Go With the Flow of the Universe

I don’t consider myself a “go with the flow” kind of person. I do a lot of planning, weighing pros and cons, researching, considering options... a real full analysis. I guess that’s my science brain and way I have been taught to approach the world from my years of schooling. I do go with that intuitive feeling in my heart too (sometimes when you know, you just know, its a gut instinct and not a calculated decision), but even then I'm largely non-spontaneous. Gut instincts and intuitive feelings don't change much. Now with all my planned stuff completed, I am finding myself discovering a world of possibilities that I cannot plan for. Coincidentally this morning when I was working out I was listening to a katha on Anand Sahib by Nanak Naam charity and it was talking about this very topic. They talked about how the universe does what it does (Hukam) and that it will continue to flow like a river flows. I realized that my own desires, my own input, my agenda doesn’t matter. When I think that I am controlling variables, and meddling in plans, I am actually not doing anything but causing myself grief. That doesn’t mean that we do nothing, but it means that we do things with a different intention. The intention is no longer to control the world to what we want so we can be happy. It is to do what we can and accept all as is naturally happening. The idea of happiness being tied to things being the way we want them to be is an issue, but the second issue is that we think that the universe revolves around us, when we are actually a part of the universe. 

I have been struggling with this for quite some time. Hope, wish, pray, over and over but the purpose of the prayer is actually to change yourself, to change your own mind’s thinking to align to Hukam. That part about prayer in the form of Ardas I understood, but a hope and a wish is also a type fo prayer and we do that all the time. We think if we wish hard enough with the bottom of our hearts, our desires will suddenly be real. Like they talked about in the video, it is possible to able to be in Anand (bliss) no matter what. I think in Punjabi culture there is this idea that enjoy life while you are young. I had an older friend with children tell me that just yesterday. It is the idea that once you are married and once you have a family, your time for everything will disappear. Your time for Simran, kirtan, learning history, doing anything at all will just evaporate. It is as if people say that life, enjoyment, the chance for Anand are over. Yet Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s core principle of a Grist Marag, a householder’s life, as central to the spiritual life is one that contradicts this cultural thinking that has morphed its way into our consciousness. When I was reading all that history, I was thinking about how these Guru Jis had their families, but they were also living such enlightened lives. Being married and having children wasn’t a burden to that spiritual life. Guru Angad Dev Ji’s wife Mata Khivi, is famously written into the Guru Granth Sahib Ji for the service she did in running the langar. Just even thinking about how when Guru Gobind Singh Ji and the Sikhs evacuated Anandpur (after the oath was sworn by Aurangzeb), they had stopped at the Sirsa riverbank to do Asa Di Vaar. The very soldiers who carried their swords and bow-and-arrow, used to also carry their dilrubas to sing kirtan. They would do their Nitnem in the jungles. Even as the Guru Jis were establishing towns, operating langar, helping to resolve people’s everyday problems, spreading the messages of Sikhi, as people were trying to attack and kill them - even during all of that, they were still in deep meditation, doing kirtan, doing Nitnem, and writing Gurbani. The spiritual life was infused into everything else which is the example given when Guru Nanak Dev Ji is working as a store-keeper and as he gets to the number thirteen (tera) he starts meditating, Tera, Tera (Yours, Yours, Yours) and handing out more and more provisions.

Some of you might be thinking that’s fine for men but what about women. I think we have to work even more on our attachment thinking. When you grow inside you a human being and bring it into the world it is easy to think that that is your creation, that is yours forever, that is yours whether for worse or better, that you must pour all of your energy into this attachment of yours for the rest of your life. There is a struggle upfront, but it is not yours. It is not your creation. Waheguru takes care of all- this comes in Rehras Sahib. “Odai Oood Avai Sai Kosa, Tis Pashay Bashrai Shariya. Tin Kavan Khulavai, Kavan Chugavay, Man meh simran kariya.” Guru Ji asks is this question “The flamingoes fly hundreds of miles, leaving their young ones behind. Who feeds them, and who teaches them to feed themselves? have you ever thought of this in your mind?” This applies to all- that we must not attach ourselves so deeply into our householder life that we cut off all spiritual progress. It should not be a hindrance to us. So we must think differently, that the spiritual essence of our life is the very core around which everything must revolve. We can’t make it a side task, hobby, or something we do just during the morning or evenings. If I was to wake up, do my Nitnem and then spend the whole day in anxiety, thinking that what I want to happen isn’t happening, and I am not getting what I wished for, then I have learned nothing because I am spending my life actively working against Hukam and the flow of the universe. In Gurbani we call this category of thinking “Rajogun”- the worldly desires, hopes, and wishes. I think I have spent most of my time thinking that if I stay focused, determined, and work hard enough I will be able to achieve my goals/fulfill my desires. The lesson in Gurbani is that we must make our efforts into our spiritual path instead, to move above and beyond rajogun (or tamogun and satogun).

I am learning to remind this mind to go with the flow. To accept that maybe everything is not what’s been planned or desired, but not to keep forcing it, or holding my breath and waiting for it to magically change. It is what it is because that is the flow of the universe in this moment. This moment is actually all we have to live in after all. I’m not saying don’t plan, but I’m saying don’t obsess on what happens or when things change. I was thinking about this post this morning and went out for a walk. Halfway through there was a heavy downpour and a thunderstorm. My shoes and pants were just drenched. I remembered that this is You, rejuvenating life, feeding the plants, reminding this mind that I am not in control. I am tired of thinking if I do X, then Y will happen, tired of waiting, tired of the false hope that it will all be just as I wish. The Universe does what it does, and it is time to align to it and stop waiting until something happens to be fulfilled. Gurbani explains to us probably hundreds of times, that other people, things, places, experiences, nothing at all can give us that fulfillment. That inner work doesn’t go away, we are ever striving as Sikhs to fulfill our path and purpose as we work, as we raise our children, as we exercise, as we eat and sleep and live.