Skip to main content

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND OPEN

Don't build your house in shifting sand, build it on a solid rock foundation." - Paraphrased from the teachings of Jesus Christ. As I close my eyes to chant japa and open my eyes a little while later, I notice that something has changed. Either someone who was chanting along has got up and left or someone new joins the chanting. As I close my eyes to chant in the Kirtan on the beach and open my eyes a little while later, I notice that the scene has changed. As I go outside Goa for a few days for any trip and come back, I notice that things have changed, some more development has happened. As I meet a child I know after a few years, I notice that he or she has gone through a lot of changes. Change after all is constant factor in this world. Just by observing life and being aware of the happenings around, one can learn about the truths of life. Srimad-bhagvatam mentions the story of a King called Muchukunda who once was summoned by the demigods to lea...
Post a Comment
Read more

CHANTING BEYOND REASONS

"Chanting attentively is not a matter of circumstance but a matter of choice." Everyday there is a different reason to not to be chant attentively. Someday, it's because someone hurt us and we keep thinking about it, someday our health is not good. Someday, it's simply because we are not in mood. Someday, it's because a plan of ours didn't work out....And the list goes on and on. Very rarely do we chant attentively. All these reasons are valid and true. But the question is "When will there be a day when the mind will stop offering reasons to not chant attentively?" Material world is a place of continuous drama and happenings and the mind knows how to perfectly en cash on it. Even if all our problems went away, the mind will not allow us to chant attentively.....a new set of problems will come or even if there are no further problems, the mind will make one. After all, it's expert at it - creating problems where none exists. CHANTING BEYOND ...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE QUEST FOR SUCCESS

"In the end we only regret the chances we didn't take." A few weeks ago, I was doing a training program for our devotees at our ISKCON center in Siolim. My theme that day was to highlight the need for devotees to find their hidden potential. I was explaining, how important it is for every devotee to feel successful in life; how the growth of every organisation depends on the growth of the individuals within the organisation. I explained to them, how in the name of growth of the organisation, we can't overlook individual growth - both are interconnected. One devotee asked me a very intelligent question. He asked me, "What does success mean?" I told him, "Success, doesn't mean to become successful in the eyes of people. It doesn't mean name, fame or any other external things." I told him that, " Success means to feel that you have done your best, that you have lived up to your full potential. Others are not the judge of our succe...
Post a Comment
Read more