“A Willful Event of Purification” by Swami Ritavan Bharati
“A Willful Event of Purification”
by Swami Ritavan Bharati
[This is a transcript of the video “Swami Ritavan’s Guidance”. Moni Ambrus provided the transcript.]
Om tat sad brahmārpaṇam astu.
Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ.
I’ve shared with the community, as you know, a short message that has come through me in some way. Initially by way of a few weeks ago when certain experiences of people’s suffering were manifesting in various parts of the globe. At that time, I had written that the knots of your heart should remain open to hope, to a sense of fullness. Only in coming to the moment, in resting in the infinite moment, does one come in touch with the power that emanates as you gather these forces of stillness and silence as the source of the eternal, and let them well up within you, a fountain that grows within you, and thereby fears and worries of limitations will disappear if, only if you are allowing the spiritual forces to rise up. This is our teaching.
And the teaching continues. The blessings of that teaching will flow from the spiritual core of our being. Let this opportunity be a willful event of purification, and this is the ideal of titiksha that we have always spoken of in those ways of purification, the forbearance, the patience and understanding. So, the quest remains; the teachings continue.
As the experience of hardships and challenges will grow, remain aware of the spiritual strength. We see this reflected in our disciplines by way of that spiritual understanding and that inner strength, the disciplines of ahimsa, satya and santosha, and as Swamiji always reminded us “Smera-smera-stimita” – Let the mind smile. Let the happiness of the heart be reflected through that smiling mind, those positive emotions, that way in which then the speech is honeyed with a sweetness, where the thought patterns are no longer pulled to those attachments of selfishness, but are opened to kindness and compassion.
As we cultivate such a recognition that the sources within and thereby these natural forces of patience, forbearance and tolerance are present for us, such sentiments will continue to arise with our purified mind, our clear mind, our pacified and in that way peaceful mind. A mindfield that is showing the fruits of our disciplines and sadhana by way of goodness, by way of an inner satiety and contentment, by way of a compassion and kindness for all.
Yet when we recognize that it’s a different sense of awareness that must be cultivated, and in that way it’s renewed each and every day in our meditations, each and every moment as we carry the mantra breath to breath. As we share in this moment of stillness, as we share in the offerings of our prayers for others, we come again to the moment of completeness and wholeness and holiness, of recognizing our true nature, of recognizing that inner source of light and life that remains with us always, wherever we are, whatever we are doing, that presence remains. Only to bring forward the name. Only to bring forward the presence as a name, as a relationship with ourselves by way of our mantra, by way of that Divinity that we recognize and thereby communicate with the eternally and internally by way of our japa. Our mental recitation of the mantra, our presence of that Divinity. That relationship with the Lord that is near and dear, in whatever form or with whatever name.
Article courtesy of the AYMSIN April 2020 newsletter