The relationship nobody talks about!
From the moment we are born, our first and primary relationship is with our parents. Through them, we become related to siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and many others. These relationships are not of our making; they come with our birth. Thus, whether we like or dislike them, own or disown them, they continue to exist. Relationships with friends and spouses are formed and can therefore be broken. Our relationship with our parents, however, lasts only for this life.
Who is related to us in every life? Whichrelationship is the fundamental and absolute one? It is our relationship with God. I am a part, and He is the whole. Iam an individual, and He is the total. Can the part exist without the whole? How intimately is a part related to the whole? Is a part ever separated from the whole?
Upanishads describe God as the Virat Purush, Cosmic Being, and every jiva individual being as part of Him. The universe is made up of the five elements: space, air, water, fire, and earth. This body too is an aggregate of these elements. Are not individual bodies, made of the five elements, part of the totality of the five elements? Is there aseparate space for this body apart from cosmic space? There are countless waves in the ocean. Each wave is born in the ocean, exists in it, and subsides into it. Its relationship with other waves is temporary, but its relationship with the ocean is primary and absolute. Likewise, we are all a part of God and one with Him. How can we ignore this eternal relationship?
The Mundaka Upanishad offers a beautiful metaphor: in this tree-like body, two bird-friends dwell. One is God and the other the individual. The individual keeps pecking at sweet-and-sour fruits, alternating between happiness and unhappiness.
Helplessly caught in the conflicts and confusions of life, it looks up to its God-friend and becomes truly happy.
We suffer because we seek support from those who are dependent and helpless. Relationships bind us. We feel burdened by responsibilities, attached to possessions, worried about our children, and hurt by rejection and insult. This is because we forget that relatives and relationships are only relative – not absolute. They are secondary, not fundamental. We do not have to renounce worldly relationships to remember our relationship with God. When we realise it, we understand that not only do we belong to God, but so does everyone else – equally, totally, and absolutely. This remembrance divinises all worldly relationships.
When we ignore our relationship with God, we suffer. How can i feel helpless when i am aware of God’s support? How can i feel insecure under the protection of the omnipotent God? How can I feel lonely when i am always in His embrace? Remembrance of our relationship with God is the result of the merits of previous lives, listening to and understanding the scriptures, and the grace of the Guru and God. The Guru unites the individual, who, through ignorance, feels separated from God, with knowledge.
May we always remember our oneness with God and our primary and absolute relationship with Him.
The writer belongs to Chinmaya Mission
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
