ATMAN
This is a wake-up call, time to realize fully who we
truly are: not the body, mind, Ahamkar but Jivatman, forever part of the Lord, inseparable from Him. We are a spiritual
particle of the supreme spirit – unborn, fathomless, self-illumined, consciousness
and bliss, unborn, eternal, changeless, undecaying, without a second, distinct
from the body, ever untouched by all things material. The Atman pervades all, is
distinct from the 3 Gunas of Prakriti. He is like the wind that carries a scent
of flowers and appears to be identical with that scent but is in reality
odourless. We must look beyond the brief span of bodily existence (100 years at
the most) to the salvation of our souls.The real purpose of life is to revive
our dormant love of God, to re-establish our lost relationship with Him and
achieve the highest goal of life – love of God. Such is the relationship
between the Lord and a devotee that although the Lord is greater than the
greatest He is prepared to render service to the insignificant devotee by dint
of his sincere unalloyed devotional service. The dormant Bhakti in our hearts
has to be revived. The soul is pure consciousness, without volition, the
foundation of all things, perfect awareness, unattached and boundless.
The Jiva is Atma. Only as man can the soul carve out
its own path. We are most fortunate to be born as human being with
intelligence. Do we realize how special a human life is? We are most fortunate
to be born with intelligence. How many are wasting their lives. Only as man can
the soul carve out its own path. Let us dedicate whatever little time remains
to see the Atman. Spiritual life is constant awareness of Lord’s presence
within and without. Once we are immersed in Atmic awareness we become useless
for the world. The body in comparison is like a log of dead wood. We have to destroy
the illusion that we are the body and establish ourselves in the bliss of
Atman. As long as the Atman remains hidden in Maya’s darkness we do not
actively seek its true nature. Behold the Lord in your heart and see Him all
around, everywhere in everyone as you do in yourself. The present is our own.
Leave the future to the Lord. The Atma is the Jiva’s nearest friend, yet it remains
outside the scope of Karma and Samsar, is witness to mind and deeds of the
senses – never participant. The Jiva’s
true nature is of Atman, the spirit, not the body. It goes with the Jiva
from one life to another. Egoism in the form of “I am the doer” resembles a
great black poisonous serpent because it
leads to forgetfulness of the nature of our self. Antidote to this poison is to
recognize that we are not the doer. We are instruments in the Lord’s hands and
extremely fortunate to have been born in a human body. If we fail to use this
ship to cross the sea of Samsar we are suicides, murderers of our own soul. For
us the first necessity is to tread the path of the spirit, to re-establish our
lost relationship with the Lord and achieve the highest goal of life – love of
God. Don’t think He is someone distant from you. No one is so near to us as the
Lord and this can be realized. Lord HARANATH promised to knock at every door.
We are never out of His sight, He is watching us. We are not distant from Him. But
until our hearts are full of love and yearning He will not come to us. The
down- and outward flow of consciousness has to be directed inwards and upwards.
Bhakti will dawn only on those who want nothing from Him – no material, worldly gain or even Moksha. Once
we have such love He is ours. Let us drench the creeper of devotion with the water of hearing
and singing His praise, flatter Him by taking His Name for that is as good as
associating with Him. It is His Name which brings our consciousness to the heart plane. Then we reach the sum mun bonum of human existence –
PREMA for the Lord. Until the heart
is full of love He will not come to us. When Name reigns supreme in the heart
all
distinctions between God and man are altogether effaced.
No one is so near to you as the Lord. One who is far off must be called aloud, for one
who is near whisper will do, but for one who is always in the heart it is enough to think of Him.
The
Lord revealed: who passes beyond the Guna-influences comes to me with Bhakti,
will be united with Me and becomes Me. I shall free the Jiva who has been
liberated from Ahamkara and even the subtlest content of the mind. Who depends
only upon Me,is always absorbed in Me,
is serene,
even-minded,
without Ego, beyond the pairs of opposites, does not care for gifts and wealth.
The way to attain to my Being is to worship me with no desire.”
The
only aim in Life is to find single, all-consuming devotion. The world is a
delusion, has no reality. Spiritual life means constant awareness of the Lord’s
presence within and without. The illusion
that we are the body must be destroyed. We have to establish ourselves in the
bliss of Atman. Let our
minds be desireless, one-pointed, always yearning for the Lord. Once we attain
love for the Lord life becomes perfect.
Keep
in mind what Lord Krishna said to Uddhava shortly before He left:
“The way to attain to my Being is to
worship me with no desire. This is the
condition in which true Bhakti grows”..
and“In this Kali Yuga the Lord’s very Name alone shall be the way to salvation.”
We are all living in the mouth of
the great serpent Death, are free to choose between spiritual liberation and
gaining fleeting pleasures to fulfil worldly desires. Let us dedicate whatever
little time remains to seek the Atman, let us perform every penance towards
that end. Wise men have no
attachment
for anything other than their soul. They dwell in the Lord, are unaffected by
Samsar, always serene, forgiving, seeing all beings and creatures as part of
themselves, are never offended.
They abide in Atman while eating, sleeping
walking etc., have no consciousness of the body or what it does, depend only on
the Lord, are always absorbed in Him. Bhakti dawns only on such men who want
nothing from the Lord: no material, worldly gain or even Moksha. The dormant
Bhakti in our hearts has to be revived.Taking His Name is as good as
associating with Him, it brings our consciousness to the heart plane and
awakens Prema for the Lord which is all
consuming love.-It converts females into males, brings dead back to life. Lord
Haranath explained Prema:”the first factor in Prema is humility. To become a
true lover one has to forget the own self totally.” Divine love is
all-possessing. Such devoees have no other interest in life. To them the entire
universe is a mirror which reflects the Lord and Him alone.
When
Name reigns supreme in the heart all distinctions between God and men are
altogether effaced. He is not distant from you. Try to become the husbands
darling. No one is so near to you as the Lord. One who is far off must be
called aloud. For one who is near whisper will do, but for one who is always in
the heart it is enough to think of Him. When fire is not constantly fanned
dross will settle and may extinguish it.Therefore: let us fan our love for Him,
keep it aglow and strong by making Him our constant companion in thoughts,
words, actions.
6
September 2018
Ruth Baur
No comments:
Post a Comment