Life Flows Between Wisdom and Love
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, one of India’s greatest non-dualist saints, perfectly summed up the meaning of life for a true spiritual seeker when he stated, “Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two, my life flows.” Indeed, spiritual life is about finding the balance between wisdom, which aims to dissolve the ego-mind, and love, which inspires us to manifest our desires. But how can we dissolve the ego while still honoring our desires?
I experienced and understood this for the first time when I gave birth to my daughter. I had been meditating, repeating mantras, and doing other spiritual practices for her throughout my pregnancy; I even had a group of friends over to chant for hours the week before she was born. So when the day arrived, I was really inspired and ready to receive her. I had planned to have a water birth, so her dad had set up a tub in the living room ahead of time.
When my water broke and I started having contractions, he called the midwife and started filling the tub with warm water. The midwife said it would take a few hours for me to be ready, so she would come over then. My baby girl, however, had other plans. I was yearning for the warm embrace of the water and got in the tub as soon as it was filled.
Then everything simply happened on its own, and by the time the midwife arrived I was pretty much done. My body just knew what to do and I simply became a witness to the whole process. There was nothing for me to do, except to open up to the experience and allow my inner divine intelligence to manifest life, because my body was doing all the work and I was just watching while mumbling some mantras. I was just a vehicle of divine energy. It was the most powerful and humbling experience of my life!
When my lovely daughter emerged from the water, like a little mermaid, and I held her in my arms for the very first time, I realized her birth was a desire I had manifested from the depths of my being; a desire I didn’t even know I had so deep within me—that of being a mother. It was a definite turning point for me, not just in my life, but especially in the perception of myself. I was one with love, and nothing else mattered.
The point is that I had actually made this deep desire real by simply allowing life to happen, by witnessing the process and opening up to the experience. There was no rushing, no pushing, no doing, no thinking; just allowing. And since there was no mind involved, there was no fear, no resistance, no expectations, no emotions, no pain; just life.
Life does flow between wisdom and love: between the wisdom of getting the ego out of the way and allowing what is meant to happen to happen; what we chose to manifest but maybe forgot that we did; what we desired at some point but maybe no longer want; or what we didn’t even know that was our deepest desire yet. By allowing life to come as it may, without resistance, our inner wisdom teaches us to discern, to choose carefully, to discriminate between ego driven thoughts and our true desires—those that support our life purpose.
And then love shows us what powerful beings we are that we can create and transform what life brings to us by learning about ourselves with compassion and humility; by acknowledging, accepting, and surrendering to our divine nature, which emerges from pure consciousness and, like a good mother, knows what is best for us, and helps us to give birth to the magnificent beings we are really meant to be. Wisdom teaches us discernment and love gifts us with the manifestation of our deep desires. Between the two, we can create a wonderfully meaningful life.
© 2011 Yol Swan. All rights reserved.
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Yol Swan is a Soul Guided Life & Business Coach offering her intuitive and healing gifts, plus over 28 years of experience exploring the mind and psyche, to help spirit-led women, conscious entrepreneurs, and Indigo adults to create a joyful, abundant and empowering life or business in alignment with their soul purpose.