Jain Center of America NY 2005 06 Pratishtha

SR No.: 528692
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Center of America NY
Publisher: USA Jain Center America NY
Publication Year: 2005
Total Pages: 190
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, USA_Souvenir Jain Center NY New York, & USA
File Size: 14 MB

Page 49

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If we look at a ray of the sun, one ray, it is white and bright. But if it enters a prism, it becomes like a rainbow. The ray shows only one color, but now in the prism it appears in seven colors. What happened? It is a connection. The drop of the water is hanging on the leaf. The sun ray touches it and you see the rainbow in the small drop of water. You don't see color in the rain, but there in that small drop it sparkles like a rainbow. The connection makes the change. When we meditate and have pure awareness, we see our own light. We see our own rainbow.
As meditators, we let the addiction to control melt away. We do not live in the future nor in the regretful past, but in the pleasant present. Every moment life is pulsating and moving. We connect each day with our source and feel the dawn of life.
If Ahimsa and a meditative state go hand in hand, then Ahimsa also opens us to the humanity within us and in others. One evening Tagore was writing at a table near the window in the light of his table lamp. He wrote for an hour and a half and it was getting late; he became tired and turned off the lamp to go to sleep. To his surprise, Tagore saw that the room was flooded with moonlight. The moonlight had been in his room for hours, but he had not noticed. Only when he switched off the table lamp, did he see. And he writes, "My table lamp ego did not allow the God-like moon to flood into my life." As long as we have the small ego lamp, we don't see the flood of cool, natural light; our ego looks only for that which confirms our beliefs and ideas. "Oh, he speaks of something different from my religion, my belief, my ideas, and my dreams... I don't want to hear that." But if you turn off the ego, you realize the very presence of God within you. Once this door opens, you become open. You can listen to others and learn. Everywhere you can see many viewpoints.
In the partnership of love and marriage, you don't treat you partner as an object of pleasure. Your partner is a partner sharing love; is a partner sharing feeling; is a partner sharing your divinity. And when you look into his or her eyes, you realize that you don't want to hurt your partner with criticism, finding fault, or blaming the family. You want to understand.
When people are not aware of who they are, they go on criticizing, pinching, nagging each other. They do it in the name of perfection, in the name of improvement, in the name of caring, in the name of helping. But violence is present because there is no understanding. No reverence. No love. When we have negativity and hate, do we feel joy? Do we feel love? Do we feel pleasantness? Do our eyes smile? Do our limbs dance? No! Negativity stifles, constricts and confines.
In one Indian town, a woman came to see me. She told me that her mother was sick and wanted me to come and bless her. But I saw that this woman was very old, so I asked, "You have a mother?" "Yes," she said. I was curious and asked, "How old are you?" She answered "I am ninety." Ninety? I was surprised. A ninetyyear-old daughter comes to take me to her mother? I asked, "How old is your mother?" "She's one hundred and ten," the woman told me. So, I went there. I saw. The mother's skin was so soft and tender. I touched her and it was like touching the holiest, highest, purest soul. So peaceful! I asked, "What is the secret of your longevity?" And she said, "I love everyone. I don't hate anybody. When anything happens I tell myself it is my karma. Nobody is responsible for my pain. I am responsible for my pain."
When we feel the divinity, we can feel the cool, refreshing light of love and joy. We understand our humanity; we understand neighbors, family, people, and the world in which we are living.
Love and Blessings,
Chitrabhanu
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