How I Experimented With The Bhagavad Gita

In the declaration, “I am always the instrument,” these verses aim to lift the veil of illusion, maya, that deludes the personality into believing it is an individ­ual entity operating in the world –– separate from the Higher Self. When yoked to the knowledge of oneness, the aspirant operates in the realm of sensory objects with detachment––as the imper­ishable witness.

With this knowing, the aspirant nei­ther craves the objects of the senses nor seeks to manipulate outcomes in the sensory world. all actions are carried out by the gunas. In this state of oneness, when actions are predetermined by the sattva guna and all fruits are surren­dered, the lower self expands its aware­ness to merge with the Higher Self, and realizes that it “does nothing at all.”

A few weeks ago my eight year old daughter woke up in the middle of the night looking for relief. She was crying, saying that her ears were hurting. She was in obvious pain. She was pointing to her ear lobes, right where her ears had been pierced in the late spring, five months before. After taking a quick look, I noted that the backings of both her ear­rings were missing and I wondered if she had been tossing and turning so much that she had irritated the tissue. I started to remove the front of the earring and immediately realized that the backs of her earrings were not missing at all. They were inside the tissue of the lobe.

When I communicated my assess­ment to my husband, maya acknowl­edged that she had been so worried about losing these particular earrings that her best friend had gifted her, that she had pushed the backings too far.

With the realization that she had two earring backings inside her ear lobes, the lower self arrived on the scene to narrate how bad the situation was. a cascade of stress hormones rushed through my body. I was paralyzed with fear. my husband was distraught. It was almost 11 o’clock at night. the pediatri­cian’s office was closed. the children’s ER was over an hour away and even if we had left that moment, by the time she was treated and we returned home, she would likely not sleep at all that night. She was exhausted, she was crying, and she was looking for immediate relief.

Aware of the rajasic nature of the scene unfolding before me, I knew I needed to quiet the unskillful sugges­tions of the lower self and restore a moment of quiet stillness. I closed my eyes and went to the breath. I allowed the mantra to come in. Having previous­ly birthed three 8-9 pound babies with­out ever needing a stitch, I was reminded of the human body’s exceptional ability to stretch, particularly when the stretch­ing is done gently and calmly.

My intuition was telling me to assess whether I could gently coax the backings out by stretching the tissue without causing a tear. If I found she was in too much pain, or if the skin was not yielding, I committed to putting her in the car. I soothed my daughter and washed my hands. I asked the Amy per­sonality, with all her fears and anxieties, to leave the room for that particular moment. It was not her time to guide this action.

Yoked as the witness, with all my love and quiet concentration, I went to the mantra. I said a silent prayer asking for guidance. all of the rajasic noise went quiet. With the mantra as the guide, I gave my efforts over to the Higher Self and with calmness and gentleness, slowly stretched the skin and guided the back­ings out the same holes they had entered. maya remained quiet and calm through the entire effort.

In less than fifteen minutes both backings had been freed, her ears were sanitized, antibiotic ointment had been applied and she was snuggled in a long embrace that eased her back to sleep.

That night it was very clear to me that my personality had believed herself to be separate and afraid, and therefore not reliably capable of helping her daughter. Her fear and attachment to her child’s well-being invited the state of restless activity known as rajas guna, and in that state of separate agitation, skillful action was not attainable.

In those moments when we become aware that the restless, anxious state of mind known as rajas predominates, and that we have forgotten the truth of our Higher Selves, we must turn to the Higher knowledge and respond as the witness. Yoked to that remembrance, we find the strength, the clarity and the courage to act skillfully in the world. and regardless of the outcome, our inner peace is undisturbed, we add love to the world, and we meet the darkness with light.