We have conditioned our mind to such a level that if you are called out by another name you will not look up. Remember the Emily of Devil Wears Prada? Our ego makes us believe that we are the name we are. Any other name won’t be right!
The aliases we use on the internet for maintaining anonymity, gives us false sense of protection. But anyone who wants to hack into our name can do so just by a little effort. Everyone who is someone has pages and pages of stuff linking us to our true bodily identity.
Even a cellphone doesn’t give you any incognito status. You are traceable and knowable the moment you resort to these devices. People are foolish enough to leave traces of who they are even without their own knowledge. They believe they are the smartest but they turn out to be the dumbest.
Take the case of the thieves who robbed a house. While keeping the woman of the house away from the rest of the thieves who were taking the booty out, this silly thief, kissed the woman on her cheek while leaving with his cohorts. The woman complained about the crime and the police department were able to take the DNA sample from the kiss he planted on her cheek. They could trace the culprits and arrest them all. Now where can you hide?
Mind devises devious ways of hood winking others but can anyone actually do that? Someday the crime will come out. You will be exposed and then your guilt will make you squirm. Reminds me of the famous movie, The Rear Window, where the hero who is incapacitated finds out the truth by just observing through the rear window. Someone someplace out there is always watching you. So beware!
There is no security in any place. Even if you have a 256 bit encryption on, you won’t be safe. So what is there to hide or why hide?
Our topic being spiritual in nature, the purport of this lesson is to tell you there is no place to hide. Your life has to be crystal clear, no deviousness when you are with your Guru. Devious is the mind. It tells you that you can hide from exposure. But what a person forgets is that they are not dealing with a mundane hacker or the secret services, but they are contending with the all knowing divine which has taken a form. What is there that can be hidden from the Guru? He knows all and yet he will never let you know that he knows.
You have to volunteer the information yourself otherwise you will not be open to receiving His grace or His lessons. A person goes to Saibaba with doubt in his mind, whether He is a saint or not. After all Baba asks for money or dakshina from all His devotees, so this man believed that Saibaba was just an ordinary man. So finally when his mind cleared the thought about Saibabas divinity, he wondered why Baba didn’t ask for dakshina from him. Till he couldn’t stand it anymore and asked Baba, why wasn’t he privileged to give dakshina to Baba? So Baba answered that till the persons faith isn’t established fully and till surrender doesn’t happen completely, the person feels reluctant to give up his power of attorney to the divine. Till then the divine doesn’t take charge of that devotees life. It’s only when you become completely naked and surrender completely will the divine accept you.
Here the term naked doesn’t mean physically nude but spiritual surrender to the Guru. You have to come without any inhibitions or doubts. There are no secrets to hide, no mysteries to conceal and no part of your life is your personal domain.
The moment you have reached your Guru, your tarpana is done. Your death rites and shedding of old clothes along with shaving your body head. You are offered new name and life. You are no longer your old self. You are now the Guruputra. You have no past or parents or relatives. Just as you cannot remember you past lives, so also you have to begin a new life now. You have to follow only what the Guru commands.
Then alone surrender is complete. But the toughest part is to surrender the mind! You will go by the new name. You may be called Swami so and so and you cannot identify with your old name at all. If you do then you haven’t surrendered.
Remember when you meet the divine Sadguru, know that He is all knowing but He won’t reveal it. You have to disrobe all your past in front of Him. He will make a bonfire of it and destroy your past in the flames of the yagnya. He will take charge only when you have surrendered completely. Do that and be a putty in His hands. You need not fear anything at all. He will take charge and care of you. You are then His responsibility. Do not think you can encrypt at 512 bits or higher. He knows all so reveal all. He will then take charge of you. He will then mould you into the one who knows the true Self.
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When we are given a name, it gives us a lable, not allowing us to become anything else, or anyone other than, the name we were given.