FIR

The clock showed 4:59 AM Thursday, and I was ready to click the join button on Zoom. I am not really a lazy kind of person but I am not an early riser either. 4:30 AM is a good two and half hours before my usual wake-up time. But, love makes you do all kinda crazy stuff, right? 

When one of my closest friends wanted to join the early morning Bhagavad-Gita class, the remaining two of us enrolled as well, without thinking twice. Nah, she actually pulled both of us into it with her!

Well, Mahabharata is THE favorite epic for me, and I have read about 6-7 different retellings so far, but I always skip the part when Krishna imparts wisdom to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. “I am not ready for it”, my mind had a habit of telling. “Maybe next time”, was another excuse I used often. The fact is, best-case scenario ½ of my active life might be over already. So if not now then when?

Anyways, here I was this morning at 5:00 AM, clicking the join button to attend my first lesson on Bhagvat-Gita, excited but unsure at the same time.  Almost at the beginning of the class, someone asked the teacher, what is the sign of spiritual progress in one’s journey? I sat up straight, this question I often wonder as well. Paraphrasing her answer, “Remember FIR. Frequency, Intensity, and Recovery. We all go through highs and lows in life, and that is something we cannot really evade. But over the period, if we notice that the frequency of us holding grudges is reducing, the intensity of our anger is lessening, and our ability to rebound and recover from any adverse situation is improving, we are on the right path. Nothing else matters much.”  Simple and clear! And we went on to discuss attachments, detachment, and much more.

     FIR  seems a pretty neat way to assess spiritual progress to me. What about you? 🙂 

Until Next Time,

Deepali