Surrender

Some time ago my friend Rukmini and I was talking about the subject of ‘surrender’. She said in Sanskrit it is called ‘saranagati’ and a shining example is when the great monkey god Hanuman prostrates in front of Lord Ram and surrenders to him. I remember the recollection of this had moved her to tears.

Thereafter, I’ve often thought about this thing called surrender. What does it mean by surrendering to God. Most of us think of ‘God’ as an external entity who is greater than us, above and beyond us and to whose divine and implacable will we have to surrender our will. Bt doing so somehow takes all the power away from us and turns us into a weak puppet whose strings are held by this omnipotent God. But the Advaita concept of “aham brahmasmi’ or Jesus’ teaching that the kingdom of God is within us contradicts the concept of an external powerful God surrendering to whose iron will renders us impotent.

Recently, while reading some spiritual teachings I came upon a passage that said just ‘God is not some external being, God is the God-consciousness that exists in all of us’. The book said ‘Christ-consciousness’ but we can call it ‘Krishna-consciousness’ or ‘Buddha-consciousness’ or ‘Allah-consciousness’ (the words themselves don’t mean anything). When I meditated on this, it all became clear to me.

All of us have an egoic self, a false self that we have built over the years, by adding layer upon layer of personality, a shell we have woven around ourselves, a shell that exists only in our minds. Unfortunately, for most of the time we are identified with this false egoic self. We believe it to be our real self, so much so that we guard it, protect it and go to great lengths to keep it intact. But if we ever slip into a state of awareness, we will be able to see that this self is just a chimera, a fabrication, a totally made-up entity and if we remain in that awareness, we can see the falseness for what it is and it begins to fade or diminish in importance and leave the centre-stage.

At the same time we can become aware of a subtle presence, a deep silence, a gentle joyous presence, a deep wisdom, so full of love, energy and knowing. This is god or rather the god-consciousness within us. This is our true self. And saranagati occurs when our egoic self surrenders to our true self, the god within us. Because the egoic self has fallen away, all fears and doubts also fall away, together with hatred, envy, pain, desire, attachment, because all of these belong to the false self.

The image of Hanuman surrendering to Lord Ram is a powerful symbolism for our monkey-mind surrendering to our divine self. Total surrender to our own god-nature is indeed powerful, liberating and essential. That is the only way we can find ourselves and be our true self. This is the only way we can be free. Like Jesus said, ‘Seek ye the truth, for the truth shall set you free.’ The truth lies nowhere but within ourself.

Know yourself...

Know yourself as the spirit, for you are nothing but the spirit. Everything else is a story you have made up by yourself...

A fragment of a dream

A terse dream this was,
broken, anguished, blurred,
of which a fragment remains
in my memory, embedded.

A wayward bullet strikes
at lightening speed your chest,
passing through it spears,
calmly, through my breast.

Locked in a gaze we stand,
as love flows out the wounds.
Caught tight in death’s hand
as the dream softly fades.

On waking, for long I ponder;
did our souls our bodies flee
at the same moment, together?
Did they merge to become free?

Did pain set our insides afire?
Is sorrow the bullet that incinerates,
torching our ignorance, our desire,
and into freedom thus liberates?

Journeying, on trains .....

Have you noticed that life is like a train journey. When it begins you get into the train. You have all these co-passengers who are already sitting there and those who get in with you. Then as the train keeps moving, people get off, along the way other people get in. You get to know the people sitting around you, you are oblivious of the people in other compartments except when you catch brief glimpses of them at stations. And so it goes on, people get in and get off, some stay briefly, some stay for long periods, and with each you have a unique experience. You learn, you give and take, you laugh, fight, make up, part. Eventually you get off at some station. You are richer in experience, wiser. You have learnt a lot. If there is more experience to be had, more lessons to be learnt, you get into another train. And so it begins again. Another train, another journey. You keep doing this until perhaps you’ve learnt that you are the train, the journey, the stations, the co-passengers and everything else. Then there will be nothing more to be learnt, then no train can contain you, for you will have encompassed all and will find yourself in everything. This will not be the end of all journeys or the beginning of a new one because beginnings and endings belong to time and you will be beyond time. You will have realised that you are timeless, limitless and infinite.

Beginnings and endings

Have you noticed that every moment dies as soon as it is born? Have you noticed that life is a series of beginnings and endings? That everything that begins has to end someday? Everything, yes, EVERYTHING! Without exception. Things begin to die as soon as they spring up. Life is simultaneously a living and a dying. Then why do we cling? If everything is in transition, why do we get attached? I guess we don’t see the impermanence. We look at a flower and admire its beauty, drink in its delicateness, are touched by its fragility, moved by its sheer splendour. Yet at the back of our minds we are aware that this same flower will wilt by the next day and turn into a heap of brown shriveled petals in a few days. Maybe it’s this knowledge that makes us rejoice in its beauty for a brief, glorious, uplifting moment. Maybe we should look at every moment like that, see the transience of it, its temporariness, maybe then we can live life open-fisted, without holding on to anything. Maybe then we can rejoice in the fullness of every moment, participate in the beauty of it. And then let it go. Because a new moment has already arisen. It is said that in the spirit world there is no Time, everything happens in the Now. There is no memory, hence no past, there is no imagination, hence no future. There is only the now which is eternal. Maybe we should live as eternal spirit. Maybe then we can be free of attachment, of desire, of suffering. Maybe then we can be free as we were meant to be, or rather as we really are.

Ruminations

~ I am a powerful magnet
for love - because waves of love is what I am sending out
for abundance - because the Universe is in a state of abundance
for joy - because that is my real state.


~ Let’s float free in the magical, pulsating, swirling, interconnected matrix of energy. Let’s live borderless, unfettered, limitless (borders, fetters and limits exist only in the mind). Know in the depths of your being that you are infinite, free and divine.

(It would be good to affirm this on a daily basis, or even hourly :))


~ Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a racing mind. Thoughts stumble fast and furious into my mindscape and scamper around in circles. For hours. A quiet, sane voice reminds me softly that I must drop my mind and stop thinking, but I go on restlessly, tossing and turning under the covers until finally my mind drops off exhausted. Usually by this time, the sun’s just sending out its first rays and I drop off into a fitful doze. But something happens during this doze. Like the sun breaking through the mists of the night, dispensing the darkness and rising bright and resplendent, when I wake up, my mind is clear and sunny, all the demons of the night vanquished, my mind still and my heart at peace and my spirit shining clear and strong. Like they say, ‘the morning after the blackest night is the brightest’.

The rainbow tree

--- I got this as an email forward but I liked it so much I decided to post it here ---





As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will.

You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken.

You'll fight with your best friend.

You'll blame a new love for things an old one did.

You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love.

So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.

Doorway to Now

A very powerful commentary about the impermanence of the past and the immortality of the Now.

Watch the video

God and Dog

Lovely little video!

Watch it here


:))))