I Feel Drunk ~ The Intoxication of Ascension

by Sharda Chaitanya
  
Get Drunk

Always be drunk.
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On  wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
"Time to get drunk!
Don't be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!
On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!"

-Charles Baudelaire-

This used to be my favorite poem.  I'd read it over and over again, as I did all of Baudelaire, and by extension, I used to live by it.  I never drank alcohol, so that part for me is insignificant.  The poem tells us, gives us permission, to live unencumbered by the constraints of time, and even social decorum.  It also acknowledges that nature, as well as the inanimate things around us, know something that we don't - that life is to be lived in giddy joy and with abandon.  "Don't be martyred slaves of Time"!  Ah, but for the poets' truth.  

*****************

The poetry of spiritual life is fully upon us - the union of Radha-Krishna (The lover to the beloved), the bond between Shiva-Parvati (the seeker to the master), the bliss of Lakshmi-Naryana ( the wife to the husband) - these are all symbolic of the marriage of the Atma to the Paramatna.  Never mind about all the science and minutia of the process, the details of which can be daunting.  So much of splitting hairs is counter-productive; breaking down and analyzing every aspect of this process doesn't add to your growth.  What it does is simply placate the mind that cannot understand what is happening.  It comes to very little because ascension is not in the mind, it is in the heart. Opening our selves to our hearts unconditionally, and leading the way in the world with our hearts, unwaveringly, is a path that will never deceive us.

   

Be in your Self, be with your Self, in blissful love and trust.  When you become completely overtaken by the desire to be nowhere else than with Your Highest Self, your personal god/dess, then you have reached a place of no return.  Anything else is painfully, trite and mundane.  The world feels small, as though it could be blown away by one small poof, like the furry seeds of the dandelion weed.  And when the moments or hours arise wherein we cannot connect to the self, to the joy and the beauty of the solitary intimacy, we feel a dark emptiness that cannot be remedied except by a return to that most sanctified Oneness.  

Overcome the fear of letting go.  Understand that those things will get on without you, and you will get on with out those things.  Attachments and material acquisition all pull us away from the center.  And holding on to them, or more accurately, holding on to maintaining a relationship with them, is exhausting.  None of it can lead to a lasting happiness.  So don't fret that you haven't discovered the secret of the Secret, or that you fall short on abilities to master the law of attraction, and therefore blame yourself.  It's all bunk, and will keep oneself in the cycle of wanting and wanting.  

Be WHO YOU ARE.  God made you.  Be grateful for that.  Honor that.  Build and nurture that relationship for now and always.  

I know there are dates upon us that we've been told are to lead to further unfolding, etcetera and so forth.  I really don't need to know this.  In fact, on some level, I prefer not to know.  Why?  Because if I am in my heart in earnest, despite any time frame or dates, then I am happy there.  I have implicit trust in myself and my well-tuned navigation system designed by nature; it's my  intuition.  You cannot develop the power of your third eye if you continually acquiesce to others.  (By all means, read the teachings that will elevate your heart and mind, as these are tools for good use.)  We develop our intuition by burying ourselves deep within ourselves, pulling out the debris and arising with clearer vision.  Each time we do this, we've mastered a little bit more of our wholeness, our fullness of God-beings.  

When you love someone, you trust them; you are vulnerable, tender and open.  And so why not be that for yourself?  What greater indication of self love than to trust what you know as your personal truth?  Become vulnerable - that's a sign of living from the heart.  Drop walls and facades and any part of your personality that was construed with others in mind, or as an attempt to shield yourself from hurt or danger.  Those are false lessons from an outdated paradigm.  Be open to your own expressions of love - meditate, sing, dance, whatever.

Become intoxicated with knowing.