Do you constantly seek security in life?
In the Maslow Hierarchy of needs, we are taught that beyond basic survival needs like food, water and shelter, the next level of needs we seek is that of security. As such we constantly run our lives in search of attaining certain level of security in life – financial security, family security and job security.
I discovered that my past incompletion with wealth and abundance during my childhood days made me run my life searching for financial security. As a result, I was running to accumulate wealth and the zeros in my bank account. I was conditioned to this arithmetic logic from society that I wouldn’t have enough financial freedom in my old age, so I needed to run my life while I was still young. This pattern of insecurity was finally broken only after I took the jump out of the corporate life and start seeing my blind spot which made me run for security. In the corporate life, I cognized that there is no such thing as job security because anything can happen due to the volatility of imaginary stock market. The moment I understood this truth that life itself is nothing but utter insecurity, I stopped this foolishness. I completed with my blind spot of creating a bondage within myself in the name of security which was just Maya (illusion) due to my ignorance.
Another major shift happened in me when My Guru, Paramahamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji) underwent a religious persecution from the anti-Hindu forces in 2010. Literally for 3 months I felt that the very ground I was standing was being removed from me and I plunged into an utter insecurity about my identity I built with him and the uncertainty of my future. The one thing which I held on was the spiritual experiences I had with him and a deep trust that I will be guided by Existence. I continued with my daily spiritual routine and focused on building my new business which I started in August 2009. I kept myself busy with actions by continuously taking up new challenges and new possibilities. Otherwise, I would have been drawn into the Maya of conspiracy by the media against my Guru. I withstood all the tests I was being put through by surrendering both the doubt and faith at his feet. In the deep surrender, one night I had a spiritual experience. After this profound experience, nothing about the religious persecution was able to shake me anymore because I simply knew the truth.
I tell you it is only with the Guru that you can really taste the nectar of life (amrita). The nectar of life constantly oozes in our being only if we explore the new possibilities instead of resisting change! Action means waking up alive with confidence and go about with your daily activities. The actions you take should exhaust your energy by the night and the next day morning, you again wake up feeling like a new flower.
Swamiji taught me this very fundamental truth i.e. life is living action. He said that life is for the people who are ready to exhaust their courage. When you are afraid to exhaust your courage, the stored courage becomes sickness, the stored confidence becomes cowardness. The stored confidence which is not used in action is cowardness. Any unused courage which is not used in your action becomes sickness or disease. Living human being is a person who wakes up like a flower, with all courage, strength and confidence to explore the new possibilities in life and continuously moving towards expansion. The way we explore life should be so intensely that we are able to take big risks, so that by the night we should just fall asleep effortlessly. The next morning, again we wake up fresh and ready to explore life in a brand new day! In the night if you are not withering away, you have not exhausted all your confidence, you have not used all your courage. By night you should wither away means by taking all extreme decisions, steps and living in utter insecurity. This is what he calls as living enlightenment.
This is the way I am living now – my day starts around 5 am with my morning spiritual routine till 11.30 am. After that I go about doing my work – either for my business or sangha seva ( spiritual service) till late night, sometimes till 1 am. The great thing is the moment I stretch my legs on the bed, I just fall into deep sleep state till the next morning. With only 4-5 hours of sleep daily, this body never feels tired and constantly it feels so energetic and ready to go on living life on the edge. I couldn’t have imagined this kind of life is possible without the initiations and guidance of an enlightened master.
In essence, living in utter insecurity and constantly in living actions so that each night you exhaust your energy of confidence and courage before falling asleep, the next morning you wake up like a fresh new flower ready to explore life again. This is living enlightenment. Namaste 😀