• Table of Contents
  • Fasting for Enlightenment by Swami Veda Bharati
  • The Yoga Society 40th Anniversary by John Barry Stutt
  • Largest HYT Teacher Training in Rishikesh EVER!! by Maryon Maass
  • TTP Graduation Talk by Swami Veda
  • Something Swamiji Said by Katie Stueve
  • Contemplative Walking in a Peace Garden by Lori Beron
  • Swami Nityamuktananda in Florence by Sabina Cesaroni
  • Something Stolen by Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati
  • Only A Life: A Journey to the Vashishta Cave by Arlene Matthews
  • A Walk in the Winter Dawn by Joanne Sullivan
  • A Himalayan Blueprint by Joan Anundson-Ahr
  • February Retreat in Thailand by Thaniya Kevalee
  • CDivine Mother at SRSG by Swami Veda
  • A Retreat to Re-Treat Yourself Submitted by Rose Reindl
  • New Swami Rama Book
  • Download the Shiva Sutras Series! by Wesley Van Linda
  • The Children Are Here! by Carolyn Hume
  • 2011 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of our SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

Something Stolen

by Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati

November 2011

Well, it wasn’t just something; it was “my” passport. It raises the issue, what is ours…what can be stolen. It’s a serious question, what is mine…? In this case it was very drastic, because what was stolen was that which allows me “free movement”. “Free”… well “free” in as much as the restrictions our society imposes on us. Once a passport is lost – your official identity is questioned. Once the loss is registered, a UK passport is immediately cancelled, so that “your identity” might not be used by others (UK-passports are in high demand, for illegal human trafficking!)

So what happened? While entering a train in Germany, a thief slipped his hand, underneath the flap of my locked shoulder-bag and skilfully removed my valet (which included the passport, money and tickets for onward travel). One must admire the guy, such skill! Immediately he pushed in the opposite direction from the train-boarding-people, jumped off as the door closed and the train left the station. Fantastic! Such skill-full action!

I just about saw it happen, yet it was so fast, I couldn’t take any action. Something in me observed…I opened my mouth to shout “thief”, yet at the same time it stopped the sound; there was awareness that a different language was needed. My mind… was unsure which language to use… the shock caused confusion, and a kind of state in between… (subconscious loss of identi-fication ? British – German? Frequently I reject either and say “I am a citizen of the globe”)!

As the mind kicked back into action, awareness rises of the huge impact: I was on a teaching trip through several countries in Europe, but without passport… no legal identity, no travels, no schedule! Without money…what to do..?

Thought arises “I hope he feeds his children with the money”!

 There was no clear thinking, only collapsing on the next seat in a mental paralysis! Gradually that state made way to arising thoughts like: why my passport? Followed by: Why did I need to have my passport stolen; my identity-paper? It was not lost, it was stolen, it was forcefully removed, invasion…! It was not me freely giving it up – no, it was “taken”! But no answers were available in that shocked mind; and eventually the story just took its course…

What remained was this awareness…of how attached we are to our identity and how the whole functioning within society, within the world we live in is dependent on this identification… with what? With a piece of paper! Later on in the British Embassy and even later in the Passport and Identity Office in London… you have to prove who you are, despite you being a number in the data system of world! You have to prove that you are that number… for ‘your own’ protection, and to protect others as ‘Human trafficking’ is big business! What a world do we live in!

So masses of papers were to be dug out to prove: I am the German born, yet naturalized Brit! I am the one who was married to XYZ; who lived in…XYZ (difficult to prove if you are just in the middle of moving house!) etc. etc.;  endless bureaucratic puzzles had to be solved (how to find someone to authenticate/ co-sign your application, if you just moved into a town where you don’t know anyone?). It appears that in our modern societies we are nothing but legal papers or even numbers given to us- by others to identify with…!

Swami Rama said over and over, you identify with the opinion of others; you carry a satchel of burdens of other people’s opinion on your back….Take off your “rucksack”, then who are you?

Having the passport, your “identity” forcefully removed...really highlights this issue, which turns into the question: In the world you are a number- within yourself: who are you?

In this case, this is compounded by the life of a travelling Swami.

For in her, the mind cannot hide quickly behind a family, place, home or nationality! We have been challenged to let go of our attachment to these by the great teachers over and over! But ask: where am I in the depth of my being with this?

This being is constantly moving, not just amongst places and people, but is itself “moving energy”. We hear it, we talk about it. Yes, we are ever-changing, ever- moving intelligent energy! Shiva and Shakti, Purusha and Prakriti together; that which is ever-changing and that which is not, together like a river!

The banks appear as if “relative steady”; within the water flows, ever new… yet ever “Water”!

We can give different names and shapes to the river, even to the water …yet the water flows – both: constantly new….and yet always Water.

Water has no fixed shape, no form, no nationality, no identity other than “Being Water”; and ‘being Water’ it serves; from it life, forms take their nourishment.

Let the thief too, drink from the water; letting him quench his thirst is part of the WAY; is the DAO – is the Water-course-Way!

Live as Water, remember what you are, serve from that knowledge, become love - give to all fully, indiscriminately – then none needs to take!