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

MAKE IT A POINT TO MAKE THE POINT

A few days ago, as I was traveling on the ferry that takes us to our ISKCON Center at Chodan island, a relatively young man approached me and started to talk to me. My Vaishnava (devotee) attire probably attracted him to me. He was asking me if I was a preist in a temple. To which I said "Yes". I asked him where he stays and what he does. He told me that he stays in Panjim and runs a chicken shop in Porvorim. I asked him his name and as I guessed, he happened to be a Muslim. I could see marks of dried up blood stains in different places in his shirt. I at once told him to try to switch his profession to one which involves less violence. I suggested to him to start a vegetable or a grocery shop. He seemed to be taken a little aback by what might have appeared to him to be a stange suggestion by a stranger. I told him that killing innocent animals is not right. They too have life and feelings like us. He was hearing me out. He then asked me, if one can eat chicken ...

THE POWER OF OBEISANCES

Offering obeisances to the Supreme Lord in His deity form may superficially look like a very small and a simple activity. But, it is one one of the very important and significant aspect of Bhakti. Therefore Lord Krishna stresses the importance of offering obeisances to Him in one of the most important verse of the Bhagvat-gita in chapter 9, verse 34. "man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiṣyasi yuktvaivam ātmānaṁ mat-parāyaṇaḥ" "Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer obeisances to Me and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me." - Bhagvat-gita 9.34 This verse comes exactly in the middle of Bhagvat-gita making it all the more important. Not only that, this is the only verse that appears almost as it is, again towards the end of the eighteenth chapter of Bhagvat-gita as follows - "man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te pratijāne priyo ...

BEING SMART - WISDOM FROM CLOTHES & SHOES

Ever thought of the number of clothes we have worn and discarded since our childhood. Do we have any track of them? Ever thought of the number of shoes and slippers we have worn and discarded since our childhood. Do we have any track of them? These questions may seem quite stupid, childish and irrelevant to our present situation, isn't it! Wait a minute before you brush aside these questions, might be there is some wisdom in them. Let's see.... THE FIRST LAYER OF WISDOM The first and the obvious (may not be so obvious to many. Life is such that what is supposed to be obvious is not always obvious.) layer of wisdom is to be grateful for all these facilities we had been and have been given access to. It may appear too simple to be grateful for all the clothes and shoes we wore. Ya, but true gratitude is about being grateful for simple little things in life. Believe me, all these things that we took for granted, millions of people didn't get access to or don't have acces...

The Wisdom Park

Search This Blog