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by
Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL
No.89
July: 2008
THE PSYCHIC IMPERATIVENESS
Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty
The other day when I was with a students group, in their characteristic inquisitive manner they raised some pertinent doubts. There is so much talk of happiness, ending of misery, God realization, Brahman consciousness etc, yet all around us we see everyone is unhappy about something or other, craving for something or the other. Even the many revered godmen of today, behind their façade of calmness, keep craving for more donations, bigger ashrams, more propaganda and what not. Even the rich and powerful are far from happy. When we talk of internal happiness and peace, is this all a mirage we are chasing?
That seems to be the bane of our times no doubt. We all seek happiness somehow. That search is in our very nature. But how many of us really sit down to analyse what is this happiness that we are seeking?
All that we are able to comprehend, is comfort at the physical and mental levels. That is understandably right enough to begin with. But is that the limit of our imagination? What has happened to all that knowledge that our enlightened seers have handed down to us and all that is available in our scriptures? Sanatan philosophy cries hoarse in urging us to go beyond the physical and mental dimensions and enter the psychic domain in search of true knowledge and bliss. All our life time is spent tied down to our gross level of existence. But beyond the gross we have a subtle level of our existence. Most of us are skeptical about it and know so little about it. But how many of us have atleast made attempts to probe and understand about it? Have we given a genuine try to raise ourselves to such a level?
Some eyebrows will be raised here and perhaps I should correct myself here, because admittedly there is certainly an increased general awareness about sanatan philosophy around us now a days. But this is such a small step. The gap that we have created between our once-upon-a-time character and the present state of affairs, is still great and may take long time to cover.
But the point is, we must become aware of this situation and realize the imperativeness of overcoming this. Going back to our scriptures and studying them – and I really mean ‘study’ in depth to discover their true meaning and usefulness, the tattvartha darshana as Lord Krishna put it, is not just an intellectual pursuit. It is a survival need.
We have abandoned the study of scriptures. On the false pretense of secularism we keep our children away from it. Will such children ever find happiness?
The section of the people who have taken upon themselves to study and propound the truth have fared no better. There are ofcourse groups who devoutly study the Vedas and Upanishads and related vasyas. But their efforts are to a great extent academic and limited to interpretations and debate amongst themselves. How much of it percolates to the society at large? How much of these hair splitting debates stand by us? If Sri Sankaracharya were alive he would perhaps have repeated his words:
SamprApte sannihite kAle na hi na hi rakshati dukrinyakarane.
The contributions from some of the renowned teachers have also not made enough dent. True, they have gathered large followings which in itself is a good sign. But remaining insulated within the walls of beautifully built ashrams, engaged in satsangs through well organized gatherings and well appointed rostrums with propaganda thrown in, has never been our guruparampara. Where are our Sankaracharyas, Buddhas, Dayanandas and Vivekanandas and many unpublicized saints who were constantly on move reaching out to settlements explaining spiritual knowledge to all from kings to commons. They were constantly on move and with them the knowledge moved. Their austerity and demeanor served as living examples of what sanatan philosophy is all about.
But the greatest shortcoming is perhaps demonstrated in the cynical mentality of we the people. Victimised by the systematic brain washing and destruction of Indian values and ethos, which started from the British period and continues even today, we seem to have lost all sense of pride and dignity of our ancestry. It is true that inspite of destructive forces, there are today signs of some revival. More people today are conscious of the true interpretation of spiritual approach to life. Amongst all the chaos there seems to be some divine intervention breaking out even if so very slowly.
But against that we have too much of bickering and volatile expressions related to the practices, rituals and less important aspects of any religion and this is pushing to the background the core concepts from the minds of people. The vichara (conceptual content) is not being debated, the achara or the ritualistic practices are uppermost in people’s minds and ofcourse there are hardly any enlightened reformists to clean up the vyavichara or aberrations that have seeped in over the years.
There are some other people who take another line of justification. They say if you simply serve the mankind, follow the manavaseva dharma, that is enough. Many religious organizations have built large educational and medical facilities and are happily engaged in what they believe as the life’s goal. They are no doubt good and useful for the society. Their humanitarian value and emotional impact can never be measured and society at all ages gratefully respects these samaritans. Yet these efforts again only cater and satisfy the physical and mental dimensions of human existence. There is no permanency in the ego-satisfaction and happiness they bring. They keep men tied down to them lives after lives. The manava seva dharma is not an alternative to seeking spiritual development. It is only part of the larger process and an essential part of purushartha as well. The proscribed duties for every vocation, the five nitya Yajnyas or daily obligatory activities, ( the Deva yajnya to remember and emulate the qualities of divinely advanced beings, the Rishi yajnya – imbibing the advice and directions of the seers and sages, Pitru Yajnya - remembering and showing reverence and gratitude to the elders , dead or living, the nara yajnya – the duties to the society and fellow human beings and the Bhuta yajnya – or the duties and compassion towards lowly creatures and the nature), the rituals that are essential part of every event in life from birth to the end of this life, all have been interwoven into the daily fabric of our life. Why is it so? Because every action of ours, should remain rooted to the core objective. The ultimate objective should never be forgotten and there should be no deviation from the straight path.
Out of the five essential yajnyas that is incumbent upon man to perform daily along with manavaseva dharma whether carried out in an organized grand way or as small individual efforts have the same benefit as they are imperative dharma or ordained tasks for each individual. By that you simply pay your debt to Brahman for the opportunity through which you fulfill your supreme objective of life.
But these opportunities are the opportunities for the body and mind. Their power strengthens our journey but subservient to the power of the psychic. Good enabling practices as they are, yet the sanatan philosophy makes it distinctly clear that these should not overpower the jiva’s mind so that he may forget that he has to rise to a still higher dimension which is the psychic one. All mandatory duties are to be performed but with an absolutely detached way without any expectation whatsoever and most importantly, never getting trapped in them.
Liberation lies in transcending these stages and raising one’s level to the psychic dimension.
That the spiritual approach to life is the only antedote against human suffering was known to us from time immemorial. Nanya pantha vidyate- there is no other way. The true heritage of ours is not that we have this knowledge. But our heritage lies in that we lived by this knowledge, governing every aspect of life by spiritualism. Our wisened seers practiced and experienced it and recorded down in our scriptures for the posterity of mankind. Alas! Today we deliberately ignore this. A reported observation by a renowned God man in India is very telling. Thousands of devotees come to him seeking this and seeking that. They ask for physical and mental benefits. But no one comes asking ‘give me liberation,’.
Life is not restricted to physical and mental dimensions. It extends to our psychic dimensions. To day the common man knows very little about it. But true happiness lies there and not if we are imprisoned only in these two dimensions and refuse to look up. Only when we raise our physical and mental experiences to the spiritual level and relook at it from that angle, we can understand the true meaning of cessation of misery and experience bliss and happiness.
How can this happen? Many Gurus will tell you that in this kaliyug if you merely repeat the name of the Lord all problems will be solved. Has this happened really? It can happen only if we apply our mind to the multidimensional aspect of life and search for the meaning of happiness in the spiritual or psychic dimension. (we have discussed this in the articles Dimensions of our existence posted in AHWAN).
Every concept of unhappiness or happiness as long as they are rooted in physical and mental dimensions are fleeting and by nature can not satiate your hunger for more and therefore always cause of unhappiness. This eternal truth, that you can not ever be happy in these two dimensions of your existence is indeed difficult to grasp but not impossible.
Happiness has to be searched and researched in the domain where it lies. To see the snowcap of the mountain one has to go there. By lamenting from the ground level you can not see the snow. With meditation, and taking the help of the wisdom of our scriptures, when the mind transcends itself into this psychic atmosphere, slowly and slowly the truth reveals itself- svam brunute.
There is one difficulty which people feel and very understandably so. To fix the mind in that transcendental psychic realm, takes a long time. Your efforts now may even fructify in your next lives. This acts like a deterrent for many. But we fail to understand that nothing whatsoever happens instantly in this creation. The day does not break instantly. Behind every single event, small or big, there is build up of series of contributory factors which in our ignorance we can not comprehend. The advent of good takes place after evil has been systematically removed. If the negative sanskaras have been accumulated over a long period, should it not take time to reduce their effect?
To most people this will sound as too imaginative and far fetched. Ofcourse it will, until you sit down in meditation and focus beyond your body and mind. If you understand, that it will not happen if one does not try, and in any case not in a snap, to reach a stage of perfect understanding and resultant bliss, the option before you is to whether go for it or continue in your misery and thereby go on adding further obstacles against your future efforts.
Many research studies have shown that proximity to religious ethos in its purer character has a positive influence on life. It happens gradually and the encouraging fact is that, even little gains by the mind will result in great benefits to reap. (svalpasya api dharmasya trAyate mahato bhayAt). You can see it for yourself. If today you are wasting fifteen hours a day worrying about something or the other, soon you will bring it down to say twelve, then may be ten and so on. When you feel that it is working, the mind will accept that eventually it will work more and more. That is how spiritual approach helps life. That is how Brahman has construed our lives.
Give Brahman your gratitude. Try to understand His ways through practice of meditation and see for yourself how that changes your life for the better. Yoga which means linkage is all about discovering your linkage with Brahman. That is most felt when you transcend into the spiritual or psychic domain and not if you remain rooted in physical and mental dimensions.
The example often given is that of the lotus flower. The beauty of lotus bud is not manifested as long as it remains immersed in mud and water. It need not abandon its roots and surroundings embedded in muck but its desire to rise up beyond them and look up at the sun, makes it bloom with its beauty and fragrance. So does life’s happiness and bliss experienced when life raises itself to look up at Brahman. Simply remain consciously and subconsciously in awareness of Brahman and live life in that awareness. And then find out if you are experiencing the bliss of life or not- the same bliss which the yogis claim.
