The Ocean and waves!
Waves are part of the ocean!
Waves are only the rise and fall of ocean water!
“I”-How many times we repeat this every day? Once, Swami Vivekananda has told some visitors, ‘you, as a body, mind and soul is a dream; you are pure existence, knowledge and bliss! The same words were repeated later by Sathya Saibaba! But, how we understand the purport or meaning? For majority of us, “I” represents the perishable body and evanescent mind! When some stranger asks our identity, we immediately blurt out, “I am James, working in a newspaper. Like that we confuse the “I” with the body. In fact, the bodies may leave one day but not the “I” which is the pure witness of the entire drama of life. This “I” is common for entire humanity but the mischievous mind distorts and differentiates the single lettered “I” as multiplicity.
In each body, the “I” is the Self. There is no difference between the “I” rising forth in each individual. We can imagine a situation of a pond which contains lot of fishes. The fishes have water surrounding them on all sides. In a similar manner, the self, like the water surrounds our beings all around. But the pond is limited. But the SELF is an unbounded consciousness without any shore anywhere. Hence we can consider that the entire cosmos is floating and surrounded by the ONE awareness or consciousness. It has no specific form. The only definition we can give as ‘IS’ or perennial existence. If something exists, there must be a space for the same to exist. But, in the case of the SELF, there is no such definition, since it is beyond “Time, space and causation”. Only the mind which rises forth from the self has the dimensions of time, space and causations!
In fact, if one starts repeating the word “I AM” continuously, feeling the identity with the self, he will soon realize the truth that He is one with God. This is spelled as ‘TAT TWAM ASI’ in Sanskrit scriptures. This is the real identity of every one of us.
Then why this ‘coma fledge and confusion? It is the intention of God or the Self, the beings parted from him must return to him back. Hence, there is constant frustration in worldly existence. This frustration engenders need and the individual starts seeking fulfilment but fails. The reason being, that he seeks fulfilment from the external world. But the experiences of the external world are purposely transient, ephemeral and fleeting. Only those who seek fulfilment from within can get it, since the Self is always accessible and always responsible. Hence, instead of seeking fulfilment from the external world, one must turn his focus internally and the self never fails the ardent seekers of truth. There is bound to be failure and grief in the pursuits from external world.
If God is the ocean, we are all waves and foams dancing on it. The waves always rush to the shore and recede but the underlying ocean is calm! Our attention is fixed on the roaring waves and we conclude that there is no peace or joy in the ocean. If you contemplate deeply, there is not even an iota of difference between the ocean and the waves. As the waves rise from the ocean and subside, the individual beings including all life emanate from the selfsame ocean and subsides in it. Hence, the waves are momentary, transient and fleeting phenomena. Focus only on the underlying ocean which is calm. So long the depths are secure, we need not bother about the rising and falling of waves.