You Have Been Called
Glorious Immortal Atman! Beloved and blessed children of the Divine! Blessed and fortunate sadhaks! The Universal Being has called you to a life higher and nobler and more sublime than a life of mere self-seeking, pleasure seeking, a life of mere searching after name and fame, a life of hankering after mere objective sensual pleasures, which are ultimately the sources of pain and sorrow, restlessness and despair. The Supreme has brought about an inner awakening, opened your eyes, and made you realise the fleeting and temporary nature of worldly objects, the evanescence, the transitory and perishable nature of all things created. Knowing their hollowness you have understood the great declaration of Vedanta: “Whatsoever is perceived is verily perishable, therefore seek the Eternal. He who seeks the Eternal Being, bright as the dazzling sun, beyond all darkness, the great Infinite One, such a being attains immortality.”
The great Reality, the Being beyond all darkness, has come into your life. You have felt a vocation, a calling, and you have heeded that call and entered into the life sublime. Constantly be aware of this dimension of your life, this true inner situation of your life. You are one who has been called. You are one who has been fortunate enough to answer that call. In you the Voice that has called has not been drowned by the clamour of the senses, the harsh and strident demands of your lower nature and sense appetites. In spite of the inner clamour you have listened to the Voice. You have come into the life sublime where you seek something that is not merely gross. You seek something beyond, something subtle, noble and divine, and that is verily the central truth and fact of your life.
And therefore ceaselessly your life should be a determined quest of that which is the supreme, transcendental Reality, that which is the eternal and great, beyond all things. “I seek That which is beyond all things”—this inner aspiration is to be ever present in you urging you onward and ever onward towards that glorious and grand consummation. Each day, each dawn, each effort put forth, each step advanced, will be a gain. That is the greatness of your life, and that is the true treasure that you have to put by: a steady, unceasing, unfailing, unwavering, unhesitating, determined movement towards the Divine.
Keep on this movement. You all have the same power, the strength, the force to do this. The eternal call keeps ever recurring in a thousand different ways from all sources, all around you. From all the scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavatam, Upanishads, and the saints of this inspiring land comes the reiterated call of the Divine: “Arise, awake and attain illumination, enlightenment.” Therefore be awake, keep your eyes open, keep your ears open, recognise the signs, hear the voice and call. In this lies your supreme blessedness.
In this lies the way of wisdom, not to think always of the distant future, the great Goal. It is good sometimes to contemplate the great Goal and become inspired, but not to be obsessed with that ultimate experience and then lose the immediate present. For the ultimate experience depends upon the here, the now, the immediate present which constitutes life. How are you? What is the state of your heart and mind? How are you living at this moment? It is this that decides what you will really become, what you will be, what you will attain.
The immediate present is the key to the ultimate attainment. Therefore all attention has to be paid to the immediate present which is the now aspect of your life. Not what was, or what you aspire to be in the future, despite the fact that they both have their place, but the thing of essence, the most vital aspect of your life is the here-and-now present, today, this hour and this minute. That is life, and the striving has to be done in that life which is immediately present. This has to be properly grasped. It is within your power to bring all your faculties, all your attention, all your concentration, all your strength and all your energies to the immediate present, the here-and-now present. It is not given to you to project yourself into the future. You cannot live in the future; you have to live in the now.
It is important for every seeker, every aspirant, every Yogi to realise that sadhana is now. This minute is the moment of sadhana. This hour is the moment of sadhana. Today is life to be lived. Today is Yoga to be practised. You may draw lessons from the past, but you have to live in the present. Thus realise the vital importance of making the present a time of sadhana, making the present a time of striving, making the present a time of abhyasa (practice), Yoga. And where there is sincerity, where there is earnestness, where there is determination, there God is present, there God’s help is available. There you will find His blessings in abundance—kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati (Arjuna know for certain that my devotee never perishes). Devoted to this ideal, fearlessly move forward on the great path of Light. Thus indeed you will crown yourself with glory.
source : http://divyajivan.org/ponder_these_truths/index.htm
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| SWAMI CHIDANANDA SARASWATI |
The great Reality, the Being beyond all darkness, has come into your life. You have felt a vocation, a calling, and you have heeded that call and entered into the life sublime. Constantly be aware of this dimension of your life, this true inner situation of your life. You are one who has been called. You are one who has been fortunate enough to answer that call. In you the Voice that has called has not been drowned by the clamour of the senses, the harsh and strident demands of your lower nature and sense appetites. In spite of the inner clamour you have listened to the Voice. You have come into the life sublime where you seek something that is not merely gross. You seek something beyond, something subtle, noble and divine, and that is verily the central truth and fact of your life.
And therefore ceaselessly your life should be a determined quest of that which is the supreme, transcendental Reality, that which is the eternal and great, beyond all things. “I seek That which is beyond all things”—this inner aspiration is to be ever present in you urging you onward and ever onward towards that glorious and grand consummation. Each day, each dawn, each effort put forth, each step advanced, will be a gain. That is the greatness of your life, and that is the true treasure that you have to put by: a steady, unceasing, unfailing, unwavering, unhesitating, determined movement towards the Divine.
Keep on this movement. You all have the same power, the strength, the force to do this. The eternal call keeps ever recurring in a thousand different ways from all sources, all around you. From all the scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavatam, Upanishads, and the saints of this inspiring land comes the reiterated call of the Divine: “Arise, awake and attain illumination, enlightenment.” Therefore be awake, keep your eyes open, keep your ears open, recognise the signs, hear the voice and call. In this lies your supreme blessedness.
In this lies the way of wisdom, not to think always of the distant future, the great Goal. It is good sometimes to contemplate the great Goal and become inspired, but not to be obsessed with that ultimate experience and then lose the immediate present. For the ultimate experience depends upon the here, the now, the immediate present which constitutes life. How are you? What is the state of your heart and mind? How are you living at this moment? It is this that decides what you will really become, what you will be, what you will attain.
The immediate present is the key to the ultimate attainment. Therefore all attention has to be paid to the immediate present which is the now aspect of your life. Not what was, or what you aspire to be in the future, despite the fact that they both have their place, but the thing of essence, the most vital aspect of your life is the here-and-now present, today, this hour and this minute. That is life, and the striving has to be done in that life which is immediately present. This has to be properly grasped. It is within your power to bring all your faculties, all your attention, all your concentration, all your strength and all your energies to the immediate present, the here-and-now present. It is not given to you to project yourself into the future. You cannot live in the future; you have to live in the now.
It is important for every seeker, every aspirant, every Yogi to realise that sadhana is now. This minute is the moment of sadhana. This hour is the moment of sadhana. Today is life to be lived. Today is Yoga to be practised. You may draw lessons from the past, but you have to live in the present. Thus realise the vital importance of making the present a time of sadhana, making the present a time of striving, making the present a time of abhyasa (practice), Yoga. And where there is sincerity, where there is earnestness, where there is determination, there God is present, there God’s help is available. There you will find His blessings in abundance—kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati (Arjuna know for certain that my devotee never perishes). Devoted to this ideal, fearlessly move forward on the great path of Light. Thus indeed you will crown yourself with glory.
source : http://divyajivan.org/ponder_these_truths/index.htm
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