Lose Thyself in the Vision of the Lord, until then you are not alive.
What you seek and when you find it you understand the vastness that encompasses the name you know as God, then you actually realize how small you are in reality. The more you are able to see the vastness the more you lose your vision of yourself and then nothing of you remains. This is a stage of Fana or self denial.
Mein Rab ko Khoja har jagah
Mein rab ko paya har jagah
ansh bhar bhi na tha mein
rafta rafta mein kho gaya
(I looked for God every where,
I found him every where
I found not an iota of mine there
slowly slowly I was lost)
People often think that renunciation is self-denial. Self denial cannot be so complex. It is simple as if losing yourself in the name of God, this is true love.
There is an anecdote, which says that in a small village there was a mountain and for ages it was known as the mountain of mystery. Nobody knew why but those who climbed over the mountain used to smile and wave and go. None ever came back. One day the villagers did a unique thing. They asked a person to go on top of the mountain and before climbing the mountain they tied a rope on his waist. The moment he reached the top of the mountain he smiled and tried to cross over but as he was tied with a rope the villagers pulled him down. The person was still smiling and villagers asked him repeatedly what he had seen. The man just smiled in reply. This is true love. In simple terms, he connected with his heart and had seen the vision of God.
A person who has the realization only can truly smile. The smile is truly divine. You can see the difference in the glow of the face, you may ask him thousands of question but he will never be able to explain the feeling he has gone through. Die before Death is the true explanation. The day you die you merge with the divine. Death is not physical, not mental but you as an entity vanish. What remains is the divine. When this happens the soma-rasa or sura flows continuously. People talk about God as a form, as an entity but has someone who is alive seen God? No. Body may live, heart may beat but life shall not be there only the divinity is flowing there.
This may sound perplexing but it is true that your whole life is like a mask which you always consider to be true i.e. the body and the mind. This life is there for a specific period after which even the body also decays. This is the body known and seen and accepted. But that which you accept, should be true is not always the truth. Once you are able to move away from the body and mind, then death happens to the false life you accept as truth.
This is pure dying. This happens with giving at physical level, you derive pleasure from giving like when the mother feeds the child she derives pleasure of eating. This is pure art of dying, living life through others; this is the first step towards the spiritual development of dying. The more you are attached to things, more the pain you get. Give and share and then derive pleasure out of it, it will make life deeper.
Annihilation is a source of livelihood
Livelihood for life is death
Death is the source of Annihilation
Silence is the next stage. People feel that silence is keeping quiet for a long time. I have seen people being together for hours yet not one word being said. They feel they have shared much, still. Then there are people who feel that working or immersing oneself in electronic media like internet, email, telephone for hours, days and months is what makes up silence.
Can you call all this silence? It is nothing but satisfaction of ego, feeling a sense of elevation is all it does but love does not happen. Only a sense of fear and aversion happens. But then what is true silence? True silence is where you get to know the art of dying and yet have a smile on your lips. Knowing not what to say is divine if it comes from heart, the connection happens, otherwise every moment becomes a stressed out session.
See the same mother who derives pleasure in feeding the child, feels pain when the child grows up and ignores the aged mother. The mother feels the pain yet she becomes the epitomy of forgiveness with the attitude of relieving her son/daughter of mental and physical sufferings without any expectations rather than expecting that others should relieve her pain. This is situation of pure silence where the feeling of oneness happens from within but there is no want or desire.
Now, finally the third stage happens where a mureed or a disciple loses everything to the divine. In this loss he actually he gains. In the guise of an apparent loss, perfection is gained. That is why as much as one effaces oneself, one proceeds that much further in the spiritual journey. It is not so difficult as it appears, yet it is difficult if one has not found the way to it. It is an attainment which is gained by someone who is firm and steady, sympathetic and self-effacing, for the whole process of the spiritual attainment is in losing the false ego for the highest gain.
Atma Sanchaya Dhwani, Volume 1 Issue 13, 1st Nov, 2006
Lose Thyself in the Vision of the Lord, until then you are not alive.
What you seek and when you find it you understand the vastness that encompasses the name you know as God, then you actually realize how small you are in reality. The more you are able to see the vastness the more you lose your vision of yourself and then nothing of you remains. This is a stage of Fana or self denial.
Mein Rab ko Khoja har jagah
Mein rab ko paya har jagah
ansh bhar bhi na tha mein
rafta rafta mein kho gaya
(I looked for God every where,
I found him every where
I found not an iota of mine there
slowly slowly I was lost)
People often think that renunciation is self-denial. Self denial cannot be so complex. It is simple as if losing yourself in the name of God, this is true love.
There is an anecdote, which says that in a small village there was a mountain and for ages it was known as the mountain of mystery. Nobody knew why but those who climbed over the mountain used to smile and wave and go. None ever came back. One day the villagers did a unique thing. They asked a person to go on top of the mountain and before climbing the mountain they tied a rope on his waist. The moment he reached the top of the mountain he smiled and tried to cross over but as he was tied with a rope the villagers pulled him down. The person was still smiling and villagers asked him repeatedly what he had seen. The man just smiled in reply. This is true love. In simple terms, he connected with his heart and had seen the vision of God.
A person who has the realization only can truly smile. The smile is truly divine. You can see the difference in the glow of the face, you may ask him thousands of question but he will never be able to explain the feeling he has gone through. Die before Death is the true explanation. The day you die you merge with the divine. Death is not physical, not mental but you as an entity vanish. What remains is the divine. When this happens the soma-rasa or sura flows continuously. People talk about God as a form, as an entity but has someone who is alive seen God? No. Body may live, heart may beat but life shall not be there only the divinity is flowing there.
This may sound perplexing but it is true that your whole life is like a mask which you always consider to be true i.e. the body and the mind. This life is there for a specific period after which even the body also decays. This is the body known and seen and accepted. But that which you accept, should be true is not always the truth. Once you are able to move away from the body and mind, then death happens to the false life you accept as truth.
This is pure dying. This happens with giving at physical level, you derive pleasure from giving like when the mother feeds the child she derives pleasure of eating. This is pure art of dying, living life through others; this is the first step towards the spiritual development of dying. The more you are attached to things, more the pain you get. Give and share and then derive pleasure out of it, it will make life deeper.
Annihilation is a source of livelihood
Livelihood for life is death
Death is the source of Annihilation
Silence is the next stage. People feel that silence is keeping quiet for a long time. I have seen people being together for hours yet not one word being said. They feel they have shared much, still. Then there are people who feel that working or immersing oneself in electronic media like internet, email, telephone for hours, days and months is what makes up silence.
Can you call all this silence? It is nothing but satisfaction of ego, feeling a sense of elevation is all it does but love does not happen. Only a sense of fear and aversion happens. But then what is true silence? True silence is where you get to know the art of dying and yet havr a smile on your lips. Knowing not what to say is divine if it comes from heart, the connection happens, otherwise every moment becomes a stressed out session.
See the same mother who derives pleasure in feeding the child, feels pain when the child grows up and ignores the aged mother. The mother feels the pain yet she becomes the epitomy of forgiveness with the attitude of relieving her son/daughter of mental and physical sufferings without any expectations rather than expecting that others should relieve her pain.This is situation of pure silence where the feeling of oneness happens from within but there is no want or desire.
Now, finally the third stage happens where a mureed or a disciple loses everything to the divine. In this loss he actually he gains. In the guise of an apparent loss, perfection is gained. That is why as much as one effaces oneself, one proceeds that much further in the spiritual journey. It is not so difficult as it appears, yet it is difficult if one has not found the way to it. It is an attainment which is gained by someone who is firm and steady, sympathetic and self-effacing, for the whole process of the spiritual attainment is in losing the false ego for the highest gain.
Atma Sanchaya Dhwani, Volume 1 Issue 13, 1st Nov, 2006
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