The Shoots and the Roots

Are we becoming cleverer, yet losing the essence of life?

Have you ever met someone who made you feel instantly peaceful, without knowing why? And someone else whose presence left you strangely unsettled?

What are we sensing that the mind cannot quite explain?

Perhaps there are subtleties to life that we have forgotten to explore.

A culture of celebration, a culture of achievement

In India, festivals are woven into the rhythm of life. Navratri, Diwali and Ganesh Chaturthi bring together music, dance, devotion, laughter and community. They connect us with nature, the deities and something greater than ourselves.

Could we, in the West, have become so occupied with achievement that we have forgotten the art of celebrating life?

We educate our children brilliantly. We teach them the shoots — knowledge, ambition and success — but who is nurturing the roots?

As a parent of two children I regard as born-realised souls, I sometimes wonder: how much of what they learn truly nourishes their inner being? Education opens doors, but does it necessarily open the heart?

Surely, a loving person is a thousand times more valuable than a clever person who has never learned to love.

Intelligence is a gift. But without self-awareness, it can become a playground for the ego. Comparison breeds insecurity; insecurity creates competition; and competition can turn human relationships into hierarchies of status and superiority.

We become better at proving who we are, yet forget to discover who we truly are.

Peeling back the layers

Sahaja Yoga invites us to explore another dimension of life: the subtle system within us, the awakening of the Kundalini, and the qualities that unfold through spiritual ascent.

We speak of vibrations, chakras and thoughtless awareness — not merely as ideas to believe, but as experiences to explore through meditation and introspection.

Science has yet to establish the subtle system as described in Sahaja Yoga. But the invitation to observe ourselves more deeply remains powerful.

What happens when we become less reactive, more compassionate, more innocent and inwardly balanced? Why do peace and kindness change the quality of our relationships?

Perhaps the journey begins when we stop assuming that everything meaningful must first be understood by the thinking mind.

We are learning more about the world, but are we learning enough about ourselves?

Like peeling an onion, every layer of understanding reveals another beneath it. The deeper we look, the more we discover that life is not simply about accumulating knowledge, but about transforming our awareness.

The real measure of ascent

Perhaps education and spirituality need not compete. We need intelligence guided by wisdom, confidence softened by humility, and achievement rooted in compassion.

Children learn these qualities not just from what we teach, but from the lives we lead.

Perhaps the real measure of an educated person is not how much they know, but how deeply their knowledge has transformed their heart.

Because cleverness, without self-awareness, can become a remarkably sophisticated way of remaining inwardly immature.

We can polish our personalities, climb every social ladder and still remain strangers to ourselves.

The shoots may reach towards the sky, but it is the roots that give them life.

Perhaps the greatest journey is not learning how to become somebody in this world, but discovering who we truly are beneath all the layers.

That, to me, is where true ascent begins.