Dear folks of Baba,
In the next chapter, Darwin speaks of an invisible current flowing in everyone. He would actually gesture at the heart level that for most people this current is flowing toward themselves, toward “I, me and mine” and often stops there. They are focused on what will benefit them. He would say that this current needs to be reversed, it needs to flow in to Baba and out toward the world. It is a fusion of our love and vitality, a vibrational flow that emanates from the heart center, and not from the head with all its thinking. It is characterized by a generosity of spirit. If we let this current flow toward Baba, which is the best thing we can do, it is His joy to return it spiritually transformed into a living substance and, as Darwin has said, “it flows back into us where it can be expressed in the world of forms as a giving energy.”
By developing our inner awareness in greater depth, it is possible to track this invisible current and determine its dynamics: is it receding (self-focused), stalled or flowing? (Some experience this dynamic metaphorically as an expanding and contracting energy in themselves.) In time, this inclusive current becomes something that can be monitored throughout the day.
Those of us in the early 1970s around Darwin explored in depth the monitoring of this invisible and inclusive current flowing into us from Baba and attempted to put this into practice. Darwin, in his usual unassuming way, left us, if we were inclined, to figure out for ourselves how to do this. This is the version I came up with: When I wake up in the morning, I usually feel groggy and weighed down. My inner current is stalled. Instantly, I begin saying Baba’s name inwardly from the heart, which affirms that He is in the room with me. I continue with His name and centering myself in Him, and at some point, I say the prayers until I feel I have transmuted the heavy impressions I first woke up with into a flowing, vibrant substance. This is so that by eight-thirty when I go into work, it is this refined substance—Baba’s inclusive presence--that fuels my day. I do all this internal work even as I carry out my morning routine: shower, breakfast and checking my email. Once I experience Baba’s living presence, I’m ready to begin my day. Everything then flows from there, rather than from the bundle of sanskaras I woke up with. Mind you, I have to wake up very early to do all this!
A mistake I would often make the moment I woke up: I would invariably ask myself, how am I doing? For this, I would immediately check my sanskaras, my mood, rather than my magnificent and fortunate connection to Baba! And consequently, this false assessment often would go on to substantially color the mood of my day.
Then, throughout the day, I periodically focus on monitoring my inner current. Sometimes by mid-afternoon, the strength of my inner current begins to weaken, and I have to make a pro-active effort to get the flow going again. I might concentrate on Baba’s name deeply within, or join a game of volleyball or play with children, go outside and do some gardening, which I love, or maybe read some mystical poetry, or connect with someone about Baba—whatever works to get the flow going again. For each person it will be different, and he or she may have a thousand different ways to get that inner current flowing. When the flow fades, life to me feels just ordinary. But when I get the flow going again through some inner or outer activity, I don’t have to search for where Baba is: He is present in the flow. The atmosphere acquires a luster, an inner expansiveness, even if only for brief periods. There is also the incomparable practice of “dressing our Soul with Baba” that we will discuss next week.
Through this simple practice, carried out over fifty years, Baba has made my life ever-fulfilling and alive. It is a pro-active approach to the day, not just a passive enduring of whatever happens. It should be said, however, that this is just one of the major approaches for following Baba.
Without Darwin bringing our attention to this inner inclusive current, I don’t know how long it would have taken for me to discover it on my own. Do you have a sense of this inner dynamic playing itself out in the course of your day? Do you have another way of monitoring the emotions, feelings and desires that move through you? How do you experience Baba’s loving vibration in you?
"The Beloved is the Master Tailor, but unless you bring the scattered strands of your life into a single thread, how will you be able to pass through the eye of His needle. Succeed in this, and day by day, He will sew you into the magnificent tapestry of His own being!"
Rumi
In His love, Jeff
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