What is the cave? It is the stillness in meditation, which is beyond emotions, beyond thoughts

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷

        

      Chapter 3

       

      The grace of the divine

     🌻 Day 23 🌻

तं दुर्दर्शं गूढमनुप्रविष्ठं 

गुहाहितं गह्वरेष्ठं पुराणम् ।

अध्यात्मयोगाधिगमेन देवं

मत्वा धीरो हर्षशोकौ जहाति ॥

For those who go deep in meditation, there is no fear of death. For others there is only one fear, that of death. All fear is about death. Behind the fear of losing money, fear of losing reputation, fear of losing attention, fear of losing status – behind all that, there is only one fear that is of death! Meditation is confronting that. When you are in meditation, there is stillness, nothing exist. This is what takes you away from the fear of death.   

When they say heart (cave of heart), it does not mean emotion and love. “I want to open my heart” – please don’t do that. “O! My heart is closed; I want to open my heart.” This is a big problem, especially in the new age community. I tell them that they are getting qualified to become blue stars! Don’t try to open your heart. 

What is the cave? It is the stillness in meditation, which is beyond emotions, beyond thoughts. That is the cave. You go every night in that cave, my dear. You go there in sleep, but you go unconsciously in deep sleep. When you wake up you are peace. You get such a deep sleep from that cave. What is that cave? It is where you take rest, where you hide. Cave is not a place where you are active, it is place where you are resting, hibernating. 

Unconsciously, we encounter death every day. I remember when I was with my grandfather, in the village, as soon as you get up, they would role the bed and sprinkle water where you slept and mop it. Sleep is like a mini death. When you take the dead body out. You clean and mop that place. As children coming from an urban area to a rural area, we would wonder why grandmother is saying all these things. ‘You should not touch that place. You should keep the bed rolled. Mop the place, clear the vibration.” You don’t do this in the cities. In villages, the earlier

generations used to do this. The place where you slept has tamas. So, you have to clear the place and then you can use it. We were never allowed to eat food on bed. “Get up, brush your teeth and take bath. No more getting in the bed till night. You have to be dynamic the whole day. If you lie down on bed that means and you are impure again. Go and take bath.” It appeared to be utter superstition to me. As children, we would say this is superstition. You can sit on the mat but on the bed because that is where you sleep and go to another state of consciousness. In brahmin families it is like that. If you touch the bed, you have to take bath. But it is not prevalent anymore.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Katho Upanishad