Secrets of Moving Beyond Bitterness

With Nayaswami Aditya; from Ananda India

Transcript

Nayaswami Aditya:

Now this is actually a little bit like Patanjali. I'm reminded of one sutra of his that if you're not in Bliss then he says it is like, almost to say, it's your problem. He says you have to introspect. You were made from Bliss. You ought to be in Bliss. And if you're not in Bliss, then you have made a mistake at some distant time, and when you correct that, when you've learned your lesson, Bliss will be, once again, yours. And, of course, Patanjali is the father of yoga. This is from the yoga sutras and you read that little sutra and it seems a bit too sharp and straight, but we need that lesson sometimes.

You know, here we are talking about, I'll let a friend over here know that we are talking about bitterness, for example, that I want to give you some examples to make this, you know, kind of a little bit more real.

I was recently telling somebody the story of the Maharashtrian saint Chokhamela. Maybe you've heard of him. Chokhamela was a little boy. He was born in a family of, you know, cattle people who tended cattle. And one day—he would hear this temple bell all the time—and he asked his father, "What is this place? Let's go and explore." And his father said, "Oh, no no. We are not allowed to go there. This is the temple. The priests pray over there. We are outcasts; we are from a lower caste; and we cannot enter those places."

But Chokhamela, this little boy, was drawn to that sound. So one day when his father was not there and he heard the temple bells, well, he did what a little boy would do, he ran in that direction, went straight to the idol of the god in that temple, this is near Pandarpur, and just started shedding tears of deep love, longing. Those old samskars, perhaps, of loving God were surging in his heart and he was grasping the idol and just maybe even was in ecstasy.

And in that moment the priest saw what this child had done. He had entered and in their language he had defiled the temple. And can you imagine how skewed or how all can the human mind in a group setting be that a temple is a place for worshiping God, loving God? But, you know, it's so strange, human intelligence does not come by age, does not come by just acquiring qualifications of one kind or another.

Yoganandaji said when he went to the West to teach people how to meditate they said, "Oh, you are an Eastern teacher and these teachings are for the Eastern body." And Master said "The body is the same everywhere, the nervous system, the feelings, the soul is the same everywhere." But it was not easy to convince some people and it is very interesting that such things come up every now and then in this world of duality.

Coming back to that story, they immediately dragged Chokhamela out, tied him to a post outside the compound of the temple, and were wondering what to do before the head priest came. Because now they had to purify, cleanse the whole Temple and sanctify it once again. And, well, the priest came and he said, "Why is this boy tied over here?" And when they told him what had happened, he slapped Chokhamela in a very strong way. They say that his entire cheek was swollen and his lip was cut by that one slap. And he said "Well, we'll deal with him later, but let's go and see how we can clean the temple first."

Well, they went inside only a few more steps to discover that the idol now and to this day has a swollen left cheek and a cut on its lip and, of course, instantly they recognized what had happened. Now the first part of the story is so heart-wrenching. Here's a little boy, he's full of devotion the one thing necessary to find God. He approaches God and he's dragged away from him by men of God, supposedly. And you said "My goodness why does God allow for such a thing?" But you know, what a great revival happened after that story, that the priests realized, much like people who had crucified Christ.

Even last month somebody was asking me if Christ was God why did he allow for such a thing to happen? He must have had so much power and we start comparing the saints, that this saint was not not hurt by his enemies why was Christ hurt? and so on and so forth.

Well, God cannot be put in a box. Many times things that happen seem very heart wrenching. they cause us to actually lose all sense of you might say rationality. Swami Kriyanandaji said when he was expelled from his guru's asham he all he was trying to do was share the teachings, expand the outreach that the guru had asked him to do. And it led to a misunderstanding and without any thought or something he was thrown out.

And Padre Pio, another great Saint, how easy is it to find Saints, you know, not so easy in this world. It requires incarnations of spiritual evolution to finally master and reach God. And we find these saints and Padre Pio was another great saint of the previous century.

Well, he was persecuted by his own church there were supporters in that church but many just couldn't stand him they thought he was a false teacher and such. And anyway, when when one time the representative of the pope came and he wanted to meet Padre Pio. And that meeting didn't go as the person had thought and he totally wrote a wrong report about him, updating the pope about Padre Pio as an insane person, as a person who has hurt himself for sympathy and what not.

And I remember that in the movie they show this scene, but you can also read it in the book, about his life, you know, that when he... when that letter was sent to him that the pope is extremely disappointed in your behavior and such, for a moment Padre Pio is very disheartened and sad and he just grabs his head and he just doesn't know what to do. And every... all the other monks are quite, you know, taken a back because he was their spiritual leader. And why did, why does such a, you might say, thing happen have to happen to good people?

Here's a saint... finally we have and why such a behavior? And, but then here's the wisdom of the saint. Also he says actually it's not the fault of Father __, who was the person who had written that wrong report. He said it's not his mistake. "It's Satan. He knows how to confuse wise minds. He knows how to do that."

Now the point is if, let's say, some circumstance has hurt us, maybe it's been an accident. Somebody's house burns down; they lose a limb; tragic events happen just, you know, when we are not at all expecting them or somebody disappoints us. Swami Kriyananda said if a very close one you know betrays you, is acting as it happened in Padre Pio's case for decades, they just are not you know on your side, they're trying their utmost to destroy you maybe, and Swami says, you know, isn't it enough that such a challenging thing is happening to you? Why get bitter about it especially once we are on the spiritual path?

You see in both the places Chokhamela was not so bitter. He was in God! Padre Pio for a moment he was caught by that then he says "No, no, no. I know what's happening!" Swami Kriyananda himself said he said "Why should I get hurt? It's enough that those who I loved so much have so grossly misunderstood me." And he said "I will not allow this bitterness to enter my heart." He said "I continue to very consciously pray for them. I love them." Think of Christ! Here he was on the cross. Finally, an avatar comes down to help us and, as they say, we bite the very fingers that feed us.

Well there was a potential, you might say, theoretically, for him to get bitter or get disappointed, But of course, Master said, that didn't happen. He said actually on the other hand Christ's greatest sermon was given from the cross: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

Now when we are thinking of, you might say, heroic examples and saintly responses. How can you and I overcome you might say our day-to-day setbacks? or, like I explained, some situations that happen in our life?

Well first of all Swami Kriyanandaji said when something which has disappointed you has happened, he said, in that moment, you see, your feelings have been deeply hurt. And he says that is actually certainly not the best, and he says it is actually at that time you should not make any judgment. It's enough to know something not good has happened.

Like when Swami was thrown out. He was shocked! He was so sad! And Anandamoyi Ma wrote him a letter and she said, "Please, take this as your guru's grace. Kriyananda said, "Grace! He said that was the last thing! You think of Kripa is something very sweet, nice, loving, beneficial and uplifting. And Swami said "I couldn't think of it as Grace." But as the years went by, and Swami faced more than that challenge in life, Swami said "I learned that when something like that happens," well, the first thing he would do is keep judgment aside. He said, "I'll come back to this later. I cannot make sense of it. I must learn to accept it."

Remember that teaching by Paramahansa Yoganandaji, "Circumstances are always neutral." Now, you say how can that be, they are positive or negative. Master said actually they are positive or negative depending on the attitude of your mind. That calls for us to keep a joyful, positive attitude all the time, because we know this is a world of duality. That's a spiritual teaching, we know, the greater the light, the stronger is the opposition of darkness, light ultimately overcomes it. But it is not without a fight, you might say, in time and space.

And so it is that whatever happens to us in life, Swami says, "First, keep that judgment aside about it, learn to accept it. Then," he said, "You may be bitter towards the person or situation, maybe you're bitter towards God." Swami says some saints have, as you're moving towards God, you're like "God, why? Why are you doing this?!" And Swami says, don't feel bad about that response. You're only... it's naturally come up.

And he said, you will see, don't persevere in it, but, he said, "You will see that the sooner you can turn from that bitterness to God, at least you're thinking of God." And he says, "Then hold on to God. And you realize that actually, God is not a bitter god, he's not a vengeful god. There has... there's a reason why the karma has hit me," if it is your karma, and then you start making sense of it. And once you make sense of it, it's like an exam that we are not trying to face we don't want to face, but we faced it. We've developed our strength. We've developed our lessons; we vowed never to repeat that, we don't want to face that once again. And comes a lot of freedom, comes a lot of joy, comes gratitude.

Swami Kriyananda said... so again, as Anandamoyi Ma said to him, "Oh, this is Guru Kripa. This is Guru's grace. Think of it that way." Swami said it took him some years, but he came to that same understanding. And he said, "I've been grateful."

So we'll pick this theme up a little bit more with regard to you might say situations in the coming few weeks whenever I get the next opportunity. But till that time, Let's meditate on these words. As I prepared for this class. I thought about it. I said, this is interesting. We carry these hurts on many levels in our hearts. But if we can learn that it's temporary, but in the end, I want to overcome it.

And, like, just to repeat those points, Swami said, "Don't make judgment about the person or situation, raise your energy." "You cannot meet Satan," Padre Pio said, "on the level at which he has created the problem, you will keep fighting over there." He said raise your energy, raise your consciousness, raise the level of joy. Once your energy is high, then, Swami says, you start getting the larger picture. And you realize that you are slowly getting free from that which was leading to despair and bitterness and grief and sorrow, confusion, all those things. And when you come out of it, your heart is full of gratitude.

And just to close, Chokhamela, Padre Pio, Swami Kriyananda, Christ, Yoganandaji, these great saints, and, Kriyanandaji said, all people who are well meaning, they are tested for themselves and for setting an example for others. That "Oh, if he could overcome this, if she could overcome this, perhaps I too can find some inner strength and heal myself from what normally causes bitterness in a world of duality." "Lord, I am Thine, be Thou mine." Swami says, when you're hurt—people, circumstances—you feel alone. He says, you surrender all the time. But in those moments, Swami says, God will always be with you. He is always with you. Remind yourself through this chant:

Lord, I am Thine, I am Thine, I am Thine. Lord, I am Thine, I am thine. Be thou mine, oh, be Thou mine, be Thou mine, oh be Thou mine. I am Thine. I am Thine.

Om, Guru