- Dr. S. V. Raghavan

Every devout seeker sets his mind on attaining the state of realization. Realization means to all pious souls realization of God. Naturally we need to understand what is meant by the words 'real', 'reality', 'realization' and 'God'.

All of us have through our experience in the world of manifestation come to believe that there is an underlying 'reality' beneath the apparent display of phenomena which are fleeting and variegated in nature. We also intuitively grant to the word 'reality', the status of constancy, permanence, conforming to fact and a kind of objectivity in the sense that whosoever has the capacity will experience the same content of reality provided he has the necessary will and withal to go all the way to the 'bottom of things'. The 'Truth' content of experience also is based entirely on its being centred on the 'reality' of which it is but a reflection in the pure consciousness of the enquirer.

Again the word 'real' relates to the 'original' and not the corrupted, not the 'derived', it also, connotes 'that which actually exists and not that which is thought to exist i.e., all our attempts to experience it as such, in the condition as it is in itself, really end up in failure at least in so far as our attempts go to describe the content of such experiences.

Yet again our intuition indicates whatever is real has to be simple, not be compounded and complex. As Lord Buddha has said anything born out of conjunction has to perish i.e., as a conjunction meaning thereby, the everlasting nature expected out of the 'Real' cannot be guaranteed by that which is compounded. This is not meant to deny the relative reality of things in manifestation which are usually aggregates and complexes. We are here talking about the nature of Absolute Reality, realizing which is our chosen goal.

Now we come to 'God' regarding whom there are innumerable notions in fact many to list out and discuss. The Master has dealt with all these various notions in the chapter 'Religion' of 'Reality at Dawn', as entertained by the common folk and as well as the erudite philosophers. We consider but some of the aspects suitable to our present discussion here.

Starting with the common conception of God as Eternal Power, we go on to the more enlightened view of His being the Nirguna Brahma above all multiplicity and distinction, the ultimate cause and substratum of existence, 'Superactive Centre of the entire manifestation or the Absolute Base; that it is beyond quality, activity and consciousness. One may take the view that he is beyond the Sakar and Nirakar conceptions. The Master, after considering in detail the implications of the various conceptions, finally concludes that in order to secure absolute freedom from bondage, which incidentally is one of the main motives for adopting the spiritual pursuit, we have to become the lightest and finest, closely corresponding with the godly attributes and securing complete similarity with Him.

Again God is subtler than the subtlest and simple in the extreme. Hence to realise Him we need to follow such means which are equally subtle. Therefore it becomes necessary to have an idea of the self as to its original and present condition when we work towards realisation. Adopting the words of the Master as in the goal of Life, Reality at Dawn, at the time of creation the Soul existed in its naked form as separate entity. From that primary state of existence of the soul in its most subtle form we have taken on grosser and grosser forms of existence. These are in the form of coverings of the soul. The earliest coverings were of the finest nature with which we existed in our homeland, the Realm of God. The additions of more and more coverings of ego continued and subsequently Manas, Chitta, Buddhi, and Ahankar in cruder forms started contributing to our grossness. In due course Samskars (impressions) began to be formed which brought about their resultant effects.

Thus the spiritual training one should undergo must have the capability of throwing out the accumulated grossness so that in due course the practicant attains the original condition of superfine subtlety matching that of the Supreme God Head in order to attain oneness or close conformity with It.

The Sahaj Marg system brought to the light by Rev. Babuji Maharaj more than fulfills the above requirement. The realisation of the Absolute Real is to be had in the heart and for this purpose it has to be thoroughly cleansed of all the grossness, dross and dirt. The power of transmission accomplishes all this and that too in a fraction of one's life time if the abhyasi is totally dedicated, is full of devotion for the sake of God and God alone and is perfectly obedient to the Master of calibre who in turn has secured the final limit of approach and is forever attached to the Ultimate Being.

The initial charm of having experiences, idea of self elevation all give way to a totally self effacing type of devotion in which the devotee sincerely longs to totally dissolve himself in the ocean of Love for its own sake. The fire of devotion burns the thorns and thistles on the way, removes the impurities and one by one the coverings of ego are shed. The grosser cruder forms of ahankar yield place to the finer shades of the ego, namely that of the devotee, the one who has surrendered, one who feels he is the alter ego of the Master, one who feels he is the chosen one, one who is the cynosure of his Master's eye, one He cannot do without, one who feels he is the lord and the one who has lost the notion of his devotedness. Stages are crossed where one feels that he is yet the beginner, that he has forgotten a, b, c of spirituality, that he has forgotten his relationships with all except one and so on. Sometimes the apple of one's eye is so near, so enchantingly close sometimes he is far and away.

This game of hide and seek goes on and on and the very indefinite nature of the game is its charm too. Is it all wild imagination? we discover it is not so. One is absolutely sane and is able to confront and tackle all the situations in the world as they arise and according to need. The world rather does not hang heavily on one's shoulders; one sails through its waters smoothly even while negotiating the apparent turbulence, the very act of negotiating itself being the reward which makes the turbulence appear as a sweet challenge thrown by the Beloved. One is reminded of the trapeze artist who while evoking awe and fear of danger in the minds of the audience is totally unconscious of the delicate balancing act he is doing, so harmoniously synchronised are each one of the tiny movements with the other, all executed with the fineness of skill and precision.

At the last vestiges of the ego drop or rather stop acting as a barrier, for, in Sahaj Marg nothing is torn as under, the one lower makes way for the higher to shine through, one enters the Realm of the Supreme and it is indeed breathtaking in its sheer simplicity and naturalness. One is astonished to see how one could help not being what he ought to be, natural, simple, plain, pure, uncomplicated, yielding to the highest, relaying its benign munificence to all existence. The grandeur of the Reality lies in its utter simplicity, devoid of any exaggeration, of any artificiality and having been used to grandiose descriptions of godly encounters related- in scriptures or the personal accounts of some seekers, we are rather disappointed by the disarming simplicity of the One who shines in his naked splendour. We need to borrow phrases which are laden with much heavier thoughts mixed in fancy and fantasy in order to paint a picture to satisfy our own misconceived expectations or to impress those who are farther away from the shores of the infinite.

We move from knowing to Being, for knowledge is 'about' something and is essentially apart from the knower. We do not 'know' reality in the sense of distinguishing it from 'unreality'. Knowledge is always a categorising act. Though it is helpful in living and organising our lives in the world of manifestation, realisation is possible only when we become forgetful of ourselves or shall we say our own knowing selves. As the Master puts it we go beyond activity, stimulus, its potentiality and even far beyond as we thus ascend the summit of Realization. Total negation is perhaps the last step on the way to Supreme Realization. One is so lost that a shock is to be administered to revive the consciousness as the Master puts it in 'My Existence'. The state of non entity or zero is the hall mark of realization in the system of Sahaj Marg and one who has steeped himself in this state is in the condition of salt without saltishness or dead in the hand of the dresser.

The above described conditions are well nigh impossible without the continuous assistance from the Perfect Master who has travelled all the way and has secured complete mergence in the Absolute. The Master categorically states that stepping into the realm of the Almighty (Central Region) even while in the body had never been accomplished before the advent of Lalaji Maharaj and by his beneficent grace admission into that wonderful region of divine splendour has been granted to a lucky few. The Master further adds that any amount of devotion, practice, dedication or sacrifice can not secure this approach, it is by the grace of one's Guru alone one gains entry into this region where by one is realised and is truly liberated. Only that dedicated seeker who has succeeded in vacuumizing himself to a reasonably high degree and poured into himself the divine essence of the Master can hope to win laurels in this fascinating race of reality.

What after realisation? Such a question is meaningless in a way for it is the eternal swimming in the ocean of Infinite that is called the state of Realisation. The region is so vast that the rishi in existence at that time the world came into being is still swimming near the God-Centre, as per the Rev. Master. Once we accept the fact that the realisation is a return to one's homeland and establishing one's position there, there can be no end to it. Rather it is a return to status-quo ante, back to the state of balance (though not ideally perfect as long as the created is not absorbed into the centre) and calmness from the state of disorder and tumult.

The beauty of the Sahaj Marg system lies in the fact it is so finely adjusted to the present troubled times and yet capable of addressing the crying need of humanity, namely liberation from the shackles of materialism and restoration to its appointed place in the Divine scheme of things. The grace of the Supreme Personality, Babuji Maharaj is ever in flow and it is only for the devoted seekers to take advantage of and move- ap ace along the road to the Supreme Reality.