Radhe Radhe Maan Bole

From an agitated mind, to a restless soul- the journey is exciting, with numerous roller coaster rides. One of these rides was around Janmashtami this year- needless to say, the landing was safe and as usual, I am left with many happy sunshine smiles. Here’s an account of what did happen- The days leading up to Janmashtami were tumultuous, to say the least. Not just was there enormous activity happening all around me, but that wily mind of mine, loves the chaos and chose just those opportune moments to wreck my brains and make my emotions its new game partner. So, there I was, at the disposal of a whirlpool of thoughts and tornado of emotions… The rest of the story would be have been very different if it wasn’t for many years of boring sadhana and zillions of intimate moments, interactions and glances from my Master. So, I tried everything in the book, everything that had worked for me in the past… only that this time- all of these gave me only very sporadic and momentary relief. After many days of this internal strife and struggle, it suddenly came to me- the reason for this restlessness. And then, Aloha! I knew how to sort this out. It’s fairly simple you see. You are longing for your master. You identify the longing and then, you book your tickets and off you go- to meet HIM in person. But, alas! If only, it were so simple… Here I was in Hyderabad; HIM in Bangalore. I without holiday and HIM with Pakistan up his sleeve and many more sudden unplanned trips (that are so much a part of HIS life). But then, every cloud has a silver lining- mine had more than one- the upcoming TRM (for those of you who are new to my blog, I associated with The Art of Living and the TRM's are the masters’ gift to some of us) and a fabulous satsang with Swami Suryapad ji in Hyderabad itself! I thought to myself, the satsang will help me hold on till August end, till I finally do get to meet HIM. With such happy and hopeful thoughts in my head, Siddhartha and I made our way to an evening of bliss with Swami Suryapad ji on the occasion of Janmashtami. As obvious, a brilliant satsang followed and just when all was going very quiet in my head-mind, Swami ji in his melodious voice, full of devotion said to all of us, “Radha means longing. This Janmashtami pray that the longing increases. Pray that the longing becomes more intense.” Those words struck me like lightning… here I was, doing all that I could to overcome the longing and here is Swami ji saying pray that the longing increases… what an irony! When I mulled on this a little later, I stumbled upon something that Gurudev had said years ago (In the Knowledge Sheets) about most of us not experiencing any emotion in its intensity and how even studying and probing into physics and meta physics thoroughly will lead people to the classic ‘I Don’t Know’ as will total ignorance. He went on to say, “Attainment of the Divine depends on the intensity of longing and not on the time and qualification. There is a proverb among the villagers in India, which says that it may take some time to pluck a flower but it takes no time to meet the Divine! Abilities, qualifications are not the criteria. It is simply the intensity of your longing. Intensify your longing for the Divine right away. This you can do when you know that you want nothing and you are nothing” Strange are the ways of the Divine… May be in that intense longing, Sayuja can happen. This Janmashtami, I’ve prayed for the longing to grip my soul, my very being…