Sadhana patha

   There are as many paths to salvation as there are different schools of thought. The teacher can guide his pupils but it depends on the latter to strictly adhere to the rules and regulations and follow the instructions. Much depends on the devotion and steadfastness of the seekers and the practitioners, the sadhakas. There are, in principle, the path of hatha yoga, kundalini yoga, mantra japa, ajapa japa, chakra dhyana, gayatree japa with pranayama, etc. The essential requirements are: purity of mind (chit-shuddhi), establishing in one's self (atmatishthata). living alone in the vicinity of God (upa-vasa, meaning sitting near the deity in solitude, ekanta), attaining oneness  with God in dhyana, contemplation (sayujya with dharana),  and, ultimately relinquishing all that binds the jiva to earthly existence (Ishvara pranidana); one should desists from indulging in sensuous life. This calls for utmost restraint, self-control, and this is possible with constant association with attained souls (satsang and and staying in a retreat, ashrama with guru saannidhya), occasional meeting with learned people will give an insight; study of scriptures (svadhyaya) and contemplation (nidhidhyasana), meditation (japa or dhyana), total silence (mouna) and other methods as directed in the scriptures are all very essential. This calls for renunciation and a rigorous ascetic way of life. Once a sincere seeker enters this path, it becomes easy for him to adhere to this way of life. Ultimately, it takes one to everlasting joy and liberation of the embodied soul.
   Now, what is it we attain by spiritual practice? Nothing. Yes, nothing. It is a return journey from the phenomenal objective world, a life of sensuous way without any end in sight back to the starting point when the jiva was in its pure state of chit, concsiousness. Consciousness is the pure state. It is a state when there was nothing to be cognizant of. Consciousness, chit-shakti was all pervasive and covered the entire universe. There was nothing in that state of Shiva, Ishvara. Shiva was conscious of His Self only, and nothing else. When He became conscious of His Shakti, prowess- creative power (kriya-shakti) as the other, other than His pure self, the Maya emanated from His will (ichha) and manifested as the creative force kriya shakti. This kriya-shakti is none other than the Shiva, but came to be known as Shive. Here the manifest forms of Shiva are Jnyan, aishvarya, bala, virya, tejas of Shive coupled with the srushti, sthiti, laya, tirodhana and anugraha of Shiva (exercised by Her). Thus, the phenomenal objective world (prapancha) comes into existence. The end product of all these are the enjoyers, the very self of Shiva, and no one else! Shiva only becomes the jiva and reverts to its prior state of Shiva. Shiva (Ishvara) manifests as jiva and jagat; jiva turns to jagat for its enjoyment forgetting its true nature of Self, Shiva. When the jiva realizes its true nature- sat, chit,and ananada, it reverts to the state of Shiva. This is the attainment of the Jiva. From nothingness to nothingness is the journey of the jiva. It undergoes all the predicaments of joy and sorrow, births and deaths, under an illusion, maya (the veiling power). It is ignorance (ajnyana), knowledge of the true self covered by moha, krodha, lobha, mada, matsarya, etc. that creates the world of maya.
   Thus, the jiva, takes a journey through the mrutyu loka (bhu) for no fault of its own, but of the chitta of Shiva, Shivechhe. Now, who are we? 

Pathway to 'sat' - satnyasa

  'sat nyasa' is the pathway to brahmn, 'sat'.  This is the most difficult path since 'sat' is fire and to walk on fire is next to impossibility. Incidentally, yoga shastra insists on yama and niyama where 'sat' is an essential condition without which yoga will not be fruitful. Not to tell lie even for fun is the rule. Now, the truth is something that eludes us even if we try to follow it. Then how to attain to brahmn, the 'sat'? Bhagavad-Git shows the way. Bhagavan Shree Krishna says, He will deiver the sinful one if he/she just surrenders to Him". maam upetya tu kounteya sarva papebhyo mokshayishaymi ma shucha | He assures liberation to the sinner, too!

   What is important here is to take to yoga (yuj), to attain oneness. Oneness with the Self is yoga. Oneness is reaching totality, wholeness. Controlling the mind and the senses and synchronization with the body and aligning with the soul is yoga. Normally the soul, Atma, remains silent, a witness to the happenings to the jiva. The jiva does not know about the Atman and thereby will not look to it for guidance; on the other hand it looks to the fickle mind that uses the senses to aggrandize the ego and fulfill its desires. Buddhi will not take the light of prajnya as a result of which it drives the jiva to suffer misery. When the jiva looks to the Atma, who know all, for guidance, automatically the buddhi gets the light of prajnya (pure consciousness) and turns the mind towards the right path, sat nyasa.
  Pure Consciousness is 'sat'. This 'sat' is shuddha vidhya. Jiva is the product of ashuddha vidya, impure or knowledge with desire. phenomenal existence or one of  body, gross matter. It is only this desire is shed off and all the pollutants and blemishes, scars, gunas, doshas are removed the ashuddha become shuddha. The tainted jivatman becomes a pure soul and attains to mukti with the help of yoga. Hence, atindriya dhyana, Transcendental Meditation paves the way for for purification.
 Thus, the jiva is saved from its predicaments of sufferings. Hence, the Lord says, tasmaad yogirbhavaarjunaa |, meaning, "Therefore turn to yoga". Yoga will help bring the jiva to take the right path, sat nyasa- right thinking and right action.

   Yoga is not just asana and pranayama to maintain good health. It is to practice right living. Right living is not just a right to live as one wants. It is to live a homogeneous, harmonious, balanced life. Life should be a melodious song; it should be an orchestra and a joyful musical fair. 

Mystery Resolved !

   Now, with the help of modern science the mystery of this universe is almost resolved. When the secret is known it remains no more a secret or a mystery. Now we know almost clearly what is a galaxy and how a star is born. A galaxy is a mass of cloud of stellar matter. A star is the condensate of this stellar mass of cloud. Thus, the Sun is a star in the galaxy called 'Milky Way' consisting of Hydrogen, constantly under friction, fission and fusion turning into Helium. What the spiritual texts say about the origin of the brahmanda is also the same! But the language and connotations are different. They speak of soma, surya and anala- tribandhu.  There is not much difference between what the early sages, Rishis, envisioned in their transcendental meditative mode (samadhi) and what the modern astronomers, physicists, and molecular biologists discovered through their powerful telescopes in Observatories or Lenses in their Laboratories.

   To be precise, the primordial matter that created the stars, planets, satellites, and life on earth is the same as the one that is explained as Atman (jivaanu) and paramatman, The jivaanu is the energy particle or prana shakti, The Vedic version of creation as eulogized in a number of sukta are also the same explained in a different way (formula, hypotheses and theories, and postulations) in science (quantum mechanics, particle physics, etc)

   Now, what is this Atman, the energy particle that is never created or destroyed? It is stellar particle, photon, a nakshatra kana as indicated in our birth chart (horoscope). On that fateful day when the radiant energy from a distant star  entered the solar sphere and merged with the sun rays and reached the earth's atmosphere, it started its journey as a soul in transit! A particle, photon, light energy (chit/Consciousness), full of Intelligence (buddhi), Force (chit and jnyan shakti), and Creative Force (kriya shakti) with a profound ability to create and transform subtler matter into mass of gross matter, entered the earth's atmosphere and then into the clouds and the rain drops, and finally fell on the earth (soil) to get embedded in gross matter.
   This is what Bhagavan Shree Krishna says, "I am in all moving and non-moving matter  (caharachara), as chaitanya" in its subtlest form. It appears as gaseous, liquid, and solid matter due to condensation. This is the fermions, ionic charges, without mass that lends mass to particles called the bosons; these are neutrinos- invisible matter in their subatomic state as an atom full of radioactive energy. Loss of energy in transformation, transition produces the end product into gross material like uranium becoming lead. Our Soul, the core substance called the Atman, is one such; it is as good as a photon, a particle of energy- a fermion that gained mass as a boson! This is the core substance of the spermatozoa, the cell, the DNA and the RNA. This is the primordial matter that gets embodied by itself (svayam) into a life-form of different shapes! The Boson is the condensate of mass of cloud of gas of stellar particles with mass; the fermions do not possess mass but lends mass to bosons. This is the root cause of energy in particles of matter on earth. All these are derived from distant stars (as Hydrogen?)! This is explained as 'divine will'- Shivechhe or Sri Hari's Will. The chance factor of a photon from a distant star entering the earth and getting into the soil and water to form into a living organism is 1 in a several trillionth ! Thus, each living organism is a vibrant energy particle embodied in some form or the other, like a grass, shrub, tree or an animal, or the humans! Even the 'devata' (elemental gods) are not excluded here since these are also energy, chaitanya or forces (shakti).

   Thus we are here as vibrant energy with embodied souls (jivatmans). Thus, everything is fire, energy here. The food we eat is energy, vitamins, proteins and the like (carbohydrates), The power of digestion is also energy in the form of hydrocarbons in different forms! Everything is Energy says the Rk Veda- agni, anala, soma. There is nothing besides Energy (in different forms) This is what is called brahman and everything is its manifestation. Energy cannot be seen, touched, created or destroyed! It is the absolute- unborn, eternal and immortal, the Atman! This makes things very clear as to who we are and what we are! It is just the amplitude, wavelength, frequency and intensity of this Energy that decides what things of this phenomenal objective world are. Hence the names, forms and functions are not real, but he Energy and its vibration is the only truth! The problem is that the renown samskruta pundits and shastris (scholars) may not know what science (quantum mechanics, wave theory, particle physics, biotechnology, DNA and RNA studies) tells and the scientists do not know what the Veda tells! Mere knowledge of samskruta bhasha, too, will not help here since the Vedic verses are full of coded esoteric letters and words and needs expert guidance for decoding!
   However, what we do not understand is how we,as the humans, take a jiva on this earth (take birth) and leave this body without realizing the truth. The life becomes a mystery due to the ignorance of the jiva. It does not remember how the photon, atman, gets embodied despite the fact that all these are explained by Bhagavan Shree Krishna in the Gita. The relevant shloka will be given later. The methodology is explained as "parjanyat bhavati annani, annat bhavanti bhutani", meaning, the rains bring food and the food supports life, rather creates life. What nters into the rain drops and annam is the chaitanya or energy. What exactly happens is that the Energy in the form of vitamins, amino acids, proteins, enzymes, DNA and RNA in a cellular form in the food, turned into semen from the father's food, enters the egg cell of the mother, and cell divisions create tissues, organs and the body becomes the like of the parents over a period of gestation (say, 9 months!). What all happens is the vibration, cell division, formation of tissues, organs and a body to function for a specific period. It is that energy as prana that sustains the jiva as jivatman and when the life-force is extinguished, the body withers away! It is not birth and death of a jiva. It is transformation of energy from one form into another, that's all. The jiva sustained by food will not be able to sustain for long since it is made of annam that us subject to disintegration and deterioration. If the body can go on forever, there will be no death at all! As it is medical engineering is promoting longer span of life replacing the defective organs like by-pass, transplantation, etc. But will the jiva attain by prolonging its life is the question?
  All these statements are supported by the words (uvacha) of the Bhagavan in the Gita. Only problem is that of proper interpretation with a greater insight obtained by yoga sadhana, nidhidhyasana, upasana, japa and tapa. The lord says, "One can attain Him through jnyana yajnya, vairagya, and total surrender to HIm.

The Inner World

    Unlike the external world limited by time, space, and causality, the 'inner world' is 'limitless', vast and expansive. It reaches as far as brahmn. It, the brahmn, has no name (naama)and form (roopa), attributes (guna) and, as such,,cannot be known or understood by us. Moreover, 'IT' or 'THAT' (tat)  is not something to be understood or known; it cannot  be known by mind (manas) or understood by Intellect (buddhi).Thoughts cannot reach there and words cannot express it! Thus, what is it we are searching? What is it we want to attain? Exactly, what we want to reach, attain, or merge our self in is 'That' (tat), eternal, immortal, unborn brahmn! Since we have emanated from that unborn, immortal, eternal 'sat' and acquired  'this' physical elemental body and suffer hunger, thirst of all sorts, diseases, old age and, ultimately die unconsciously, we want liberation, mukti, moksha from the repeated births (embodiment) and deaths. However, it is not impossible to revert from the physical, elemental state to the spiritual state. This return journey to the original noumenal, non elemental state- the state of pure consciousness, chit, is the inward journey towards the spiritual world. 

   This inward journey is a tedious one and there is no well-laid path, and nobody knows where it leads to! Those who have traveled in this pathless way have never returned to tell us anything about it. Moreover, it requires guts, dhruti, steadfastness to take this path of satnyas after relinquishing everything, samnyas. A Guru only can guide us in this journey. It is assured, ultimately one will attain supreme bliss, unending happiness, supreme joy without any external dependence (upadhi)! All the learned ones, yogis aspire for this eternal happiness, bliss that is self-supporting, nirupadhika.
   Surdas was born blind and was blessed with an innr vision of the Lord. His family neglected and friends cheated him. He took shelter in a dilapidated deserted temple and lived happily singing about the Lord. He refused to leave the place even when offered a place in the Red Fort near the palace with a beautiful temple for his Lord. He simply said, he know not the King or the Emperor or the Palace. This sort of stories abound out scriptures.We do not learn anything from these.
    What is the secret  of this creation? What do we want? Why are we here? What is it we are doing here? Is it enough if we earn a livelihood, amass wealth? Should we go on, and on, like this- suffering ill health, diseases, old age and death or simply rejoice in a sensuous world engaged in the routine breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner followed by entertainment and sleep? What is the ultimate truth? How many of us ever think of this?

   

The Inward Journey

   The inward journey starts only when the outward journey is finished and the jiva turns back towards home. We return home after work and take rest only to get out and again come back, day after day. The same is the nature of the jiva life after life until it thinks of a return journey back home. The outward journey starts with the schooling, a teacher teaching the alphabets, the words and their meaning and gradually introduce to the phenomenal objective world with a syllabus, leading to a career after an examination, training for a job; then comes a family and the entire life is spent in this running from pillar to post. At best, their attainments, if any, will be in the material world and may even get a Nobel Prize for it! All these attainments will not help knowing about the self and liberation of the soul from its eternal embodiment in a physical entity. Not a single jiva, as an embodied soul, ever thinks of finishing its errands and returning home; may be, one in a million aspires for it, but none of them will ever make effort towards the inward journey. Just similar to the outward journey, the inward journey, too, requires a teacher (guru to initiate mantra deeksha) and there is a syllabus as in the study of the Veda, the Upanishads, brahmasutra, etc. Unlike the outward journey, the inward journey takes a much longer, longer time- just not one or two lives, a  hundred of them! The jiva has to work out life after life until a guru comes to take him/her by hand and lead to the right path (sat nyasa). Unlike the syllabus that helps learning about material objects in the outside world, the syllabus for inward journey is one of discarding what all is learnt and emptying the trash can called the mind with the help of laya yoga, hatha yoga and manonasha. The guru teaches ashtanga yoga sutra and help him/her to attain to stillness/samadhi (in transcendental meditation/turiya) and attain oneness with the supreme consciousness, shuddha-vidhya. Shree Shivananda Saraswati of Rishikesh advises us to meditate for 18 hours a day and the minimum is 4 hours a day. Unless the jiva stops all its outward errands as prodded by a fickle mind (chanchala chitta)  to fulfill the insatiable desires for sensual enjoyments this inward journey is not just possible.
    Normally, we think that our life is a journey from birth to death only and it starts with the clock ticking, the heart beat, and it says, "your time starts now"! So, every jiva begins its life on earth with the first breath and a cry on Day One. But,  little do we know that we existed much earlier to our day of birth and continue to exist even after, what is called, death!  Birth is not the beginning and death is not the end. There is nothing like births and deaths, but only transformation of energy is there. Prana is energy, life-force (pranic energy) and this energy (e) is never created nor destroyed; it only goes on taking different forms (material or non-material, organic or inorganic). This Energy and its Force are the fundamental aspects of 'LIFE' and, Life means Light, Intelligence, Force, and Energy. These four elements constitute the core of the jiva called Atman and the jivatman runs on errands once it enters the earth and takes a form.  It is given some name and thus there begins the fundamental principle of name (nama), form (rupa) and function (karya). This name, form and function combine is called 'maya' in the scriptures. Maya means that which comes within the grip  of time (kala), space (desha)  and causality (karya-karana). Function (karya)  has cause (karana) as its inherent quality. Hence, there is no need to search the reason for a function, or search the cause for our desires, attitudes, behavior and actions. Our entire life-span (80 to hundred years, if lucky to live that long!) goes in a meaningless search for the objects of desires and these desires are the cause of our misery. We seek good health, happiness, joy in all inert things? our journey of life is an endless search for vain glory, profit and pleasure in all walks of life. This brings untold misery,unhappiness. Ultimately, the jiva feels disappointed. It suffers hunger (all sorts of desires, kaamane), diseases, old age and death. This is one part of the story.But, there is another part of the story of the jiva before taking a life-form and, yet another, after discarding the form it assumed (after death). None of us is ever aware of these.

      Even the most learned ones, so called jnyanis, never think of the state of their existence before their date of birth and after the date of their death and they take their present life-form as a real one! This is called 'avidya', ignorance, rather knowledge covered by moha (attachment to body, name and form, function as so and so, acquisitions, affixes and prefixes, accolades, prizes (praise and recognition, and positions, etc.). The Bhagavad-Gita deals with this in a beautiful way. (See Ch. 4-6, 9). This aspect of avidya is explained as 'illusion' and Sri Shankaracharya gave a detailed account of this in his concept of maya- 'mithyaa vada'  in a simple phrase- jagat mithya, brahmn satya. Normally, it is difficult understand this concept. Arguments based on ignorance (not discussion based on knowledge) are going on ever since this concept was put forth! Our very existence as jivatman is an illusion since  we exist as so and so, such and such,for a brief time in the eternal existence as the Life-force, Light, Intelligence, Force, Energy- that do not need a physical body to exist! This is exactly what is explained in the Gita.
   In the Bhagavad-Gita, Bhagavan Shree Krishna reiterates that "I only exist, nothing else"; and, then He says, "O Arjuna, there was no time when you and I never ceased to exist"; further, He says, "You and I are one (pure consciousness, chit), but you have gone away from me since you are filled with or tainted with moha  (attachment, desire, ego, etc.). In fact, Consciousness (chit) and Mind (manas) are not separate in their pure state. Both exist as the vast ocean (space/ether/chit-akasha). In the case of the jiva, this mind (manas/akasha) is crunched and individualized (chid-akasha).When the mind is blemished, tainted, filled with desires, attachment, ego,and the like,it departs from the home of pure consciousness and settles down in the sensuous world and start using the senses.
(to be contd.).

  

Attainments and Accomplishments

   The general impression among the people is to attain something, accomplish something if one is to be successful in life. Acquiring status, power and position in society, and getting rich, amassing wealth are all considered success. Anything that brings praise, certificates and accolades is considered progress and children are encouraged to get these, Some preach- 'dream and aim high'. All these lead to disappointments, disillusionment, frustration, and depression at the end. Life seems to be meaningless when there is nothing more to achieve, nothing to attain. In case of depression leading to suicides, it may be said that the unreasonable demands of society, parents, teachers and guides, are responsible. It is sheer ignorance that we are running after worldly attainments disregarding the soul's clamor for release form the bondage of earthly existence. 

  When we see persons with great accomplishment such as Presidents and Prime Ministers, scholars winning accolades and prizes, celebrities such as Olympians, star athletes, film stars suffering in neglect and penury, some with strokes lie in coma, or many who held very high positions get imprisoned and sent to jail or put in house arrest, and some get shot and killed, etc. it is obvious that these positions they held are not worth a pence?

  We forget the fact that there is an inner craving for release, emancipation, redemption or liberation from embodiment. The soul remains a helpless mute witness in the jiva's foolish engagement in the worldly attainments forgetting the very purpose for which it came to existence in such and such a form. It sends constant signals, but the jiva ignores them. Thus, the jiva's predicament is to suffer due to its ignorance. 

   The great sages advise us to seek a good teacher and work for the realization of the Self, atma sakshatkara. It takes several lives to attain the knowledge of the self (atma jnyana). Since the jiva runs in a repeated cycle of births and deaths it is enough eve if some progress is made in each life whenever there is some time. The jiva has to work steadfast life after life to get the knowledge of the scriptures and realize the essence of these with practical exercises in yoga. Otherwise the jiva will rejoice in sensual pleasures and suffer life after life.

Levels of Existence

   The living beings (jivas) have evolved over time in different forms and acquired the qualities of the earth and its environs. The driving force behind all the living beings is the same. This life-force or prana is the same all the land and aquatic beings, plants, birds and insects; there is no difference between an ant and an elephant! But, the humans never give their attention to this aspect and treat them different. The discrimination between man and man is the real crux of the problem in this world. The basic instincts are the same for all. However, in the case of the humans, they display different levels of mental development and each jiva and each clan behave differently. Anthropologists have gone into these aspects and have traced the development of humans over time and place. It seems the case of India is peculiar here. There were great civilizations in the past and many have disappeared without any trace. The Indus Valley civilization gives some details. The distinct ethnic races, languages, habits, food and dress and other cultural traits of different races are worth a careful study. The modern scientific developments have greatly influenced on the thinking of man. Thus, we find the jivas struggling for an existence still finding it difficult to cope with the changing times. In this background, the question of spiritual development remains a remote possibility for the humans. Most of the people are not bothered about all these and simply accept life as it goes on and Bhagavan Krishna addresses them as mudha (fools), pashu (animals).

   The span of a human being is about 120 years in this kali yuga. It is said that people were taller and lived longer, say 1200 years in dvapara yuga, 12000 years in treta yuga, and 120000 years in satya (kruta) yuga. It is stated that King Pruthu ruled for a Million years and shed light wherever he went! These are narrated in the epics and probably true, too. Each one of these yuga had a God-head in the persons like Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and many great sages also lived in these times. It is possible to attain to the state of God-head by mere contemplation on God-head is the principle! yad bhavam tad bhavati is the rule.

    In the initial stage the child is in the protection of the elders and they imbibe the qualities, sanskar, of the parents and guardians. Some of the qualities are inherited through genes, some re imbibed from the environment, and some under strict instructions of the teachers. Some of the people cross these limitations and establish their own and live differently taking to extreme ways, may be, not approved by the society. All these do not make any sense in the long run since all die miserably in old age and sickness. The time available for any spiritual practice is too short and it is difficult to redeem the soul at one go. Dissolution is the rule than an exception. People are miserable and seek some solace from learned ones. "But, all are sailing in the same old and dilapidated boat that is caught is a storm and there is no way out", says Krishna Bhagavan in the Gita.

    Hence, there is need for satsang, svadhyaya, nidhidhyasana, japa, tapa, yoga or trnascendental meditation.