The Eye of the Hurricane

by Swami Chidananda

In this creation, in this wondrous universe, variety is the law of nature, infinite variety. Countless names and forms, objects, go to make up this outside universe, exist for a brief moment and take their exit. We come, and after a brief sojourn, we depart. Viewed from this angle, what we call life is a slow and continuous process of death. It is a continuous movement towards the exit point. 


The importance of viewing life precisely in this fashion is that it is this view and this understanding that can make us dynamic. When we understand that we have a precious opportunity, a golden chance, a great occasion, but it is not going to be forever, then it is that the spirit takes the challenge. It says: "While the going is good; I must attain to the highest goal, I must fulfill the mission of my life. No resting on my laurels, no room for idleness and laziness, no room for lolling back and waiting for manana - la manana." The la manana attitude comes when you do not understand that life is a wonderful gift of God, but given to you for a time and therefore to be utilized, to be put to the highest use and not to be neglected, not to be wasted away, not to be ignored.

Therefore, when you know that you have something and it is for a certain time, then you begin to sit up and do something about it. That is why Master Swami Sivananda always used to have this clarion call, "O man, the goal of life is God-realization. It is very difficult indeed to attain this glorious human status. Life is short, time is fleeting, all is perishable. Be up and doing, waste not a single minute, time is precious." 

So, this call was a call for dynamism, a call for ever progressing  onward, upward towards the great goal for which God has endowed you with the wondrous gifts of human status-thinking, feeling Life is a great adventure, a pearl of surpassing price, a gift which nothing else can equal. When you have life, you have everything, even though you may have nothing. Life is the world, for it is the human individual that is the central factor, not things. Things do not make you important. You are important. You are the real value. And what you will, that you can bring about. Whatever you wish to become, if you try for that, you are bound to become that, because a golden key has been given you by the Divine and that golden key is the wonderful law that governs the universe, the Law of Karma.

Σουάμι Σεβαράτνα

Yogaspirit, Λαοδίκης 34, Γλυφάδα, 210 - 96 81 793