19 November 2013

Gurudev, there are two aspects to the present moment. One is that it is vast and infinite, as well as deep. There are so many things happening at the same instant. What is its other dimension or dimensions? Can you please explain?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

That is correct. The present moment is not linear, it is spherical. It is both vast and deep. There are infinite dimensions to the present moment. When you go deep in meditation, you experience this and realize that everything is in this moment only.
The depth of silence, the depth of visions, dreams, etc., is all here and now – in the present moment. Our consciousness is so vast and deep.

Yesterday, we sang this song in Satsang, 'Antaratmani Guruve'. It means, the Guru principle is very deep within us. Then it says, 'Atma-tamo hari', meaning it lifts the veil of ignorance from the Self.
The song says, 'O Guru! You are present deep within me as my spirit'.
And what does the Guru principle do? It removes the darkness of the soul. The song then says, 'There are so many feelings arising in me; this forest of feelings is so complex and complicated. Yet you somehow move through this dense forest of complicated feelings'.

See, when the poet would have written this, he must have had some very deep experience. It is not so simple to comprehend the depth of this verse, especially for an educated (logical) mind. For such a person, not just his mind, even his heart is also like that. Feelings are so confusing and chaotic. Yet the poet says, 'O Guru! You are moving through this complex forest. Just like a ray of light (of hope) moving through the dark dense forest of feelings in the mind'.
It is a very beautiful poem that the poet has written.

In the next verse, the poet says, 'Millions of lifetimes have passed, and there are countless samskaras (impressions) that have gathered; yet your impression is the strongest and deepest. O Guru! Your impression has become the ultimate impression upon my soul, because within this impression, every other impression is getting dissolved. So, this one impression of yours is the Parama-charama; the highest and the ultimate of all'.
It is the final impression of all. Just like how there can be many foot prints on the ground, but when the elephant walks, the foot prints it makes are the largest of all than any of the other animals, like the lion or the tiger. So every other footprint gets done away with. The elephant’s foot is round and large in size. No other animal has got such big footprints. So what the verse says is, that the ultimate impression – that of the Guru – has come on my mind.

In the next verse, the poet says, 'Life is full of positive and negative aspects; merits and sins. It is all a Leela (a play of the Divine)'.
The poet calls it Lalita-Rudra Leela, which means, it is a play of both the pleasant and the unpleasant or the terrible. Yet it is all a play; it is either a pleasant entertaining one or a tragic and terrible one. One experiences merits and demerits, good and bad experiences in life. But in the end, it is all a play. And in this play, you (Guru) are sometimes in the form and sometimes in the formless. So he says, 'O Guru! At times, you are with me as form and at other times you come as the formless presence . And at all times you are unveiling the darkness of the soul'.