VBT – Meditation 18.2

VBT – Meditation 18.2

Becoming Centred

DO NOT GO ON TO ANOTHER OBJECT… You cannot go. If you are in a love relationship, you cannot go. If you love someone in this group, then you forget the whole crowd; only one face remains. Really, you do not see anyone else, you see only one face. All the others are there, but they are subliminal – just on the periphery of your consciousness. They are NOT. They are just shadows; only one face remains. If you love someone then only that face remains, so you cannot move.

Do not go to another object, remain with one. Remain with a rose flower or remain with a beloved’s face. Remain there loving, flowing, with just one heart, with the feeling of, “What can I do to make the loved one happier, blissful?”

HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OBJECT – THE BLESSING. And when this is the case you are absent, not concerned with yourself at all, not selfish, not thinking in terms of your pleasure, your gratification. You have forgotten yourself completely, and you are just thinking in terms of the other.

The other has become the centre of your love; your consciousness is flowing toward the other. With deep compassion, with a deep feeling of love, you are thinking, “What can I do to make the loved one blissful?” In this state, suddenly, HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OBJECT – THE BLESSING.

Suddenly, as a by-product, the blessing comes to you. Suddenly you become centred.

Whenever you feel there is some imbalance in your life and circumstances trigger uneasiness, you must understand it is actually a longing for centring.

It means that your mind is pulling you away from completely melting into whatever you are doing or creating.

Now, the question is whether you need some technique or meditative methods to centre yourself. The answer is ‘no’. Centring is possible while you are writing a poem, painting or making pottery. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “Ananyachetah satatam yo maa smarti nitashah – a state where nothing except Krishna exists in the mind.”

The painting, Becoming Centred, shows a potter becoming centred while making pottery. This could appear to be a menial job to some, but it has immense potential of launching the potter on a beautiful journey. When the potter puts clay on a wheel, his mind is there; it is over-functional – not just arranging the clay, but also maintaining the required speed of the spinning wheel. Subsequently, his fingers get busy giving the clay shape – the design that will be his final product.

While witnessing the wheel’s whirl, the potter loses himself. Though his fingers are still shaping the clay, the potter is gone. That very moment, he is not touching the clay, but something more precious, something that takes him beyond the mind. What is left that very moment along with the wheel is just a physical structure. His navel is totally centred. He has gone into a state of silence.

It happened to Kabir and to Ravidas. Kabir touched God while weaving cloth and sang: “Karni-dharni, rehni, gehini, ye sab jehan herani – the awareness of doing, not doing, holding, leaving – everything is lost.” Ravidas, who lost himself completely while making shoes, used to say, “You are me, and I am you – what is the difference between us?” He was centred.