5. Sri M. S. Balchander

The topical sentence for the Seminar ‘No doubt the world will be a paradise, but for that we have to work very hard ‘is from Master’s message ‘Love Him who loves all’. In this, three sets of words have fascinated me and they are: No doubt, Paradise, and Work very hard.

The word ‘Paradise’ has a religious flavor. It denotes a state of complete happiness and delight.

Babuji says that there is hell for the sinful, Paradise for the ignorant, Brahmaloka for the innocent, artificial paradise for the wise and learned and the mortal world for the weak who lack self-reliance and confidence. (SS253) As innocence is decidedly more rewarding than ignorance, he talks of Brahmaloka for the former as against Paradise for the latter. By one’s ingenuity, learning and smartness one could create a artificial paradise for oneself and it is decidedly of a lower version than the Paradise. Since Spirituality is not for the cowards but for the lions, as Lalaji puts it, Master might have used the expression ‘No doubt’ to instill confidence even though world becoming a paradise is contingent on working hard.

The sentence runs as the ‘world will be’ which conclusively indicates that it is not as of now. Was it earlier a Paradise or an abode of happiness? At the dawn of Creation there was peace and purity everywhere and as the energy gushed through twists and turns in the process of manifestation, grossness was getting acquired to such an extent as to blur the vision of man such that he became unaware of his origin. The Line of Humanity became the base of the entire structure and it remained subject to the dormant actions of the Line of Divinity, which ran along parallel to it. (SDG16) when man began to assume grosser form, his physical, physiological, psychological, biological, emotional, sociological, environmental and other needs have multiplied multi-fold such that he was busy in scheduling his plans to meet these needs and became oblivious of the inner cry of the Soul to get back to the Homeland. His needs for securitization for protection against disasters, for food and shelter for survival, procreation for perpetuating his race through the progeny, and for satisfaction of unending desires became the prime driving force and in the process he has ultimately descended to animalistic plane of existence keeping his eyes shut to the wider spectrum of life and remained insensitive to subtle reality. Further, his greed to usurp, his flair for name and fame, his self-centeredness in confining to the well-being of himself and his family, his notions of likes and dislikes, pride and prejudices, stress and jealousy, envy and arrogance and a host of other attributes became a veil that shrouded his vision. With the result, the world is now in a state of tumult and disorder and man is frantically hankering after peace. This is how the Paradise was lost.

How to regain the paradise that was lost? We have to restore peace and tranquility and have a state of happiness. The hidden dictum of Nature is that every soul must live a happy and restful life. (SDG 37) Still man is not happy in practical terms. This is because of the misdirected tendencies of the mind and due to wrong suggestions being given to the mind. The individual mind which is a part of the First Mind got itself identified to its own tiny creations and attached to transient things of the world and such transient things can at best give only transitory comfort and happiness. The moment there is a change in the transient thing, the happiness also disappears and dejection and depression set in. The only solution is to get oneself attached to the one, which is permanent and eternal so that enduring happiness can be tasted. The Viveka focuses on the trasitoriness of human life and Vairagya makes one attached to the Divine and show due attachment to the worldly matters. It is in this context we have to resort to union with the Divine which provides a state of happiness. Our Master has stated that the goal of life is to be oneness with the Divine and stop not till the goal is reached. Such oneness with the Divine manifests in the form of happiness. Happiness is a state of mind. It is not related to the fulfillment of wants and desires. One has to be happy at all times- whether he has miseries, afflictions, pains or adversities. In liking what we do, lies happiness and not in doing what one likes; it then becomes pleasure, which is sensory in nature. One of the attitudes required is to feel contented and accept as such whatever we get. This acceptance comes out of the faith and conviction that we get what we deserve and everything- whether it is palatable or not, whether it provides comfort or pain- is to be taken as God’s gift or Prasad. One is therefore required to toe in line with the Will of the Divine or live in His Consciousness or orient all the organs to perform His acts to be in a state of eternal happiness rather than resist it or try to superimpose what our mind dictates or desires so that conflict and disharmony can be avoided.

If we observe the third set words used, one can note it is not ‘hard work’ Master refers to but ‘to work very hard’ in the sense that working is difficult. What then is the task on hand? Dr. KCV expressing his deep concern tells that today philosophy is taken as JnanaYoga, Bhajans as Bhakthi Yoga and social service as Karma Yoga. The word ‘work’ used here means spiritual service and not social service. The spiritual work referred to here requires three-dimensional efforts. Firstly, one has to maintain a high level of purity and mould his life in such a way as to rouse a feeling of love and piety in others; secondly it demands a fairly high degree of transparency from the trainee with unstinted cooperation for his spiritual upliftment; thirdly the process is one of diversion of divine energy. The work is to clean, connect and work in silence. (Tr. Manual P60) The work is stated to be ‘Very hard’ because of some the following like:

-It is done in the ‘Astral plane’ and not in the physical plane

-It is through thought and not through words, or touch.

-It requires sensitivity to know one’s condition.

-It needs strong will.

-it requires a state of orientation and commitment to work.

-It needs diversion of flow from below to upwards. (L to U)

-it needs subtleties like listening to the ‘Voice Real’ to offer

Suggestions, to foment the required conditions etc.,

This process of spiritual elevation is an uphill task and it calls for remaining pure in today’s contaminated environment. The environmentalists are worried about the ‘global warming up’ arising out of the physical pollution. The damage done to the psyche through the mental pollution is far more disastrous since we become helpless spectators to the uninterrupted flow of dirt and contamination through the sense organs day-in and day-out. Even to remain where we are, one has to cleanse and purify on a day-to-day basis for which the system provides for a comprehensive purification process and unique meditational technique of A and B point meditation. One has to work hard to retain status quo. What more is, one has to wipe off the ‘Sanchitha’ karmas by taking ‘Pranahuti’ and avoid formation of future Samskaras through Constant remembrance. For this one has to perform things in a spirit of duty without expecting rewards therefor. By these, the veils over Reality get removed and man gradually transcends the different levels of Consciousness in his march towards Infinity through the Path of Grace and start swimming in the ocean of Bliss. With all these, the cry of the soul gets answered and there is a vertical growth for the individual soul. Can it help humanity at large? Master talks of ‘world becoming a paradise’ and hence his focus does not stop with the individual growth from Pind desh to Brahmand to Para Brahmand or moving from Heart Region to Mind Region and end up in the Central Region with journey through 13 Knots and 23 Circles consisting of Rings of Maya, Rings of the Ego and the Rings of Splendour which SriRamchandra’s Raja Yoga comprehensively deals with. It is working towards the upliftment of Humanity at large or working for all round growth of human race, which he talks of. The earlier attempts of man to establish world peace were through external means and what more without attempting individual peace and hence they failed. How is this addressed in our system?

The horizontal dimension of growth is through service and sacrifice. It calls for care and concern for the fellow human beings. Loving God with attributes or avatars is relatively easier than loving the Ultimate or Nothingness. It has to naturally take the route of loving His creation, His manifestation and love all to love Him. We love others not because of what they are, not for the love of oneself or for the sake of love of another but for the love of the Supreme Self or God who is in him as Brhadarnyaka Upanishad says. (Dr.KCV1/87) We have clear direction and focus through the compliance of Commandment 6, meditation on Point A to develop fraternity and Universal Prayer. The highest service we can do is to make him conscious of the Divinity in him and through the service we will be assisting the master in the work of transformation of man and in the true spirit of Bodhayanthi Parasparam, work for his spiritual elevation. For this two things are required – one, our will to assist and secondly his willingness and cooperation to ascend. If we are conscious of Babuji’s message that we are all connected intellectually, morally and spiritually we can work for the elevation of the collective consciousness for which the system provides for Universal Prayer and spiritually train them if we are permitted so in the system with sincerity and devotion. Willingness to transform and preparedness to open up and be transparent or cooperate with the trainer to facilitate him to do the required work is a problem. “ If your spiritual guide asks you to dye the prayer carpet with wine, do it; for he having traveled himself the entire distance is well aware of the ups and downs of the path’. (SS 235) This is the kind of cooperation which would accelerate the growth.

The unique feature of Sriramchandra’s Raja Yoga is directing the Divine Grace towards the Abhyasi through the process of ‘Pranahuti’. The ‘ahuti’ of the very ‘prana’ means offering of that by which everything lives or offering of the highest consciousness to make one grow into greater sensitivities, for growth is possible only when prana is there. Yoga of inner stimulation or ignition or ujjivana is effected by the connection with the primal vibration or Kshobha since self-ignition is impossible. (Dr.KCV. 1/366) With the power of the Yogic transmission, the lower tendencies are weakened and the Divine thought is sown in the heart of the abhyasi allowing it to naturally sprout and grow resulting in the lifting of the consciousness from the existing level. This offering of divine force is referred to as ‘Pranasya prana’ in the Upanishads. Transmission works in the conversion of matter into energy and energy into the Ultimate (SS222) for this one has to use his will-force which has Divine infinite power to support since it is a selfless work. We all know no miracle takes place immediately after the influx of Divine effulgence. Subtle changes in the form of workings of vital parts, tendencies of mind, attitudes towards worldly life, etc take place over a period. Firstly, de-tensioning takes place and mind gets naturally regulated with the imperience of stillness. The dormant energies of the Centre and sub-centers are awakened and the higher centers shed their effect upon the lower centers and are cleansed so as to relieve them of the grosser effects (SDG.92) and with the glow in all the centers there is purification and rejuvenation which elevate the man to higher levels of Consciousness.

Though Divinity is Samadrishti and samavarti and the Divine Grace is constantly pouring, due to the unregulated tendencies of mind and our habits, we allow the Divine energy to be dissipated for satisfying the basal desires. With too much of focus on sustenance, man lives in the animal plane of consciousness and the primary requirement is therefore to make him live in the human plane of consciousness since we are all born rishis and have a right to live as a rishi. For this, the system provides a special technique of ‘diverting the flow of Divine Energy’ from the ‘Lower Heart’ to the ‘Upper Heart’ and since this diversion is from below to up or against the gravitational pull, and done at Astral level the working becomes hard. One has to clean and purify the heart before invoking the Divinity, transmit more than what one can absorb, foment the condition by first raising himself to the desired level of consciousness and then offer clear, positive and unambiguous suggestions to the seeker for the stabilization and growth in spirituality. (From Trainers’ Manual) After getting stabilized in the upper consciousness with values on satya, ahimsa, sharing and services etc. the further journey is to make man a ‘Real Man’ and divinize every cell of his body and lift his consciousness to cosmic and para-cosmic levels. Divinization refers to all senses and faculties getting harmonized, assuming the Original State and merged in the Real (SS322)

‘Human transformation is the goal of life’ for it results in the spread of happiness to a wider area encompassing the whole of humanity. It implies change from the existing position, change in ways of living, change in attitudes and priorities. In short, life is not about doing, or about being but is one of eternal becoming through the process of spiritual training by infusing ‘Pranahuti’ (from BPiv/213) New particles are being made continually and when we foment them with the warmth of love particles begin taking the effect and thus get transformed (SS242)

The process of transformation is achieved by bringing the grosser under the control and rhythm of higher and higher levels and the whole process is being done by the highest Consciousness working through different centers of the lower levels (Dr. KCV. 1/376). The call of the nature is for the human transformation and this task was entrusted to the Special Personality. Our job is therefore to participate in the Master’s work of transformation of mankind. Yes, participate in the Divine Endeavour through prayers, service and sacrifice and do what little we can do in the marathon work of making the man a ‘Real Man’ like what the legendary squirrel had done to Lord Rama.

If we are to look at our competence, we are nowhere. It is with the utmost faith that He is there to support us in the task, it is our reliance on the invincible strength of the System that He has given to us, it is on the efficacy of Pranahuti, it is on the strength of the technique of diversion of divine flow from L to U. that we can confidently participate and work very hard to make the world a paradise as Master has categorically stated that “if there is real love every particle of the body should get transformed within seven years”(SS438) and as per his Vision, “a type of civilization based on spiritualism will spring forth in India and it will become the world civilization”(DR 121).