The second installment of the Living Tantra satsang opens with a question about the hards times in life from New Delhi, India.

A reader in New Delhi asks: I am not able to find out as to why I am in a situation in which I am today. I took premature retirement and now my life is in turmoil due to joblessness.

Shambhavi: When we feel cornered by circumstance, you can bet that this effect has been the result of bad timing.

We live in the flow of time. Time is not an airy-fairy concept. Time is impermanence manifested in every aspect of duality.

Our bodies are time. And all other bodies as well. Everything lives and dies by the clock of impermanence.

Because we live in time, timing is important. You could say that all karma is the result of timing. What we call good karma is one kind of timing. What we call bad karma is another. Realized persons are able to step out of time. But that’s a topic for another day.

Life is flowing along like a great river. If you have ever gone swimming in a fast-moving river, you know that you have to be a good judge of state of the river in order to know how to move in keeping with the shifting waters. You need good timing in order to stay on course.

This is exactly parallel to life. Life is one great river with many currents and waves and rocks and other beings.

Let’s say we are doing a good job of balancing on a rock in the middle of the river. We are congratulating ourselves because we have managed not to be swept away. Our entire focus is on that rock.

This is how many of us live: trying to keep everything fixed and safe-feeling while life roars around us.

However, because our focus is so narrow and fixed, we do not see the crocodile coming. Standing so still in the middle of the river, we are perfectly placed to become a meal for the crocodile. All of a sudden–we are dinner!

How did that happen, we wonder from inside the croc’s belly! I had everything together, perfectly balanced, and now Life Sucks!

The answer is bad timing brought on by ignorance, aka: narrow View.

In order to have better timing, we have to encompass a wider View. This is what spiritual practice is for–enlarging our View of Reality so that we can embody that spaciousness and presence and avoid being tumbled about by karma, good or bad.

Of course, 99.999% of people on the planet are not Self-realized. So we all have bad timing, more or less. This is the human condition.

What can we do?

First, when you hit a hard patch of life, pull yourself out of the misapprehension that you have been victimized, or that life is unfair.

There is only the world Self, so there is no one to victimize you. And life is simply responsive. Every response is perfect. There are no mistakes.

Also, you are not being punished for bad timing. You are human, and human life has its ups and downs. As I said, bad timing is unavoidable. It is not a sin. It is a natural part of the life process.

Don’t waste time trying to figure out how you got yourself into a mess. Just move on. The river is flowing. A new situation arises in every moment. Being attached to figuring out the past is just like standing on a rock in the river.

Finally, you are responsible for your life. As my Guru liked to say, we all must make a life. We all must digest difficult circumstances. Try to be simple and modest about it. No drama. Just get on with what you need to do in order to take care of the basics of existence.

Although we are responsible for our lives, we do have help. We can slowly improve our timing by enlarging our View. Immediately, we can consult a teacher, a good astrologer, or use a form of divination to help us to better “surf” the currents of the present.

Our aim in consulting a Guru, astrologer, or diviner should be to discern the potentials in the present so that we can take responsibility for our life and use better timing to help create a smoother future. It should NOT be to figure out how we can be saved by astrology, or predictions of future good fortune.

The ultimate “fix” for bad timing is Self-realization. When we are in turmoil is sometimes a good time to begin to give more time to spiritual practice.

The reader from Delhi also wrote that he had met Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh as a child, and even spent some significant time with this great Guru who was the Guru of his parents. This is a blessing and a beacon. If one has had such an indication as a young child, then it may be time to meet this opportunity with capacity and undertake to find a teacher and begin practicing, or to dedicate oneself more if one is already “in the stream.”

If in our lives we have met a great being, and especially if our parents have been initiated, this is an invitation from the enlightened Self. We should not treat these circumstances as stories to tell to impress others. We should instead recognize that we have the possibility to take greater responsibility for our Self-realization. Such circumstances are like a phone call from the wisdom beings. But if we don’t pick up the phone. . . then we have missed the opportunity, at least for now.

In Ma’s Love,
Shambhavi

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