Monthly Archives: January 2015

“If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It’s very important to be aware of them every time they come up.”
– Deepak Chopra
 
Kabir – The couplet
जग में बैरी कोई नहीं, जो मन शीतल होइ ।
ये आपा तो दाल दे, दया करे सब कोई||
transliterated:
Jag Me Bairi Koi Nahi, Jo Man Sheetal Hoy |
Yah Aapaa To Daal De, Daya Kare Sab Koye ||

Translation:
There is no enemy in this world, if the mind can stay quiet and peaceful |
If we can discard this cloak of the ego, everyone will find one-ness with us ||

My understanding:
For some reason, the past few days have been days of deep introspection for me. The deeper I inquire, the more the self show that there is really no mystery to unfold or secrets to divine. The reality is, the cloaks of ego and desire start as shimmering, beautiful, ethereal cloaks, but soon harden, solidify and convince us that they are the real us – completely masking the true me hidden within.

Often times, when the real me breaks through, others are initially scared by the vision, since the real persona is fighting to come to terms with the externally brilliant chaotic physical world, so very different for the quiet cocoon we were embedded in. And even more often, before we begin the fight, we reject the external, and retire back into the cocoon, relinquishing control to the ego and desire.

The mistake we make here is that we do not recognize the fragility of the cocoon – time and age will wither and destroy it eventually, and we have to face the world – or suffer the consequence.

So let us let our real us out into the sun, and let the real us meet and greet – and make our world truly ours!

Warm regards,
Mani

[this thread of Kabir is archived at https://www.akella.org/mani/?cat=5 ]

“Time and tide wait for no man.”
– Geoffrey Chaucer
 
Kabir – The couplet
पाँव पालक की सुधि नाही, करे कल की साज ।
कल अचानक मारसि, ज्यों तीतर को बाज ||
 
transliterated:
Paav palak ki sudhi naahi, kare kal ki saaj|
Kal achaanak marasi, jyon teetar ko baaj ||

Translation:
We have no real control over the next moment, but plan for the distant future |
Death comes ant any moment (without warning), just as the eagle pounces on the small bird ||

My understanding:
I regularly succumb to the fallacy that I can direct and control time. Time is a dimension that we have only been given the privilege of using – we have no way to control over its direction, speed or the duration we are given. Yet, we somehow grow complacent, take it for granted and plan our life with little consideration for the inexorability that time really represents.

Here is a reminder of that reality, and a call to get our priorities right. The only real way to be a true master of time is to slow our life down, find the time to smell the daisies and listen to the birds, track the fish in a stream and lay down in the grass while allowing the sun to bathe us.

All our planning can give us the anticipated peace and satisfaction only if we are willing to recognize the peace and satisfaction that time presents us. IF we are always focused on the next moment, we will never be able to recognize the bounty of the current!

So slow down, enjoy this moment, and be thankful every day for the opportunities it presents as its bounty!

“Politeness is the flower of humanity.”
– Joseph Joubert
 
Kabir – The couplet
 
सुख सागर का शील है, कोई न पावे थाह ।
शब्द बिना साधु नहीं, द्रव्य बिना नहीं शाह ||
transliterated:
Sukh Saagar Ka Sheel Hai, Koi Na Paave Thaah |
Shabd Bina Sadhu Nahi, Dravya Bina Nahi Shah ||

Translation:
Peace is the virtue of the ocean, whose depth cannot be fathomed |
Without politeness one cannot be a saint, as without money one cannot be rich ||

My understanding:
Here is a simple thought – we often express, without paying attention to whether the expression is being received, received well, or even has an audience.

However, most of the time, the intent of expression is delivery to a specific audience, and more often than not, there is expectation of a reaction to the expression.

So, when the intent is not served, there is dissatisfaction or more at the end of the delivery, often leading to distraction and even deviation from the path the journey started on.

So here, the master teacher is asking us to once again pay attention to the basics. Underlying the simple term “politeness” is a deeper and very effective magic wand – “attentive listening”. Politeness is possible only if we are attentive, and pay attention to the many cues from our intended audience. When we listen, we connect. Once we connect, the rest of the conversation will be a true conversation and not a monologue. When we then spice that conversation with the gentle dressing of politeness, the message will stay for life.

So let us relearn to listen, pay attention and be polite.

“If my love is without sacrifice, it is selfish. Such a love is barter, for there is exchange of love and devotion in return for something. It is conditional love.“
– Sadhu Vaswani
 
Kabir – The couplet
 
कामी क्रोधी लालची, इनसे भक्ति क्या होए ।
भक्ति करे कोई सूरमा, जाती वर्ण कुल खोए ||
transliterated:
Kãmi krodi lãlchi, inse bhakti kya hoye|
Bhakti kare koi surma, jãti varna kul khoye ||

Translation:
The lusty, angry or greedy, these are incapable of devotion|
Devotion is for that exceptional one, who is free of denomination, affiliation or social binding ||

My understanding:
When we claim to do something because it needs doing, it behooves us to inspect closely the true drive behind the reasons we proffer.

Most all of our actions are driven by an expectation of something in return – whether it is material, sensual or emotional. All of these returns provide temporary satiation to a demand of the physical body. I term it temporary because close introspection does prove that there is no material, sensual or emotional demand that ever says “Thank you – I have had enough for this life!”

This then makes the demand truly insatiable. So our first success at receiving some return/satiation only fuels the drive to get more – till we find ourselves exhausted – but not the desire. When we can fulfill the need no more, it makes us sad, unhappy, dejected, and even negative. So that which seemed to make us happy is truly laying the seed for the opposite result in the long term.

The only way to find true peace and centeredness is to break free of the shackle of desire and the need to conform to externally imposed needs – the need to be someone in social spaces, the need to feel a particular way or the need to be able to claim victory in a specific area. These needs can only lead to Pyrrhic victory – the cost of the victory far outweighs the returns, and it leaves one with a deep sense of loss and dejection. Give up the dependence on such needs and find fulfillment and satisfaction in just being rather than acting out of expectation.

“What is important in meditation is the quality of the mind and the heart. It is not what you achieve, or what you say you attain, but rather the quality of a mind that is innocent and vulnerable. Through negation there is the positive state. Merely to gather, or to live in, experience, denies the purity of meditation. Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end.
– J. Krishnamurthi
 
Kabir – The couplet
माला तो कर में फिरे, जीभ फिर मुख माहीं ।
मनवा तो चहुँ डिश फिर, यह तो सुमिरन नाहीं ||
 
transliterated:
Maala to kar mein phire, jeebh phire mukh maahi |
Manwa to chahun dish phire, yeh to sumiran nahi ||

Translation:
(Whether) it is the rosary beads in the had moving, or the tongue dancing in the mouth|
For as long as the mind wanders in all other directions, this is not meditation||

My understanding:
Early on, from the teaching of elders, observation of others, and all the reading we do, understand that meditation can help center us and help us find peace and the real center within us. For those so inclined, we even seek a special mantra or set of mantras, and seek, by repeated repetition, to find that true heart and meaning.

What we need to realize, however, is that it is not just the words or the action that create the magic. The magic actually happens when we step beyond the words and repetition, and learn to focus the physical and mental senses inwards, away from all external input, into the central core.

When the entire being can focus, even for just an instant, on that quiet space deep within, when we can just be, just observe, without thought, action or interaction, we find that well of bliss that we seek.

And when we can teach ourselves to repeat the exercise repeatedly, the attractions of the external world and the desires that draw us there finally show their true nature as brittle facades that fall away as easily as bark on rotting wood. Once that happens, the true self steps out in all its luminescent glory, lighting up both the individual and the entire space around. And in that brilliance, all of false ego melts away like the ice sculpture in the warmth of the sun – slowly and surely. 

“Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.”
– Izaak Walton
 
Kabir – The couplet
ऋद्धि सिद्धि मांगो नहीं, मांगो तुम पाई ये ।
निसदिन दर्शन साधु को, प्रभु कबीर कहु दे ||
 
transliterated:
Riddhi Siddhi Mangou Nahi, Mangou Tum Pai Yeh |
Nishidin Darshan Sadhu Ko, Prabhu Kabir Kahu Deh ||
 
Translation:
Wealth or fame I ask not, all I ask for is just this|
Every day to be spent in the company of a good man, Lord, please grant this (asks Kabir)||
 
My understanding:
We begin every journey with the most appropriate of intentions, and the best of thought. Then we encounter our first co-traveller, and our intents seem to magically merge with theirs. Along come the next, then the next, and more follow.

We complete the journey, and wonder in retrospect how we completely changed course midway and when it all went astray. But the time for the journey is done, the budget spent, and the opportunity behind us. So we just shake our heads, resolve to be more focused the next time, and move on.

This is often the story of our daily life. We start each morning with a set or priorities, which somehow drop from focus with each new person we meet (or website we visit J), until the day is behind us with none of the original planned work complete. Additionally, we have now loaded our plate with new work that we do not know how to accomplish – mostly because we took it from another’s plate without a proper understanding or content or expected result.

Kabir is guiding us here to find the right company for each of our days – for the right company will help us stay true to course while simultaneously enriching our experience and enhancing our understanding. This is as much our top priority as any other task we set ourselves.

“How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!”
– Emily Dickinson
 
Kabir – The couplet
दास बनना कठिन है, मैं दासों का दास ।
अब तो ऐसा होए रहूँ, पाँव तले की घास ||
 
transliterated:
Pakhaa pakhi ke kaarane, sab jag rahaa bhulaan |
Nirpakh hoi ke hari bhaje, soi sant sujaan ||

Translation:
Having chosen different paths (religions), everyone is lost in differentiating theirs as the best|
The One who is not bound by religions, not differentiating, is the true saint||

My understanding:
We begin our journey towards God with simple small prayers. From there we migrate to meditation and introspection. Just before we flower from there to enjoying the glow of the inner radiance, we trap ourselves in the prison of ritual and social one-upmanship.

The One that has provided this life does not respond to just one name or to just one form of worship or address. Do you really see a difference in one baby to the next? Are they not each full of the same joy and radiance, blessing us all with their bliss?

Here is a clarion call to free ourselves of the bindings of social temperance, to participate without being bound, to serve without expectation, to give because it is the only thing to do. The desire for reward is the first step into a darkness that will bind us for many many lives.

When we understand that it is only the body that is time bound, and that the soul within is not a slave to the clock, we can fully open our perception to the true nature of possibilities presented to us.

“You cannot fulfill God’s purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans. ”
– Rick Warren
 
Kabir – The couplet
दास बनना कठिन है, मैं दासों का दास ।
अब तो ऐसा होए रहूँ, पाँव तले की घास ||
 
transliterated:
Daas bananna kathin hai, main daason ka daas |
Ab to aisa hoye rahoon, paanv tale ki ghaas ||

Translation:
It was difficult to serve, I am the servant of servants|
I now wish to be like the grass under each foot||

My understanding:
I have often succumbed to the temptation to be praised by serving, even to the extent of finding those circumstances where my service would be the most visibly noticed.

However, such service never gave me any peace – for it was immediately followed by the questions –
Was it well received?
Did it achieve purpose?
Was I noticed appropriately? …. And more.

When I finally turned my attention to the inside, quieted down the cacophony of the ego demanding attention, and learned to listen, the real need for my service began to show itself all around. When I began to serve because it was needed, rather than because it was opportune, a magical transformation happened – I was rewarded in ways I never understood before.

Serving because it is needed is the right way to serve. Being the servant has made me free of the chains of ego and the prison of perception.

I now see that allowing this body to be of service is helping me find the real purpose of this physical existence.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.
– Plato
 
Kabir – The couplet
सोना सज्जन साधु जान, टूट जुड़े सौ बार ।
दुर्जन कुम्भ कुम्हार के, एके धक्का दरार||
 
transliterated:
Sona sajjan sadhu jan, toot jude sau baar |
Durjan kumbh kumhaar ke, eike dhakka daraar||

Translation:
Gold, a good person and the teacher, are malleable – they break and become whole many times|
The egotist, the bad person, is like an earthen pot – once broken, there is no way to make them whole||

My understanding:
In our daily life, we face adversity at many junctions. Sometimes it is our near and dear that seem to poke prod and hurt us, at other times the absolute stranger who rents large tears in the fabric of our presumed existence.

At each of these junctions, before we can turn inwards to understand that it is really our own expectation of the moment and not external behavior that causes the presumed rift, our EGO raises its head and screams out, LOUDLY, that it is hurt, and causes us to react by lashing out at anything and everything in front, often to damaging consequences.

So then, is it truly the other person that is causing us the pain – or is it our own ego, our own presumed sense of self-importance that is causing us pain?

This is the ego that the masters ask us to crush and keep under control. The ego never really dies completely. Its existence is part and parcel of the existence of the physical self – it is born with the body and will live as long as the body has life. It has an important purpose – to provide the emotional energy that is required for the body to participate and contribute in social spaces. However, that same energy that allows it to serve society can, if allowed to grow unchecked, take over and control the individual instead of being a useful contributing servant to the larger whole.

So take heed, take control, and use the energy instead of being used by it!

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.
– Bob Marley
 
Kabir – The couplet
अटकी भाल शरीर में, तीर रहा है टूट ।
चुम्बक बिना निकले नहीं, कोटि जातां को फूट ||
 
transliterated:
Atki bhãl sharir mein, teer raha hai toot |
Chumbak bina nikle nahee, koti jatan ko phoot||

Translation:
The shaft of the arrow that struck the body is out, but the head is stuck inside |
Without a magnet to help, it is very difficult to pull it out||

My understanding:
The soul, at birth, get’s this body as a tool to achieve its stated purpose.

Then, the world, society, our physical senses and our individual interpretation of the need to achieve something in this physical world take over. That seems to override the original programming that states the body is the tool, and instead makes it the primary purpose of existence.

The soul, now, is trapped in this vehicle it was supposed to use, helpless and confused. At some point, it succumbs to the overriding demand for physical existence, and follows the body’s lead, instead of leading the body.

The only one who can help correct the situation is the one we trust the least, and approach only under extreme duress – a true guru. For our physical programming does not allow us to trust a person who expects nothing but our own improvement as the only payment for his efforts.

However, the guru is the only magnet that can remove the trapped arrowhead and cleanse the blood of the accompanying poison and infection, without destroying the body, so the soul can still put it to effective use.

So find that guru, and hang on till you truly find enlightenment – since that is the way to find our true purpose in life.

Guru is like an axe who cuts the attachments deep within one’s heart. Real diksha means that he has no attachment to anything of this material world.
– Subhag Swami
 
Kabir – The couplet
पावक रूपी साइयां, सब घाट रहा समाई ।
चित चकमक लागे नहीं, ताते बुझि बुझि जाइ ||
 
transliterated:
Pãwak roopi sãiyãn, sab ghãt rahã samãi |
Chit chakmak lãge nahin, tãte bujhi bujhi jãi ||

Translation:
The guru, like the fire, burns as bright everywhere without differentiation |
But the soul, without the flintstone (of the guru) to light it, stays dark and lifeless||

My understanding:
Even the best and most powerful of automobiles needs the driver to insert the key and start the ignition before it comes to life. And yet, that is not enough – without the right person steering it, the automobile, despite all its capabilities, stays underutilized, or worse, ends up on the scrap heap.

The individual soul is in a similar plight. We need to be shown the path by one who can guide us without expectation. And we need constant course correction to ensure we stay on the right path, overcoming the distractions of desire and misdirection.

So it is our primary job to find the right guide (guru) and then submit without reservation to the provided instruction and guidance. This is the safest way to find true purpose in life.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
– Abraham Lincoln
 
Kabir – The couplet
बहुत दिवस ते हिंदिया, सुनिए समाधि लागै ।
करहा पारा गढ़ में, दुरी पारा पछताए ||
 
transliterated:
Bahut diwas te hindiya, suniye Samadhi laagai|
Karha paara gadh mein, doori paara pachtaaye||
 
Translation:
The hatha yogi tries to find bliss in forced silence over long periods of time |
But like the rabbit that falls into a hole, they lay fallen and exhausted and far from their goal ||

My understanding:
We often look to emulate the stated methods of others in the hope of achieving their expected goals.

What we discount in that act is that we have not fully done the required preparation work to get ready to walk the suggested path. Without that preparation, the path, no matter how bountiful, will not reveal its bounty to us – or we are too busy looking elsewhere and miss the offered gifts.

To find bliss, do not pressurize the body, but follow its subtle cues to comfortably allow it to stay calm and allow you to look within and find the real untarnished you.

All other effort will (mostly) result in vain.

“Having a low opinion of yourself is not ‘modesty.’ It’s self-destruction. Holding your uniqueness in high regard is not ‘egotism.’ It’s a necessary precondition to happiness and success.”
– Bobbe Sommer
 
Kabir – The couplet
बन ते भागा बिहड़े परा, करहा अपनी बन ।
बेदन करहा कसो कहै, को करहा को जान ||

transliterated:
Ban te bhaga bihade paraa, karhaa apni ban|
Bedan karha kaso kahai, ko karhaa ko jaan||
 
Translation:
The rabbit, as per its nature, runs from bush to bush, and falls into inescapable traps|
Once in the trap, who can it lament to, who will listen to it’s woes? ||

My understanding:
Giancomo Casanova said “Be the flame, not the moth”.

However, humanity has largely succumbed to the trend of “following the Joneses” – we mimic those who we deem successful, and expect to find and improve on their achievements ourselves.

The first mistake – our calling them successful based on external view. The second is the lack of recognition of the effort that got them there. The third is the presumption that we can exactly trace the very same path over the same or similar period of time – and improve by compressing time.

By the time we fully recognize our folly, we have burned through much of the time this life has granted us, and do not have the time, the energy, the enthusiasm or the vim to find our own path. We then turn to blame our failure on everything else, from circumstance to fate to bad timing. But those we are complaining to have complaints of their own, and do not have the time or patience to genuinely pay attention to our woes or offer sincere advice.

Hence the guidance to find the right teacher, find the teacher when young, and then follow the prescribed path without superimposing the instinctual direction of desire on the prescription.

Only by staying true to this remedy, from this moment onwards, irrespective of age, status or ability, can we truly find success and happiness in this life and for ever afterwards!

“Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs, or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-aid. Commonsense is the foundation of any good testimony.”
– Shannon L. Alder

Kabir – The couplet
पाथर पूजे हरि मिले , तो मैं पूजू पहाड़ |
घर की चाकी कोई ना पूजे, जाको पीस खाए संसार ||

transliterated:
Paathar puje hari mile, to main poojoon pahaad |
Ghar ki chakki koi na pooje, jaako pees khaye sansaar||

Translation:
If by praying to a stone, I could find God, I will pray to the hill |
No one prays to the stone mill, it feeds the world ||

My understanding:
We, humanity, have been gifted with the wonderful presents of common-sense, intelligence and reason. However, we have tended to ignore these gifts in favor of the more mundane, but much easier path, of a flock of sheep.

The shepherd tends the flock to his convenience, not for the mental uplift of his flock. So is the case with most leaders – they drive us to achieve their goals, which may not always be in synchrony with ours (if we took the time to define them).

Kabir, here, is asking us to recognize our purpose and calling in life, once again, and give credit where it is due – rather than where it is convenient.

God helps us when we help ourselves. The teacher is asking us to recognize and attune our actions to best serve our purpose for existence.

“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”
– Saint Augustine
 
Kabir – The couplet
भक्ति द्वार अति संकरा, राई दसवें भाग ।
मन तो मैंगल है रहा, कैसे आवे जाय॥
 
transliterated:
Bhakti dwar ati sankara, rai dasavein bhaag |
Man to maingal hair aha, kaise aave jaay||
 
Translation:
The path of devotion is very narrow, one tenth the width of a grain of sand |
The (egotist) mind is behaving as an intoxicated elephant, how can it (enter or) pass ||

My understanding:
As the sun enters the Makara rashi, and the cycle repeats, I am reminded of the endless bounty we are always presented – the many chances we are given. Every year, every day, every moment, we are presented with the opportunity to start afresh, to renew and reinvigorate.

Our ego, ever expanding, refuses to offer even a portion of such bounty or relent in the least on any front as we progress to life.

So the challenge in front of us is to overcome and crush that ego, so that we may grow, rather than feed an ego that will dissolve into dust at the end of this drama called life.

“Those contented souls who meditate on the Lord with single-minded love, meet the True Lord.“
– Guru Granth Sahib
 
Kabir – The couplet
इस तन का दिया करौ, बाती मेल्यु जिव ।
लोही सींचो तेल ज्यों, कब मुख देखू पिव॥
 
transliterated:
Is tan ka diya karau, bati melyu jeev|
Lohi seencho tel jyon, kab much milu piv||
 
Translation:
Make my body the lamp, my breath the wick that lights up |
My blood is the oil to fuel it, when I will I find Love (God)? ||

My understanding:
Today is the day of Bhogi – the day before Sankrathi, in the year 2015 AD.

This is the day we symbolically discard our bad habits, our negativity and the useless accouterments we have accumulated in the morning bonfire and the dances.

Today, let us also agree to give up expecting, and learn to give love instead.

When we ask, we get what the other expects will make us happy – which is not what we want. We want to join the real person within – which will happen when we give of ourselves without reservation or expectation.

When we give without holding back, what we find will be pure and truly joyous. For the reward is in the giving itself – no more is needed.

“You were born an original. Don’t die a copy. “
– John Mason
 
Kabir – The couplet
आया था किस काम को, तू सोया चादर तान ।
सूरत संभाल ऐ ग़ाफ़िल, अपना आप पेहचान॥
 
transliterated:
Aaya tha kis kaam ko, tu soya chaadar taan|
Surat sambhaal ai gaafil, apna aap pehchaan||
 
Translation:
For what purpose did you arrive, now you are all bundled up and asleep? |
Recognize yourself, fool, (before time really runs out) ||
 
My understanding:
We arrive in this world as a child, with no baggage. But we promptly start accumulating weight, shells, and covers till the original me is completely hidden, covered and soon forgotten – under the false exterior.
 
These covers take the form of aspirations of parents, expectations of society, desire-driven aspirations of the self based on input from the physical senses, our presumptions of the world’s expectations of us, our own conceptions of what might make us more acceptable, and sheer laziness – it is always easier to take the softer option, and blame failure on anything except the self.
 
Very soon, we begin to truly believe that the presented exterior is the real self, and we begin to live out that created role with the belief that that is our true calling in the theater of life.
 
Only at the time of death, when all of the accumulated accouterments wither and fall off, do we once again see the real self – but by then, the body is bereft of vim and energy and time, and can do little to help the self attain it’s purpose for this round.
 
So the master is asking us to abandon these false shells of fake identities, and to become what we are meant to be!

“Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy person has no time to form. “
– Andre Maurois
 
Kabir – The couplet
पहले यह मन कग था, करता जीवन घात ।
अब तो मन हंस भया, मोती चुन चुन खात ॥
 
transliterated:
Pehle yeh man kag tha, karta jeevan ghaat|
Ab to man hans bhaya, moti chun chun khaat||
 
Translation:
This mind was a crow in the beginning, pecking at life at each step |
Now it has matured into a swan, picking pearls carefully at each step ||

My understanding:
Aging is a process that begins at birth, and continues till death. It is as inexorable as time itself.

But aging does not imply the presumed accompanying growing wise. That is an external effort that each one of us has to apply to the storehouse of knowledge we collect, in order to distill out understanding and extract useful value.

Just as with churning curds to extract butter, there is a fair amount of extreme effort required – the curds do not easily give up the butter. And once the butter is extracted, the remains need to be used/discarded appropriately.

Similarly, we need to collect knowledge, and then apply clarity, rationality and experience to the store to extract understanding and wisdom. We then need to DISCARD and sometimes DESTROY the remains, so that it does not pollute later collections.

In the absence of this, we only grow old, not wise or smart.

“The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt. “
– Frederick Buechner
 
Kabir – The couplet
चली जो पुतली लाउनु कि, थाह सिंधु का लेन ।
आपहु गली पानी भई, उलटी कहे को बैन ॥
 
transliterated:
Chali jo putli laun ki, thaah sindhu kaa len|
Aaphu gali paani bhayi, ulti kahe ko bain||
 
Translation:
A doll of salt went out, to measure the ocean’s depth |
In the ocean, it dissolved (merged), who can put it back together again? ||

My understanding:
Taking the thought of service to the next space – when we put our all into an action, we have no bandwidth to spare to think of or presume result. When our whole existence is focused on the act and not the result/reaction, we have become the act. When this happens we are not the individual any longer, but the service itself.

Fire exists to be used. We can choose to use it to cook food, warm ourselves or burn things down. It can be used to forge weapons, or build shelters.

No one blames the fire or praises it – they just use or suffer the result.

Service is the fire – light it and become the fire. It will find the appropriate use for itself.

When we merge into service, we have become part of a much larger space. There, the old me has burned away, to be unavailable to forge or be recast any longer.

For me, service is the greatest version of God I can present for the use of others.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
 
Kabir – The couplet
फल कारण सेवा करे, करे न मन से काम ।
कहे कबीर सेवक नहीं, चहै चौगुना दाम ॥
 
transliterated:
Phal kaaran seva kare, kare na man se kaam|
Kahe Kabir sevak nahin, chahai chauguna daam ||
 
Translation:
Work done for a consideration, is not work done to serve |
Says Kabir, this is not service, when there is a price attached ||

My understanding:
Continuing in a similar vein from the prior post, the opportunity to serve is more than ample reward for the service offered. So why do so very few see this or accept it when presented?

We seem to crave for more than just enough. When we cook, we make more than might be needed “just in case” and then complain when there are too many leftovers in the refrigerator. We buy more, bigger, faster, heavier, lighter, greater than needed at the time, and then complain about the funds running out. We eat more than we need for the moment, and blame it on “the caveman instinct” when the excess is highlighted.

The first error is to succumb to the desire for more than the need. The next error, compounding the first, is to blame it on anyone or anything other than the self, the real culprit. When we refuse to recognize it as an error of judgment, there is no correction we will ever accept for the poor behavior.

So recognize the mistake, call it what it is, stop looking for scapegoats, and then do away with the excess. Once this cleansing is done the first time, keep repeating it, same way as we take a bath everyday, and not just the one time and then never again.

For it is only when we keep the mind clean and spotless that it can truly sense the brilliance within!

“The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.”
– Julia Cameron
 
Kabir – The couplet
राम रसायन प्रेम रास, पीवत अधिक रसाल ।
कबीर पीवण दुर्लभ है, मांगे सीस कलाल ॥

पिया चाहे प्रेम आस, रखा छाहे मन ।
दो खड्ग एक मयान में, देखा सुना न कान॥
 
transliterated:
Ram rasain prem ras, peevat adhik rasaal|
Kabir peevat durlabh hai, maange sees kalaal||
 
Piya chaahe prem aas, rakha chaahe man|
Do khadg ek mayan mein, dekha suna na kaan||
 
Translation:
God’s nectar is the nectar of love, the sweeter it gets as one drinks it |
But, says Kabir, it is difficult to drink, for its price is one’s head ||

One wants to drink this nectar, but also retain one’s pride |
But never has it been heard or seen that two swords stay in one sheath ||

My understanding:
We all claim that we want and crave love, when the reality is that we are chasing infatuation.

How do we recognize infatuation as different from love? Infatuation will attach specific returns as payment demands for the spent energy, related to the physical self. IF we get upset that the object of our affection has yet to recognize our effort and respond in a specific fashion, it is infatuation. If it were love, any reaction or none at all would be perfectly acceptable. For love works to satisfy the other, not the self.

To care for the other truly, we have to fully give without expectation or demand for anything in return. The ability to love is its own reward – it needs no other to satisfy.

Pride gets into the middle of this space. As the giver of emotion, we somehow manage to presume the role of giver/provider instead of being the one donning the mantle of responsibility. The provider needs to receive to complete the transaction – but love is NOT a transaction. To give love is the reward we get – when we are able to truly love, there is no need for something else to complete the action. Once we accept that, pride dissolves, and leaves us illuminated in the light of the soul.

“Seeking the face of God in everything, everyone, all the time, and his hand in every happening; This is what it means to be contemplative in the heart of the world. Seeing and adoring the presence of Jesus, especially in the lowly appearance of bread, and in the distressing disguise of the poor.”
― Mother Teresa, In the Heart of the World: Thoughts, Stories and Prayers
 
Kabir – The couplet
कस्तूरी कुंडली बसै, मृग ढूंढे बन माहि ।
ऐसे घाटी घाटी राम है, दुनिया देखही नाहि ॥
 
transliterated:
Kasturi kundali basai, mrig dhoondhat ban maahi|
Aise ghati ghati ram hai, duniya dehkahi nahi||
 
Translation:
Musk resides in the navel of the deer, but the deer searches the forest outside for it |
The Lord lives in the heart of each soul, but seldom do people see the God within or around ||

My understanding:
Rationality seems to have made us masters of ignoring or even denying the obvious. We have developed an almost childish obstinacy in looking beyond and searching for greater meaning where none exists, rather than accept the simplicity in front of us.

The teacher is guiding us to give up our childishness, and re-awaken the childlike innocence that allows us to recognize the radiance of the souls all around us. Do that, and God is always in front of you!

“Bad teachers distance themselves from the subject they are teaching—and, in the process, from their students.

Good teachers join self, subject, and students in the fabric of life because they teach from an integral and undivided self; they manifest in their own lives, and evoke in their students, a “capacity for connectedness.”
-Parker J Palmer
 
Kabir – The couplet
गुरु बेचारा क्या करे, सीखहि माहि छूक ।
भावे त्यों परमोधिये, बांस बजाये फूँक ॥
 
transliterated:
Guru bechara kya kare, seekhahi maahi chook|
Bhaave tyon paramodhiye, bans bajaye phoonk||
 
Translation:
Are the faults of the student due to the teacher, or despite him?|
A broken flute produces no music, an un-teachable student benefits not from a good teacher ||

My understanding:
A true teacher is not one who imparts knowledge, but rather points the direction and allows the student to find it on his own. The best of teachers is a guide to the seeker, one who has the patience to let the student falter but is able to provide appropriate support before the final fall, and let the student re-embark on the path of discovery.

Most students come looking for answers, and turn away from the teacher who works to make them ask the right questions instead. These teachers, instead of being revered, are shunned, especially in our current world of instant gratification and easy solutions.

Because it is easy does not make it right, and that is truly the hardest lesson to learn.

So, the next time you find such a teacher, hold on tight and let go only when the teacher asks, for then the teacher has been convinced that you are ready for the next stage. Trust not instinct over the wisdom of the guru – else blame not the guru for your lack of courage or conviction.

“You’re in love when nobody can understand the way you feel.”
-Unknown
 
Kabir – The couplet
अकथ कहानी प्रेम की, कहत कही न जाए ।
गूंगे केरी सरकार, खाए और मुस्काए ॥
 
transliterated:
Akath kahani prem ki, kahat kahi na jaye|
Goonge keri sarkara, khaye aur muskaye||
 
Translation:
The story of God’s love is indescribable. No description is befitting|
Just as the dumb person, having eaten candy, smiles in joy but cannot describe it ||

My understanding:
Some emotions have to be experienced to be understood. No one can understand the pain of childbirth, far less explain the look of transcendent joy on the mother’s face on first contact with the newborn, despite the ordeal just completed.

No words can completely describe the emotions running through a marathon runner’s mind on having completed the run – or fully explain the look of achievement on the face atop a completely drained body.

When we cannot find words for emotions and experiences we humans see repeatedly in our life, how can we expect to find words to describe the union, meeting and communion with that energy that no physical senses can sense? For our words limit their story to the more basic of the physical world’s experience, no more.

Try to read not much into the story of other’s experience, and find similitude – look rather to create your own experience so you may truly understand.

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
-Daniel J. Boorstin
 
Kabir – The couplet
बूँद समाई समुन्द में, जानत है सब कोई ।
समुन्द समाये बूँद में, जाने बिराला कोई ॥
 
transliterated:
boond samai samund mein, jaanat hai sab koi|
samund samaye boond mein, jaane birala koi||
 
Translation:
When a drop merges into the ocean, everyone understands it |
But when the ocean merges into the drop, seldom does one understand it ||
 
My understanding:
Our presumption of knowledge is our greatest weakness, our most glaring fault. We (mostly) define our understanding based on our sense of rationality and the input from our five physical senses. So what does not fit into our modes of understanding is mostly discarded as “impossible”, “unreal”, “fantasy” or some other such fancied definition. This despite the fact that all the great inventions known to man would not have happened if the inventor had subscribed to this way of thinking or rationality. If we all still lived under the belief that metal is heavier than air, no planes would ever fly. If we did not believe in energy we could not touch, feel or see, we would have no electricity.
 
And yet, we still continue to deny the existence of the soul, our innate metaphysical abilities, or the teachings of the old books.
 
That we cannot see the ocean of the this world’s students merge into the single consciousness of the single teacher is the loss of the student – for the master will patiently continue to teach, and wait for the student to learn to truly still the physical senses so the student begins to see.
 
Until then….
 

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.
– Benjamin Franklin
 
“I have only just a minute, only sixty seconds in it
Forced upon me, can’t refuse it
Did not seek it, did not choose it,
But it is up to me to use it,
I must suffer if I loose it,
Only just a tiny minute,
But ETERNITY is in it!”
-Unknown
 
Kabir – The couplet
कच्छी काया मन अथिर, थिर थिर काम करत ।
ज्यों ज्यों नर निधदक फिरे , त्यों त्यों काल हसत ॥
 
transliterated:
Kacchhi kaaya man athir, thir thir kaam karat|
Jyon jyon nar nidhadak phire, tyon tyon kaal hasat||
 
Translation:
The body is like an unbaked pot, and restless is the mind (in it)|
This man is action-less faced by worldly fears, while inexorable time watches and chuckles||

My understanding:
Time – a one way street, with no looking back, and moving at just one pace – one inevitable step after another. No break, no pause, not even a stop to breathe.

And I, the traveller, in ignorance, have made a art of the ability to ignore, postpone, and even deny the existence of time (except as an abstract thought for later consideration at an appropriate time?).

While time watches on, and smiles at my stupidity, I claim mastery over my existence, which only time owns.

So I need to stop, perish this folly, and fully accept that this physical life is temporal, and that I have already burned through a considerable portion of it in the pursuit of ephemerals. Let me now focus on understanding its purpose, meaning and teachings, so that I am ready for what comes after. For each phase of existence is but a preparatory school for what is to come next.

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
– 1 Peter 3:9 (New Testament)
 
“Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.”
-Fyodor Dostoyevski
 
Kabir – The couplet
आवत गारी एक है, उलटी होत अनेक ।
कहे कबीर न उलटिए, रहे एक की एक ॥
 
transliterated:
Aawat gari ek hai, ulati hoth anek|
Kahe Kabir na ulatiye, rah ek ki ek||
 
Translation:
A verbal abuse is one, but responding to it will make many|
Kabir says: “Do not respond to the abuse and it will remain one.”||

My understanding:
In our daily life, we often find ourselves surrounded by negativity in some form. A look may seen accusing, or a stray comment may seem to dig into our deepest secrets to lay us open and bare for the world to see.

Too often, we seem to ignore our relative insignificance (1 of 7 billion people) and instead, behave as if the world centers on us. In the real world, how many of them know me? How many should? And will they all be interested in my daily life?

If I can teach myself to respond back to the perceived jibe with a smile, or take it a step further and respond with a heartfelt thank you, I have taken a step closer to realizing the God within me.

The metaphoric mind is a maverick. It is as wild and unruly as a child. It follows us doggedly and plagues us with its presence as we wander the contrived corridors of rationality. It is a metaphoric link with the unknown called religion that causes us to build cathedrals — and the very cathedrals are built with rational, logical plans. When some personal crisis or the bewildering chaos of everyday life closes in on us, we often rush to worship the rationally planned cathedral and ignore the religion.
– Einstein
 
Kabir – The couplet
मानुस जनम दुर्लभ है, मिले न बारम्बार !
पक्का फल जो गिर परा, बहुरि न लागे दार ॥
 
transliterated:
manus janam durlabh hai, mile na barambar|
pakka phal jo gir para, bahuri na lage dar||
 
Translation:
Human life is difficult to obtain, not something one gets again and again|
Once the ripened fruit falls to the ground, no science can reattach it to a branch||

My understanding:
Very often, we take life for granted – for it is not in our face every moment clamoring for attention. However, the world around us is – through the incessant input to our physical senses. From this input, our mind (the rational component) creates the construct we call ego, and then ascribes to it character, social status, and then assigns it a separate existence of it’s own. This ego then takes over the role of master, and enslaves us to itself for the duration of our physical life.

At the end of the physical life, as soon as the physical body is no more, the construct, ephemeral as it was, dissolves into nothing, and the soul is left to answer for the time spent in vain pursuit, in the absence of the master that drove the pursuit.

Try this experiment today – for 5 minutes, focus on just the breath going in and out of you – to the exclusion of everything else. Once in a more peaceful state, look at your day, detached from the ego we call ‘me’. Critically answer the question “Was every action done because it needed to be done, or with an anticipated/desired result forethought?”

More often than not, we act with the expectation of specific results. However, the results, even if we achieve what we want in the immediate time frame, do take on their own life and generate further consequences that were never part of the plan. However, as the generator of the original action, we hold the real responsibility of ALL the consequences. However, the ego helps us divest of responsibility of the later consequences, putting that blame on the other “who should have thought it through before they acted”. But did we? Did we really think it through the first time? The second time? The third time? Ever?

If this is the way we choose to spend our life (and yes, we do have the freedom to make that choice), then why blame the result on the cosmos, God, or whatever else? We made the choice, we are responsible for the consequence. But this is where we get squeamish. And the rest of life becomes an artificial construct where we dream up excuses to explain away our choice as someone else’s fault. A favorite of all is “fate” – poor fate never does get a good reputation. But this is not fate – it is a tale of poor choices, and of even poorer shirking of responsibility.

At the end of this life, we do not get the opportunity to reset the clock and start all over again. So treat each day, each hour, each moment as a new beginning. Look backwards only to learn and understand, not to carry forward burden or blame.

Act because you need to, think so as not to do that which need not be done. Let the requirement of the moment drive thought and action – not the carrot of result.

Surrender the result of action and thought to the need of the time, and move on with a clear heart. Life will begin rewarding you in ways unthought-of from that very instant. And from that instant, fear finds no more space in us, for we are filled with the light of the divine, the true glow of Consciousness.