Wednesday, July 3, 2013

VII: 25

Chapter 7, Verse 25

"Veiled in my mystery and power,
I am not experienced by most.
How shall this world,
Bewildered by delusion,
Recognize me,
Who was never born
And change not?"

Father Bede Griffiths:

When we mistake this world, this Maya, for the ultimate Reality, then Maya becomes an illusion, and we are deluded.  When we see and feel the world as the work of the Divine and see and feel the Divine shining through it, the world becomes the means of union with the Divine.

Behind all that is born, behind all that is made, there is the unborn and the unmade.  This is the essential truth.

Illusion consists in mistaking the outward form and appearance for the ultimate Reality.  It is like being at the movies and imagining that what you are seeing is real.

At death, the lights go up, and you realize what has been happening.

Paramahansa Yogananda:

Just as the images of the motion picture distract the viewer from the beam that produces them, so is God's Light hidden behind the hum-drum of life.

[Hidden...until we look for it...and receive the grace to see and feel it.]

Sri Aurobindo:

He is self-enveloped in an immense cloak of Maya, by which he is one with the world and at the same time beyond it, immanent and yet hidden, seated in the hearts of all, but revealed only to the few.

If, after bewildering us with his workings in Nature, he were not to meet us in flesh, there would be no hope for any of us.  Therefore, according to our nature, as we approach him, he accepts our Bhakti and answers it with his reply of divine love and compassion.

No devotion is worthless, whatever its limitations.  There is one grand necessity, though:  faith.  By the force of that Shraddha in our worship, we receive the spiritual realization for which we are at that moment fitted.

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

Vast and varied as the Universe is, it is only the surface of Reality.  It is real, just as a dream is real to the dreamer, but like a dream, it is a lower level of reality out of which we can awaken.  We are so captivated by the promises of this dream that we do not want to wake up; in fact, we cannot even imagine what waking up would be like.  All of our attention is on the dream.

However, the mystics of all wisdom traditions assure us that as our longing for fulfillment becomes increasingly intense, and our dreams become more and more stale, we will begin a titanic endeavor to wake up.

When we finally awaken, we will rub our eyes in wonder that we could ever have been taken in by the dream of a separate existence.

A friend:

"When we see and feel the world as the work of the Divine and see and feel the Divine shining through it, the world becomes the means of union with the Divine."  Father Bede

"Nothing may be truly said to be a 'miracle' except in the profound sense that everything is miraculous."  Yoganandaji

[A dictionary definition of miracle:  an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.

Every event is extraordinary.  Every event is filled with divine Presence.  No coffee break for God.]   

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