Life is a celebration. The celebration of the world meeting the God. It is the meeting point of that-which-is (God) in that-which-is-not (matter). A meeting point of consciousness with the matter. It is most magical event on earth. Certainly worthy of celebration. But, contrarily, man wants to live in dreams and creates illusions that make him vulnerable, miserable. Man thinks when he will get something he will celebrate. You keep on waiting for the celebration that does not come. In fact, every incoming breath is life and every outgoing breath is death. Celebrate life and death together in the moment. Just be in your being. Man’s misery is between what one is and what one should be. In wanting to become that which you are not, a whole life is wasted. The earth, the moon, the stars, the sun, the trees, the birds, the animals, every blade of grass is in celebration. But man is not here and now. Man is looking to be somebody else. You already have become what nature wanted you to be and now is the time to celebrate your being-ness because you are. But you are living in hopes and desires of the world. Your being on earth is the natural state of celebration and if you just drop your ideas you can come back to your source immediately.
You have created poisonous surroundings around you. In Astavakra Samhita, which is the ancient dialogue between sage Astavakra and his disciple king Janaka on ‘doctrines of sudden enlightenment’, Astavakra tells Janaka: “Vishyaan Vish Vatyaja” (if you want liberation then shun the subjects and objects of the world as poison (Vish) and seek forgiveness, gratefulness, kindness, contentment and truth).
If you simply be in the being, you meet contentment; and when you are in the being, gratefulness dawns on you and celebration rains on you. Rejoicing in your being is the step to kick-start celebration of the being.
Buddha says, “Abandon poisoned food.” All that has appeared on earth that is known to you is food—like body and mind both are made of food. Buddha calls that which is made of no-self-ness (Anatta) that is not part of food which is content-less consciousness is you. Till the content is there food is there. Till then you are not there. Content is poison.
Food means that which has been taken from outside into your body and mind. Both your body and your mind take food from outside. Not just body, mind does take contents, thoughts, ideas, ideologies which is food. What you eat affects your mind. If you are non-vegetarian, obviously you are eating poisoned food because when an animal is killed it releases poisons out of fear or out of last-bid-survival and his flesh becomes toxic. Your society poisons you with all kinds of neurosis and hallucinations. You assume yourself belonging to a particular religion, region, society, tribe etc. Religion is always personal and religion is the outer manifestation of the inner being. J. Krishnamurthy says, “Organised religion is a sin.” Organised religion is an illusion of religion. Therefore it bleeds. Men have fought thousands of wars in the history of mankind in the name of ‘organised religion’. Religion is a flowering that cannot happen to two individuals together but it is an inner flowering of the being. When the seed of being blooms to become the tree of being, religion is born.
Sufis know the trick to be in the being-ness of being. In being they celebrate every moment. They call it Ziqr’ (remembering that-which-is). Sufis say Faqr and Ziqr. By being in Faqr which means being in nobody-ness one remains in Ziqr. To be in the remembrance of being is to be in the remembrance of God.
Celebration is not entertainment. Entertainment means that you are looking at something that is presented to you as entertainment and you are lost in the act of entertainment like you are lost into a movie or in clubs with friends or partying, etc. You forget yourself. But celebration is simply in the being—an uninterrupted remembrance of the being. Celebration of your being that you are.
Society has given ideas, ideologies and you are enslaved yourself to them. The moment you break-free, celebration begins. The ideologies are of the old, there is nothing new in them. In ideologies we are lost, in entertainment we are lost. We get lost because we do not go to our innermost. Turn inward to our being to rejoice in it. To be one with it.
In the Rig Veda it is asked: What came before creation itself? The gods have made many things but they did not make creation itself. Creation is in the deep state of celebration; in celebration the creation began into being.
Remain in your being. Make celebration part of your being. Celebration is meditation. Let it be your unbroken understanding. Listen to the birdsongs they are deep in celebration. Let the cool breezes thrill you. Let the sun rays lull your skin. Let the silence dawn on you, taking you on a journey unknown where you are one with yourself. Silence rains on you that moment you are in deep ecstasy. God has gifted you this life, this flute of life to play, this ektara (one-string instrument) which you should play with all your energies so that the song that you have come here with is sung. That is Sat-Chit-Anand (Truth-Consciousness-Bliss), which together is the deep state of celebration.
The author is a spiritual coach and an independent advisor on policy, governance and leadership. He can be contacted at arunavlokitta@gmail.com.