by Sri Bmal Mohanty
VOL No. 25
Jan. 2003

RELATIONSHIPS IN THE CONTEXT OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH.

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

To reach this final state of Brahman we have to develop in our consciousness to a supramental state of pure consciousness. We have to evolve into that stage through continuous endeavor. The life or the many many lives that we pass through are various environments in which our developmental process takes place. Each life is an opportunity given to us to improve and develop towards that final goal.

The Lord, who is totally benevolent, provides us not only this life, but also all the infrastructure to go with it so that every one's developmental needs can be assisted. God wants us to develop, wants us to evolve and finally reach him to be one with him. All that we have around us - what we call the creation of The Lord - is there to help us to develop. From ground below to the sky above, the nature around us and also the people around us - you, me and every one- are all here to assist each other in our development. I am here to help you, you are here to help me and each one helping each other , we must propsper to reach to the state of Satchidananda.

What did the Lord say in The Gita?

parasparam bhavayantah shreyah Param avapsyasi.

Assisting each other, you will achieve the ultimate goal.

You may also recall what we discussed in the beginning of our lecture series. The whole creation is a matrix. Each one is connected with each other and draws assistance from others all the time. We give and we take. No one can exist alone. We need every one and every thing around us.

Now, when you are placed in a certain environment with certain things around you, know for sure that these have been preordained and prearranged scrupulously so that what we have around us is the best possible arrangement that is conducive to our development. If you are my friend, or son or father and we have been brought to each other's proximity and thus brought together in this life, it is because you can help me best and I can help you best in your development. Why I did not have a different birth place? Why someone else did not come as my father or mother? Why some one else did not take your place as my friend? Because for both of us there is no better arrangement than this for our mutual development. None is replaceable or interchangable in this creation. If some one else were my father, daughter, wife or friend, that would not have fulfilled any body's need in the best possible way. Even if we dislike a spouse, hate a friend, detest the ways of a child, such situations are indeed the best for us to learn from. Nothing else is better for us. Such a hypothesis is not to advocate a fatal resignation but rise above and understand the underlying purpose and orient ourselves for a better ideal. If we do not make the best use of it is another matter. But God never fails to provide what is best for us.

So what is the meaning of relationships in this context? If I am a father to my son and my son and myself have been brought into this world at a certain time and space, then it means that my son needs my help for his spiritual development and I need my son for my spiritual development as much. In this context all the relationships in the world - not only between humans but also between us and other creatures and other aspects of nature, assumes a great sense of responsibility.

If I as a friend to you, have not been able to assist you anyway in your spiritual development or if a husband has not been able to help the wife in lifting her up spiritually - it is a great loss and waste. We have failed in our divine task. We have not understood the significance of our relationships.

In all relationships, the first thing that we seek is our own material gain. The divine scheme of things are just the opposite. How can each relation assist the other to develop spiritually - that is the divine task.

How does one go about it in practice? Does every one become a Guru or a preacher and start sermonising the other? Does every one become a swami, a mullah or a priest forcing others to obey him?

Far from it. All that our Sanatan Hindu philosophy requires is what a practical religion should advocate. It calls for righteous living and following the path of Dharma - The Dharmacaran- to be made a way of living. When the father walks the path of Dharma, sooner or later, little by little the effect is bound to pass on to the children. Same goes for your friends, wife, followers etc. Let the life itself be the lesson to follow. While most enlightened religions of the world emphasize on everyone becoming an example to others, the sanatana dharma even goes to the extent of codifying individual conducts for different positions in life. Whether one is a head of a kingdom or head of a family, a husband or a wife, a teacher or a student, a master or a servant, the right conduct to lead life has been codified in various texts. The idea is the same. Each must assist the other to progress towards that final goal through one's conduct and by virtue of being placed in that unique position.

If I am unable to do that, I am not discharging my responsibility as a relation. What right do I have to call myself a mother if I have not helped my child to develop towards a higher goal? Parent and child were brought together in life to assist each other to spiritually progress. If either of them failed to do so, then the very relationship has gone to waste. A human life has been reduced to animal existence.