Miracle of Personal Transformation
What is a Miracle? What ever happens in the Universe has a reason, has a cause, nothing happens by accident. If something happens in one side of the Universe something else happens somewhere else. If there is a big bang in one place there is a black hole somewhere else in the Universe.
When you do not understand the cause and effect relationship you call it a miracle. If it is obvious, you call it an incident. When the relationship is too deep for you to understand, for your logic to penetrate you call it a miracle. There is no such thing as a miracle. Everything happens only with a cause.
Einstein is a super scientist. It is because of Einstein that scientists started respecting mystics. Otherwise scientists had a prejudiced idea of all spiritual things. They felt that what they knew of the universe was correct. Einstein was the first to state that the end of science is the beginning of spirituality. Einstein says: There are only two ways of living; either as if everything is a miracle, including all with relationships of cause and effect; or live as though nothing is a miracle.
I am trying to make you understand that nothing is a miracle; then I want you to understand everything is a miracle. How does a lotus seed change mud into a lotus? How does a piece of bread become your blood? You may explain scientifically your understanding, but your knowing how does not change anything, the process is still a miracle.
For children, the universe is wonder-filled because they don't have logic. They don't think that this is the same Sun that they saw yesterday. They don't think that this was the same chair that was there yesterday. They don't think that this is the same room that they sat in yesterday. They know the Truth the Sun is new, this room is new, this chair is new, I am new, you are also new! You are changing continuously; continuously you are getting updated.
An enlightened Master had a stomach problem and his Doctor advised him to stick to the same bland diet every day. He had no problem. But the disciple cooking for him got fed up cooking the same food every day, and complained. Master said: I don't eat the same food every day. How can I do that? How can I eat the same food every day? I eat different food every day.
We label things, we take them for granted.
Like the master, for a child every thing is new every time it looks at it. Children never wait for your answer, they are not bothered about your answer, and they keep asking new questions. We try to either shut them up or make them intellectuals. By questioning they explain to you that they are growing. They don't want you to answer. They don't take things for granted; they don't take people for granted; they don't take situations for granted. When they look at things they do not verbalize. When you look at a rose you start associating it with your memories, you don't see the real rose in front of you. By verbalizing you miss reality. Only children see reality.
Freud says: all your thinking is association. If you see a dog in the street, you start thinking about all the dogs you have seen from childhood. Then you remember your childhood, you remember a teacher when you were a child. There is no logical connection. When you start verbalizing you miss reality. Every day sun rises; every day sun sets; every day something new happens. To you it's one more Friday, one more Saturday, and another Sunday. What do you know? The moment you label it as Friday, you think you know everything about that day. You just take it for granted. Because you take people for granted you don't enjoy your relationships. You judge people first and collect arguments to support your judgment. You can never step into the same river twice, because by that time the river has moved. People also move, they change, and they are not the same as the persons you met before. By the time you meet them again your husband or wife has changed; something is added to them; either intelligence or foolishness. But you don't agree. You hold on to the same mental set up.
Sushruta wrote 5000 years ago. He talks about open heart surgeries and transplants. He was a great enlightened Master. He said: every six months your liver replaces itsel f completely. Not even one part is same. Once in 21 days your intestine replaces itself. Modern day physiologists agree. Every cell is replaced continuously.
Sushruta says: your mental structure plays a major role when these changes take place. A disciple asks him: why do we carry diseases over a number of years? Why does the new liver carry the same disease? Sushruta replies: You don't believe you have changed, that's why. You carry the same mental frame despite body change. That mental frame retains the disease. You don't let go that frame, you don't let go that disease. You don't let go your samskara. Samskara is the powerful mental root that drags you to travel the same path. Like Pavlov's dogs which came running and salivated even when no food was served but the bell was rung. Whenever you remember that past situation or person you react the same way, you move in the same rut. In the morning you worry about office, by evening you worry about you wife and children, unconsciously, without reason. The mood remains low even if you do not realize why. You do not live based on intelligence, you live based on information.
Ability to respond spontaneously is responsibility. Responsibility is not name and fame or status. Only those who have spontaneity can survive in this world. You may have had education, money yet you may not be successful. Intelligence is not based on information that you have or received. That's only intellect, Intelligence is about how you can let go, be spontaneous, be without prejudice. It is not the totality of your experiences, it is the lessons learnt from experiences; difference between anubhava which is experience and anubhuti which is intelligence is this: anubhuti is the sum total of the lessons from anubhava. You do not need to touch many different types of fire, from a match stick to a blazing fire, to know that fire burns; even one experience will do. You need the lesson of just one experience. But we trust only experience, not intelligence. Our entire education system is based on evaluation of information, not intelligence; only intellect and verbalization, not visualization. When you try to move on information you lose the ability to be intelligent. If you are logically logical you will understand that logic itself is not logical. Life is not logical.
Day by day you underestimate yourself, because you underestimate others. Past is always a golden past. There was never a golden past. Hinduism says there was a Satya yuga; Christianity says there was an age of Adam and Eve; all these are only ideas; ideas for you to escape from the present. They also give hope for the future; The Gods will come down to redeem you; incarnations and avatars will come again and again to save the world. They give you these ideas about the past and present to escape. You do not want to live in the present, that's why you wish always to escape to the past and future. These ideas about yourself that you do not let go, which is your ego, which are not true, all these false experiences, which are not real, therefore you miss reality. When you miss reality you feel nothing is a miracle. You take everything for granted.
There are so many miracles happening to you every day. We are watching TV and suddenly you feel that the character you're watching is about to say something, and sure enough she obliges. You are about to sit down for dinner, the doorbell chimes, and you know who is at the door; sure enough, it's the old school mate you haven't seen in years.
I find that in my discourses often over 50% of the audience responds positively when I ask if they had experienced a similar phenomenon at any point of their lives. When this happens, most of the time we brush it off saying that it's a coincidence. When to some this happens repetitively we attach the tag of a 'gifted' person, similar to those who see auras and sense the vibrational energy of people and places.
When the magnitude of the experience is far greater we no longer term it a coincidence. Some one predicts disasters rightly time and again, and forecasts deaths. Others heal people given up as lost cases by doctors. Some produce substances out of thin air. We then call them miracles. When you do not take everything for granted everything is a miracle. That you are alive is a miracle. Thousands of miracles keep happening within you.
There are no miracles in life. It is just that we do not yet understand the laws that govern occurrence of such incidents that seem to defy 'scientific' laws. Once we understand that this universe supports laws that go beyond the 'scientific' laws that have been so far discovered by humans, we start understanding the cause and effect linkages behind many of these inexplicable happenings and start appreciating the mysteries of our Universe.
Astrophysicists talk now about the parallel universe. They have discovered that each time a star system dies as a black hole another start system is born in a big bang somewhere else in the universe. Every action produces a reaction.
Chaos Theory now says that action and reaction do not need to be proportionate. There is no linearity in nature. A butterfly fluttering its wings in China causes a tornado in Mexico! This is science, not imagination.
Matter and energy were totally different entities till Einstein established their linkage. Even after Einstein, it was either matter or energy, never both in the same time and space. It is only recently that the principle of 'singularity' that allows matter and energy to exist simultaneously in a common time and space framework has been understood. 'Singularity' is the common universal platform the Universal Consciousness that we call Brahman.
Making contact with Brahman is not impossible, once you know how. With thoughts crowding our mind, all that we normally do is to flit from one zone to another, from regrets to speculations, with no time to ground ourselves in the present. However, once we allow ourselves to settle in the here and now, in the present, thoughts gradually disappear. When thoughts disappear there is an expansion of our ability to expand in time and space, which allows us to traverse the past, present and future simultaneously.
Once we are the present miracles become common place, and we do know that they are no longer miracles but a natural flow of the universe.
If some one complains that he cannot change, I say change is your nature; I am surprised that you are holding on to the same character. Let go and you will change. Your body is changing. Your mind is changing. You are becoming more mature. You just have to let go, relax, allow yourself to change. Existence will change you. Life will change you. Trust yourself and relax. When they don't listen and insist I give them advice to confuse them. If you let it, your heart will transform you. The air you inhale and exhale will potentially change you. If your body, which is so gross and matter can change, don't you think your mind, which is subtle, and energy can not change? If you trust your intelligence you will be transformed immediately. You will be enlightened when you drop your mental setup, like dropping a fire pot. But you can not believe so easily. You say give me a technique. It's so difficult. The word difficulty is the greatest difficulty. When you know fire burns drop the fire. Where is the difficulty? Be a little more intelligent. Drop what hurts. When you understand that the mental setup causes you trouble, drop it. You will then transform your being.
You ask, how will I survive if I drop? The seed always wonders what will I do if I break? Unless it breaks the plant can not grow. Trust and open, trust and break, you will grow. If you make mistakes it's worth making mistakes. Perfectionism is madness. The more you are far from perfect the more God has grace for you. Search for perfection is search for madness. Graveyard is the perfectly secure place. But it's not the place to live; it is only for the dead. A ship is secure in the harbor, but it has to move out to function.
As you move from ego to spontaneity you will undergo pain, transition, that's your penance, your tapas; that's the price you pay for a better life. Everything will be a miracle. When you take life for granted, what results is boredom and depression. You seek to acquire not to enjoy. You can increase the height of your bed not the depth of your sleep.
Meditation is the key to spontaneity. Do not keep track of what you have undergone. It's better to let go and grow without worrying about what happens. Enlightenment is not a step by step growth process, it is a quantum phenomenon. Living moment to moment, in the present, without worrying about past and present is meditation. It's a quality to be added to your life, not a quantity to be added to your life.
A Zen master is sentenced to death by his king. He is unconcerned. Disciples ask are you not bothered you are going to die tomorrow. He says, how can I worry about a day later, even the next moment is a new miracle for me.
When you live in the present all your fantasies drop, all your fears drop. If result is exciting you call it a miracle; if you do not like the result you call it a coincidence; if it's average you call it an incident.
When your ego is rooted in one place it does not get rejuvenated. If some one is always worrying he is centered in his navel chakra; if he begs attention he is rooted in his heart chakra; if on sex, on his muladhara. These centers do not rejuvenate if you get rooted in them; they get blocked by your emotions, your experiences. It is important that you get uprooted or derooted so that you can grow. You get to clear these blocks and energize the chakras, which are the centers of your energy. Meditation techniques will help remove these rooted emotions and blockages so that you can let go and grow.
vayaisa gato k: kamaivakar: SauYko naIro k: kasaar: xaINao iva%to k:pirvarao &ato t%vao k: samsara: ||
vayasi gate kā kamavichāraha sushke nīre kā kasaraha ksheene vitthe kā parivāraha gnyāte thatve kā samsāraha
When youth is gone where is lust? When water is gone where is the lake? When wealth is gone, where are thee kinsmen? When Truth is known, where is the wordly bondage?
Bhaja Govindam 10