Horse, Sarathi and the Charioteer

Every offering is to God – God may be felt as formless (consciousness) or manifested in terms of a changing and interconnected Form. Form and its perception is only apparent. Apparent means that manifestation perceives itself in many different ways – its chief characteristics being the ability to keep changing. Changes happens by means of its body and its perception of others. Then, we come to the core of ‘perception’ – that response of self and surroundings (internal and external). This response/ vibration/ awareness/ construct depends on one’s form of existence (characteristics of body and physiology, brain and genes etc.) the intellect and the consciousness. The phenomenon of expression is neutral and doesn’t favour one over the other. All are vibrations. Favouring is apparently perceived by our own conditioning or perception of Universe around us. In this entire process, the flow of consciousness is towards generation of form (imagination) and hence our tendency to keep clinging to body and mind (or any form of expression). The Forms want to continue clinging to others – the play should keep on happening. There is an inbuilt sense of incompleteness, of evolution , of connections and dilemma and fear and love. All these are forces present everywhere. It is our choice to tune in to which force (or which seed of thought?). That seed of thought will change our perception of things around us and make the Universe appear apparently so.

Desire is momentum and compulsion to remain engaged. There is no reason why desires generate in us. But they do. Consciousness vibrates to lead to momentum/ force/ mind and to a body. We can sense this compulsion to cling and be free at the same time. Freedom is an idea that again needs to be realized through engagement with manifestation. Me, you, they, this, that, are all constructs from the standpoint of a human being. And we keep playing our part.

The old offer things freely since that is a state of their mind – having gone beyond the mundane. The toddlers offer freely since notions of separation are not yet developed. The spectrum of the middle (between young and old) has a lot of attachment to life. There are those waking and living amongst us, that stay centred in consciousness and hence their talk, communication, action may look incomprehensible to us. Even if we did understand their approach, it seems difficult to practice it ourselves.

I recall the image of horses controlled by a Sarathi and a Charioteer occupying the chariot. All these components make reality. Horses will remain in perpetual motion (as forms of manifestation). The Sarathi controls or imagines or propels or directs this motion (mind/ intent). The Charioteer is a detached being that causes all these phenomena to occur. By focusing on any of these components, we become those. Concentrating on Fear does not remove it. Fear is desire/ impulse/intent/ purpose. So the vibrations need to be observed without our own weight or judgments. These eventually die down or fizzle out and one reaches consciousness.

I think the need to respond to anything (words, sight, smell, colour, sound) is self generated. One may choose to respond displaying annoyance or calmness. Annoyance is born out of expectation which is connected with fear or ignorance. Calmness is born out of acceptance and knowing the nature of phenomenon.