Bhaskar
03-22-2008, 06:41 PM
Please begin the session by taking a moment to breathe deeply and calm your mind.
The final shanti mantra in our study is a very common, yet complex mantra that lends itself to many many meanings. It can be of value to the beginners as well as to advanced seekers.
The mantra is:
Om
Poornam adhah
poornam idam
poornaat poornam udachyate
poornasya poornamadaya
poornameva avasishyate
Om shanti shanti shantih.
Translation:
That is full,
This is full.
From fullness, fullness arose.
From fullness, if fullness is removed
Fullness alone remains.
Om peace, peace, peace
If we shine the light on our mental process, we are likely to find that our activities in the world outside are driven by a sense of incompleteness. We feel that we, by ourselves, are not good enough, and there is something outside in the world that we need in order to perfect our contentment and joy. Unable to see it within ourselves because, from time immemorial, we have trained our mind and intellect and senses to be extrovert and only transact and contemplate the world outside, we grasp at the objects and pleasures of the world as a means to complete ourselves.
We look out at the world and we see fullness in it. "If I win the lottery, I will live happily ever after." - fullness in wealth. "If only she agrees to marry me, life will be heaven." - fullness in relationships. "That is my dream job. If I get it mt life will be made." - fullness in profession. We all do it. Look at yourself for a moment and examine and find out - what is that you seek from the world to complete yourself? Ask yourself, right now - will that truly complete you? Is everyone who has the worldly experiences you covet living in total joy and contentment?
When we thus brutally analyse our own desires and desire-prompted activities, we will find that we have been running about foolishly chasing shadows.
There is fullness in the world, the masters never deny that. Every single thing is perfect and complete in itself. It is what it is supposed to be. When that changes, the change also is in accordance with the law of karma. It does not need you to fulfull it. A flower does not need a poet to write a sonnet about it in order for its beauty to be fulfilled. Its fullness is in being itself.
In the same way your fullness is in blossoming into your true self. You are full in yourself. Look within and see that nothing in the world can complete you. It is only the discovery of the vastness of your own being that can complete you. Expand yourself to grow beyond the limited ego and body consciousness, learn to identify with the macrocosm instead of the microcosm, step out into the sunshine of divinity and dance in the vast meadows of life rather than peeping at it through the keyhole of your egocentric self. You need nothing other than you to complete yourself, to be joyous and whole.
The rest of the mantra is like a zen koan. From fullness, fullness is born. What a blissfull contradiction! The student grabs the teacher by the sacred thread and asks him, "You claim that I am full in myself, although my entire experience is of joy only from outside. I don't see anything but finitude in myself. My needs are many and I rely on the world outside to provide them. Yet you say that I am full and free in myself! And how pray do I come to experience this?"
It is not through ritual or yoga, no amount of standing on the head and pinching the nose will bring that experience, nor will smearing the body with ashes or sandalwood paste, nor any amount of holy baths in the sacred rivers of the world, nor reptition of a million names of God, nor thousands of years of penance, will bring that fullness. The fullness is born from fullness alone.
The final shanti mantra in our study is a very common, yet complex mantra that lends itself to many many meanings. It can be of value to the beginners as well as to advanced seekers.
The mantra is:
Om
Poornam adhah
poornam idam
poornaat poornam udachyate
poornasya poornamadaya
poornameva avasishyate
Om shanti shanti shantih.
Translation:
That is full,
This is full.
From fullness, fullness arose.
From fullness, if fullness is removed
Fullness alone remains.
Om peace, peace, peace
If we shine the light on our mental process, we are likely to find that our activities in the world outside are driven by a sense of incompleteness. We feel that we, by ourselves, are not good enough, and there is something outside in the world that we need in order to perfect our contentment and joy. Unable to see it within ourselves because, from time immemorial, we have trained our mind and intellect and senses to be extrovert and only transact and contemplate the world outside, we grasp at the objects and pleasures of the world as a means to complete ourselves.
We look out at the world and we see fullness in it. "If I win the lottery, I will live happily ever after." - fullness in wealth. "If only she agrees to marry me, life will be heaven." - fullness in relationships. "That is my dream job. If I get it mt life will be made." - fullness in profession. We all do it. Look at yourself for a moment and examine and find out - what is that you seek from the world to complete yourself? Ask yourself, right now - will that truly complete you? Is everyone who has the worldly experiences you covet living in total joy and contentment?
When we thus brutally analyse our own desires and desire-prompted activities, we will find that we have been running about foolishly chasing shadows.
There is fullness in the world, the masters never deny that. Every single thing is perfect and complete in itself. It is what it is supposed to be. When that changes, the change also is in accordance with the law of karma. It does not need you to fulfull it. A flower does not need a poet to write a sonnet about it in order for its beauty to be fulfilled. Its fullness is in being itself.
In the same way your fullness is in blossoming into your true self. You are full in yourself. Look within and see that nothing in the world can complete you. It is only the discovery of the vastness of your own being that can complete you. Expand yourself to grow beyond the limited ego and body consciousness, learn to identify with the macrocosm instead of the microcosm, step out into the sunshine of divinity and dance in the vast meadows of life rather than peeping at it through the keyhole of your egocentric self. You need nothing other than you to complete yourself, to be joyous and whole.
The rest of the mantra is like a zen koan. From fullness, fullness is born. What a blissfull contradiction! The student grabs the teacher by the sacred thread and asks him, "You claim that I am full in myself, although my entire experience is of joy only from outside. I don't see anything but finitude in myself. My needs are many and I rely on the world outside to provide them. Yet you say that I am full and free in myself! And how pray do I come to experience this?"
It is not through ritual or yoga, no amount of standing on the head and pinching the nose will bring that experience, nor will smearing the body with ashes or sandalwood paste, nor any amount of holy baths in the sacred rivers of the world, nor reptition of a million names of God, nor thousands of years of penance, will bring that fullness. The fullness is born from fullness alone.