| Riding Transcendental Waves: Part 1 |
 Riding Transcendental Waves Surfing and Meditation An interview with Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler) Part 1 Q: Most surfers probably regard a good tube ride as the highlight of a solid session in the water. No other manoeuvre is quite like it. When the surfer gets inside the tube, time seems to distort as he flows with a twisting curl of energy – it’s an incredible feeling. Jagad Guru: Then why does he have to keep going back in search of the tube? That’s the trap they’re in, trapped searching for the experience that comes with the tube. They want to keep merging with the void, being part of that energy. It actually comes down to simply wanting to forget their misery, so they can exist and not be aware of any of their problems. I mean everybody is always searching for everything to be in its right place. But there are always all kinds of problems. So generally a surfer goes into the water to forget his miseries and get away from it all – to get away from the hassles. But even in the water there are hassles; the waves break on you, the water is cold, all the other people out there are hassling you, and so on. So surfing is a search for happiness which is natural, and the tube ride is just another medium or means to come to that situation of being happy. Someone else might get that very same feeling from skiing or some other feeling where everything seems to fit. But it’s never for long – although everything fits together perfectly for a second or two, it never lasts. Q: Is that a meditative state? Jagad Guru: It is a natural condition of the spirit soul to be one, to be feeling that harmony, while simultaneously existing as an individual, and still feeling yourself as an individual. So the question should be where to find that pleasure in the long run. How to actually have that feeling all the time rather than having to struggle and getting it once in a while if you’re lucky. The answer is to dovetail your will with the will of the Supreme Person. Like if you’re surfing for example, you don’t “make” the tube, you fit into a particular situation and you fit in perfectly. The tube is there, it’s going on, now you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to fit into it. Sometimes you’ll stand on the beach and the tube is breaking and then you imagine yourself; “There I am.” You mentally project yourself fitting into this, maybe this tiny little wave breaking on the sand. “Ah, look at that,” and you imagine yourself one inch tall riding this perfect 40 foot wave that’s actually only six inches high. So the idea is that you’re trying to fit into a reality that’s already there. So you have to dovetail your situation, you have to place yourself so that you’re in harmony with the situation which is already there. When you speak about God, the Supreme Being or the Supreme Person and you talk about dovetailing your will with His, then you’re talking about your whole life being dovetailed in such a way that through your whole life you actually feel that oneness – that freedom from anxiety. You actually feel a complete liberation, but even more so, because you’re not just dealing with one little energy of God, namely the water or this one little surf spot, but you’re dealing with the entire existence. Then the wave you are riding is your entire life. This is actually what a person is searching for – pleasure in unity with God. Now they’re getting a little glimpse of it on a wave. That’s why a lot of people after surfing or getting some tubes or getting that higher taste can give up all kinds of things to be able to get that tube, to be able to get in that position of harmony. So a lot of people who are surfers become serious about making their whole life in harmony with God, not just one of God’s waves, but the entire wave of God. After all, a wave is just God’s energy. So you’re trying to place yourself so that you’re in tune with God’s energy. Now if you can do it on a vast scale or you can do it directly with God Himself, then you can imagine how much pleasure there is in that. The highest happiness occurs when a person has actually placed his entire life in the hands of God and God is simply pushing him. Just like when you’re in a tube it’s like you’re in a glove. You’re riding the tube feeling you’re being perfectly moved along, you’re not doing anything anymore. You’re doing things to get in that position where you don’t need to do anything. The best part of the tube ride is when you’re just right. You’re right there and you’re not having to move a muscle, in fact you don’t want to move a muscle. You’re being propelled – totally locked in another energy, someone else’s energy. You don’t need to do anything. So you’re doing all these things to get to that one little point of that one little experience of being propelled by another energy and you’re happy in it. You’re satisfied just being part of that perfect situation. But it’s so short and so fleeting. Now if you can imagine being in God’s hand – rather than just a little tube which is a tiny fragment of God’s hand – then how much happiness is in that? That’s why many surfers are actually searching for that harmony of being in tune with God, and they are getting glimpses of it in the surf once in a while. But this is just a glimpse, it is not all satisfying. You need more. What you need is an eternal tube ride, then you’ll be happy. What is that eternal tube ride? That is when you’re perfectly linked up in connection with doing God’s will. Just like when you’re going with the wave – you’re going with the flow and you’re doing the wave’s will. The waves are coming this way and you paddle out to catch them, you don’t make the waves, you catch the waves. So surfers by nature already know that there’s some kind of happiness by going with an energy that’s already there – just catching it and then relaxing – being in tune with that energy that’s already moving. So when we talk about God’s will, we’re talking about the energy of God. He has His own will. Just like a wave has its own will and you harmonize yourself with it. I know some surfers look like they’re trying to tear the waves apart but this is another thing again. If they can’t get in the tube then they just want to tear it apart. This is the difference. There are actually two different experiences. But the first experience I’m talking about is the experience of being in complete harmony with the energetic source of all energy then that is the perfectly happy position and that is possible to achieve by engaging in the bhakti-yoga process. |