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

REQUEST TO & FROM A MOTHER

  Today on the occasion of Mother's Day, I went to meet the cow, our mother to wish her for Mother's Day and make a request to her. I requested her to shower her blessings and mercy on her children who are suffering so badly due to the deadly covid virus. The good news for all of us is that, she mercifully agreed to shower her heartfelt blessings, prayers, mercy on all her children. After all, that's the heart of a mother - always wanting and desiring best for her children. I was elated, my mission accomplished - now, the suffering of humanity will reduce. As I was leaving, the cow also had one personal request. She requested me with tears in her eyes to request her children not to abuse, exploit and slaughter her mercilessly. I could literally feel her pain and suffering as she made this request. This was the pain of a mother. Tears swelled up in my eyes. I didn't know what to reply her. I did tell her that I will pass on her request to her other children and I walked ...
Post a Comment
Read more

PRACTICAL TOOLS FOR DESIRE MANAGEMENT

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of, so they can see that it’s not the answer.” ― Jim Carrey, American - Canadian actor Long back, I heard this analogy to explain the nature of the unlimited desires in our hearts. It is explained in this analogy that, even if all the water bodies in earth are made into ink to fill a pen whose nib is as small as an atom and the sky is made into paper to write on; the ink will get exhausted, the nib will break and the paper will run-out but our list of desires will not get over - we will still have more left. Over these years of spiritual practices, I have realized the truth behind this analogy. I have become more aware of the dynamics of desires and it's working in life. Even though our hearts are filled with unlimited desires, luckily just a few jump into awareness every now and then, just like a few fish jump out of the surface of the ocean every now and then even though the ocean is filled with u...
1 comment
Read more

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-bra...
Post a Comment
Read more