Reinvent The Self!

In the last blog, we tried to go through the process of Awakening which leads us to Being Present. A Cross in Christianity connotes 2 dimensions that are called form and formless, unconscious and conscious, illusory and real, human and divine, horizontal and vertical, time and timeless, temporary and permanent, physical and metaphysical and so on. Eckhart likes to call them foreground and background. Anyway, what’s in a name?

If we become present in a moment, we start realizing certain things step by step. Ultimately, we kind of unite with that timeless dimension. And then what happens in a time dimension, doesn’t really matter, meaning, it is not able to inflict any suffering upon us. This stage of Union with Divine is perhaps the last stage of Being Present.

Initially, we think that we are in control of our moment. We do some things to control the outcome of what we want out of that moment. Karma! But in doing so, we further suffer. Again, we do things to minimize suffering and continue to suffer further. Samsara!

Then at some point, we realize that we are indeed not the captain of the ship. We then start Accepting. In this, we release certain degree of control. We think that we can still control the outcome of the moment to some (not full) extent. We become nervous, anxious. And our doing and suffering cycle continues. However, one thing starts developing. It’s the Faith. We start having faith in something that is beyond our control.

Sometime later, we realize that we absolutely don’t have any control whatsoever, on the outcome of what we do. At this point, we stop doing anything. We start our journey towards Being. This is the state of Surrendering. We surrender to the (obviously) bigger power and release our full control. We no longer think we have control now.

This is the junction point. We can either experience depression or dispassion. Dispassion is required in this journey to take us forward. Depression may also lead to dispassion in the long run, but the chances are less. In depression, we prefer to remain inactive by being under the influence of drugs, alcohol to take us out of the situation that we are unable to handle. Eckhart says it is like going “below the thinking”. Our true goal is instead to rise “above the thinking”.

Once we are dispassionate and surrender to the higher power, we then realize that indeed the power is doing those things which are for our benefit only (not in selfish sense!). We realize that whatever happens is for our own good. Then we become grateful towards that power. We express our gratitude to that divine dimension for always being with us. We appreciate everything that happens to us. We are instilled with Compassion. We approach everybody and look at everything with compassion. We sense the interconnectedness that Buddha referrs to. In this case we develop enough Faith in that power. More importantly, here we start loving that power. Providence becomes our daily experience! Perhaps that’s what is meant by SahajaYoga! Everything happens with such an ease. Principle of least effort! And then there’s Bhakti! We become a devotee. For love, that power needs to be personified. We name it as God, Krishna, or Shiva!

Ultimately, we unite with the divine power! Permanently. The interesting thing about Bhakti, says Sage Narada in his Bhakti Sutra, is Bhakti begets Bhakti! This is unending cycle and we get more and more dissolved in His Bhakti. We attain a permanent place at the Lotus Feet of God.

It’s worth mentioning here that nothing is possible without the grace of the Guru! He understands our needs and takes us to the place we exclusively belong to with His Grace! I bow to the lotus feet of my Guru!

कामादिसर्प व्रजगारुडाभ्यां विवेकवैराग्य निधिप्रदाभ्यां ।
बोधप्रदाभ्यां दृतमोक्षदाभ्यां नमो नमः श्रीगुरुपादुकाभ्याम् ||