We, humans, have limitless possibilities, even to the point of being God-like, provided we are humble, open and receptive, says BATURAM NAYAK
Life offers so much to us in so many different ways. But we are so wrapped up in ourselves that we find no time to be thankful or understand this simple truth. So much time gets wasted away in nurturing our obsessions that we fail to harness life’s multifarious generous offerings.
We seem to lack the sense of gratitude and humility ― two important qualities necessary to develop on our spiritual journey. Once we develop these traits and it becomes part of our psyche, we then become receptive to life’s simple blessings, and are capable of appreciating the joy and value of Divine Grace.
Such is the bounty of ‘reverence’ or ‘shraddha’, which is that uncontaminated state of being, which alone facilitates the highest of understanding in the goodness of life and its offerings.
When we are receptive, the whole universe reveals its guarded secrets and innumerable openings. It is often said: “This is a learners’ world.”
Nature has a lot to offer to every one of us, but it is only the open, the receptive, and dynamically active people, who keep on learning and make the best out of these offerings.
In fact, the world is much more than what is just visible to us. A larger part of the reality remains hidden layer after layer. However, it opens itself up only to the humble seeker. He who goes to the world as a sincere learner can only explore the reality, by virtue of his keenness to explore it.
Hence Lord Krishna says to Arjuna:
श्रद्धावान लभते ज्ञानं तत्पर: संयतेन्द्रिय: ।
ज्ञानं लब्ध्वा परां शान्तिमचिरेणाधिगच्छति ॥
“The man who has faith, is diligent, and has control over his sensory organs attains Knowledge. Achieving Knowledge, one soon attains supreme Peace.”
The world remains generously open for a man as long as his ‘shraddha’ or deep-rooted interest in learning is alive. For such a person, there’s never an end. His or her mind and heart remains focused on exploring newer heights, with a reassuring conviction that each ‘peak-experience’ would bring with it the promises of the vision of yet another milestone!
The strength of this person rests in the simple realization that, however deft one may be in articulating the reality, one’s cognitive organs are never adequate enough to comprehend it in its entirety. If truth be told, there is always more than enough to derive from the world, which we cannot hope to achieve through the limited ability of our mind.
A basic understanding of life teaches us that one can never be perfect. Each individual is bestowed with a situation specific advantage and also endowed with a unique vantage point to explore the reality.
We must understand that the interdependence of life is the real beauty of it. If one is humble enough, one understands that the simple as well as complex things in life can be experienced and ‘enjoyed’ not in isolation but with the participation of like-minded humans. Indeed, through shared vision and perspective, we can explore newer dimensions of reality. However, over-confidence rooted in preoccupation with self, blurs this reality.
There are always enough things left out in the hidden dimensions of the objective and subjective realities, waiting to be revealed…but only for the child-like open and simple, receptive-mind.
In this very sense, the very best among the teachers, students, artists, poets, and more precisely, the dynamically active and open-minded ones are better endowed to encounter these awesome ‘aha-experiences’ of life!
An open-minded person is endowed with the ability of eternal learning. Grace showers upon him profusely. The seed of his wisdom lies in his quest for learning, which is ever ennobling, enriching and elevating. And in this humble realization lies his open-endedness, which keeps him always receptive.
This, then, is the secret behind the belief of the realized ones — about the limitless possibilities of humans, even to the point of being God-like!
Baturam Nayak, a postgraduate in economics, joined the banking sector in 1983 and retired in June 2020. He is a firm believer in simplicity and minimalism. “My faith is Oneness, एकत्वम्; that’s the way I would express myself and live in harmony with everything,” he says.