NO PLAN  

Letter from New Delhi

By Swami Anand Kul Bhushan 

Many people go on living without any plan. Helpless against the powerful tides that shove them, their lives are pushed on by other people who dominate them; by passing fads and fancies; or major events over which they have no control. They just keep on going not knowing where or their purpose in life. They stumble from one phase to the next, one crisis to the next disaster or become deliriously happy at the big lucky break or good fortune. They are the drifters.

Your Plan

Most people plan ahead – for success. They think they are clever and can anticipate everything. So they plan their finances, homes, children, their education and finally, retirement. Their planning starts very early in life. As students, they plan on how to study for exams, careers, holidays and almost all other activities. When they start earning, they plan – both for the short and the long terms — for their marriage, families, homes, investments; planning right up to their retirement and beyond. They are the achievers. Despite their unending efforts, do they achieve all the results they aim for? Can they always anticipate the unexpected?

But all plans always do not succeed; no matter how cleverly and calculatedly they are devised, or how efficiently they are executed in personal or public life. Do these achievers ever wonder why their clever plans fail so miserably? So when they cannot achieve what they have planned, they blame bad luck.

His Plan

Then there are a few who sincerely strive to realise their aims in this world and the beyond but leave the results to existence. An awareness of all that’s going on around them and an acceptance of everything, good or bad, success or failure, is their bedrock. This is the blessings for their spiritual master to whom they have surrendered unconditionally. As they depend totally on their master, they achieve the ultimate independence. Those who value their so-called independence based on their birth, intellect, education or status, are not really independent. What can they do against natural calamities or unforeseen developments?

Those who have surrendered to be blessed by their spiritual master go by his plan. They are the disciples. Through their ups and downs as disciples, they have his grace as their invisible armour. They are the surrendered. We think we take the initiative to become disciples. No, it is always the master who allows us and accepts us, whether we know it or not. Once you become a disciple, you surrender to ‘let go’ as your ego melts. You leave it all to the master. He is just a silent help, a soft guidance. Without touching you, he transforms you. And on every Guru Purnima (15 July 2011), the disciples renew their surrender to seek his special blessings for the mysterious, mystic and the unknowable. This is the only meaningful aim in life. It cannot be explained, only experienced. That is the miracle of the master. 


* Published in print edition on 15 July 2011

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