RADIO RUHANIYAT. 11-30-2013: Episode 331

Remembering God in Alzheimer’s!     

       

The Body and Mind have a Love-Hate relationship. Our Mind is our biggest benefactor if it goes the right direction-yet it becomes our grandest enemy when it heads the wrong direction. Although, the mind is not an organ in the body, yet we cannot function without its formless existence. What we do, how we function: is all dependent on how our mind operates. At the same time, our body is also co-dependent on the functioning of the mind. There are times, when even if our body is not at its 100%, yet our will power and mind can make it function at its full capacity. And then, there are times when we might feel completely healthy, yet the mind makes the body lazy and non-functional.

So what is the role of the Mind in Spirituality? Going to Satsang, Remembering God in Simran and serving one-another in Sewa: are dependent on our state of mind. We can convince ourselves to serve and surrender or we can totally deny the fact that we even need them. The degree to which we are devoted is also dependent on how well we have trained the mind. Our Mind is the one that can humble itself to reach its Goal of salvation or it can live in ego and walk into the path of cycle of births and rebirths.

So what happens to people who develop memory problems and get diagnosed with Alzheimer’s’ disease? It is very typical in Alzheimer’s that the patients eventually forget everything including their loved ones. Isn’t it sad that someone who has been married for 60-70 years of their life will stop recognizing their own spouse? Then how will such a mind remember God?

In the Holy Avtar Bani: verse 1 states: “Man budhi tey akalon baharey, tainu lakh parnam karaan.”

Meaning: “O’ Thou, beyond the comprehension of mind, intellect and wisdom, I bow unto thee a million times.”

Our relationship with God is for the soul: not for the body or the mind. Our goal is salvation. And salvation is for the soul: not for the body or the mind! We use our mind as a tool from one of the nine elements needed to survive in this creation. But just like we need the body as a house for the soul, we need the mind to keep ourselves on the right path at all times.

I have often looked at some of the Alzheimer’s patients at work and wondered how do they remember God? In the Assisted Living Facility that I work in, there were two elderly patients residing at the same time: both with Alzheimer’s disease. Both of them: sitting side-by-side, were drastically different from each other. If someone would walk up to them, even before one could say anything, one resident would snap at them saying: “What do you want? Get out of my house!” At the same time, the other resident: would start praising God and saying: ‘Thank you God! Thank you for being there for me”. Even when nothing was being done for her, she would just look at people and keep thanking them. Even in Alzheimer’s, God-remembrance was a part of her engraved nature: which led to gratitude and sweetness. The difference between the two Alzheimer’s residents was very obvious. Even though we knew anything about their past, their background or their circumstances, the staff was often heard making the assumption that one resident had probably lived his life in arrogance and the other one had lived a humble life full of love and gratitude.

It was the mind that played a role here in establishing a nature: both good and bad. Who we are; what we are and how we are; is based on how well we trained and controlled our mind. Whether we lived in a spiritual environment or in an arrogant one, establishes what we become.

When we are driving back and forth to our homes, a time comes when we reach home even when our mind was not fully aware and alert. Sometimes we realize that we were amidst our own world of thoughts, and didn’t even remember making certain turns. Yet, we reached home, because our mind got trained subconsciously to follow a certain trail of directions.

While we are still healthy and capable, we need to train our mind to stay in connection with the Almighty so that God-forbid, if a time comes when our memory gives away, we can subconsciously still operate and function in-sync with spirituality. GET IN-TUNE WITH THE ALMIGHTY TO SUCH A DEGREE THAT OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD BECOMES A RELATIONSHIP THROUGH OUR SOUL AND NOT JUST LIMITED TO THE MIND. Keep in mind that salvation/Mukti or Nirvana is for the soul, not for the body or the mind!!! The soul is the one that needs to be in unison with the super-soul.

And remember: Our body and Mind are merely tools to establish a relationship with the Super-soul. Use them wisely but don’t make them the goal!!!