(Aug 10,2013) Discussion Summary – The Divine Insurance Company

Discussion notes – The Divine Insurance Company

Today’s topic outlines a very important aspect of human life. Assurance.

Swamiji quotes  Gurudev Sivananda Maharaj’s words: Insure your life with God. All other company may fail. But the Divine Insurance Company will never fail.”

Very apt topic, for, we will be celebrating Raksha Bandhan this week. We protect our family, vehicle, health, homes and basically all walks of our lives.   We look towards one of our own, to protect all the material things (objects) and even our life in this unreal, illusory world we live in. But we do not take the time to insure our most precious and most permanent and the only reality, which is our Atman. 

We insure with a dependable person or organization by paying in advance to indemnify the future loss towards unforeseen events and heave a sigh of relief that everything is taken care of. Likewise we have to depend on and totally surrender to God (the higher pure form), who oversees all things inclusive of past, present,  future, and being present at all times and everywhere,  operating as a silent witness , just like the sun shining on all happenings, without any judgement. The same way the inherent essence of all things and the universe in total, is the total collective consciousness, we call God, who is our one and only protector.

This raises the question of as to how anyone can predict the future and who is capable of protecting us from the unknown phenomenon? What is the cause for dissatisfaction, fear and unhappiness? Why do we have such emotional disturbances?  Our ancient sages pondered over this matter deeply and found the root cause is only ‘ignorance’ or ‘lack of knowledge’. So Viveka or discrimination will help us overcome these mind created problems. Furthermore, if we look at the universe as a manifested form of Absolute Reality or The Consciousness, we will come to understand the universe is not Real. The entire universe that we see outside is made up of a single substance that can be called consciousness, which is awareness in all things. 

The purpose of yoga is attunement of the individual with the cosmic. But we are unable to do it because the world is outside and we can perceive things only through our senses. This reminds us of the camera lens which has to be adjusted to avoid blurred images. Likewise purifying our mind will enhance the images we perceive. That is, our perception will have more clarity. This is achieved through Vairagya. This practice will continue to diminish the value of the object existing outside and emphasize the pure subject only. Also Viveka or discrimination will help us understand that the whole universe is a creation of our minds.

Then the discussion turned to devotion and total surrender to God . Swamiji mentions  Markandeya, Draupathi and some of the bhaktas (ardent devotees), whose life stories give us tons of encouragement and reinforces our faith further, in God. A person who has faith and belief in higher Self is never in harm’s way. Experiences from our lives point to the fact that after coming into the fold of our compassionate Gurudev, all our practical difficulties disappear into thin air.

Lord Krishna in the Gita says “My devotees are never destroyed” . By this we understand that we as seeker of higher values shall have no failure if our faith is strong and we are sincere in our efforts.

A deeper understanding of surrender, leads us to surrendering being the process of withdrawing the mind from the matter and merging with consciousness. Then, the aspects of how mind can be withdrawn from the matter and what is the process involved in communion with God (Consciousness) was discussed.

It was pointed out that the answer remains hidden in plain sight and we can understand this by looking into our dream state. It looks so real that some events in dream can have an impact even on the wake state. The mind is looking at itself in different forms. Same thing happens in wake state too; we are deeply involved and have become part of the dreaming process by the Absolute reality, Consciousness. The Consciousness is looking at its own Self as a diverse Universe including the cosmos and our minds. We have to wake up from the cosmic dream to merge with the Consciousness which is our real state. This can be achieved by surrendering ourselves to the Absolute Reality, and by not doing but by being the inherent essence in all. This was explained by an example – sugar and sweetness. Primary and secondary qualities exist in all things. We will not be able to explain the secondary quality, sweetness in this case, without thinking of a sweet dish made with sugar.

As heat is the specific quality (dharma or nature) of fire, without which fire cannot exist, the dharma or real nature of oneself is the divinity or the divine Atman.

Today’s reading is a very inspiring message enriched with quotes from our scriptures, yet given in simple words. All of us face an uphill task in various aspects of our life and we search for answers and look for support. Finally, by the grace of our Gurudev, our paths are illumined by The Divine Life Society and we shall remain fully insured by our Gurudev Swami Sivananda Maharaj.

 

 

OM TAT SAT

Excerpts from today’s Meditation and Svadhyaya Session

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