Our existence on this planet is almost a
miracle! It has no logical or rational explanation. Mysteries surround our
birth and death. So far, no plausible explanation is forthcoming for our
existence. It seems ‘no purpose is served merely eating and sleeping,
whiling away time in seeking joy in extraneous things’. Moreover, all our
thoughts and actions, attitudes, behaviour, problems of hunger, disease, old
age and death are not in our hands. Life is full of and probabilities. Nothing
is certain here. What we see and believe may not be true at all! Things have to
be seen in the background of an unstable earth, a vast expansive universe that
is ever on the move, a universe of no known magnitude or dimension, and of
illusory nature bound by Time and Space. In fact, this Time that creates Space
by its movement is by itself an illusion! If Time is illusion, the space
created by it as well as the objects that fill it and endure are also illusion.
Illusion of illusion is delusion. Thus, there is no end to this delusion,
ignorance.
We, as the humans,
should realize the fact that we are nothing but specks of dust, star-dust, at that! Thhis is evident from our birth charts. These jivas or
vibrant life-forms are like sparks of fire flying out of flames. Once we
realize ‘who we are’, where do we come from, and where do we go from here when
we die, or how we give up one mortal body and take another soon after, the ‘Reality’
dawns on us. We are truly the spiritual entity- the atman, embodied in
an earthen shell like a clay pot susceptible to leakage and breakage.
Symbolically, a pot filled with water is broken at the time of cremation of the
dead bodies. This signifies the fact that the inside and the outside separated
by an earthen shell is no more, and everything is one!
However, the purpose of our existence is
yet to be defined. The ancient scriptures are our best guides. But, we neither
have the complete texts of these, nor do we ever understand their coded
language. The story of the arrival and departure of a jivatman on this planet
is narrated here. It is an autobiography of the soul. Thus, the soul only
speaks here. It is an intuitional knowledge obtained from parame vyoman in
yogic trance.
A clear understanding of the spiritual aspects, like any other
discipline, calls for deeper contemplation, focused attention, perseverance, determination and steadfastness, a keen interest, concerted effort, and serious practice of yoga, and devotion to
Guru. There should be a sense of purpose in life in order to attain to the
highest level of existence and enjoy supreme bliss that is possible for any
human being. Spiritual journey is more arduous than the journey in the material
and sensuous world. Material world is also hazardous full of uncertainties,
failures, disappointments, disillusionment, and frustrations. It is endless,
with countless wants, insatiability, cravings for more and more, and finally,
ordained to repeated births and deaths. The spiritual path is no less
unpredictable and hazardous- full of unknown twists and turns and glaring
mysteries, secrets, and coded secret words (mantra)
that may often lead to doubts and dis-beliefs, and sudden loss of faith and
interest.
Another hazard of this spiritual journey is
that the sadhaka moves slowly away from the lower, ‘here’, the physical,
material, concrete, the sensible, logical, rational and sensuous gibbering
towards the higher, ‘there’, metaphysical, spiritual, abstract,
nonsense, rather senseless(?), and silence. Worldly people are prone to treat
this as madness. Most of the teachings of Great Masters are based on these
principles and still people run to them! It seems paradoxical that people want
solace in times of their distress and look to these renunciates, but do not
want to follow their teachings in their daily life! For instance, if one tries
to become a Swami Raghavaendra Tirtha, one should strictly follow in his
footsteps and take to sanyas at the early age. If one follows his footsteps,
the first casualty would be his wife and the next, his mother. As we know,
Raghavaendra Swamy’s wife Saraswati Bai committed suicide jumping into well and mother died in
distress. In fact, most of the cases of mystics there are untold misery and
sufferings before reaching to higher spiritual power.Moreover, nothing such as
success is guaranteed here.
The teachings of Acharyas like
Shankaracharya, Madhava (Vidyaranya), or Badarayana will never be understood
unless one experiences the way of life they lived. Shankara experienced untold
misery and things have changed over time. It seems thus impossible for a common
man to come to spiritual field, adhyatma,
giving up the hearth and home, sensuous worldly life. Nobody wants to leave the cosy life of comforts and take to a life f a
recluse and severe askesis (tapas).
Hatha yoga is out of question. Even those who have tried and succeeded to some
extent have suddenly fallen from grace!
What we mostly see around us as spiritual
seekers or teachers of yoga are not what
they should be, with exception, of
course. Self-Realization (Atma
sakshatkara) is not easy. Those who have attained to this highest state of
spiritual state, pure consciousness,
do not have any interest in worldly affairs for they have crossed the
Mental-mental state of evolution and have stepped into Spiritual realm (See
Aurobindo) after discarding their mundane existence, albeit, they spend time
here till they cast off their physical body. They live a life of absolute bliss
unaware of the happenings to other earthlings. This should not be construed as
a selfish way of life since these blessed souls have been emancipated,
redeemed, or liberated! They rejoice in Brahmn consciousness.
The most important point to be noted here is
what Sri Krishnananda, Shivananda Ashrama, Hrishikesh, says: “Nothing that
comes from outside is of any help in attaining to the knowledge of the Self.’
thousands of teachers and preachers go on talking and talking without any
substance. Many do not know what they are talking about. This can be verified
from their life style. If some boast of 50,000 followers, some boast of 400
ashrams all over the world; some say, they have never read a scripture in their
life but still talk like, “devil quoting the scriptures’. The truth is very
simple: “If i suffer from stomach pain, i only should take the medicine”.
Unless i learn to sit in a place for just two minutes a day nothing is
possible. The first step is taken when you take a crash course in
Transcendental meditation and ashtanga yoga. It must be remembered, the
first four steps of Patanjali yoga sutra such as self-control (yama), discipline (niyama), an aversion to sensuous life (pratyahara) and surrender to the 'Will of the Lord' (Ishvara pranidana) can never be followed
in this worldly life of ours. Nobody can ever attain to the highest 'Samadhi', remaining in worldly life
lecturing on philosophy and religion. This is the reason why interested persons
leave everything and rush to Himalayas and undergo tremendous hardships. We
want bed tea and timely breakfast, lunch and dinner and friends to chat, and at
the same time aspire for enlightenment! Lo! There are wandering preachers and swamijis who
advice us to stay in family and practice yoga! The result is riding two horses- one loukika or worldly and the other paramarthika or other-worldly (the two horses- one black and the other white, called suti and asuti) at the same time. Living alone in an isolated place with a an attained person, study of scriptures, meeting good people in satsang, dharana and Samadhi are
very important for attainment, realisation of the Self ('atma jnyan')
and emancipation.
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