Part 4

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SPIRITUAL BLISS

 

The spiritual aspirant is absorbed in his spiritual experiments and

experiences, and the journey continues. One already has the

experience of the world through his senses, hence he tries, as far as

possible, to depend only on himself, he tries to gauge the extent to

which he can go with the minimum of help from others and eschews the

use of many things in the world. In due course, the aspirant is sure

to win peace; nothing is wanting, he has enough and to spare. He is

satisfied and his behavior reveals it. He expects nothing from those

with whom he deals. Is expecting material returns from others any

different from begging? If it is true that he has attained to

happiness beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, why should he expect

a beggarly share from material gains? If he has in his possession the

blissful spring of eternal life, why should he ask a price from his

dealings with others? It is impossible that one who has realized his

Self should rely on others; on the contrary, he feeds others on

spiritual food with absolute ease.

As the happiness of the people increases, they begin to love him with

greater sincerity, they know his importance in their lives. Just as

they acquire and store food, so too they take care of one who has

attained the position of eternal peace, identity with the universal

spirit, perfection. Yet some people get to know some occult processes

from great Saints and practice them, enabling them to acquire certain

occult powers and they are misled into thinking they have what they

have been striving for, and style themselves as Raja yogins, and

engage in the avid pursuit of material pleasures; but one who has

tasted the pure bliss of eternal life in Brahman is forever

satisfied, the perfect soul does not desire worldly honors.

It is impossible that the spiritually perfect soul should ever desire

to be called the preceptor or to make others bow down before him or

to expect all to honor his word in every respect. One who gets the

highest kind of happiness from his life source has no interest in

material happiness. That is spiritual happiness which makes everyone

happy. These are the external qualities characterizing the

enlightened satyagrahin (seeker of truth).

 

THE TENDER HEART OF THE SAINT

 

The heart of a mother is full of tenderness, but it is limited to her

child only; but the heart of the Saint is all inclusive, it knows the

how and whence of the origin of each one and the vicissitudes they

have to go through.

The Saint is full of spiritual knowledge and pacific repose, there is

nothing wanting. He practices his sadhana in such a way as not to be

discovered by others; he has no use for the external marks of

saintliness, he dresses in keeping with the time and climate.

Being in touch with the atom, the first cause of the universe, he

knows its nature quite well. Blossoming forth is the very nature of

the core of this atom, hence changes and differentiation are bound to

be there. Knowing this well, the Saint is neither elated by pleasing

events nor depressed by the opposite ones.

He has gauged the depth of the knowledge of the common man. He knows

its nature from beginning to end. He knows the how and the why of the

mentality, also the worthlessness of its achievements and failures.

The needs of the body prompt the creature to acquire means of

sustenance, but the greed for these makes the creature pursue them to

the point of uselessness, and all of this without the least idea of

what awaits the life in future. What the creature deems essential and

strives to acquire, the Saint knows to be sheer trash.

The Saint is never a victim of passions. Life is a mixture of

passions and emotions; Atman, the origin of passions and emotions, is

the very core of the Saint's vision, the nature of which he is

thoroughly acquainted. He knows its activities and varieties of

manifestation, as well as their consequences. The life principle is

the principle of feelings, passions, emotions. Desires and passions

engendered in this principle are just emotive experiences, they have

nothing of substance in them; yet the poor creature thinks them to be

of great significance in his life, embraces the basically worthless

desires, indulges in sense enjoyment, and runs after them helplessly.

The mother, with sincerity but in ignorance, feeds the roots of

misery, while the Saint, with the same intensity, weeds them out. The

Saint knows what the welfare of the people lies in much better than

does the mother of her child. That is why the heart of the Saint is

said to be kind.

 

DEVOTION TO BALAKRISHNA

AND HIS CARE

 

During the process of Bhakta, Bhajan, and renunciation, the

experience of the immensity of God is on the increase, but as the

vision becomes more frequent, it gets narrower day by day. Here

vision and knowledge are identical. In whatever name and form God is

propitiated, that name and form he presents himself in. The various

forms and names are woven into prayers and hymns and are sung by the

common man.

The devotee by his firm determination, and God by his fascination for

devotion, are attracted to each other and the moment they come face

to face they merge; the devotee loses his phenomenal consciousness

automatically, and when it returns he finds that he has lost his

identity, lost into that of God and can never be separated again; God

everywhere and no separate identity.

The creator, enjoyer, and destroyer of all names and forms, the

controller of all powers, is revealed now; this is God, the Self,

Self-luminous, Self-inspired, and Self-conscient. Here is where the

primal gunas originate. Though atomic in character, he has in him the

absolute power to do what he wills, in accordance with the emotive

character of the gunas, and to take any form. This is the atomic

center, atomic energy, the first and final cause of the universe.

The God of Gods, the soul of the movable and immovable, the all-

pervasive, qualified Brahman, the beloved of the Bhaktas, the ocean

of love and devotion is born here. This is Adinarayana, residing in

the hearts of the devotees; the Saints call him Balakrishna (Baby

Krishna), for in the beginning he is seen to be the atom of atoms. By

nature, he is innocence incarnate. He is easily moved by emotions and

becomes many (immense), in accordance with the direction taken by the

emotions. The nature of the expansion is determined by the excess of

one or another of the three gunas. He manifests himself through each

of the three gunas at different times in a non-partisan spirit. As

the Saints are closely acquainted with him, they know what guna he

would induce at any given moment and what the consequences would be,

and hence they dissuade him from the excess of his nature. Excess of

growth in any guna is dangerous. Satva guna is absolutely good, yet

even that is harmful when hypertrophied; Rajas is restless and

overbearing, while Tamas is blind and arrogant. Knowing this well,

the wise man keeps his soul away from the effects of the gunas, hence

the energy of the soul remains undiminished and develops in the right

direction.

Satisfying various desires increases the taste for them, and the

thirst for enjoyment slowly decreases the power of the soul in

imperceptible degrees, but when, setting aside the temptation of the

gunas, the devotee finds his pure soul, he fondly takes to its

rearing with love and sincerity; only when the devotion is successful

is the Atman realized. He is seen as a child at the dawn of victory,

hence he is called the child of victory.

The Bhakta is alert not to allow it to be polluted by the craving for

sensuous pleasures; the firmer it is in its nature, the greater

becomes the power and strength of the soul, hence the Saints do not

allow it to lose its steadiness. The crux of rearing it lies in

keeping it firm, undeflected by the presence of the gunas. If the

spiritual gain of the soul be eclipsed by sensuous desires, it is

shaken to its very roots. It is difficult to keep the gunas at rest,

that is why the Saints advise stabilizing in Self-knowledge.

 

SELF KNOWLEDGE AND

SELF REALIZATION

 

Those who have realized and stabilized in Self-knowledge are those

whose glory is sung from time immemorial; it is their names that form

the basis of divine meditation. Sri Krishna, Sri Vishnu, and Sri Rama

are some of the innumerable names given to God; originally, these

were the names given to the human form, but they became Self-realized

and came to know the root cause of all experience. Those who came to

possess this knowledge of the Self and kept it pure and secure are

known to be Gods and Saints, while those who utilized it for the sake

of sense enjoyment are called devils and Ravanas. The highest and

rarest gain is difficult of achievement, but, if achieved, it is

superlatively beneficent, and if not properly cared for, is equally

harmful. One who does not get excited by the possession of spiritual

knowledge of the root cause can, with love and devotion, cultivate

and brighten it. Devotion and prayer and renunciation are firmly

established in him, he is always free from desires, and wherever he

is the aura of peace and happiness is about him; the auriole shown

about the heads of great Saints is a pictorial representation of this

fact. Whoever approaches him gets an unsolicited touch of the divine

bliss. The Saint never acts as an individual, all his actions are the

expression of the divine Lila.

 

(continued)