Awakened to the Meaning of my Heart

16 Jun 2016 Awakened to the Meaning of my Heart

Then one spoke there who seemed a priest and sage:
“O woman soul, what light, what power revealed,
Working the rapid marvels of this day,
Opens for us by thee a happier age?”

Low she replied,

“Awakened to the meaning of my heart
That to feel love and oneness is to live
And this the magic of our golden change,
Is all the truth I know or seek, O sage.”

Savitri, Book XII, Sri Aurobindo

Here we are again. Reeling from the news of another terrorist attack, mass shooting, report of social injustice. Paris. Beirut. Syria. Refugees. Myanmar. San Bernadino. Columbia, Missouri. The Standford Rape Survivor. HB2. Orlando. You name it. All over the world, we hear stories of suffering, disconnection, hatred, vengeance, brutality.

I don’t know how to solve these problems, but I know that thoughts, beliefs, feelings, words and actions that create and maintain separation – a sense of us vs. them and division among us – miss the point. Those who want us to hate thrive on our hatred, so we have to figure out how to show love. Racisim, sexism, and homophobia are real and still very much business-as-usual in our culture. Gun violence is out of control, and we seem unwilling to do anything about it. Terrorism exists and happens at the doing of overseas perpetrators and white Americans alike. Telling someone who is sharing their experience of feeling marginalized that they’re over-reacting or misunderstanding what “really” happened is a form of victim-shaming that refuses to acknowledge another’s experience. To put it yogically, maintaining the illusion of separation is to work against the essence of yoga, which is the acknowledgement of oneness, union, the unified field.

Whenever I feel pulled into the illusion of separation, I remember the passage from the Epilogue of Sri Aurobindo’s epic mantra, Savitri which I’ve quoted above.

Let this quote guide your meditation today. Use it to help you feel awakened to the meaning of your heart, and aspire to move through this day guided by love and oneness.