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POSITIVE ABSORPTION

One of the greatest power a human mind has is the power of absorption. Absorption means to fully give ourselves to the task at hand, doing things wholeheartedly, with focus and attention. In fact a high sense of absorption means complete immersion - a kind of loosing oneself. Absorption is the key to true experience of life.

What is the subject matter of our absorption? For children it may be a favorite cartoon serial or an engaging video game. For teenagers it may be cricket or the latest blockbuster movie. For some the topic for absorption may be a new romantic relationship building in their life. Irrespective of the subject, this sense of absorption makes one feel exhilarated, the senses come fully alive and there seems a sense of purpose to live.


For many the subject of absorption is not the physical plane - the level of the senses but their own minds. People tend to be wrapped in their mental stories, their mental movies.

Problem with absorption in matter - in the life of the body and mind is two fold. One is that the experience never matches our expectations. In fact every happiness in the material plane is accompanied by misery. They are inseparable like the two sides of a coin. The other problem with material life is that it doesn't last long. It's like right when we seem to enjoy the movie the fullest, either the scene changes or it comes to an abrupt halt leaving us confused and disappointed.

According to science - a fact is a fact only if it remains true under all time, place and circumstances. With this definition in mind, the experiences of the body and mind are not facts because both the body and the mind are constantly changing. They are truths only for sometime. They are relative truths not the absolute truth. We will not be able to hold onto the experiences of the body and mind. They will invariably slip away from our hands just like a drop of water slips from a lotus leaf. If we revisit our past, consider all the ways in which we enjoyed our senses and mind and ask ourselves this question - what have I actually achieved by all this endeavor? Our innermost honest answer will be nothing - nothing tangible.

The only thing that is absolute truth, which never changes, which is always constant and is always with us is 'we ourselves' - our own consciousness. That is only thing that is truly ours, our true home. It is this place deep within the recess of our hearts where we can find actual refuge, shelter and love. The process to connect to this place of joy in our hearts is spirituality or Krishna consciousness.

But for the process of spiritual life to truly work in our lives we need to put our hearts in it, dive deep into it and develop absorption in the spiritual practices. Just imagine what our experience of chanting will be if we were fully absorbed in it, what will be our experience of reading scriptures with this kind of focus. Absorption is the key to spiritual experience also. The reason we feel spiritual life boring and monotonous is because we keep our heart away from the practices. Bhakti is after all an affair of the heart.

We all have the capacity for being absorbed. All we need to do is transfer our absorption from matter to spirit because after all matter doesn't matter, spirit does.

- Achyut Gopal Das

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