Activity and Rest
I am sharing below a wonderful experience in meditation. But first read this excerpt from Guruji's Celebrating Silence (Dispassion, Pg. 93):
" Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life. To find a balance in them is a skill in itself. Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have. Finding them in each other - activity in rest and rest in activity - is the ultimate freedom."
That last line above really made me restless when I read it for the first time several years ago. As the years have passed the mystery has slowly unfolded and still there is a long way to go. Of late I have been actively applying myself to understand and experience 'rest in activity'.
A few days back while doing padmasadhana I was sweating (Bau says I have a serious plumbing problem!) a lot and the power went, my sweating increased (you need to understand that I am in Delhi). For a second or two I was irritated. The mind started coming up with brillaint 'ku-tarks' explaining that its ok to do padmasadhana later, let me just meditate, anyway thats the whole point of doing the sadhana, etc.
At this point of time the words 'Activity in rest and rest in activity' popped out of memory like a soft whisper in my ears. I challenged myself, 'If I can drop all efforts and rest in the asana to such an extent that my sweating stops then it will be an achivement'. Total acceptance of the situation happened, I just let go, observed my thoughts and dropped the slightest of agitations...one by one they dropped like a tree shedding its flowers...even the act of dropping was effortless. Before I could realise, my sweating had stopped, the body was steady and the mind till, the silence was deepening and the bliss started expressing itself from within.
While in meditation when the power came and the fan started I actully felt cold and was completely fine if it went again.
By Guruji's grace I had learnt a powerful lesson.
Love & Jai Gurudev
PS: 'Activity in rest' is still a mystery, your views and/or experiments on the same are invited.
i thought only i could not understand the meaning of activity in rest.......
ReplyDeletei mean rest in activity is ok..
but vice versa is out if my range........
hmm Suddenly it pops..:) i apparently didnt blog[share] so i dont remember!! :)
ReplyDelete:) Jai Gurudev!
Jai Guru Dev
ReplyDeleteAchal here bhaiyya.......can u plz explain what is meant by
"thats the whole point of doing the sadhana"
I think activity in rest means to be conscious of the happenings around u even when u r at rest.In meditation,we somtimes go in deep rest while aware of the happenings around us like the sound of the teacher.Likewise u told us the story of guruji listening to narad bhakti sutras while resting.Rest doesnt mean being unconscious.We do this everyday when we wake up in the morning we know what kind of sleep we had last night whether we slept soundly or had dreams.To become aware of this phenomenon and applying it in our day to day activities is freedom.
ReplyDelete