REMOVE THE VEIL THAT HIDES THE SELF IN YOU
(Continued from the previous issue)
(Sri Swami Chidananda)
Mind is able to play all the havoc with the help of the ego. We have to play another master-stroke, by killing the ego. This ego-dectomy has to start in the very beginning of Sadhana, till it is completed in Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Blindfolded we have to walk. It is not outside, but inside about which we know nothing. How great, then, is the necessity to have a guide, to have absolute faith in the guide and completely surrender oneself to him! To do this, the ego has to go completely. The extremely hardened, grosser aspects of the ego should be hammered out in the very beginning; then the subtler aspects, by and by. ‘Know that by prostration, enquiry and service,’ says the Gita. No one likes to fall at the feet of another, accepting oneself to be inferior, that there is one who is far superior to oneself in every way. This brings about a sort of revolution in the consciousness of the individual. Again no one wants to accept that there is a lot of things he does not know and that the other person knows much more. ‘Who is he to teach me?’ he thinks. One should completely give up this aspect of one’s ego and humbly ask for the guidance and try to know the truth.
Finally comes seva, service. We all want to be served and like very less to serve others. The effective method to batter down this aspect of the ego is to serve the other. You should try effectively to negate your pride, your arrogance and Abhimana, and serve the preceptor. This way the foundation is laid for the later Sadhana concerned in attacking the ego in all its Asuric aspects and ultimately annihilating its last vestige in asmita (self-consciousness) itself. You should go on attacking, overcoming, sublimating and transmuting the ego, till there shines only the splendour of the universal Atman, the Infinite.
In this process you may fail not once or ten times, but a hundred or thousand times. Sadhana is going from bigger failures to smaller failures, when they are progressively lesser. When you wish to see the whole world as Atman, for the time being, you plunge into meditation; the moment you open your eyes, the moment you come into the Vyavaharic field (relative world) you see that one man is good and another is bad. This should not be, if you are to be sincere in your effort. Heroism is needed, therefore, in a man who has set himself to go forth and capture the Atmic experience. He does not care for discouragement at all. Only he will progress and will get what he has set himself to get.
Abhyasa and Vairagya are the two keynotes of Sadhana. Always carry on your Sadhana till the end of your life. Fortify your Abhyasa by Vairagya which keeps up your Sadhana. The second chapter of the Gita is replete with the ideals of Viveka and Vichara, discrimination between the permanent and the evanescent. It tells you how to live a true and righteous life for the benefit of all and how to recognise the Atman which is immanent in all. It asks you to be bold and courageous and stresses upon heroism and strength. The Gita deals with all the important aspects of practical Sadhana which leads us to the realisation of the Upanishadic wisdom of Aparoksha-anubhuti. These we have to follow and enshrine in our hearts, the methods of the practical Sadhana of the Gita. We have to live in a constant state of humble surrender to the Lord who is manifest as the Sat-Guru (Preceptor), and if we thus live and carry on our Sadhana with perfect Vairagya and Vichara, always choosing the Sreyo-marga and rejecting the Preyo-marga, then our Sadhana will be fruitful. Even the highest achievement of the greatest man dwindles into nothing before Self-realisation. For the effective realisation of the truths of the Upanishads, we are told, ‘He who has supreme devotion to God and equal devotion to Guru, to such a fortunate one are the truths spoken of in the scriptures made perfectly clear.’ His mind becomes illumined with the inner essential truths of the teachings of the Upanishads.
Let us remember these great truths, let us remember the vital importance of surrender in all respects. Humility is the arch-enemy of the ego. It is a very rational conception: true humility is the most dynamic and effective weapon to overcome the ego based upon which alone Maya, as mind, works havoc in the individual’s life. Only by overcoming this ego, will we be able to understand the truths of the Upanishads and experience them. As long as Maya (ignorance) is not overcome, the teachings of the Upanishads will only remain as mere words.
On our part, we should go on doing Sadhana and cease to run after Maya, the Avidya or ignorance aspect and thus eventually we will be able to overcome Maya; she herself will withdraw the veil of ignorance. Then we will be able to say with the Upanishadic Seers: ‘I have attained That.’ Shuddhoham buddhoham niranjanoham; Samsara-maya parivarjitoham—I am pure, enlightened, untainted and freed from this Maya-Samsara, the illusory pleasures of this world. Till then the Upanishads are just so many words to us, meaning nothing. It does not mean that reading of the Upanishads is useless. Reading has got only a certain value, to know what to do, and there is a limit to its value. To a certain extent it is very essential, important and indispensable. After knowing what to do, if you do not do it, then it is entirely useless. Knowledge is necessary, but if it is not put into practice, it becomes absolutely useless. If we live in them, they become worth their weight in gold. A thinker once said: ‘Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.’ It has in it a philosophy which must be appreciated.
(Concluded)
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Vedanta makes it quite clear that this world, and all things in it, is only a long drawn out dream. It is temporary, it is an appearance only. So you should regard these outer things as ultimately not being very important to you: “Why should I unnecessarily distress myself too much over them? What does it matter what some person is thinking about me? Let that person think; it is his problem, not my problem.” Because, if you keep thinking about other people’s thoughts, you completely expose yourself to agitation and distress. So, if instead of being concerned about what other people may think of you, if you think about the indwelling reality, the indwelling splendour, the indwelling satchidananda, then you will come out triumphant. In all environments your mind will be in a state of satchidananda, in a state of peace and bliss. So, it is not what people think that affects you; it is, rather, what you think.
—Swami Chidananda
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