by Sri Bmal Mohanty
VOL No. 24
Nov.& Dec. 2002

THE PATH OF PROGRESS

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

Every Sadhaka or for that matter every person who is concerned about his spiritual progress must often also have time for introspection. In our context of giving spiritualism a practical meaning in our day to day life it is good to reflect and ask - which many of you must have done- what progress have I made spiritually. Has all these days of Sadhana gone in vain? What have I gained? What more have I understood? What additional knowledge have I acquired? We are not talking here of material gains but gains in terms of higher values of life, the development, enrichment and evolvement of life in terms of spirituality. If as human beings, we do not ask such questions to ourselves, we must agree that we are literally throwing away that great and invaluable gift that we have been given by the Lord , which is the human birth which we have acquired - Narajanma Durlabhatama, as Sri Shankaracarya said - after thousands and crores of past lives and after doing many good deeds in our past lives. Or if you remember Sri Aurobindo's thoughts in The Synthesis of Yoga - it is only in man who has the power to think, the nature devises self conscious means and willed arrangements of activity by which this great purpose of self perfection, the union with the universal and transcendent existence may be attained.

So that gives us an idea of our objective which we must constantly reflect upon and unfold layers and layers of meaning which it is full of. But the difficulty here is, it is too lofty and too idealistic for average minds like mine and yours. At least apparently it appears that way. And our objective here is to give it a practical interpretation, if that is possible, and evaluate our own action and progress towards that goal.

We generally understand the human goal - for that matter goal for every creation - as Mokshya. Mokshya is interpreted in various ways Ultimate union with the Supreme, purna Chetana or total consciousness, Bramhi Chetana or realisation of Bramhatva etc etc. All these inter- alia also mean to be one with The Lord - To be a part of Lord Himself - completely and in whole measure - to completely lose one's identity with the Lord and be a part of Him.

If that is the case, then does it mean that until one has achieved that final state he or she is detached and separate from the Lord. If I have not achieved Mokshya am I not a part of Him? If I have a separate existence vis-à-vis Bramhan then what is the guarantee that I shall never be left out and miss my opportunity to be a part of Him? Is not then there is a probability that I shall forever remain undeveloped to my full potential?

Here comes the very logical and practical concept of Sanatana philosophy to provide guidance. It looks at Mokshya as a development and natural evolution of all creation. It joins the Bramhan to the creation and makes the creation integral with The Bramhan.

Let us explore this concept a little further.

Earlier while discussing some aspects of creation we identified six major aspects. Out of these, two important ones are relevant to our topic.

Firstly, we said The Vedantic philosophy, or more precisely the Sanatan Dharma, believes in á homogeneity ­ a oneness ­ of the entire creation ( what we call the Viswa ) with the Paramatma - or whatever name one may give It ­ as the supreme Lord at the helm of affairs (adhyaksha). He is considered an all-in-all entity with His involvement in the creation inseparable and total. Whatever is manifested, or not manifested, conceived or imagined gross or subtle in character dimensional or beyond dimension, sentient or insentient indeed form a single wholeness (purnam) which is indistinguishable from the Lord himself. Isavasyamidam sarvam yat kinchá jagatyam jagat. Everything that we call this creation is entirely pervaded by the Lord.

The second one is that In this entire universe which is like á gigantic organization, each of us, each of the other living beings, each element or object, is a constituent of this whole, forming á well-conceived matrix. Each dependent on the other, each functioning in association with the other, each drawing from and giving to the other and nothing existing in isolation.

Taking both these concepts into consideration we can derive a few basic and morale lifting truths. When everything is one wholeness that has you, me and others in its fold, then I know that I shall never be left out. We can also say that since everything is part of an interconnecting matrix then a developed soul or advancely developed soul is equally linked with an undeveloped or less developed soul. Our ancient Rishis or even modern enlightened souls like Sri Ramakrishna or Sri Aurobindo are part of the Bramhan, but we are also links of the same chain. We are also linked with The Bramhan.