Everything begins with intent.
“Neeyat pe faisle hote hain,” (Decisions of the universe are based
on intent)
My grandfather had quoted when I had gone to visit him at our ancestral village a few years ago. He is 85 and desperately wanted to attend the Friday congregation prayers but there was no male member at home to accompany him. As luck would have it I reached half an hour before the prayers. It was his strong intent, he believed, which ensured that the universe sent me just at the right time.
Poets, philosophers and
psychologists have all talked about the role of ‘intent’ – whether in terms of
belief or will-power or the ‘universe conspiring.’ But it is true that rarely
anything can be achieved without having the right intent.
What is your intent of going on a
pilgrimage? To become a ‘Haji’, or to comply with one obligatory requirement of
religion or to ensure God is pleased with us so that our sins can be atoned – ‘rab ko raazi karna’ as our philosopher
guide told us at the beginning of the journey.
What would I do if I wanted to
please my boss? I would naturally want to know his likes and dislikes and base
my actions accordingly. There is nothing different to be done to please God.
And that is known as Taqwa – to follow what pleases God and
to stay away from what would seem disobedience.
The Quran says about preparing
for Haj, “…and take provisions [with you] for the journey, but the best
provision is Taqwa.”
The origin of the word Taqwa is from the Arabic ‘waqaya’ meaning shield and is the verb
form of ‘Ittaki’ meaning to be
careful or cautious. Taqwa is thus
being cautiously and consciously aware about God.
At the Leadership Lab (an
Assessment Centre for Udaan, the Program Mgmt capability development initiative
of RoW) which I attended a week before my Haj trip, the lead consultant, a
retired Army General who moved into behavioral sciences, had emphasized the
need to be mindful, of being in a constant state of awareness.
Imagine what would happen if you
spent 40 days with the only intent of pleasing God, consciously aware of your
every intent and action.
The third element which makes up
the bhava or the mental attitude before
a pilgrimage is a deep desire to achieve the outcome – the talab; for only the thirsty can be quenched, only the one on a
quest can find. Talab is the Arabic
word for quest or addiction. It is not a coincidence that the Arabic word for
student (talib) is derived from talab.
Your talab to seek knowledge (ilm,)
to perform as prescribed by trying to understand the ‘why’ will ensure that the
elements conspire to make things happen the right way for you. Do you think my
attending a leadership workshop that emphasized mindfulness just a week before
my Haj trip was pure coincidence?
Thus with the sole intent (neeyat) to please God, consciously aware
of our every action such that it is for the good and away from anything bad (taqwa) and a deep desire (talab) to attain our goal we embark on
the flight to Jeddah (or to Medina as per the itinerary of your tour operator.)
Any journey undertaken with such preparation
can only be magical.
[Next Monday we will aim to reach Makkah.]
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