On Impermanence
Nothing to achieve, what’s there is already perfect
If sadhana is to achieve something in time — such as seeking any mystical experiences, powers, altered states of consciousness — all of this will pass away. But real sadhana is to surrender to the Timeless.
Seeing the pointlessness of all worldly pursuits gives vairagya (desirelessness). The more intense vairagya gets, the more the perfection is also clear. Grace alone can bring about an unshakable clarity.
The truth is that everything in the world is rushing toward destruction. This is described vividly in Bhagavad Gita when Krishna shows his terrifying vishwaroopam. Arjuna trembles upon seeing this form and says “Everybody is rushing forward unto You entering Your terrifying mouths; some with smashed heads sticking between Your teeth. As moths with great speed enter into blazing fire to perish, so these men are entering Your mouth only to perish. You are lapping up and devouring all these people from all directions. Please reveal who You are.” Krishna answers, “I am mighty Time, the destroyer of all beings in all the worlds”. (kaalosmi lokakshayakrt pravriddho — 11.32).
This is also the iconography of the terrible Kaali Ma who is dark, blood dripping, skulls around Her neck, severed head in Her hand. She represents Time (Kaala) that devours all.
Tagore beautifully brings out this aspect in his poem:
Beautiful is thy wristlet, decked with stars and cunningly wrought in myriad-colored jewels. But more beautiful to me thy sword with its curve of lightning like the outspread wings of the divine bird of Vishnu, perfectly poised in the angry red light of the sunset.
It quivers like the one last response of life in ecstasy of pain at the final stroke of death; it shines like the pure flame of being burning up earthly sense with one fierce flash.
Beautiful is thy wristlet, decked with starry gems; but thy sword, O lord of thunder, is wrought with uttermost beauty, terrible to behold or to think of.
To see the dark and hopeless nature of the world is necessary to build vairagya. If we imagine any light or hope in the world, then mind will only cling to it. Hope and desire are always for the future. Truth is now. Any projection of hope denies the present. If we project a future state of unchanging bliss, ultimate compassion etc., that is just turned by thought into another concept and thereby the false I sustains itself. If we deny all desires and hopes that take the mind into future, what remains is That.
Being still is impossible for the ego and yet the natural state of the awareness within. Trying to remain actionless is another trick the ego uses to sustain itself. If we see with absolute clarity the pointlessness of everything the ego puts forward including being actionless, thoughtless, transformation etc., what remains as the background within is already that stillness which is perfect.