We for the most part are spiritual seekers. We seek our own truth, we seek the universal truth, we escape in moments, take a back seat in meetings, and look around, wondering what became of the collective consciousness or the wisdom of the Universe.
Reading Eat, Love & Pray by Elisabeth Gilbert we came across a word at page 203: “Antevasin”.
Ms. Gilbert describes it as follows:
“So I saw it during my last week at the Ashram, I was reading through an old text about Yoga, when I found a description of ancient spiritual seekers. A Sanskrit word appeared in the paragrpah: ANTEVASIN. It means, ‘one who lives at the border.’ In ancient times this was a literal description. It indicated a person who had left the bustling center of worldly life to go live at the edge of the forest where the spiritual masters dwelled. The antevasin was not of the villagers anymore-not a householder with a conventional life. But neither was he yet a transcendent-not one of those sages who live deep in the unexplored woods, fully realized. The antevasin was an in-betweener. he was a border-dweller. He lived in sight of both worlds, but he looked toward the unknown. And he was a scholar.”
I never knew this word before I read it in Ms. Gilbert’s book.
Dictionary.com has no results for antevasin, but superflat.typepad.com does; yet, about.com doesn’t and most of the other top search engines keep coming back to Ms. Gilbert’s book.
So, suppose instead of focusing on the word itself, Antevasin, we instead go back to what it is? Spiritual Seeking.
In seeking spiritualy, there are those things that fit, those that don’t, some which may fit later and those that grow too small, but the commonality, is the persistant truth.
Today I came across some new search results on the Mayan Prophecies, the end of the world as we know it as of 12-21-12; the reversal of 1 and 2, the combination, 3, 3 and 3. The Law of Time website sheds yet more viewpoints on collective consciousness. I am perplexed again and again, as to how heralded universal truths, the Law of Attraction, doctrines of religion and indisputable points of Science seem to fold in over one another, and repeat like mantras.
So for today, I am satisfied with this word: antevasin. Simply, spiritual seeking needs no explanation does it? Yet, it’s nice to have company on the journey.
Namaste.
I loved reading this…. I feel this way and can wonder if my mid-point positioning can be ultimately non-effective to anyone other than myself. I am still carrying through with living this life as I see fit, figuring no one else is a better judge of what could be “right” for me in my course. THis written passage gave me a sense of meaning….. meaning for my desire to live in between the two worlds – never too connected to one or the other – but still totally present in both – in THE life we all share. I feel this way about my profession as well as my personal life, and reading this coated ALL of it with a feeling of “all is right in the universe” and I thank you for that.
“Mid-Point Positioning”. How appropriate. Perhaps that is what I do when I seem to be on the fence, one between the spiritual world and one between the everday materialistic world. In essence, perhaps that inhibits spiritual growth, perceiving two worlds. Not sure, I’m still evolving. There are definitely days when spirituality is closer within me, I don’t have to reach or remember to live it. Other days I need to hit myself in the head with a brick.
A beautiful entry. Everyone is a Spiritual Seeker whether they believe so or not. The soul wants nothing more than to live its greatest dream of itself, that is the only job of the soul. Which makes the process of life purely divine. We spend so much time trying to discover ourselves when there is nothing to discover, our birthright is to create. So let us move forward not discovering but creating who we are in each moment and hopefull choosing to come from the love that we truly are rather than the fear our minds create. Dream grand and beautiful dreams for yourself, the Universe will do the rest. Namaste.
Vicki, thank you for stopping by: you make an extremely profound satement:
“The soul wants nothng more than to live its greatest dream of itself, that is the only job of the soul.”
We saw your comment many hours ago and are still quieted by the profound realization.
I also encountered antevasin in Gilbert’s book for the first time. I loved the book, and loved the word, which I felt described me, but more in the sense of “one that lives on the border”, than in that of spiritual seeker. I inhabit many borders, especially that between reality and fantasy. I liked the word so much that I adopted it as a screen name on an Italian chat I frequent,I’m invariably asked about the meaning of the word, and sometimes get a few chuckles because vasin in Italian means chamber pot. 🙂 My first time on this site, very interesting.
Rosaria:
Very interesting. Not only do I remain troubled spelling the word, but also pronouncing it. Yet, I love it, it is such a wide open word.
Chamber pot?
do tell.
SE
Soul doesn’t dream, it is we who dream. Soul doesn’t seek us, we seek the soul and thats why since pre-historic period there has always been a quest to know, a quest to seek.
Which means before we seek and create; we need to have a purpose….
Hello Guru, what entice you to post an article. This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was longing for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.
Trackback Post On Anxin’s Blog…
…An older post that I hadn’t seen before but which…