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

As a child I couldn’t wait to take my nightly bath. In the darkness I would slip into my watery womb, the lone window above me sealed by winters icy embrace.  I would follow my breath until the outside world was absorbed in the silence of my interior. The further I went inside the more endless I became.  The boundaries of my body evaporated into the mist. How I wondered could my body be so small and yet so vast?  There was a whole mystical world inside of me.  A powerful presence seemed to appear genie like and eclipse my whole existence.  The bathroom guru God had arrived.

Bathing became a sacred act of communion, communion with my Self.  This was my meditation.  My first remembered experience and intimacy with the divine. I would leave my body spontaneously and without effort.  I looked down upon my little human form lying motionless.  ”I am here and I am there.”  I felt so deeply nourished by this revelation.  There is a part of me I realized that is invisible.  I couldn’t see this self,  but I could feel it.  I became an immediate wonder!   “I am inside, I am outside.  I was just like God.

I  began to communicate with the silence within.  It listened in the way that only silence can. I would share all of my adventures, my daily trials and tribulations. It was my confidant, the reservoir of all my hopes and fears.  I would awaken from my journey to cold water and a shivering body.  The concept of time I discovered, ceased to exist in that place within myself.   I was timeless and vast, a refuge of peace and joy.  I was infinite.

I would hold a question within my heart and I would listen.  I would wait for the bathroom guru God to answer me, my essential nature to come out of the depths.  It always did.  It has been unfailing. What it revealed was knowledge and truth beyond my worldly experiences, this omniscience was a part of my being.  At some point I realized that the sacred presence within me was my true Self.  It was profoundly liberating to know that I would always be under its sovereignty, led by its unerring compass.  Experience would prove that my presence was dependent only upon my being PRESENT.

I have always sat at the lotus feet of the bathroom guru God waiting.  Waiting for the water to take me deep into the well of the unknown, into the spaciousness of my own Being.  Now I simply arrive where ever I am.  Everyday I bow to that unbound and invisible Self  that compassionately guides me into the heart of peace.  ” I am my beloved, my beloved I Am.”

love,

santidevi

Satsang

 Q.   How do we take our practice, our Sadhana into the world.

  A.  Life is the medium of your practice.  Everything that arises is a means for Awakening.  Your practice is meaningless unless it allows you to live more joyously in the world!  The goal of Sadhana is Self Realization.  What are you to Realize?  The Truth of your Being!  How?  There is but one practice to bow to the moment, to surrender to what Is, to abide in the Silence, to relax into the unknown.  Resist nothing!  The antagonizer is your liberator!  Whatever you encounter is conspiring to Awaken you to a greater Truth.  You mistakenly think that meditation is an activity and not a state of Being.  Your meditation is moment to moment Awareness!  All that you will ever need to know or to experience arises from the spaciousness of the present moment.[the field of pure Consciousness]  It is accessible to you Only when you abide where you are.   Free your mind of incessant thinking.  Be absorbed in the One.  Be in Union.  This is the Great Liberation.  The lotus flower blooming in the heart of your heart.  Surrender to the Divine, to the Self,  the great unknown.  You are the bountiful feast!    

 Q.  How does Compassion manifest?

 A.  Compassion arises spontaneously when we experience non-duality.  When we recognize, based on our own knowing that we are not separate phenomenon but a completely innerconnected expression of Consciousness.  You, as the “I” is absorbed into the One.   You see the Divine in all manifestation.  This inspires the illuminating presence of great Compassion.  The power of which renders all barriers to union illusionary.  Love is the path to Liberation.  For when we love we surrender, our individual sense of a separate self dissolves.  Our desire to serve manifests out of loving compassion for all Beings. 

Q.   When should one meditate?

 A.  The classical times for meditation are before sunrise or 6:00am, 12:00 noon and 6:00pm.  Why?  Because these are transitional periods where light and dark meet.  Therefore there is a union of opposites that takes place in a cyclical and natural way.  You are composed of these contrasting elements.  To sit in silent Awareness at these times heightens conscious perception.  The goal of meditation is to experience the Truth through the power of transcendental knowing.  To be still with ones Self, to let go of the mind, to reside naked in the moment is to make ready to recieve the Grace of your true Being.  There is nothing more to do than this.  Meditation happens spontaneously when we are present in the moment.  It is effortless, and our natural state.