The woman and the man

When we think about gender the first thought is about the physical attributes.

But if we move beyond, we might get answers to several puzzling questions.

The masculine and feminine energy is beautifully depicted in the 'Ardhanarishwara', a form of Shiva and Shakti. We all have both the energies in all of us, but due to social conditioning we often let one dominate over the other, whereas the key is in balance. The biological body that the soul adorns has its purpose, but we need to move beyond and find the 'essence' to live a more complete life.

In the society, we have assigned feminine roles to women and masculine roles to men rather rigidly. The end result is both of them feel incomplete without the other. The rigidity and incompleteness is visible all around, starting from clothing to behavior.

Deep inside, being Masculine is about 'giving' and feminine is about 'receiving'. Masculine is 'doing' and feminine is 'being' and so on. Our desires or tasks will manifest only when both are in balance, otherwise we become dependent on others for completion.

The balance would mean discovering the 'mother' and the 'father' in ourselves. Life partners are our companions, they are not here to complete us. We are born complete. One needs to feel the completeness to manifest happiness and fulfillment in life.

Alternative Routes to Healing

These days, everywhere we see development is happening at a rapid pace which along with its advantages, brings its own package of complexities in the society. Perhaps this is the price the so-called 'development' seeks, because unknowingly almost everyone has erred where the meaning of development is concerned. They have taken it to mean success, material of course, involving staying ahead in the rat-race. As stated at the outset, this constant running to stay ahead in the rat race 'for development' has taken its toll and has contributed to creating severe complexities in the lives of individuals and the society as a whole. Most of us find the solution to these complexities by popping some pills, deferring the solution and moving on with our fast paced lives (so as to not be out of the rat-race), mostly ignoring the primary or even secondary warning signals of the imbalances in physical and mental health which later cause serious over-all health issues, physical, mental and emotional.

 Of late there has been a substantial recognition and growth in another way of looking at these every day issues, both physical and emotional, which is 'the alternative' route to healing. Most of the treatments of alternative healing involve getting closer to nature and being connected with the basic energy force of life itself. Some of these methods deal with energy healing, like Reiki, Pranic healing etc.,while others deal with psychosomatic causes and other emotional symptoms involving the techniques of counselling, hypnotherapy, past life regression etc.
Some of the other alternative therapies include aromatherapy, breath exercises (Pranayam), water therapy and, well, the list goes on...

The uniqueness of these therapies is that they are in harmony with natural living and thus are very effective  and the results are long lasting. They work in balance with the physical body, energy body, emotional  body and the thought body of the individual. These therapies, though slow and do not show immediate results, if practiced persistently and consistently, show tremendous improvement in the overall well being of an individual, resulting in a well-balanced personality.

Obtaining harmony and balance physically, emotionally and mentally is the primary aim of these therapies. An open mind, faith, willingness, patience and consistency are we need to attain the magical results. With these on our side we can make the most of these age old therapies which are now, once again, being revived for the purpose of serving mankind.