This article is based upon the message of the Master,
‘Way to perfection’ delivered by Him on the auspicious
occasion of the inauguration of the meditation hall at
the Tinsukia centre. I would also interlink the main
theme of the message with some seminal insights given to
us by our rev. guide in the articles from Bodhayanthi
Prasparam V.9 as appropriate.
Master begins the message with the observation that the
abhyasis feel in general that the items of
practice taught to them are all that is needed to take
them up to the final state of evolution. Master is
making it very clear that mere mechanical adherence to
the routines of practice will not do if we aim at the
realization of the real goal of human life. He
reiterates thus the sense and spirit of the 3rd
commandment that we shall not stop short of the goal
that we shall not rest till it is achieved. He stresses
the indispensability of restlessness to achieve the goal
in the latter part of the same message which I will
address subsequently. Master states unequivocally in the
above context that though the fragrance of pranahuti
inheres in the system or method of training the factors
which are still left behind are love and devotion. He
emphasizes the importance of these factors which should
permeate the routine practices. By integrating these
factors with the routine practices the abhyasi
would be able to reach his goal very soon. It is our
responsibility to engender the factors in ourselves; the
Master goes on to suggest the means as well which is
endeavoring to maintain the remembrance of the Principle
that is (Ishwar) God. One of the efficacious
methods for this purpose is to do whatever we do in the
thought that ‘It is the divine command and therefore my
duty to do so’ (this sentence has formed the theme of a
seminar which may be referred to with profit) so that
the state of remembrance should continue steadfast with
one special benefit accruing there from, namely,
creation of samskars ceases. It also engenders a
deep attachment to the divine leading to the state in
which love for Him develops and overflows. Devotion
attains its full form gradually through this process.
We may now look at the term ‘final state of evolution’
as expressed by the Master here.
I would take it to mean the real goal of human life, as
we find it revealed in the divine expression of our
beloved Sriramchandraji Maharaj. More appropriately it
is the Master’s consciousness, the universal
consciousness of the ultimate kind, subtler than the
subtlest, purer than the purest which is felt by all
devoted hearts as unconditional all embracing love,
unalloyed, seamless without any boundaries. It is called
in other words, the pranasya prana, imperienced
by us in the process of pranahuti. The supreme
objective of every abhyasi is to enter fully into
that consciousness, not only that but live in and act
through that consciousness. All of us are aware that
this is quite difficult in practice to live always in
that manner but all the same we should not consider it
impossible to do so. Master has said quite encouragingly
in another of His messages that He is very eager and
restless that as many persons as possible should attain
His own condition in the shortest period and that is the
principal reason behind the creation of the institution
of preceptors/trainers in the system. We are aware that
that is the goal we are all striving to realize, each
one of us in various stages in that evolution, with
equal determination to scale the summit and also live
and function from there as His instruments perfectly
resigned to His will as to the manner in which the
instruments may be employed for His purposes.
This is the highest and noblest aspiration we, as human
beings, can and ought to have if we aim to meet Master’s
expectations of us. We may recall here Master’s
statement in another message viz., though such an
approach steeped as it is in His consciousness is
bestowed as a divine gift by Nature upon the rarest of
the rare person of the requisite calibre, it does not
mean that we should not aspire and attempt seriously for
it with a firm resolve. He says further that we should
do so in the firm conviction that if we take but one
step in this direction God/ Master takes ten steps
towards us enabling our speedy evolution towards the
final state.
The real goal viewed in another light is to say that we
bring out the real man behind the apparent man or the
man behind man. The evolution is perfected when we grow
into the status of the Real Man. Master has exemplified
this all through His earthly sojourn and now as He
functions from His own divine realms as the perfectly
pure universal consciousness.
I would use this context to present some salient
insights given by our guide in the article ‘Real Man’
(BP V9). The real man in Master’s words is one whose eye
is diverted towards his inner (real) Self. By adhering
to it, the real quest for reality, he establishes his
footing in the sphere wherefrom everything has descended
by itself or in other words he connects his link with
the main source. The only thing which remains is its
expansion for which the prescribed abhyas is
sufficient. Man possesses as he comes into being is
composed of all the powers, forces and energy which are
present in Nature in the same order. We may understand
this to mean that everything needed to become real man
has been granted to us from birth and it is for us to
become perfect and bring glory to God. Master adds that
it is difficult to define man but when the adjective
‘real’ is added to it, it defines the beauty to which a
man should have to belong to. This beauty is the inner
beauty which manifests as noble character embellished by
godly attributes. The use of ‘should have to’ by Master
in the above context is noteworthy; it is used in the
imperative sense. He is exhorting every one of us to
attain the level of real man actualizing our true
potential especially in view of the fact that Nature has
endowed man with everything required from birth to
achieve that objective.
Real man is one who is imbued with humanity. As man
evolves from the state of animal, he develops and
exhibits traits of camaraderie and fraternity. As he
matures further in reasoning the need for compassion and
forgiving dawns in his heart setting him on the road to
become real man. As to the inner condition of the real
man he gets settles in the changeless condition, the end
of all spiritual activities, for which blankness is
another name. The entire system is vacuumized in the
end. Though possessing a physical body, he shall in no
way be attached to it and he shall be nearest to zero.
All his actions are in accordance with the divine
dictate, the sphere of actions, the playground and the
play itself is of the divine. There is no place for
‘doer-ship’ here and the person is established in
insignificance in its deepest expression.
The real man as defined and given expression to by the
Master is obviously the perfect man.
He is in full control of the senses, the jnanendriyas
and the karmendriyas. He serves the interests of
others selflessly. He may be stated to be the perfect
copy of the original creator or God, justifying the
statement God has created man in His image. He also sees
every individual completely as a copy of others, the
only differences arising being due to the individual
samskaras. This gives rise to perfect empathy in
him. Our guide brings out another facet of the real man;
he is a friend of God, the nara to the
Narayana, the nara who fully cooperates and
participates with the Divine in its mission. Every one
of us thus has God as a friend and the only Friend in
reality. By accepting God totally as a friend yielding
to Him and cooperating with Him we gain nearness to Him.
Master, while stating the attributes of the real man,
makes one important statement, namely, there is no
distinction between real man and real master. The real
man in the proper sense can be he who makes a man the
man he ought to be as He puts it. Further if we are in
the hands of a real master, read real man, all the
things necessary for ‘man to be called man’ gradually
come out of themselves. This is to be understood as the
things required would be accruing to us without any
further assistance from any other source. There needs to
be a total, integral and unconditional acceptance of the
Master to be deserving of such a gift. We should exert
to mould ourselves as that most deserving person whom
God seeks to be always with. We shall be murads
in other words. This casts a noble responsibility on us,
as Master has said He makes masters; this is the
responsibility to enable others to grow to the final
status reserved for man even as we are enabled to. This
is the gurudakshina which is to be offered to the
Master.
We may now consider a very important aspect in
sadhana which the Master emphasizes in the latter
part of the message under discussion. Analogous to the
remarks made while talking about the real man earlier,
Master impresses upon the sadhaka to keep turning
his vision inward. He says that by this process “the
condition will stay there wherefrom the ‘substance’ came
to us, that is, we make a mark upon the true Treasure
house.
Now it is left to us just develop the form of expansion
which takes birth when along with practicing meditation
on the Divine, the endeavor is maintained to keep our
vision more and more inward. If the true craving for
attainment is developed in you, it takes no time to
achieve success. You are reaching out for bliss and I am
talking of craving and restlessness. But, brother, the
happiness that this craving and restlessness bring is
never obtained in peace.” Master states further when
restlessness increases and reaches the limit, crosses
the limit of strength, then the beginning of real peace
starts. We find this thought recorded in the diary (28th
april) followed by another (30th april)
wherein He presents another aspect of the same- ‘A real
seeker is he who along with his state of tranquility,
feels a restless craving for the realization of the
Ultimate.’ I may say here that both the indicated states
come to our experience.
The Master ends the message on a rather poignant note
when He seems to be pleading with us literally to
cultivate this sort of restlessness as something which
alone can give Him real peace. He says, “My strong
desire is that I should give people an inkling of the
final state of spiritual evolution” and “my restlessness
lies in that you should continue to be restless to
achieve the goal of attainment of the divine which alone
can give me real peace. To the extent that you are
restless in this manner, to that extent peace will come
to me. If you believe and remember this that for
all the service rendered by me to people, the return
comes to me is peace, then the only method for you iis
to remain restless. Let us get so deeply engrosses in
the thought of ‘this’ that no thought arises of ‘that’.”
I would interpret ‘this’ to mean the real craving and
restlessness for the attainment of the divine as
explained by the Master and ‘that’ to be peace, bliss,
anandam or any other attainment related to
manifestation.
There are several other relevant and important insights
to be found in the articles ‘Craving of the Soul’ and
‘Real craving’ from BP V9, which I am unable to bring
into this discussion as that would make this article
quite lengthy. I would strongly urge the sadhaks
to study the cited references deeply, contemplate upon
the so many practical guidelines available therein which
would immensely benefit their sadhana.
In particular the article ‘Craving of the soul’ – a
detailed commentary on Master’s message of the same
title- can be regarded as a mini-treatise on the entire
system of our sadhana and should be always by the
side of a serious minded sadhaka aiming at final
success. Other helpful articles which deal with one of
the important themes of the message we are discussing
viz., mere mechanical adherence to the items of practice
will not do for a person aiming at the final state of
evolution, are ‘Light on meditation’ and ‘Meditation is
not enough’ (the book ‘Meditation’). These articles
approach the issue from a different perspective.
I will end this article with some of the closing
observations from the article, ‘Real craving’ (p.218-9
BP V9). Talking about ‘Satchidananda’ it says,
“In fact we move farther from that level of
consciousness. It is not a concept or idea to be in the
consciousness of satchidananda. It is a reality
we often experience in sadhana. But our Master
leads us on to the level of void. But then that is
subject to our relinquishing of all desires and cravings
and seek only the end state whatever that might be.”
Further “any attachment to anything in the sphere of
manifestation is a limitation. The price may appear to
be very high but that is for cowards and seekers of
toys. To crave for the Real is the option that is chosen
by lion hearted men. Our beloved Master said His system
makes the aspirants so and let us live up to His
expectations of us.”
