Awareness And Ecstasy – In Gita Verse 8.27 Although the devotees know these two paths, O Arjuna, they are never bewildered. Therefore be always fixed in devotion.
Krishna says that people who not only read Veda but also understand, they will not be bewildered but they will be fixed themselves, in awareness.
In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 6.35, blog I wrote – Right awareness means not only awareness – When Awareness and Ecstasy Become One – person is fixed in devotion.
When you are flowing with joy, blissfulness, that is the moment to be aware, but people do exactly the opposite. When they are happy, who cares about awareness? And when they are in anguish, then certainly they start thinking it is time to be aware and get out of anguish. But nobody has ever been able to get out from anguish directly.
First, one has to get out of ecstasy. If you can be aware of your joyful moments in the first place, the depression, the downs will not come. The door to get out is from ecstasy. So this is the simplest way:
Be happy and be aware.
Rejoice and be aware.
Love and be aware.
Don’t put awareness aside saying, ‘This is a kind of disturbance; I am in such great ecstasy.’ Awareness becomes like a disturbance; it is not. It may appear like this in the beginning, but soon you will see it will take your ecstasy to higher peaks. Ultimately awareness and ecstasy become one. Then those downs, depressive moments, agonies disappear.
Krishna says – Real awareness remains with you; you need not cling to it. Who will cling to it? You are – awareness. Who will cling to whom? In awareness there are not two – the clinger and the object of clinging; in awareness you are one. There is only awareness and nothing else. One cannot cling to awareness. But it is bound to happen if you reject the mind; the very first step has gone wrong. Don’t reject it – understand it.
In fact, the word understand is very significant. When you understand something it stands under you. You become transcendental, you go beyond it; it is below you. It has its utility; great utility. There will be no science without mind and there will be no technology without mind. All human comforts will disappear without a human mind. Man will fall back into the world of the animals or even far below without the mind. Mind has given much.
The problem is not the mind; the problem is your identification with it. You think you are it, and that is the problem. Disidentify, watch the mind. Be the watcher and let the mind be there watched, witnessed, observed. A great radical change happens through observation. Mind functions far more efficiently when you observe it because all that; is rubbish drops and the mind need not carry unnecessary weight; it becomes light. When you become a watcher, the mind can have some rest too. Otherwise your whole life mind is working, working, day in, day out, year in, year out; it stops only when you die. It creates a deep fatigue, mental fatigue.
Now scientists say even metals become tired – metal fatigue. So what to say about the mind which is very subtle, which is very delicate? Handle it carefully. But you remain aloof, unconcerned, uninvolved. When you are writing you don’t become the fountain pen, although you cannot write without it. A good fountain pen is very essential for good writing. If you start writing with your fingers nobody will be able to read what you have written, not even you, and it will be very primitive. But you are not the fountain pen, and the fountain pen is not the writer but only a writing instrument.
The mind is not the master but only an instrument in the hands of the master.
Be more alert, aware, but don’t cling to it. Clinging will destroy the whole beauty of it. Why cling? What is the fear? We cling only out of fear. You are – awareness, you cannot lose it. Even now, when you are unaware of the fact that you are – awareness, you have not lost it.
Truth cannot be lost. Whether you know it or you know not, it makes no difference. The truth remains the truth, known or unknown. Your innermost being is still pure awareness. You live on the circumference, hence you are not able to see your own center.
Krishna when says that – be always fixed in devotion – he means – Awareness is the true path. Neither indulge nor renounce, but be aware. Do whatsoever you are doing – do it with full awareness. If you move into passion, move with awareness; and passion becomes prayerfulness, and passion has a totally different quality to it.
Tags: Awareness And Ecstasy
