Prathiba - Sahaja - Samarasa - 1

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Prathiba - Sahaja - Samarasa

 

Dear friends. I had used the terms Prathiba, Sahaja and Samarasa in

my last message. I thought it might be of interest to some of you to

know the meaning of these terms.

 

Excerpts from the article by Dadaji which appeared in Values

magazine in the 1970s.

 

There are three Sanskrit words which form much of the essential

structure upon which realisation and liberation depend. They were

much used by Dattatreya and constantly repeated in the Tantrik or non-

Vedic Agamas. Oddly enough, they are rarely used in Hindu life

today, though they exist as words in most Indian dialects. None of

the 3 can be easily translated into a single English word, but

fortunately the language is rich enough to convey the meanings with

even greater intensity.

 

The three words are pratibha, sahaja and samarasa. Each must be

explained separately, perhaps developed in the future. They not only

have a unique beauty and charm of their own, but they also represent

three great stepping-stones to the Absolute Reality.

Pratibha It means vision, insight, intuition, inner understanding,

unconditioned knowledge, inner wisdom, awareness, awakening. In Zen

they use the word satori. It should not be confused with

enlightenment or realisation. Patanjali in his wonderful theoretical

textbook of varied yoga practices known as the Yoga Aphorisms or

Sutras, sees pratibha as the spiritual illumination which is attained

through yoga discipline to enable the disciple to know all else.

It is then the insight or illumination which is the open gateway to

the final goal. It is the inner transformation which enables the

aspirant to distinguish Reality from the sham. In some way it can be

visualised as a bridge between the mind and the Real Self. It

produces changed people and clarity of thinking as well as being an

infallible guide in all undertakings. Some few people are born with

it, but seldom to more than a small degree.

 

Even this can eventually be obscured by social life and its

conditioning. It cannot thrive in a world where we permit others to

do our thinking for us. The more it is used, the more it increases in

intensity. Pratibha is not related to careful thought or

deliberation. It is instant in operation and spontaneous in

manifestation. For the average Zen student this was regarded as a

sufficient attainment. Only those who seek Buddhahood and

Enlightenment go further. But this is also a stage which, if once

reached, requires no further guidance from a guru or master.

Sometimes it is even spoken of as pratibha-shakti -- the power of

illumination. It is most easily developed by meditation or

contemplation, and is independent of all religious patterns.

Pratibha is not even exclusively a spiritual concept. Those who have

developed this faculty are more likely to succeed in the material

world than the others. Modern Japan claims that most of the big names

in industry and commerce today were once successful Zen students.

Datta uses the word frequently in the Avadhuta Gita to show that the

difficult ideas and the puzzles not easy to understand are cleared

away instantly for that disciple who has developed the inner faculty

of insight-illumination known as Pratibha.

 

Pratibha is the real Divya Chaksus -- the Third Eye which has so much

captivated the mystical aspirations of the West. It is not really

an "eye" so much as a miraculous vision or knowledge capable of

plucking the gems of mystery and wisdom from the immaculate universe.

It is the Philosophers Stone which has the divine power to transmute

the sordid world of base lead into a golden mass of wonder and

harmony. But only when you really want it can you get it.

Sahaja When we review the vast procession of naked, ragged and

unkempt dropouts who illuminated the dreary passages of history to

leave wisdom on which lesser minds could ponder, have we not cause

for great wonder? What is it that made these men so different from

the men of the mass- produced, vulgar rabble who populate the earth?

The answer is that the former had Sahaja.

 

Man is born with an instinct for naturalness. He has never forgotten

the days of his primordial perfection except inasmuch as the memory

becomes buried under the artificial superstructures of civilisation

and its artificial concepts. Sahaja means natural. It not only

implies natural on physical and spiritual levels, but on the mystic

level of the miraculous. It means that easy or natural state of

living without planning, design, contriving, seeking, wanting,

striving or intention.

 

What is to come must come of itself. It is the seed which falls to

the ground, becomes seedling, sapling and then a vast shady tree of

which the Pipal or Ashvattha is a classical example and used in

wisdom teaching. The tree grows according to Sahaja, natural and

spontaneous in complete conformity with the Natural Law of the

Universe. Nobody tells it what to do and how to grow. It has no

svadharma or rules, duties and obligations incurred by birth. It has

only svabhava, its own inborn self or essence to guide it.

 

Sahaja is that nature which, when once established, brings the state

of absolute freedom and peace. It is when you are in your natural

state, in the harmony of the Cosmos. It is the balanced reality

between the pairs of opposites. As the Guru of the Bhagavad Gita

says: "The person who has conquered the baser self and has reached to

the level of self mastery: he is at peace, whether it be in cold or

hot, pleasure or pain, honoured or dishonoured." Thus sahaja

expresses one who has reverted to his natural state, free from

conditioning. It typifies the outlook which belongs to the natural,

spontaneous and uninhibited man, free from innate or inherited

defects.

 

In all the Golden Dharmas sahaja flourishes. In Taoism it was the

highest virtue (re). In the earlier Zen records it is the main plank

of training along which the disciples had to walk. The masters

demanded answers which were sahaja and not the product of

intellectual thinking or reason. The truth only came spontaneously.

Sahaja in Chinese became tzu-jan or Self-so ness. Taoism openly

lamented the loss of the peculiar naturalness and unselfconsciousness

of the child. Lao Tzu saw that Confucian ethics (which have their

counterpart in the modern world) crushed the original natural

loveliness of the child into the rigid patterns of its conventions.

 

Continued