Self-Remembering – In Gita Verse 1.4 Duryodhana said “Here in this army are many heroic bowmen equal in fighting skills to Bhīma and Arjuna: great fighters like Yuyudhāna, Virāṭa and Drupada.”
Duryodhana again repeats the same thing counting the strength of the opposition party. A strategist will first use words which will motivate and strengthen his team. Instead of weighing the strength of opposition first he can begin with his team’s strengths, such as; we have Bhishma, Karna, and others who are equally heroic like Bhīma and Arjuna: great fighters like Yuyudhāna, Virāṭa and Drupada.
When he started praising Bhīma and Arjuna: great fighters like Yuyudhāna, Virāṭa and Drupada, he gave them priority and importance and not to his army. Universe will only bless those we give priority to. The whole intangible energy turns towards them to whom we give priority.
All of us can recall that whenever we went on any trip, our elders would tell us to take care of ourselves. What does this mean? Don’t forget yourself. The foundation of Religion or Spirituality is to Turn In, means Self-Remembering.
Self-Remembering doesn’t mean that you don’t look outside, you have to collect all the information from outside, but then turn towards yourself, what approach is required at this moment, because from your present moment approach the door will open for the next moment. For Duryodhana the approach for the war was opening the door for defeat. If we just change our approach all things will change. In my blog, Bhagavad Gita Verse 1.2, I had written about Parrikar, a farmer’s son who changed his approach for selling the watermelons, and the quality in 5-6 years has gone down to such an extent that to bring that quality back it needed 200 years. Nature will support you only if you give good seed to sow.
What we give only comes back to us.
Self-remembering means you must have a double-pointed arrow, one side of it; is facing you and the other side facing out. A double-arrowed arrow is smriti – self-remembrance.
Self-remembering techniques come from Patanjali. He is the past Master of techniques. Smriti, remembrance – self-remembering – whatsoever you do. You are walking: remember deep down that “I am walking, I am.” Don’t be lost in walking. Walking is there – the movement, the activity – and the inner center is there, just be aware, watching, witnessing.
You need not repeat it in your mind, “I am walking.” If you repeat, that is not remembrance. You have to be non-verbally aware that “I am walking, I am eating, I am talking, I am listening.” Whatsoever you do, the ”I” inside should not be forgotten; it should remain. It is not self-consciousness. It is consciousness of the self. Self-consciousness is ego; consciousness of the self is asmita – purity, just being aware that “I am.”
Ordinarily, your consciousness is arrowed towards the object. You look at me: your whole consciousness is moving towards me like an arrow. But you are arrowed towards me.
Self-remembering means you must have a double-arrowed arrow, one side of it showing to me, another side showing to you. A double-arrowed arrow is smriti – self-remembrance.
Very difficult, because it is easy to remember the object and forget yourself. The opposite is also easy – to remember yourself and forget the object. Both are easy; that’s why those who are in the market, in the world, and those who are in the monastery, out of the world, are the same. Both are single-arrowed. In the market they are looking at things, objects. In the monastery they are looking at themselves.
Smriti is neither in the market nor in the monastery. Smriti is a phenomenon of self-remembering, when subject and object both are together in consciousness. That is the most difficult thing in the world. Even if you can attain for a single moment, a split moment, you will have the glimpse of satori immediately. Immediately you have moved out of the body, somewhere else.
Try it. But, remember, if you don’t have trust it will become a tension. These are the problems involved. It will become such a tension you can go mad, because it is a very tense state. That’s why it is difficult to remember both – the object and the subject, the outer and the inner. To remember both is very, very arduous. If there is trust, that trust will bring the tension down because trust is love. It will soothe you; it will be a soothing force around you. Otherwise the tension can become so much, you will not be able to sleep. You will not be able to be at peace any moment because it will be a constant problem. And you will be just in anxiety, continuously.
That’s why we can do one: that’s easy. Go to the monastery, close your eyes, remember yourself, forget the world. But what are you doing? You have simply reversed the whole process, nothing else. No change. Or, forget these monasteries and these temples and these Masters, and be in the world, enjoy the world. That too is easy. The difficult thing is to be conscious of both. And when you are conscious of the both and the energy is simultaneously aware, arrowed in the diametrically opposite dimensions, there is a transcendence. You simply become the third: you become the witness of both. And when the third enters, first you try to see the object and yourself. But if you try to see both, by and by, by and by, you feel something is happening within you – because you are becoming a third: you are between the two, the object and the subject. You are neither the object nor the subject now.
Tags: Self-Remembering
