13 July 2001, 01:13am IST
By S K VASUDEVA.
The divine power regularly comes down to the earthly plane to raise it to a higher status. the purpose of divine descent is to inaugurate a new world (yuga), re-establish eternal religion and strike at the formalistic and ritualistic part of religion which invariably detaches people from ultimate reality and perpetuates ignorance of the people. the descent of the divine into the human world discloses the condition of being to which human souls should rise. the birth of the birthless means the revelation of the mystery in the soul of man. in the gita, lord krishna tells arjuna: "in the beginning of this universe, i proclaimed this imperishable yoga to vaivasvan, vaivasvan conveyed it to manu,and manu imparted it to his son iksvaku."the sungod (vaivasvan), manu and other personages through whom this yoga (brahmjnana) has been handed down to posterity were all householders. the lord further declared that he was not stating any new doctrine but was only restoring the old tradition, the eternal verity handed down from master to pupil. the teaching is a renewal, a discovery, a restoration of knowledge long forgotten. the lord unveiled the supreme secret to arjuna to reawaken and rekindle his faith and illumine his ignorance. he was also told by krishna that spiritual teachers would descend to renovate the faith for the welfare of the humanity. the off-quoted different paths converge into the ancient yoga - brahmavidya. it is only on receiving supreme knowledge that all your actions become worship and true bhakti starts. one learns the art of consecrating all one's actions to him. then only our karmas do not bind anymore. during every incarnation and manifestation of the lord on earthly plane in human garb, the ancient yoga imparted to the disciples has remained the same in its essence. the outward behaviour of avatars was different; the connotation and etymology used for the ancient yoga by the mahapurushas differed for linguistic, geographical and contextual reasons. the essence, spirit and the methodology of the imparting this jnana has never changed. in all the nomenclatures used, there has been perfect similarity and commonness of essential constituents making up the ancient yoga which leads the seeker of truth to self-realisation and god- realisation within this human body. in the process, the spiritual teacher bestows on his disciple the inward eye i.e. gnana chaksu. the two physical eyes do not enable man to see metaphysical form of god as these are meant and restricted to see the maya ridden physical world of objects. dr s radhakrishnan in his commentary on the gita said, "all great teachers like gautama buddha, mahavira, sankaracharya and ramanuja were content to affirm that they are only restating the teaching of their former masters". likewise guru nanak and kabir, disciples of swami ramananda, only restated the ancient yoga. the teachers of the science of spirituality capable of making anybody realise god within by a mere touch or wish do not lay claim to originality but only affirm that they are expounding the ancient truth. the ancient yoga, which they preach and expound is, in fact, the eternal religion, sanatana dharma. they inspire people to rise above karmakandas. on gautama buddha's teachings, milindapanha said, "it was an ancient yoga that had been lost and has been opened up again by bhagwan buddha". st. augustine said that "this ancient knowledge was not made, but is at present as it has ever been and so shall ever be". the lord assumes embodiment through his own free will and divine potency. thus, whenever righteousness wanes and unrighteousness is on the ascendant, when all pervasive materialism invades the hearts of human souls, an answering manifestation of wisdom and righteousness to preserve equilibrium becomes essential. the supreme brahman though unborn and undying, becomes manifest in human embodiment for extirpation of the forces of ignorance and selfishness. "revelation of the supreme secret of god is never closed so long as the human heart is receptive and exhibits qualities of devotion and love. revelation is not an event of the past but one which continues today. it is not the privilege of a few but is an experience open to all" says shri ashutoshji maharaj, a perfect spiritual master of our time.
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