On this full moon day, at the end of the lunar month of Kartika I want to get to the most important message of all. Life is a bitter-sweet symphony, as one musician once described it. Imagine what it feels like to realize that we have everything already within us. We already have everything to be complete. We are complete and perfect in this human form of life, and yet we can’t always see it or feel it. That is the feeling of ecstasy in separation. Or should I say, simultaneously one with and yet separate in relation to the absolute.
The ancient mystical path of the yogi or the Sufi, is one of realizing that the goal of the human form of life is to remember our original true nature, in relation to the source, the absolute or the divine, as referred to by different cultures throughout history.
When you have lost everything material, or even voluntarily renounced it, and yet still feel complete and fully satisfied, then life becomes permanently abundant and overflowing with ecstasy. This is because the outer material trappings are foisted upon us by society since our birth, and we are raised in this conditioned state to think that we need these external objects of the senses to feel complete.
However, when we come across knowledge combined with life experience, that allows us to lose the need for the external objects and yet still feel abundant, then we begin to tap into the awesome opulence of life as it is. The planet is originally abundant with life and the requirements for life, without harm to any other living entity.
Even more than that, the human form of life is complete in its ability to facilitate transcendence entirely. That’s why we see in cultures where spirituality or consciousness is understood and encouraged, that the wandering mendicant or “sadhu” or pilgrim is respected and tolerated and actually protected. In India, for example, I have seen many beggars who go from door to door begging alms from the householders, and they are fully accommodated because they are not degraded. Their status in society is not diminished by their voluntary poverty or renunciation. Rather the opposite.
Once one has tapped into the opulence of transcendence, or the magic and mystery of life found within, then there is no need for external consumer goods to feel complete, what to speak of requiring any other physical person in one’s life to feel whole. Most people are still in the bodily conception of life and bound by the desires for mating and procreating the species.
But when you have tapped in to the inner consciousness of being connected to not only all other living entities already, but also to the divine source of all life, then you already feel complete and connected to everyone, without the need for sentimental or egocentric affection.
In this stage of life the mystic or yogi is absorbed in their relationship with the divine, and as a by-product feels a kindred spirit with all living entities. In this state of consciousness there is so much love for all life, there is so much abundant exhilaration and joy at seeing all life – including plant and animal – as part and parcel of the divine. Nature is a paradise.
People are less important for the well being, for they cause complications and ego clashes and not many are on the same frequency. People can be a disturbance, when absorbed in their mundane affairs, based on survival and sense gratification. That’s why the yogis or mystics retreat to the wilderness, surrounded by nature, far from society, in order to connect more with nature and avoid the society, with its artificial trappings and demands.
Surrounded by nature, and armed with the knowledge of techniques by which we can uplift the consciousness and glimpse our true eternally blissful state, the mystic is free from dependency on any other person to feel fulfilled. The divine or transcendent is the source of all life and sustenance. There is so much opulence all around us in nature. The life force is so prolific, that little else is needed to feel perfect and complete.
And what we don’t know via education or training regarding the arts of mediation, will be revealed to us when we simply block out all the outer stimulus and go within. All the wisdom and science of god-realization can be found within the core of the heart, so to speak. The Vedic yoga texts describe the Supersoul (Paramatma) as being situated in the heart of us all. God is within all of us. And thus the source of life is within.
By actually going the opposite way of modern society, we will find the real goal of life, that is the paradoxical secret. We are being bewildered and deluded by others who are themselves deluded, we are being raised to succumb to the allure of consumerism, when we already have the very treasure which we so urgently seek, within us.
Naturally there is a time and place for everything in life. When one is a child the ideal is to be trained in the ancient ways, in the sacred texts and in the priorities of life, at least theoretically. Then as one matures into a young adult, the desires to mate and produce offspring overwhelm most of us. So the marriage and parental stage of life is there.
The trappings of materialism are hard to avoid at this stage since we are driven by hormones and the need to raise our children and protect them. This requires us to be absorbed in the mundane world of assets and resources, which we acquire and accumulate to feel satisfied. Often we become softened and attached to such frills, and mentally we feel incomplete without them. That is the allure of the consumerist world, where merchants want you to stay a customer to their wears.
However, if one is trained well or educated or at least intuitively attuned to the way of the spirit soul, then naturally one walks away from the mundane entrapments of material life, including the need for name and fame, possessions, and certainly the need for a significant other, to make you feel complete. Some are naturals at this and never get involved in that trap, but they are few and far between. But any sincere seeker will, when led by the soft inner voice from the heart, gradually walk away from the trappings of the mundane world and turn within to remember the original source and relationship with eternity or the absolute truth.
The role models are all there. The information is all available. It just depends on your capacity to discover the true perspective of reality. Some are blessed with insight, some are however trapped by the external allures. Most are dependent on the externals after a lifetime of conditioning and covering by that illusory misconception.
And I can only hint at this state of consciousness. It is difficult to transmit this truth to the unprepared hearer. It goes over the head of most. It is a state of mind, a perception of consciousness or reality that I am alluding to here. But I can say that when you tap in to the unlimited abundance of power, life force and nectar available for all of us all the time, then you will never feel any dependence on any external source for your satisfaction or peace of mind.
This is what is meant by the “higher taste”. Once you have felt the flow, been blessed by the nectar for which we are always eager, then you will never require the substitutes again.