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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya, a novice Hindu monk and teacher

Good morning.

In 2014, I left London to live and study the philosophical tradition of Advaita Vedanta in an ashram in Mumbai. I wasn鈥檛 sure what to expect and had never met the teacher from whom I would be learning. Each day began at 4AM and ended at 10PM, and for someone who had never woken up before 6AM, it was a huge change. The weather was different, the food was different, the people were different, the facilities were different. But the two years were an unbroken period of learning, in the classroom and out and in fact, it has been the most valuable experience of my life so far.

We are faced with change every day. From a change in the weather to a national lockdown, change is unavoidable. Sometimes, that change is overwhelming, and it seems that all we can do is get through to the end of the day.

What allows us to deal with change? To cope, but also to adapt and make the best of it? During that time in the ashram and even now, I find that being flexible was possible if I wasn鈥檛 set in my expectations: for people to behave a certain way, even for my own mind to think in a particular way. But it was also remembering my goal: as long as I could do that and stay inspired, I could face whatever the day brought.

Of course, not everyone has the freedom to be flexible, and we must remember this too.

Let us pray for the ability to be strong in our flexibility and to adapt to change. Let us pray that we do not lose sight of our goals, nor of God, who is constant in our lives throughout all change.

Hari Om