~Are you ready to bear your cross?~
Having a spiritual life or an inner life doesn’t save us from essential turmoils of life, it’s suffering and heartaches. We do not get to bypass them just because we feel we are closer to God than the ‘unfortunate ones’.
Spiritual life is not to quick-fix the life bestowed upon us. Growth and hardships make for an active inner life. Where we are kept on our toes, all day, everyday. To walk the talk. To bypass egos delusions of grandeur followed by fears of dissolution. A wave never fears merging into the sea, for it knows it is the sea. It doesn’t fear crucifixion or annihilation for it desires resurrection of the divine spirit so badly. Do you?
Do you want God so badly? His kingdom to descend. What price are you willing to pay? Nothing is free here. Everything has to he paid for, in blood, sweat and tears. Sacrifice of ego is essential rite of passage for spiritual seekers to become dwellers. Otherwise they keep seeking easier and easier pathways, which eventually lead no where in particular, just occasional highs and then dead ends.
There can be no denying that further we go on the path, more we feel tested by life. For our integrity, our trust and above all our surrender to the divine. As we move closer to the top the pathways become narrower and more precarious. So much so that we might feel that are we really coming closer to God or farther? Many turn away at this point. God separates wheat from the chaff thus.
When the real journey begins, we no longer use our access to the divine and it’s energies to manipulate our reality to keep ourselves unperturbed while the world feels rattled. We are here to grow, we must remember in this earth school.
Without it no path to the divine moves an inch. We can continue to do all the rituals, sacraments and practices we want, they cannot substitute astute faith and devotion.
Longer the night, deeper are the trenches we need to dig of faith to hold on to, thru the dark night of the soul. Active or passive. Or the archetypal desert phase.
Surrender, and allow the new you to be broken open from the old shell of your being. Many people are surprised that they wanted growth as a way to become more happy, which it is the journey of being happy no matter what happens around us.
When we are ready we suspend our demands to God and turn around our childish demands into mature queries: Where would you want me to be God, this day?
Or better still, like lyrics by poet Gulzar, “Take me somewhere O God, without even telling me..”(Tu bin bataye mujhe le chal kahin..) That’s surrender, alright. But are you ready to say new prayers?
For that would be a start. And a good one at that.
Hallelujah.
Inner Journeys 