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Chapter 9
THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE OF SERVICE TO HUMANITY: YOGA OF SURRENDER
46. The Whole Life Can Be Infused With God
20. The moments of our daily life may appear commonplace, but they are not really so. They have a deep significance. The whole of life is like a great yajna—a continual sacrificial performance. Your sleep is also a kind of samadhi—an experience of oneness with the divine consciousness. If we surrender all that we did and all that we experienced to the Lord before going to sleep, will not that sleep be a kind of samadhi? There is a custom of reciting the Purushasukta, a Vedic hymn, while taking bath. What is the connection between the bath and the Purushasukta? You will discern it if you wish to. What connection does the great, all-pervading Purusha (the cosmic Person) having thousand hands and thousand eyes have with your bath? The connection is that, there are thousands of drops in the water you pour over your head. They wash your head and clean it, ridding it of your sins. They are the Lord’s blessing showering on you. The Lord Himself is washing off your sins through those thousands of drops of water. Let your bath be infused with such an exalted sentiment; then it will be an altogether different thing. It will then have boundless power. 21. Any work, howsoever ordinary or commonplace, assumes sanctity if performed in the spirit that it is God’s work. You can experience it yourself. Just look upon a guest as the Lord Himself and then see the difference it makes. When some distinguished guest is expected in our house, we clean the house thoroughly and prepare special dishes. Imagine the difference it will make if we look upon the guest as the Lord Himself! Saint Kabir was a weaver. While weaving, he would lose himself in spiritual bliss and sing ecstatically. He was as if weaving the sheets to drape the Lord. The sage in Rig Veda says, ‘वस्त्रेव भद्रा सुकृता वसूयुः।’—‘I am draping the Lord with my hymns.’ It is for the Lord that a poet should compose hymns, and it is for Him that a weaver should weave cloth. How stirring the idea is! How purifying and moving the thought is! How pure our life would become if this feeling informs it! A flash of lightening removes darkness in an instant. Is the removal of darkness gradual? The transformation is instantaneous and total. Likewise, life is instantly charged with wonderful energy when every action is linked to the Lord. Every action will then become pure. Life will be full of zest. Today our life is devoid of any zest or purpose. There is no joy, no happiness in it. We are alive only because we are yet to die. But just think of linking your actions to the Lord, and then your life will be full of charm; it will be worthy of veneration. |
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