Ever stood at crossroads of life where your societal and spiritual constructs appear to diverge? Where pathways to your social well-being run contradictory to your spiritual well-being? ‘Balance’ as a unit of measure is difficult to gauge unless the mind unlocks a channel, where the two constructs feed into one another, thus creating an ecosystem.

I was born to a physicist father and a musician mother. The balance of discipline and creativity is in my roots. Yet, it has taken me some time to understand the nuances under which these two facets work in unison. The social fabric I inherited from my surroundings required that I build a stage, create an engaging drama, and receive an ovation. My spirit, however, looked for structure, silence and a thing of beauty. One could argue that growth along these two planes could mean different things to different people but would agree that marrying the two into a single knot is definitely harmonious and beneficial.

I stumbled upon this convergence purely by accident. Last week, a friend of mine visited me from US. We travelled, visited temples, played tennis, and struck a few meaningful conversations. Upon returning to the US, he penned a few thoughts about his experience in India; how his visits, each time, help him understand the contradictions between his societal and spiritual planes. His search for finding ‘silence’ while negotiating what he called ‘maya’ served as a catalyst to help me find my own.

I lost my father when I was 21. I missed having structured conversations with him during my growth years. My mother has been my strongest anchor all these years. Universe has not been kind to her, yet, she has fought on with an unshakeable belief that it will be kind to her one day. Some day in the future, I will miss her physical presence. So, my spiritual path starts with bringing kindness and comfort to her soul.

Although I have been blessed with good people in this life who will come to my rescue if things go south, I have every tool within me to build a life of my imagination. I haven’t used much of these tools in the past but the next chapter in my life will be about fulfilling the promise with which my mind, body and soul entered this world. By creating structure and discipline wherever I go, my material ambitions will stay closest to my roots thus merging into my spiritual growth.

Evolution is about cleansing and healing the soul from the past and current karmic actions. I realise that becoming a better version of myself than the one who entered this world is the only way to give pillars to my ambitions. Life happens, events will be constructed, I will choose to act in a certain way and learn through my decisions. Most importantly, I will treat myself kindly, others too but will build enough walls to safeguard my soul so it can heal from past karmas in peace. I intend to leave this planet on a zero balance – fully healed.