Renouncement

Renouncement, though superficially mean the giving up of attachment to close relatives/friends and material things, it has greater depth, and is a very difficult state to attain. It also mean to give up the attachment to our achievements in academics, work life and the inherent calibre of multi-tasking, discipline, presence of mind, our skill sets that we have accumulated, over a period of time, starting from childhood. These achievements are intangible, unlike our material possessions or relatives around us, but have a greater grip on us. 

When we are given an opportunity to exhibit the talents we possess, we will not even give a thought about this. We will work, and then think in terms of Bhagavat Gita, "Do your duty and do not expect the reward", and keep going.

On the contrary, if we are put in a situation, where we are suppressed and have no platform to showcase our potential, then we feel very miserable and can actually feel the burden of the intellect. All the philosophy that we have understood through the intellect of ours fail to make us understand the situation, and we will be lost in self-pity, and get frustrated and raged over people who have misused us for their personal comfort. We will bang all the doors of opportunities, feel even wretched when those doors are shut, and we are actually treated like a beggar, asking for a chance to prove over and again. This intellectual burden has to be renounced to attain everlasting bliss and peace.

The only way to achieve this is think over and again the words of Sri Ramana Maharshi, as stated below.

"Intellect helps only in making one sink the intellect in the ego and the ego in the Self. After realization, all intellectual loads are thrown overboard as flotsam. Whose is the intellect? It is man’s. Intellect is only an instrument. To reach the Self it must vanish, must vanish.

Pride of learning and the desire for appreciation are condemned, not the learning itself. Education and learning which lead to the search for Truth and humility are good”

One has to ponder over these words again and again till such time one's intellect and ego are dissolved in the Self, which finally illumines itself in its fullest glory.

Pain

Oflate, I have been contemplating about pain and karma. I have always believed that we are born in this earthly physical plane to endure pain, as a resultant of our bad karma performed in this or many previous births. I do not want to forget any of the painful incidents happened to me in this life, both physical and mental. Because I beleive that pain is a strong reminder of the fact that this life is going to be nothing but suffering for the entire humanity who are evolving, and that we should put a full stop to this birth/death cycle in this physical plane as early as possible and move on to higher planes for evolution, where there would be no pain at all. So Pain, contemplated this way would act as a thrust to do our sadhana with diligence and tenacity. In this context, I remember Kunti Devi asking for more suffering as a boon from Lord Krishna so that she could remember Him more. Instead of asking for more and more pain, if we remember the Pain we had suffered already, it will speeden up our evolution.
On a different note, I consider Time as a powerful weapon of Maya, whose nature is to slow down the evolution. Because Time makes us to forget the pain we had undergone and make us be the same person as before, performing similar karmas thus slowing down our evolution. Inspite of Time being a helper of Maya, we can make use of the present Time to do our sadhana, to purify our thoughts and evolve sooner.
I am also clear that I am not fearful of Pain, because Fear is one of the greatest obstacles in realising God. But I simply feel that my soul is not worth undergoing pain in this world since I have known that in God's drama, there are greater blissful and joyful experiences for the soul!

Universal Love

It is a difficult task to shower unconditional /universal love upon people especially in today's hypocritic world. Now we have love which has expectations of our beloved ones, or it is limited love, personalised love, individual love. But a love which expects nothing of anybody else whatsoever, it loves all and everything in the universe, that is universal love. For a spiritual aspirant, this would be a main asset, helping him to shorten the path to reach the Goal manifold.
How to create Universal Love? The answer is "Love Him who loves all." So in some mysterious way, when we love Him who loves all, there seems to be a canalisation or a channelling of the love resources of the entire human potential, the human race, into one vessel, into one receptacle, which being totally unselfish, being totally concerned with the total universe as such is able to mobilise those accumulated resources for the welfare of all.
It was Kabir who said that the path of love is so narrow that only one can walk. Even two lovers cannot walk through it or walk on it. The inner meaning of the Saint's statement is "Carry the beloved in yourself". So, in that sense, loving perhaps means putting into your heart him or her whom you wish to love. Here it is the God. So we have to learn to love the
God in such a wonderful way that He becomes the occupant, the tenant of my inner self, my heart and eventually by loving Him to the exclusion of everything else, we forget to see anything else. We see only Him. Our entire existence becomes centered on Him. He now becomes, instead of the tenant of my heart, the Master of my heart. He takes over my existence and then we find this miracle that the qualities of His heart become the qualities of my heart, and then only the miracle happens that I have created love in my heart not by creating it in myself but by bringing love into my heart, as embodied in the Master. So the only true way of creating a sustained, sustaining, self-sustaining, ever pervasive love, which can transcend the barriers of even mortal existence and go with us to the hereafter, is to bring the source of love into our hearts.

Stagnation - Rooting out the cause

It is often conceived by many, that a phase of spiritual stagnation occurs when some of your personal/material life gets disturbed. This I have found out many a time in my own life. We get involved in the existing problem so much that we start thinking what is the use of meditation and other spiritual exercises when your immediate problem cannot be resolved. Though, people with enormous spiritual strength could contend this thought, many who are still novice in the path, start thinking in a dangerous way which will be hazardous for further evolution. At such circumstances, I would like to recommend to think in a particular way which will be beneficial to the aspirant. Just think about few practical points of life and just think where you are upto.
1. Most living beings on earth have problems at any given time though few consider superficially that they are happy/content. If any person is joyous/peaceful thoroughout his lifespan, then there will be no need for him to take birth in this world. SO WE ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE FACING PROBLEM IN LIFE. PROBLEMS ARE UNIVERSAL.
2. At the same time, it should be noted that it is in our hands that we can make this life our last birth on earth by being cheerful/peaceful at all times. As said in Bhagavad Gita, the state of mental stability (sthitha pragnya) can be acheived in this very life by thinking practical at all situations without giving place for emotions.
3. Hence, we should at all times, strive not to deviate from our path by thinking about the existing problems. Ofcourse, I do not mean that we should be irresponsible in dealing our problems, which might in turn cause harm to others. Yet, a balanced way of thinking and adhering firmly to the spiritual path will definitely bring enormous clarity in you (through divine help) to decide the solution of your existing problem.

Neutral thinking

I am interested in spirituality or the soul science, since ten years from now. I had been browsing a lot of books from different schools of thought, and could by this time arrive at a conclusion (though I could hear some one telling that this is a very short period to conclude..) that unless one realises by himself it is difficult to understand the essence of the Ultimate. So many books are there to throw light on the Reality and the ways to reach thereupon, but nothing is of help unless one finds it out by himself.
Most of the existing, popular religions tell us that there is one God. I hope all agree for the above mentioned fact. Keeping this in mind I would suggest that you consider the below mentioned facts as well.
Every body would have noticed that there are
a)Number of religion, castes, sects, sub sects, sub sub sects.
b)Religious leaders who are considered to be the Son of God (Jesus), incarnation of Shiv, Vishnu, Vayu, Agni, Indra, and others like Mahavir, Buddha, Chaitanya.
c)Innumerable miracles they performed to prove that they are the incarnation of the respective gods and also for increasing the faith of their followers.
d)Interestingly many philosophies came up from the messengers of the same God which are quite contrary to each other. For example, Vishistadvaita is expounded by Sri Ramanuja (believed to be an incarnation of the Shesh nag or the Serpent bed on which Vishnu sleeps)and Dvaita by Sri Madwacharya (beleived to be an incarnation of Vayu or the Wind god). Some religions suggest that God has all qualities (Satguna), some tell that God is without qualities (Nirguna), some conclude that God is Zero. Every theory has got its own proof and hence it is surviving the irrevocable effects of Time. So what is God? Not all beleivers of the above mentioned religions with contradictory thoughts about Gods are Fools.
So I think that one interested in exploring the Spiritual Sea should set asail oneself. I do not mean that one should come up with one's own philosophy adding to the existing very many!!! What I want to tell is, one should be free and independent to decide one path, which will suit his nature the most, (for ex: devotion, karma, Gyan, Raja yoga, Kriya yoga, mantra japa etc.. etc..)and regulate one's life to practise the method earnestly and meticulously in his daily life, devoting a sincere amount of time everyday in contemplation. Without this daily practise, no religion or method is of any help in bringing up the striving/starving soul. But with this daily practise, I strongly beleive that in due course of time, you will definetely get a Guru to guide you to your Goal knowing the nature of the method your soul requires.
As for me, I am an abhyasi of Sahaj Marg, which again emphasises the daily routine of meditation/cleaning/prayer. I am able to perceive things clearly now though I know that I have to go a long way through

For sincere seekers...

There are few who may be interested in spirituality in its real sense. According to them, the term spirituality means the intense longing of the soul to be united to the Supreme Cause of this universe and beyond. They are very clear between the two terms religion and spirituality. For such people, religion is a relatively insignificant term, which after following for a long time and may be for many lives cannot satisfy or feed enough, the severe longing of the soul. They beleive that religion is good upto a certain stage in the evolution of the soul, till they are able to discriminate what is the righteous mode of living. Once they are through with this basic way of conducting their life, they are not ready to make their soul stagnate at that state, depriving its evolution.
They want 1. something more to pursue in their daily life without renouncing their family and material life, 2. they need a spiritually evolved personality to lead them on to that path, 3. they like to meet and interact with spiritually inclined (like minded) people, which would enable them to follow the path and evolve with a greater pace.
For such sincere spiritual seekers, I would like to suggest a system called as Sahaj Marg (The Natural Path) also called as Sri Ram Chandra Mission. This system falls under the category of Raja Yoga system of Meditation, simplified for the modern man. This is a non-profit organization, spread throughout the world. Sahaj Marg does not see any differences between religion as they beleive firmly that spirituality begins where religion ends. They do not force you to change your existing religious practise, because they beleive that change within you should occur naturally without any force. This system is mainly for the Grihastas and so there is no need for renunciation of your beloved family, on the contrary they insist that you need to love your spouse, family and children in a balanced way.
To know more about Sahaj Marg, please visit, http://www.srcm.org/ and http://www.sahajmarg.org/. I have been practising this system for the past two and half years and could find it very efficient. I hope all sincere seekers will benefit by joining the mission and make your life more meaningful.

Duel over Dualism

Few people have shallow knowledge inspite of having extensive reading habits, whereas on the contrary few others possess true knowledge based on their intellectual depths and acumen. Being honest to my conscience, I fit myself in the first category and Anand in the second category.
I could conclude this only a few days back when Anand and myself had a duel over the trueness and genuinity of the philosophies Monism and Dualism. Though I am by birth a follower of Dualism (Madhwacharya), I was beleiving that the philosophy of Dualism was propagated as a part of Divine play, because many people who followed Monism (Advaita philosophy founded by Adi Sankaracharya) misinterpreted the core thought and became egoistic. To curb this, God sent Madwacharya on earth to propagate strongly the philosophy of Dualism which states that the God, Individual Soul and Matter are different from each other and that through true devotion to God only one can attain liberation. Also I was thinking that the Dualism philosophy is only for layman who is egoistic and thinks/boasts himself to be God by understanding Monism in the wrong sense
My thought that Monism is the true philosophy may be due to the very many books I have read, including many Ramakrishna/Vivekanands books, Sahaj marg (Sri Ram Chandra Mission) literature, Aurobindo and to top it, Vivekachudamani by Adi Sankara himself. Whereas, I have not read any books which deeply explains the Dvaita/Dualism philosophy.
Anand on the other hand, who had not given himself much reading, incidentally had gone through a few pages over net regarding the Dualism philosophy.
The controversy was whether after liberation, the individual soul will merge with the Supreme losing its identity or will the individual even afer attaining liberation still maintain its identity? Anand supported Dualism firmly and told the even after liberation, individuality of souls remain intact and are still servants of God, which I denied. I felt very bad that I could not convince him. Suddenly I remembered the Book AY (refer my previous post on Scientific Miracles..) where Chapter 43 explains the resurrection of Yukteshwar. I opened the chapter and searched for evidence to strengthen my viewpoint. But alas... Anand won the duel and to quote what exactly is given in the book, "When a soul finally gets out of the three jars of bodily delusions," Master continued, "it becomes one with the Infinite without any loss of individuality. Christ had won this final freedom even before he was born as Jesus". The phrase without loss of any individuality indicates strongly that the soul after becoming one with the infinite also (like a wavelet in a ocean) will maintain its individuality. It doesn't mean that these words are the sole authority for judging the toughest philosophies, yet at that point of time, the words from this neutral book, on which I beleive firmly has given me an answer, totally convincing me.
Further, Anand told me the following practical points. Chronologically speaking Dualism was expounded by Madwachar (13th century) at a later date when compared to Monism (10th century). While coming up with a new philosophy, Madwachar would have faced lots of trials and setbacks to assert the same, when he interpreted all the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Gita, etc, in support of Dualism. But as for Adi Sankara, it would have been relatively easier to just interpret the old works in the view of Monism. So I understood that the Dualism concept is not for layman but also for the highly educated lot.