There is a universal pattern in nature where things build up gradually until they reach a peak, then they suddenly disperse, releasing all the accumulated pressure into a calm equilibrium.

Just like gentle ripples on the ocean approaching a beach, slowly coalescing until they form a huge wave, rising swiftly in a sweep, then crashing, dispersing back into the sea.

The dark clouds gathering before a storm, winds growing stronger, a heavy downpour with a mighty thunder and lightning shaking up the ambience, soaking up everything in its magnificent majesty- then a sudden quick clearing away of all the clouds, revealing a freshly glowing bright blue sky!

Or, a beautiful piece of music that starts up gently, builds its rhythm and slowly picks up pace, faster and faster until reaching a crescendo, the sounds touching the highest peak and abruptly falling down, to bring the stretched heightened senses back to their normal gentle range again!

So, what is this crescendo? What shifts at the peak? Energy agitates, continues to build up and once at a peak, it collapses back upon itself. There is an explosion, a paradigm shift, an ‘aha’ moment, an understanding, a recognition, suddenly a new dimension opens up, a complete change of perspective that fundamentally changes how everything was until then.

This peak, is where every separation merges into one. Where a million ripples and waves, merge to become one water. The multitude of notes and sounds of the symphony, all together fall into one place of absolute unified bliss!

The thunder and lightning of the dark night of soul vanish, to reveal the light of a serene sunshine, hidden behind the darkness of the quickly receding clouds.

There seems to be a similar pattern which Consciousness follows. Being Consciousness, we confuse our reality with an illusory projected ‘me’. We, as an isolated separate ‘me’ adopt the attitudes and behaviours of this ignorance.

We create conflicts all around us, we wallow in the resulting misery, we complain as our suffering expands and builds up in intensity. We get bitter, frustrated approaching the peak of our agitation, we feel completely exhausted and helpless as we slowly lose our illusion of having control over anything.

Then, in a sudden unexpected flash, we give up all our efforts, total unconditional surrender to whatever is, happens.

We are released from the self-identification with the illusion of a separate ‘me’ and are liberated from all its misery, into the realization of our one reality. Finally, we find peace in our true nature.

For us, as the Consciousness, the choice to indulge in ignorance requires tremendous energy. There is a constant investment in this projected ‘me’. The endless faces and projections demand to be maintained.

Thoughts come incessantly and every thought claims to be important, every thought demands attention, every thought wants to be taken seriously and to be acted upon!

Poor ‘me’ has no clue how to discern, how to choose or reject, whether to go this way or that, because every little move can change directions, has a life altering consequence for this ‘me’, it feels responsible with the burden of every detail.

There are illusions, conflicts, challenges, judgements of the conditioned mind, to be dealt with. There are habits, unreasonable priorities, a million responsibilities to be remembered, right decisions to be made and the consequences of all mistakes to be lived with!

The whole business of living as an isolated ‘me’ is exhausting, disappointing and frustrating. It requires tremendous efforts. What an enormous amount of hard work is needed, just to stay where we are, just to survive as a separate isolated ‘me’.

It’s a high-pressure world that the Consciousness has chosen to be ‘me’ in. Constant effort is needed to resolve and live ‘my’ life in every moment. There is no security, no harmony, no peace and no hope for a long-lasting happiness. It is not easy to be ‘me’!

Consciousness chooses to veil itself with ignorance, in a billion names and forms, the world is full of illusory isolated separate ‘me’ and ‘my-selves’ and we all believe that we live, suffer and die in isolation. Trapped in this illusion of separation and isolation, we immerse in all the misery and suffering of our self-created mess.

We are miserable in the fake bondage that we have created, which we first love and maintain, then complain against, and eventually get tired of and try to be liberated free from! We seek the simple happiness of feeling whole, to be one with our real Self again, through all our endeavors in life.

While through each such isolated entity, our one reality- single universal Consciousness- dreams, imagines, desires, judges, fears, complains and suffers!

Each such ‘me’ is a player in this one universal game, this illusion (maya), this elaborate play of Consciousness. Each ‘me’ in its isolation, with its tiny separate self, stumbles on through life, making strenuous efforts and collecting misery.

Every ‘me’ tries to control, compete, fight against another ‘me’ and suffers. There is never any stable resolution of the infinite problems for a ‘me’.

When this fact is recognized, really understood, not just intellectually by the mind, but by the total being- and all the wasted efforts are seen for what they are- the urge to continuously struggle, dies in the face of sheer exhaustion. The futility of all conflict and suffering is realized.

Then, suddenly, all the efforts in maintaining the identification with a projected isolated separate pseudo-self ‘me’ are spontaneously dropped. The moment efforts are let go, there is simply remaining in what really is, without any fabricated image, an effortless being, free from all projections, the simply aware free Consciousness as is.

This is a crescendo, a transformation, a sudden flash that alters the whole view! An instant shift happens, where the personal separate isolated miserable ‘me’ is surrendered, it is released, dispersed, merged with the one Consciousness, the unity behind all separation.

This is the moment of grace, when the separate body-mind aligns with the flow of totality, consciously.

It was always one with the flow, there never was anything but the flow, but the illusion kept the universal whole veiled, which is now unmasked, and the flow is embraced as the most obvious reality.

We can now, with full awareness, be one with our real-whole-total-complete and perfect being. We can be the flow!

The crescendo for the little ‘me’ is where the efforts are dropped completely! At the peak of efforts, there is an absolute giving up, all control just slips out of the grip of the illusory ‘me’ and what remains behind is the only real ‘I’, the one true identity of all that is. The surrender happens by itself, there is no effort involved in the last step.

My ‘I’ is your ‘I’, we are one. We are one Consciousness looking out of billions of eyes, listening through billions of ears and breathing through billions of lungs. Our separate bodies and separate minds, are parts of the one same being who lives through us, like the tree who breathes and feeds through all its seemingly distinct leaves, branches, flowers and roots.

In reality, the Consciousness is playing this game, where it has chosen to be all of these diverse characters veiled in ignorance, each identifying with its own individual projected self, believing to be in isolation, but actually moving together as one harmonious flow all along, towards the crescendo of the reality of the universal whole oneness.

This is the flow of life, one timeless reality of all that is. The totality of manifestation, is part of this flow, there is nothing outside of this flow, everything that is, is in this one flow. Every border is conceptual, every seeming separation, every apparent isolation is unreal!

Reality is oneness, one whole Consciousness, the totality, the one whole truth. This is the crescendo towards which everything is synchronously moving. This is the beginning, the whole journey and the end, all merged and flowing into each other eternally.

The Consciousness, through each one of our body-minds, flows on its countless mini-journeys, towards one destination. This is the flow!