Hari
OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
The text under study is BHAJA GOVINDAM, song of despair of time-wasting, by Sri Adi Shankaraachaarya.
Looking
again at the practicalities of living a spiritual life, the next verse points
out…
zÇaE
imÇe puÇe bNxaE
Ma
kué yÆ< iv¢hsNxaE
svRiSmÚip
pZyaTman<
svRÇaeTs&j
_aeda}anm!.25.
Shatrau
mitre putre bandhau
Maa
kuru yatnam vigrahasandhau
Sarvasminnapi
pashyaatmaanam
sarvatrotsRja
bhedaajnaanam ||25||
Against enemy, friend, son or relative
Waste not your energy in strife;
In everything(where) seek and see The Self
And remove the sense of difference born out of
'ignorance'.
In
short, pick your fights! Very rarely is there anything worth expending
emotional time and energy upon that it distracts you from the course of living
the Divine life. So readily we cast our hatred and frustration on 'the other'.
We cannot and do not do this with our own bodies - if the leg hurts we say it
is a nuisance, but accept that it is part of us and we just have to get on with
things. If a friend or relative causes us perceived hurt, we can contort our
personalities wildly against them and find that we lose a lot of ourselves as
we are consumed by rage, jealousy, hatred, or any other such emotion. What does
it serve us? Ought we not just to get on with things?
When
the whole universe has arisen out of a sole 'womb' of causality, who is the
'other' that we can afford to expend this effort upon? We are all part of the
universal body and we must 'get on'. How? By turning our attention to the
ultimate purpose which is to remove our ignorance about the world and its
illusion and in doing this seeking the Reality which is Singularity - Self
Alone.
To
feel unhappy, miserable, neglected, wretched, indeed, even to feel the opposite
of these things, is entirely within our own power. Every individual can take
responsibility for how they feel and how they interact with the world of
objects; taking it in and holding it to us, or letting it pass, making use of
what can further our Self-search, and letting go of what is not useful to this
purpose. The moment we start Loving honestly, unconditionally, so that same
depth and texture is returned to us. What we put out is what we get back. What
we see in others is but a reflection of the possibilities within ourselves; the
choice is ours to fall to the bitter and twisted ways of some, or raise
ourselves to the noble and refined ways of others. This is why role models can play
such an important part in life and to find a true guru, a leader of worth, is
something to be treasured. If we do not have such luck in our lives, then we at
least have the words of the wise in our scriptures and other great works of
philosophy. There we find the common thread that we are all but elements in the
One Being and what delusion or sorrow can not exist where one experiences this
One-ness?
