The path of the Lord is for the Courageous 

One of our senior colleagues once said, ‘hare ko harinam’. He believes that the path of spirituality is for the losers or for the olds. At young age, one should use the life and energy for the material world. 

Hindi Poet Randhari Singh Dinkar, in his poem ‘Hare ko Harinam’ prays for the bravery : राम, तुम्हारा नाम कण्ठ में रहे; हृदय, जो कुछ भेजो, वह सहे; दु:ख से त्राण नहीं मांगूं।मांगूं केवल शक्ति दु:ख सहने की; दुदिर्न को भी मान तुम्हारी दया, अकातर ध्यानमग्न रहने की। Gujarati poet Pritamdas in his famous Bhajan wrote: હરિનો મારગ છે શૂરાનો, નહિ કાયરનું કામ જોને, પરથમ પે’લું મસ્તક મૂકી, વરતી લેવું નામ જોને. (The path of the lord is for the courageous. One has to surrender the ego before praying that Almighty). 

What is this path? Rama, Krishna, King Janak, Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus, Muhammad, Shankaracharya, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Tulsidas, Mirabai, Narsinh Mehta, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Ramkrishna, Gandhi, and millions have walked on this path. 

It is a path to know thyself, the easiest but the most difficult task. The Almighty exist all time everywhere, still beyond the reach of the human senses. HE exists but we can’t see, can’t hear, can’t smell, can’t touch. One may acquire knowledge of many subjects but is unable to know the Self. Sings Shivoham, but search for the Shiva, Rama, Almighty somewhere in the sky. What a puzzle?

Who will, when begin to walk on this path? In childhood like Shankaracharya? In youth like Vivekananda? Most of them have walked on the path of the lord in the pick of their youthfulness. After removing the sucrose from the sugarcane stem, what to do with the bagasse? 

Vedanta Sutra says, the path begins at the mode of mind: athato brahm jigyasa! (now is the time to inquire about the absolute truth). In the various forms of life lower than human life the intelligence does not go beyond the range of life's primary necessities--namely eating, sleeping, mating and defending. In the human form of life, however, one should be intelligent enough to ask what he is, why he has come into the world, what his duty is, who is the supreme controller/source of everything, etc, so many questions: athato brahma jijyasa.

Like every other exams, one needs some preparedness to begin with. It is called shadhan chatusthya (four means of salvation):

1. Viveka (discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the permanent and the impermanent, between the Self and the non-Self); 2. Vairagya (dispassion for the pleasures of this world and of heaven); 3. Shad Sampat: Sama is eradication of desires; Dama is rational control of the senses; Uparati is turning the mind away from desire for sensual enjoyment; Titiksha is the power of endurance; Sraddha is intense faith in God, master and scriptures; Samadhana is fixing the mind on Brahman or the Self; 4. Mumukshutva is intense desire for liberation or deliverance from the wheel of births and deaths with its concomitant evils of old age, disease, delusion and sorrow.

There are two types of Gunas: Pakya and Aapya. Pakya to leave and Aapya to gain. Raga (attraction, see positive), Dwesha (repulsion, see negative) and Moha (dullness), are the boils over our personality are Pakya, to be dropped not by pressure but by understanding their uselessness. Simplicity, thinking of pure consciousness Atma and repetition of this knowledge till the mind merges into the pure consciousness are the three gunas one has to acquire by practice. 

Once the runway is ready, one may takeoff the plane into the Ocean of the Supreme Being, the Self, the Atma, the pure consciousness, the Brahman. 

It is the path of the Lord for the Courageous. One shall walk when young, because the sugarcane stalk without sucrose turns into the bagasse. 

Punamchand

14 January 2018