The Three 'V's of Success
There are four important requirements for
achieving success in life as also attaining spiritual knowledge are: 1. Vicharra,
2.Viveka, and 3.Vairagya, and to these may be added Sama and
Dama, and Uparati. Whether one is a Grihasta, or a sanyasi, whatever be the
station of his life, Jnyana, Bhakti, and Vairagya are essential besides moral and
ethical requirements such as purity of body, mind, heart and soul. It is the
blemishes of the soul, due to attachment (moha), due to desires (kaamana) that
one gets into this world of birth and death, the ‘Mrutyuloka’.
Vairagya is dispassion, a sense of
indifference to all objects of enjoyment. Abandonment of all desires at all
times is called ‘Sama’; and, restraint of the external functions sense organs
is called ‘Dama’. Turning away completely from all sense objects is the height
of ‘uparati’. As compared to Sama and Dama where effort is needed to control
the mind, ‘Uparati’ brings a calm and peaceful state, a state of equipoise of
the mind spontaneously, effortlessly.
The choice before the householder is to
live and work for materialistic prosperity as also gain spirituality, or to
decide about spiritual path, ‘sanyas’, liberation from ‘sansara’, or the
worldly bondage. The householders’ path has been clearly laid and there is no
doubt about the duties and obligations of a householder. Vedas and Upanishads
never teach one to abandon his duties in the pursuit of spiritual goal. But it
is certainly true that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to pursue
the spiritual goal living in the ‘Grihasthashrama’ with the full
responsibilities of running a family. It is also true that old age will be too
late for starting a spiritual life. This is the paradox. We want spiritual progress
in family life. How to attain it?
There is an eight-fold path to spiritual
goal of ‘liberation’. Even a householder can regularly practice these in a
limited way and attain spiritual progress enjoying the family life. Sri
Ramakrishna says, “Do all your duties, but keep your mind on God. Live with
all- with wife and children, parents, brothers and sisters. Treat them with
love and affection, but know in your heart of hearts that they do not belong to
you”. Love of God should be upper-most on the mind and a sense of detachment
(remember, not neglect) should rule the life.
Only at later stages in life, as and when
one desires, that too with the permission from the family members, the
spiritual practice can be made rigorous. Thus, there shall be no conflict of
interest; the balancing act requires, of course, strong determination,
steadfastness, purity of mind, and love of God; Divine Will and His Grace will
take care of the rest.
It is indeed very difficult to understand
what exactly this Mind is and how it functions. The Mind is a biological
computer and, all the inputs to mind come through the five senses. Desire and
prana are inter-related. Prana depends on the desire. If there is no desire,
there is no purpose or need for prana to exist. The moment all desires are
fulfilled, prana ceases to function. Breathing is controlled by desire and
prana is breathing fuelled by desire. And, ‘Desire is
Brahman’
Desire leads to action. Repeated action
becomes a habit; habit defines character and ones character decides the
destiny. So, in a way, one’s desire leads to his destiny. The biologically-
evolved super computer called the human mind is an extra-ordinary storage
reservoir,‘the Manas Sarovar’ of memories,
experiences and crave for fulfillment of its desires through the senses; and as
such, the human mind is always in search of fulfillment of unfulfilled desires
of the past births. But unfortunately, these are mere impressions and far from
reality separated by time and space. Even when the desires are fulfilled the
person is sure to be disappointed due to the gap in time his achievements do
not match his desires.
Making a distinction between mind and
the physical basis of mind, Sir Charles Sherrington says:
“Knowledge of the physical basis of
mind is making great strides in these days. Knowledge of the brain is growing,
and our theme is almost equivalent to the physiology of the brain. Mind, meaning
by that thoughts, feelings, memories, reasoning, and so on, is difficult to
bring into the class of physical things. Physiology, a natural science, tends
to be silent about all outside the physical. And, so the study of the physical
basis of mind suffers from falling between two stools.
Nuclear physicist Erwin Schrodinger in
his book ‘What is Life?’ has explained that, “Consciousness is never
experienced in the plural, only in the singular... Consciousness is a singular
of which the plural is unknown; that there is only one thing, what seems to be
a plurality is merely a series of different aspects of this one thing, produced
by a deception, the Indian Maya”.
The quantum energy field or the
four-dimensional space-time, which twentieth century physics presents as beyond
sensory verification, finds its counterpart in Vedanta in its ‘chittakasha’,
the ‘akasha’ - the ‘space-time continuum’. This is what mind reveals in dreams.
This is the knowledge-field, or ‘consciousness field’, of which all seer (drik)
or subject and all objects or the seen (drishyam) are but two poles as the
observer and the observed. The subject of modern sub-atomic physics is now the
position of the ancient Sankhya Philosophy
of India in its reduction of the observed into the unity of the quantum energy
field, while retaining the multiplicity in the dimension of the observer. The Sankhya achieved the unification of all
‘not-self’ in its Pradhana or Prakriti,
or Nature, while retaining, however, multiplicity in the realm of the Purusha, the observer, the self or the
subject.
Modern physics is yet to formulate a ‘unified
field theory’. In physical nature, comprehending electromagnetic, nuclear,
and gravitational, and other phenomena, completely and successfully is still
very difficult. Even when such a unified theory is achieved, it is difficult to
solve the problem of unifying, man and nature, ‘Prakruti’ and ‘Purusha’, the
observed and the observer. Einstein spent his last years searching for such a
unified field theory. ‘Chittakasha’, referred to as the space-time continuum,
still involves duality of the subject and the object. But, the Vedantic view of
Consciousness, the Infinite, Non-dual, the ‘Aakasha’, or void of ‘chit’, or
Pure Consciousness which is the same as ‘Chittakasha’ viewed non-causally
overcomes the limitations of physics. By presenting this way, neither the
Universe nor its matter and separate intelligent beings is destroyed, but is
only illumined of its true nature.
Non-duality is the answer to all our
problems. Non-duality is better explained in Mandukyakarika of Gaudapada as:
“Beyond all conceptual thinking, and
beyond all causal relations, is jnyanam, Pure Consciousness, which is ever
non-different from the object of knowledge or consciousness; Brahman, the sole
object of knowledge, is unborn (beyond causality) and eternal; the non-causal
(knowledge) realizes the non-causal (Brahman). All higher spiritual truths are
obtained only through inner penetration and the raising of consciousness to
higher and higher levels."
“All those that have been expounded
earlier (about the realization, of the Atman, of the nature of the Non-dual
Pure Consciousness), or the products of dhyana, meditation; none bereft of the
knowledge of the Atman can verily enjoy the fruits of one’s labor in peace and
joy.”
One can see this truth in the present
day world where the high material prosperity through an efficient technology,
alienated from higher spiritual values, has led to increasing psychic and
social distortions and the people’s inability to enjoy life in peace and joy,
however rich and prosperous they may be.
Romain Roland says, ‘the true vedantic
spirit does not start out with a system of preconceived ideas. It possesses
absolute liberty and unrivaled courage, among religions with regard to the
facts to be observed and the diverse hypotheses it has laid down, for their
coordination. Never having been hampered by a priestly class order, each man
has been entirely free to search wherever he pleased for the spiritual
explanation of the spectacle of the Universe’.
Lincoln Barnett has observed in his
lecture on ‘The Universe and Dr.Einstein’ that, “in the evolution of scientific
thought, one fact has become impressively clear; there is no mystery of the
physical world which does not point to a mystery beyond itself. All highroads
of intellect, all byways of theory and conjecture, lead ultimately to an abyss
that human ingenuity can never span”. We are both spectators and actors in the
great drama of existence”. Man is thus ‘his own greatest mystery’. He does not
understand the vast veiled universe into which he has been cast, for the reason
he does not understand himself. He comprehends but little of his organic
process and even less of his unique capacity to perceive the world around him,
to reason and to dream; the ability to transcend himself and perceive himself
in the act of perception.
Katha
Upansihad IV.1 clearly states that, “the self-existent One created the
sense organs, including the mind, with the defect of an out-going disposition.
Therefore, beings perceive perishable things outside, but not the immortal
Atman (the Self) within. A certain wise and heroic seeker, desiring to achieve
immortal self, realized the inner self by turning his senses (including mind) inward”. One should look to
Sri Krishna in Gita Ch.XII.2 where it is clearly explained that ‘the knowledge
of the kshetra, the object (the known or ‘without’ of things) and of
kshetrajnya, the subject (the knower, or, the ‘within’ of things) is jnyana,
wisdom or philosophy. In a sense, it is ‘Brahmavidya’;
it is sarva vidya, or ‘samvat’.
Here, the concept of ‘Triputi’ is
important. Triputi is the triple group consisting of Jnyana, Jneya and
the jnyata, i.e., the knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the knower.
Anubhava is experience. Vedanta discovered anubhava or jnyana as the conscious
field and all objects or jnyeya and all subjects or jnyatas as its passing
configurations and which resolved the triputi distinctions. And, it termed the
Ultimate Reality, or Atman or Brahman, as Anubhava -Swaroopa, or Jnyana
-Swaroopa, or Chit-Swaroopa – of the very nature of knowledge’, of the very
nature of Consciousness. This is conveyed in Upanishads as:
“ Satyasya
Satyam”, in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.1.20;
“Prajnyaanam Brahma” –Brahma is Pure Consciousness.
Aitareya Upanishad 5.3.
“Satyam Jnyanam Anantam
Brahma”
“Brahman is
Truth, Consciousness and Infinity”
Taittiriya Upanishad 2.1
“Ayamaatma Brahma so yam atma
chatushpat”
All this manifestations is Brahman Himself is
Brahman.
This self
manifests itself through the four states viz,
Waking, dream,
deep sleep, and the turiya or
the transcendental.
Manduka Upoanishad 2.
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