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Thursday, June 19, 2008

Rest and Activity

Q: I heard a beautiful knowledge sheet of Gurudev on Activity & Rest being read during the long kriya at Ananda Mai Bhavan yesterday.

I can't recollect verbatim... But one sentence said, "... Wise are the ones who finds Rest in Activity & Activity in Rest. While it appeals to my silly small mind/intellect about Rest in Activity (doing it with sense of purpose-not with hurry, feverishness, being in the present moment, giving your 100% etc.,), what is not clear to me is about "Activity in Rest"?

How is it possible to have Activity in Rest while the purpose of Rest is to do nothing & relax?

Please help me with your thoughts.

A: Purpose of rest is to rest...

Not to do nothing!

For example I find playing the piano (which is doing something) really restful and relaxing!



Got it?

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

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11 comments:

Shreyans Mehta said...

Dear Bau,

My idea on the topic of rest and activity are as follows:

Activity and Rest
What is activity? It is when you are the doer of an action that you feel you are involved in an activity. What is rest? Complete rest means a complete lack of doership. When you have totally surrendered, it is rest.

But when you give any activity 100%, you are completely immersed in it; all that exists is the activity. The doer ceases to exist. That is when you get rest in activity. The moment you feel you are doing it, the mind is busy in the “I am doing it”, and hence, you are not at rest. Thus, there is rest in activity only when what exists is the activity and not the I.

On the other hand, when you are deeply immersed in a state of rest, you are 100% immersed in the activity of resting. Isn’t meditation an activity after all? And you are involved in this activity without doership again. So, you feel you are at rest, which you are. But you are completely absorbed in the activity of resting. You are still in a state of activity as you are breathing. Breath is indicative of activity. But, since you are completely in the state of rest with the mind completely quiet, you find it difficult to call this an activity.

But giving it a look from the perspective of monoism, just the way light and darkness are the same thing since they lie on the same spectrum, so are rest and activity.

I hope this makes sense.
Jai Gurudev :)

Unknown said...

wow Bau just after today's stressing and irritating afternoon when i come back with a lost mobile i see this space in the blog which makes more sense now...the whole knowledge sheet is more meaningful now.thank you very much...Love, JGD

Anonymous said...

As Shreyans said, this is the state where one feels activity and rest have become the same. One feels no fatigue because work is being done without any psychological side effects (desire, anger, etc).

The verse you read is probably from the Gita. I can't seem to find it right now (Chap 5 probably)

There is a quote by Rabindranath Tagore which is relevant:

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy."

Anonymous said...

Bau, i think what this means is that even when we are resting, some involuntary activities are happening, so there's activity in rest.

JGD
Siri

Anonymous said...

Ramana Maharshi says "activity in rest" is what you experience when you attain Sahaja Samadhi:

Actual quote follows:

"In yoga the term is used to indicate some kind of trance and there are various kinds of samadhi. But the samadhi I speak to you about is different. It is sahaja samadhi. In this state you remain calm and composed during activity. You realise that you are moved by the deeper self within and are unaffected by what you do or say or think. You have no worries, anxieties or cares, for you realise that there is nothing that belongs to you as ego and that everything is being done by something with which you are in conscious union."

sps.iitb said...

wao...
really amazing!!!!!!

Unknown said...

Waw!
what a restful activity

Anonymous said...

Rest in activity - playing piano, Activity in rest, playing piano.

Doing seva for attaining peace of mind, rest in activity.

Doing seva because there is rest is activity in rest.

Doing meditation to search for the silence is rest in activity,
and being meditative is activity in rest.

Giving to be generous and content is rest in activity and giving because there is contentment is activity in rest

All interconnected.

Jaigurudev

Anonymous said...

Hey Bawu,

Activity in Rest is creation... thats how the devine works, when you see it universally it seems that everything is resting but there is always creation happening... when somebody asked guruji "you work so much when do you take rest" he said "i rest between life times" :-)

-Pradeep

Anonymous said...

well, after returning from my yes!++, i've started treading this amazing path...
seeing rest as a state without tensions or stress, with the mind in the present moment, when work is done with fullness and grace, and luckily with a Guru to surrender my work to...
really bawa, having a Guru in life to surrender our work and thoughts is so nice! it has made me work and think like nothin has, ever before. it gives a sense of great freedom...
i'm so happy i came to AOL!! {rather was called to AOL}
love you bawa :)
Jai Gurudeva.

Anonymous said...

...at last got the meaning of that!!

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