Jump to content
IndiaDivine.org

Are You a Spiritual Seeker? By Sri N. Ananthanarayanan

Rate this topic


Guest guest

Recommended Posts

Dear Members,

 

A certain Sannyasin (renunciate) friend of mine

narrated to me a very interesting story. This Swamiji,

before he retired from service and took Sannyasa, was

known as Mr. Rao and was in the army where his job was

to train typists. This was in the pre-Independence

days when India was ruled by the British. One of the

students in Mr. Rao's class was a young Englishman

named Thomas who continued to type badly despite all

possible coaching. One day Mr. Rao got tired of him

and asked him a straight question: " Mr. Thomas! You

have been in my class for so long. And I have also

tried to help you out as much as I could. Please tell

me, how is it you still continue to make the same old

mistakes? " . To that Mr. Thomas answered: “Mr. Rao, the

first mistake I made was to be born in this world. All

other mistakes followed in natural sequence " .

 

I shall never forget that incisive remark of Thomas as

faithfully recapitulated to me by my dear Swamiji

friend. Our plight in the world is because we are born

into it. What is this world, after all? just a trap

set by Maya to capture the Jivas (individual souls) in

its net and keep them away from God. So, being born

into this world means the same thing as being caught

in Maya's trap.

 

And for a trapped person, can there be any happiness?

In a remarkable sentence, so reminiscent of the Gita

description of worldly life, Thomas Hardy describes

life in this world. Says the great English novelist,

" Life is an onion. Weep as you peel it " . How true!

From birth to death, it is struggle, struggle, and

struggle all along. For some in this world, it is a

struggle for very existence. For others, it is a

struggle for money or a woman or a position. Some

exercise to reduce weight, others strive to put it on.

Some spend ten years and twenty years running from

pillar to post pining for a child. Others weep unable

to support their children. People are distracted all

the time. To a wise man, this whole world presents the

spectacle of a lunatic asylum, where all men are in a

very real sense, psychiatric cases. The vision of no

man is perfect. The only exceptions are the

God-realized sages whose wisdom is absolute.

 

Among this suffering, distracted humanity, there are

people whose pride will not let them admit that they

are suffering. It is difficult to deal with this lot.

 

There is a second group of people whose members

believe that their suffering can be mitigated or

removed, not by spiritual solutions, but by worldly

solutions. There are two categories in this second

group. In the first category, are the hungry millions

of this world? They want food for their hunger, a job

for their unemployment, a house for their shelter less

existence. They are not interested (in their state,

they cannot be interested) in the religious preacher

who promises them a golden future by declaring,

" You'll have pie, by and by, when you die " . The

starving masses want food to live, not food after they

die. And they are right. Religion cannot be fed to

hungry stomachs.

 

In the second category of the second group are the

rich materialists who, despite all their wealth and

women and power and position, have their own " rich

man's problems and diseases " , but who, in their

ignorance, are unwilling to admit religion and

spirituality as a way out for their vexations. They

are the people who are neck-deep in the worldly mire

and only time and repeated suffering can open their

eye of wisdom.

 

The third or the last group of people are those who

are above physical want, and besides, are convinced

that a lasting solution to all their problems can be

found only through spiritual endeavor. They have seen

enough of worldly life to realize that worldly

solutions are but piecemeal solutions and cannot solve

all problems that vex the human mind and for all time.

They understand that there is no end to problems in

this world, and that these problems change color and

complexion like the proverbial chameleon. These are

the people who have tried all the tricks in their bag

to secure unalloyed happiness in this world and

ultimately failed. They have come to realize the

deceptive attractiveness of the worldly objects. They

have experimented and found for themselves that a

change of place or circumstance or environment in this

world does not produce a lasting change for the

better, but only resembles a change from the frying

pan to the fire. Every thing and every place is

fraught with misery. Every worldly experience is

conditioned by suffering and exertion. It is for these

people who have realized the futility of worldly

exertion, who, have understood the real nature of the

world as a school of suffering, that sadhana

(spiritual practice) is prescribed, that spiritual

life is advocated. These are the people who are

qualified to become students of the school of

spirituality. They are the Sadhaks or the spiritual

seekers or the spiritual aspirants proper.

 

A spiritual aspirant is one who feels himself in a

state of bondage. He experiences a sense of

suffocation, of stiffing, of impatience with Samsara

(worldly life), a feeling of “I am fed up " . Generally,

a person who says " I am fed up with life " or " I can't

cope up " does not feel fed up with everything. What he

feels fed up with are certain bad situations in which

he may be placed in life; his mind is full of desires

and he would like to enjoy all the world if he can.

That is not enough for a spiritual aspirant. He must

get fed up with everything in Samsara.

 

A true Sadhak is thus one who tries to free himself

from worldly bondage. He exerts to detach himself from

the world and attach himself to God or the Spirit. He

constantly struggles to undo the " first mistake " . He

wants to become Spirit-bound. Whereas, a worldly man

is one who is still mind-bound, sense-bound,

world-bound. That is the essential difference between

a Sadhak and a worldly person.

 

In these days of materialism when selfishness has

became the fashion of the day, when the go-getter who

is willing to sacrifice others' interests to serve his

own is considered the model to copy, when every person

and thing and circumstance is looked at and weighed in

the mental balance to judge its utility to serve one's

own ends and purposes is prone to look at God and

saints also as multipurpose tools. What is God’s

utility to me? How can the saint help me? That is the

question. Can your God help me to achieve my desires?

Can your saint help me to fulfill my ambitions? If so,

hats off to your God and to your saint. Otherwise, I

want neither your God nor your saint. That is the

attitude of many people.

 

What is the utilitarian value of God? Can He help me

to pass my examination with distinction? Can He help

me to win my court-case over the disputed land? Can He

bless me with a son? Can He cure my disease declared

incurable by the doctors? Can He destroy my enemies?

" My bank wants me to go on a transfer to Bombay . I

like, Delhi and want to stay here itself. " Cannot your

God fulfill this small desire of mine? Cannot your

saint's blessings bring this about? These and a myriad

other selfish expectations are sought to be realized

by people through resort to God and saints.

 

God will be no God if He does not answer the sincere

prayers of devotees. So He blesses people with the

fulfillment of their desires. He answers their prayers

provided they pray with sincerity and faith. People

who say that their prayers are not answered are people

who do not have much of a faith in God and who pray

just like that on the off chance that He might after

all help. By and large, the majority of devotees

belong to this category only. They pray with a selfish

motive. Materialism is their creed. Worldly success is

their goal. They are not interested in the theory of

rebirth or in the other world or in spiritual

salvation. To the extent that God can help them in

their material ambitious, well and good. These are the

people who, when they get into trouble, when they are

faced with difficulties which they find themselves

unable to tackle with their own wit, turn to God out

of sheer despair and helplessness. These are the

people who, though not normally given to visiting

temples and doing worship, will one day suddenly clean

the Puja room and light lamps and buy flower-garlands

to decorate the Deity. Once their prayers are

answered, the lights in the Puja room will go out, and

in the place of flower-garlands, cobwebs will gather.

God will then go out of their mind. Like putting a car

back in the garage after use, they relegate God to the

background once He has done His work for them and they

need Him no more.

 

But then, in matters like this, there can be no

generalization. There are people who develop a real

and lasting faith in God after once experiencing his

saving grace in a time of crisis. The crisis in

personal life and consequent helplessness turn their

mind, for the first time maybe, towards God and

religion, and once they experience God's grace their

initial half- hearted approach to God turns into

living faith.

 

People who turn to God and spirituality for the sake

of God and spirituality form or constitute a

microscopic minority among devotees. But they are

there. They have seen the world, understood the utter

worthlessness of life on the earth-plane, realized its

transience, realized its miseries and want to get out

of it all. They have heard it said that abiding peace

can be had only in God and they desire to know how to

reach Him. They are the spiritual seekers proper. They

seek the Spirit. The attraction for matter, for the

world, has died in their mind, albeit temporarily.

 

Regards

 

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

---------------------

If you have any questions or doubts concerning

Spirituality, Mental peace or problems in life or

about dharma, please write to us by clicking here:

http://www.namadwaar.org/answers/askquestion.php

 

His Holiness Sri Sri Swamiji personally answers these

questions for you and suggests prayers.

---------------------

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...