Sometimes the only way out is in

The best way out is always through.
Robert Frost

Don’t get caught up in the struggle of good and evil along a spiritual path would be my recommendation. If God is everywhere then who exactly can say what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’? In Hindu mythology our Divine Mother has two Manifestations, the begin Durga Maa in good times and Her explosive Kali Maa Manifestation when our accumulated negative karma needs recycling. Hindus revere both of Her Manifestations; they effectively accept life as is. What if the whole movie production that we experience in our life today is fabricated, played and evaluated by your overactive judgmental mind? If a theme comes back to us, be it anger, sex, desire for material comfort or power, maybe we just have to embrace it rather than avoid it. Our mind may want to be holy and pristine but our feelings tell us that it is a good time to get our hands a little dirty. Sometimes the only way out is in!


 If there is still something that you feel holds you back on your spiritual path but keeps popping up in your life and drags you back, just maybe your feelings haven’t yet caught up with your spiritually kosher mind. Maybe it is only your religious super-ego that makes a big deal out of the issue at hand while God is much more relaxed about our struggles. Maybe experiencing this ‘struggle of good and evil’ is exactly what your soul wants you to sign up for. I remember the time at work during an organizational restructuring process when I was caught in a power struggle and did my best to make it through while sticking to my spiritual principles. It was a bit painful but all decisions were easy to come by in the end. All my soul wanted from me was to embrace my more assertive nature which came naturally to me in the arm-wrestling process. I realized that whether people were ‘good or bad’ was entirely a matter of perspective. I am pretty sure no karma stuck to me in this battle.


Be open about your perceived shadow side and let life communicate to you which one to leave by the Way-side and which one to grab by the horns. Sure, your intention to follow the spiritual path to the best of your abilities has to be there if you want to get anywhere, but let life help you to figure out what is truly harmful and what is a mere dark figment of your religious mind. An Aghori master—those are the folks in India who explore the spiritual implications of life’s ‘not-so-holy’ activities—once gave these three recommendations: ‘don’t be embarrassed, do not fear and do not doubt’. It’s ok to explore the darkness inside but we must be open about it. Do not fear, if these dark desires are embedded in you they must be useful on your spiritual journey. Do not doubt either. If you have come this far in the journey so you might as well continue and get it done with once and for all.

For those of you who have watched the sitcom ‘The Green Arrow’, there was a great scene in it that showed the American evil billionaire Malcom Merlyn deal with a Russian criminal organization. The Green Arrow’s friend who was heading a competing criminal organization came into the room, and while Malcom Merlyn introduced himself as an American businessman, Anatoly Knyazev simply introduced himself as ‘gangster’. What a great response! That’s the way to deal with shadow aspects as well. While I don’t want to encourage you to become a criminal or to harm anyone in your shadow process, own the dark corner of your soul as best as you can and set free who you truly are beneath the hood. Be open about it and without hesitation just get it out of the system once and for all. Just for me personally, I still shake a little in my boots when I have to stand up for myself and someone else, put when the signs of the Way point that way, that’s exactly what I do.

My soul is finally free.