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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com)

 

The Lord permeates His creation

 

CHENNAI, JULY 25. The practice of meditation enables the mind to

control its outgoing tendency and become introverted. The mind by

nature is easily swayed by the sense impressions which impinge on

it all the time. Hence it requires effort on the part of the

individual to keep the mind still without allowing it to be

distracted by thoughts. The mind which is placid is able to

intuit the bliss of the Self (Atman). This experience gives the

knowledge that the Self pervades the entire creation. This

unitive vision, once attained, is never lost to the man of

realisation and this knowledge transforms all his actions.

 

Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita has said that, ``In My view

that Yogin is the best who, out of a sense of identity with

others on account of the perception of the same Self in all,

feels their joy and suffering as his own.'' An incident in the

life of Saint Namdev is related to illustrate this truth. Namdev

along with fellow devotees once undertook the pilgrimage of

worshipping the sacred Linga at Rameswaram with the holy water of

the Ganga taken from Allahabad. This pilgrimage was undertaken at

a time when there was no transport available and devotees often

undertook the entire journey on foot. The weather was unbearably

hot and the terrain they had to traverse tested the endurance of

even the most faithful among them.

 

When they had almost reached their destination they came upon a

frail donkey on the verge of dying due to thirst. Everyone except

Namdev passed by without any consideration for its predicament

but not the saint. He stopped and alleviated the donkey's misery

by quenching its thirst with the holy Ganga water he was carrying

with him. All his friends were taken aback by his act and

ridiculed Namdev for throwing away all the merit he would have

gained by completing the pilgrimage. No sooner had they chided

Namdev the donkey became transformed into a Linga to the wonder

of his friends. The saint had seen only the Lord suffering in the

form of the donkey and hence did not hesitate to offer it water.

True to the unitive vision Namdev had, God appeared to him at the

spot he made his offering.

 

In her discourse, Swamini Vimalananda said that the Gita touched

upon the conceptual basis of religion - to see the unity of the

Divine underlying the diversity, the phenomena which is only

apparent at the surface. The scriptures refer to a realised

person as a Yogi, one has the insight of the unity of the Self.

It does not matter what a realised man does in the world because

he never loses sight of his unitive vision.

 

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