The Answer Lies Within

The answer lies within. But how do we find it?

It sounds lofty yet vague, and no one seems to know what it means. Self-help books and spiritual gurus or coaches, ask us to look inside for solutions.

Is it that simple?

If it were, everybody would have been trouble-free and the world would have been a nicer place.

No skirmishes, no marital discords, no job or stress related problems, eternal world peace – it could have been a different world altogether.

It is not that the answers don’t lie within us – they do. It’s how we seek those answers is what separates the mundane from the great, the ordinary from the extra-ordinary, the intelligent from the super-intelligent.

In ancient India, this was a tradition – Yoga or Vedanta – where the students with the help of their teachers applied rigorous scientific methods to look within themselves for answers.

Spiritual Giants found that the answer lies within

Lord Buddha, who lived in 6th Century B.C.E in India explored the innermost depths of his Self and came up with grand realizations and answers to some of humanities greatest questions – his teachings later went on to became foundations of Buddhism.

Maharshi Patanjali (who lived around 3 BCE) systematized all these varied practices into one whole and composed the book Yoga Sutra – one of the best self-help and spiritual development guide books ever written, in my opinion. He starts from the basics and builds a grounds-up approach that relies on common sense and scientific investigation of the mind.

And so

Coming back to the phrase – yes the answer lies within. But we must first prepare ourselves to even begin to know where to look inside us. Just as one finds it difficult to locate a book in a large library without an indexing system and a librarian’s help, in the same way one needs a guide and a scientific method to explore the mind for answers.

And the answers can only come if we are mentally and physically fit. For physical fitness, yoga asanas, brisk walking or cardio, are recommended and for mental fitness one must be first be disciplined, pragmatic, respectful of mother nature, frugal and always eager to learn.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading.

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