Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 07.01.2017 evening, Sofia)

Thank you very much for joining our session today! I feel really honored that you had taken all the trouble coming here. Irrespective of the cold and snow, you were ready to make the sacrifice. And therefore I feel obliged to ask for your contribution. Please help me, where to start today’s speech – on the human platform or on the divine platform? One opinion says, let’s start from the human; usually the other opinion says, let’s start from the divine. This is very nice, because actually this is what we need – a connection between these two realities, the human and the divine.

We are obsessed with the human reality – which is sometimes limited, other times our path is more successful. I think we all have taken our experience concerning this human life on this planet Earth. I don’t know how it is with you, but I have met both some success and some obstacles. Failures and success are always there on this platform, in this human life. Nevertheless we have a hope and we have a goal. We have a destination. And the goal of our life is not to end this story somehow, but to crystallize the chances of human existence and to reach our original position.

Therefore we have to cultivate our spiritual side. The material side is always limited. In the beginning we think: ‘Ah. Life is so long! I wish I was a grown-up person!’ – all the kids have this desire. Then when you reach your goal and you become a grown-up person, again you are not satisfied and you want to become like a child: ‘Ah, when I was a child, it was so nice and easy!’ So, one secret of successful life is to learn the art of contentment. Another rule for successful life is: no expectation, no frustration. It sounds a little neutral, a little negative, but I think it’s very much true.

And ultimately, beyond all these limitations, we need to cultivate the eternal part of us. If we simply understand that we are eternal, then a new life starts for us. That means we originate from the spiritual energy and we should find our way back home, back to Godhead. As eternal conscious particles of sunshine, let’s say, we have to find our way back home to the divine sun.

This is a journey, life is a journey. And we need to search and find the best destination. Humans like to travel. If you have a fixed job, you are envious of those who have a job with much traveling. Until you have a job with much traveling; then it is not that inviting anymore.

Yet ultimately life here is a journey. You start at your birth and you finish at your death. But what will be the ultimate destination that we search? I tell you, you can go to any place on this planet Earth – you will find the same or very similar rules. Let’s pick a good place – Hawaii? I had a friend from Hawaii. She was a heavy drunkard. She felt that life was so frustrating in Hawaii that alcohol was the only solution for her. So why travel to Hawaii? Life can be so miserable here in Sofia also. There’s no use of traveling that much! But then she changed her mind and decided: ‘No, I will give up this miserable way of life and I will start spiritual practice.” You see, even in the heaven on Earth you can feel very miserable – so much so that you will yearn for spiritual solutions. So why should we travel to Hawaii to search for the spiritual solutions? Why not here? Right here and now.

And then we can start the spiritual journey of our life. We need a connection back to the spiritual realm, the realm of no mistakes. How to reach that plane? That is also a travel, that is also a journey. And it’s good to follow something that connects us to that realm.

(to be continued)