To
entitle one for embarking on the inquiry into the Atma, one must be endowed
with the Sadhana Chatushtaya or the Four Qualifications.
Scholarship
in all the Vedas and Sastras, asceticism, mastery of ritual, dedication to
japa, charity, pilgrimage - nothing will help in granting that authority.
"Saantho Dantha Uparathi Thithiksha...", says the Sruthi; so equanimity,
self-control, withdrawal of the senses, steadfastness - these alone confer that
title; not caste, colour, or social status.
Be
it a Pandit versed in all the Sastras, a Vidwan or an illiterate, a child or
youth or an old person, a Brahmachari, Grihastha, Vanaprastha or Sanyasin, a
Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, or Sudra, or even an outcaste, man or woman, the
Vedas declare: "Everyone is
qualified, provided one is equipped with the Sadhana Chatushtaya".
Mere
reading of the Sastras does not entitle one; the attainment of Sadhana
Chatushtaya mentioned therein is essential. The doubt might then arise: how can a person who has not read the
Sastras attain Sadhana Chatushtaya?
My
answer is: how does the person who reads them attain them? "Because he knows the Sastras, he does act in a
spirit of dedication to the Lord, gets mental purification thereby, and
acquires Vairagya, renunciation, and other qualifications in increasing
measure".
Now,
how can these be cultivated by one who does not know the Sastras? it is asked.
Why can he not cultivate them?
By the accumulated fruits of the educative
influences and good deeds in the past births, it is possible to become
qualified for Atmavichara in this birth, even without the initial back ground
of Sastric study.
It
is the mind which is a limitation on the Jivi; it has to be conquered; the
body-consciousness must disappear; steady faith has to be cultivated in Jnana.
The
human personality has to be discarded by inner devotion and discipline and the
acquisition of the Divine; then the knowledge dawns that one is divine.
Limitation of the Jivi has to be overcome before Brahman-hood dawns.
Experiencing
identity with the Lord, the Jivi declares, "I am Brahman, where have all the
changing worlds fled? How deluded I was to be caught in the tangle of Jiva and Jagath!
Past,
present and future do not really exist at all. I am the Sat-Chit-Ananda
Swarupa, devoid of the three types of distinction".
He
is immersed in the Bliss of Brahman. This is the fruition of Jnana.
(Author’s note - The first step in the path
of wisdom / jnana is equipping oneself with the 4 qualifications - viveka,
vairagya, shad-sampat and mumukshatva.
The mansion of Spiritual sadhana,
reaching up to the top most roof of Moksha, is impossible to be sustained
without the 4 strong foundation pillars of these 4 qualifications.
Man, believing in his intellect, takes up
discourses in this path, reads few books here and there, goes through
Upanishads and thinks that he has understood this path.
It does not work this way. Why? Because, in
most cases, intellect is not pure, it is mixed up with our ego, our vasanas.
So, we end up understanding the Upanishad truth with the coloring of our ego,
our vasanas and ultimately, we end up nowhere and we leave the path more faster
than anyone else.
The
contemplation has to continue till the time, the teachings / revelations
of the Shrutis given by Guru is experienced subjectively within
the disciple's heart.
Guru can even be someone who is an acclaimed realized Master, who may not be alive now, only if one is not fortunate to get / find a Guru living in contemporary world, available to him physically, to go through all spiritual instructions one to one, to get all doubts cleared one to one and to see the Guru living before his eyes as the proof of all the vedanta teachings!!
Love.
