Overwhelmed by exhaustion, domestic friction, and intrusive thoughts, I have lost all energy to meditate or pray, feeling entirely helpless amid conflicting techniques and astrologers advising rituals for doshas like Pitru or Kaal Sarp. Is simple faith in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother sufficient to transcend these astrological influences, and what is the one essential key or grounded practice to sail through when every effort seems to yield no progress?
I understand the frustration that you feel. But all these various practices help only in arranging the outer circumstances somewhat. But as far as our inner psychological states are concerned, they have little or no impact. These things such as thoughts, feelings, will, etc are not governed by planets, nor can they be changed by kriyas. Meditation, if rightly done, helps; so does nishkama karma and true bhakti. But to do any of these things, the first necessity is to stop thinking about yourself and think more and more about the Divine. If one cannot do that, if one is letting one’s thoughts turn upon oneself and around oneself instead of the Divine, then it means one has allowed the will to become weak and hence is unable to turn it towards God. Reading Scriptures is an outer help, but the inner help comes by dedicating one’s actions to the Divine, by constant inner Remembrance of the Divine, by cultivating faith, by offering oneself to the Divine and His Work. The sign of this offering is that one stops thinking of oneself and focuses more and more on God, in whatever form or name you can best conceive of Him.
There is however, another problem. Once these things take root in the material body and brain, they are not so easy to uproot. Here there is a genuine role of medication. All true spiritual Masters advise medicines if the distress is acute because the body does not easily respond to the spiritual forces. So please consult a proper psychiatrist as well. It is very easy to manage these things with modern medicines and you shouldn’t delay it. Give full chance to heal and medicines are one of them.
With prayers
Affectionately,
Alok Da
