Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 09.05.2018, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Monday)

Sanatana: It’s not a question. I want to share something from my life. I apologize that I take your time. As a sportsman, I want to explain about enthusiasm. When I started my training, I was six-seven years old. I lived in a small town, but we have a circle of friends and we went in the swimming pool for water polo. For us it was a game and a very jolly experience. Then you enter another age when competitions start. You again have some kind of childish approach, because these are your friends, your team, you have started the competition together with others. When you are a young man, yet another level comes. Then you want to win the championship. I have trained for many, many years and I’m still training. When I woke up, I used to wash my face in the pool. Four, five, six hours training a day. Then the play is no longer play, but it starts to be work. Our goal – not only personal, but of the team and the trainer – is to become champions. There is a responsibility towards the trainer, the team and even the city. And when you enter the national team, your responsibility is towards the country. So to become a champion, you should turn this childish play into hard work, into a goal.

This was one sharing about enthusiasm. The other thing is for my life as a bhakta. In the beginning I was invited to a mountain tracking. It was amazing for me. This realization appeared just now, after your lecture. If we want to see the mountain, we have to reach some peak. But to reach the peak, first we climb, then we go down, then we climb to a higher peak, then again we go down, then we climb to an even higher peak, then go down again, and then we go to another peak. If we can reach the sun, we reach it! This is like our life – not only spiritual, but our normal life is like this. We should know that after the small peak there might be a going down, but then again there will be a higher peak. And we should not be afraid of this going down. While you are going up, you cannot slip, you just stumble. But when you go down, it’s slipping – it goes by itself. There is nothing scary in these moments. We have to have this sportsman’s enthusiasm.

Swami Tirtha: Yes, yes, yes! And you are very fortunate because you have some other water polo players here. You see, this is a real mission – you’ll find everything.

I am really grateful to you for this sharing about the weakness of the heart. Because I think we can all feel the sincerity of the moment. And to speak about these realizations and these little troubles that we have to face on our path, I think it’s very helpful to each other, to all of us. Because don’t forget, all the saints who have gone through these phases are waiting for you. They are waiting for us. And at the end of our road, there is a compassionate God waiting for you to embrace you.