Skip to main content

TIME TO WAKE UP

"jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo, gauracānda bole
kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole"

"Lord Gauranga is calling, "Wake up, sleeping souls! Wake up, sleeping souls! How long will you sleep in the lap of the witch called Maya?" - from a song by Bhaktivinode Thakur.

When someone is fast asleep and he needs to woken up, there are two ways to do it. One is "a soft way" and the other, is "the hard way". The soft way is by making a sound or by ringing an alarm and the hard way is by shaking the person up till he wakes up. If the soft way doesn't work then one has to incorporate the hard way. Similarly, there are two ways in which we, the sleeping souls are woken up from our slumber of ignorance and illusion. The first and the soft way is when we wake up from illusion by hearing the sound of the truth, the sound of God, either in the form of His message or in the form of His Holynames. This sound vibration is called "shabda-brahman" or "God in the form of sound". Spiritual sound vibrations have the power to penetrate our thick blanket of illusion and wake us up.

But if we fail to voluntarily wake up from our deep and cozy sleep of illusion then, Maya who is the energy of God wakes us up the hard way - by shaking us and jolting us with the realities of life. When the reality hits, we realize that it was a wake-up call, prodding us to wake up to a life of reality and give up our dream life. So in one sense, God and His energy, Maya do the exact same job in all our lives i.e. wake us up. Just that, God does it the soft way but Maya does it the hard way. Most of us need a sample of both these experiences to wake up. But, if we are slowly, day by day waking up to a life of reality, to a life of the soul then we are faring well in life. We may be slow wakers, that's okay but let us not be adamant sleepers.
 
- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GAINING by GIVING - WINNING by SERVING

"Life is like a game of tennis - in order to win, you have to serve well." For two consecutive years, 2011 and 2012, we organised a contest for the school children across Goa called Gita Champions League (Henceforth referred to as GCL). We had a massive success with 3800 children participating the first year and 8600 children participating the second year. But, all this didn't come easily, we had to literally slog it out. Well, for that matter nothing wonderful comes easily, does it! THE BURDEN OF LOVE I took up GCL or rather GCL came to me at a time when I was going through intense personal struggles on literally every front - physically, mentally and institutionally. Yes, I was desperately praying for a service that could literally pull me out of the quagmire of my problems. I have always believed and witnessed the power of service. Service has always saved me in difficult times. The only reason, I am intact in my spiritual life despite the numerous challenges is beca
1 comment
Read more

GOOD TO EXPECT BAD

Mosquitoes are something that bother me and very often as an unconscious reflex action and many times as a conscious action, I catch myself killing many of them. This is just one of the many sins and offenses I commit, mentally, verbally and physically. How can I then not expect any reactions for these actions of mine. Why should I pray for a life of no difficulties. Rather, I should be praying to God to give me my quota of reactions so that I learn my lessons quickly and rectify my offensive and sinful mentality.  The Srimad-bhagvatam mentions the episode of King Pariksit garlanding Shamika Rsi with a dead snake due to being afflicted with unbearable hunger and anger which is very unusual of the tolerant and saintly King. What is commendable is his thought process as soon as he commits this offense.  The Srimad-bhagvatam 1.19.1-3 mentions it in this way - "While returning home, King Parīkṣit felt that the act he had committed against the faultless and pow
Post a Comment
Read more

EVERYTHING COMES IN A CIRCLE

"Life is a full circle. Everything comes back the way it is handled." - Elsie Mathew Once, I was drinking some fruit juice in a stainless steel glass in our ashram. I had to leave for some place in a hurry. I left the glass thinking that someone would wash it. I came back after two days and saw that the glass was there in the exact place I had kept it, as if waiting for me. The irony is that not only I had to wash it personally but it took me more time and energy because by now the juice particles got dry and stuck to the glass. I had to do a lot of scrubbing. I realised the fallacy of procrastination. If I had washed it as soon I had drunk the juice, the job would have been accomplished in seconds. Small incidences like this have happened time and again, teaching me that in life everything comes in a circle. What goes around, comes around. That's the law of karma in action. We can't avoid responsibilities in life - what we are supposed to do, we will have to do - t
Post a Comment
Read more