Plenary,

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Official Report 411KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. The time for reflection leader today is Ms Neelam Bakshi from Glasgow's Hindu community.

Thank you for this opportunity to share some thoughts with the Scottish Parliament.

One of my joys in life is living in a democracy with freedom of speech. It gives me the opportunity to challenge and to work in areas that may seem controversial or not well evidenced in modern terms, such as complementary therapies and working with energy. Yet they are entirely consistent with Hinduism—a very old philosophical tradition that keeps managing to be entirely up to date with leading-edge discoveries in, for example, quantum physics and the nature of the reality we create.

Living in a fast-changing world requires stability and an internal guiding compass. Fortunately, my faith has always provided that. As a Hindu, I am guided strongly by the philosophy of karma—what you sow you will reap in this lifetime or another—which is a law of action and reaction that is inevitable and inescapable for ordinary mortals like you and me. It lives hand in hand with dharma—the duty to be morally upright, to serve others and to act in the interests of justice and truth—though at times they may seem obscured. At such times, my compass must be an inner light—the light that reflects the divinity of humanity. That light has to be kept clean and shining brightly if it is to light the way, so I must try to live my life honestly and be true to my inner self, my beliefs, my dreams and my principles. Spirituality, like any seed, requires nurturing and attention if it is to grow and flourish.

That sits uneasily in a world where we are expected to compromise on the big things as well as the little ones, where a little white lie is okay and doing the right thing is less important than seeing what the press reaction is—and sometimes the right thing may be unpopular. Life is not compartmentalised: what happens in one area affects all other areas. Mahatma Gandhi said:

"You cannot do right in one department of life while occupied doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole."

So let us take time to reflect. Is your life lived in separate compartments or as an integrated whole? Do you have to search for your inner compass or is it always at hand to guide you? How do you nourish it? And how do you keep your light true and shining brightly?