Chapter VI
Dear
All,
Continuing from the
previous post, let us look at few very important lines from the last post in
which Swami has spoken at length about the temporary / transient nature of all
worldly objects/ attachments.
Quoting Swami
“Ignoring God (Madhava), who is free from illusion (maya), and spending time in things immersed in illusion
is fruitless; sorrow alone is the final gain. Nothing here is fit to be
worshipped as eternal. Whomever you love, that love has to come to an end”
“The attachments of the
world are short-lived. People have been born many times before and have lived
out their lives, loving and getting immersed in love and attaching themselves
to others. But does anyone now have a trace of all that? Does anyone know where
all that has gone? Does anyone worry about those they loved then? Does anyone
remember them at least now and then? No. The same type of love and attachment
were there then also, but with the passage of time, it has been forgotten.”
“Everywhere, people are
plunged in worry, all twenty-four hours a day. Is it right to increase their
burden? Who can be so cruel as to torture instead of lessening the suffering of
a dying person? Already, the sea is rough; dare we blow a typhoon over it? “
“Therefore, learn to
spread a smile on the faces of the desperate. Keep smiling yourself and make
others smile. Why make a sad world sadder by your desperate counsel, your
lamentation, and your suffering?”
“Adopt repetition of the
name and meditation to assuage your own grief, to overcome your own sorrow, and
to plunge in the cool waves of the sea of the grace of the Lord.”
Unquote
Dear All,
The temporary /
perishing nature of all objects, all relations and everything in this creation
in each birth taken by us has been very clearly explained by Bhagawan in the
above quoted lines.
Does it mean, we have to
develop dispassion, aversion towards this creation and all its objects?? No,
not necessary. We only need to change our glass with which we see, approach,
interact and fetch experience from this world.
If we approach our kith
and kin, family members, so called friends and everything else in this world
with excessive attachment (or hatred), then we are in for sad experiences in
our life.
Change your glass.
Realize that the life is like a travel in Flight from Oman to India. It has a
starting time, it has a travel time and it has an ending time and you cannot
forcefully keep sitting in the flight saying that you have booked your seat and
hence, you won’t get down. Also, each trip is a stand alone trip and
cannot be linked with your earlier flight journey.
Swami Krishnananda puts a thought provoking question -
“You were alone before you were born, you were alone while you were born and you will be alone when you die, then why do you gather so many things while you are alive???”
So, realizing the
transient nature of this world and its objects and all relationships, search
for the everlasting reality, GOD, in each and everything you encounter in this
life, in this world, daily!!!
Instead of seeing the
world as something separate from Divinity, through sadhana, aim to experience
divinity. You will realize then that upon experiencing divinity in this entire creation,
you can no more experience the misery / the transient / ephemeral nature in
this world. You can experience only one of the two - either real (divinity) or
unreal (world)!!!!
Swami leaves us with a moola mantra for achieving the above,
for experiencing the divinity when He says, “Adopt repetition of the name and
meditation to assuage your own grief, to overcome your own sorrow, and to
plunge in the cool waves of the sea of the grace of the Lord”
Swami continues,
We are actors in the Lord’s play
“All living beings are actors on this stage. They take their exit when the curtain is rung down or when their part is over. On that stage, one may play the part of a thief, another may be cast as a king, a third may be a clown, and another a beggar. For all these characters in the play, there is ONE who gives the cue!
Here, some points have
to be understood clearly.
v The prompter will not come upon the stage
and give the cue, in full view of all. If He does so, the drama will lose
interest. Therefore, standing behind a screen at the back of the stage, He
gives the cue to all the actors, regardless of their role — be it dialogue, speech, or song — just when each is in most need of help.
v In the same way, the Lord is behind the
screen on the stage of creation (prakriti),
giving the cue to all the actors for their various parts.
v So, each actor must be conscious of His
presence behind the screen of illusion (maya);
each must be anxious to catch the faintest suggestion He might give, keeping a
corner of the eye always on Him and having the ear pitched to catch His
voice.
Instead of this, if a
person forgets the plot and the story (that is to say, the work for which one
has come and the duties that appertain thereto), neglects to watch the presence
behind the screen, and simply stands dumb on the stage, the audience will laugh
at their folly and charge the person with spoiling the show.
v For these reasons, every actor who has to
play the role of a person on the world stage must first learn the lines well
and then, remembering the Lord behind the screen, await His orders. The
attention must be on both: the lines one learned for the role and the stage
manager’s directions. Meditation alone gives one this concentration and this
awareness.”
How wonderfully Swami
has explained how to lead our life, with the above analogy of the Director
(God), Stage (World), actor (we human beings) and acting (our leading this
life). How else can we extend our gratitude to our Sairam except for folding
our hands and prostrating with tear-filled eyes and say, "JAI SAIRAM"
Love.
