Prema Jyothi - January 2024

Letting Go

the path to freedom

Surrendering means we bow and create space for love, grace, and light to flow.

When Phil and I come to places like the Himalayas, we become aware of the insignificance of our own stories. Have you ever been humbled by nature when you recognise the insignificance of all the self-concepts you hold on to? Have you allowed nature to lift you out of your isolated ego state, that binds us to a self-image of superiority? Have you ever bowed at the foot of a majestic ancient mountain and been overcome in humility and awe? In comparison, our lives are like the fluttering of butterfly wings. That is what being in the Himalayas has taught us, and we feel moved to share some insights into the beauty of surrender.

With a new year, there is an opportunity to ‘reset’ our narratives and let go of what it is we hold so dear. Have we the courage to step out of our world view and surrender to a different view? Have we the wisdom to recognise that our way of being in the world limits us to habitual behaviours that build walls around our ability to be flexible in life. Rigidity brings fragility. Fluid flow brings freedom.

The design of life is so intelligent. That intelligence is always with us and constantly shaping itself around us. When the yogi begins to recognise this, it is the beginning of surrender.

This intelligent design in all creation can be experienced in multiple ways. If we open a seed, it appears to have nothing in it, but it contains all the information needed to become a mighty tree. The seed has the whole universe contained within its microscopic structure. But the seed must surrender its being a seed to fulfill the purpose of that Divine Intelligence. Only through surrender can a seed become a mighty tree. The universe rejoices in the seed bursting through the earth and coming to its full potential. A galaxy holds itself together to form a spectacular vision of beauty and wonder. This is the same Divine Intelligence at work.

That same Divine Intelligence exists within us. However, we are often afraid to surrender, and so miss out on realising our full potential. Surrender is often seen as weakness by the mind, and it takes immense courage to overcome that conditioning, and open to the core intelligence at work in our life.

For the New Year let us make a commitment to the intelligence within, our own innate knowledge, so we can surrender more fully to life - Savitri

There is a core intelligence at work in life and that is love

Allow yourself to be swept away by the fierce flow of grace – Anand Mehotra

You might like to use the link below to an important video on surrender.

Entitled Surrender and Shut Up

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=sathya+sai+baba+on+surrender&type=E211NZ714G0#id=4&vid=0f232a7027dab0b9c4348fab5abb745a&action=click

EFFORTLESS ACTION

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna declared, “Establish yourself in the state of yoga (union) and then act.” Effortless action arises from the state of unity that comes when we practice yoga. To become highly creative and effective in the world we must get out of the way and allow the creative energy of the universe to flow through us. Then extra-ordinary things can happen.

When we put the yogic teachings into practice we become more in tune, more connected with God, with the universe. Then the universe will respond to our deepest prayers.

We are individual expressions of the universe. Just as a wave that arises from the ocean is called a wave, but it is still part of the ocean. Waves that have a deep connection with the depth of the ocean, do not crash, they have an incredible force. So too, when we connect deeply to heart of the universe within, we can practice surrendered action where the ego is not involved. The miraculous becomes possible

In yogic practices we are refining our state of consciousness to gain unity with the depths of the ocean of consciousness. The greater the connection, the more the flow state influences our lives. Surrender is correcting the belief of the ego that says we are separate. The more we can refine our consciousness the less we feel we are doing and the sense of doing dissolves.

The more we gain unity with totality, the more we find fulfilment. Desire that is backed by the universe is designed to be fulfilled. God, in the form of the universe, is very invested in the fulfilment of its creation. This fulfilment comes with a state of surrendered being - the ego is not there. It is a state of deep gratitude. Surrender is about recognising the love that is here. It is about getting into a state where we can see the love that is in our lives - where you can see grace in our lives..

Let us establish ourselves in yoga, and then act. Yoga is unity, love, bliss here and now.

-Savitri

FORGIVENESS AS FREEDOM – Surrendering grievance

It is a new year and often when a new year starts people make resolutions. These last for maybe a day or two and are often about trivial aspects of life. A new year is good time to search our hearts honestly and fully, to understand what is important and meaningful in our lives spiritually. It is a good time to really become conscious of the way in which we think, act, and feel, as well as the way we are in the world – our beingness.

One question that is useful to ask ourselves is, “What is it that I hold on to?” In answering this question, we often need to examine how we hold on and, if useful, why we hold on. Attachment is an impediment to developing or opening spiritually, but we cannot simply detach once we know what it is we need to let go of. Detachment is often a process, and it is important to de-mythologise our conceptions about the process.

Letting go can be about our attachment to material things but, often more importantly, it is about our attachment to ways of thinking. All attachment begins in the mind, which as Sathya Sai tells us, is a “bundle of desires”. The mind builds a habitual perspective on life that so often requires us to follow certain pathways that lead to behaviours that are detrimental to spiritual living. To free ourselves from the habitual responses we have become used to, we need to firstly recognise that we have such attachment to thoughts. Understanding leads to evolutionary action that can liberate us from the tyranny of the mental habits that have long (in many cases too long) ruled our response to life’s circumstances.

One such habitual response that is very topical as write this, is the inability to forgive. World conflicts are often inflamed by the need for revenge. The conflict that is happening as I write this article is between Israel and the Palestinians. I was heartened to read of an Israeli man, whose brother was killed by Hamas, plea for Israel not to keep killing Palestinians in Gaza. He stated that his brother would not wish this to happen. What a supreme example of letting go. It would be easier for him to want revenge, but he has taken the ‘road less travelled’ and pleaded for peace and an end to violence.

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”
- Paul Boose

Imagine our lives if we were able to forgive all those who have wronged us. What would it be like to walk through life, free of the baggage of hate or resentment? What would our hearts feel like? Would this not release our hearts from this prison of never being able to forgive? As Paul Boose says, our horizons would suddenly become greater. We would be able to see life in all its freshness and beauty, instead of being trapped in thoughts that only blur our vision and scar our hearts.

- Satyavan

You must forget two things. Firstly, you must forget whatever help you have given to others. Secondly, you must forget whatever harm others have done to you. Because, when you remember the harm done by others to you, you always plan to take revenge. When you do not remember this, you will not do any harm. If you remember the help rendered by you to someone, you will be looking forward to the reward. On the contrary, there are two things that you must always remember. One is that God is One, and the other, that death is inevitable. In whatever manner you may look at them, these two are the eternal truths. Sathya Sai Baba -1972

**Leave behind all bitterness**

*“As I walked out of the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I bknew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I would still be in prison.”* Nelson Mandela.

The Art of Surrender – India as teacher

If we have not learned the art of surrender at an everyday level, India has a way of introducing us to this process in very evident and real ways. The way in which India teaches surrender is no more evident than when we attempt to travel in this vast, multi-cultural land. When turning a corner, we are likely to encounter a cow sitting in the middle of the road!

To compound the issue, the cow is most unlikely to move, so the driver is forced to find a way round or stop the car until the cow deigns to get up on its four legs and trundle off to the side. The cows move slowly and seemingly purposely. The cow is a sacred animal in India, and nobody would dare attempt to harm one, and don’t the cows know it! But it is not only cows. We must negotiate piles of rock left on the road by a landslide, bump our way slowly over large potholes, or deal with traffic that doesn’t follow any kind of road rules! Many drivers will take every opportunity to gain a few places ahead in a traffic jam. We learn to sit in the car and practice total equanimity, letting go of any fear or frustration, and our western concepts of how a road journey should proceed.

How do we learn such equanimity? Not only does India provide a supreme opportunity to practice patience, but India also provides supreme examples. In the Himalayas we see swamis and yogis who have learnt to surrender to the Divine in a profound way. Recently we have been shown many instances of the art of surrender by wonderful yogis.

Dharmishta

Dharmishta arrived in Gangotri with lots of money having resolved to leave ashram life and build herself a new home in the mountains. This resolution did not come to fruition, so she returned to the plains and used the total sum she had saved to build another ashram, a temple and a Gurukul (ashram school) and proceeded to run the school for the next twelve years. However, her dream of having a place in the Himalayas did not die. She eventually left all these institutions and travelled up to Gangotri penniless, but with a pure heart ready to surrender to what is, rather than attempting to plan anything. As she put it "This time Ma Ganga did not reject me but welcomed me with open arms”. Everything unfolded in miraculous ways. Creation created the means that she could fulfill her dream. People responded to her needs and helped her build one of the most beautiful forest kutirs (huts). Even Hanuman appeared to lend His strength when large boulders needed to be moved. Divine intelligence had responded in its right time, and everything was provided to fulfill Dharmishta’s longing for a home that was suitable for solitary sadhana.

Lalita Ma

Surrendering to the Divine, she fully accepted the situation and remained crouched, shivering in the cold, under a rock, and chanted or wrote God's name in her notebook. (This is a practice called likita japa, which is popular among sannyasis and spiritual aspirants.) Before long, a mountaineer, returning from an expedition came to her rock shelter to receive her blessings. He not only left everything she needed for cooking and sleeping but rebuilt a dwelling for her consisting of tarpaulins, discarded corrugated iron sheets and his mountaineering ropes!

Vishal and Shailendra

Vishal manages Swami Sundarananda's Ashram and Himalayan Art Gallery. Suffering from serious health issues, compounded from years of heavy-duty allopathic medicine, he knows he needs some specialist Ayurvedic help. On coming down from Gangotri, we visited a Shailendra, a yoga teacher and an old friend, in Rishikesh. He informed us that knew of an outstanding Ayurvedic doctor whose name and contact he provided. He then also offered Vishal a free stay with food at his centre so that Vishal could get the treatment that he required. As Vishal accepts no payment for his services in Gangotri, and this made possible the treatment he needed.

These are just three instances of countless examples, like Swami Sundarananda who, in the early fifties, slept for three months with only leaves to cover Him in the cold, waiting for his Guru – Swami Tapovan, to call him and offer him a warm place near His kutir. Or Swami Chaitanya, gracious and noble, travelling all the way down to Gangotri to get me some medicine without batting an eyelid!

In all instances India was teaching the message - Let Go and Let God!

- Savitri

Sathya Sai Story on Detachment

“Devotion and the attitude of surrender, that is devotion’s final fruits, will give you great courage to meet any emergency. Such courage is what is called renunciation. The story of Mohajith, a prince, is a good example of this highest type of detachment. Mohajith went to a sage in the forest and sought guidance in the spiritual path. The sage asked him whether he had conquered attachment, as his name indicated. The prince said that not only he but everyone in his kingdom had! So the sage started to test the truth of this claim.

The sage took the prince’s robes, soaked them in blood, and hastened to the palace gate with the gruesome story of the murder of the prince by some ruffians in the jungle. The maid whom he met refused to hurry with the news to the royal apartments because she said, “He was born, and he died; what is the special urgency of this news that I should interrupt my regular routine and run to the king and queen?”

When at last the sage got an royal audience and was able to communicate the sad news to the prince’s father, the king, who sat unruffled, whispering to himself, “The bird flew off the tree on which it had alighted to take rest.” The queen too was unmoved. She told the sage that this Earth is a caravanserai, where men come and stay for the night and when dawn breaks, one by one, they tramp their different ways. Kith and kin are the words we use for attachment to the travellers cultivated in the caravanserai during the short term of acquaintance.

The wife of the “dead” prince was also unaffected. She said, “Husband and wife are like two pieces of wood drifting down a flooded river; they float near each other for some time and when some current comes between, they are parted. Each must move on to the sea at its own rate and in its own time. There is no need to grieve over the parting of the two; it is in the very nature of nature that it should be so.”

The sage was overjoyed to see this steady and sincere dispassion in the rulers and the ruled. He came back to the forest and told the prince that, while he was away, a hostile army had invaded his kingdom and slain the entire royal family and captured his kingdom and enslaved his subjects. The prince took the news calmly and said, “All this is a bubble, impermanent, flimsy. Let it go the way of the bubble. Guide me to reach the Infinite, the Imperishable.”

- Sathya Sai Baba 1955