First Step – In Gita Verse 6.41 The unsuccessful yogī, after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living entities, is born into a family of righteous people, or into a family of rich aristocracy.
Krishna says that due any reason if someone is unsuccessful yogi will take birth into a family of rich aristocracy. Why?
Have you seen many people when they have everything that they require they become bored. Many of Buddha’s sannyasins were princes. He himself was a prince.
I have Bhagavad Gita Verse 4.26, written regarding prince Sharona. When you enjoy everything so much that you will be bored with it. In that boredom you will go for meditation.
When Krishna says that unsuccessful yogī will be born in a family of rich aristocracy – to understand this I will share with you all regarding Buddha’s past life.
In one of his lives, when he was not enlightened, he heard about an enlightened man and went to see him. He was a man of great charisma. Buddha had come with all kinds of questions and doubts and skepticism, but as he came close to him he forgot everything. He went down, touched his feet with tremendous respect. But as he stood up, he was surprised and shocked that the awakened man touched his feet. Buddha said to him, “What are you doing? You are awakened, you have arrived. Your journey is finished; I have not even taken the first step. It looks so embarrassing that before this whole crowd you touched my feet.”
The man laughed and he said, “Don’t be worried. I have not touched your feet, I have touched your future. Yesterday I was not awakened; tomorrow you will be awakened. So what is the difference? – Just a question of time. And it is absolutely necessary that I touch your feet, because I can see that you are going to become a great master. Millions of people will pay respect to you. Don’t forget that one enlightened man has touched your feet while you were not enlightened – remember it. Be respectful to those people – because they may be asleep, but what is the difference between the asleep man and the awakened man? So little…. The asleep will become awakened, will have to become awakened – how long can he sleep?”
When Buddha was not enlightened but started practicing a path of meditation. He couldn’t complete his journey due to any reason but when he took birth he was born in the royal family. He was showered with everything but still one day he saw the old man and immediately the real question arose in him as he was saturated with everything.
This is the reason why all enlightened people say be total in what you are doing so you can reach the saturated point and not go back from there.
The foundation practice of Zen is Total: What is a Zen act? – A Zen act is something in which you say something which cannot be said in any other way. There are things that can be said, there are things that cannot be said, and there are things that can only be acted upon. Through action, total action, they can be said; there is no other way to say them. In Zen, the master always gives a certain problem, they call it a koan, for the disciple to find the answer to. The disciple goes on finding answers, and comes again and again, every morning, to see the master and to give his answer. And the master goes on saying, “No, this is not the answer.” Sometimes it happens that even before the disciple has said anything the master says, “No, this is not the answer.” Sometimes this too happens: the disciple is coming, he is just outside the door, and the master shouts from inside, “No, this is not the answer.” Only later on, when the disciple becomes enlightened, does he understand what was the matter: the master had given a problem that cannot be answered verbally. You can act upon it, only action can answer it – nothing else because only action can be total.
Have you ever watched a small child in anger? That is total action. It is not only in the head. Every fiber of his body vibrates with anger ready to explode – red in the face, as if capable of destroying the whole world, so tiny but so full of atomic energy. Watch a child in anger and you will see what total action is. Or watch a lover who is in deep love. The mind stops; even holding the hand of his beloved he is saying something that cannot be said. The very touch shows something, shows something that is beyond words, and the act is total. In anger, in love, in sadness, in bliss, sometimes it happens when the action is total. In dancing, when the dancer disappears and only the dance remains, then the action is total. And a total action is beautiful because a total action is no longer from you. The moment you are total, existence is flowing through you.
Krishna tells Arjuna when the person took the first step towards meditation then the question of unsuccessful doesn’t arise as the universe has taken the responsibility to see that they through any practice arrive to themselves. They even make sure that that person takes birth in the royal family. So they reach to themselves.
Tags: First Step
