Zero Worship
We find in this world a lot of hero worship everywhere but in advanced spirituality we go for zero worship.
The hero is someone who has some extraordinary talent. He has performed brilliantly in his chosen field of activity. He may, in some cases, have a lot of wealth or a high position.
The zero is the quiet sage in whom the ego has died. He has become empty within – in a very desirable sense. This emptiness is then the secret of his feeling light all the time, with no regrets of the past or no anxieties for the future. Indeed memories of the past and projections into the future are quite a burden all of us carry normally. Since there is no ‘me’ in this sage of the highest wisdom, there is nobody (psychologically) inside him to feel sad about some event of yesterday or get afraid about some possibility of tomorrow.
“Being Nobody, Going Nowhere” is one of the works of Ayya Khema (1923 – 1997), the renowned Buddhist nun who inspired a lot of people on to the path of meditation and mindfulness around the world and prepared many women teachers of Buddhism. The title itself has a profound message. The high plateau of spirituality, be it Vedanta or Buddhism, talks of the ending of the individual self.
An illumined saint is sometimes compared with the donut – sweet all around but hollow in the center. (The South-Indian delicacy vada also illustrates this equally well.) She has a personality that blesses all around her with words of grace and acts of service. Within her, however, she is very silent. Great dynamism works around a still center in the case of such an evolved soul. Noble qualities of head and heart abound in her personality and her own inner experience is, “I do not do anything” (Compare Geeta 5:8).
In a special chamber of his palace, the king of a country had called a meeting of all the prominent members of his court. All had come and taken seats except the king himself. As all were waiting for him, a fakir (a spiritual recluse looking like a beggar typically) entered the chamber to everybody’s surprise and shocked them by going straight to the chair meant for the king and sitting on it. The prime minister took it upon himself to ask the fakir, “Who are you?” but there was only a smile in reply. Puzzled, the prime minister asked, “Are you some king of another country?” The fakir replied, “I am above any king in the world.” To the next question, “Are you a very rich businessman somewhere?” the answer was, “I am above any businessman anywhere.” After many questions, he had to answer the query, “Are you God?” and even to that he said, “I am above God”. To such an answer, the prime minister reacted tauntingly, “Come on. There is nothing above God.” Then said the fakir, with a gentle nod, “Yes, I am that nothing.” Saying so, he left the chamber and went away, never to return again.
Humility born of self-knowledge makes one drop totally any idea about oneself – either as superior or as inferior to anyone else. In fact there is no sense of ‘any other’ in this state of wisdom. When they asked Shri Ramana Maharshi, “Will one serve others after one’s enlightenment?” the sage of Arunachala said, “After enlightenment, there are no others.” The Upanishads declare, “One sees all in oneself and oneself in all.”
To be this zero is no different from merging in the infinite truth.
Swami Chidananda, Varanasi
Saturday, May 19, 2007