The Secret of Stillness

While travelling in a train, have you ever noticed that if your train is stationary and another train passes by, it creates the illusion that you are moving in the opposite direction? However, if you focus on a stationary object between the two trains, it immediately becomes clear that you are motionless.

This phenomenon serves as a great analogy for life. Travelling in the ‘train’ of body-mind-intellect, we often get caught up in the passing scenes of life—the fleeting highs and lows, pains and pleasures. Despite being eternal and unchanging, we tend to believe that we are also moving and changing, constantly swept along by transient emotions.

But here’s the secret: if we focus on a ‘stationary observer’, someone who’s living in the ever-changing world, and yet knows that they are absolutely still, the illusion begins to shatter. We start becoming aware of our own stillness. The difference between the fleeting drama of life and the steady, eternal reality of our true essence becomes increasingly clear.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It is, if you can spot the stationary observer.

“I am merely a spectator, watching the grand play of life for free.”

– Shrimad Rajchandraji, V. 165