25 February 2002, 12:08am IST
ASHUTOSHJI MAHARAJ.
Neither the body nor the senses are real — these are only instruments of varied expressions and actions associated with the temporal world of atman, the divine self. it is on realising the atman that we become aware that we are essentially a fragmented part of the universal soul. the individual consciousness though infinite and one, is manifested in finitude of body and mind. the goal of human life is attaining oneness with the infinite. the moot question is, how can we go about achieving this union of individual soul with the supreme, how shall this take place? first, we have to get over the body-mind consciousness. it is this body-mind consciousness that makes our journey into the metaphysical world of ultimate reality well nigh impossible. until we go beyond this body-mind consciousness level, we will continue to search for meaning and fulfilment of life in the fickle realm of sensory experience. the ideal state is that state which is beyond sense-level perception, where all duality goes off. the pairs of opposites do not trouble us anymore. the attainment of this state calls for ‘outside help’ which comes from a wise seer who has himself attained the pinnacle of human perfection. he is one who has himself trodden this path with success. his individual consciousness has become one with universal consciousness. such a helper or guru alone is capable of putting us through the trans-sensuous experience of inherent divinity. the attainment of the highest goal of human life is possible only on being blessed with knowledge of the spirit, brahma vidya. lord krishna in human form in dwapar yuga called brahma vidya the ‘‘supreme secret’’. human beings alone are privileged to be conferred with the capacity to be able to perceive this knowledge. realisation, however, is not something to be acquired; it comes as a revelation of the supreme secret of god. it is essentially the manifestation of the inherent divinity of man. it is the saguna swarupa of the supreme brahman who alone is capable of unfolding it to the seeker. he equips us with the worship of the spirit by the spirit. the supreme knowledge consists of instant experience of divine light, cosmic vision, holy nectar, which are all present in plenty in the human body; as also the divine music which goes on incessantly in the human body and the echoes of the holy name — the primordial vibration or the divine energy chord within all. the venerated texts of vedanta have described god as divine light. as there is fire hidden in the wood and it can be produced only through a technique, in the same way, there is divine light — the energising force as atman within all which can be seen and known by all when blessed with the divine eye. we also need to know that holy name which is beyond any language. we should also learn the unique technique of listening to inner music which brings forth our divine attributes. it is holy nectar, amrit, akin to that which keeps a child alive in the womb of its mother. the caterpillar gets entangled in its self-woven cocoon. man too is caught in the clutches of his desires. just as the caterpillar develops into a butterfly bursting the cocoon to enjoy freedom, man too can get across the mesh of illusion by using the wings of viveka or power to discriminate and vairagya or disenchantment. a spiritual master imparts both viveka and vairagya without distinction of caste, creed or colour, even transcending physical barriers. he will not embroil you in oft-quoted different paths leading to the supreme spirit. he would rather teach the synthesis of all spiritual paths in a comprehensive spirituality as elucidated in the bhagavad gita and the upanishads. equipped with this spirituality, a man lives oblivious of body and mind consciousness and the associated vasanas. his individual consciousness with name and form merges into the ocean of universal consciousness.
(as told to s k vasudeva, divya jyoti jagrati sansthan)
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