धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे, कुरुक्षेत्रे धर्मक्षेत्रे: Dharamkshetre is Kurukshetre, Kurukshetre is Dharamkshetre
The biggest illusion of our times is the painted "Ideal Image" of a spiritual life or practice. And the imposition of conformity in the name of such a community. Many have stood at the doors of our history with their pens and brush strokes to enhance the image, embellish it with lies, and deviate from the true legacy. What if an authentic Spiritual life, in the true sense of the meaning, exists uniquely for each of us? And it's our very own life, just as is. It's nothing like the joyful community with intoxicating love for God nor the peaceful reading club of the scriptures. Perhaps also not the dangerous groups preaching the erroneous meanings in the name of God and life claiming absolute truth. Maybe a true practice at times is the one resisting these other images to reveal the truth.
If pure peace or fear were ever the conducive forces for divine manifestations in a seeker's life, the Bhagwat Gita would have manifested in a Yoga studio, a meditation center, or companies that enslave us with fake promises manipulating doubt and fear.
Krishna Bhagwan taught Arjun the lessons of Gita on a battlefield. Arjun was a warrior running away from waging war on his kith and kin, but God himself joined as his charioteer. Such audacity of a massive war to render itself the perfect time and place where one lives most authentically, facing life head-on, standing closest to God he'll ever be. You don't go looking for him; he comes looking for you, negotiates for you, and then fights on your behalf.
Time and place, war expresses itself as both. How long will it last, and how far will it spread?
Such a life has vague colors of both the peaceful community and the war-waging group. But with a twist. For true peace to prevail, a war has to be waged. The macro mirrors the micro, reflecting back and forth, causing numerous wars. How can any wars be manmade? They are all part of nature, nature that made man. But in the case of man, he's gone far and far from her, caught in somewhat of a separateness with his nurturer. He says, "I am going into nature for a break," denying he's one with it. He's lost.
Thus, life becomes a battlefield, not just for you but also for others because of you. The individual impact always spills over from everyone into everyone. Grandest interconnectedness, leaving everyone fighting his and her own battle. Battles of the classic wrong vs right; the sad, confused, and the naive up against the evil; almost succumbing to the voices of others; being betrayed by those who were meant to keep you safe. The dreams that break and the compromises we make. And finally, Grief! A lot of grief that's overcome with fear and doubt. Fear and doubt kill everything original you.
A battle you share with the common enemy who could also be your best friend, The Mind!
The Supreme God was enraged yet committed to bringing to light the secret of this Mind on a battlefield of all places. He wasn't there to bring miracles, boons, or magic. But simply the transcendental knowledge of the nature of reality. It's non-dual. Not good or bad. There are no symbols to identify with, but rather a battle, a fight, a challenge with possible defeat or victory. But something has to die. The life and death cycle they talk about is the essence of this life itself. To live, one has to die in the past. And that is a whole journey that makes us human. And the micro mirrors the macro.
Maybe the true spiritual community is everyone you ever meet, everyone who ever walks with you and against you, everyone who supports you, but also the one who betrays you. Maybe it's the one who loves you the most or hurts you. The one who delivers justice to you but also the one who represents nothing but injustice.
It's everyone and everything but also every place, every step, and every pause. It's every place you have been to, with many more to be discovered. Your pilgrimage is right where you are, this is your cave, your garden, or your mountain. Your strongest spiritual practice is the one you push through, go through, and grow through. Yet there's even a stronger one, where you still your mind, pause and sit to transcend. It's a practice where you engage fully with your life as it is without cheating on the present moment. The one where you are nowhere but here.
They say Sri Ram represented how God can become a Man to right a wrong. But Sri Krishna represented how a Man can become God. This further speaks to how the Divine looks like no one but is the essence of you.
"Sell not your liberty to Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad or Krishna. If one man drinks the fresh waters of the spring, you can drink the same fresh water. Rama (Tirth) brings you a religion which is found in the streets, which is written upon the leaves, which is murmured by the brooks, which is whispered in the winds, which is throbbing in your own veins and arteries; a religion which concerns your business and bosom; a religion which you have not to practise by going into a particular church only; a religion which you have to practise and live in your everyday life, in your hearth, in your dining room; everywhere you have to live that religion. The Truth is your own, it is not Rama’s more than yours, it does not belong to the Hindu more than to you. Truth belongs to nobody, everybody and everything belongs to it." - Swami Ram Tirth (Lecture delivered on January 26, 1903, in the Golden Gate Hall, San Francisco, U.S.A.)
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