Life as a teacher

An opportunity (relating to material world) comes one’s way in normal course without any effort or initiative.  One starts pursuing the opportunity and soon the door is closed.  What is the teaching in this?

The question refers to a pursuit that did not bring the desired result. Interestingly, the pursuit began when an opportunity one was not looking for on the conscious plane surfaced rather suddenly all by itself. It led to a certain involvement that eventually petered out into nothing. Naturally, the questioner is wondering as to why such a thing happened.

It is a very genuine query, which, I feel, everyone, specially a seeker, must contemplate. Here are the thoughts that arose within me out of my contemplation.

Why do things happen the way they happen?

In spirituality, there is an undisputed rule about life. Expected or otherwise, the things that happen to us in our in lives are those that we have sought for ourselves at the level of the mind, a repository of our karmas.

The sub-conscious mind and how it controls us

We are normally barely aware of what goes on the surface of the mind. Yet, the mind is very huge and can be compared to an iceberg. What lies below the surface is much more than what is visible. We normal refer to this hidden area, below the surface, as the subconscious mind. This area holds impressions of all kinds of unfinished businesses, through our present and earlier lifetimes. Though apparently dormant, these impressions are at work. They keep transmitting their signals and continue to attract those forces of nature that will bring life’s hidden agenda to fruition. This is how the subconscious mind determines our life, without giving us any hint of what it is doing. We are held hostage to what lies at the subliminal level of the mind.

We can acquire freedom from the machinations of these latent impressions in two ways alone – by not resisting change and by intelligent interference.

The choice of resisting  vs not-resisting the subconscious

The uninitiated or the ignorant have no option in the matter. They succumb to whatever the latent impressions bring up.  So, things and events materialize and fructify in the normal course. This eventually starts lightening the carried forward baggage of the sub-conscious mind.

However, those who are initiated have two options. The first option is of intelligent interference. So, one chooses not to invite or fight any particular latent impressions. He does not bother about any opportunity, pursued successfully or otherwise. He simply intensifies his sadhana so that he can burn latent impressions in the fire of yoga so that in-process karmas can be avoided. Such a person, when he has sufficiently evolved, reaches a state of choicelessness. Then he does not seek or shun anything. He simply witnesses what is happening. He has become Shiva himself.
 
Exploring the sub-conscious mind in meditation to make the transition from the unconscious to the conscious

The mind, below the surface, is the ‘chain’ that is holding us back from liberation. We are not aware of it primarily because we are mostly caught up on the surface. When we begin to meditate, we start this journey within. Then we begin to explore these hidden or deeper areas of the mind.
 
No wonder, each one of us, after he has started meditating, begins to discover new dimensions. Hidden possibilities, totally new traits, and fresh talents begin to sprout. In this journey, quite often, a meditator also starts noticing sprouting of even unsavoury things — anger, selfishness, cowardliness, depravity in sex, or some follies.

Self-exploration is like a massive churner that first sets loose and then churns out everything, precious or base. It allows all impressions to travel from the subconscious to the conscious areas of the mind.

When they come up in the field of vision of the conscious mind, one’s consciousness is coloured by them. Certain things may be very pleasing while others may be quite unpalatable. The key is to become a witness. If a person simply witnesses these impressions, they surface into the region of the conscious mind and are purged out.

Yet, it is part of the healing process, whereby the subconscious mind is being set free of all entanglements, hidden or otherwise. One starts becoming free.

Reacting to the sub-conscious mind

Here we must understand that in so far as its events are concerned, life is governed by a higher intelligence that a limited mind cannot probe. Here it must be understood that a limited mind is engaged with ‘BECOMING’, while the empty mind is established in ‘BEING’ (absorbed completely in pure awareness). Being is elusive. We touch this state each night in deep sleep but we don’t know it because our awareness is shut. Hence, to make the transition to ‘being’ we must first be fully established in ‘becoming’.

Futile pursuits (or even fruitful pursuits) are necessary tools used by life to educate us in our evolution. Sometimes, a futile pursuit may be sent into our lives to help us learn and inculcate the virtues of planning, focus, and execution. An improvement in these areas will help us when the next opportunity comes our way. In a way, this is to strengthen the ‘BECOMING’ in a positive way. Only when becoming is strengthened sufficiently, it will be possible for one to realize its futility.

Therefore, a futile pursuit may be sent into the life of a sufficiently evolved person to teach him about something still higher – the futility of all pursuits. This may engineer the final letting go – the leap into ‘BEING’. This may lead to complete surrender to the divine will, where one is living in perfect choicelessness. He does no do anything on his own. He merely participates in what is happening around him. 
 
Each one has to contemplate what the happenings in his or her life (including futile pursuits) are indicating to him.

For the sadhaka the choice is one of sadhana. This alone will take him across.

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Brahmaprakash Gaur belongs to the Indian Revenue Service and is currently posted as Chief Commissioner of income-tax, Mumbai, India. He met his spiritual Master, Gurumayi Swami Chidvilasananda, in 1989 and has been meditating since then. Contact him at b_gaur@hotmail.com.