Dedicated to all the SadGurus
All that is here is Ishvara.
This body which I thought is mine, I recognize now, that I did not create this. I
simply hold it in trust. For whom? For its owner – Ishvara. I did not create
this body nor the mind-stuff. Nor did my parents .... they knew nothing of how all the systems here
work – the skeletal, muscular, endrocine, nervous, circulatory, respiratory,
digestive, excretory, reproductive systems – what a wonderfully intelligent community
of cells living in harmony to provide a grand instrument for me, to use and
experience this amazing world in which I find myself placed.
Like the body-mind-sense complex was given to me, so too is
this universe. I, a simple conscious being, endowed with this body-mind-sense
complex, did not create this universe. It is given. The intelligence that pervades
this universe through a complex network of laws of cause and effect, is the
same intelligence that pervades this body-mind-sense complex, making all of it
what it is.
This super intelligence has to rest in a conscious being –
and that conscious being who is endowed with this super intelligence is who I
call Ishvara. Ishvara is the cause of this universe which includes the
body-mind-sense complex I am endowed with. Usually we in the universe we find there are two types of causes. For example, a
watch has a watch-maker, the intelligent cause as well as the material it is
made of . So in the case of the universe the intelligent cause is Ishvara. And
where did Ishvara get the material that this universe is made of?
After all before the universe came into being, there was no
time, no space, no material . There was only Ishvara. So the material for this
universe could have come from only place – that is Ishvara. Meaning Ishvara is
both the intelligent cause as well as the material for this universe.
This truth has huge implications. It means the body-mind-sense
complex that I think of as ‘mine’ – is really not mine. It belongs to Ishvara
all the way. I am just the simple conscious being, who is aware of this body-mind
complex, who has been entrusted with it, to use as an INSTRUMENT for
participating enthusiastically, alertly and cheerfully in Ishvara’s universe.
The scriptures point out that Ishvara in reality is One,
Without A Second, ekam eva advitiyam, partless whole. Ishvara in reality has
never changed to become many, Ishvara
only appears as this manifold universe through his inscrutable and undefinable
power to do so – that power has been given a name Maya. Maya is not independent of Ishvara. Maya is not a parallel reality to Ishvara.
Maya is Ishvara’s shakti and so fully dependent on Ishvara. Ishvara can
withdraw his shakti at any time –
Ishvara is independent of Maya.
Based on this understanding, I take refuge in Ishvara.
Ishvara is my strength, my Guru, my friend, my well-wisher, my father, my
mother, my all. I look upon this universe of which this body-mind-sense complex
is a part (I say this, because it is Ishvara’s, not mine) as a grand stage in
which the drama of life is going on. Endowed with this body-mind-sense complex,
I am an ACTOR in this drama, playing various roles, whose scripts are written
by Ishvara. As far as living this life is concerned, all I have to do is follow
the scripts and play my part, even as an actor does, with enthusiasm, alertness
and cheerfulness. I do not invest a sense of reality in roles I am playing, nor
in the situations that I play them in – because I know it is a drama. I am centered
in Ishvara, not on this body-mind-sense complex. Ishvara has the script for
this body-mind-sense complex all ready – I don’t resist His script. Sometimes
it is not easy, especially when the script is unfavourable to this body-mind
complex – then I simply affirm Ishvara is my strength, my well-wisher and allow
myself to accept His script cheerfully. Om Harih Sharanam
Ishvara is my well-wisher. I accept that. Ishvara is also
the karma-phalla-daata. I used to
find this very difficult to reconcile these two aspects of Ishvara. The law of karma by itself is inert. It is
Ishvara who gives the karma-phalla. How
can my well-wisher dole out so much pain? I realize now that pain, physical or
emotional has a purpose.
The cause of pain, in the karma model, is a prior unworthy
action, an action not in keeping with the harmony of Ishvara’s universe. What
caused that unworthy action? The sense of apurnata
(incompletness). Where did the apurnata comes from? Because I took the body-mind-complex to be
both ‘I’ and ‘mine’. Why did I do that when it is not true? Because of
ignorance.
So the presence of pain, points out that there was ignorance
behind the pain. That ignorance must go. For that ignorance to go, one must
pursue knowledge and discover that one is free of this body-mind-sense complex.
My taking refuge in Ishvara, my surrender to Ishvara is the natural
outcome of this knowledge of my truth. This surrender means that I accept fully
that all that is here is Ishvara, and all that is here is ok, it is all meant
to be exactly how it is meant to be. I don’t have to run after anything here in
this universe, because nothing here has the capacity to give me what I wanted
all the time (before the surrender) namely security and happiness 24x7 without
a trace of sorrow. So now I can allow myself to fold up my mind and simply rest
in Ishvara, my home, my refuge, my Self.
Om Tat Sat