Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 11.01.2019 morning, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Friday)

Question of Krishna Shakti: I need some more clarification about the mandala of six leaves. You said that there is a diamond pillar that is self-reflection – maybe this is the place of the soul?

Swami Tirtha: Well, the diamond pillar, this is Krishna. These are two different explanations. If we explain the heart lotus as a flower symbol, then on the petals there are the positive and questionable qualities and in the center is the self-reflection. So, this is like the beginning – when we start our spiritual journey and we don’t really know how to improve, the first step you can take is to try to analyze yourself, try to reflect upon yourself: ‘Who am I?’ From this point of view we can say that the observer is performing this self-reflection – and this is you, the soul. From this central point, we can observe our positive and negative qualities, our merits and our shortcomings. 

And when we start our spiritual journey, then we jump from our own small little heart mandala and enter into the big mandala. Imagine it like this: you approach a temple and it’s a huge temple complex, like a district in a city. The external wall is there to isolate the city and the sacred space. Then there is one main gate, main entrance; you come in and then there is a next wall, and a next wall, and you go through inner and inner circles of this huge complex. And finally in the center of that complex there is this diamond pillar – God. When this symbolic external mandala and your personal mandala meet there, this diamond pillar can be transplanted into your heart as well. Then you will find the source of your own existence. And then your heart mandala is purified enough to invite God to reside there: “Please, I prepared this place for You.” 

So these two lotuses, two different mandalas are to explain different levels of reality. One is like a personal, individual reality, and the other is more like a symbol of the spiritual path that we have to accomplish in order to reach our goal. Plus there is this divine mandala, where Goloka Vrindavan is described like the lotus petals with the mahamantra on them. So all the time the similar picture is mentioned, but in different shades. One is your individual heart mandala; second is the path as a mandala; third is divine reality as a mandala. And sometimes we come together in a disciplic mandala – like today, sitting here, we also form a structure, such a form that generates more spiritual energy.

 I don’t know if it helped you clear the situation in your head. So, there are parallels, there are similarities between the different representations, because they use the same symbol – mandala – but in a different understanding. 

(to be continued)