12. Sri I.V. Chalapathi Rao

With reference to the topic of the seminar, Master is specifically talking about the need to undergo the Bhog of Samskaras to attain freedom. Undergoing Bhog usually entails suffering to the individual. Freedom from this i.e suffering is sought by many and this has been understood as the goal. So Master cautions us to understand the concept of freedom itself and stresses the need to define it. He , in his own inimitable style says” The way of life should be pregnant with high morals. If it is not there a person is not capable of having the fine type of spirituality, which is beyond everything and is worth having.” ( SDG). By this we can understand that He is talking about Freedom to express oneself as one ought to be. And Morality, else where has been defined by Him as directly related to selflessness. To quote,” With over emphasis of self , morality decays”.

Suffering is the result of Samskaras and they are all products of individual creation. Samskaras constitute Individuality (self). The pain and suffering always pertain to the individual. Life also expresses itself through different sheaths or kosas. In other words these kosas also constitute the individuality due the colourings from the samskaras. The struggle of the soul has always been to seek freedom from the identification of itself from all this individuation by the process of extirpation of all the matter lock stock and barrel. This process of extirpation is undergoing Bhog or sufferings which is patent. But the latent cause or the roots of the sufferings are the samskaras.

When we talk of individuation, one of the deeper bondages are the name and form, which are considered to be one of the toughest bondages leading to misery that every sadhaka has to be aware of. Here the name and form are the root of suffering and the flowers are the freedom from it. It is very easy to understand the misery caused by the loss of form or form perse through physical afflictions and also vividly experienced death fear. If one is aware of the transciency of life as an imperienced Jnana that comes to a sadhaka while traversing in Knot 1, then one can tackle the problem at the mental level but one is almost fully out of this misery due to physical form when one stabilises in Bramhand.

The misery that is experienced from the bondage of name is one of the very subtle bondages . it is subtle, in the sense that one is not aware of it as a bondage. For one who has fixed up his Goal as Zero or Nothingness, and for ne who is beset with the difficulties on the path of surrender will definitely be aware of this misery. The prescription of the Master in this regard has been “ Forget Thyself”. Which is understood by me as Rememberance of the Master. The best and surest way to rememeber the Master is to loose oneself in His service.

We always want to be known as somebody and also recognized as such. What to talk about other possessions of material and spiritual. We all know the pain of separation of our near and dear ones from us and aware of the attachments that drain away our precious emotions. We always try to hold on to things essentially for our glorification and self satiation i.e individuality oriented leading to misery, pain and suffering. All seek freedom from the miseries but very few seek to get freedom from the individuality- the root cause of pain.

Once we understand this, then suffering becomes the root and the results are the flowers i.e freedom. Flowers give fragrance and the nature of its fragrance is such that it makes people forget themselves, though temporarily. Flowers in the nature do not exist for themselves, a rose is neither aware of its own beauty nor its form. Even if you call it by some other name, still there is no effect on its original nature. So the Being is devoid of the attribute of name. Then why cling on to it?The rose is also not worried either about its birth or its decay. But we are worried about the permanency of our form, the physical. The rose does not hold its fragrance to a select few, for who is near and who is dear. It is an expression of uniformity in dealings as Nature does and fulfilling its assigned duty. It also makes all conscient beings think about its creator, the God. It is a pure expression of the Divine giving happiness to others free from the fear of decay , prominence or possessions. From this analogy it can be understood that unconscious or natural tendency to follow the cosmic order or rta can be considered as a sign of freedom. Here one lives to be happy and make others happy. A true representative of the Master and in the language of PAM , one who follows Ninth commandment naturally.

One who abides in the scheme of Divine things as expected by it is in essence a living expression of the Ninth commandment. Can our presence make others forget themselves and remember God is the moot question for our self evaluation?. We all are enjoined to get this condition as it is a commandment of the Divine and the Goal given to us by our beloved Master.

It is quite obvious from the sequence of the commandments given by our Master that commandment 5 & 7 precede commandment 9. While implementing commandment 5 & 7 we actually go through the sufferings. But the flowers of this suffering we get at commandment 9. If we can understand commandment 9 then our whole attitude towards miseries and suffering take a totally different approach.

Normally all people remember themselves either positively during success or negatively while undergoing sufferings. They will be cursing themselves, the surroundings and also God for all the afflictions. This attitude will increase the web of thoughts leading further entrenchment instead of getting relief from the samskaric load . On the contrary, if one remembers Master which one is ought to be doing then one gets liberated from the bondage through the suffering. It is to be taken as a commandment in the sense that it is only the way to liberation from such binds and that is the law of karma where Pujya Babuji Maharaj says that in the law of karma there is interference from none not even from God . Laws of nature or Dharma is to be followed as duty. But then how to treat the miseries as blessings of Divine? The kindness of God is such that one gets oppurtunity to undergo the Bhog paving the way to our Goal, therefore one has to feel rejoiced and treat it as a blessing from the Master. Any oppurtunity which enhances our rememberance of the Master should be considered as blessing.

The afflictions and troubles make us feel miserable and the reasons could be

i) Though our wants are satisfied we don’t feel contended because of our greed. Greed always makes us feel that we have been denied. This feeling of denial is one of the causes for miseries. Only if we practice and follow PAM with earnestness of purpose then we cannot get out of the clutches of desires. While referring to the effiacacy of Point A & B meditation, our beloved Master avers that “The abhyasis under our system of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga practise on these points ( A&B points) and find remarkable improvement. If the practice is systematically done on both these points, desires will soon begin to bid farewell.( Efficacy of Rajayoga)” .

ii) For some the miseries could be due to excessive attachment to near and dear ones. It is a well accepted fact that the attachment to spouse and attachment to children are the most difficult ones to be tackled. But the practicants of PAM handle this issue quite easily for they are again resort to meditation on Point A where one meditates with a idea that all men and women are one’s brethren. The stabilisation of the fraternal consciousness happens by this meditation and one is able to come out of these attachments quite easily.

iii) But our relationships with other fellow beings is also a major reason for some miseries which we encounter while practicing 7th commandment. In relation to this aspect Master gives a clue in his work of Reality at Dawn, “This (miseries) is all the creation of the human mind which results from our ignorance of the right relationship of things. Our passions, emotions and impulses too contribute a good deal in aggravating the troubles and at times cause fierce tempest strong enough to threaten a complete wreck.” ( Dawn of Reality-28). Here He is asking us to understand the basic theme of interdependency. The basic life forces kama and krodha determine the tone and tenor of our relationships with others. Krodha is basically a protective instinct of survival and it determines the kind of relationship we have with others, be it friends or be it foes. The other factor Kama determines our relationship with the opposite gender and the people connected with it. If these two are not moderated then we are in troubles. Here we should acknowledge that if we practice point A & B meditation then it is quite easy to understand the interdependeny quite well apart from moderation of the urges that we may have, since it is easy for the trainer to divert the flow to Atman through Pranahuti if one assiduously practices meditation on Point A.

iv) So I would like to conclude that we need to progess on the path laid down by our Master by overcoming the sufferings and miseries and understand that they are the root which give flowers as results. The contribution of point A & B meditation in this regard is immense to progress on the path as they help in quicker and firmer maturisation of consciousness at at each level.