We lead our lives assuming that we will live eternally. Old age happens to others. Sickness and accidents are just paragraphs meant to be read in the daily newspaper. We even postpone relaxing holidays or much deserved breaks for another day or the next year or the next fortnight. We work assuming that tomorrow will be as routine a day as today.

And then when something goes haywire, or we fall sick suddenly or are hospitalized or are on the brink of death, we will have a lot of regrets. We will wish to spend more time with our loving family members. We will hunger for those routine days when we did ordinary things that filled us with joy. We may even regret working so hard because somehow we forgot to enjoy our lives. Money can never buy us the time that we lost!

Just as we pray for peace and equanimity, we also need to realize the fleeting nature of our lives. We carve time to visit a temple. The people thronging the temple premises are not idle or old. Maybe they have come to gain strength and renew their faith. But more often than not, most of them are spiritually evolved and know that they get the right perspective to deal with the challenges of life when they visit places of worship regularly.

One such tiny yet profoundly significant practice is applying the Vibhuti or the sacred ash on our forehead, throat, and chest. When we take a small pinch of this Vibhuti between our thumb and ring finger and apply it on our forehead, we need to think about the moral nature of our lives. 

One fine day we too will merge with the divine. We too will be buried or cremated. Our body is just a vehicle for our soul. And so is it worth our while to hold on to our grudges or to our ego, our pride, and our vanity?Just a small pinch of Vibhuti, applied with the right mindset can set us thinking in the right direction. These rituals need to be practiced with understanding and thought. Else they will continue to remain meaningless to us.

This small pinch of Vibhuti, when applied between our eyebrows (below the bindi for women) makes us receptive to knowledge. The agna chakra is situated here and all the negative nervous energy around us is dispelled so that we can receive the knowledge that is coming our way with clarity. 

That is perhaps one of the main reasons why students apply copious amounts of Vibhuti on their foreheads and even on examination writing pads before their exams!!

When the same Vibhuti is applied on the throat it means we are receptive to power. The vishuddhi chakra is centered in this area. Power does not mean physical strength or mental prowess or political power. Power may simply mean the ability to remain in control of ourselves. Perhaps it empowers us…….the experience will transform different people in different ways! But the negativity is dispelled thereby creating a receptacle for positive vibrations.

When applied liberally on the chest, it signifies that we are receptive to love. The Anahata chakra is located here. Vibhuti, when applied here, dispels the negative forces here and make way for positive emotions in our heart.

Life is fleeting. We are all here for a very short duration of time. Instead of living with regrets and remorse, we need to live it consciously with awareness, positivity, and love.

Vibhuti helps us understand and realize this.

Two brothers lived in the same city. The wife of the elder brother had a fight with the younger brother. Business, property, ego, rivalry or trivial………what the issue was or how it began and who started it and why it snowballed into such gigantic proportions …….is not worth discussing.

Several years rolled on. Decades later, the younger brother was diagnosed with cancer. The elder brother had already passed away. During his dying days, he asked his wife to invite his brother’s wife to their home.

The younger brother and the elder brother’s wife hugged each other tightly, wept like children and finally forgave each other. A few months later, the younger brother too passed away.But both the younger brother and the elder brother’s wife had wasted decades of their life by harboring negativity in their hearts!

Both of them visited temples regularly and were extremely spiritual in their outlook. Both these people followed all the traditional rituals and celebrated religious ceremonies with grandeur in their homes.Yet, the essence of these rituals proved to be elusive to them.

Ritual, any ritual will continue to remain meaningless to us until we consciously try to find its significance. There is absolutely no point in joining our hands in prayer and reciting chants and applying the kumkum bindi on our foreheads if we do not understand the meaning behind such things.

So, the next time we apply the Vibhuti in any sacred place of worship; let us always remember the fleeting nature of our lives. Let us fill our beings with knowledge and wisdom, power and self-control and all encompassing love! Life is too short to harbor negative forces in our bosom. Let us learn to decipher and apply the symbolic meaning of such beautiful traditions in our real day to day lives.