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

THE PATH OF PROGRESS

"Based on lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

  QUESTIONS FROM THE READERS

QUESTION 1 from Sri K S Subramanian- Mumbai

Respected sir,

Thank you very much for your enlightening articles that are providing succour to tortured souls. Your responses to questions show deep understanding of the philosophy as well as appreciation of the mental state of the questioner.

I have to make one observation though. When You talk about God, sometimes you talk of Him as though He is a person and cares deeply for the sufferings of the masses and that His mercy will help us cross over the ocean of miseries. At other times when you speak of Him as Brahman, you sound as though it is impersonal, all pervasive and that all Jivas are afterall part of that one being, which sounds like advaita and that at the culmination of Sadhana I will be merging in Him and lose my individuality (which is itself unreal). This creates a dilemma in practice. When I try to surrender, the thought that it is an impersonal Brahman prevents me from feeling love , reverence etc.

Ans: FORM & FORMLESS BRAMHAN - As I understand from your question, it is the conflict of worshipping The Lord as formless as different to communicating with a lovable form of His, with whom one feels a certain approachable closeness.

This is indeed a universal conflict, which torments all spiritual practitioners at one stage and also has to be transcended and resolved by him alone.

In the beginning stages of human thought there had to have a time when man came to a firm conviction that there has to be a God as the only logical explanation to all activities around him.

Such a thought is only a natural expression of his soul within, seeking solace, seeking respite from the mind severely tormented and unable to reconcile the mysteries of dualities of pain, pleasure, happiness, misery, knowledge, ignorance etc. He found God as the very support of his existence, the anchor for his sanity and equilibrium.

However much as man must have tried, no one ever found out what does this God look like? What is his form? He established only an awareness of His presence but never could hold him within the parameters of his faculties of knowing, which are the physical sense organs (mind inclusive). And there lies the problem. When man tried to describe God by using his bodily faculties, he always failed because of the limited range of these sense organs. God is beyond these limits. God is beyond even the supramental and suprasensual consciousness. But God is not a myth. He exists and is revealed only when one transcends every effort to reach Him going beyond his limitations.

However man can not straightway jump to such a stage. There are layers and layers and still more layers of ignorance (or knowledge) he must overcome.

But his need is always immediate. If I am in pain I must have immediately someone to ease my pain. When a child is in trouble he must find his mother to comfort him then and there. So man created ( or the Lord expressed himself for man) a form that can be captured within the limits of its sense organs (mind included). Man saw in this form the power he was looking for to deliver him from all his predicaments. He worshipped this form. He loved this form. Worship and love are two sides of the same coin.

The form became the essential stage to reach the formless. The confused mind found a shelter (ashray). The Divine Lord encouraged man to take shelter in this form as an essential stage of preparation to reach out to the formless Satchidananda. Lord Krishna ( the highest level of Divine form revealed) himself prompted- set your mind in me, worship(love) me, sacrifice for me, surrender your everything to me. (manmana bhava madbhakta, madyaji mam namaskuru).

So it is not a conflict between form and formless, not a question of this or that. Both are absolutely essential for one's spiritual quest. If you discard the form you discard the very boat that will ferry you to the formless satchidananda - the ultimate truth, its realisation and the ensuing bliss.

As the level of consciousness goes higher one realises this contribution of form towards formless and one's love towards the form (with whom he relates personally) increases with overflowing abundance. The Lord sees to it that it happens.

Ultimately the form and formless are the same entity.

QUESTION 2 from Sri VIJAY MEHTA - Mumbai

The creation assumes absence before creation. How can from only one Brahman all gross objects can be created? and how at the end of Kalp all gross objects merges with Brahman?

ANSWER: THIS CREATION

The creation does not assume absence before creation.'something' does not come out of 'nothing'. That is illogocal. Therefore it is a falacy to think that this creation was ever non-existent at one stage. Yet when people talk about the beginning of this phenomena originating from a so called void, the true meaning of the same should be properly comprehended.

Look at this universe around us including all the animated as well as the inanimate objects, the creatures, the objects, their movements, their nature, the governing principles et all. The first characteristic that is noticed is that this entire spectacle has no steady state existence even for a single moment. When we look up or around us or even at us, by the time we say "this creation", what we saw has already become past. Every single constituent, whether physical, or subtle has already irrevocably changed. It has been changing all the time and will continue to do so ever from now on.

So the first striking feature of the creation is that, it is an everlasting continuum. It is not that it was ever non-present, nor is it true that it will cease to exist in any future. All that the truth is, that the form and character was different in the past and the form and character will be different in future. But in some modified form it will remain in future and in some different form it was there in the past. This applies to all, the creatures, the celestial bodies, the planets, the stars and everything else. It changes from moment to moment.

This creation is an extention from that single unified conscious entity that we call Bramhan. Whether extention or projection, the source is Bramhan. The Bramhan is also the creation and the creation is also verily Bramhan. Bramhan never ceased to exist. The creation also never ceased to exist. To repeat, it was only in different form and character, which might have been vastly different in the past from our present perception. Neither the future shape of creation can be seen now.

As regards the physical phenomenon (the gross world), it is easily explained. Today the modern scientists say that energy and matter are inter-convertible. Long, long ago the Vedic seers knew this truth. The state of Super consciousness, the unified total consciousness of all consciousness is Bramhan. (Chetanaschetanaanaam). Consciousness or chetana, is itself a form of power (shakti) or energy. This energy is indeed manifested into matter under different conditions. This continuous process of manifestation and mutation goes on incessantly.

All actions are cyclical. When something evolves from a particular state it also returns to that state to start all over again. An interesting thought is the vision of blackholes in the universe. Millions of stars in a galaxy are formed. They go through their life cycle of changes. Eventually they burn out and collapse. A blackhole is formed and starts gobbling up everything. Galaxies and galaxies vanish into the blackhole. Where do they go? What happens? Perhaps to form new galaxies and new stars, a different universe. The cycle goes on. It appears like the end of all and then another new beginning. One kalpa ends and another kalpa begins.

To the credit of the vedic seers, they did not lack the understanding of a similar concept. We have beautiful poetic descriptions of the creation coming out of Bramhan as the spider's net comes out of the spider, take form and later eaten up by it. All matters are reduced to energy and return to the ultimate source. The is the concept of creation, manifestation and mutation- sristi, sthiti and pralay played out by the trifold action of Bramhan symbolised as Bramha, Vishnu, Maheswara.

QUESTION 3 from Sri AMIYA ROY - KOLKATA

I crave for your blessings. Your wonderful articles on "Preparations for Sadhana" have helped me to proceed in a systematic manner and I am already experiencing benefits. I have started swadhyayana with right earnest and seeing the light slowly. However I am in a predicament. Although through study of spiritual literature I am gaining understanding about Bramhan, I am failing miserably in my meditation in keeping my mind fixed on Bramhan. There is too much unsteadyness of mind. My question is: " Can I discontinue meditation and concentrate on first acquiring knowledge from our scriptures. Can I devote all my time to swadhyayan and leave meditation to a future stage?

ANSWER- ON MEDITATION :

God bless you. Your sincerity of approach and honesty of confession clearly shows that The Lord's blessings are already working on you. Why are you so much worried about your unsteady mind. This is absolutely natural and more pronounced in case of beginners. So far all the dust was under the carpet. Now that you have woken up to cleaning it, do not complain of kicking up the dust. Whose mind is not disturbed? Even great sadhakas have gone through this problem. You are in good company.

No, deferring meditation is not advisable. You certainly learn from the scriptures. But it is only through meditation you will truly understand what you have learnt. Knowledge comes from scriptures. Understanding comes only through meditation and samadhi. Understanding is true realisation of the truth. That knowledge is superior. Only dhyana and samadhi give you that. Swadhyana is preparatory to this higher knowledge.

Sage Patanjali confirms: srutaanumaanapranjaabhyaamanyavisayaa vishesaarthatvaat. - Knowledge from scriptures and deduction is one kind. But superior is the knowledge that is experienced through dhyana, samadhi etc. To give an example, you may know all about switzerland by reading travel catalogues, television, movies etc. But by experiencing yourself by being there you enjoy its true character.

If your meditation is disturbed, try again. Let the thoughts float by. Do not fight within. Be passive. If they still crowed your mind try again. Try further again. Eventually you will be the winner. You are not alone. The Lord is not only your object of sadhana but is also the accomplice in your sadhana.

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