The Gift Is Being Human

A human birth gives us a chance to seek and know God. This search for meaning, for beauty, for God, has consumed us from the beginning of time. Through every age we have quenched our thirst with religion, stories of gods and goddesses, and myths and legends. Fascinated by the divine, we turn our gaze to the heavens and, realizing how fallible we are, instinctively turn to God.

Saints tell us the God we are seeking is within the body in which we live, breathe, and love. They tell us that this human life is invaluable because through it we can find liberation. Maharaj Charan Singh says in Light on Sant Mat:

The human body is bestowed on us, as the highest gift and blessing, after passing through chaurasi – the eighty-four lakh forms of life. We get it by God’s grace, and He bestows this favor so that we may have the opportunity to practice bhakti and thus put an end to all our sufferings by realizing God and achieving salvation. Human life is the only exit from this prison.

However, we behave as if we don’t know what we have. We hold a priceless jewel in our hand yet squander our days toiling for the illusions of the world.

The American poet Mary Oliver asks a key question in her poem “The Summer Day”:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

How will we use the gift of our human body during this one wild, precious life? This is worth pondering as we lose ourselves in the banality of everyday life. Mystics tell us that after being born in countless lives in every form, it is only with the privilege of coming back as a human that we are afforded the opportunity to fulfill our purpose. With our human birth we can retrace the steps to our origin, where the soul longs to return.

The Persian poet Hafiz, in his poem “A Cushion for Your Head,” expresses great empathy for our plight, offering us comfort during what he says is the hardest work in the world – our separation from God.

Just sit there right now
don’t do a thing
Just rest.
For your separation from God,
From love,
Is the hardest work
In this
World.
Let me bring you trays of food
And something
That you like to
Drink.
You can use my soft words
as a cushion
For your
Head.
_{The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master}

Clearly, the soul suffers from being separated from its source. It feels a sense of loneliness, of never being at peace, since everything around it is in constant flux as we try to grasp at happiness.

In the book Be Human – Then Divine, the authors refer to what the ancient Greek philosopher Plato called regrowing wings. According to this concept, the soul once had wings and “flew light and free in the divine realm,” but after being filled with forgetfulness, the soul lost its wings and fell to earth. Now, trapped in illusion and the physical body, it endlessly looks up and yearns for its original home.

In The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the ancient Buddhist scriptures remind us of our true nature: “O Nobly Born, O you of glorious origins, remember your radiant true nature, the essence of mind. Trust it. Return to it. It is home.” Unfortunately, we have forgotten our home, but our Master has come to remind us.

We do not have to go very far as we journey on this quest of returning to our source. The path back home lies within us, and it is the Master who teaches us how to traverse it. It’s beautifully simple; there is no need for physical or mental accomplishments or groundbreaking feats, no need to figure out or solve the complexities of the universe. All we need to do is sit quietly alone in the dark silence, repeating five holy names. This is the simran part of our meditation practice, the repetition of the holy names, which helps us detach from the world. During the bhajan part of our practice, we pay attention to and listen to the sound current within.

In Light on Sant Mat, Maharaj Charan Singh reminds us to make the best use of this life:

We should turn our attention away from the body. Our object is not merely to seek comforts and pleasures but to seek and contact the most precious thing in the body, the Shabd Dhun. Then only do we fulfill the purpose of our human existence. We should not think lightly of our human life. It is only as a result of virtuous and meritorious deeds that we are born as human beings. We should not waste this life in useless pursuits.

As human beings we are endowed with vivek, a sense of discrimination, which can move us toward truth and goodness. With discernment we choose how we face our lives, what we invite in, what we let go of, and what we will spend our energy on. The Masters remind us not to waste our lives in useless pursuits and to prioritize what is most important and what we choose to pay attention to. What activities will we let go of and what weight will we drop so that we can be more present and attentive in our meditation practice?

If we faltered and missed our meditation practice or did not complete the two and a half hours of required sitting, then we can recommit, again and again. Tomorrow we can start anew, reminding ourselves that if we persevere, we will succeed.

In honouring what it means to be human, we enter a covenant with life, with our higher selves, and with our Master that we will use each of our days and all the breaths we have been given toward fulfilling the purpose of our existence. We will do that not through the possessions we acquire or the name we make for ourselves, but through devotion to our meditation practice, our Master, and the Shabd.

The true gift is simply being human. With it we can know love; cry, laugh, and feel compassion; and appreciate the profound beauty of nature. Most of all, we can know our Master’s love, practice the meditation he teaches us, and go home. It is the ultimate blessing.