Who are you? what brings you here?
Radiant your countenance, mysterious your way,
The earth awaits in eagerness to hear what you have to say
One look, one gesture, one smile from you will satisfy our hunger
We do see you smiling and chatting but with whom we wonder….
Right now all we get from you is the gift of silence….but slowly as we learn to be patient and learn the meaning of TRUE love, I’m sure you have in store for us gifts from beyond the universe
7th May, 2015
I just saw the movie Interstellar after a long wait….it was truly worth the wait. Its a movie that takes you to a place where science overlaps spirituality. I got a couple of messages from the movie…
a) Love is the only energy/ frequency/ force actually, that can cross borders and boundaries between all that separates human beings.
b) Human beings exist simultaneously in many dimensions. Past, present and future aspects of ourselves, all at once…so when we talk about connecting with our higher self, we are actually connecting with ourselves from the future!!! From a higher dimension!
This higher self can access our self from all stages of evolution and whenever required, tries to send messages and clues to the lower self from time to time…the more we are in touch with ourselves, the more we get the messages- from the future!!! Maybe even we send messages to our lower selves!!!
Isn’t it wonderful to even imagine?
This movie reinforced my belief in this very message that I have received from so many sources!!
It helped me to understand the human journey and evolution from a very expanded point of view…..
Thirsty for more spiritual messages from the movie? Here’s the link to another one that I liked!!
May 7th, 2015
The other day I was travelling by car and was trying to brush off this recurrent and nagging thought which didn’t give me a good feeling about myself. Then suddenly I saw this beautiful bougainvillea tree. The first thought that came to me when I saw it was that it’s so perfect- and it doesn’t even know it. The minute it becomes aware of its perfection, it would cease to be so.
I then remembered what Dr Michaela Glöckler said in one of the IPMT s.
Of all the kingdoms that is, mineral, plant, animal and human, the human being is the most highly evolved and yet at the same time, the most imperfect.
The minerals, plants and animals are so perfect!! One can’t find anything wrong with them. But perfection ends there…human beings cannot be perfect. That’s because it is the essence of the human being to be unique.
But unfortunately…the higher aspect of the human being- his free will- interferes with this perfection and renders this too imperfect.
Dr Michaela said that a human being has to strive all his life to attain the perfection of the lower kingdoms….a human being can only be perfect when he is one with the great expanded consciousness of the natural world….as a baby, as a person with autism or other intellectual or developmental challenges or as a Perfect Master who has found his way back to the perfection of the universe…..
Went to Prithvi theater yesterday with family. We’re not the theater types but like the cafe. To our surprise we were joined by Shashi Kapoor in his wheelchair… So old, no speech, no movement… But fully aware of everything going on around, with a couple of attendants fussing over him like he was a baby in a stroller…. Initially it was disturbing to see him in this state, after seeing him as a singing, dancing superstar of his age (80s).
His wife Jennifer and he started the Prithvi theater and nurtured it with all their love and passion which was then taken over by their children, mainly Sanjana.
So he sat there for a long time… People were coming up to him, wishing him, congratulating him on his recent recognition- the prestigious Daddasaheb Phalke award, touching his feet, taking his blessings and pictures. He was taking it all in….indulging everyone… In fact he was soaking it up…the young vibrant energy of the place…looking with love at the hub of art and creativity that he and his wife (who sadly left him too early) had so lovingly created… It was as if he was living through the energy of this creation!!
It was a different and interesting experience…gratitude! heart emoticon
http://www.mumbai.org.uk/tourist-attra…/prithvi-theatre.html
http://www.prithvitheatre.org/aboutus.php
I recently heard the interview of Anita moorjani who was in a coma for 30 hours and had a vivid NDE. She was suffering from last stage cancer and was in intense pain- until she went into a coma and had an NDE (near death experience). In the NDE she found herself in a beautiful realm where she felt no pain….she only experienced unconditional love and oneness with all creation. Time was not linear and she experienced past present and future all at once. The minute she focused on someone, she knew what they were thinking and feeling!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tjLouLHH-_I
As I listened to her more and more, I started comparing her out of body state with that of the children with autism. Children on the autism spectrum are also in an out of body state as their soul is not fully embodied or incarnated into the body. Hence they are partially in the earthly realm and partially in the unified consciousness or, spiritual world. (Read works of Lyrica Mia, Suzy Miller, Weston Schmier, Mary Ann Harrington and so many others to see what I’m talking about and what Rudolf Steiner said about incomplete incarnation a hundred years back)
But unlike NDE there is a thread of consciousness connecting person’s with autism to their body. Anita experienced bliss in her state of total astral disconnect with the body. But the children on the spectrum, unfortunately, due to the partial or improper connection, feel the pain of their improper integration resulting in poor metabolism, sensory overload and processing problems which is normally handled by the fully integrated ‘ego’ or ‘I’ or self/spirit. However, the other world or realm that children on the spectrum inhabit at the same time, all the time, is the same world that Anita and others who had an NDE visited- temporarily…the world of angelic light beings, the world where there is no individual ‘I’, the world of telepathy and empathy, the world where time is not linear and the world without gravity.
People who have NDE often report that they never wanted to come back….as the other world is really a blissful place where there is only unconditional love, only oneness exists and there’s no judgment. The higher beings have to convince them to go back as its not yet time…they’re not done with the earth yet.
This is the parallel world that children with autism inhabit while at the same time living on the earth due to the incomplete incarnation of the soul.
Why does this happen?
There could be two possibilities …one being the aspect of karma and destiny….of the parents and of the children. Its a choice- a pact they’ve made with each other to progress in the evolution of their souls but forgot about it once they were born. They choose a vulnerable constitution that is easily affected by the impurities in the world today.
Or it could be the conscious decision of the highly evolved soul to be born this way… to raise the vibration of other ordinary souls to a higher level by being in this state of pure and positive vibration. A state of oneness with the source.
All this may sound very hunky dory but one cannot even imagine the pain of living in two such worlds simultaneously. And more than that, the pain of not being understood and accepted.
To escape this pain of being in this painful alien earth world, some persons with autism engage in behaviours that will keep them in their world of angelic beings…these are self stimulatory behaviours like spinning and flapping that takes them out of their painful bodily experiences.
This is exactly what the sufis do when they dance the dervish….twirl their bodies to be out of body and feel oneness with the source.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3gG8YAUqVIs
Children with autism however are always in a state of oneness with the source and this is a problem if they have to live in our society. Many children want to ‘belong’; want to be more embodied but can’t feel their own bodies unless they touch themselves so intensely that it manifests as what we call ‘self stimulating/injurious behavior’ like head banging, hitting or pinching oneself, etc.
Hence the various therapies that bring their consciousness and awareness into their bodies, like occupational therapy and sensory integration, movement activities, special diets and lifestyles to purify their physical being, etc. have come into being. Unfortunately this covers only the physical aspect.
Many parents suffer with their children when they see the aggression, anxiety and all the difficult manifestations of autism. This is why we have so many organisations trying to ‘cure’ or ‘defeat’ autism.
However when the parents, therapists and care givers start viewing autism as a way of being and no longer as a condition that needs to be cured, something begins to shift….in the child as well as in the parent. When the parent starts accepting the child as he is and starts connecting deeply with the child knowing that there is something in the child beyond physical- an Ego (higher Ego) connection is established between the parent and child and this assists in the process of incarnation or descension of the child’s spirit into the physical realm. As this happens, the painful aspects fade away, giving way to a happy, healthy life filled with wellness and purpose. The gifts begin to emerge from behind the veil. I have seen so many parents and children leading happy fulfilled lives with autism in it!!
But for descension to happen another process needs to happen simultaneously. Ascension. Ascension of the parent, therapist or anyone who is close to the child and would like to connect better with the child.
This is the reason we hear so much about unconditional love.
Love is healing.
When we come in to the frequency of love, we raise our frequency to meet the child where she is….in the divine world!
I recently came upon the life and work of Mehar baba who is said to be the Avatar of our times. He was an Avatar, a God realized Master who stopped speaking and did not speak for 44 years. Why did he stop speaking? He said that it was because enough has been said already and that now is the time to put into practice what has been said so far!
(Is this also the reason why these divine souls who are manifesting as autistic, choosing not to speak verbally and as their existence is an energetic one?)
He did not speak for 44 years, but communicated his divine messages at first through a letter board ( which is now used in a revolutionary method called RPM that is giving a voice to many nonverbal autistics (http://www.halo-soma.org/main.php…)) and then later gave that up as well to use only gestures which were understood and interpreted by his close ones.
Now one of the most important missions of Mehar baba was that he used to seek out those whom he called the ‘Masts’- those exalted beings who were God-intoxicated….so one with the source that they were not in their body. (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=co3Ft271-rs )
They had no interest in or awareness of their physicality. Mehar baba said these were evolved souls passing through the space between two of the highest relams, who met God but lost the body awareness as they were stuck or lost. Mehar baba used to seek them out and serve them, bathe them, feed them and work to bring them into their bodies so they can bless the world with their mere presence.
This is exactly what Anthroposophic Curative educators (http://www.en.khsdornach.org/) are trained to do. Attempt to bring the incompletely incarnated souls as much into their bodies as possible so they can meet their true destiny. But this they are trained to do with an attitude of reverence for their true divine nature. And then again, it upto the child and his soul purpose how much they want to inccarnate….they need to be connected to the spiritual world in order to fulfil their divine purpose on earth, while some choose to get eventually integrated into society as they have different lessons to teach and a different purpose.
The main pillar of Curative Education is Inner Work of the Educator. The educator needs to raise him/herself spiritually to the level of the person (in need of soul care) so that they can be guided intuitively as to the true needs of the child which may be different from the agenda of the educator.
Many professionals and parents are now working with the similar philosophy where the primary focus is on the energy work of the parent or care giver!!
This knowledge or perspective changes the way we approach our work as care givers when we change the way we perceive them…as divine beings rather than disabled children.
What we do may remain the same…but how we do it will undergo a 360° change.
We will then work with reverence, with devotion and serve them in the same way that the priest serves the deity in a temple although the deity promises nothing in return.
What I’ve shared is totally my personal experience and my understanding. However it is heartening to see that more people with autism are finding their voice and expressing the truth of their being and purpose. They have found a way to get across to the world through their parents and carers who are open and ready to receive their divine messages through FC, RPM, telepathy and various other modes, hence validating my understanding.
Thank you for reading,
Nirupama Rao
November 30 2010
Rohit, 9 years old, comes back from school, tosses his bag aside, kicks off his shoes, goes straight to the fridge, grabs a bottle of coke, helps himself to a pack of chips from the pantry, and settles down on the couch and switches on his favorite cartoon show on TV. His mother Reema goes ballistic as he’s snacking before his lunch. She some how makes sure some decent meal goes in as he continues to watch TV. Reema is not even sure if he knows what he‘s had for lunch! She checks his diary with trepidation…hoping there’s no note from the teacher today. No such luck! “Rohit’s Class work is incomplete- not concentrating in class. Please meet the class-teacher”.
Post lunch he moves to the comp, logs on to his Facebook account to increase his Farmville points. It’s soon time for tuitions. After tuition, he goes straight to his friend’s house. They’re both excited about the new PSP game his friend has acquired! After his mother figures out where he is by 9pm, he goes home for a family dinner- in front of TV of course…Indian Idol is on! His day ends by about ten thirty after struggling with some last minute home work, when he goes to bed with his I-pod. He has to be up by 6 so he can get his school bus by 7am.
Sounds familiar? This is now a typical scenario in today’s urban households. This is the lifestyle of children today: Feasting on coke and fast food, glued to electronic entertainment, busy with tuitions and classes and absolutely no physical and out door play.
So it’s no wonder that the children of our generation do not seem to be as calm as they were, say fifteen or twenty years back. More and more children are on the hyperactive side. Incidences of ADHD that is clinical hyperactivity, autism, learning problems are on the rise. Even a seemingly calm child seems to have difficulty in concentrating for longer periods of time and gets bored easily. Health issues like asthma, skin allergies, anorexia, bulimia, high cholesterol and digestion problems which were earlier considered as medical problems for adults are plaguing children as well. A child today is much more sensitive, emotionally as well as sensorially. A major role in causing these issues can be attributed to changing lifestyles.
The need of the hour is to adopt a holistic healthy approach to life that heals and promotes well being. We are so caught in the rat race to make it big in life or in catching-up-with-the-joneses that we hardly make any time to smell the roses. Our children bear the brunt of our unconscious ways much more than we realize. They tend to lose their innocence and childhood too soon.
As adults, we often take a trip down memory lane and reminisce about the good old days when we ate mummy’s yummy ‘chaklis’ and ran down the neighborhood to play ‘chor-police’. Those were the days of fun and frolic. Don’t we owe it to our children to let them have a beautiful childhood too? It’s time to make some basic simple changes in our lifestyle and watch the magic unfold.
The following are some of the changes that we need to make in our life styles if we want our children to become more grounded and be comfortable in their skin. These tips are helpful universally to all children but some children are more sensitive to the environment than others, and so are more important and necessary for those children who need special attention.
DIET
This is the single most significant change that has happened in the past 15 to 20 years- the sudden flooding in the market of packaged foods, instant foods, sweet, artificially flavored, preserved, frozen foods. We don’t seem to eat fresh food anymore. Even the fruits we buy off the shelves are imported, hence preserved with chemicals. We are feeding our children toxic food in the form of chips, artificially colored candies, jams, juices, colas. Children are addicted to these foods and denying them their favorite junk food often ends in temper tantrums. More often than not parents give in to their kids’ demands to buy peace, thus starting a vicious cycle of offering toxins as pacifiers, not to mention the fact that they are inadvertently raising spoilt brats in the process.
Please give your children natural, farm fresh, locally produced, homemade foods, free of any artificial flavors, preservatives, colors, sugars. This will play a major role in calming your child and in increasing their attention span. Good nutrition is the very basic thing a parent can provide the child with. Tampering with the basics can lead to many harmful repercussions in the long run.
ELECTRONIC GADGETS
Keep children away from TV. TV is harmful for children, and so are computers, mobile phones, video games, PSPs, microwave ovens. The electro-magnetic field generated by the TV and computer can structurally damage children’s brains. Research supports the fact that children under 2 should not be watching ANY TV at all!
Children have stopped going out to play because of TV. As they are used to being passively entertained, their brains can’t come up with innovative ways anymore to entertain themselves otherwise. They’ve become dependent on these gadgets which have already enslaved our generation. The second the TV is off, they start saying they’re bored! Please don’t worry when they complain of boredom, for that is what leads to creativity!
Parents should cut down on TV time, especially in the evenings when they should be playing outdoors, and during meal times. If they do watch TV, the content should be monitored to ensure what they’re watching is age-appropriate and give suitable explanation where required. And beware of advertisements. They can give the young impressionable mind faulty ideas about what is supposedly good or bad for us just so we go and buy their unnecessary products.
For more information on TV, one can find the article:
Strangers in Our Homes: TV and Our Children’s Minds by Susan R. Johnson, M.D. on the net.
TOYS
Many parents fret that young children get easily bored with the expensive toys that we buy for them. That is because these toys, in spite of their attractiveness, cannot engage the child. They bring nothing out of the child.
What children really need are simple things from the home like paper, boxes of soap, paste, etc, utensils of various sizes from the kitchen, preferably filled with water, chapatti dough, clay, paints, beads, wooden blocks, cloth, simple wooden toys, stones, shells and other treasures from nature. A good toy is only 10 percent toy and 90 percent child! Complete and finished toys give a child no scope for creativity and imagination. Whereas you give a child simple materials, and the child can create entire worlds out of them!!
Once you get the idea, your creativity can take over. Here is a toy hidden in every nook-n-cranny of your house. The trick lies in using your imagination rather than taking the easy way out and buying expensive gadgets across the counter. For example, even if a toddler puts seeds in the masala box he is improving his eye-hand coordination while being fruitfully engaged. And please don’t mind the mess!
If you do any work in the kitchen, keep the child with you on the counter if it’s safe, or on the kitchen floor.
Let the child imitate you and do whatever you’re doing. Washing rice, peeling, pouring, kneading, making balls of dough, sorting vegetables, mopping the floor, washing clothes, all the while talking to the child about what you’re doing. Working with our hands is as good for us as it is for our children. It’s all about being in the here and now, for at least sometime everyday with the child with nothing in between. Not even your thoughts! Try this at home….it’s magical!! You will be amazed at the wonders children work out with everyday humdrum items lying around the house. Their creativity knows no bounds once they get started. Working with the hands is very calming for the mind and builds thinking capacity.
As for the older children, they need to be outdoors with children of their age, sweating it out and engaging in physical sports and games apart from reading and engaging in a meaningful hobby.
ATMOSPHERE
Keep the atmosphere in the house calm and noise free. It will help if the mother also calms down in her thoughts and actions.
Avoid loud music, talk to them in soft soothing voices, meditate and keep your own emotions under control. Children imitate us at an external and an internal level. If we are calm, we help our children be calm.
Avoid choosing a mall as a weekend outing program. You may notice that you feel drained out after a trip to the mall. That’s because malls are an assault on our senses…the sights, sounds, colors, movement, the beckoning products on display, the resisting of temptation, all this puts a lot of strain on us (the games arcade takes the cake for over-stimulation). Then imagine the effect they have on children! If children behave badly in malls, is it their fault?
Instead, go to calmer places like the garden for walks together, to picnics with friends, to the beach, climb a mountain, go boating; etc. There is nothing as rejuvenating as being one with nature. The pleasure of exploring nature’s bounty with your children can’t be compared with a trip to the neighborhood mall.
TOUCH AND WARMTH
Do you touch and hug your child enough? Do you rock him on your knees? Do you bounce him in the air? Do you carry her and go round and round until both of you fall with a spinning head? No? Then do it!
Also massage your child’s (any age) calves and feet at night with oil or cream in gentle circular movements, put on socks, and make him sleep with a story or a song. Warmth in your approach to the child (stress free), and warmth of touch and temperature- these are necessary for every growing child.
RHYTHM
Early to bed, early to rise, truly makes a child healthy and wise. Set a regular pattern – Breakfast, lunch, afternoon nap, and evening play in the park, returning home for an early dinner, getting ready for bed. Make sure the calm ambience (TV off, dim lights, soft sounds, into the bedroom) for sleep is set at least an hour before bedtime. And please remember, children need at least ten hours of uninterrupted sleep, for that’s when their bodies grow and rejuvenate.
Try to maintain the same routine everyday so the child knows what to expect next. But be sure not to be obsessed about it. It’s good to be disciplined but it’s equally important not to lose sleep over it. It helps to be conscious and aware of the better way of doing things and to make an honest attempt at getting better.
This will go a long way in helping your child feel secure, confident and most importantly, be healthy.
I need to put in a few personal notes here. I felt it was important to let the readers know that I have not written the article only as a Psychologist, who has seen in her practice, a number of children whose problems can be traced to an unhealthy lifestyle but as a parent myself, still struggling to make what I’ve written about as much a part of my family’s lifestyle as possible.
When I first became aware of these possibilities, my elder daughter was already 10 years old and my younger one was just born. Three years back, I started my journey into a more conscious way of living. Then I wondered…is it too late to bring about changes in the lifestyle of my family? Is my daughter too far gone in her addiction to TV and instant foods? Will my husband cooperate? But no…now that I am getting to know about a better way to live, I cannot consciously do things that are unhealthy for my children.
So I am not already someone who’s been there and done that, but is someone who is right in the middle of a storm that any change tends to bring about.
But am happy to say that in three years, my first one is almost free of asthma, her school performance has improved and the younger one is more robust than the first one was. It is a hard struggle, but its well worth it.
These are a few things that will surely help your child too if followed with consciousness and conviction.
Don’t worry if you’re going off track. Be aware and conscious. If you could do something right, just be aware that you did. If you couldn’t, you tell yourself that you couldn’t do it this time, but you’re going to keep trying. There is no need for us to judge ourselves on any matter, not just matters related to children. We do what we do and we’re ok. But if we get to know of a better way to do things, we will try that. That’s more important. With practice, you’ll get there and when you see the results, you’ll be convinced and you’ll be able to convince others, that the best way to live is naturally!
It is as if Mother Nature is appealing to us through our children:
“Please slow down; become conscious of what you’re doing; let children be children; respect what is natural; take care of your children and wake up before it is too late!!”
And when I say this, I do not talk about any one child. I’m talking about all the children and parents of the world…the collective consciousness. Every time one more person becomes conscious, it adds to this collective consciousness, and this will help to heal our planet!
Nirupama Rao
I just read ‘The Horse Boy’ given to me by Sangeetha and realised something. The father Rupert Isaacson decides to take his son to Mongolia to seek the help of the shamans to help his son with Autism and it works for him. However, it doesn’t mean that other parents also should try going to Mongolia. But what it means according to me is that every parent looks for his or her own path in trying to help the child. This search is a spiritual quest for every parent which is highly individual guided by the karma of the parent and the child. The very quest itself is the end as it depends on the attitude and intention with which the parent makes this journey…is it with love, joy, being in the present moment or enjoying being with the child, with faith, with conviction?. The outcome or the end result becomes less important than the journey itself…for the real outcome of positive intentions may or may not be limited to this lifetime, but lasts for eternity
According to our Vedas and scriptures, we all take birth in the school of life called ‘Earth’. We choose our various experiences in order to learn and evolve. The tougher the challenges, the greater the learning. But the minute we are born, we forget our true purpose and when we meet the very same challenges that we have ourselves chosen, we say ‘why me?’, and become bitter.
But when we remember that we are the creators of our destinies, instead of becoming bitter about it and risking a downward slide, we take on life’s challenges with a positive and ‘grateful acceptance’. We face them with graceful and calm courage that helps us in our true spiritual endeavor- to grow and evolve…
March 29, 2012
I Choose…
I choose what I want to make space for in my life.
I choose:
love over hate
hope over despair
good over evil
courage over fear
joy over sorrow
trust over doubt
intuition over logic
being human over perfection
Before I came down to earth,
I chose the destiny that was to be,
And now when I’m faced with this destiny,
I choose what I want to make space for in my mind
in my heart
in my life……
Nirupama
April 2, 2013
APRIL 2ND WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY
AUTISM IS NOT A DISABILITY
It is a state of being.
Autism is one part of who the child is.
A child with autism is a child like any other who loves to play and have fun.
Autism is like Sufism- a state of pure love for all creation.
The main therapy that helps children with autism is:
Unconditional love,
Complete acceptance,
True listening
Deep understanding
Warmth and Calm
Belief in child’s intelligence and potential
Knowing that they are listening to what we say and don’t say, even if they don’t speak.
Everything else is extra.
Our children are brave little soldiers who are here to start something new. They have chosen us to be their facilitator…to be our teachers.
But they are sensitive and need respect!
Let us embrace autism as a new way of being for humanity.
Let us stop trying to fix the child.
Let us fix our education system,
Let us fix our thinking patterns
Let us fix our society
Let’s fix ourselves………
EMBRACE AUTISM
Inner voice 