Skip to main content

LOSING ONESELF TO GAIN ONESELF

The theory of oneness with God is something that is not very appealing to Vaishnavas, in fact it is the one thing that they vehemently oppose. But the oneness I am talking is not about loosing our soul - it's about gaining it.

Losing oneself in any activity means to fully absorb ourselves into it or as they say, "to get into it fully". In the pages of the Srimad Bhagvatam there is mention of an Avadhoot Brahman who had 24 gurus. One of his guru was an arrow maker. This arrow maker was so absorbed in sharpening his arrow that he didn't even recognize the entourage of the King passing by. The Brahman learnt the quality of absorption from this arrow maker.


If there is one word that is of utmost importance in spiritual life - it is ABSORPTION. In order to truly experience happiness in spiritual life, we need to fully absorb ourselves into the practice - kind of forget our present identity. We identify with so many things that we are not - our various aspects and roles in this life. We identify so much with our present body and mind that we forget that our true identity is spiritual. At least while we do our daily sadhana especially our chanting of the holynames, we need to put aside all our so called designations in order to get maximum benefit from the process. Just like when we enter a temple we keep our footwear outside and enter, similarly when we enter into our spiritual practices we need to keep all the temporary ego designations aside and enter it with our true ego - as servants of God.

We all know that the Charam-sloka or the ultimate verse of the Bhagavad-Gita is - sarva dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja.....BG 18.66, wherein Lord Krishna pleads all of us to surrender all varieties religion and duty and surrender unto Him. Surrendering to Lord Krishna on a practical level actually means that while we chant His holynames, we keep all other duties aside to be fully available in body, mind and heart to recieve Him in His most merciful incarnation as the Holyname.

It is explained that when Lord Shiva closes his eyes to enter into his meditation on The Supreme Lord, he gets so absorbed in it that he opens his eyes only after 60000 years. He basically losses track of time, the world around and himself. We can't imitate great souls, that is clear but the minimum we can do is in deference to our chanting of our prescribed rounds we can put off both our external and internal worlds. Let everything wait and it has to wait because it's time to gain our immortal soul - our very self.

In summary, losing oneself to gain oneself means completely surrendering oneself to the process of Krishna consciousness and to give up the false self to gain our real self.

- 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

GOVARDHAN REFLECTION

While doing parikrama around Govardhan Hill, I was reflecting back on all the times I have performed Govardhan parikrama in the last so many years. I reflected that each time I have performed it, it was always with different devotees at different phases in my life. My companions during the parikrama and my situation during the parikrama were all different. The only similar factor in all these parikramas was Govardhan Himself. Being an eternal form of the Lord, He is always the same. The more we realize Krishna and His various forms to be the only constant factor in this changing world, we can seek our refuge in the Lord and experience shelter and stability in a changing world.   Srila Prabhupada, one time was sharing with the devotees life lessons connected to his visits to Jagannath Puri. He explained that, he came to Jagannath Puri for the first time as a small child along with his father. He then came as a young college student. Then as a yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

GIVING UP PETTINESS to EXPERIENCE PRETTINESS

"The process of Krishna consciousness will empower us when we empower it." The other day as I was taking a bath, the plastic bucket I was using, slipped and cracked. A piece from the rim of the bucket broke off and cut my finger. As I was waiting for the bucket to refill with water, I noticed that even after a long time the bucket wasn't filling up. It's at that time, I noticed a "not so apparent" crack at the bottom of the bucket which was causing all the water to leak out. I drew a lesson from this incident which is applicable to my spiritual life. SEALING THE LEAKS The process of spiritual life or Krishna consciousness which includes the nine fold limbs beginning with Shravanam (hearing) and Kirtanam (chanting) is like filling the container - the vessel of our hearts. For the vessel of our hearts to fill up, it should be leak free. If the container is faulty and contains many holes, the best of content, in the best of quantity will not help it fill. Ana...
Post a Comment
Read more