I recently a statement from a Western spiritual teacher, that the greatest sin is in trying to tell God what to do. This makes total sense to me.
With that being said and with that assumption, then the implication is to live ones life with an attitude of surrender to God...which also makes sense...but the puzzle (for me) is... does that make one passive in the activities of life?...
I believe that the answer lies in the same principal taught by Mahatma Gandhi...the principal of satyagraha (spelling?) in which, he states, there is nothing passive about it...which implies power....
Life then becomes the balancing act (?) of surrender and proactivity (?)...am I stating the problem correctly...any thoughts?
There is nothing passive about self surrender. It is an active act of allowing the Divine will to flow through us. It is becoming the perfect instrument in the hands of the Mother. It is renunciation of our pettiness and our small egos and to become one with the Divine will. When we have realized the Divinity within ourselves then we have true self surrender.
As Sri Ramakrishna taught us to pray, we should pray to the Divine Mother and ask Her to let us have the true spirit of self surrender. It is sadhana (spiritual practice) that evolves into self surrender.
The proactive issue that you talk about is doing karma yoga. Working and not being attached to the reward of the job that is done. At the end of the goal remember karma yoga and true self surrender is all the same thing. (I have yet to get there…)
Comment: I have a strong feeling that
you are on the right path.
However, we must always remember the Words of our Beloved Master,
Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva:
"The Divine Mother wants to continue playing with Her
created beings. In a game of hide-and-seek the running
about soon stops if in the beginning all the players
touch the 'granny'. If all touch her, than how can the game
go on? That displeases Her.
Her pleasure is in continuing the game."
Namaste Brother Paritosh,
So good to hear from you. and yes...I think you have hit it. Thanks...
Also,Would what I am talking about be the same as the Siva/Shakti principles...?
Surrender itself is the most intense prayer, Says Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Sri Fhanindra tells me that saints like Swami Ranganathananda or Swami Bhuteshananda who were possessed by the Holy Spirit in the form of Mother Kali due to their surrender to HER, get no respite in life till death of the physical body. Mother gets Her work done through Her. I got this thought of no respite about Swami Ranganathananda, his intense karma. Then Sri Fhanindra explained. Such sattvika souls then return to Mother's lap, once Her work is done. So there is no passivity in surrender. Read about Girish Chandra Ghosh. One another saint we both had long association with was Swami Ijyananda, who was a disciple of Swami Vijnanananda- Ramakrishna's disciple. The power of the Holy Spirit that worked through Him was of Shiva, said Sri Fhanindra. Once He himself said to me, we are mrityunjayas, we have conquered death and another time I had the feeling he was a being from another realm.
Regards.
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Replying to:
Namaste Brother Paritosh,
So good to hear from you. and yes...I think you have hit it. Thanks...
Also,Would what I am talking about be the same as the Siva/Shakti principles...?
