Update from 'Spreading the Warmth' Project

1.

Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands.
- Joseph Addison

Thanks to your generous support, ball is rolling at the Spreading the Warmth Project. My heartfelt appreciation for your open-handed and timely contribution to "Spreading the Warmth Project". As of 8th December, we've raised 1000 USD, which is 100% of our target 1000 USD, that will enable us to reach 500 people or more. Alhamdulillah, we give praise to God, the All Provider and Guardian of Affairs. We are pushing further to help out some schools that give education to poor kids and donating a portion of your money to them for their warm clothing, this winter.

We have received the warmth of your generous heart virtually from almost all corners of the globe and donations came from many states of USA, Australia, Europe, Bangladesh, India. I am also delighted to tell you that with this small effort of us, the ripple effect has crossed boundaries and already people have been inspired in India and Pakistan (two land covering some of the poorest people on earth) to do the same. Some of my friends have come forward to donate used clothes and cash. Masha'Allah, as God wishes.

We have been on the streets and lanes in the town in the last few days and nights to seek the most impoverished, so that your gift can respond to the most urgent need among those who have so little. Also sourced the warm clothes and blankets in order to get the best wholesale price so that we can maximize the quantity of clothes to buy and give. During the search for best price, something interesting unfolded which is worth sharing here.

As I was checking price from shop to shop that only sale bulk quantities (hence in lesser price), I came across this couple of person who's heart responded beautifully to the cause. As I was explaining to this couple of whole-seller that these will be purchased to distribute as free-gifts among the poor, they extended beautiful co-operation totally unexpected of them. All praise is to God Who is an-Nasir, the Helper and sends help from wondrous sources - as these businessmen are providing out of the way assistance in terms of price and delivery which I am very grateful to have and making things much easy.

By the way, wish you were here when we are distributing the clothes at night cause the smile upon their innocent faces and the joy that glitters on the eyes of these street kids are priceless. No wonder their beings are so close to the kingdom. May God bless and reward you all deeply for your generosity.

2.
If anyone has wealth and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. - Sacred Tradition

One of our friend from India shared his share of joining in spreading the warmth inspired by the project. Sharing this from the friend in India with the intention that this might inspire others, God willing, to come forward and participate as well.

"taking cue from the initiative by dear sadiq, i thought even if i can do my 2 cent taking in to view my circumstances and constraints i felt it would be a little worthwhile... i decided that in my locality there were some poor people who were too poor and quite old that i could start thinking that they have to do some or other work so i thought its better i help them say even a little...

i brought 6 warm blankets which were thick enough to protect from the wintery nights which are going to come by this month end and i gave to 2 old women , 3 to an family consisting of a mother and her say 10 year old son and an old lady in that family and one i gave to an young man but he was handicapped and the the other thing i did was i went to the local grocery store and packed 25 packets of 35oz ( 1 kg ) each of rice and i distributed to 25 poor and really needy...

so even though i did not spend so much, i wished i could have done more . the main thing is i got immense blessings whether directly or indirectly.. and even if these poor people they bless with their heart.. such blessings are immediately heard by Allah, Blessed and Glorious is He.

so even if we do a bit or even if we feed or help an needy.. say like a drop in the vast ocean of work many are doing at least these small drops would create an vast ocean of resources for the downtrodden and needy.."

We are grateful to Beloved for keeping us in company of such generous hearts.

3.
He who refreshes others
will himself be refreshed.
- Proverbs

Last night me and my friend Subir went out at night to distribute clothing among the people living on the temporary housing beside roads, on pedestrians and abandoned land. I talked to all of them to know their personal stories, ask about their family, how many kids and elderly they have in the same shelter, and what they mostly need in this winter (we also gave sweater to adults as well whoever requested and was found not to have warm clothing). Apart from sweater or jacket, some of them requested for blanket and one lady who was preparing her bed on roadside requested for a pair of shoes. So I included plans to buy blankets as well.

Also our intention is to widen the coverage circle so that at least we can roughly be assured that within this particular area none are left out to suffer in this winter. So help us God.

If you know anyone who, if the word reaches to them might come forward to contribute, it would be awesome if you could be the messenger to spread the words.

How to contribute: Its fairly easy. All you have to do is click on [ChipIn!] button below, which takes you to a PayPal page where you can use any credit card / bank card to donate securely.

4.
Freely you have received, freely give.
- New Testament

Project: Spreading the Warmth

Where: Dhaka, Capital of Bangladesh (a country in South Asia, beside India), exact location where this project sets as beginning target can be viewed on google map here. The locality that we intend to cover are Palashi (Buet adjacent), Dhaka Medical College adjacent, near High coart area, Nimtali, Sobhanbag of Dhaka etc.

What: Buying winter clothing for those who live on the street, priority given to children and elderly

Execution and Contact: Sadiq Alam, mysticsaint@gmail.com, +880-1924572887, +434-563-7532

Target: To reach 500 persons (in reality, even to alleviate the suffering of one and spread warmth to just one other person is worth the call and effort), Fund raising original target was 1000 USD which God blessed to fulfill on 8th Dec. (target updated to 1500 USD).

When the real heart breaks open | “How can one serve the One?”

1.
The revelation of Oneness brings a great peace and rest at the center of our being. But it also opens up an opportunity and an impulse to live and express that revelation in the world of duality. To transcend the world of time and space is not the end of spirituality but rather the beginning.To express the timeless within the world of time is to fulfill our true potential.

Only in our love of Truth does the heart break open, and we finally stop asking, “How can I hold onto this Truth? How can I maintain this realization?” We don’t look at it that way anymore. We only look at it as “How can I serve this realization?” There’s no more interest in holding on, finding safety or satisfaction.

When the real heart breaks open, the question becomes, “How can one serve the One?” How can one be this Truth?” And there’s no final answer to that kind of question. It’s always in the moment, at every moment, to be it now - not “How can I be it?” in some image, but just to be it now. We discover that we’re no longer a gatherer of beauty, a gatherer of bliss, a gatherer of peace. We’re not a hoarder. We’re its servant, you and I.

You can’t lose what you serve. That’s the secret. What you serve, you can’t lose. What you don’t serve and what you try to hold onto, you can’t hold onto. It’s always slipping out of your fingers.

That’s why you can never separate wisdom or insight or realization from love or devotion. One has to find in their heart the devotion to serve the Truth that’s found, moment to moment. That’s an act of love, to serve. It gets us out of the last vestige of self-centered relationship with our experience.

When you touch into real love, the farthest thing from your mind is “How can you serve me?” It’s just not there anymore, not in the true spiritual heart. It’s not there in the heart that’s broken open by realization. Then we’re not looking at that Truth for what it can do for me, even though it does for you and for me, over and over, constantly giving itself.

This is an open secret, an obvious secret to living in Oneness: you have to serve it - not because anybody said so, because you don’t have to serve it if you don’t want to. But you don’t get to live it all the time unless you serve it all the time.

When I say serve it, I don’t mean anything that might even be really obvious. I don’t mean serve it in a way that might even be noticeable. It doesn’t have to be served with career, life meaning, goals, and all that. That’s not what it’s about.

It’s about each moment,
each moment,
each moment.

Is Oneness being served, or is it not?
Is it being embodied, or is it not?

- Serving the One by contemporary zen teacher Adyashanti via Working with Oneness website

2.
Says the Divine Beloved, "I Am with those whose hearts are broken for My sake." - Islamic Sacred Tradition

Every single one in the heavens and the earth comes to the Most Gracious One as one who serves. Hu has encompassed them (all)...
- The Quran, Chapter of Mother Mary, 19:93-94

The Necessity and Function of the Shaykh | Sohbet from 5 Sundays on Tasawwuf

Bismillahir
Rahmanir
Rahim


Ya Ayyuhalladheen Aamanu Ittaqullaha Wa Kunu Ma'a As-Saadiqeen

O you who believe, be conscious of Allah and keep company with those who are true to their word.
- The Quran, 9:119

Beginning November 8, and continuing through Dec, Jan, Feb and March Islamic Sufi Study Center of Charlottesville is Organizing a Program titled, 5 Sundays of Tasawwuf. This monthly program address the elements of Tasawwuf, spiritual Islamic practice.

Themes selected for 5 Sundays are:
1) The necessity and function of the Shaykh
2) Sohbet or the oral tradition
3) Ikhlas or sincerity
4) Tarbiyya or the training of the mureed
5) Dhaahir & baatin - balancing the inner and the outer

The program includes speakers: Shaykh Ahmed Abdur-Rasheed, mainly of the Naqshabandi tradition; Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee, mainly of the Shadhdhuli tradition; and for the first Sunday it was Dr. Sulayman Nyang, distinguished professor from Howard University who delivered the talks.

In the first series, the speakers touched upon a main characteristic of Sufi path, that is, "The Necessity and Function of the Shaykh". Its highly recommended for anyone even modestly interested to understand the Path of Sufism from those who walk the Path - to listen to these talks. These talks come from those who have spent their lifetime in this rich and living tradition and few of the most rare individuals of our time who literally have crossed the earth, traveled to the farthest of geographical boundaries to find their path, their Murshid (spiritual guide) and to find truth. May Allah continue to bless Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee and Shaykh Abdur-Rasheed and all guest speakers in this event for their pure dedication and service to the path and have mercy upon those who come in their presence.

'Wa hadaina humma siratal mustaqim' Allah says, "And We guided them to the Straight Way." After the seed of blessing has fallen on the fertile soil of the heart by the grace of Allah Subhanuwatala one must not let it wither. Rather one must place that seed in the grace, in the care, that is to say of a farmer who will protect it from the many ways that it can be destroyed. In the care of that farmer, the seed will mature and bear fruit and accord with its true being. This verse that I recited in the beginning refers to that type of care, "And We guided them to the Straight Way."

Rumi says, "In the Ocean of the Soul it is impossible to swim and you may drown. The only solution is to get on the Ship of Safety." So the Seal of the Prophet, sallalahu 'alaihi wa sallam declared, "I am that Arc in the Infinite Ocean, as are those who are my successors who share my vision. We are the Ship of Safety in this Ocean. Do not try to swim away."

And Hafiz says, "In the Domain of Love do not take even a step without a guide. For on this road, he who has no guide will lose the way for sure."

.. To take guidance there are 3 steps which a person must undertake: The first which Sayyidina Musa (Prophet Moses) took which is to put everything else behind you with the intention to find the truth, knowing you don't know the truth. Because if you know the truth, why would you be seeking it?

The second is to go where ever you have to go. And do whatever you have to do and where ever you have to go to find the truth.

And the third step we call sohbet, which means to enter into the company of someone who for whatever reason that you can imagine or think, might be, might be, in touch with the truth that you are seeking.

Another poem from Rumi from Mathnawi, Inshallah, the translation,

Those spiritual window shoppers who idly ask
'How much is that?'
And then when you ask them they say, 'Oh I'm just looking.'
They handle a hundred items and put them all down.
They are shadows, with no capital.

What is spent is Love
and two eyes that are wet with weeping.

But these they walk into the shop
and their whole life pass in that moment in that shop"

- from the Dars (teaching) of 5 Sundays of Tasawwuf by Shaykh Abdullah Nooruddeen Durkee, Director of Green Mountain Branch of the Shadhdhuli School, Khalifah of Shadhduli Sufi Way

[>] Click here to download and listen to Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee's talk infused with deep wisdom and practical advice on The Necessity and Function of Shaykh.

[>] Click here to listen to the audio version of the talk by Shaykh Rasheed on The Necessity and Function of the Shaykh.

. Video of the talk by Shaykh Rasheed via Youtube are also available. Click here.

".. likely in America we have radical individualism. Many of us are so radically individual, - "Me too ism" as well call in America. .. so if you have that attitude, you will not have a Shaykh, because you have this "Me too ism", 'Ya I'm educated, So I can think for myself' - if you do that you make a big mistake. "

- Dr. Sulayman Nyang, distinguished professor from Howard University, Talk from 5 Sundays on Tasawwuf

[>] Click here to download and listen to Dr. Sulayman Nyang's heartly talk.

[>] Visit the 5 Sundays on Tasawwuf page for archived audio and more

The second of these series are coming on 6th December 2009. This will focus on the 2nd theme, Sohbet or the oral tradition: discourses on the value of spending time with a living teacher – sharing life, food, companionship with the Shaykh and other students - learning directly from the tongue of the Shaykh rather than from books or CDs – discourse and storytelling as media of teaching. Along with Shaykh Nooruddeen and Shaykh Rasheed, guest speaker will be Dr. Mustafa Drame, professor of French Language and African Oral Traditions at the University of Virginia.

If you are around the East Coast or even in USA, you are recommended to be blessed to be among these Shuyukh from sufi traditions and listen directly from them in the coming Sundays. For details of the program, location and direction, visit Green Mountain School website: the shadhdhuli school for tranquility of being and illumination of hearts

Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing
that we see too late the one that is open.
- Alexandar Graham Bell

In your own land seek the hidden flame.
It is unworthy of man to borrow light from elsewhere.
- Mansur al-Hallaj

# Reference
. Shaykh Abdullah Nooruddeen Durkee
. Circle Group
. Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rasheed

Mysticism and Poetry of Rabindranath Tagore

Thou hast made me endless,

such is Thy pleasure.

This frail vessel Thou emptiest
again and again, and fillest it ever
with fresh life. This little flute of a reed Thou hast carried over
hills and dales, and hast breathed
through it melodies eternally new.

At the immortal touch of Thy hands
my little heart loses its limits in joy
and gives birth to utterance ineffable.

Thy infinite gifts come to me
only on these very small hands of mine.

Ages pass, and still Thou pourest,
and still there is room to fill.

- from Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (credit: Bengali, English)
by Rabindranath Tagore, may God bless his noble soul


Rabindranath Tagore (May 7, 1861 - August 7, 1941) the bard of Bengal immaculately brought out the essence of Eastern spirituality in his poetry like no other poet. His spiritual vision, as he himself said, is imbued "with the ancient spirit of India as revealed in our sacred texts and manifested in the life of today."

"The inner-seeking spirituality of India infused all of Tagore's writing. He wrote in many genres of the deep religious milieu of Hinduism. The values and core beliefs of the Hindu scriptures permeated his work." Says the Swami: "Rabindranath Tagore's philosophical and spiritual thoughts transcend all limits of language, culture, and nationality. In his writings, the poet and mystic takes us on a spiritual quest and gives us a glimpse of the infinite in the midst of the finite, unity at the heart of all diversity, and the Divine in all beings and things of the universe." - from the Preface of 'Tagore: The Mystic Poets' by Swami Adiswarananda of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York

Tagore believed that "True knowledge is that which perceives the unity of all things in God." Tagore through his vast body of immortal literary works taught us that the universe is a manifestation of God, and that there is no unbridgeable gulf between our world and God's, and that God is the one who can provide the greatest love and joy.

Tagore's 'Gitanjali' or 'Song Offerings' that contains his own English prose translations of Bengali poetry was published in 1913 with an introduction by the Irish poet W. B. Yeats. This book won Tagore the Nobel Prize for Literature that year. Here's an excerpt from his introduction that helps us realize that "We had not known that we loved God, hardly it may be that we believed in Him…" (credit)

Tagore's poetry - which varied in style from classical formalism to the comic, visionary, and ecstatic - proceeds from a lineage established by 15th- and 16th-century Vaishnava poets. Tagore was awed by the mysticism of the rishi-authors who - including Vyasa - wrote the Upanishads, the Bhakti-Sufi mystic Kabir, and Ramprasad Sen. Yet Tagore's poetry became most innovative and mature after his exposure to rural Bengal's folk music, which included Baul ballads - especially those of bard Lalon. These—rediscovered and popularised by Tagore - resemble 19th-century Kartābhajā hymns that emphasize inward divinity and rebellion against religious and social orthodoxy. During his Shilaidaha years, his poems took on a lyrical quality, speaking via the maner manus (the Bāuls' "man within the heart") or meditating upon the jivan devata ("living God within"). This figure thus sought connection with divinity through appeal to nature and the emotional interplay of human drama. Tagore used such techniques in his Bhānusiṃha poems (which chronicle the romance between Radha and Krishna), which he repeatedly revised over the course of seventy years. (credit)

In 'My Reminiscences' (Jivan-smriti) Tagore has recorded the inner history of his early poetry. It is the history of his emergence from the unreal and self centered world of adolescence into the adult and super-personal world of man and nature. The emergence found expression in many early works: in the poem "Awakening of the Fountain" where the poet's soul was likened to a fountain imprisoned in a dark cave until one day the morning sun pierced the cave with its rays and set the fountain free. His gift of lyricism and song was fully in evidence in Kari o Kamal and Manishi and attained ripeness in Chitra. The Ode to Urbasi which appeared in Chitra is the highest watermark of his aestheticism. Mysticism first appeared on a considerable scale in Sonar tari, and Tagore's philosophical and devotional-mystical poetry attained maturity in Naivedya, Kheya and Gitanjali. (credit)

FREE LOVE

By all means they try to hold me secure who love me in this world.
But it is otherwise with Thy love which is greater than theirs,
and Thou keepest me free.

Lest I forget them they never venture to leave me alone.
But day passes by after day and Thou art not seen.

If I call not Thee in my prayers, if I keep not Thee in my heart,
Thy love for me still waits for my love.

INNERMOST ONE

He it is, the Innermost One,
who awakens my being with His deep hidden touches.

He it is who puts His enchantment upon these eyes
and joyfully plays on the chords of my heart
in varied cadence of pleasure and pain.

He it is who weaves the web of this maya
in evanescent hues of gold and silver, blue and green,
and lets peep out through the folds His feet,
at whose touch I forget myself.

Days come and ages pass,
and it is ever He who moves my heart in many a name,
in many a guise, in many a rapture of joy and of sorrow.

credit (mystic poetry of tagore)

ALL THAT IS JOY

Let all the strains of joy mingle in my last song -
the joy that makes the earth flow over in the riotous excess of grass,
the joy that sets the twin brothers, life and death,
dancing over the wide world,
the joy that sweeps in with the tempest, shaking and waking,
all life with laughter,
the joy that sits still with its tears on the open red lotus of pain, and
the joy that throws everything it has upon the dust,
and knows not a word.

(credit)

To take up Tagore's poetry today, then, when poetic utterance is so largely a matter of phrasal dexterity, rather than genuine passion felt in the heart's deep core, is refreshing to say the least. It is like a draught from a pure spring. It is a spiritual oasis in a desert of poetic wasteland where the "hollow men", the singers of tuneless ditties, parade their non-belief in all things sacred beneath the sun.

Tagore placed soul before form. A true poet-seer endowed with intuitive perception, he sang his songs with the careless unpremeditated rapture of one who sings because he must. An initiate info earth's high secrets, through the medium of his poetry he shares with the reader his "vision splendid" of Reality.

It is true of course that other poets before Tagore and since have bewitched the senses with grace and color of language and stirred that dim sense of the sublime inherent in us all. But who has expressed, in modern times, with equal poetic charm the grand and noble truths of India's ancient religious tradition? The teachings of the Upanishads he had imbibed with his mother's milk. Their living essence had penetrated his bones and marrow, lit the world in a glow and given to his poetry its distinctive character.

From these ancient Aryan texts have stemmed more than one religion and philosophy. Long before that American religious genius, Mary Baker Eddy, launched her revolutionary doctrine of man's divinity upon a world made receptive to such a view through the previous propagation of oriental ideas, the Upanishads had repeatedly proclaimed the same truth. It taught that the soul, ever swathed in the stainless white radiance of eternity, was omnipresent and omniscient; that it had never been born and hence could never die; and that evil, inharmony and decay were but mesmeric beliefs, inexplicable superstitions, beclouding man's vision of the Real.

In consequence, Tagore's poetry, echoes again and again the view of the world embodied in the Hebrew psalmist's cry of devotion - "Earth and Heaven are full of Thee!" He beheld the natural world with its manifold color and movement, transfigured and glorified by that light that never was on sea or land. For Nature, to Tagore, was the hieroglyphics of Spirit writ large. Even as Wordsworth, the mystic and pantheist, he responded sensitively to that living magnetic Presence that had breathed its love and ecstasy into its own lovely dreams.

Nature, the non-Self was neither perpetual motion nor inert mass but a vast panorama of vibrant symbols that electrified him into an awareness of their holy designer. And Nature's everlasting theme-song was the joy of the creator in his own cosmic rhythms and endless flow of pictorial effects.

Not in the hermitage or sequestered retreat therefore did the poet seek his Lord but in the silence of the night hung with stars, in water and rain, in the freedom of the open road. Indeed Tagore considered that a man was cabined, cribbed and confined till he realized his kinship with the outside world. For the universal spirit that had its secret abode in the heart of man hovered also in the circumambient air and was the light of setting suns. Did not the ancient Upanishads teach, from which he derived his inspiration, that the Absolute had two aspects - nature and soul, Purusha and Prakriti? How beautifully he has described his realized identity with the all -

"I feel that all the stars shine in me.
The world breaks into my life like a flood.
The flowers blossom in my body.
All the youthfulness of land and
water smokes like an incense in my
heart; and the breath of all things
plays on my thoughts as on a flute."

Time and again the poetry of Tagore gives lyric expression to this dominant idea of the Bhagavad-Gita - that the Divine or Self had separated itself into two, Nature and Soul, and that the universe was built on the reality of this sacrifice. The goal of evolution, "the one far-off divine event to which the whole creation moves", is the realization by man of this fundamental unity. Therefore in his poetry we find emphasis on the emotion of love which alone can experience the mystery of union. To the sleeping god unconscious of his at-one-ment with nature he addresses himself -

"The night is dark and your slumber is deep in the hush of my being. Wake, O Pain of Love, for I know not how to open the door, and I stand outside. The hours wait, the stars watch, the wind is still, the silence is heavy in my heart. Wake, Love, wake! brim my empty cup, and with the breath of song ruffle the night."

To Tagore, reality was not idea as it was for Hegel, for instance, but rather that ecstatic awakening when God and the soul in a vivid and transcendent moment of communion are known to be one. If this unity was an ever-recurring theme in his work how could it be otherwise for one steeped in that perennial source of Indian thought, which Schopenhauer said would be his solace during death as in life. With what rare simplicity and loveliness of image does he figuratively present this crowning moment in the following lines -

"He who can open the bud does it so simply.
He gives it a glance, and the life-sap stirs through its veins.
At his breath the flower spreads its wings and flutters in the wind.
Colors flush out like heart-longings, the perfumes betray a sweet secret. He who can open the bud does it so simply."

Why did the spiritual idealism of the Upanishads, of which the Vedanta is the peak, centre its philosophy around the idea of unity - this all-embracing love - this surrender to the All? In the Sadhana, which explains the poet's basic beliefs, we are told why the compilers of the ancient scriptures evolved such an attitude toward life. The early creators of Hindu philosophy, Tagore tells us, were dwellers in the forest primeval, free of city walls that foster naturally an attitude of separation and hostility to nature. Hence the Indian mind learned early to identify itself with the world and stressed union or devotion.

The rationalistic Greek philosophy, on the other hand, had its cradle in the city state, artificially set apart from nature. And the intellect is a devisive force, Tagore implies, seeing all things under heaven in terms of duality or as pairs of opposites - light and dark, love and hate, man and nature. But since God is beyond duality how can the intellect comprehend Him? Only the heart with its mystic intuition can know God. (credit)

# Further:
. Tagore Poems by PoetSeer
. Gitanjali of Tagore
. Baul Songs and Tagore
. Rabindranath Tagore : Sadhaka of Universal Man, Baul of Infinite Songs

Sadhana: the realisation of life by Rabindranath Tagore

1.

The man of science knows, in one aspect, that the world is not merely what it appears to be to our senses; he knows that earth and water are really the play of forces that manifest themselves to us as earth and water--how, we can but partially apprehend.

Likewise the man who has his spiritual eyes open knows that the ultimate truth about earth and water lies in our apprehension of the eternal will which works in time and takes shape in the forces we realise under those aspects. This is not mere knowledge, as science is, but it is a preception of the soul by the soul. This does not lead us to power, as knowledge does, but it gives us joy, which is the product of the union of kindred things. The man whose acquaintance with the world does not lead him deeper than science leads him, will never understand what it is that the man with the spiritual vision finds in these natural phenomena.

The water does not merely cleanse his limbs, but it purifies his heart; for it touches his soul. The earth does not merely hold his body, but it gladdens his mind; for its contact is more than a physical contact--it is a living presence. When a man does not realise his kinship with the world, he lives in a prison-house whose walls are alien to him. When he meets the eternal spirit in all objects, then is he emancipated, for then he discovers the fullest significance of the world into which he is born; then he finds himself in perfect truth, and his harmony with the all is established. In India men are enjoined to be fully awake to the fact that they are in the closest relation to things around them, body and soul, and that they are to hail the morning sun, the flowing water, the fruitful earth, as the manifestation of the same living truth which holds them in its embrace.

Thus the text of our everyday meditation is the Gayathri, a verse which is considered to be the epitome of all the Vedas. By its help we try to realise the essential unity of the world with the conscious soul of man; we learn to perceive the unity held together by the one Eternal Spirit, whose power creates the earth, the sky, and the stars, and at the same time irradiates our minds with the light of a consciousness that moves and exists in unbroken continuity with the outer world.

2.
We have seen that it was the aspiration of ancient India to live and move and have its joy in Brahma, the all-conscious and all- pervading Spirit, by extending its field of consciousness over all the world. But that, it may be urged, is an impossible task for man to achieve. If this extension of consciousness be an outward process, then it is endless; it is like attempting to cross the ocean after ladling out its water. By beginning to try to realise all, one has to end by realising nothing.

But, in reality, it is not so absurd as it sounds. Man has every day to solve this problem of enlarging his region and adjusting his burdens. His burdens are many, too numerous for him to carry, but he knows that by adopting a system he can lighten the weight of his load. Whenever they feel too complicated and unwieldy, he knows it is because he has not been able to hit upon the system which would have set everything in place and distributed the weight evenly. This search for system is really a search for unity, for synthesis; it is our attempt to harmonise the heterogeneous complexity of outward materials by an inner adjustment.

In the search we gradually become aware that to find out the One is to possess the All; that there, indeed, is our last and highest privilege. It is based on the law of that unity which is, if we only know it, our abiding strength. Its living principle is the power that is in truth; the truth of that unity which comprehends multiplicity. Facts are many, but the truth is one. The animal intelligence knows facts, the human mind has power to apprehend truth. The apple falls from the tree, the rain descends upon the earth - you can go on burdening your memory with such facts and never come to an end. But once you get hold of the law of gravitation you can dispense with the necessity of collecting facts ad infinitum. You have got at one truth which governs numberless facts. This discovery of truth is pure joy to man -it is a liberation of his mind. For, a mere fact is like a blind lane, it leads only to itself--it has no beyond. But a truth opens up a whole horizon, it leads us to the infinite.

Children, when they begin to learn each separate letter of the alphabet, find no pleasure in it, because they miss the real purpose of the lesson; in fact, while letters claim our attention only in themselves and as isolated things, they fatigue us. They become a source of joy to us only when they combine into words and sentences and convey an idea.

Likewise, our soul when detached and imprisoned within the narrow limits of a self loses its significance. For its very essence is unity. It can only find out its truth by unifying itself with others, and only then it has its joy. Man was troubled and he lived in a state of fear so long as he had not discovered the uniformity of law in nature; till then the world was alien to him. The law that he discovered is nothing but the perception of harmony that prevails between reason which is of the soul of man and the workings of the world. This is the bond of union through which man is related to the world in which he lives, and he feels an exceeding joy when he finds this out, for then he realises himself in his surroundings. To understand anything is to find in it something which is our own, and it is the discovery of ourselves outside us which makes us glad. This relation of understanding is partial, but the relation of love is complete.

In love the sense of difference is obliterated and the human soul fulfils its purpose in perfection, transcending the limits of itself and reaching across the threshold of the infinite. Therefore love is the highest bliss that man can attain to, for through it alone he truly knows that he is more than himself, and that he is at one with the All.

3.
This principal of unity which man has in his soul is ever active, establishing relations far and wide through literature, art, and science, society, statecraft, and religion. Our great Revealers are they who make manifest the true meaning of the soul by giving up self for the love of mankind. They face calumny and persecution, deprivation and death in their service of love. They live the life of the soul, not of the self, and thus they prove to us the ultimate truth of humanity. We call them "Mahatmas," "the men of the great soul."

It is said in one of the Upanishads: "It is not that thou lovest thy son because thou desirest him, but thou lovest thy son because thou desirest thine own soul." [Na va are putrasya kamaya putrah priyo bhavati, atmanastu kamaya putrah priyo bhavati.] The meaning of this is, that whomsoever we love, in him we find our own soul in the highest sense. The final truth of our existence lies in this. "Paramatma", the supreme soul, is in me, as well as in my son, and my joy in my son is the realisation of this truth. It has become quite a commonplace fact, yet it is wonderful to think upon, that the joys and sorrows of our loved ones are joys and sorrows to us--nay they are more. Why so? Because in them we have grown larger, in them we have touched that great truth which comprehends the whole universe.

It very often happens that our love for our children, our friends, or other loved ones, debars us from the further realisation of our soul. It enlarges our scope of consciousness, no doubt, yet it sets a limit to its freest expansion. Nevertheless, it is the first step, and all the wonder lies in this first step itself. It shows to us the true nature of our soul. From it we know, for certain, that our highest joy is in the losing of our egoistic self and in the uniting with others. This love gives us a new power and insight and beauty of mind to the extent of the limits we set around it, but ceases to do so if those limits lose their elasticity, and militate against the spirit of love altogether; then our friendships become exclusive, our families selfish and inhospitable, our nations insular and aggressively inimical to other races. It is like putting a burning light within a sealed enclosure, which shines brightly till the poisonous gases accumulate and smother the flame. Nevertheless it has proved its truth before it dies, and made known the joy of freedom from the grip of darkness, blind and empty and cold.

According to the Upanishads, the key to cosmic consciousness, to God-consciousness, is in the consciousness of the soul. To know our soul apart from the self is the first step towards the realisation of the supreme deliverance. We must know with absolute certainty that essentially we are spirit. This we can do by winning mastery over self, by rising above all pride and greed and fear, by knowing that worldly losses and physical death can take nothing away from the truth and the greatness of our soul.

The chick knows when it breaks through the self-centered isolation of its egg that the hard shell which covered it so long was not really a part of its life. That shell is a dead thing, it has no growth, it affords no glimpse whatever of the vast beyond that lies outside it. However pleasantly perfect and rounded it may be, it must be given a blow to, it must be burst through and thereby the freedom of light and air be won, and the complete purpose of bird life be achieved. In Sanskrit, the bird has been called the twice-born. So too the man who has gone through the ceremony of the discipline of self-restraint and high thinking for a period of at least twelve years; who has come out simple in wants, pure in heart, and ready to take up all the responsibilities of life in a disinterested largeness of spirit. He is considered to have had his rebirth from the blind envelopment of self to the freedom of soul life; to have come into living relation with his surroundings; to have become at one with the All.

- from Sadhana: The Realisation of Life by Rabindranath Tagore

About Sadhana: A collection of essays on the Hindu/Buddhist view of humankind’s place in the universe. As the author says in his introduction: “in these papers, it may be hoped, western readers will have an opportunity of coming into touch with the ancient spirit of India as revealed in our sacred texts and manifested in the life of to-day.” Most of the essays were given as lectures before Harvard University in 1916 or before.

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You may listen to this full book Sadhana in audio format following the links below:

• 1 – Preface; The relation of the individual to the universe – 00:32:56
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• 2 – Soul consciousness – 00:31:14
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• 3 – The problem of evil – 00:29:27
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• 4 – The problem of self – 00:37:05
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• 5 – Realisation in love – 00:37:17
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• 6 – Realisation in action – 00:25:48
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• 7 – The realisation of beauty – 00:12:19
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• 8 – The realisation of the infinite – 00:26:40
  [mp3@64kbps - 12.8MB]
  [mp3@128kbps - 25.6MB]
  

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