Resources

People misunderstand Vairāgya or dispassion as a note of distaste and repulsion towards all events and enjoyments of life. But the truth is that to live effectively and victoriously in this world, in harmony with whatever life brings from time to time, man has to cultivate dispassion as an essential quality, just as he grows love, affection and fondness. In fact, the fuller and most elevated manifestation of all human emotions is possible only in the presence of supreme dispassion.

Our life is one of continuous experience. The experience may be of the presence or the absence of something. Whether it is the presence that is experienced or the absence, it is an experience no doubt. Suppose you experience that you don’t exist – even that is an experience. So, there is no time at all in life without any experience.

There are two kinds of experience: an experience that comes from an interaction and that which comes without interaction. When we say ‘interaction’, it means, you as an individual interact with things other than yourself, and this interaction produces an experience. But there are experiences where no interaction is involved at all. For example, in sleep you don’t interact with anything else. Similarly Samādhi, is an experience involving no interaction.

Normally, interactions are the very nature of life. The moment we wake up, we start interacting with the things other than ourselves through our five senses. All interactions are with persons, places or events. These interactions may have an external objective. Whether the objective is fulfilled or not, the interaction as well as the outcome will have a subjective impact. It is how your mind takes to the outcome of the interaction – be it a success or a failure – that is of significance.

Our aim must be to get enriched subjectively with the result of every interaction, irrespective of the external result. This subjective enrichment is gained by making every interaction produce a purifying and sublimating note in the mind. Only when you ensure that throughout the day, whatever actions or reactions you have, there is a progressive enrichment and purification taking place in you, can you be considered a sādhaka. The extent to which you are able to remain equal, able to accept favourable and unfavourable outcomes with equanimity, will depend on the purity of the mind. The mind should constantly watch the reactions, responses, and remind itself to guard against undue elation or depression with whatever you interact externally.

Ultimately it comes to a question of ahankāra (ego), and mamatā (mine-ness, possessiveness). Externally this ahankāra and mamatā may have relevance to persons, places or events. But ahankāra and mamatā can work even with regard to subjective factors: about your birth and lineage, position in life, achievement in life, etc. A disciple may have an ego that he is very close to the Guru and the Guru will listen to whatever he says. Mamatā can be with regard to anything – towards the married partner, children, parents, and the like. Mamatā fostered to anything is bad. Why should there be mamatā? So many words have been uttered by the mouth – do you think the tongue has any mamatā for the words?

How do we get rid of Ahankāra and Mamatā?

Ego-elimination, Self-effacement, is most important for spiritual progress and fulfillment. It is not an easy path. It will take place successfully only when you live in close proximity of the Guru. We have attachments to our possessions and that makes us proud. Ego is a result of the various assumptions we make: “I am educated. I am refined. I am cultured. I am of high lineage. I am a knower of Truth. I am a sannyāsin ”, etc .

Any kind of ego is bad. Think well and deeply. What is there to be proud of? Nothing in nature is under your control. Nothing has been created by you. Can you be proud of your own body? It subsists on water, air, food, etc. , none of which is your creation, or under your control! Can you therefore be egoistic about it? It is all a delusion. Get rid of this delusion. And for that be watchful, self-examining, and introspective. This is a continuous effort in spiritual sādhanā.

In the pursuit of devotion, you undergo devotional interactions. It is to afford these interactions that you make use of an idol, an image, or any other representation of God, and worship it. There is however a basic difference between interactions with the Guru and interactions with a representation of God. All our interactions with God are unilateral. God remains an invisible, imaginary entity. But the living Guru has an interactive personality of his own. Thus the experience of interaction with the Guru depends on you as well as on him. This is the great advantage. In interacting with God, you don’t know what God has to say about you. But here, in interacting with the Guru, the Guru will say whatever is required to bring the necessary sublimity in you, to institute the necessary corrections for spiritual growth.

For this to be fruitful, you must have proper receptivity and humility to take to your Guru’s words. It is not easy at all. If this two-way interaction can be made sweet, endearing, supportive and enlightening, then the seeking will be all the more intensified and progressive. So, how you take to your Guru, how you address your prayers to him, how much you depend upon him in your heart and mind, how fondly you are able to relate to him – all these will determine the progress and success of your Sādhanā.

Most people fail in this. This aspect of their failure can be seen even in their own domestic relationships. They show poverty of outlook, poverty of emotion, poverty of fondness – a poverty of quality!

When devotion shifts from God to the Guru, it marks a great transition in the life of the devotee. From then on he becomes a seeker. His sole focus becomes the Guru, the God-realized person; because only from him he can know about God-realization and it is only through him that he himself can attain God-realization. Shedding all preferences and prejudices, he fondly seeks the presence of the Guru and accepts his supremacy unconditionally.

Hariḥ Om Tat Sat

29th April 1998

– From the Book Prabhata Rashmih Volume 1