Have you ever traveled for an extended time, perhaps camping, backpacking, or traveling on public transportation through many countries with only your rucksack to your name? Or alternatively, can you imagine the sadhus (wandering mendicants) of a bygone era, roaming the Ganges plains or Himalayan woods chanting God’s name, So Hum? Ah, what freedom compared to 401(k) plans, stock portfolios, medical plans that only a lawyer could write, read, or love, three telephone numbers, multiple email accounts to check, credit card debt, student loans, mortgage payments, and keeping up with the Greens!
Is peace of mind possible, or gladness of heart? In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna asks “How can the peaceless man find happiness?” Short of blowing all humanity back into the Stone Age, it seems that the modern marvels which have bestowed upon us such leisure time (joke!) are here to stay, and that, without mastering their dictates, we cannot survive the information jungle path that we must walk.
You don’t need a turban and a crystal ball to see that one of the new growth industries will be Simplification! Compare how you feel working quietly in the garden or strolling silently along a riverside path with sitting in gridlock on Interstate 5, stranded in an airport, or staring at computer screen which sneeringly informs you that a fatal disk error has occurred!
If, practically speaking , we can’t wish it all away, it’s obvious that we must make disciplined choices to rescue the pearl of peace of mind from the quicksand of insufficient time and space. Over sixty years ago Paramhansa Yogananda exhorted audiences to “buy land in the country, grow your own food, live a life of simplicity and high ideals with others of like mind.” In other contexts, he counseled that “Seclusion is the price of greatness.”
If we take only literally his advice to leave the city then it probably eliminates most of our readers who would only turn aside wistfully, discouraged and confused. But perhaps there’s an inner meaning and a more generally applicable path of action suggested here. What does the term “land,” really mean, for example, if not “space.” It suggests space to breathe, to be refreshed, to be productive, and thereby renewed. Connecting the concept of space with seclusion we can see how “outer (physical) space” supports and nurtures “inner (spiritual) space.”
Consider therefore the value of such outer and inner spatial habits as regular walks, jogging, gardening and growing food at home, meditation and yoga, silent retreats and annual personal seclusions. Just as plants and trees need space to grow, the concept of space can include human growth and development such as taking classes to learn new skills or develop aspects previously ignored such as arts, crafts, and other creative talents?
And what about the “space” we grow into when we connect with others and the world around us through selfless service to church or community? And have you ever considered that meditation can be a creative and expansive space, too? Indeed what could more be creatively expansive than transcendence itself, going beyond ego, beyond the body, beyond the limits of subconscious and self-limiting definitions into the pure, if rarified, atmosphere of unconditional love or consciousness?
A creative life therefore is a balanced life. It balances the intensity of the legitimate commitment imposed upon us by our God-given duties with the opportunity to express our ideals creatively and to expand our self-identity beyond our ego. The satisfaction of a creative life comes at first in sporadic “aha” moments. But pursued with calm commitment we find that these moments become increasingly sustained and, in time, a way of life. We discover, as the life of Swami Kriyananda so amply reveals, that there need be no conflict between duty and joy, or between commitment and creativity.
This brings us, then, to a discovery about what is true simplicity. Simplicity is not achieved so much by having or doing less as in BEING centered in the Self and expanding that Self to include all. It is the ego, personality, the endless web of thoughts, the demands of the body, and our reactive processes affirming likes and dislikes that create complexity, anxiety, confusion, and disease. Simplicity is BEING: conscious, calm, intentional, selfless, energetic, willing, and creative.
A full, harmonious, and creative life, however desirable, cannot satisfy the soul’s hunger for true and lasting happiness. It is, however, a pre-condition for happiness. It prepares us to discover for ourselves that this world, no matter how well we master its challenges or ride its waves of sorrow and joy with creative equanimity, cannot, of itself, give us the pearl of great price: peace and true joy (bliss). The waves of success and challenge are transitory and lack the one condition necessary for happiness: permanence. Fortunately for us, Conscious Bliss is both transcendent and immanent in all things. Bliss is the silent creative seed within all things, for Bliss is One and there is no other.
Thus upon the solid foundation of true simplicity, we make contact with Bliss IN ourselves before we can realize its transcendent state beyond creation. Thus we cannot solve our problems by running from them. As Krishna counsels in the beloved Gita, “You cannot achieve the actionless state (of Bliss) through inaction.” Simplicity is achieved, therefore, by living at your own center, where alone we are what we seek.
Blessings,
Hriman & Padma