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I feel really good that, so far, the maxims each lead rather directly from the one before it. Maxim III is no different. It reads, “Fix your Goal which should be complete oneness with God. Rest not till the ideal is achieved.” This maxim actually touches on so many other ideas and practices within Sahaj Marg / Heartfulness. The love and devotion mentioned in conjunction with an elevated state relates directly to fixing our Goal and oneness with God.
It should be noted right off that Sahaj Marg doesn’t very much support the idea of God that comes to the mind of most who think of what God is. You can be sure that God is not an entity in the sky or off in the universe noticing the rights and wrongs of humans. Neither is God, really, Ganesha or Vishnu or Durga. To be sure, any conception of God – even the most vague – is flawed. These ideas and perceptions of what the Divine is do serve a purpose – but that purpose is no different than that served by those really long notepads used by preschoolers and kindergartners when they learn how to write. You know the ones? They’re long and the solid lines in them are spaced extra far apart and have a dotted line in between… and this is all to allow those tiny, yet unskilled hands to have more space to hone their ability to write lower case Ks and upper case Ts. Any understanding of God that involves traits you can picture or imagine or easily talk about are not much better than those learning notepads. Definitely have a valuable purpose but like those learning notepads you’re meant to leave them behind ASAP.
The word Goal, in this maxim, is upper case – not unlike God. That’s no accident. God is our Source. The Source is our very own Center and reaching That is the Goal Itself. It’s a fantastic journey and this reminds me of a Hindu prayer known as the Brahmarpanam …
ब्रह्मार्पणं ब्रह्म हविर्ब्रह्माग्नौ ब्रह्मणाहुतम् ।
ब्रह्मैव तेन गन्तव्यं ब्रह्म कर्म समाधिना ।।
A translation of this is: The act of offering is God, the oblation is God. By God it is offered into the Fire of God. God is That which is to be attained by him who performs actions pertaining to God.
The Brahmarpanam is often known as the Hindu meal blessing – and if you think about it for a second you can see why. But on a bigger scale, it means so much more and ties into this maxim. God is our Source and original Home. It’s where we’re journeying back to – despite the reality that It has never been separate from us! Crazy! The Goal is God and God is the traveler, the journey, and the destination. For anyone able to digest this, it’s an incredible and unshakable source of eternal hope and happiness. (For anyone not able to chew on this, give it time. Keep practicing on whatever learning notepad you’ve chosen and you will eventually get to the same place as anyone else – I promise.)
But there’s one last thing: Don’t stop till you get there! The words in the maxim are, “Rest not till the ideal is achieved.” That probably doesn’t really need much explanation, but I’d like to point out something often overlooked. This “rest not…” bit means ALL THE TIME. In Sahaj Marg we have Constant Remembrance. We get out of bed – We shower and go to our meditation / puja place – Our heart swells with love and devotion making the Goal ever more clear – and then we set about reaching that Goal and rest not till it is achieved! What a valuable foundation this much can be for anyone!
Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti
Sthapati Samanvayam 