It’s relatively easy to find a way to go somewhere these days with gadgets at our fingertips. You just have to reach in your bag, pocket, or glove compartment for your phone and you have access to a map that can give you direction to where you need to go. The directions are very elaborately detailed with the time, distance, and even traffic alerts. And even a look into further options gives the choice of routes by walking, driving, bicycling, or taking a bus.
While I love that my phone has the capability to give you directions to where you need to go, there is something that you already have within yourself that gives you a better sense in directions though it doesn’t work exactly the same as a mobile phone.
It is the direction to guide yourself to where you need to go in your life. And it could even help you with your everyday where-to-go directions. You are essentially training yourself and giving yourself the guidance toward where you need to go.
There is a book called the Bhagavad Gita which is a timeless classic that discusses about how to release ourselves from material nescience and gives us the direction to live a fulfilled life through difficulties that may bestow you in your way.
In the Bhagavad Gita, there was a battle in Kurushetra where Arjuna was in a war between two of his families: Pandavas and Kuruvas. The Pandavas represented virtues and the Kuruvas represented faults. Krishna advised Arjuna to help fight this war. While Arjuna was faced with difficulty in his direction, he accepted guidance from Krishna. Krishna is the inner voice to Arjuna. Thus, this war is an inner dialogue. It is a war that is symbolically faced in life where we have to direct our lives through life.
Hence, Krishna is the inner compass. When we follow his teachings to heart, we will get through tanglements of material matters and reach to a state that is pure that serve a greater purpose to our lives. And it is better for us all.
Arjuna represents the best aspects of humanity: courage, strength, and humility. It also includes intelligence and wisdom, commitment to truth and justice, and performance of Dharma with Karma. Dharma means a cosmic law and order to truth and reality. Karma is action and reaction.
Through our history, a compass represents a way to navigate in the world. It helps to triangulate a path through bodies of land, sea, or air that could be faced throughout time. It is a simple mechanism, which uses a strong magnetic source to help create a fixed point. The earth has a strong source at that, which we can use in our advantage to get to where we need to go.
There are three components to a compass that is integral in its design and arrangement:
1. Magnetic Needle (a thin piece of magnetic metal)
2. Dial (a circular card with directions pointing N, S, E, W)
3. Housing (holding the other parts in place)
Each of the three are symbolic and can be used to help in the way to live our lives. You can reflect and contemplate on the symbolism of the three. What could be the magnetic needle symbolism in your life? What about the dial? How about the housing? I don’t want to label these as you can figure out the meaning on your own. This is very important in the process of the Inner Compass. It is to derive meaning from within.
We need to activate our inner compass as it gives a good direction in our lives. The activation process is about giving attention, honing ourselves, learning from eachother, being a teacher and a student, humble, spirited, practicing wisdom, and being true to ourselves.
Thought Lighthouse 