Sharanagati

(from a talk on man’s roles with Swami Tirtha, 13.08.2018, Ludashto)

(continues from the previous Friday)

Question of Ramvijay: Gurudev, you mentioned these very clear-cut situations of connecting – ego to ego, body to body, heart to heart and soul to soul. But is it possible and what happens when we meet at different levels? Like for example the heart meets the ego?

Devotee: It’s the same problem as with the two egos.

Swami Tirtha: Well, I agree, there might be some trouble. But this is a very special case, we have to examine that. Because usually we can say that human relationships are not on an equal platform. One side gives more, the other side gives less. Or the same relationship is more important for one side than for the other. There is always an imbalance. Really, very rarely have I seen a balanced situation, when it is important for both sides.

But these levels also mean a certain hierarchy. If we examine this on ourselves, the most elementary platform of your existence is your ego, false ego. It’s brutal, it’s a toy of instincts basically. It’s very difficult to control it, it’s so impulsive, there might hardly be any control there.

Our body is more disciplined. Because the body has certain rules, certain laws. If you control the body, you will achieve a good result. Yoga says, if you control your sleeping, your eating, your work, your health – you can achieve a balanced situation. So there are certain rules, which are much more controllable than this instinctive ego.

The heart is even higher than the body. And your spiritual identity is on the top of this hierarchic system. Therefore, if a higher level of authority meets with a lower level of authority, there is a difference between the energy level. So that is true – problems will be there, but nevertheless a higher energy platform is also included in the system. Therefore it is possible to harmonize such an unbalanced situation due to the presence of this higher energy, this higher consciousness. So if you are a spiritual person, if you are fully established on your spiritual plane, even if you meet with a person on the ego-platform, you will have no problem and he will be uplifted.

Comment of a devotee: Sometimes you see that even if you try to be established on the spiritual platform, if you meet an egoist, number one, it’s practically impossible to communicate with such a person; then it’s better to move out of the situation.

Swami Tirtha: But even then we have a chance, we can wish all good success to that person and then you contributed with something.

So please think of these different layers of existence – on which platform you associate with your fellow human beings. Whether this is your wife, your children, your boss, your spiritual master, your brothers and sisters – think!

I had seen my spiritual master – and he was quite a powerful person, quite well established on the spiritual platform. With the stupid disciples he was very gentle; with the willing disciples he was very demanding; with the pet disciples he was smashing; and with the outsiders – wow, he was so charming and so friendly and activating to those persons. So it depends on your established platform. You might think that he associated with all these different people on a different platform, but no – he was always fixed in his spiritual vision.

For example, one of his pet disciples was Brajeshvar Prabhu – for good reason. When he was very young and he was supposed to receive his initiation, you know during initiations we usually give some gift to our master. I hope I don’t offend Brajesh, but he was not the best singer. But what was his offering? His offering was to sing Shri Guru Charana Padma. Gurudev was always very composed, you could hardly see any emotional feedback on his face. But I was standing by him and that time I saw that he was almost crying, he was in tears. This I call a meeting of the souls. When a very strong person is melted by a young one.

Meeting of the bodies, meeting of the egos, meeting of the souls – see for yourself.

(to be continued)