Dear Ones,
The above pour is often explained by Sri Chinmaya as :-
Non Apprehension of the reality and
Misapprehension of unreal to be real!
In yesterday's post, we dealt with exactly the same thing where taking wave (our physical identity) to be real was the misapprehension of unreal to be real
and
Inability to know and experience the reality of ocean (our God-hood) is the non apprehension of the reality referred above.
What does Mahavir give as the ultimate solution to this problem?
It apparently is a very difficult solution because, due to our Ignorance/Ego, we are not able to experience that we and God are one and as a cure for this disease, Mahavir Swami says, Go and realize your SELF, realize/experience that you are God, then only this ignorance will vanish.
Arey Sahab, if I had known the secret of how to remove the ignorance, then I myself would achieve that. I am not able to remove my Ego and have been suffering for several births and incarnations simply tell me-Realize the SELF and then your Ego will vanish?
A visitor comes to Sri Ramana and says, I have to catch the evening train, I have couple of hours with me and in this short term, I need SELF-REALIZATION!
What has to be really understood from the above Gospel?
- One has to be convinced that the permanent remedy to the disease of Avidya, Asmita, Raga, Dvesha, Abhinivesha, Vasana diseases is realization of the only purpose of human birth-TO REALIZE SELF OR GOD.
- The above conviction is the starting point of spiritual sadhana and not the end. Mere understanding or mere knowledge of the above will not fetch us Realization.
- It requires years and years or may be few births of rigorous spiritual sadhana under the watchful eyes of a realized Master or the chosen God.
- The decline in ego and arising in sadhana are inversely proportional. The more you ascend in sadhana and experience in sadhana, the lesser and lesser will be your ego within you.
- This can be easily visualized and understood by one simple thought. When we have seen Swami in Sai Kulwant hall, was there any ego in us? Was there any thought about ourselves as a person with so and so name, form, identity, etc.
- This vision of Sai/God has to be understood/equated with spiritual experience in Sadhana and then we can easily know that the spiritual experience and ego can never co-exist.
- At the end, in one birth, at one moment, as taught in all the previous themes and all the posts, the subtlest of the ego - the avidya must leave us and God must take us to Him like the salt doll merges with the ocean, never to come back as a salt doll again.
- It is then that there is neither non-apprehension nor misapprehension because, the person who can non-apprehend or misapprehend — does not exist any more. He has ascended from Man-Man to God-Man!! Story is over. The picture of that God-Man's life has ended with a happy note. Drama of life is over.
Hari Aum Tatsat.
The need for a Guru in order to embark upon the journey of Spiritual Sadhana is a certainty otherwise we would never be able to peep out of our non-apprehensions and misapprehensions.
ReplyDeleteThis sharing was done with an aspirant which would be of some purpose for those who are finding it difficult to take that first step.
For any journey, we book a ticket. Be it a train or a flight. Once we book the ticket, we are confirmed for the journey. We are confident and satisfied that we would surely reach the destination. There may be reasons for booking a particular train or flight. Belief in its service, faith in the ticketing aspects, other media reports and customer loyalty exhibited by the train/flight authorities, to quote a few. All these aspects exist till the date of the journey. On the day of the journey, we enter the train/flight completely letting ourselves without a second thought on the capabilities of the driver/pilot as we are assured of reaching our destination. Here is total surrender where you are not worried about anything else and completely offer everything you have within you.
This is also mentioned in the “surrender” which Swami has given to all of us, wherein He urges us to distance our thoughts from worries and to say “Lord, You take care of them. Thy will be done.”
In the example given above, the carrier is the Lord, ticket being the self realization path we have undertaken /have to undertake. Attraction, faith and adoration being the tools that give us the self confidence and the self satisfaction to carry out the journey towards the Lord.
This is a journey from dwaitam to adwaitam. It is a journey towards the form [dwaitam] wherein the Lord and the devotee exist. Devotee is filled with attraction, faith and adoration for the Lord which propels him for the journey towards the form. It is a very long journey wherein the devotee needs to completely annihilate all the kleshas to be able to reach the form. That supreme love and supreme attachment towards that form should be so intense that this supreme love and supreme attachment towards that form is transformed into supreme love towards the formless aspect of the same form. In this process, kleshas (avidya [ignorance], asmita [ego/i-ness], raga [attraction], dwesha [aversion] and abhinivesha [fear]) are uprooted so that the devotee perceives the formless aspect of that form and as a result merges into that form and loses his identity.
Swami does not want anything from us as he is aware that there is nothing that we have to offer to him which is ours except for the thoughts which has drawn a line of distinction between us and Him. It is this thought that we need to offer, or in other words we need to completely annihilate them so as to render ourselves in exactly the manner when we were created by Him so that we can reach to Him and merge into Him.
Each and every time Swami addresses us as premaswaroopulara. While embarking on this journey of form to formless, our heart is filled with love and when we reach the destination we become love, dwaitam vanishes and only adwaitam exists.
First we put efforts to seek this love within and once we are successful in discovering the same [here, voicing my Guru's thoughts, the word “discover” is used, as our basic nature is love and so love already exists and we need to find it], we start to witness the same in all things around us, irrespective of gender, material, etc.
Till the time you experience that supreme love within, it was surrender. But once that love is experienced in everything around, there is no surrender anymore as there needs to be 2 things in surrender – the giver and the taker – here both become one. Complete merger. Complete non-duality (adwaitham).
Offer your-self to the will of the almighty,
Nothing more, Nothing less, Nothing else.
Finally we need to understand that the word surrender is just a guidepost. After surrender, it also vanishes and thus becomes merger.
Hari Aum Tatsat.