I have a song I really like. Basically, it repeats two lines. 

"Don't think about all those things you fear
Just be glad to be here."

Sometimes life is full of uncertainties. I've just moved to Norway — a country that’s very different to Singapore, my 'hood. It’s not just a matter of moving houses — it includes adapting to a brand new culture, new people, unfamiliar sights and a very unstable work situation. My career just took an unexpected twist — from being a recognised, experienced professional in my field to starting over in a country where no one knows me and my credentials don't count as much because I don't speak enough Norwegian.

I’ve had to be humble again. To learn to learn. To be proactive as a student. To ask for help from people who are younger than me.

Once upon a time, I remember, it wasn't so easy for me to be humble. I was confident, full of myself. I thought I was the best, most mature person I knew. It was only much later that I realised pride isn’t part of maturity and thinking I know best isn’t wisdom.

When I first heard Maharaji in 2002, I was struck by the fact that he talked about all the things I think and feel in private, but have never dared to voice to my parents and friends for fear that I would seem to be talking in an alien language — or be laughed at.

He talked about life, the things people do, and, most essentially, he repeatedly emphasized the importance of the breath. 

But at the time, I was thinking more of the physical body, rather than understanding what he was saying. Part of me thought that I knew much better than anyone else when it came to my life and the way I do things. I was like: hey, I like what you’re talking about, but isn't the heart more important than the breath?  

Yet something attracted me to his message. It fascinated me that he talked about things that I thought were taboo in my surroundings. He joked and made me laugh. He pointed to the fact that there is your life, and then there are all those things you do to fill up the time in your life. What he was doing, as I listened, was taking off my all-knowing spectacles and showing me what I was really missing, right in front of my face.

I became drawn to watching his weekly TV broadcasts afterwards. What became clear was the importance of humility and being a student of life. Of becoming quiet and still. I became happy to even notice that my breath was a gift of life. This period I spent listening to Maharaji was a process of unlearning all my pride and starting to learn from others and my surroundings. It was also the first time in my life that I learned to listen to one person talk for an hour at a time without falling asleep. My university lecturers didn't do that for me!

Maharaji is such a wonderful person to look up to. I've learned so many things from him. One of those is echoed in the song lyrics I mentioned:

"Don't think about all those things you fear
Just be glad to be here."

The words may be simple, but there is a depth that I don't think I would have appreciated before.

I have learned to differentiate between my daily life and what I have — right now, in the present. In my daily life, I have plenty of worries — money, work, housework, dinner, etc. But Maharaji's words remind me that I have to switch my focus and turn to how I'm really feeling.

I suddenly find myself an observer of my own thoughts and fears. I see that they are not real — because my fears are based on what I perceive to be threats to my very being. But am I truly being threatened by that woman, who was rude to me, in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration? Will my life end if I don't get a permanent job in this new country?

The answer is no. When I focus on the present, I suddenly realise how trivial my thoughts are. What a gift I have. That I’m healthy, strong, intelligent, mobile and, most of all, alive. My breath and my beating heart tell me that. The trees and sky outside my room tell me that.

Maharaji’s message has truly changed my life for the better. I’ve learned the skill of how to appreciate, and with that, I'm filled with more gratitude than before. As a result, I’ve learned to choose joy over fear, light over darkness, understanding over arrogance. 

I love my life as it is now. Nowadays, whenever my thoughts turn to worries again, I only have to remind myself — just be glad to be here.  

Illustration by Sara Shaffer.