Innocence: the Most Beautiful Feeling

THE SILVER LINING BETWEEN CUNNINGNESS AND INNOCENCE

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INTRODUCTION

If you are aware about your innocence, you are cunning. You are not innocent, you are boasting. A Paramahamsa will not even be aware of his own innocence. He is innocent about his own innocence. That space is what is called Paramahamsa.

INNOCENCE MEANS YOU WILL NOT EVEN BE AWARE THAT YOU ARE

portrait of a man with a circular mandala frame

INNOCENCE ONE OF
THE MANY PATHWAYS
TO ENLIGHTENMENT

Satyakama was a boy who lived in the
dense forests of India with his mother
Jabala. He had an intense desire to
learn meditation and know the nature
of the brahman. His search for a Guru
took him to the sage Gautama. The
sage asked him, “Of what family are
you, my boy?” Satyakama fearlessly
answered, “My mother said that I
should tell you that her name is Jabala
and my name is Satyakama – and I
know nothing more about my family.
So I am Satyakama Jabala.”
Appreciating his honesty and courage
to speak the truth, the sage accepted
him as a student.

The next day, sage Gautama initiated Satyakama into a meditation to quiet his mind. This was the first step to the knowledge of the Brahman, brahma vidya – knowing the self. After teaching Satyakama to meditate, Gautama did something that was very unusual. He took Satyakama to the pasture where hundreds of cows were grazing. To Satyakama’s surprise, Gautama separated out four hundred thin, weak cows. He then told Satyakama that he was about to enter a different type of journey. He instructed Satyakama to take the cows to another part of the forest and to tend to them carefully. He was to return after the cows had multiplied to a thousand. Satyakama had many doubts in his heart, but in deference to the Guruvaak (His Guru’s words), he left the gurukul with the cows for the deepest part of the forest.

© 2020 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved Satyakama traveled back to the Gurukul with the cows, and upon seeing them all, the Master exclaimed that now one thousand and one cows had returned. In other words, Satyakama himself had lost all sense of his former identity, and had simply become one of the cows. The Master simply pronounced the Vedic declaration for enlightenment – ‘Tat Tvam Asi’, or ‘Thou art that’. Satyakama was so empty of identity, and in a state of such pure listening, that the Master’s words just penetrated his being and became a reality in him. In that moment, Satyakama got enlightened.

The guru has the power to create the right situation in which a disciple can flower. It is through the guidance and instruction of an enlightened master that a seeker can reach the state of the ultimate bliss. Satyakama also had doubts, like any spiritual seeker, but he had the intelligence to listen to his guru’s words and the courage to practice the Guru’s instruction. In this way, Satyakama was able to transcend the plane of the mundane and reach a higher level of consciousness. The Master is a vessel for our own transformation, but the disciple must take the first step. Once that step is taken, then the possibility towards enlightenment, eternal bliss, becomes a reality.

WHAT STOPS YOUR
FROM EXPERIENCE
THE SPACE OF PURE
INNOCENCE

Logic does not allow you to be
simple and innocent. It does not
allow the transformation to happen
easily. Logic has to be overcome
for the transformation to happen.
Only when there is no logic there
can be innocence. Innocence is the
space for transformation to happen.
In the case of Satyakama,
fortunately he was not bitten by
logic.

The disciple goes to the guru for enlightenment and the guru tells him, ‘Alright, take these cows, go to the forest and stay there till they become one thousand cows. Then come back!’ If today’s seeker was in that disciple’s place he would have said, ‘I think the master is trying to exploit me. He wants a thousand cows, which is why he is telling me to do this work. He is using me to get his work done.’ Innocence is lost to logic! That is why no modern day seeker receives such amazing techniques.

This is not a mere story. It has got
a great truth behind it. With
innocence, Satyakama simply
followed what the master said.
Further, he lost his logic of
counting. He was completely lost
in ecstasy and joy. The mind
stopped functioning. He didn't
care about one thousand or two
thousand. Just the innocence and
acceptance caused the greatest
happening of enlightenment in
him!

When you completely accept, you
don't need the mind. The mind is
necessary only when you live with
struggles, only when you are
fighting. Just this moment accept
yourself in the outer world and the
inner world. You will go out
enlightened.

For so many years, completely
accepting what the master said,
Satyakama just was. What else can
happen to him but enlightenment?