Joy of stretching
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Others’ expectation from you is not your enemy. Please understand, any expectation from others is only a wake-up call which you set!
The alarm is not your enemy; YOU requested it to wake you up. So when others have an expectation from you, bow down to them as the embodiment of the antaryami, the innermost Self, who is waking you up!
How many of you, when you started stretching yourself to others’ expectations about you, realized that it was exactly your expectation about you also?
You are travelling on the path of self-realization. As long as you think you are stretching just because of others’ expectations from you, you will carry a continuous irritation, agitation, heaviness.
When you realize that this is also your expectation about yourself, you will have fulfilment, joy of vairagya (sacrifice), joy of tyaaga (renunciation).
You may ask, ‘How can renunciation be joyful?’
I tell you, if renunciation or sacrifice is done because of another’s expectation, it will only be painful. When you realize that you are
Completion with anyakara makes you God
Authenticity gives you a deep and vast clarity about Life.
With authenticity, because there is no more space for unconscious living, you will always be aware of the causes and effects that are playing in your life. You will be aware of the possible consequences of your actions. When you are authentic, life can never bring shocks to you.
Only when you have the clarity that nothing can take you by surprise, will you have the guts to take the responsibility for everything in your life. When you don't carry the fear of being exploited by life, you will have the courage to enter into others' life with conscious clarity, and stretch yourself to transform others. With authenticity, you will never give up on people.
Anyakara is the expectation that Life has of you – in the form of other people, situations, events, actions. When you are complete with anyakara, life can never bring shocks to you.
The history of Lord Shiva describes how he swallows the poison that was going to destroy the world. It is a tremendous sacrifice, but Shiva makes it, because that is what the world expects of him. Poison is not a surprise
Kill the old way of living
You need to have the courage of authenticity before you give a word.
Integrity ensures that you keep your word. Authenticity ensures that you keep your word with enthusiasm. Authenticity brings excitement into your integrity, because it kills the old way of living and thinking. Authenticity is death for your boredom, your lazinessand your cunningness. It brings an intense excitement for life. It is an intense commitment to live life at its peak.
In the Shaiva tradition, devotees apply sacred ash on their forehead as a declaration of their commitment to the ultimate Truth. The devotee commits - Everything but this is only ash, because it is going to turn into ash one day. So all these things of the world, which are going to become ash one day, are not my life's ultimate purpose. My strategy for my life, even my strategy for my relationships and my success, everything, should come only from authenticity.
Applying the sacred ash is a constant reminder to base all decisions on this one thing - authenticity to the Ultimate.