Blessed Atman! May God give you the gift of understanding your life and thus living it with understanding!
We never stop to ponder life. We never pause in our ceaseless outward-oriented activities which we think is life. We do not pause for a while to take time to step out of life's stream, to stand on the banks and observe life from that point.
The banks do not move; the banks do not change. Constantly the river moves; constantly the waters change. Even for a single second, you are not standing before the same river. The river was before you one second ago is not here now. What is before you is some other river; the other river has gone.
Even so with life. You are also ever-changing. If you step out, stand on the bank and observe life, you may get a better understanding about it and its flow. You must stop for a while and ponder life. You must pause a little from ceaselessly being rushed. It takes time.
On the last day of July 1963, we offered a grand worship to Gurudev upon his shodasi (16th day) punyatithi, as an aradhana (adoration) offered. From the 1st of August 1963 our life was different than it was before the 14th of July, 1963 (the day Gurudev attained Mahasamadhi). How did we face that new life? What was our state of mind at that time? What thoughts, what ideas filled our minds? How did we view the future?
Year after year we re-enact that same drama by offering a grand worship in the Samadhi. We recreate that same day. We also relive that experience and move towards the future in a changed way, just as we did on the 1st of August, 1963. For there was a great difference. We realized that we would have to stand on our own legs. We realized that we had to be self-reliant, that we were the architects of our own fate; we were the moulders of our own future. We had to get busy doing the work and carving out a glorious future in the light of Gurudev''s teachings and example to us-building our future in a spiritual way because it was not a future in time, it was a future in terms of our spiritual evolution.
Ever year that day is observed, that drama is re-enacted. We try to relive that momentous moment. But then, after the event passes, does it leave us cold, as we were before, or does it leave us with something else within us? That is the thing to be considered. If, upon considering it, we find that there is no fresh awakening, that no new aspiration comes into us, then it has become only a mechanical routine which we observe year after year-having all the outer frills but empty of content inside. It has just become automatic, repetitive; it takes us no further, no higher. The very purpose of the day has been lost. The very intention with which our ancients conceived of such recurring annual traditions would not be fulfilled; it would be lost.
Yesterday was such a day. May you understand it. May you understand the intention behind such a tradition. May you understand the purpose of such an annual observance. May you understand the significance to you and your life. May you understand life. That is the one thing needful to live life fruitfully-the understanding of it and the living of it with the understanding way. May Sat Guru Bhagavan bless you with such a deep understanding of your life and yourself in it.
God bless you!
Swami Chidananda Saraswati
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