First Sunday of Advent (2020)

 

Wake up!

People spend millions to win a local election.  The winner proudly calls himself, "I am the Panchayat president!"  One who lost is dejected and says, "I am not"!

But who am I?  "I am the provincial", "I am the superior", "I am the president", "I am the minister!"  Are you sure?  Is that what You are?  They are "temporary garbs" that you put on.  They are not You!  We falsely identify with them and take pleasure in it or grief over it when it is not there! 

Sometimes you are robbed or feel terribly robbed!  In some hospitals you are ripped off!  Some advocates strip your purse!  After becoming filthy rich they feel empty and frantically thirst for peace!  They go to shrines and hill tops looking for what they had lost.  It is like Mr. Mulla searching for the keys of his house under the street light.  The passerby asked him, "Do you remember where you had lost it?"  He said, "Near my home"!  "Then why the hell are you searching here?"  Mulla said, "because it is bright here." 

Search, where you had lost it.  Places however holy they say, will not deliver you peace unless you resolve to search where you had lost it.  If you had lost your peace at home, don't look for it on the streets.  If you had lost it with your neighbour, don't look for it the holiday resorts.  If you had lost it in your community, don't look for it in the retreat centres.  If your alienation comes due to money, power and position, better to take a distance from them to enjoy the inner solace.  Many falsely believe that money, position and power can bring happiness!  Not true!!  It brings in a little pleasure which is very shaky and temporary!

Naked and empty handed, Nagarjuna was given a golden begging bowl studded with diamonds by the queen.  Initially he refused to accept it but later for the satisfaction of the queen accepted the offering!   "Difficult to protect it" he said the queen and went away with it!  A thief followed him to the rugged place where he was resting that night.  He threw it off and told the thief, "Please take it.  It's my gift.  I don't want to make you a thief"  The thief was shocked!  "I want to come in" he said.  "that is why I threw it off" Nagarjuna replied.  After some conversation, As the thief was about to leave, Nagarjuna gave him just one discipline to be follow.  "You must always remember that you are Buddha".  Just after 2 and half days the thief came back very quickly.  "It is very difficult to protect the bowl. Everyone is eying for it.  There are robbers everywhere!" he said.  Moreover, the other worst problem is, "I am not able to steal.  As I swiftly move my hand to lift something, my hands become numb as I become aware of the discipline that I am a Buddha!  How can a Buddha steal? My thoughts haunt me!"

You cannot go against your consciousness!  When you realize that you are a mother, you get soaked into motherliness!  When you are awake, you don't sleep!

Maggie an young girl used to be a chain smoker.  She had come to us for 6 weeks of rural experience.  She was all the time preoccupied and tensed about her boy friend.  Later when I met her after a couple of years, she was pregnant.  She had totally given up smoking and drinking!  When you are aware that you are a mother, you don't go against that motherliness! 

We get sedated and drop consciousness!  And then you play foot ball on a table tennis board and play table tennis on a golf ground!  In a sedated and dreaming state you can play any havoc!  You can drop atom bombs on cities!  Sell pesticides to kill the nature!  Cut trees to pollute the earth!  Form corporate companies to steal from hamlets and huts!  Win elections tampering the ballots!  Play caste and religion to burn hamlets and humanity! Make use of churches and places of worship to promote dogmas and devotions than care for the neighbour! 

You blow and put off your own lamp and move around in darkness!  And in darkness you don't know what you step on and what you bulldoze!  There are millions of empty candles walking around in darkness stepping on each other!

Here and there, these empty slumbering candles see lights!   They again take pleasure seeing them and begin worshipping them from afar!  They build huge structures to adore and conquer them!  They spend several night and days to create dogmas to support the obvious lamps!

Go near them!  You will automatically get lighted! Emptiness dissipates!  Enjoy the fullness!!

Keep your light burning otherwise darkness will engulf you!  In other words, "Wake up the thief  waits to hunt your home!" (Mk 13: 33-37)