Some times we wonder what is all this? Is it just a faculty like Philosophy, Religion, Science, Spirituality or just a pastime that we indulge in? Some people are just interested in gossip. They do not want anything serious concerning the purushartha or spiritual development, practice of yoga, or thinking about the 'meaning and purpose of life', or some such things. But, little they realize the subtler aspects of life and the reason for our sufferings. One thing is certain; there is no escape from the drudgery of life and the karma (effect of of our actions). The question of ailments- physical and psychological (mental) and neurological, are really bothering us and what all we earn with great difficulty simply disappears with even one person suffering a serious disease like Cancer in the family! The life becomes miserable due to old age, dementia, paralyses and such other diseases of even one person in the family; neither you can neglect nor attend to such sick persons and that is the predicament. There should be an answer to all these questions of human suffering. That is what is our main subject in spiritual development. Spiritual development is a panacea for all human sufferings. By spiritual development, we mean dissociating ourselves gradually from our attachments to physical or the indulgences in material world, the world of sense objects. Spiritual is the beginning and the material or physical is the end product of one and the same brahman. These are the two ends of the one and the same string, the Lagrangian String that connects the jiva to the brahman. Here lies the secret.
The secret of creation has been better explained in the spiritual texts than in Biology (like theory of evolution of Darwin), physics, chemistry, genetics, etc, Whatever the scientific development that has been made today, little do we realize that the science will not cross the realms of the physical or the material and enter the metaphysical, let alone, the spiritual. Hence, we the humans who have our origin in the spiritual simply cannot go on dabbling in the material world.
What all said and done in the name of material progress will not solve the problems cited above. There may be any number of breakthrough in researches in Medicines/therapy for Cancer and medicines for diabetes, BP, or the neurological problems, but the suffering remains. Longevity has definitely improved and today people are living longer than previously, say half a century ago. But the problems remain.There is no remedy for ageing, old-age ailments and, ultimately, the death. Here is the strategy to attack these problems of old age, sickness, and death. It is Yoga.
By yoga, we do not mean simply sitting or lying down in a certain posture and doing some breathing exercises. It is some times as simple as 'just keeping quiet, absolutely quiet'! It is much more than that, too. It is totally staying in a transcendental state of meditation where the body-consciousness has been dropped and the mind enjoys a higher bliss! This is the turiya state where the jiva gets a clear idea about its existence- beyond jagrata, svapna and sushupti. At this fourth state, the jiva is aware of not only its true nature but also the real nature of the world and the magic, maya, the trick it plays on the jiva and makes it suffer; it is just like holding the carrot before the horse and making it run. Thus, the real magic happens!
The moment the jiva realizes the trick played on it by prakruti, nature, objective phenomenal world, it loses its interest and turns inward. The inward journey is a long and arduous one. But, the joy and happiness, peace and tranquility of mind is such that the jiva feels fully realized, happy and redeemed once for all. There is no ageing, ailments or sickness or death for such an attained person, yogi. The Lord assures complete redemption.
tasmaat yogirbhavaarjuna | sarva dharmaan parityajya maamekam sharanam vrajaa | Maamupetya tu kounteya.. mokshayishyaami |
This Atma jnyan (Knowledge of the Self) is not something to be obtained from study of scriptures or lectures from the scholars. In fact, it is not something to be known, or understood at all. There are two aspects here: one is Atman and the other is Knowledge. Atman is the Samskruta padam and has a deeper meaning and connotation than its English equivalent- Soul or Self. Both these English terms do not come anywhere near the Samskruta pada Atman. Atman is the cores of the substance. Atman is brahman only. Atman and Brahman are the two ends of the same and more often each merges into the other like Ocean and the Waves. Since the Atman is the core of the jiva and it is brahman only, there is no question of knowing it. It is as good as one knowing himself. This awareness or consciousness of one's self is the ultimate in spiritual quest. The moment jiva knows itself there is nothing more to do. It is as good as realizing the fact that one is at a place where he wanted to go! All this going, reaching, doing, etc. are due to ignorance, avidya. A person strives hard throughout life and runs as fast as he/she can to reach a place where he started; this journey is the journey of jiva on this earth from birth to death and more often than not does not realize that there is nowhere to go and nothing to do for the jiva. It is the desire that drives and the jiva runs the chores. Ultimately, the jiva realizes that the entire life was a waste and everything illusion here and a waste of effort! This is true Knowledge, jnyan
Now, 'Knowledge' is either 'higher' or 'lower' according to the objectives of the life of the jiva. The lower knowledge is apara vidya and it concerns the material world; the higher knowledge is the para vidya and it concerns with paramarthika (transcendental) and it is brahma vidya, knowledge concerning brahman. The jiva is spirit, a manifest form of brahman (Energy) by nature and it creates a body to work for It, out of the five elements and the tanmatras (pancha mahabhutatmika sharira) and, thus, constitutes material in its external appearance. The Atman is the spirit and the jiva is its physical body, woven by itself (the atman) like the silkworm weaving its cocoon. The silkworm constructs its cocoon out of its saliva and finally gets trapped; finally, it meditates and finds it way out puncturing a hole and flies off in beautiful colours as a butterfly! So also, the atman builds a physical body of annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, jnyanamaya and anandamaya koshas coupled with triguna- sattva, rajas and tamas. It is its own folly or divine will that the spiritual aspects reaches the earth and takes a form and adopts a function as jiva. Soon it forgets its true nature and suffers. Taking recourse to yoga, it finds a way out and gets back to its true spiritual form of pure consciousness, shuddha vidya. The pranic energy is the eternal free movement in akasha!
This awareness, that brings back to memory the true nature of the jiva (pratyabhijnya hridayam). This is nothing but the ignorant jiva remembering its primordial state and reverting to it. This state of pure consciousness, shuddha vidya or Knowledge supreme is one knowing one's self. Knowing the other is the worldly existence. True Knowledge is the sat, chit and ananda. Thus, truth only prevails at the end; all others are illusory, make-believe.
Ultimately Knowledge only exists and nothing else!
The jivas are thus a bundle of knowledge only. (Jnyana rashi according to Lakshmi Tantra of Pancharatra agama shastra)
When the jiva realizes the fact that 'it is one' (ekam) and 'nothing besides itself', there is no question of seeing, hearing, thinking, tasting, or understanding and talking about it at all. There are no two there, no second to It! it is ekam adviteeyam.
yatra vacho nivartante apraapta manasa saha | The words return not reaching there (echo) and mind cannot reach there, too. This level of understanding is hard to get unless one gets has purva punya, daiva anugraha (divine grace), a divine intervention, or one reaches his last station in life and is eager to depart from earthly existence, once for all!
The paradox of the situation is that 'the jiva cannot get liberated from its endless chain of births and deaths and earthly existence unless it realizes "Who it is", gets the knowledge of the self, atma jnyan. The moment it (the jiva) realizes that "It is not the body, it is not the mind, nor, is it the intellect and the ego; and,realizes it is the sat-chit-ananda by its true nature (mula svabhava); it (the jiva) realizes that "It is eternal, undiminishing, immortal and brahmn only". Atma eva brahma |
Thus, it is meaningless to say, so and so is a divine being, a God-head, or daivansha sambhuta as if all others or not! In fact, even a tiny plant, animal or bird is divine and it suffers due to its ignorance. It becomes divine as soon as it realizes its true nature. Every jiva is divine, every person is daivamsha sambhuta only the moment he/she realizes his/her true nature. Thus, atma jnyan is the redeemer. Yoga helps to attain to this understanding through dhyana, dharana, samadhi. The Upanishad declares:
This awareness, that brings back to memory the true nature of the jiva (pratyabhijnya hridayam). This is nothing but the ignorant jiva remembering its primordial state and reverting to it. This state of pure consciousness, shuddha vidya or Knowledge supreme is one knowing one's self. Knowing the other is the worldly existence. True Knowledge is the sat, chit and ananda. Thus, truth only prevails at the end; all others are illusory, make-believe.
Ultimately Knowledge only exists and nothing else!
The jivas are thus a bundle of knowledge only. (Jnyana rashi according to Lakshmi Tantra of Pancharatra agama shastra)
When the jiva realizes the fact that 'it is one' (ekam) and 'nothing besides itself', there is no question of seeing, hearing, thinking, tasting, or understanding and talking about it at all. There are no two there, no second to It! it is ekam adviteeyam.
yatra vacho nivartante apraapta manasa saha | The words return not reaching there (echo) and mind cannot reach there, too. This level of understanding is hard to get unless one gets has purva punya, daiva anugraha (divine grace), a divine intervention, or one reaches his last station in life and is eager to depart from earthly existence, once for all!
The paradox of the situation is that 'the jiva cannot get liberated from its endless chain of births and deaths and earthly existence unless it realizes "Who it is", gets the knowledge of the self, atma jnyan. The moment it (the jiva) realizes that "It is not the body, it is not the mind, nor, is it the intellect and the ego; and,realizes it is the sat-chit-ananda by its true nature (mula svabhava); it (the jiva) realizes that "It is eternal, undiminishing, immortal and brahmn only". Atma eva brahma |
Thus, it is meaningless to say, so and so is a divine being, a God-head, or daivansha sambhuta as if all others or not! In fact, even a tiny plant, animal or bird is divine and it suffers due to its ignorance. It becomes divine as soon as it realizes its true nature. Every jiva is divine, every person is daivamsha sambhuta only the moment he/she realizes his/her true nature. Thus, atma jnyan is the redeemer. Yoga helps to attain to this understanding through dhyana, dharana, samadhi. The Upanishad declares:
"This, the firm Control of the senses, is what is called yoga. Atman cannot be attained by speech, by the mind, or by the eye. How can It be realised in any other way than by the affirmation of him who says: He is? He is to be realized first as Existence (sat) limited by upadhis and then in His true transcendental nature. Of these two aspects, Atman realised as Existence leads the knower to the realisation (brahmn) of His true nature (sacchidananda). When all the desires, that dwell in the heart fall away, then the mortal become immortal, and here attains Brahman. When all the ties of the heart are severed here on earth, then the mortal becomes immortal. This much alone is the teaching. [Yajur Veda, Katha Upanishad, Part Two, Chapter III, 11-15].
This Atma jnyan (Knowledge of the Self) is not something to be obtained from study of scriptures or lectures from the scholars. In fa...
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