Crisis as a Means To Awakening

[valaya]

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Crisis As A Means To Awakening

 

 

ASHOK ARORA

 

NY crisis -- be it emotional, physical or financial -- can be turned

into a stepping stone to attain spiritual growth. Crisis is the time

or state when we are out of slumber that this body makes us fall into.

This body has a tendency or habit of sleeping without our being aware

of it. How many of us are aware of what is going on within and

without? Even a fraction of a second of awakening can make us aware

of the difference.

How do we go about rousing ourselves from this sleeping condition,

this `maya' of our bodily nature? A crisis offers that opportunity.

In a crisis when our emotions are all stirred up, chemical and

electrical charges that flow through our body are at their peak.

A right combination of these charges can open the doors to the other

side of sleep -- that is the awakened state. That is what happens in

bhakti yoga.

A bhakta or devotee pours all of his or her emotions into God. A

stage comes when they are completely in harmony with the law of

consciousness and that is when doors open.

Our spiritual heritage is full of examples of how people got

transformed into more evolved persons, like Buddha, Mahavira, Meera

and Tulsidas.

When you study the lives of these `awakened' persons you will find

that they all went through a crisis. The greater the intensity or

momentum of the crisis, the deeper the understanding and experience

of the truth.

In Sufism, feelings and emotions for another person are turned

inward. This leads to the higher self. Lao Tse used to adopt such

techniques to transform emotional turmoil into energy to reach higher

realms.

What are those tools needed for transformation? How can we go about

it? Is it worth all the pain and effort? First one must realise, no

salvation or solution lies outside of oneself. It is easy to say this

but very hard to realise it.

In reality, how many of us even dare to look inside? Our ego finds a

thousand and one excuses for not doing so. That is why the scriptures

call the play of nature, body or ego an illusion or maya. The world,

the body or the ego play the game of illusion with you. Only after

realising this, can you look inwards.

What do you find when you go in? You find all the garbage which you

have accumulated. You may not like it but you have to face it.

Churning this garbage will prove to be useful.

Remember the story of Samudra Manthan. Bad and ugly things will come

out. So will good and beautiful things. Constantly observe. Do not be

a chooser. Just observe. Because the moment you start choosing you

will fall in the trap.

When everything which has to come out has appeared, a calm or peace

will descend upon you. This stage is what our sages have called the

grace of God. Your journey has just begun. The door has opened. Take

the first step -- go in.

The moment you take that first step, you die -- metaphysically. You

change radically. A new you is born. That is when you become twice

born. The pain and agony that you go through before you are reborn is

identical to the labour of child birth.

So this path is not for cowards. It is only for brave souls who dare

to tread on it. This change seems spontaneous. But in fact it happens

only after a long period of repeated attempts.

When you will follow this inner path, there will be lots of

temptations -- in the form of siddhis, extra-sensory powers -- that

come of out of body experiences. Most people get hooked on to these.

But the true seeker keeps following the inner path.

We must keep in mind that this body is asleep, our consciousness is

asleep and this sleep is like the numbness of a body-part that has

gone to sleep. We must use the pain of turmoil as catharsis and

awaken our consciousness to its natural state.

E J Gold said, ``So be brave, be courageous. You will experience your

imprisonment in a dead body, but soon the dead body will begin to

awaken. Then the situation will take a new turn; people around you

will seem dead but not everybody -- as you look around, you will see

some whose eyes are a little bit open or very much open. Work with

your pains, using them to reawaken the circulation in this lifeless

body, this sleeping machine.''

[Janus]

Maybe if we ignore it, then it will go away and we can return to our comfortable complacency deferring solution to some future time or to some greater man. What, am I my brothers keeper? How much do we say that we are gifted by and how much that we are dimenished by the coming of and then the going away of the acharyas? What remains of the beloved, some scrap of cloth, some bit of ash floating down upon a wayward wind. How much does our own unrealized potential diminish us, how much the death of those who we love without ever the realization of theirs. Jiv Jago, Jiv Jago prabhus. Awake, arise or be forever fallen. Chant Hare Krsna and awake to your potential, to your eternal reality, blinding with knowledge and powered with Lord Nityanandas mercy. We can change the world, we must, or it will die. Change, and change the world or let it die, it and them.

[Tarun]

We chanted HarinAm along entire Wall St yesterday.

Tonight Timessquare 45th & Broadway.

We didn't create this World.

AvatAra avatArI MahAprabhu did through His pleanary portion.

He/They suggest we perform sankIrtan nAgarAdi grAm.

NAma vinA kichu nahika Ara caudda bhuvana mAjhe:

Apart from this, what is there?

Hot air can certainly elevate balloons.

Unfortunately, they must return to Earth due to inevitable cooling stage.

[Tarun]

Vaisnavas are always awake, 24/7.

BrahmaNas are awoken by logic.

Xatriyas are awken by praise.

Vaizyas are awoken by bribe.

Zudras are awoken by sensation.

Candalas are awoken by dreams.

Mlecchas are awoken by cancer.

YAvanas are awoken by disgrace.

Raxasas are awoken by death.