By Eknath Easwaran
Chapter 5, verses 7, 8, 9
7. Those who follow the path of service, who have completely purified themselves and conquered the senses and self-will, who see the Self in all creatures, are untouched by any action they may perform.
8–9. The person whose consciousness is unified thinks, “I am always the instrument.” He is aware of this truth even while seeing or hearing, touching or smelling; eating, moving about, or sleeping; breathing or speaking, letting go or holding on, even opening or closing the eyes. He understands that these are the movements of the senses among sense objects.
In our villages in Kerala, bags of rice, water jars, and other heavy burdens are often carried on the head. Villagers will walk long distances to market with their produce balanced on their heads. After carrying a bag of rice for many miles, when the villager wants to rest, he finds it difficult to sit down, take the burden from his head, and then, after resting, put it back on his head and get up again. So by the side of the rugged country roads they have constructed stone parapets, called athāni in my mother tongue, which are about the height of a man. When I have been carrying a heavy burden for a few miles, I come to a stone parapet, and all I have to do is move close to the athāni, nod my head, and the bag of rice will slide onto the wall. I can lie down and rest peacefully, and when I have refreshed myself, I can go back to the slab, give the bundle a little push, and balance it on my head again.
Vallathol Narayana Menon, a Malayali poet who was a Hindu, but who was deeply in love with Jesus as a divine incarnation, wrote a poem about Mary Magdalene in which he uses this image of the athāni. In this beautiful poem in my mother tongue, with the title “Magdalana Mariyam,” Jesus tells Mary: “Why do you carry the load of your guilt, the burden of your sins on your head? I am here, like the stone parapet. Don’t stand far away. Come close to me; keep your head right near me, and when you nod your head, I am ready to take your burden.”
This is an experience that will come to all of us when we lead the spiritual life and are prepared to live for others around us. Sometimes our problems will be greater, sometimes the challenges will be immense, but the Lord will always say from within, “I am the stone parapet. I am your support. Shift your burden to Me.” My spiritual teacher, my Grandmother, who had more than her share of problems – partly because she had me on her hands – was never oppressed by her burden nor trapped in action and the results of action. When she had a great problem facing her, all that she had to do was close her eyes, surrender herself to the Lord, and then come back to us with wisdom, love, and the skill to help me or the family solve the problem.
The God-filled person, who is an instrument in the hands of the Lord, doesn’t get discouraged or fatigued. He is so completely identified with the Ātman, so sure that the Lord is the operator, that he does not get entangled at all in the interplay of senses and sense objects, in which all of us are caught when we live for ourselves. His every action is done with utter detachment, as an offering to the Lord. Even when he eats, it is not for the sake of satisfying the palate; it is for the sake of serving the Lord. When we eat nourishing food as an offering unto the Lord, it strengthens the body, the mind, and the intellect. Similarly, we can keep our body strong and healthy with exercise so that it can be used for many years in selfless service.
We have another opportunity to move closer to the Lord when we go to sleep repeating the Holy Name. Between the last waking moment and the first moment of sleep there is an arrow’s entry into the depths of our subconscious, into which the name of the Lord, whether it is Jesus or Rāma, can enter if we keep repeating it as we go to sleep. It takes some effort and perseverance, but when we have learned to fall asleep in the mantram, throughout the night the healing process continues in our sleep, and we wake up refreshed in body, mind, and spirit.
Every activity of ours should be performed as a service to the Lord if we are to become completely united with him. No harsh word, no sarcastic crack, no resentful look should come from us. We can see how demanding the Lord is: even the opening and closing of our eyes should be done with love. In all our little acts, we should come to feel that we are an instrument of the Lord. My Grandmother used to say that even in our dreams we should not have resentful thoughts or hostile attitudes toward anybody. We can come to have such mastery over our consciousness that even in our sleep we reach the state where nothing but love and the awareness of unity pervades us.
