Removing Our Masks
A dear friend of mine, who works for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is currently residing in Prishtina, Kosovo, and she invited me to join her. So, here I am writing you from lovely Kosovo, which is in the Balkan region, in what was once the Socialist state of Yugoslavia.
Formerly, Yugoslavia consisted of six constituent republics: Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Serbia had two autonomous provinces: Kosovo and Vojvodina. So now you may have some idea where I am, if you can pull up Google Maps.
[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]Winston Churchill once said that the Balkans produce more history than they can consume![/perfectpullquote]
USAID had a guide take us around the city to give us the lay of the land, and a bit of history. Kosovo is 90% Muslim, our guide is a Muslim, but he said that he knows that his family was once Catholic and then Orthodox Christian over different periods of time.
Most of the Muslim majority of the two million people of Kosovo consider themselves Albanian first, and Muslim second. But they are Kosovar Albanians. Albania is another country altogether, west of Macedonia, and east of Greece. (Not to be confused with the Macedonia that’s a region in Greece.) The history is very complex.
They are very fond of Americans here because in 1999 President Bill Clinton convinced NATO to intervene with bombings after the civil war and “ethnic cleansing” killed 10,000 of their people. They actually have a statue of Bill Clinton in downtown Prishtina that he came here to inaugurate.
So what does all this have to do with a blog about Bhakti Yoga?
Since I’ve been here, I’ve been thinking about designations. The masks, the layers of identities we wear that cover our real selves. In particular, I’ve been thinking of this verse from the Caitanya Caritamrita:
[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""] “Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord." (Caitanya Caritamrita, Madhya Lila 19. 170) [/perfectpullquote]
In Kosovo—or wherever we’re from—after innumerable births and deaths in this material world, we all have more layers, more masks, more designations than we’re able to consume. In fact, we are ourselves consumed by these masks that cover our true identities as eternal pure spirit, having the intrinsic qualities of joy and full knowledge. By nature, we’re meant to be loving servants of God, or Krishna.
So one of the first functions of serving in Bhakti, or devotional service, is that these masks start being removed, for they are only designations that block the flow of attraction to Krishna.
We have been tricked, duped by the false ego, that these masks, these layers upon layers of designations are me: this is my country, this is my family, this is my race, this is my gender, even, this is my species. And if I’m this, than I must mistrust “the Other”, who is “that”.
We—and our tribes over the centuries—invent images of who we are, and then we begin to serve those images, instead of seeing that we are all of the same spiritual nature, all tiny parts of the same original Source of all life, Krishna, or God.
It’s a kind of idolatry, and we worship the idol that we ourselves create.
I pray, that by serving and seeing in Bhakti, that the masks that cover my vision be removed. I pray to see the interconnectedness of all beings, by comparison to my own self, in our mutual connectedness to the Supreme Whole, Sri Krishna.
I leave you with this poem I wrote last night just before bed:
Prishtina's Moon
[/perfectpullquote]
All the best,
Rukmini Walker
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