The principle of sowing and reaping is built on the foundation of death from life and life from death. Life does proceed from death. When a seed is sown in the earth, that seed is buried and hid in the dark earth. The seed is scorched in the earth and it dies. The seed loses its outward and every other covering so that the gem of life embedded within is allowed to spring forth. This process is referred to as germination. It is the process of birthing and engendering life through death.
We joke when we claim to seek life and we are not ready to die first. We seek life but refuse to sow life so we can reap life more abundantly. We cannot have anything unless we are willing to sacrifice something. Life said: Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. What a paradox! This is the only principle behind true growth, multiplication and increase.
Hazrat Inayat Khan said: 'There can be no rebirth without a dark night of the soul, a total annihilation of all that you believed in and thought that you were.' You therefore cannot gain yourself without first losing yourself. You have to first lose yourself completely through sacrifice.
This is what Carl Gustav Jung says about it: "No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” For that tree to win the prize of heavenly bliss, it has to first conquer the ills of hell. The Master of all creation who is the example of Eternal Salvation had to go to minister to the souls in hell in order to exhibit his immortality over death and hell. We must be rid of all dross in order to earn purity. We cannot harbour a mixture of filth and immaculacy and bring forth our best version.
This principle of life guides and supports every endeavour of life. Nobody can amount to anything without first a strict observance of going through stages of regeneration and growth through waiting. This waiting season seems like a period of hopelessness, but waiting is neither indolence nor inertness.
After you have sown your seed, you have to wait for it to germinate. After it germinates, then nurturing begins. You water directly when there is dearth of water during the dry season and the continued lack of moisture in the earth can asphyxiate the gem of life in the seed. You pray for rain where you cannot afford irrigation. And when the rains eventually bless the earth giving rise to the seed sprouting and growing, you rid the farm of weeds to give the crops great health and nourishment.
You spend time watching the crops blossom. When it is time to bear fruit, you are watchful and keep pests, rodents and diseases away. You invest every resource into this. We know that the principle of investment is that something has to go in order for something to come.
During all of these, some things have to wait for some things to continue. Even in your own physical life, there are aspects that have to be stalled in order for you to earn a great harvest. Some things have to die for some other things to live. It is life for life.
You have to wait through all the period. As you wait, it seems like your life is put on hold. You are not far away from the source or place of your interest. You are yourself dead to every other activity that may not be directly linked or connected to that activity. You have to die first because it takes life to birth life. Life for life.
The unassailable principle of life for life stays a surety and can never be circumvented. This is the reason that nothing goes for nothing. In all that we do we have to give in order to get. We must give before we can truly get. Otherwise, whatever we get will not endure.
Oftentimes, we have to even pay it forward. This is the principle of sowing and reaping. We have to sow first before we can reap. We cannot negotiate this position otherwise. No, we cannot!
If we find persons or entities that seek a short cut to this, they may attain but they will never sustain because they did not pay the price for which the prize would endure. These things can never be wished away or set aside. It is the principle of dying daily in order to live daily and fully.
For anything of life to live and flourish, it has to take life. You cannot eat unless something dies for you to. You cannot clothe yourself except something loses its life for you. You cannot wear any shoes or footwear to protect your feet without some entity losing its life for its hide and skin to be harvested.
If you are not dying, you are not living. What are you afraid of? Many times we are afraid to live to manifest our true essence and experience the real benefits of our endowments and giftings because we are afraid. We actually die before we die. Now, this is a different scenario from the discourse, yet, a valid position.
Many of us are constrained. We are hedged in a box, caged by our own limitations and imprisoned by our phobia because we either do not want to make mistakes or we do not want to be heckled, jeered at or made fun of. We are oblivious of the reality that through mistakes we gather wisdom and by continuous trials, we become adept and great at what we focus on.
By this, we explore and manifest newness because some things die in order for new things to grow and take their place. Why fear then? Why not use courage and stifle fear thereof? With courage, we grow brawns, we reach outside our comfort zones and grow resilience to live. This is earned after some things have been relegated in order for some to come to the fore. Some things have to die and lose prominence because they have actually expired.
What you do not use wastes. It goes into disuse and rots away. Dormancy should not be an option. When we say we want to die empty, we actually mean that we want to live to the fullest by putting our all to the use and benefit of others. We die daily for others to live. We empty ourselves for others to get filled and through this we get filled by the finer and better things.
As we fill other vessels up, our own vessels are filled up. If that door does not close, a new one will not open. If you do not let go, you will not let God. In letting go, you free yourself of bile, of animosities, of malice, of hate, of envy, and all negatives. Unless you are free of these, you do not attract the positive.
You have to die to those things so you can be alive to higher values. Unless you die to the mundane and ephemeral, you cannot live to the perpetual, the infinite, the truly lofty and enduring refinements that lead to your perfection.
It takes life to nurture life. Until we understand this truly, we will neither create nor provide enduring value. Nothing exists for itself. Everything lives to serve the purpose of another. For purpose to be served, sacrifice has to be made. This sacrifice demands life. There is no shortcut to this perpetual value.
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
You have to die first in order to live.
