Hari Om!

Our closing session for Camp left a few loose ends and quite a few unanswered questions. Chinmaya’s and Kinjal’s question, “What did this camp have anything to do with Mastering your Inner Game?” hit me hard and made me think harder about the lessons we could draw from the various camp activities. The question surprised me more than anything. The thematic connection seemed obvious enough to me in my head. But for camp to really leave a deep and meaningful mark on any of us, the need for conscious reflection is necessary.
So allow me to share my camp highlights. I will also draw references to some of the points Swami M raised during the 5 day yagna prior to camp. For those of you who didn’t attend it, the series of talks was about the lessons we can learn from nature.

The camp activity that had the most impact on me was the Win-Lose or Win-Win game conducted by Koki.
I always like to think of myself as someone willing to compromise, someone always looking for the win-win in any situation. But we all have a tendency to think the better of ourselves, don’t we? The fact of the matter is, I am pretty competitive and comparative, and in any competition, someone has to win and someone has to lose and someone is always better or worse. I’d like to blame my competitive and comparative streak on the Singapore government and its ‘kiasu’ machinery, and say that everyone around me is like that and that if I want to survive and stay ahead of the game, I need to win, I need to be better than the next person. But blaming government ideology and circumstance would be taking the easy way out. I need to grow in spite of circumstance. And like Swamiji said, if the purpose of life is to realize our full potential, then mastering my inner game becomes all the more crucial. I must realize that I need to measure myself against nobody else’s yardstick but my own. The game of life, the competition of life, is not without, is not outside, but within. It takes a strong mind to be able to live life by our own standards while balancing our duties towards those around us.


There’s an interesting analogy of the moon that Swamiji highlighted during his 5 day talks.

The moon, from our perspective is constantly changing. The waxing and waning of the moon suggests that moon is sometimes small, and sometimes large. But in actual fact, it is not the moon that changes, but our perception of it that changes. The moon remains constant, its size never diminishes. Similarly, we need to realize that we (Brahman, our soul/consciousness if you like) are constant and that it is only others’ perception of us that changes. In the eyes of others, we will always be better or worse. The comparison never ends. However, if we hold on to the notion that our full potential is constant, lying dormant within us and waiting to be realized, then the dynamic of life changes. We will live our lives with the awareness that striving to become a better person doesn’t have to be at the expense of anybody else. We’re all dormant winners and we should help each other bring out the winner in us!

*pant pant* Sorry for that long ramble. I hope some of it makes sense.

The other major lesson I’ve taken away from camp is from the movie October Sky: Maximizing your full potential doesn’t mean having to do something phenomenally groundbreaking like sending a rocket up to space. As long as you do whatever you do well and with utmost focus, commitment and dedication, you can be said to have fulfilled your potential. Simply put, whatever you do, do it well, even if it’s mining coal. In the movie, we see that Homer saw his father as his hero and inspiration because of his dedication to his field of work. The father was a good coal miner and a good leader; he went out of his way to protect his workers from harm, even putting his own life at risk.
So how does this link to mastering our inner game? Simple. The ability to do anything well requires mental, emotional and physical discipline. Mastering our inner game will also give us clarity of vision in recognizing our life’s calling, our passion, and allow us to channel that passion against all odds, even if it requires breaking the mould, stereotypes, labels and limitations placed on us by the outside world.

My night walk experience was similar to Vaid’s. I’m not easily creeped out by the thought of ghosts and spirits, but I am afraid of being attacked by wild animals and creepy crawlies. When it started raining...I was afraid that the winds and rain would drop a snake on my head or something. Haha. Um. What?! It’s highly plausible. Think about it. Snake lying on branch. Gust of wind. Snake falls to ground and onto my head. I also did the entire walk with my right hand shielding my face...sort of a defensive stance in order to minimize my shock towards the assigned scares along the way. Like I was telling Vaidehi, degree of scare is proportionate to degree of flailing of hands. So I was trying to minimise my hand movements. If that makes any sense... (By the way, Shiva, how is your face? The swelling went down?)
Ok that’s about it (: I really enjoyed camp, all of you were fantastic company and a lot of fun to be around. Hope we keep in touch and see each other more often! Add me on facebook!! :D

Lowe,
Jainy

P.S. There’s a bhajan/classical music concert happening at the centre on 14th September from 6.30 to 8pm. Prabhat Rao, a talented 18 year old musician from London will be leading the session. I encourage all of you to come!! Look out for the poster and details in your inboxes.