Manifestations with your Committed - Skilful - Efforts!
In the journey of life there is a role that we have to play and there is a role that the divinity plays. Many times I see that those who believe that the divinity is taking care of everything, sometimes lose the awareness about what is your own role in it. What is the role of your own free will, your own commitments, your own hard work in your life. I call it, committed-skillful-efforts.
This ingredient of self effort sometimes takes a backseat and people believe that the divine is taking care of everything. It is wonderful to believe that the divine is taking care of everything because the design of nature is indeed such a small role we have to play and most of the things are being governed by this generator-G, operator-O, destroyer-D
G. O. D : God, the divine energy.
Own journey of lifetimes:
Look at your own life. Look at your own journey of hundreds and thousands of lifetimes from this physical body to the breath, mind, intelligence, memory, ego of the inner world and the people, situations and things of the outer world. How much of a role do we have to play by ourselves? You will see a small room, very little! Most of the things are being offered as a gift.
Look at the body, these eyes and ears and nose and tongue and the skin. Through these five senses we are able to experience life! Have we made them? NO! Imagine if the job of designing the body was given to us for creating. What kind of disasters we would have done! Some divine energy, some unseen force- the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient entity is already creating the body and it is being given to us like a gift. Look at the breath that keeps the body alive. If it was given to you or me to deliberately breathe and imagine if you don't breathe in the breakfast break, imagine that kind of scenario, disasters would have happened. In the process of getting angry at somebody you would forget to breathe! How dangerous it can get!
By the nature, by the divine
You see, even while we are sleeping and dreaming or meditating the breath goes on continuously, unabated, in auto-mode! It's a gift given to us by nature, by the divine. Look at the turning points of your life. I'm really not saying only divine works, I'm saying we have a small role to play in it, but most of the work I would say in the ratio 99.99% is already happening on its own. Look at these beautiful people whom we get as a gift for us to love, connect and have fun with and feel secure about. Look at everything that is around you. Have you created it? NO. The food that we eat, the fruits, the colours, the divine fabric which is running the whole game and in that we have a small role to play.
Let's come to that role. Now, having acknowledged that 99.99% is given to us by the divine. Our role, our individual contribution is 0.01%. But there is a beautiful dynamic in this aspect. Imagine a picture scene where small little dots are creating the whole picture. I would say almost the whole picture is getting developed and uncovered in front of you, moment to moment to moment to moment. There is a colour box in front of you and you have to pick up a particular colour and put one dot of that colour in that picture.
But the beauty is, whichever dot you choose to put, whichever colour you choose to use, the whole picture appears to be of that colour for that moment. In this divine play of life, moment to moment to moment to moment, I'm saying what flavour you allowed to develop in your inner world, life appears to be of that flavour for that moment and as human beings we have that choice every single moment to choose what flavour, what colour you want to keep and which one you want to drop from your consciousness. Nature has already given that ability to us. The ability to invoke any flavour at will. That's already there with us.
Ability to drop:
The ability to drop any flavour at will, thoughts, emotions, memories, judgments, likes, dislikes, rights, wrongs, any flavour of ego, anything you want to drop, you have the freedom to drop it any moment. Whichever flavour repetitively, recurrently develops in you, forms its own tendency, its own habit in your consciousness. Whichever habit has got developed because of some indulgences of the past, if you keep dropping that flavour repetitively, that habit will also go away. That's how powerful each individual is.
A skillful expert:
Now having recognized that the divine play is actually playing the whole game of life and we have a small role to play in it; I'll give you one more analogy to explain this. Imagine you are in India and you want to drive from Bombay to Delhi. Now imagine the city of Bombay; we didn’t create it nor did we create the city of Delhi that we want to choose as our destination. We have not created the road going from Bombay to Delhi, we have not created the eating joints and the traffic signals and people crossing the roads and flyovers, nothing of that.
We haven’t even created the car that we are going to choose to drive from Bombay to Delhi. But even though we have not created the car, the accelerator brake, clutch, gas steering wheel, horn, lights, wipers, these instruments to run the car are given to us to operate as we wish to.
A skillful expert driver, with meticulous understanding of the car would cover the same distance so beautifully, so quickly, so effortlessly, almost celebrating while taking that journey. Those who have not understood how these fantastic instruments work are almost struggling with how to manoeuvre and what to do when people cross their road. And they keep driving, being suffocated, frustrated, almost helpless.
Instruments of life:
We have been given everything almost like a gift and yet we are being given a beautiful opportunity. You are being given the responsibility to choose what you want to do in our life, moment to moment to moment to moment. And what are the instruments to drive this car- your body, your breath, your mind, intelligence, memory and ego. These are your instruments, the people, situations, things - you do not have too much control over. But these six instruments have their own technical dynamics for the soul to carry out this journey of life.
You need to understand these technicalities, you need to understand how to put them to use. You need to understand the process of beautiful, sensitive exploration of what you are and how to use your opportunities for the complete blossoming of your consciousness. This is the training program. That syllabus is what spirituality is, that methodical development of individual consciousness is what spirituality offers you!
Using these instruments of breath, mind, intellect, memory, ego to understand the importance of generating your own commitments.
Blossoming through Commitments:
Having understood the dynamics. Finally, it will come down to what I will do and what I will not do. Creating your own list of areas you need to work on and the list of does and dont’s is what I call commitments. Having understood the importance of this knowledge in your own life, it’s time for us to commit ourselves and make a list of commitments. Let's understand where you are. Let's understand where you need to go. And then let's also commit ourselves to a very methodical blossoming of your individual consciousness through your own commitments.
Manifesting in the form of events:
In this subject of how to strengthen our commitments let’s understand now to make sure that the commitments that we make, stay! How to keep them at higher intensity so that we don't lose them. Now, let's say if you have a commitment of doing your meditation regularly and you want to keep that commitment. You will also have to understand the nature of the mind. What happens is you will see as soon as a commitment is made and determination arises in your mind with the same subject of that sankalp-wish, you would also have anti thoughts the vikalp. This is almost like I want to do this and in parallel you have a list of thoughts, list of ideas, list of anti thoughts. These anti thoughts are called vikalpas.
What happens is in the realm of consciousness, whatever comes up in you, the divine energy blesses it and says let thy will be done. May whatever comes up in your consciousness, manifest in the form of events, in the form of situations. So what happens is, as soon as you decide to do something, the divine force blesses it and things start happening in the direction of your sankalp- your wish. But along with that sankalp, if you also have anti thoughts in your mind, that also starts happening. So on one hand you're saying I want to do a particular task, but I have a list of anti thoughts for that same task.
You have the wish, the desire to walk on a particular path and the anti thoughts about the same are almost fighting with your wishes and you don't manifest what you want because of this inner conflict.
Let it happen:
In the process of strengthening your Sankalp, your determination, your commitments; the first necessity is to identify the vikalpas. In the process of strengthening your commitments, recognize the thoughts, the emotions, the ideas, the anti thoughts which break the power of your commitments. List them down and one after the other, no matter how real they may appear to be, with outgoing breath and your ability to surrender, first and foremost drop the vikalpas- the anti thoughts.
As soon as you drop the negatives, a stage comes, which is called a miracle, where the mind is free of preventive and restrictive thoughts and then the determination, commitment towards your sankalp stays in your consciousness.
Bring your mind to that stage, make your own commitment and drop all the anti thoughts. The beauty starts here, after having dropped your anti thoughts, convert your sankalpa into a prayer. I want to do this, convert that into a prayerful- please let it happen. Convert it into a prayer and give it to the divine to manifest it. Let the divine do his own magic of tathastu- SO BE IT!
Free your mind:
Keeping the Sankalp just in your consciousness can make you feverish with the seeking. If your Sankalp has a corresponding Vikalpa, it will keep breaking your commitment and affect the process of manifestations.
So first free your mind from the vikalpa, convert the sankalpas into prayers and give them up. I'm saying, give it up to the Divine. Don't give up on it. Give it up to the divine to do its own magic and let it manifest for you. That's the skill, that's the sensitive process by which a devotee can manifest and create anything that he/she wants in their life. Whatever desire comes up, the divinity is poised to fulfil it. There is no dearth of anything in existence.
Process of expansion:
In our culture of vedic science, physical abundance and even material fulfilment is considered to be a part of full blossoming. It is never a conflict whether we should ask for material abundance or not. You know if you have a desire, let those desires get fulfilled for your mind to be free from it so that after feeling fulfilled the mind can look for higher truths. If there is so much of a lack, the first step is towards fulfilment. Let the lack be released. And then the process of blossoming, the process of fulfilment, the process of expansion starts.
So use this beautiful technology to convert all your sankalpas into prayers and drop all the vikalpas coming up along with it and let the divine manifest it for you. You have to make sure even an iota of Vikalpa should not remain in your consciousness when you are giving it up. You are actually giving the responsibility of manifesting it to the hands of the Divine. You are just declaring to the Divine… I have this desire and now it is all yours. It's up to you. That's the beauty. Don't keep it in your heart alone.
Steps of negative to neutral to positive:
Make a list about what you need to be free from and then prioritise them. Let’s say for example, if you have five things, 7 things, 10 things that you need to achieve in this life and there are some sankalpas. These commitments can be of two steps. Either some negativity that you need and want to be free from which we call as negative to neutral-the first step. 2nd ; you want to invoke some beauty in your life which includes some beautiful benevolent activity in your life that is neutral to positive.
In these 2 steps of negative to neutral and of neutral to positive, if you have a list of 15 items, 20 items that you want for your own life, give them priorities according to the value you feel these items have in your life. Take just three or 4 at a time. Be comfortable and decide how much you will be able to address at a time. Once this is done, convert those plans into prayers, give it up to the divine and then whatever you have decided to do, attach that sankalpa with a stake. What I mean is if you have a sankalp for some project and you have decided that every day you have to do a particular number of activities for it. I'm saying connect that sankalp with some activity of your life that you would anyway do for your comfort.
For eg; if your Sankalp is to be regular with your yog pranayam and meditation, you decide to put a stake in your breakfast. What I mean is until you do not finish your daily practices, you will not have your breakfast. That should be the stake. So because it's time for you to have your breakfast, if you do not attach that stake, you would go and eat your breakfast, without finishing your meditation.
Manifest anything and everything:
I'm promising you, you will have to put stakes to discipline your mind initially. You can put a stake in dinner for seva-service related sankalpas. Once I finish the decided seva activity only then I will have my dinner.
If you do not attach these benevolent activities with some stakes, sometimes your mind plays its own tricks. Don't fall for these tricks. I'm saying, make sankalpas, drop vikalpas, convert sankalpas into a prayer, give it up for the divine to manifest. And then what is the role that you have to play? You go behind them, attach the sankalpas with some stake, some activity that you will anyway do in your life.
See the magic unfolding in your life with your committed skilful efforts and manifest anything and everything you want in your life!