If you were a child going to a fair with your father and in the hustle bustle of crowd you lose contact with your father.
You were holding your father’s hand and somebody came in between and then a stream of people rushed in and you were thrown in different direction.
What will happen to you?
You will search for your father.
Then the colors of fair might attract you and you will be lost in them for a while.
You will suddenly remember your father and run around to find him.
Then the sounds of fair might attract you and you will be lost in them for a while.
You will suddenly remember your father and run around to find him.
Then the lights of fair might attract you and you will be lost in them for a while.
You will suddenly remember your father and run around to find him.
Then the circus in fair might engage you.
You may come into the act of the circus and then go elsewhere and then come again.
In between you may remember your father and yearn for him, long for him.
Then you will be lost in the act again.
This world is like that fair where everything comes up and then dies.
Nothing remains forever.
Nothing is permanent.
Only your longing for your father is forever. Sometimes felt and sometimes ignored.
In ignorance you engage with the world totally.
In longing/knowledge you engage with the world detached.
In ignorance the seeking is external and actions are mostly self fulfilling (most for your benefit only).
The commitment in engagement with the world is the same but in longing the seeking is inwards and actions are directed outwards towards betterment of the world.
That father is the God and your seeking for him is devotion. He may seem to play hide and seek but he is always around and inside helping you evolve.
Like all rivers who merge towards ocean, your mind is also desperately seeking newer things/situations hoping that in some newness it will find the self.
Unlike the heart which loves ancient, old. It longs for the beginning, the source of the stream which formed the river.
The mind jumps from one end to another hoping to find the end soon.
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This article is inspired by a quote by HH +Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji.
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