death and Reincarnation, Agni Press, 1972
• 2. Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 19, 1878, Agni Press, 1983