Meditations From A Mundane Mind, Part Four

And I, Mark Dayton , am illumined! (like Jesus - well, kind of )

Jesus, as we know, did not win all of his battles. He didn’t retire victorious and vindicated, He didn’t even get out alive. But what both the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita make clear is that the spiritual scorecard does not equate in the earthly outcome. It is measured at a different level. And in the Gita the Lord begins to describe that level in the most beautiful passage, “Not shaken by adversity, not hankering after happiness. Free from fear, free from anger, free from the things of desire. I call him a seer and illumined. The bonds of his flesh are broken. He is lucky, and does not rejoice. He is unlucky, and does not weep. I call him illumined. The recollected mind is awake in the knowledge of God, which is dark night to the ignorant. The ignorant are awake in their sense-life, which they think is daylight. To the seer, that is darkness. The man or woman who stirs up his own lusts can never know peace. They know peace who have forgotten desire. And live without craving, free from ego, free from pride. I call them illumined.”

OK, so I am, maybe, not all that Illumined.

I like that God, in the form of Sri Krishna, comes to Arjuna in his time of doubt and darkness, accepts him as he is; understands his fears; feels his pain. But the Lord is straight with him also. He says, “If you refuse to follow in your path to do your duty, to fight this righteous war, here are the consequences. But I will be with you; I’ll teach you the practice; I’ll show you the way.” That would make it all worthwhile for me. If the path, the work, the whatever - were a way to God, a way to connect with God and to serve God and to experience God in this lifetime. I don’t know that state. I can imagine it, but I haven’t experienced it. I don’t know how to attain it, or where to find it or even if it exists. But then, neither did Arjuna before his visitation.

(Hat tip to Dayton v. Kennedy and Powerline)