Written Messages

 

Ranikhet,

October 11, 2017

 

 

During the recently concluded retreat held among the beautiful hills of Ranikhet, the Guru was talking about some events in the life of Lahiri Mahashaya. One such incident and the swadhyay therefrom is given below:

 

The Event:

 

The room in which Lahiri Mahashaya spent most of his time in his house in Varanasi, was poorly lit. The courtyard outside the room was, however, a well lit place. One day, it so happened that while sitting in his room, Lahiri Mahashaya was informed that a devoted disciple had come to visit him. As soon as he heard this Lahiri Mahshaya went out of the room into the brightly lit courtyard and started to make, what appeared to be, a detailed search of the place. Just then the disciple entered the courtyard and seeing his Guru apparently busy in a search, asked, “What are you looking for?” Lahiri Mahashaya replied that a key that had been tied to his sacred thread had fallen somewhere, and that he was trying to find it. After some moments the disciple asked “Do you remember where you dropped the key or perhaps make a guess?” Lahiri Mahashaya replied that he was sure  that the key had fallen in the room when he was doing kriya. On hearing this the disciple looked surprised and a little amused at the ‘foolishness’ of his Guru and said, “Gurudev, if the key fell in the room, then why are you searching for it here?!” Lahiri Mahashaya smiled and replied that it was more convenient to search in the courtyard than in the room. “How is that?”, asked the disciple. “The courtyard is brightly lit, so it is easy to search here, whereas it is difficult in the darkness of the room”, said Lahiri Mahashaya. The disciple said, “But one has to search where the key was dropped”.

 

Lahiri Mahashaya said, “But you too, do this. You seek convenience. You have no interest in ‘what is’! You wish to build your image in the glamour and glitter of the external world and are not at all concerned with the facts you need to deal with.”

 

Instantly, the disciple’s eyes became still, his lips were silenced and his hands folded in spontaneous reverence. There was a genuine transformation in his being as the lesson taught by his Guru was imbibed in full through his very bone marrows.

Swadhyay:

 

In order to touch the disciple deeply or to make him/ her understand a profound truth, the Satguru sometimes indulges in drama as was done in the above case by Lahiri Mahashaya. The event reveals to us that the ‘key to Divinity’ is lost within ourselves, hidden by the darkness of mind. However, instead of understanding this through deep swadhyay, we seek answers in ‘holy places’, belief systems, so- called spiritual books and various religious rituals, because we dare not enter the darkness of our “I” ness. Instead of inviting the “Shattering the of ‘Mind’ through hard and ruthless Swadhyay, we run away from this into the ‘sheltering’ opium of the protective mechanism of this myth - mind. It is ‘easy’; it is ‘convenient’ , thus losing the chance to be touched by the Divinity ever present within. The saint Kabir has said;

 

“Kasturi kundal basey, mrig dhoondhe ban mahi

Aise ghat ghat Ram hai, duniya janat nahin”

 

Just as the deer has no idea that the musk is hidden within his own body while he seeks for it in the forests, so also no one knows that the Divinity they seek is right there! Seeking this truth in the outer world is the WRONG PROCESS, for God’s sake! We don’t see this! This convenient running away from the rigour of Swadhyay can take many forms including ‘becoming religious’, ‘becoming a Sanyasi’!!

 

There are many aspects of our lives that may appear to rest in ‘What-Is’  but is actually a convenient escape from it. Ruthless (yes, Ruthless) Swadhay will show:

 

•   The so-called action that raise from convenience can never be in complete balance, while no-action (which is real action) arising from the energy of ‘what-is’ cannot but be in complete balance and harmony.

•   The attempt to be in Yoga (harmony) through more and more kriya practice without Swadhyay also originates in our comfort with doing what is convenient.

•   Confusing Experiences that arise out of kriya practice with Perception is also the result of our love for convenience - the “What Should Be”.

•   Running away from the problems we routinely face in life is also a sign of resting in the darkness of the mind rather than in the energy of being. This running away is quite often masked as ‘detachment’ by the mischievous mind.

•   Anything done by the “I”, however holy it may appear, considers the convenience of the action rather than the rightness of it.

•   The so-called ‘seeing’ of the stilling of one’s mental activities (as an experience) is also a clever image building exercise of the mind as, if the mind was to be really still there would be no experience at all.

 

In short, breaking free from the chains of one’s “I ness” with all its accompanying hurt to the ego, and remaining with this, instead of running away from it, is being in “What Is”. This dropping of the “I” is the enlightenment of our darkness in which the ‘key to divinity’ becomes visible.

 

Which is why Lahiri Mahashay said remain in ‘What Is’ and not in ‘What should be’

 

Jai ‘What Is’