created: 2025-01-24T19:11
updated: 2025-01-24T19:46
This is kind of a catchy phrase – but bear with me, it is a little more than that.
Suppose your mission is to go an exotic pacific island and eat a rare and unique fruit not available there. With much trouble you go there and eat the fruit. That is a success.
The next step is for you to come back and explain the unique flavor of the fruit to everyone. This will be a failure.
Why? If you successfully tasted something unique, you will never be able to fully describe the taste!
This is a successful failure.
Such is the matter with God. God cannot be put within logic. None of your senses can reach him. In order to reach him, you must not think or use logic or “emotions of love” or imagine. Now what is the faculty you have to reach God?
This is the problem with atheists and believers. They are all using the wrong tools. The tool is meditation.
But not one in a billion knows how to meditate. Sorry to say there are way way way more billionaires than true Yogis. Ask yourself, who has achieved more? People will generally say the billionaire. Why? because they dont know the value of meditation.
Prashna upanishad has a store about two birds on a tree. One majestic bird was perched on the top. Another bird was on the lower branch. It saw the majestic bird always happy and the lower bird was enjoying the fruits. Every so often it would taste a bitter fruit and it would go up a branch. Eventually it reached the bird on the top. The bird laughed. The lower bird never existed. There only was one bird on the top.
How do you know who is on top? One, you immediately feel a little sorrow and find it so silly that everyone has forgotten their divine self and instead of being the majestic self, they are living life as a beggar ! Devoid of the immense joy of their higher self. So sad, truly tragic.
What is the path? The path is simple yoga and meditation. The problem is no matter what I say, you will simply not comprehend what Patanjali meant by pranidhan. Some people will use the word surrender. We make up a story of what surrender is. The story is very slight aspect of what pranidhan is. No one can tell you how to surrender. Here, when I say, surrender, I mean surrender to Gods will. Again this statement is only partially true. I regret I just cannot explain how to do it. Vivekananda said it the best. There are two aspects of meditation. One is focus within and the other is to let go of everything else. He said, his biggest trouble was letting go or taking his attention off from the outside. This taking attention off the outside is part of pranidhan. Or surrender. Other yogis have described it in terms of prana, apana. They all say the same thing – surrender or pranidhan
This surrender is part of the unique fruit on the island. You will only know surrender when you can truly do it. In Saundarya lahiri, Shankaracharya calls Shakti, you are so caring and loving, that even if someone starts to address you by the word tvam ( a sanskrit word meaning you), you will not let the person finish that word and you give him instant liberation. You are that kind and loving beyond words. I hope you are beginning to understand what I mean.
Such a person, already has everything within. He no longer debates, asks questions, read books, or finds another Guru. If you have a true Guru, you will no longer be seeking another one. Like I said, such Gurus are truly rare. And a person who can recognize and hold on to that Guru is equally rare.
Recently I read Lauren Powell Job went to India and changed to hinduism. All her riches, and good karma, but it still was not enough to find a true Guru ( by my definition – someone like Neem Karoli baba ) Sad isnt it?
The true Kumbh mela is within. Why search outside? It is Kutastha within us. Get there and you will know why it is called Kumbh mela. It is the Maansarovar for yogis.
Enough said. I am old, my journey about to end or my journey about to begin. I have no where to go. When people ask me how are you? I can only honestly tell them, I am alive. They feel sorry for me and I feel sorry for them ! Or some take it as a joke and I laugh at the joke too. (Clinging to this world is a joke isnt it?).
What can I say? Finish your journey before the angel of death pays a visit. There are many marvels within – ready to be found, for anyone who wants to dive within. Learn to meditate. It is a worthwhile effort.
Bhavin