BURN THE INCENSE TO GET THE FRAGRANCE
Mere words take you nowhere; live them and then you know the great beauty of spiritual wisdom. Just as you have to burn incense sticks to get their fragrant fumes, you have to burn the words in the flame of actual living to feel their great power.
“bhuktaye, na tu muktaye” said Shri Shankaracharya in his Viveka-Chudamani, which means, “Verbal scholarship can only give some amount of worldly enjoyment but not inner freedom”. Like singers, dancers and other performers, speakers on spiritual topics become heroes in this mad world. Masses see in these people larger-than-life figures; they almost become living gods in the eyes of their fans and admirers. They suffer privately from their human frailties. They can neither be comfortable in their role(as it is not natural or normal for them) nor can they easily extricate themselves from the artificial structures around them.
One in a hundred, however, walks out. She intensifies her efforts towards living the core teachings. She stands guard, for example, against her habitual tendencies to seek “reward, recognition, fame and name” in all that she does. That is phala-tyaga of the Bhagavad-Geeta. To let go of the urge for praise is more valuable than giving a hundred discourses on one of those Geeta shlokas that talk about such “renunciation of fruits of action”. She does not hesitate to cancel a public talk if some difficulty arises in the organizing of it but takes extra care not postpone her inquiry or meditation. She saves energy by withdrawing from egotistic activities and invests it in actual, inner exploration. In speech, food and sleep, she avoids excess and gently trains her body and mind to come upon a natural state of harmony.
Plenty of opportunities to do real sadhana come to us in our privacy. No wonder Bernard Shaw remarked, “A man’s character is to be judged by what he does when he thinks nobody is watching him.” Real sadhana does not compartmentalize life into public and private domains. The earnest seeker has no dual policies for these two spheres. If he likes to read some magazines for half an hour, for example, he does so – irrespective of whether someone is watching him or not. His true values and understanding determine his behaviour; the fear of being judged or the desire to impress people does not. All this is possible if a certain inner cleansing has taken place. This cleansing takes place when we give space to ourselves, to watch and to learn. Much before the big question “Who am I?” could be asked, we must ask, “What am I doing? What do I fear? Why am I compromising?” Rather than going into a long, verbal analysis or commentary on our own behaviour, we must inquire with a silent mind. It is not in elaborate thinking but in simple, direct seeing that false fears flee. Contradictions disappear; integration of personality takes place.
Living the spiritual teachings thus is not about conforming to some precepts or formulas. The core of the great teachings seldom stresses on dos and don’ts. It rather asks us to find out what is right. The light within us guides us. The silent mind – free from personal likes and dislikes – is the springboard of right action. The best judgment arises from the non-judgmental state of mind.
Swami Chidananda
Varanasi
Saturday, September 12, 2009