Life is a conspiracy to drive us into the truth within ourselves. In this post you will read ancient wisdom from Krishna’s words in the Bhagavad Gita that offer clarity and strength post-election. Plus some of my own gritty comments.
I was in Florida this last weekend, one of the election battleground states. The place was inundated with constant TV and radio campaign ads, and they were ugly. People I met there told me how sick they were of being assaulted by all the nonstop media negativity.
When I got on the plane today at 6 PM in Fort Lauderdale none of the election returns had come in yet. Based on the polls and my basic faith in humanity I expected to see Trump defeated by the time I got home to San Francisco.
While I was on the five hour flight I did some computer work and then pulled out a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a short and powerful scripture from India. The Gita is the story of a great battle that happened in ancient India. A great warrior named Arjuna fell into despair when he saw that the opposing army he had to fight consisted of many of his family members. He did not want to kill them, which was his duty. Arjuna’s charioteer, Krishna was an Avatar, an incarnation of God. The Gita contains the enlightenment teachings Krishna taught to Arjuna on the battlefield.
I had not read the Gita in over 35 years, and I had borrowed it from my lady friend out of an impulse. As I read a couple of chapters my attention was strongly drawn to these words:
“The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results… They live in freedom who have gone beyond the dualities of life. Competing with no one, they are alike in success and failure and content with whatever comes to them. They are free without selfish attachments their minds are fixed in knowledge.”
“Those whose consciousness is unified abandons all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace… Those who possess this wisdom have equal regard for all. They see the same Self in a spiritual aspirant and an outcast in an elephant, a cow and a dog.”
Now I know why I had been drawn to read that over and over.
When I got back to SFO airport and saw the election results my stomach went into knots, my heart started beating differently and frightened and despairing thoughts vied for my attention. I thought about the rise of Hitler and how similar that seemed to the victory Trump created by appealing to the dark side of people’s anger and fear. I’ll tell you that I have not been a big fan of Hillary Clinton. But I have reason to believe that a multi-billion dollar character assassination campaign was set in motion against her over a year ago, and apparently most of the American people bought into it.
I then spoke with my daughter on the phone, a feminist who has been trying to make a difference in society since her teenage years. The first words out of her mouth was “We’re f**cked!” She told me how most of her Millennial generation didn’t even bother to vote, and this helped seal the election. They did turn out to help elect our first African-American President, but not this time.
In its attempt to fan the flames of angst my mind start flashing even more gloomy thoughts in front of me about other uncertain things happening in my life.
Then I noticed that I was still breathing. Not only that, but I was still feeling that peaceful, calm center within my breath. How could that be, my mind raged. Things really suck, how could you be at peace???
I then thought about the words I had been writing and speaking about over the last year about living in the eye of the hurricane. In that analogy the hurricane is the destructive momentum of our fear based minds, and the eye is the peaceful center within our breath that is always there for us. In a flash my spirit merged that truth with the timeless words of Krishna I had read from the Gita.
It was clear that this new hurricane could be off the charts, and our need to be in our peaceful center is more compelling than ever. Many of us knew that this would happen. We have probably read the prophesies of Nostradamus, the Native American elders, the Mayans and so many more. We know that our planet and race is going through a huge purification process that is still ramping up.
Our hearts have known for some time that there is no time to waste, no space to indulge in perpetuating outworn, limited beliefs about who we really are and what we are really here to do. Yet most of us have stayed with some degree of complacency because life seems pretty good and stable here in the USA. Even with whatever stresses or uncertainties each of us is dealing with we can rationalize that we are better off than 99% of the rest of the human race.
With the victory of Trump my vestiges of complacency are dissolving. I hope yours are also. If that is the case for lots of us there may be a silver lining in this election.
We have the power. We have the power to be a vital part of the solution, right now. We have the power to invoke our Will and take charge of our minds, moment by moment. We don’t have to do this perfectly, we just need to stop being allowing “weapons of mass distraction” from pulling us out. We need to really get that keeping our attention in our calm center is the most vital, life-saving, sanity-maintaining, world-serving and loving act we can do. And keep doing.
From that place you can hear the guidance of your soul more clearly. When you do hear it, it is best to jump to obey. The more you obey the voice of your soul the more clearly and precisely it will speak to you. Like it spoke to me to stay up tonight after a long trip and write this post.
It’s all about being connected to our Source and from that place, taking action to be part of the solution. You will see the perfection and learn to trust it. You will know what to do. You are much more powerful than you have believed. We all are. This election is a wake-up call to claim it and live it.
I will conclude with one more quote from Krishna in the Gita:
“Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life… What the outstanding person does, others will try to do. The standards such people create will be followed by the whole world.”