IMPERIENCE           DRKCV.ORG           SSS           

 
 

Daily Inspiration


What is new


Way to Perfection

- Dr.S.V.Raghavan

This article is based upon the message of the Master, ‘Way to perfection’ delivered by Him on the auspicious occasion of the inauguration of the meditation hall at the Tinsukia centre. I would also interlink the main theme of the message with some seminal insights given to us by our rev. guide in the articles from Bodhayanthi Prasparam V.9 as appropriate.

Master begins the message with the observation that the abhyasis feel in general that the items of practice taught to them are all that is needed to take them up to the final state of evolution. Master is making it very clear that mere mechanical adherence to the routines of practice will not do if we aim at the realization of the real goal of human life. He reiterates thus the sense and spirit of the 3rd commandment that we shall not stop short of the goal that we shall not rest till it is achieved. He stresses the indispensability of restlessness to achieve the goal in the latter part of the same message which I will address subsequently. Master states unequivocally in the above context that though the fragrance of pranahuti inheres in the system or method of training the factors which are still left behind are love and devotion. He emphasizes the importance of these factors which should permeate the routine practices. By integrating these factors with the routine practices the abhyasi would be able to reach his goal very soon.  It is our responsibility to engender the factors in ourselves; the Master goes on to suggest the means as well which is endeavoring to maintain the remembrance of the Principle that is (Ishwar) God. One of the efficacious methods for this purpose is to do whatever we do in the thought that ‘It is the divine command and therefore my duty to do so’ (this sentence has formed the theme of a seminar which may be referred to with profit) so that the state of remembrance should continue steadfast with one special benefit accruing there from, namely, creation of samskars ceases. It also engenders a deep attachment to the divine leading to the state in which love for Him develops and overflows. Devotion attains its full form gradually through this process.

We may now look at the term ‘final state of evolution’ as expressed by the Master here.

I would take it to mean the real goal of human life, as we find it revealed in the divine expression of our beloved Sriramchandraji Maharaj. More appropriately it is the Master’s consciousness, the universal consciousness of the ultimate kind, subtler than the subtlest, purer than the purest which is felt by all devoted hearts as unconditional all embracing love, unalloyed, seamless without any boundaries. It is called in other words, the pranasya prana, imperienced by us in the process of pranahuti. The supreme objective of every abhyasi is to enter fully into that consciousness, not only that but live in and act through that consciousness. All of us are aware that this is quite difficult in practice to live always in that manner but all the same we should not consider it impossible to do so. Master has said quite encouragingly in another of His messages that He is very eager and restless that as many persons as possible should attain His own condition in the shortest period and that is the principal reason behind the creation of the institution of preceptors/trainers in the system. We are aware that that is the goal we are all striving to realize, each one of us in various stages in that evolution, with equal determination to scale the summit and also live and function from there as His instruments perfectly resigned to His will as to the manner in which the instruments may be employed for His purposes.

This is the highest and noblest aspiration we, as human beings, can and ought to have if we aim to meet Master’s expectations of us. We may recall here Master’s statement in another message viz., though such an approach steeped as it is in His consciousness is bestowed as a divine gift by Nature upon the rarest of the rare person of the requisite calibre, it does not mean that we should not aspire and attempt seriously for it with a firm resolve. He says further that we should do so in the firm conviction that if we take but one step in this direction God/ Master takes ten steps towards us enabling our speedy evolution towards the final state.

The real goal viewed in another light is to say that we bring out the real man behind the apparent man or the man behind man. The evolution is perfected when we grow into the status of the Real Man. Master has exemplified this all through His earthly sojourn and now as He functions from His own divine realms as the perfectly pure universal consciousness.

I would use this context to present some salient insights given by our guide in the article ‘Real Man’ (BP V9). The real man in Master’s words is one whose eye is diverted towards his inner (real) Self. By adhering to it, the real quest for reality, he establishes his footing in the sphere wherefrom everything has descended by itself or in other words he connects his link with the main source. The only thing which remains is its expansion for which the prescribed abhyas is sufficient. Man possesses as he comes into being is composed of all the powers, forces and energy which are present in Nature in the same order. We may understand this to mean that everything needed to become real man has been granted to us from birth and it is for us to become perfect and bring glory to God. Master adds that it is difficult to define man but when the adjective ‘real’ is added to it, it defines the beauty to which a man should have to belong to. This beauty is the inner beauty which manifests as noble character embellished by godly attributes. The use of ‘should have to’ by Master in the above context is noteworthy; it is used in the imperative sense. He is exhorting every one of us to attain the level of real man actualizing our true potential especially in view of the fact that Nature has endowed man with everything required from birth to achieve that objective.

Real man is one who is imbued with humanity. As man evolves from the state of animal, he develops and exhibits traits of camaraderie and fraternity. As he matures further in reasoning the need for compassion and forgiving dawns in his heart setting him on the road to become real man. As to the inner condition of the real man he gets settles in the changeless condition, the end of all spiritual activities, for which blankness is another name. The entire system is vacuumized in the end. Though possessing a physical body, he shall in no way be attached to it and he shall be nearest to zero. All his actions are in accordance with the divine dictate, the sphere of actions, the playground and the play itself is of the divine. There is no place for ‘doer-ship’ here and the person is established in insignificance in its deepest expression.

The real man as defined and given expression to by the Master is obviously the perfect man.

He is in full control of the senses, the jnanendriyas and the karmendriyas. He serves the interests of others selflessly. He may be stated to be the perfect copy of the original creator or God, justifying the statement God has created man in His image. He also sees every individual completely as a copy of others, the only differences arising being due to the individual samskaras. This gives rise to perfect empathy in him. Our guide brings out another facet of the real man; he is a friend of God, the nara to the Narayana, the nara who fully cooperates and participates with the Divine in its mission. Every one of us thus has God as a friend and the only Friend in reality. By accepting God totally as a friend yielding to Him and cooperating with Him we gain nearness to Him.

Master, while stating the attributes of the real man, makes one important statement, namely, there is no distinction between real man and real master. The real man in the proper sense can be he who makes a man the man he ought to be as He puts it. Further if we are in the hands of a real master, read real man, all the things necessary for ‘man to be called man’ gradually come out of themselves. This is to be understood as the things required would be accruing to us without any further assistance from any other source. There needs to be a total, integral and unconditional acceptance of the Master to be deserving of such a gift. We should exert  to mould ourselves as that most deserving person whom God seeks to be always with. We shall be murads in other words. This casts a noble responsibility on us, as Master has said He makes masters; this is the responsibility to enable others to grow to the final status reserved for man even as we are enabled to. This is the gurudakshina which is to be offered to the Master.

We may now consider a very important aspect in sadhana which the Master emphasizes in the latter part of the message under discussion. Analogous to the remarks made while talking about the real man earlier, Master impresses upon the sadhaka to keep turning his vision inward. He says that by this process “the condition will stay there wherefrom the ‘substance’ came to us, that is, we make a mark upon the true Treasure house.

Now it is left to us just develop the form of expansion which takes birth when along with practicing meditation on the Divine, the endeavor is maintained to keep our vision more and more inward. If the true craving for attainment is developed in you, it takes no time to achieve success. You are reaching out for bliss and I am talking of craving and restlessness. But, brother, the happiness that this craving and restlessness bring is never obtained in peace.” Master states further  when restlessness increases and reaches the limit, crosses the limit of strength, then the beginning of real peace starts. We find this thought recorded in the diary (28th april) followed by another (30th april) wherein He presents another aspect of the same- ‘A real seeker is he who along with his state of tranquility, feels a restless craving for the realization of the Ultimate.’ I may say here that both the indicated states come to our experience.

The Master ends the message on a rather poignant note when He seems to be pleading with us literally to cultivate this sort of restlessness as something which alone can give Him real peace. He says, “My strong desire is that I should give people an inkling of the final state of spiritual evolution” and “my restlessness lies in that you should continue to be restless to achieve the goal of attainment of the divine which alone can give me real peace. To the extent that you are restless in this manner, to that extent peace will come to me. If you believe and remember this  that for all the service rendered by me to people, the return comes to me is peace, then the only method for you iis to remain restless. Let us get so deeply engrosses in the thought of ‘this’ that no thought arises of ‘that’.” I would interpret ‘this’ to mean the real craving and restlessness for the attainment of the divine as explained by the Master and ‘that’ to be peace, bliss, anandam or any other attainment related to manifestation.

There are several other relevant and important insights to be found in the articles ‘Craving of the Soul’ and ‘Real craving’ from BP V9, which I am unable to bring into this discussion as that would make this article quite lengthy. I would strongly urge the sadhaks to study the cited references deeply, contemplate upon the so many practical guidelines available therein which would immensely benefit their sadhana.

In particular the article ‘Craving of the soul’ – a detailed commentary on Master’s message of the same title- can be regarded as a mini-treatise on the entire system of our sadhana and should be always by the side of a serious minded sadhaka aiming at final success. Other helpful articles which deal with one of the important themes of the message we are discussing viz., mere mechanical adherence to the items of practice will not do for a person aiming at the final state of evolution, are ‘Light on meditation’ and ‘Meditation is not enough’ (the book ‘Meditation’). These articles approach the issue from a different perspective.

I will end this article with some of the closing observations from the article, ‘Real craving’ (p.218-9 BP V9). Talking about ‘Satchidananda’ it says, “In fact we move farther from that level of consciousness. It is not a concept or idea to be in the consciousness of satchidananda. It is a reality we often experience in sadhana. But our Master leads us on to the level of void. But then that is subject to our relinquishing of all desires and cravings and seek only the end state whatever that might be.” Further “any attachment to anything in the sphere of manifestation is a limitation. The price may appear to be very high but that is for cowards and seekers of toys. To crave for the Real is the option that is chosen by lion hearted men. Our beloved Master said His system makes the aspirants so and let us live up to His expectations of us.”