The Vedic Conversation - Episode 5 Surrender
The Vedic Conversation Episode 5 - Surrender
Each episode we take a different topic and look at it through the lens of storytelling and from the perspective of the the Veda, an ancient but still very relevant body of knowledge from India.
This is joint venture with Anthony Thompson, a Vedic Meditation teacher based in London and Vedic colleagues Derrick Yanford in New York and Rory Kinsella in Sydney.
This episode was recorded during the height of the lockdown and is about Surrender. At the end we offer a practical exercise so you can apply this knowledge to your daily life.
Here’s my story.
In my gap year after school I worked for several months on a farm. I really enjoyed being on the land and some months later decided to go to Israel and work on a kibbutz (collective farm) where I had heard they desperately needed help after the Yom Kippur war.
It was in north of the country, close to the sea and in the beautiful foothills of the Golan Heights, and it was quite clear they were in dire straits. More than half of the 300 or so people there had been killed in the war and there were very few men around to do the hard labour.
I was picked to work with a British skinhead who was on the run from the law and a 40-year-old Frenchman who spoke no English.
The three of us were tasked with clearing out five large chicken sheds which had not been touched for over six months.
The sheds were huge with several thousand egg laying chickens in each one, forming a white carpet which covered the metre or so, of heavily compressed wood chips and chicken poop.
We had forks, shovels, a wheelbarrow and a small tipper truck.
Unsurprisingly the chickens were keen to flee through the open doors so we devised an alternative system for getting the muck out of the shed by filling the wheelbarrow and then pushing it up a plank to a high window where the tipper truck was waiting.
The heat and smell was overpowering and our eyes and noses were streaming from the fumes. Every hour or so we would switch around so we all had an opportunity of being outside driving the tipper truck and getting some fresh air.
Something really interesting happened during the first week - we realised that unless we surrendered to the situation, and just get on with it, we were going to be there for a very long time.
There was no point in resisting or challenging the task.
We were the only people who were going to be clearing those sheds and despite the fact that there were language, cultural and age differences we pulled together and surrendered to the task in hand.
We would start work at five in the morning to avoid the harsh midday heat, returning to the farm for a meal with very few companions because we smelt so bad.
Every day we challenged ourselves to see how much we could clear out and this was always done with humour and some tomfoolery.
We knew the job had to be done, we knew it was essential work and we were the only people who were going to do it, and after all we have volunteered to help and weren't in a position to be choosy.
This went on for 2 1/2 months, six days a week.
When we finally cleared the sheds the headman came to inspect our work. Pleased with what he saw he offered us any job we wanted on the farm.
Every day as we headed off to the sheds we passed some beautiful orange groves and that was where I spent the next three months - on top of a ladder picking big fat juicy oranges with the sea nearby and a cool breeze blowing.
This prize had never been mentioned when we were in the sheds. I didn't know that better jobs were available to us. The thought had crossed my mind that because we had done this hard job so well, they were going to give us some more, knowing we were capable of completing tough tasks. We had gone to the farm to volunteer to help, been given a big job, got on with it, made it as fun as possible, job done.
By surrendering to the task and situation in hand with joy in our hearts and grateful for the opportunity to serve we were given a reward beyond our imagination.
If you’re happy to share your stories, we’d love to have you join the conversation. Please send them through to us at stories@thevedicconversation.com or post them on social media using the hashtag #thevedicconversation and we’ll share some in future episodes.
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