Triumph of the Spiritual, from the Gita to the Water Babies

Harry Eyres writing in the Financial Times on May 3rd speaks about the Triumph of the Spiritual.  If I get his  meaning right, he is saying that religions like the buildings and images they contain evolve and undergo change; one generation not being turned on by the God or gods or leaders that the previous generation focussed on.  Eyres goes with the idea that our modern spirituality comprises a mix of eastern practices and western psychotherapies which he says might fulfil the spiritual needs of today.  He quotes Claudio Arrau, a Chilean pianist who found salvation from despair through Jungian analysis. He was freed from whatever bound him to fully express his spirit through music.  Arrau said "Anguish and fear of death had given way to a firm belief in the indestructibility of the human soul". This is also the message of the Bhagavad Gita, the story of the conversation between the Lord Krishna and  Prince Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.  Lord Krishna urges Arjuna to lift himself out of his despair at the thought of the battle to come by knowing himself and all others to be indestructible.

Today in the Daily Mail, there is an article about businessmen turning to mindfulness,(could this be the same phenomenon, turning to spiritual life to sort out the stress of being a businessman!).

But my real epiphany about spiritual triumph came at the most brilliant production of the Water Babies, now previewing in Leicester at the Curve Theatre.  DON'T MISS IT IF YOU ARE NEAR!  It is a musical whizz, a dancing dream and a triumph of acting PLUS, and this is the most important thing for a Granny wishing the best for grandchildren,(their own and yours!), the story is of Tom freeing the Water Babies  from their underwater refuge.  They have all been rescued by Mrs Do-as-you-would-be-Done-by  (played by Louise Dearman, what a voice! ) from their miserable childhood slavery and are playing about in the  bottom of the ocean, retelling their bad luck stories over and over again.  Their freedom is only available if they give up their stories. This is the brilliance of the story…. none of us can be free while we think we are bound, we could be bound by any identity, being a mother, father, grandmother, businessman, actor or even a Waterbaby.   But you have to say this to yourself over and over again, practice being free, meditate on being free.  (You knew I'd get the word in somewhere!)

What Harry Eyres is talking about (I think) is that spirituality always triumphs by evolving continuously.

Congratulations to the Water Babies team for a terrific entertainment but with a remarkable outcome.