Dhyana Vahini - Post 17

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.

Similarly, each birth taken by us has a start time, a time for our life in which we go through the stages of growth, disease, decay and the ending time of this birth of ours is our death. We carried nothing from our earlier lives exactly as it is stated that there is no link between the earlier flight travel and the current flight travel.

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.