9 September 2001, 08:30pm IST
A S Negi.
At some time or the other in our lives, we feel intrigued at the world we are living in. rightly or wrongly, some have called it a drama, play or leela of the divine. others have called it a dream. we wonder: is there anyone controlling it? obviously to most believers the answer `god' comes automatically. they have heard it repeated aeons of times by their parents or priests since childhood.this answer is only intellectual. so is the other name for it called `ultimate reality' or the ultimate depth. if so, what is its true nature? kathoupanishad puts it thus: "the ultimate reality cannot be known through speech or through eyes. who but the one who says `it is' can know it?" and that "it is" cannot be known through logic or words. it can only be known through silence. this silence does not reside in the mind -- the name of an evershifting process -- but in the heart. as such, any discussion about the ultimate reality is fruitless. why? because discussion involves using words. these words collide with the head or mind and rebound to the seeker or questioner. words can only perform one service: they can make the seeker aware of the need to be silent or wordless. after this the words are useless as far as the seeker is concerned. this probably was the reason why buddha would not answer questions on the existence or non-existence of the ultimate reality or god. he would simply ask the questioner to sit near him for two or three years in silence till it was total. and then ask any question. those who dared to do so found that when total silence engulfed them, all the questions they had vanished too. verily god or ultimate reality is beyond words. it is our very existence. the words have their origin in the mind, and mind has no relationship with the unknown. our mind -- call it a biocomputer -- is a record keeper of all that has happened to us in the past. therefore, whatever it thinks is nothing but repetition from its memory. only love can know the divine and its source is the heart, whereas mind is governed by logic or cause-effect, the heart has no such organised system. love, a feeling that suddenly leaps from the heart, follows no method, no technique, no mantra or incantation. so does prayer, that springs from the heart. both happen spontaneously. they cannot be learnt. as silence lies beyond the parameters in which words operate, the latter cannot express that which is known in silence. for words can only describe the known. the ultimate reality is unknowable to words. you cannot experience it unless you are flowing with trust. kathoupanishad says that to know the ultimate or divine "one must be rooted in the trust that `it is'. then one must allow this reality to become even more refined". unfortunately, trust is something that does not come easily to the modern man. his entire life is ruled by distrust and doubt. like a miserable person who sees everyone in his own reflection, the man of distrust sees snares and traps everywhere. thus, to believe in the existence of the divine or god is really hard for him. rather, it is easy for him to prove its non-existence. it is a fact that in any argument over the existence or non-existence of the ultimate reality, it is doubt and mistrust that will invariably win. no trusting person can ever defeat a doubter. for instance, the main argument about the existence of god is that there must be someone who has created the world. to this the doubter or atheist, has an argument to counter, "if everything must be created, then who has created god?" however, answer to this is to know the ultimate reality or god, one has to go beyond the mind or intellect and into the realm of the unknown. and to guide the seeker into this is his/her trust or heart only. kathoupanishad tells us how the divine can be attained, "when all the knots in the heart are completely united, the seeker will become immortal in his present body. this is the eternal teaching". what are these knots? our unfulfilled desires. they are blocking our energy from circulating in the tree of our lives. once these knots are untied, we become alive and pulsating with energy. then the heart blooms into a full-blown flower, spreading its fragrance all around. the seeker becomes immortal. of course, his physical body will perish at the time of death but the one who lives within will never die.
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