Surge 76
KASHI – THE BRIGHT LIGHT WITHIN YOU
Millions have believed for ages that they get liberated if they die in Kashi, the city of Lord Vishwanatha. The true meaning of this is as follows. Our mind is usually trapped in regrets of the past and anxieties of the future. Both these are projections of thoughts. When we awaken to the higher intelligence within us, we rise above thoughts to the plane of Pure Awareness, the bright light within us. This awakening is living in the present – where the ego dies. This is touching immortality, amritatva, and we are freed from the cycle of birth and death. We touch Shiva (the changeless ground) and are released from Bhava (the field of change).
Much stress marks our daily life for many thoughts of what we should have done or what we should not have done disturb us. These thoughts are the building blocks of the ego in us for they constantly evaluate us as good or bad. They create a picture of how worthy or unworthy we are. This price tag that memories attach to us robs us of the freshness of the present moment. We have to intelligently see the havoc our own thoughts are working; we have to regain the freshness of our true nature, which is Existence, Awareness and Bliss (sat, chit and ananda). We must shake off the dust that has gathered over our expensive suit which was left in the open. We must get rid of unnecessary patterns of thought that tend to accumulate over the bright expanse of awareness because of social conditionings or influences that have their roots in the past, in moments of inattention.
Past mistakes leave behind certain residues, which tend to take a toll on us for years to come. Whether others know it or not, the self remembers the mistake and suffers negativities like guilt, shame or low self-esteem. It does somersaults when it goes through varieties of justification and defensive thinking. In the process, alas, the self gets reinforced. However cleverly the cover up may be accomplished, there is no way for the self to be erased by mere shrewd or cunning thought. It is only when we give up all attempt to justify or defend, and, in all humility, acknowledge the limitations of the human mind itself that a quantum leap takes place in our consciousness. That would be meditation, which is not engineered by conscious effort but is something that takes place on its own in the atmosphere of quietude and total receptivity.
“Not by work, progeny or wealth is gained immortality,” says the Veda mantra1. We may add, “Not by any amount of scholarly or clever thinking too.” The mantra2 declares, “By renunciation alone is freedom attained.” We would clarify, “By renouncing effort itself,” for there is the agency (the self, the me) behind any effort. No wonder Krishnamurti observed, “Conscious meditation is no meditation.” Alertness does not, incidentally, belong to the domain of thinking; nor does it partake of the nature of effort. True alertness just comes about through alertness itself, and not through the decision to be alert. Attention is the way to attention, we may say, for there are no other steps to it. This may sound a bit abstract to many. However, the shift from inattention to attention has to be an matter of “no steps” because: where there are steps, we are still within the field of thought. The shift from the field to that which is outside the field cannot take place through thought.
So let us invoke Shiva by being in a state of silent receptivity. When we talk, He remains silent; when we are silent, He speaks. This alert silence is Kashi3 where Shiva destroys the threefold division of past, present and future with His trishoola(trident). He whispers “Rama mantra” in the ears of the dying soul, says the tradition. He gives to the meditator the insight of her natural bliss4.
*
Swami Chidananda
Varanasi
September 3, 2010
Notes:
1 na karmana na prajaya dhanena – Maha Narayana Upanishad
2 tyagenaike amritatvam-anashuh
3 kash means shine; kashi means LIGHT, like prakasha.
4 the word Rama means bliss or He who delights all.*