I was reminded of a discourse given by my master, Paramahamsa Nithyananda, he once said that: “An ordinary gambler requires 3 qualities – courage to start, the power to proceed or execute and the energy to let go.”
We all know that courage is necessary to understand the laws of gambling since it involves probable loss of huge sums of money, possessions and name and fame. The attitude of a gambler should be: If it goes it goes, if it comes it comes. There is no sure-win in gambling, in fact, the chance of losing your stake is higher than winning.
Once you have the courage to overcome this fear of loss, you need the power to execute with the play and stake what is necessary. The outcome being uncertain, you need the energy to let go and accept regardless of the positive or negative outcome. You understand clearly that it requires energy to let go both the extremes of the possible outcome.
How are these qualities applicable to the ultimate game in life?
The ultimate game in life is about going beyond the mystery of life and achieving liberation (moksha) by experiencing bliss inside one’s being. To begin with, we need a deeper understanding of the Cosmic Laws, the structure of the universe and techniques to relate with Universe is essential. One needs to figure out why he needs to seek the truth and how to do it properly given the obstacles, what are the benefits of being a seeker and what would happen if one did not achieve liberation? There are 4 principles of Cosmic Intelligence – Integrity, Authenticity, Responsibility and Enriching self and others. With integrity comes the power of words to cause reality in others, with authenticity comes the power of thinking to conquer all impossibilities, from responsibility comes the power of feeling to see the highest possibility in every one and from enriching comes the power of living whereby one just goes on causing intelligence and powers in others.
Most people don’t see the urgency to seek the truth because they think they are happy with being who they are now or they find it too difficult in this life time. Only a true seeker would have the courage to see the only way out is IN! There will always be people who, although understand perfectly that their life would transform or change after travelling towards the spiritual awakening, but still they hesitate to take up the first step. This is because of the fear of the transformation leading them to the Unknown, the ultimate reality. This fear is one of the major obstacles in spiritual awakening. This fear is so deep-rooted because of our self-doubt, self-hatred and self-denial patterns that one really needs real courage to face this ultimate reality. Unless a seeker understands with clarity the path to liberation, only then he can be courageous enough to take the first step.
Next, why is the power to put things at stake so important?
The state of enlightenment or liberation comes with energy and responsibility. Cosmic consciousness landing in a form of energy only descends on people who are prepared to take the responsibility of serving the world and who exude overflowing love and compassion for others i.e. the feeling of love for every being. But most people are not ready to put their entire lives at stake and they find excuses like health issues, lack of time or other priorities in life. This only means that the liberation is not important enough in their lives.
Fundamentally, we need power to undergo transformation by dropping our old personality or mental patterns we’ve built up over the years through ignorance. We need power to decide to live the truth once we internalised them in our inner space. This can be expressed in 3 Vedantic techniques of authentic listening of self and others (shravana), contemplation or intranalising (manana) and radiating by living it (niddhyasana).
The last quality of the gambler is the energy to let go. Ability to let go of everything is the real test!! The term “let go” here means you enter the space where you float free. This requires you to go through the last nightmare where you experience the ultimate death of your ego and your old past. This is tantamount to a major shock to your illusive state, the dream state that you wake up into enlightenment. Liberation never happens as continuity but only as a new birth!
The major difference between an ordinary gambler and ultimate gambler is that in the latter, there is no loss only gain! Here lies the greatness. But, how many of us have the courage to get up and put everything at stake and then let go of all to gain?
Only people who are ready to put everything at stake are the real ultimate gambler in life, the courageous ones, the ones qualified to play this ultimate game! The moment you begin seeking, you gamble your whole life, you put your whole life at stake, only then real transformation can happen. Only when you are committed to the Whole, can you become divine. You need the energy to let go, to allow the transformation to happen.
In my life, I chose to be an ultimate gambler not the ordinary gambler. I’ve gone beyond the society which had healed me from the restlessness and subtle resentment for society due to the suffocation. Now I have the freedom to choose how I want to engage in the society by enriching people yet I remain untouched by it. People who do not share the same ideology as me, they dropped me from their lives. At the same time, I’ve also found the most loving and supportive global spiritual family from all over the world where spiritual expansion and enlightenment form the common thread. From my experience, the courage to proceed comes only with the right understanding and clarity about self, humanity, world and God. The courage gives tremendous power to put my entire life at stake by treading on a path less trodden just to live an extraordinary fulfilling life. Finally, the process of letting go of my ego – the old personality and completing with my past incompletions and patterns happens only with Guru’s grace. A Guru is a master surgeon, he never gives up on people and simply he removes the tumour of ego and showers them with all the best things in life. He is the only real deal in this world of reality illusions. I know I will be ready to surrender and hold on to his feet with a complete unwavering trust in the final moment as I cross the fire in the dark night of my soul.
In essence, when you take the quantum leap to play this ultimate gamble, you cross all the 3 steps. The best thing about this game of ultimate gambling is there will be no losers, only winners. May you have the understanding and courage to become the true winner in life and experience the state of eternal bliss, Nithyananda! Namaste 🙂