And the dance goes on!

As I mentioned last week, I had pulled my hamstring in my left leg while playing golf because I had set up a samskara (subtle thought pattern) that allowed me only to play golf on my vacations, not on any regular basis. I had thought that it was not morally inappropriate for me to golf as a lifestyle for a number of reasons.

But when my brother-in-law bought me a new set of golf clubs for my retirement and was talking about forming a team of the two of us to play matches and participate golfing tournaments, I felt trapped. The joy of golfing had left me.

“How could I justify doing something regularly that was contrary to my moral beliefs and teachings?” I said to myself.

Thinking that and feeling torn within made me pull my hamstring. I had created my situation as a result of my “disorderly mind.”

Well, also as I mentioned last week, I started to do a daily practice of bringing my mind into its proper place of joy and happiness, into its proper state of order. I knew that I was made in the image and likeness of God and that all God wants for us is joy, so I began to practice a meditation affirmation that brought me back to that reality.

Louise Hay’s book, How to Heal Your Body, said that the hamstring pull was from my attitude of looking at life as a drudgery, a pain. She suggested that I start saying to myself, “Life is a joyous dance.”

So I did. The affirmation reminded me of all the pictures and statues of dancing Shiva, the personification of the dissolving forces of the universe. Gradually, I even began to dance whenever I started to feel the tenderness of my hamstring and buttock muscle. I began to feel free of the worries and entrapment that I had felt previously. I began to enjoy swinging the golf club and didn’t seem to get so concerned about how well I was playing either. My score even became less important. I just began to play golf, allowing the moral straight-jacket that I had put on gently fall away.

I was in love again with golf just like my high school and college years. I realized that the Divine Mother had given me the opportunity to experience joy again.

The truth of Swami Rama’s commentary of the Bhagavad Gita—namely, “If one analyzes his circumstances, he will find that they are actually self-created. The predicaments one experiences are a result of his disorderly mind, which does not know how to adjust itself to the various relationships that he has created for himself. Verily, all miseries are self-created.” became very clear to me.

I now realized that I could create a misery-free life, in tune with the highest core of myself, if I chose to do so. I now knew that others could do that as well. We just need to put our mind in order. We need to meditate on the truth--LIFE REALLY IS A JOYOUS DANCE.

Namaste’