I have always aspired to realize my true nature, to experience the depth of human consciousness.  This adventure has been the greatest of my life.  It has stripped skin from bone, left my mind splayed, my heart aflame, until only what is real remains. As a spiritual pilgrim I have ventured into the labyrinth within my own being, eyes open, the fire of consciousness turning lead into gold. Trusting in the unseen with a passion that defies logic.  Surrender becoming an ecstasy of devotion, the unknown my home. This alchemy of awakening has led me to one simple conclusion, our realized and essential nature is love. Another word for the Divine, is love.  If we are going to be who we are in this world than we must be love.  Every great soul has evolved into a compassionate, loving state of being.  It is this love that awakens, inspires, heals and liberates. Quite simply, it is is the unifying principle of life.  Amor est vitae essentia.

As I contemplate my own dharma it has never been more absolutely clear.  I am here to be LOVE.  Every moment of my life has been a longing to realize this truth. Every thought, word and deed seeks to align with this purpose.  One of my students asked me yesterday if I love everyone.  Yes.  She replied with, ‘how can you love everyone’? How can I not?  What prevents love?  Fear.  The antidote to fear is love.  Each moment we are presented with the choice, will we live in love or fear?

At some point in spiritual awakening one realizes an undeniable truth… there is nothing to fear.  Not suffering, not pain, not even death.  For there is no beginning and no end, the Soul is immortal…  Wake Up!

When there is no longer a sense of a separate self, we experience the Divine in all beings. A natural joy arises within, an indwelling peace emerges, and love becomes the natural expression.  Every cell celebrates in unison when we realize that we are not limited to our physicality but are something vast and eternal.  That our very cells are in concert with every other being, creating a symphony of beauty.

I invite you to embrace the mantra, “only love.”  Let this vow take you into the heart of your heart, to the umbilicus of the truth that feeds us all.  Surrender all of your inhibitions, be bold and fearless.  Feel your own love expand to encompass one and all.  You will smile, and so will they. Rise up you Bodhisattva’s and take your place in the world.  There is nothing more to do.  BE LOVE.

love,

santidevi

People from all walks of life have come to be in the presence of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, to listen to his message of a stress free and non-violent global society. A simple man dressed with a smile, and robed in white.  He emanates a playful spirit, that is completely animated and peaceful. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has done the seemingly impossible, uniting and awakening humanity across the planet.  He has crossed religious and cultural barriers with the open heartedness of a child and the wisdom of a saint.

I have come to meditate, to experience his divine presence.  I am unable to sit comfortably in the chair, and so I decide to go to the back of the room and sit cross legged on the floor.  I close my eyes, my breath deepens, my mind becomes spacious. I am home.  He speaks softly, his words are simple. There is a harmonious and melodic quality to his voice.  I suddenly feel the pulse quicken at my ajna chakra, my mind becomes instantaneously one pointed, the boundaries of myself dissolve into the vastness of my being, and I feel the transmission of bliss.  When my eyes open I realize that I am sitting directly in front of Sri Sri.  I smile, he smiles.

A little girl, no more than two, is dressed in kundalini white. She has a little fountain of blonde hair on the top of her head, and a box of red panda licorice in her hands.  She is behind the table next to me and is giving Daniel, an “Art of Living” teacher, a piece.  Pure love.  In my mind I say, I want a piece of licorice too!  She immediately walks around the whole length of the extended table, she has heard me! With a radiant smile she assures me that she is on her way. Her soul is shining, she looks into my eyes and  says, ” I am going to give you one.” Her perfectly tiny hands reach in, and she pulls out two.  ”I am going to give you two, she forms her fingers into a peace sign.  I cup my hands as they fall.  Then she turns around and walks back to her mother. One human being giving selflessly to another, this is seva, this is love.

Real truth is merely love, that which cannot be defined, that which is ineffable.  His holiness embodies and transmits this love with great humility, sincerity and grace. He is a uniting presence, bringing forth the innately Divine nature of humanity. Every human being longs to know, through their intimate experience, who they are. This is the yearning, the desire that is the catalyst for awakening.  Is it any wonder that we gravitate towards those who have actualized their potential, their true nature?  We refer to these people as holy because they have become the living truth, love.  There is an absence of suffering, an abiding peace and joyfulness in their being.  How is this possible?  What allows them to experience this?

Simply, they are relaxed. In relaxing we naturally enter a state of expansion and awareness, a state of receptivity and acceptance. There is a sense of spaciousness. This spaciousness accommodates whatever we experience with equanimity.  When we relax the breath we relax the body, when we relax the body we relax the mind, when we relax the mind we experience liberation.  The conditioning and habituation that normally defines our thinking, our perceptions, and our behavior is no longer predominate.  We are now able to respond to life authentically, with spontaneity and ease.  Effortlessness arises out of non-resistance. When we relax we become our natural meditative and awakened Self.

I invite you to experiment with relaxation as a means to “realization.”  Make this your everyday sadhana, and practice.  See how this affects your life.

Love,

santidevi

Students have come to me in internal conflict, in a state of disharmony and suffering. They are in opposition with themselves and their experience. They invariably believe that their unrest is a result of their personal circumstances.  They try to manipulate, control and otherwise alter their external experience believing that peace lies in the resolution of dissent.  Peace is not reliant upon agreement.  Otherwise it would be a temporary phenomenon dependent upon ones ability to negotiate conditions. The beauty of conflict is that it generates the longing for peace.

Generally speaking people contrive “peace” as the equivalent of having their personal desires fulfilled. This will not grant peace because the nature of  desire is insatiability.  Peace is the absence of desire.  Peace is the unequivocal acceptance of things as they are.  Peace is a choice. 

Peace as an enduring condition arises spontaneously and naturally when the mind is still.  When you no longer object or resist what arises in the field of your experience.  When you enter into a state of non-resistance you immediately feel a spaciousness and freedom.  Ironically whenever you try to control your experience you lessen your personal freedom.  You limit your choices.  Acceptance creates possibility.  You can’t fully engage in life unless your willing to surrender the illusion and dysfunction of control.

Do you truly know which of your experiences are of redeeming value and which are not?   Has anything ever happened against your will that proved to be grace?   Has any disappointing moment led to a greater opportunity?  Salvation often comes in the form of tragedy.  There have been times in my life when I have fallen headlong into suffering that scraped the flesh from my bones only to find that my descent into pain and darkness was my deliverance.  I have learned not to judge what appears at my feet or knocks at my door. What appears initially as misfortune is often the gift I have prayed most devoutly for.  

I have learned throughout my life that where ever I proceed with judgement I am humbled.  Whenever I resist my experience I create suffering.  When I desire things to be other then they are I miss the grace inherent in the moment.  I have found that peace is the natural state of the mind.  As I return breath by breath to the vulnerability of my mortal self I feel compassion well within my heart.  Peace in the end is love.

santidevi

May 12th, 2009

I look out my window as a man vomits underneath the bridge.  He is homeless and filthy.  Plastic bags, membrane thin and torn hang from his body like lifeless kites.  His hands on his knees he struggles to maintain his balance, his human stature.  The coal train on the other side of the brick wall is motionless the only other witness to the suffering of a man whose headphones separate him from the rest of the world.  Kolkata arrives outside of my window and I am transported to another continent in a faraway land where this sight is commonplace and just as invisible.  

I feel the swelling ache of the world’s hungry, the despair of the homeless, and hopelessness of the imprisoned.  My heart beats in time with theirs and my relative comfort feels empty and shallow.  I breathe long into the awareness of this life so blatantly brief.  In this precious moment, in the silence of my abode I bow to the grief that bends the world into twisted form.  I absorb the suffering into my own Being and I feel it dissolve into the spaciousness that has no end.    

Santi Devi