Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 11.05.2019 evening, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Monday)

If we have started this journey of life by taking birth, one thing looks certain – that we shall end this journey as well. It is said that at the time of our birth our years and our fate are written on our forehead. At the moment of birth it is decided how long we shall live. And how much suffering we have to tolerate. And also how much happiness we shall harvest in this life. If everything is written on our foreheads, then fate is not a question of beauty industry. So even if we go to a beauty parlour, it will not change our destiny. Nevertheless, we want to avoid the troubles and we want to acquire more happiness. And we all want to live a long life. Everybody wants to have a long enough period of life; yet you want to avoid old age. It is not very reasonable. If you want to have a long life, the process to achieve that long life is called aging. How can you have the one without the other? It’s impossible. Better we try to establish some friendly relationship with time, and old age as well.
As I told you, about 100 years is projected for humans of this age. Have you ever thought how many years you are ready to give to yourself?
Gita-Govinda: 108.
Swami Tirtha:  Nice. Give some time to yourself and try to plan your life. You must have a plan for this lifetime. And usually the different periods in life follow each other step by step. First you are a baby, then you are a child, then you are a young man or woman, then you are a grown-up responsible person, then you are an elderly one, after that a senior one, then again a child. But in every age period we should try to behave accordingly. When you are young, you want to pose as more senior. When you grow old, you want to pose as younger.
But you know, if we have 100 years period for this lifetime, let’s check what we should do in these ages, what we should learn, what we should perform.
There is a discussion[1] between a master and a student. And the student has some questions about space and time, and human beings, and divinity, and faith, and atonement, and different important topics. And as there is a profound inquiry from the side of the student, the master tries to give profound answers. And now they come to discussing time.
Everything is changing in this life. Yet certain things remain the same. Your bodily constitution is changing from baby to an old man, but your feeling, your self-identity, this inner identification, doesn’t change. So, this is what the master tells the student. “Alright, everything is changing, but you are the same.”
Nevertheless, in these different ages that we perceive, we have to perform various different activities. So, I tell you the age, and then you tell me what we should learn and how we should do in this age.
“So, in this ever-changing process, there is some permanent feature. You are what you have been, and you will remain the same. When a person is one year old, what should he learn?
Comment: To walk.
Swami Tirtha: Correct, walking. When you are ten years old, you start to learn to…?
Answer: To read.
Swami Tirtha: You start to learn how to think, to develop your consciousness. When you are twenty, you start to learn..? When you are twenty, then you start to learn to stand on your own feet, to be independent. When you are thirty..?
Anwer: To be responsible.
Swami Tirtha: Yes, correct. When you are thirty, then you have to face yourself. And establish a family life – this is facing yourself. When you are forty, what do you start to learn?
Answer: To divorce.
Swami Tirtha: No, this is not allowed.
Comment: To be useful for the society.
Swami Tirtha: Correct, this is the time when we have to learn how to be very useful for others, how to serve the benefit of others. When you are fifty?
Comment: Half of the time has passed.
Swami Tirtha: Correct, then we have to face a kind of withdrawal from external activities. When you are sixty, what do you have to learn when you are sixty?
Response: Wisdom.
Swami Tirtha: Yes, wisdom. When you are seventy, what you have to learn?
Answer: That nobody owes you anything.
Swami Tirtha: Well, I think it’s also necessary to learn this. But here it is said we have to learn deep faith. When you are seventy, you have to learn deep faith. What happens when you are eighty? Prem Prasad?
Prem-Prasad: Rethink everything that has happened in your life.
Swami Tirtha: Correct. When we are eighty, we have to learn this absolute stability.
When you are ninety? When you are ninety, you have to face death. And what do we have to learn when we are a hundred years old?
Comment: To die.
Swami Tirtha: Correct, to pass away peacefully and in a contented manner.
Gita-Govinda: What if you don’t reach even 70?
Swami Tirtha: Bad luck. Because it is said: if you are not pure by 10, if you are not beautiful by 20, if you are not strong by 30, if you are not determined by 40, if you are not wealthy by 50, if you are not wise by 60, and if you are not saintly by 70, you will not become one later either.
You see, we have a relatively short time, my dear ones. So according to your age, try to achieve the best. I think this is enough now to ponder, to think, to digest.

(to be continued)

1.  In Hansakunda Upanishad