When You Lift Your Finger, You Move The Stars
Even one committed person can inspire everyone around them.
Artwork©Siarhei Yurchanka/123rf
When you have been meditating over a long period of time, you realize your thoughts are a reality. The impact they have on the body, first and foremost, is really tangible, but also on everything and everyone around you. Being very aware of this and keeping your thoughts at a very positive, pure, elevated level is so important. It’s one of the subjects that requires a huge amount of attention, especially when you are surrounded by negativity.
At this time, there seems to be a very toxic atmosphere charged with a lot of negativity in many different ways. There is a darkness, and you wonder what the future will be, but in fact, the natural way things work is things don’t stay the same forever.
You see these real flowers in front of me? They are not silk, they’re not paper, they are real, and because they are real, they are not going to be like this tomorrow. They will be a little bit different, and if we leave them sitting there for a few days, there will be more of a difference.
The law of nature is that there’s always change. Even if there seems to be darkness today, I know for sure — it’s not just a hope, it’s a conviction — that after the night, after the darkest hour, the day surely has to come, and the dawn will break. So, I know beyond what I’m seeing today in the darkness and negativity, there’s something better ahead. There’s going to be a day in which there’s light, love, and joy.
I also know it’s natural that should happen. And, also, that I can make a very positive contribution toward that in terms of my awareness, my consciousness, my thoughts, my feelings, the words I use, and the actions I perform. We have a choice in all of these things. Bringing light into the world means taking responsibility. I don’t say, “Well, it’s going to happen just like that.”
We’ve all contributed in some way or another to the world conditions today, and our transformation is also going to change the world. It seems a very bombastic thing to say when I change, the world will change, but it happens like that. When I change, the little world around me changes, and if any of you have thought about transformation and worked on transformation on an inner level, you would have seen that happen.
Goodness Inspires More Goodness
There are so many different things that indicate this is true, but just consider: any individual who’s witnessed something good happening feels inspired to do something good themselves. The transformation of one reaches out to at least one hundred and twenty-five, according to an experiment done at Harvard.
I need to have that attention on myself. If I keep my thoughts light and easy and flexible, things are going to be that much easier. Even if things are difficult, staying light makes things much easier to bear.
As you go through the process of cleansing and removing the negativity so deeply rooted within, you realize you are able to adapt to situations without losing yourself in them. You are able to see what to do, how to do it, and where it is you want to go.
Most people don’t realize they’re absorbing a lot of junk food all the time; they’re feeding their mind with it. If, in a very conscious way, I were to read something that’s uplifting or hear something that I know is going to be healthy for me, these are good things that can be a source of nourishment for me through the day. Find nourishing things that can support you and give you inspiration and enthusiasm, and health. As you follow through with that awareness, you’re sending out those vibrations in a very conscious way, and you’re beginning to move in that direction of creating a better world.
What I do is re-energize myself every single day, because otherwise there’s going to be compassion fatigue and volunteer fatigue. You need to recharge your little phone every night, otherwise it’s not going to work for you the next day.
Photo©fizkes/123rf
Although it sounds very far-fetched, it is said when you lift your finger, you move the stars. There’s a domino effect of action and even words and vibrations on everything around us. What’s been happening is not just our thoughts, which have become negative, but also our actions, in which we’ve really created an imbalance in Earth’s situation.
Think back to some years ago when children were quite happy to play with paper and paints and occupy themselves, and no child would say, “I’m bored.” They’d find something to do and be quite happy and content. Today you give expensive toys, and after a couple of days the child will say, “I’m bored.” So, we’ve become so dependent on all the things outside, but we’ve forgotten that we have a huge treasure store of resources within. We don’t take the time to go on that inner journey. So, the result is climate change, consumerism, materialism, and lack of inner capacity.
When You Hit A Wall, You Go Inside
It’s actually an opportunity. When you hit a wall and you can’t go further, then what you can do is go inside. And when you go inside, you discover there is peace, there is love, there is joy within you. Then you can simplify your life to an incredible extent, and you don’t need to be buying, buying, buying. Coming back to that awareness of the world within and accessing those qualities and using them, you don’t need to do anything else; you create a better world.
Many, many, years ago when I was with the Brahma Kumaris founder, Brahma Baba, (it was his last year in the physical world), he asked me the question: “Is it possible to remove the poverty of the world?” I didn’t have an answer. And he said, “Yes, it’s possible.” “Is it possible to remove the suffering of people in the world?” I waited, and he again said, ”Yes, it’s possible.” Then he said, “Is it possible to remove disease from the world?” Again, he said, “Yes, it’s possible.” Then he said, “But it’ll only be possible if we remove lust, anger, greed, attachment, and ego. Then we can remove all these situations of the world. All of that can change.” Then he said, “But you can’t tell others to do this; you have to do it yourself. Then if others see it and are inspired, they will do the same.”
So, yes, there can be a difference, but there can only be a difference when there is this change of heart and change of consciousness. Don’t underestimate the value of what one can do. When there’s an idea whose time has come, then time moves things in that direction. You just have to make sure you stay committed to what you know is true. If you do that, then even one committed person can inspire everyone around them. That’s the secret.
Even One Committed Person Can Inspire Everyone Around Them
In its original natural state, the human soul is pure peace and love and joy and truth. When I forget myself and come under the influence of the external world, these qualities get suppressed, and what comes up are things like attachment instead of love, anger instead of peace, greed instead of contentment. These are toxic elements that have impacted us and seem to be reaching a very critical peak at the moment.
All of these toxins are creating a disturbance within my own mental state of health and well-being, and they’re also impacting the physiology of the body. And so, our immune system has become very weak. There have always been viruses, they’re not a new invention. They’ve always existed and we’ve coexisted with them, but now our immunity is so diminished because of not just the toxins in the water, in the air and the food that we eat, but also through what’s going on in our minds.
What I do is re-energize myself every single day, because otherwise there’s going to be compassion fatigue, there’s going to be volunteer fatigue. All these things set in, so I need to recharge myself, even in a simple way. You need to recharge your little phone every night, otherwise it’s not going to work for you the next day.
So, I need to recharge, and that means meditation every day — coming to the awareness of the inner being, the being that I am, the light that’s shining in the center of the forehead. This is who I am. I need to practice every day, and if I can do that, then I’ll have the energy to keep going, and also to inspire and sustain others who are interested. When you’re on track, then time supports you and helps you, and the drama of the world moves in that direction also.
This article is excerpted with permission from a presentation that took place in May 2023 at the Brahma Kumaris Meditation Center in Watertown, MA, a space where meditation happens often and peace is talked about.
Sister Jayanti is a sought-after speaker, author, and spiritual teacher. She is the Additional Administrative Head of Brahma Kumaris, an international spiritual organization run entirely by women, and based in Rajasthan, India, with over 8500 centers around the world.
