Monkey and the peanuts

Most of us have heard the story of the monkey and the peanuts!

A monkey sees a jar with a small mouth and inserts its hand in the jar and picks a handful of peanuts. Now trying to remove the hand, finds its fist stuck at the mouth of the jar. Tugging and pulling, yet unable to pull out its fist.

How does the monkey get its fist out? Simple…it just needs to drop the peanuts!

How can we relate to this story? We all say we are seeking liberation/moksha…Yet how prepared are we to let go of the peanuts in order to free the hand?
Peanuts here represent our family ties, attachments, desires, wishes etc. All these will end with the body. We all know this much and yet we cannot let go of them!

The attachment to all that we feel we own including this body is so much…why then do we use words like ‘liberation’ ‘mokhsa’ ‘mukti’ ‘self-realisation’ ‘atma bodha’ etc.

All sound very nice, but not practical ….isnt this our thought right now?
We have 100s of excuses to not leave those peanuts…don’t we?

Even as many of us are reading this we feel the fire rising within us and the defense statements readying within us to have an argument…

“How can I leave my wife/husband kids mother etc?”
“How can I leave my job or my duties for the family”
“How can I let go of my money and property?”
And many more such questions will arise…

What is there to let go? Things that we hold on to…right?

If we hold on to our relations, our social actions, friends, people etc…. then we need to let go of them. HOW?

How and where are we holding these people? In our minds…that’s where we let go…
“Then what about the physical duties, the job, the chores etc?”

Everything continues…on the physical level…all duties …all works…
Its about being involved and not attached. As of now we are attached to the job, the duty and everything for that matter…our image, our status etc.

Whatever we feels belongs to us is going to dissolve along with the body…until the body is there we can go about feeling that we own or possess all this…yet deep within we all know its an illusion…

The peanuts have to go and only then freedom is possible.
Our entire life is spent in trying to balance all our belongings and at the same time trying to attain moksha. It will never happen!

We need this also and that also. We are basically greedy…not ready to compromise, not ready to forsake or let go…We want everything…

Only if we knew that letting go of the peanuts would mean gaining everything…we would probably let go…

Yet there will be a brief moment when we let go…and realize the freedom…that moment will be filled with immense fear…

The fear of losing all…fear of losing the self…fear of losing the identity…the moment when the ego drops, the identity drops…the moment of union with the divine…

Break the bubble…

I keep enjoying the safety of the bubble and feel very secure. Never once I feel suffocated and just keep rolling in and out of different lives and different bodies.

It is just like changing clothes. The choice is endless and I roll inside the bubble…unware and completely immersed in changing clothes, enjoying the changes, suffering through some, yet not seeking anything except peace and happiness. Not knowing why it is evading me and yet not pursuant enough to find out. The changing of clothes and the session in each piece of cloth intriguing me and trapping me.

After ages, at one point I finally open my eyes a little bit and look around. I am unable to judge where the bubble begins and where it ends. Something stirs deep within and a feeling arises that the bubble is not actually a safety haven but a trap.

I start feeling suffocated and restless, almost claustrophobic. Why am I in this? Who am I? The desire to feel free and break the bubble and realise the self starts troubling me.

It keeps nagging constantly and I start seeking for a way out. I go to temples, meet sanyasis. I read books, scriptures and attend satsang. I take up all the required techniques which come with the label “ Moksh ka dwaar”, the door to Mukti/liberation.

This stresses me out even more. Wherever I go I see more bubbles all trying out some method or the other but reaching nowhere. At times desolation would hit me and I would feel reckless and angry.

What is each bubble doing? Why is no one out of it? Is there anyone out of it? Is even a single one liberated?

What would occur when liberation happened? Would the bubble break? Would I be back to my own essence of the beautiful drop of the ocean, merging back into the ocean? Would there be a bubble without a drop of water? No!

So the bubble was an illusion…temporary. The drop was real yet not visible. Once merged in the expanse of the ocean, where would the drop go? It would be merged and would have no identity of being a drop.
This is what I understand. This understanding makes me feel free though not liberated. The suffocation is reduced because now I know that the bubble exists only because of the drop and I am the drop and one day the bubble will break. It has to…

When, how and where does not matter. Let it take its course. Within the bubble I feel free now. I live in my own essence, using the bubble as a mask, yet not attaching my identity to it.

I am pure, beautiful drop…seeking to join the ocean where I belong. I will merge into it and lose myself into it. Then nothing of me remains and yet I remain as the paramatma/super consciousness.

Now the bubble no longer troubles me. It is there because I am there. It is like the reflection of the face on the mirror. The reflection is not real. The mirror shattering will finish the reflection but not the face outside the mirror.

I am me…I will now enjoy the ride…float through the turbulence with awareness and laugh and be joyous all the time. In this joy, laughter, I will get closer to the self.

In sadness and sorrow I get more into the trap. Moment to moment…I will live totally…it’s the present I have received…the present moment is the truth…the only truth…

Soaked in my essence, I resolve to live life in its totality.

मोक्ष …moksh

मोक्ष चाहते है हम
कहते है मुक्ति चाहिए
अभी बन्धनों में अटके
संसार की गहरी खायी में हम

इच्छा पल पल बदलती है
चाहने से क्या होगा
फसे हैं मन की डोर में
संसार से अभी बंधे हैं हम

मन तो मानो पक्षी है
उडती है डाल से डाल
एक क्षण भी स्थिर नहीं
तो ध्यान कैसे संभव है?

कौन बताये इस चंचल मन को
की उसका कोई अस्तित्व नहीं
जब समाप्त होगी इच्छा वासना
तब मन की होगी अंतिम क्रिया

मुक्ति क्या चाहना जब हम मुक्त ही है
ना जाना तब तक ही बंधे हैं
ना कोई डोर है ना कोई बंधन
उडती पंची से ज़्यादा आज़ाद हम है

तब तक ही रहेगी मन की शान
जब तक मैं कौन हूँ इसका ना हो पहचान
जब जान जायेंगे दसवा कौन
तब होगा असली पर्दा फाश

मन है ही नहीं ना है संसार
साफ़ दिखेगा साये में
मैं कौन हूँ मैं क्या हूँ
इसका होगा तब आभास

जब होगा आत्म दर्शन
मिलजायेगी बूँद सागर में
ना खोज सकोगे उस बूँद को
जो समा गया सागर की गहरायी में

नदी के अंतर तल में खो गया वो
जैसे माँ के गर्भ में पलता शिशु
आराम की नींद सो गया वो
जैसे माँ की गोद में सोता शिशु

Who is bound?

The bird in the sky so free

flapping its wings with glee

Here on land I watch amazed

feeling tied bound and caged

The Observer

 

What is the “Self”?

It is like asking “Who am I?”

The journey is to fulfill this very quest. The day one knows and experiences the self then self realization is attained.

When they say Mukti or Moksh, it is liberation. Liberation from what?

Liberation is from the understanding that all that is happening around, all that we can see including this body is unreal. Liberation from the unreal, from the illusions that are ever changing.

Seeking the permanent and letting go of the impermanent nature of sansaar is the journey.

One is  the self… But unaware.

The entire play or the game is all about awareness. If you are aware you know…yet if you want to experience then the mirror will have to be cleaned, the water in the lake will have to be cleared of the muck.

It is only when the water in the lake is clean and still that the reflection of the moon is clear. One can see in the depth what lies beneath…

When you look into the mirror…you see a reflection.

Is that you? Is the reflection you? Is the one on the other side, you?

The body, the image both are not you. The one seeing, is the jiva.

If the mirror is unclean, will not the image be hazy? Will the reflection be clear? No, yet the original will be clear and the image blurred…

You say you saw a dream. Who saw the dream? The body? No! It was lying there unconscious.

The one who is sleeping is doing various actions in the dream in a completely different scene. How is it possible? Who sees the dream? Who sees the one in the dream?

If you are in awareness, you can catch the one who is witnessing all this…

The one who witnesses, the observer, is the self.

The path is one and it is right. WE know it and there is no two ways…

There is no wrong path…

There are different methods to reach the destination, but the journey has to be undertaken by the jivatma.

It is possible with this body. So this body and the life becomes extremely precious.

The goal is clear. But the path is not clear and also not very easy. There is lot of muck on the mirror. It needs to be cleaned. The image has to be clear…

The mind is the mirror, the water in the lake is the mind, the anthakarna.

Once the anthakarana is cleared ( through purushartha/self effort), then the image is clear.

That day you will meet the self.

Instead of entering into too many doubts and affirmations, let us embark on the journey and find the self.

This is the journey for which we have taken birth and are in this human form.

Walk, do not be still for every moment that passes is gone. The life of this body is ruled by destiny and yet the length and depth of our spiritual journey is ours to traverse at whatever speed or flight we can manage.

Baby steps are better than just halting…

Self-effort is walking on the path shown by the Guru/Scriptures. Sewa, sankritan, satsang, simran.

Sing in the melody of the divine, sing for you know not who the self is nor who the divine is…sing for the connection to happen…Mira sang her way to liberation….

Sewa is service, unconditional and it should just happen…Service is the best way to cut the karmas…

Prefer to keep the company of the people who are on this path as then it will enhance your journey. If you want to learn a particular subject, don’t you hang around with people who know more about it so that you can learn through observation and asking questions and from their experiences…

Simran is to chant the name of the divine in every breath if possible. This cuts down karma drastically leaving you free to transcend and attain self realization.

The more you are in simran, the less you are creating thoughts- words-actions-

As of now let us follow on the dwaita that the divine is one and I am one…so duality…

As and how one transcends and gains wisdom, the duality remains no more and it becomes advaita.

The drop is no different from the ocean and yet It feels so…

That feeling of “I” has to go …dissolve and join the ocean and be one with the ocean. Until duality remains, the egosense remains. It is only when the egosense is dropped that the drop merges with the ocean….then who can see the drop? There is the ocean…Where is the drop?

Where is this “I”? Is it even there? Just a body clothed around the 5 elements having the triguna and hanging in the illusion of the anthakarana ( mann buddhi chitta ahamkar) weaving webs of illusions and getting more and more entangled in it…

The self witnesses this drama, this illusion, unaffected…nirvikalpa, niraakara, chidananda roopa shivohum shivohum…

Sat chit ananda is the true nature of the self –

The wave that rises feels I am separate from the sea. I am a wave…Is it? It creates its own separate identity and embarks on an illusionary travel agenda…only to realise that it is not what it assumed it was…Very soon it is merged in the sea. Then there is no wave…it is just the sea…

When the identity drops, the self is seen …

I once again request all the readers to read the script of Adi Shankara’s Nirvana shatakam or the Atma Shatakam…read it, chant it, sing it…till the true essence is absorbed…

Just google it and you will get the verses with the meaning…You will get the verses sung by many devotees/spiritual channels on youtube…

Adi Shankaracharya…he gave the ultimate wisdom through this Atmashatakam…

One with the divine…

Who am I?

It begins here. We all have the answer because we have heard it or read about it. Have we experienced it? Many of us have not. So then it is just a belief, not the truth. What one experiences is the truth.

Making the above point was to bring upfront the fact that we are all living on a list of beliefs. Every family, every cult has its own teachings. We tend to fall in line with the one we are associated to. It turns into blind belief.

“Mere Guru ne kaha to sach hi hai” “What my Guru says is the ultimate truth”

There is no denial of the above. What the Guru says is the absolute truth. But it will be truth for us when we experience it,

until then it will be what we believe in. This is a pretty good step as at least we are on the path and we are following some belief system.

When will we experience the truth that is now just something we believe in? We can write about it and speak about it and even discuss, yet the truth remains that it might not be our experience and so not the truth but a belief.

When we meet a Guru and listen to his gyaan we feel so good and so full of knowledge. Here again, we take the knowledge and not the wisdom that is being imparted. With the knowledge that we acquire we grow big (literally) spiritually. We get the feeling of knowing a lot. Believe me, we know nothing! We know nothing until it is our own experience. Rest all is just rote from the books, or the notes or the scriptures. We may have managed to understand the meaning of all that is written there and yet we are nowhere near to reality because we have yet to experience the wisdom hidden in those verses.

It might sound very crude and yet it is what we need to accept. Only then can we move on and work on our beliefs to make it the truth. How?

Following on the path of the Guru is the easiest and yet a tough one. Just do what he says…

Easiest if we do not have any counter questions and have the full samarpan bhaav (surrender). When we have doubts and questions we ask our Guru. He keeps on explaining to us and at times we understand and at times we are not clear about certain things. This creates a conflict in our minds and our progress is affected. And so it becomes tough…

Then we listen to several Saints, read books and attend spiritual seminars and follow motivational speakers on their channels. This is because somewhere we know that the actual realisation is yet to strike. Somewhere sometime it will. So we work hard.

That is just a small area of the hard work that is actually  necessary. Listening to gyaan and attending satsangs is a very small percentage of the actual work required.

Spirituality is not only about understanding gyaan or following a Guru. It is much more than that.

It is exploring the very being, the very consciousness and touching the core!

So always first begin with the sthool shareer (the body) and then think of the core. What we are doing now is directly trying to access the core. It is not going to happen!

So start work on your body. Start with yog asana and pranayam. Understand the two and go to the depth of it. Work on it and practice it. Now that the body is active and agile we can focus on the inner self. The breath is where we need to focus on. The right technique of breathing will lead us to understanding the prana shareera.

Now that we have regulated the body and the breath and are quite healthy our mind can focus on listening to gyaan. For example, can you  imagine a person having knee pain, headache, indigestion or any other illness/discomfort, trying to focus on the gyaan? It is not possible. So outer and inner cleansing of the body is necessary.

Next is the cluttered mind. The Guru is distributing the nectar of wisdom and we are sitting in front of him wanting to collect the entire pot of wisdom. Yet we carry with us a pot full of clutter and try to fit in the nectar somewhere. Where is the space available?

So a mind free of worries will always gather more wisdom. If we are living in this world, we will have innumerable issues to face . So worries have become part of us. Here we need to remember that it is not a part of us and we need to keep it away from us. We still need to face it, but without being attached to it. This way the external issues will no longer worry us.

We worry about small things and small issues. Why not worry about the fact that “Am I working hard enough to experience the self in this life? Am I on the path or just feel that I am on it?”

Questions on the self will lead us towards the answers. External issues will come, there will be answers and we will scrape though it. Yet we get stuck to those as they give us the pleasure of achievement once we have solved it.

Another major reason why we are put off the spiritual path and pulled towards the unreal, the illusion is the search for people who are actually on the path and living it and not being able to find such people. We look around and find that we are on a path because someone led us there and now when we look at that someone we see that the person has not progressed much. This is a major put off.

Another one is where we hear that the sansaar is mithya and that we must not delve much into it and walk on the spiritual path. How is that remotely possible?

Sansaar is mithya (unreal) and that is true. Yet unless we experience it, how can we blindly believe in it? For us, now it is as true as this body we adorn. Also the advice of leaving the sansaar – whats there in it? Everything is there in being spiritual.

But how can we experience this spiritual self/ being without this body? Just shows how important the body is. Similarly when we, with this body  live in this sansaar we can achieve whatever we have come here to achieve.

So all that is around us is false. Yet we need this falsified sansaar, this body and many other things for us to walk on the spiritual path and attain wisdom . So we cant  just shrug it off! Its the tool we need to attain self realisation. The whole point in this is that we must be aware that we must not get attached to all that is false and must strive to experience paramatma.

This is where the major obstacle comes. We all are attached to certain things, people, position in society and so on. Here we need to keep our eyes open that all that we are getting attached to ( including our own body) is something that is not going to last forever. It is going to end and so its temporary. Also we need to remember that the journey to reach the self requires the temporary ( body, the world, people ).

One can say that I have left sansaar and sit on a mountain. Still he is in this sansaar. Is the space, the  mountains, the greenery around him not sansaar? Who said sansaar is just the relationships we have? Sansaar is the entire world around us.

Sansaar is what each individual mind has created just the way it has created this body. And the self needs both the creations as well as the mind that has created it in order to attain self realisation.

Also when we speak about Mukti let us remember that “ we are mukt- we are free” – It is just that we are not aware of it. The day we become aware of it everything around us falls in place.

It is just so easy and simple. Nothing is mine, even this body is not mine as its all going to be destroyed. All that is around me is my own creation. One day it will all vanish. I will be left in my true form – one with the paramatma.

I would have then reached the point where there would be no more punarapi jananam punarapi maranam…

I would have reached the eternal state- where the mind would have culminated into the self to  become one with the divine…