Crisis is the bridge
Getting the knock of our lives, ending up shaken and confused, in crisis, if we get hit hard enough, we start questioning the truth. Wanting answers to which there are no more questions, once we get such a wake up call, awakening to ourselves in Self-knowledge, we find the answer and can never fall asleep to ourselves again.
No longer taking life for granted, in crisis we discover, it is the very nature of existence to push us into crisis. Otherwise we would never bother to ask question about anything. Wanting to know the truth where do we go?
In crisis we stop dead in our tracks. Until then, our ignorance being complete, ignorance continues to be our bliss and innocence is still a virtue.
Like a child playing in the universe, neither do we know that we know, nor don’t know – nor do we want to know. Wanting to keep on enjoying our journey, playing and enjoying the never ending cosmic spectacle of creation, thinking there is no end, we want to keep on seeing happiness and completeness in every direction and destination. All we want is to keep on enjoying and god help anything that gets in the way.

In crisis we stop dead in our tracks
However there comes a time when ignorance no longer blissful becomes a huge burden. And, innocence no longer a virtue becomes a liability.
Human ignorance being the size of the universe means, only when our enjoyment gets threatened, and man gets conflicted, getting forced to question and seek answers, we discover our ignorance leaves us defenceless. And dropping all our ideas, as the sense of darkness and foreboding the size of the universe fills our lives, pressing down on us, wanting our conflict and crisis to end, in desperation all we want is to hear the truth.
The scary thing is, other than the human being, nothing else is in crisis. Looking at the creation you would never say there is even a crisis. Creation is not in crisis. Climate is not in crisis. Only humanity is in a crisis.
Not only is humanity in crisis, being its cause and the only thing in crisis, we are the crisis itself. So we must also be the only solution.
“In India the crisis of the human being has always been seen as holy. To honour this most sacred time in every person’s life when life throws you a curve ball, India’s oldest and holiest cities are built “
India’s holiest city Varanasi, the oldest city in the world, known as ‘The city of light’, is built where the huge river Ganges, after plunging onto the plains of India turns back on itself,
Varanasi originally called ‘Kasi’, meaning ‘giving up that which you love the most’, honors the crisis and plight of the human being.
When man is at his weakest and most vulnerable. Honored as being the most sacred point in every human journey, a point in the journey is reached, where we are forced through circumstance to face up to the darkness.
Facing our darkest fears, facing the unknown, we are ready to face our fear of death. It is then that we are ready to give up everything and anything, including ourselves and our beliefs and ideas as individuals, just to hear the truth.

India’s holiest city Varanasi, the oldest city in the world, is built. Known as ‘The city of light’, where the huge river Ganges, after plunging onto the plains of India turns back on itself
Forced to backup our lives, take a U-turn. and turning within, traditionally it is the time when the person seeking answers seeks out the teacher and teaching.
Immersed in fear and doubt, immersing themselves in the quest for knowledge; wanting to know the knowledge of truth and the truth about knowledge, if the person is lucky, the crisis points them in the right direction and leads to the teacher of Atma Vidya or Atma Gnanam, (knowledge of the Self).
The teacher revealing that the Self being nothing but the truth and, ignorance of ourselves being the only cause of conflict; ‘I’ being all that is ever getting conflicted and in crisis, points out the truth that has always been. Pointing out that man’s destination has always been eternal, the teaching resolves all our fears and difficulties once and for all.

Drawing all our life’s questions to their rightful conclusion, the teacher and teaching by pointing out the truth, draws our crisis to a close.
Like the river Ganges already being the water itself, has no farther to turn and look for its source than itself, so too, in searching for the truth of being human, we have only ever had to look as far as ourselves.
Thirsty for knowledge, desperate for our life crisis to be over, looking for an oasis, hoping for a little water to quench our thirst, in Self-knowledge we reach the perpetual oasis of the teacher and teaching and discover that we are the water itself.