The Review Par Excellence

"Submission does not mean being weak or passive. It leads to neither fatalism or capituation. Just the opposite. The power resides in submission - a power that comes from within. Those who submit to the divine essence of life willl live in unperturbed tranquility and peace even when the whole wide world goes through turbulence after turbulence."

Source: "The Forty Rules of Love" - by Elif Shafak

'Saranagadhi' when translated into 'Surrender' in English gives heart ache to many westerners where many were taught from the childhood to promote self-pride. The western civilization believes that everyone who is born should take care of himself and with rigor and discipline, the whole world can be fixed to thrive. In the eastern civilization, everyone is trained to be selfless and contribute more to the society. But the western civilization also serve those in need but to earn a good reputation than to become selfless. The true meaning of Saranagadhi is not becoming weak or passive. Sanatana Dharma says one should engage fully in the world but with no expectations. The Saranagadhi is an effort to find the divinity inside of us and surrender the body, mind and intellect to this divine entity residing in us. It is surrender to Self to become tranquil and achieve peace. The world of Maya is filled with turbulence and the only escape route is to discover Self and abide by its Rules.

 

"In this world, it is not similarities or regularities that take us a step forward, but blunt opposites. And all the opposites in the universe are present within each and every one of us. Therefore the believer needs to meet the unbeliever residing within. And the nonbeliever should get to know the silent faithful in him. Until the day one reaches the stage of Insan-iKamil, the perfect human being, faith is a gradual process and one that necessitates the seeming opposite: disbelief."

Source: "The Forty Rules of Love" - By Elif Shafak

As we all know, In Treta Yuga, unrighteous person existed in the form of Ravana and Vishnu had to take an avatar of Rama to kill him and restore peace in the world. In Dwapara Yuga, unrigheous kingdom existed depriving the people of Kuru Kingdom from righteous King and hence Vishnu had to take an avatar of Lord Krishna to eliminate the entire Kuru Clan. In Kali Yuga, every human being is a mixture of good and bad and hence the battle against righteousness is within oneself. A part of the mind believes there is God and another believes there is no God (especially when things go wrong). However, there is a conscience that keeps telling the need to be a perfect being and the human effort to purify themselves never stops. Until one reaches the level of perfect human being, the opposites exist and only faith that looks for a better destination.

 

"This world is erected upon the principle of reciprocity. Neither a drop of kindness nor a spec of evil will remain unreciprocated. Fear not the plots, deceptions, or tricks of other people. If somebody is setting a trap, remember, so is God. He is the biggest plotter. Not even a leaf stirs outside God's knowledge. Simply and fully believe in that. Whatever God does, He does beautifully."

Source: "The Forty Rules of Love" - By Elif Shafak

Not a blade off grass moves without the will of God. The Law of Karma works on a principle that "for every action, there is an equivalent opposite reaction". Every one of our actions have consequences whether they are good or bad. Therefore, if someone is deceptive or tricky, please remember God is doing everything to defend the innocent. This belief will help overcome the ordeal without much of impact or in some cases, completely escape the situation. When God does things, he does actions in a way it is more meaningful than what we expect we need in the situation.

 

"Rule #37: God is a meticulous clockmaker. So precise is His order that everything on earth happens in its own time. Neither a minute late nor a minute early. And for everyone without exception, the clock works accurately. For each there is a time to love and a time to die."

Source: "The Forty Rules of Love" - by Elif Shafak

Everything in this universe happens on a timely basis. There are only 365 days for earth to come around the Sun, there are only 24 hours for earth to rotate 360 degrees, and for the moon to come around the earth in approximately 30 days. Even one of them doesn't happen on a timely basis, the life will cease to exist in this beautiful planet. The atmosphere around this planet has condition conducive for life to exist with a mix of several elements. Everything we see around us in this planet also exist in the same proportion inside of us as well.

We are all like prescripiton refills with expiry date already written on us even before we are born. What makes life so interesting is us not knowing our encryptions, not knowing how long we are going to live, and not knowing what is in store for us in future. We make efforts to progress and we operate with unlimited urge to liberate our soul whether it is in one life or many lives. We are all born in love, sustained in love and eventually merge in the ocean of love. Our duty and obligation is to love our fellow beings and experience this unconditional love. Once our mission is over to realize our soul, we will go back to the source.

 

"Rule 38: It is never too late to ask yourself, 'Am I ready to change the life I am living? Am I ready to change within?' Even if a single day in your life is the same as the day before, it surely is a pity. At every moment and with each new breath, one should be renewed and renewed again. There is only one way to be born into a new life: to die before death."

Source: "The Forty Rules of Love" - by Elif Shafak

Change is the only thing that is constant and every cell in our body is changing as it wears out into a new cell. This production of a new cell is ongoing without our knowledge. The Mind is creating a legacy out of all the past experiences and projects our future. Each experience is independent and all these experiences combined is made into one life by the mind. Even an opinion about an individual is based on his/her past actions and the person may be different in a new interaction but the mind doesn't give an opportunity to reevaluate the person again.

Only way our life can change is to assess how our mind evaluate things and how to restructure our thinking. How the mind decides on important thoughts that helps for a spiritual growth as opposed to thoughts that are irrelevant. We should be ready to change ourselves everyday of our lives. We should assume when we wake up everyday, we are a new person ready to face new experience and ready to change into a new person. In one other words one should experience more deaths (not physical) while he is alive. Our goal is to shorten our journey of life for which a change is necessary every moment of our lives.

 

"Rule 39: While the parts change, the whole always remains the same. For every thief who departs the world, a new one is born. And every decent person who passes away is replaced by a new one. In this way not only does nothing remain the same but also nothing ever really changes."

Source: "The Forty Rules of Love" - By Elif Shafak

Everything that is created keeps changing throughout its life cycle. But the whole that is manifested in every being and every ananimate object remains the same unchanged. The Jiva who is born dies but the Atma keeps traveling by entering another body. It is never born and never dies. It is known as Ekam (One), Advayam (Non-dual), Nirakara (Formless), Sarvagatam (All-Peravading), Nirguna (Attributeless), Aksharam (Imperishable), Aja (Unborn), Nitya (Eternal), Nirvikara (Changeless), Nirmala (Stainless), Anantam (Infinite), Gnanam (Knowledge), Anandam (Bliss), Turiyam (Fourth), and Achintyam (Inconceivable).

The collective consciousness of all of us is the reason for the condition of this planet and more the humans begin to love, the better the world will be. The human life which is the rarest of all species has the added responsibility to protect and preserve all other beings and nature. When the balance goes out of control, the Source corrects it to balance the Prakriti.

 

"Rule #40: A life without love is of no account. Don't ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western... Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water."

Source: "The Forty Rules of Love" - Elif Shafak

Science tells us that this planet earth was a ball of fire when separated from Sun for billions of years before it turned out to promote life in the planet. The planet Earth developed water to make this planet habitable. In other words, it is the love affair between fire and water that created life in this planet. Even today, without love nothing sustains. The body and mind nourishes through food that is digested by the fire energy in our body but it is the love that helps the Soul of fire to sustain the life. Inhalation and exhalation that supplies oxygen for our body, the plants in the earth nourishes our body using the fire in the intestine, water helps the blood to circulate in our body and the ether that helps us to discriminate right from wrong. It is the combination of five elements that helps life to exist but it is love that gives the sense of fulfillment to this life.

Note: This note completes 40 Rules of Love comments.