Edge

 

"Straight and narrow is the way." ~Jesus
"Like a razor's edge is the path." ~Katha Upanishad 

The present moment is as thin as the finest blade, the width of an electron, less! On one side, the abyss of the infinite past, filled with irredeemable memory and regret. On the other side, the abyss of the infinite future, filled with anxious anticipations. Yet the past is no longer, and the future will never be.

There is only the present moment, disappearing like an infinitesimal sub-nuclear particle. We cannot grasp it. Now it is gone!

What to do? We live in a non-existent past, a non-existent future, a non-existent now.

Only that awareness which is stabilized by pranayama, and clarified by meditation, can remain balanced on the razor's edge. But our mind wavers from past to future, ever carried off by winds of karma into regret and anxiety, unable to enjoy the simplest fragrance of a rose, the most charming song of the thrush, which is here and gone.

Let us practice pranayam, kriya and meditation to stabilize our hearts in radiant Presence. For radiant Presence is eternal. It is all that really is.

A man who was very wealthy, but very depressed, came to Maharshi and said, "Nothing lasts." 

Maharshi answered, "Then would you say that life is ever-changing?"

The man said, "Yes, ever-changing."

Maharshi said, "Then find the joy in that." 

"But there is no joy," the man replied. "This is what I'm saying. There can't be any lasting joy when everything changes and passes away."

Maharishi insisted, "But it's ever changing."

The man grew frustrated. "That's what I've been telling you, Maharshi." 

Then the Master gently asked, "What is this EVER?"

The man's expression suddenly changed. A new power dawned in him. Then he laughed and laughed, for the first time in years.