The Natural Flow of Life

by Smt. Mandira Lahiri

Sadguru Prajnanpurush Sri Sri  Babathakur often would refer to this world as ‘Kalpita Kalpana’. In other words, this world is just our imagination. It is a dream, although we assume it to be real. It is an illusion. We have to look at the happenings of the world in a wise manner. The joys and sorrows that people face in life affect them. Good and bad will always exist side by side. It is very easy to accept good and pleasant things, but difficult to embrace unpleasant things. Ups and downs are a part and parcel of life. Sadguru used to tell us that life is like a giant wheel. Sometimes we are at the top, at times at the bottom, and sometimes in the middle. Keeping our balance, calmness and coolness in testing times, is the real challenge. Things are thrown off gear if anything untoward happens. When things go awry…keeping our cool is necessary…since it will help us to make the right decision. Nowadays because of our excessive wants and desires, there is too much of stress and anxiety.

I read a story in “Kathamrita” which goes this way: Once upon a time a farmer was tilling his land when he got the news of his son’s demise. He quietly left to perform the last rites, returned to his field, and started tilling his land again. His near and dear ones called him heartless, and asked him the reason for such indifference. The farmer replied, “Which dream should I take as real? This one, or the one I saw last night where I was a king and ruling a huge big kingdom?  In other words, we just have to watch this world phenomenon silently as Witness Consciousness — which is easier said than done, therefore Divine help should be sought to make it happen.

In the Times of India “The Speaking Tree” dated 21/4/20, Koichi Tohei writes, “Pour some water into a tub and stir it up. Now try to calm the water with your hands; you will succeed in agitating it further. Let it stand undisturbed for a while, and it will calm down by itself. The human brain works much the same way.”

A quote by Roger Lee:

“The darker the storm, the brighter your rainbow will be. So always be hopeful and never give up, because there is something beautiful waiting for you after the rain.”

Whatever life throws at us should be taken in our stride. Pain and pleasure are two sides of a coin. A mother goes through extreme pain during child birth, but she forgets all that the minute she sees her newborn baby’s face. Even in nature, we see after a hot scorching summer, the rainy season comes…which brings joy and cheer to everyone. After the rainy season comes winter which makes everyone lethargic and dull…the reptiles and some other animals hibernate during this period…then comes the vibrant spring. The renewal and revival of energy is visible everywhere. All around us, a lot of activity is seen. The sky is clear and the sun shines brightly. We observe that nature does its work quietly without any hue and cry. We should similarly embrace the natural flow of life."

Some great soul has said:

Each day is what you make of it, good or bad,

With every bit of courage, face difficult times,

Believe in strength and conquer life’s climbs.

Swami Ritajananda, in the book “The Practice Of Meditation”, explains:

“You must become the witness of your thoughts. At the beginning, you will doubtless experience difficulty, but little by little you will come to be no longer affected by your thoughts, you will for example, remain indifferent in the face of success or failure, in the face of a friendly or unfriendly word said to you. So, become the witness of your thoughts without any emotional reaction. Be conscious of the fact that there is a separation between you and your thought. That is necessary."

In one of the pieces on “The Speaking Tree” from The Times Of India, Harvinder Pal Singhji writes: 

“First close all the doors on ego and then submit to the Divine Order: Just go with the flow of the river; any other action is like swimming against the current will take you nowhere. When you realize that you don’t need to do all those things in your quest and instead just surrender to His grand scheme of things, you will experience tranquility. Then nothing remains to be done. This is the quintessence of Gurus’ teachings."

Daisaku Ikeda, the third president of the Soka Gakkai, writes:

“When we live with a sense of gratitude, we will never be deadlocked…Gratitude is a source of fundamental human strength.”

The Lotus Sutra tells the story of Bodhisattva:

“Never Disparaging, a practitioner who bowed to every person he met, declaring I have profound reverence for you, I would never dare treat you with disparagement or arrogance, for you are certain to attain Buddhahood.”

This is a conversation between Raman Maharshi and one of his devotees:

Devotee: Miseries appear in Jagat. Why should they appear?

Maharshi: If you see your Self they will not appear.

Devotee: If I turn to look who I am I do not find anything.

Maharshi: How did you remain in your sleep? There was no ‘I-thought’ there and you were happy. Whereas there are thoughts flowering in the wake of the root-thought ‘I’ in the Jagat and these hide the inherent happiness. Get rid of these thoughts which are the obstacles to happiness. Your natural state is one of happiness as was evident in your sleep.

He further adds:  If one surrenders oneself there will be no one to ask questions or to be thought of. Either the thoughts are eliminated by holding on to the root-thought ‘I’ or one surrenders oneself unconditionally to the Higher Power.

Excerpts from The Times Of India ‘The Speaking Tree’ edition dated 6/11/19:

“Detachment leads to inner calm and equilibrium, and as the Gita propounds, we should perform actions without being attached to the fruit thereof. In life we will find that if we identify ourselves too closely with either a career or a role we have played in life, we are no longer detached. Our Self-identity therefore should not, be something narrow and inflexible; it should be universal enough to embrace all the changes that different phases of life can bring.”

There is an Australian Aboriginal proverb that says: “We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love and then we return home.”

Some excerpts from Jaya Row’s article in The Speaking Tree, published on 22/5/21 in The Times Of India:

“The most important prerequisite to face a challenge is to stay calm. A clear mind can make the difference between the right choice and a mistake. When the mind is calm, thinking is precise and actions perfect. We find solutions to problems and become a source of strength and comfort to our family as well as to society at large.

Most importantly we should be committed to our spiritual growth. It is only our spiritual strength which will help us to overcome the calamities of life effortlessly. We will become like a lighthouse in the ocean, untouched by storms as our foundation rests on the ocean bed.”

So, we see as long as we fight against adverse situations, the struggle becomes harder; but the minute we submit to the Divine Will, a calmness descends which helps us to cope with our struggle.

Finally, I will end my piece with Sadguru Prajnanpurush Sri Sri Babathakur’s quote in the book ‘The Science Of Oneness’:

“All beings and becomings are always within the Existence Absolute. You are all eternally identified with the Absolute by nature. Brahman or Atman, the Ultimate Essence is your Existence, Truth, Reality, but due to the delusion of your mind and intellect, you have forgotten this. On account of superimposed limitation or attributes made by mind/intellect, you consider yourself to be individual one separated from the all-pervading Divine-Self, and the same Divine-Self separated from you. As a result of that you think yourself limited, finite and bound by laws of relativity. You suffer from the rounds of birth and death, old age and diseases, etc.  In order to get rid of the laws of relativity and those of the deluding lower nature characterizing the limiting adjuncts and bondage, you are to assert yourself with utmost care to remember your True Nature through the constant practice of the ‘Science of Oneness.’ Thereby you will definitely be able to retain Self-Knowledge. Thus, you will be established in your True Nature and experience true Bliss, lasting Peace and Happiness.”