The Spiritual Battle

Spiritual seekers (sadhaks) are brothers and sisters in arms in the battle of life. They come together in satsang (spiritual company), and their very company acts as an invisible buffer against the downward forces that drown the masses. Any time there is a gathering of sadhaks, have no doubt that they are joined by the unseen ascended Yogis. Even when one practices in solitude, they are also present unseen to guide and encourage the seeker – there is no doubt about this. They are aware of the difficulties of navigating out of this world and bestow their grace and blessings.

Time is Short

How many more days we will have left to practice? Death often comes with no warning at all.

” Any person can expire at any time.”

Parahmahamsa Hariharananda

The yogi is the brave hero who chooses to face this now rather than later. When through his deepening experience of the bodiless state he reaches, via spiritual practice, the state in which he is dead while living (jivanmukta), then when the time comes for the body to drop away, it is like nothing at all – for he has already come to perceive himself as Spirit.

And fear is one of the main reasons why we do not take to the spiritual path in the first place – we are afraid to transcend the mortal coil in meditation. We are like the bird who has become so accustomed to its cage that he is hesitant to fly free even when the door has been opened.

Yet fear is not the only restraint that restricts us from our flight – our attachments and desires are also a great weight…

Lightening Our Load

How does the hot air balloon ascend in flight? It begins with so many sand bags, but in order to go higher, it must begin to release more and more bags. The more bags are released, the higher it is able to ascend. So it is with our desires and attachments which serve as the weight that keeps us earthbound. If we destroy them, realizing that they only result in pain, then we lighten our load, so to speak.

In the same way that one who sees clearly will not chase after a desert mirage, knowing it to be unreal, the wise sage does not chase after worldly objects.

“O Raghava, abandon all desires inwardly, be free from attachments and latent impressions, do everything outwardly and thus play your part in the world.”

“O Raghava, adopt a comprehensive view, characterised by the abandonment of all objects of contemplation, live in your innate Self, liberated even while alive (jivan-mukta), and thus play your part in the world.”

“Eliminate one concept by another and the mind by the mind and abide in the Self. Is this so difficult, O holy man?”

-Vasistha (Vasistha Sara, 7:2, 3, 10)

But how do we rid ourselves of the weight of our attachments when they are so strong?

Sages such as Vasistha instructed that viveka and vairagya (discrimination and dispassion) are the means. Discrimination is keeping the mind focused on the truth that the Self alone is real – all else is fleeting, transistory, a passing dream.

Vairagya will also result if we remain fixed on the above contemplation, and if we duly reflect on the short-lived nature of sense pleasures. If the mind stubbornly remains filled with thoughts of the world, it will continue to appear as a solid reality and Self-realization will not dawn…

“Why do people not visualize the atma? (perceive the Self) It is because the mind of the being is so pre-occupied with its false images that it is busy in collecting them. If he mangages to get them, he is overjoyed, but if he is unsuccessful in his efforts then he gets heart-broken. Whatever the case may be, the truth is, that it is not the truth, but, alas! at that time the capability of understanding the reality is not there. Therefore the mind keeps swinging from branch to branch or happiness to unhappiness and the being cannot get peace unless he rids himself of his illusive imaginations.”

Spiritual Gita Bhupendranath Sanyal

XIII, 10

There is no unmixed happiness in life, yet the mind vainly and stubbornly ignores this fact, holding out hope that it is possible. Duality is part and parcel of relative existence. The only way to permanent happiness is Self-realization (the “Kingdom of Heaven” referred to in the Bible). Until then, happiness and unhappiness, pleasure and pain, etc. will continue changing hands – and this continuing oscillation is in itself suffering. Yet when the joy of the Self is reached one becomes like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s sailor who, after much toil and effort, is at last successful in erecting the mast and can sit back, light a smoke, and enjoy the ride. He continues to function in the world and to others looks like a normal man, but they cannot comprehend his divine Joy…

“These saints of the paravastha – after their achievement of the same are not totally cut out from worldly acts, but since they have subjugated all worldly desires, nature cannot bring them down from their high post. They are out of this world in the paravastha or advanced stage or kriya, where rajoguna or tamoguna cannot even approach them.”

Spiritual Gita Bhupendranath Sanyal

XIV, 22

Body is a Sinking Ship

The sages and saints who have found the life vest of God have taught this truth in many ways through the ages, all expressing the same fact – God is the only constant, and all else is but a passing dream. This is why the wise sadhaks, the spiritual seekers of clear vision, toil and labor for God alone. The financial investor works extremely hard, seeking to build capital, as if material wealth, even if he is able to get it, will grant him eternal life. Yet if, owing to his prarabdha karma, ill health or death is his destiny at a given time, no amount of wealth will be of any use. Remember the words of Lord Christ – “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36) Also, Sri Shankara wrote that life is ever as unstable “as a water droplet on a leaf.” We should keep this ever in mind and know that true wealth lies with God alone. We should fight on with faith and courage. The true yogi must be a warrior. It is not by accident that the setting of the Bhagavad Gita is a battlefield.

Despite life’s uncertainty and instability the yogi, knowing the Self to be indestructible, should have no fear:

“Without the sea there are no waves. Without waves, the sea still exists. When the wave of an individual body and personality perishes, the soul remains. The soul is immortal; the wise do not lament for the dead. Seek your immortality.”

The Bhagavad Gita in the Light of Kriya Yoga, II:12 Paramahamsa Hariharananda

Please Lord, lift up, protect, and guide all seekers of Truth. Watch over us and guide us in our journey. Enable us, through your grace, to emerge victorious in the battle of life.

OM

Mind

Life experience is nothing but mind, and bondage or liberation are also based upon mind only.  When the mind, which is nothing but thoughts, is in motion (“I am this or that”), then the experience of the world comes into being.  When the mind ceases/is renounced, only the Self exists.

In reality, there is never anything but the Self alone.  In the same way that one who dreams experiences himself as someone else, yet upon awakening realizes that he is as he always was, the Self is all that exists – whether the mind/thoughts appear or not.  If the self is visualized as the limitless untainted expanse of sky and thoughts as nothing but clouds – consider the truth that the sky remains ever untouched and undisturbed whether or not there are clouds.  Only one’s vision is obscured.  On close examination, one will see that one’s experience is wholly dependent upon thoughts – and the nature of one’s thoughts determines the nature of one’s experience.

Day and night, birth and death, bondage and liberation are notions only.  Sage Vasistha in Vasistharamanyana advises Rama that it is best not to even think of “the world” at all – that one should consider it fiction.  He teaches that one way to liberation is to think of the world as nothing but a dream – to remain in this meditation at all times.  Doing so enables us to transcend all sorrows.

Radiations from the Realized

Ramana Maharshi:

A realized one sends out waves of spiritual influence in his aura, which draw many people towards him.  Yet he may sit in a cave and maintain complete silence.

Meditation depends upon the strength of mind. It must be unceasing even when one is engaged in work.  Particular time for it is meant for novices.

Realization is our true nature.  It is nothing new to be gained.  What is new cannot be eternal.  Therefore there is no need to be doubting whether we would gain or lose the self.

Bliss is not something to be got. 

On the other hand, you are always Bliss.

This desire (for Bliss) is born of the sense of incompleteness.

To whom is this sense of incompleteness?

Enquire.  In deep sleep you were blissful.

Now you are not so.

What has interposed between that Bliss and this non-bliss?

It is the ego.

Seek its source and find you are Bliss.

Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world

Question :  How can the terrible fear of death be overcome?

Ramana Maharshi :  When does that fear seize you?  Does it come when you do not see your body, say, in dreamless sleep?  It haunts you only when you are fully `awake’ and perceive the world, including your body.  If you do not see these and remain your pure Self, as in dreamless sleep, no fear can touch you.  If you trace this fear to the object, the loss of which gives rise to it, you will find that that object is not the body, but the mind which functions in it.  Many a man would be only too glad to be rid of his diseased body and all the problems and inconvenience it creates for him if continued awareness were vouchsafed to him.  It is the awareness, the consciousness, and not the body, he fears to lose.  Men love existence because it is eternal awareness, which is their own Self.  Why not then hold on to the pure awareness right now, while in the body, and be free from all fear?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Time is in the mind, space is in the mind.  The law of cause and effect is also a way of thinking. In reality all is here and now and all is one.  Multiplicity and diversity are in the mind only.

A quiet mind is all you need.  All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet.  As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind.  In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without effort on your part.

Do understand that you are destined for enlightenment.  Co-operate with your destiny, dont go against it, dont thwart it.  Allow it to fulfil itself.  All you have to do is to give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind.

When you are no longer attached to anything, you have done your share.  The rest will be done for you. 

Treating everything as a dream liberates.

Give up all ideas about yourself and simply be.

You are like the man in the cinema house, laughing and crying with the picture, though knowing fully well that he is all the time in his seat and the picture is but the play of light.  It is enough to shift attention from the screen to oneself to break the spell…without waiting for the death of the body – it is enough to shift attention to the Self and keep it there.  All happens as if there is a mysterious power that creates and moves everything.  Realise that you are not the mover, only the observer, and you will be at peace.

This attitude of silent observation is the very foundation of yoga.  You see the picture, but you are not the picture.

                 

Yogi Vasistha:

When pots, etc. are broken the space within

them becomes unlimited.  So also when bodies cease to

exist the Self remains eternal and unattached.

Nothing whatever is born or dies anywhere at any

time.  It is Brahman alone appearing illusorily in the form of

the world.

The Self is more extensive than space; it is pure,

subtle, undecaying and auspicious.  As such how could it

be born and how can it die?

All this is the tranquil, One without beginning,

middle or end, which cannot be said to be existent or

non-existent.  Know this and be happy