Enlightenment is the goal of life, truth being final
But what is it really? How do we recognize its signal?
Will there be a place that we have to travel in space?
Or will time's flow cause change as we stay in place?
As with any other goal that is normal in ego based life
We are conditioned to think of liberation as a great prize
This is awarded to those who choose to run in the race
Whose final objective is the blissful endowment of grace
Thus we eagerly seek out venues wherein we can register
And where we can be coached on technique by able preceptor
We seek out best practices for gaining light of deliverance
And spiritual practice becomes enmeshed in ego's comparisons
Truth be said, enlightenment is neither in time nor space
Thus we are already free here and now, outside the maze
Our greatest guru is our own self that speaks to us within
The greatest technique is attention to the meaning therein
As you thus pay attention it becomes clear that we are bliss
External projections hide this, causing our mind's tricks
The little ego obscures the divine when held up in front
And finally divinity is exposed when mind's vacillation ends
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I have just seen your exquisite composition entitled “Vacillation’s End”. Your statement that enlightenment is not to be found in time or space, but within oneself, is so very true. A full realization of this fact, not merely in a dry academic sense, but in its true deep-seated import, will certainly be the open sesame, that lets one free oneself from the ego based shackles, and rise to ones full potential as envisaged in the mahavakyam “Prajnanam Brahma”. To achieve this objective, Swamy Dayananda says that what one has to do is simply to accomplish the accomplished, thereby meaning that we are already pure and free to start with, and all that is needed to be done, to achieve true emancipation is to accept this fact in its entirety. He goes on to explain this concept, by giving the example of a prince of the realm, who is also an amateur actor and who dons the role of a penniless beggar, in a dramatic performance, and who after the end of the drama, still wanders around with the mistaken but deep rooted conviction that he is really a mendicant, not realizing that he is in fact the prince of the land. In this situation, because of the force of the mistaken identification of the prince, with his status as a beggar, no amount of advice of well wishers, to the contrary will convince him that he is not in reality the beggar that he is fancying himself to be. To shed this misconception, all that the prince has to do is to simply realize that he is the prince and this is what he means by the statement “accomplishing the accomplished”. To achieve this end, no outward alteration or external activity is needed on the part of the prince. The Swamy says that we are also in a very similar predicament, wherein we wrongly but strongly identify ourselves with our physical bodies, though we are in truth satchit-ananda , or the embodiment of true happiness. In this context, you will no doubt recall that Tagore, while expressing a very similar sentiment in his verse entitled “Journey Home” says in conclusion and I quote “My eyes strayed far and wide before I shut them and said Here art Thou. The question and the cry Oh where, melt into tears of a thousand streams and deluge the world with the flood of the assurance I AM” unquote.
The statement in your verse that emancipation is not a prize that is to be given, only to those who choose to run in the race, is also very much in conformity with the positive assertion of our scriptures that liberation is universal and not selective, though the time taken to achieve this objective may vary from individual to individual, depending upon the force of karma.
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