(The journey of understanding from material to spiritual space)
We meditate upon the intellect and understanding which may inspire, guide and enlighten us to know the glory of the most adorable, enchanting, resplendent God who shines as the light of knowledge in the three worlds - physical, mental and spiritual.
All for better understanding!
If you are expecting some instructions to follow and hope to reach the destination with the help of a navigator, then you are seeking too much help! This journey is a lonely one. Only help you get is from your own understanding. It is your ultimate guide, guru or teacher. You and only you are the master of your senses. None can venture in your mindspace. Its like your own ocean in which you are sailing on a boat with lot of voices coming from different directions. Pick up the flowers and ignore the thorns. You will always find the guru within you. Listen to him and listen carefully!
Sometime when you think to understand, two opposing thoughts might arise within your mind. There is a little fight between them. You take help from your understanding to choose one. This choice depends on your wisdom which keeps on growing or developing to finally get manifested or transcended into dharma. And only you are the person who can convincingly conclude when you have dharma with you.
With the understanding of different levels of mind - physical, behavioural, emotional and spiritual - it is easier to find or define the physical, behavioral, emotional and spiritual needs for yourself. The definition of need and desire must be kept in mind when deciding upon the line which acts as a boundary between need and desire. Need can never be desirable.
Thoughts may or may not generate emotions. But, emotions are directly associated with thoughts. The emotional mind is referred as heart whereas the part of mind which is nearest to the spirit is your soul. All your thoughts and emotions have a reflection in your soul. These reflections are helpful to know the direction of your thoughts or emotions. Your conscience depends on this reflection. It also help you to come out from the dilemas which are faced by you.
Peace and contentment are always there. And there is no doubt about it. Getting love, appreciation or respect, if not balanced with humility, humbleness and responsibility gives rise to arrogance. If these are taken at an individual level, for every evil that rises in mind, there is a weight provided to balance it! Only thing is whether you are aware of it or not, and how quickly you apply that weight on yourself. If you have a wrong interpretation, only then you are going to suffer and will have to get out of it using your own way of understanding. And this process will continuously help you to know more and work on it.
Yoga and Meditation is the practice of keeping both body and mind in harmony with the spirit.
Rajayoga - Awareness of Body (Physical self or consciousness), meditating with body
Karmayoga - Awareness of Actions or Behavior (Behavioral self or consciousness), meditating with actions
Bhaktiyoga - Awareness of Emotions (Emotional self or consciousness), meditating with emotions
Jnanayoga - Awareness of Understanding (Spiritual self or consciousness), meditating with understanding
In all of these, contemplation i.e. talking or meditating with your 'self', is the vital link. This helps to cultivate your own understanding, which is necessary to carry on with the journey. With the awareness of being alone in the crowd (family, friends, seekers, like-minded people etc.). Unless you take care of yourself, none can help!
Living life with the awareness of being a body-mind-spirit, all three of them. Having a right balance of thoughts and emotions so that none of these has to suffer. We must have a healthy body and mind, to be aware of the spirit as much as possible. To be both in the spirit of body and mind!
The sense of 'I' within you is the ego. It is the ego within you, which is responsible for the thoughts generated in your mind. Unfortunately, ego is understood mostly in a negative sense. Our mind is made to learn or know it in that way only, so that it can be easily ruled over by others. There is a general perception that if you have ego in you, you are wrong. But, ironically, the ego itself forms the core of all personal appearances. The feeling of 'I' in every individual is a reality which should be rightly understood.
As long as you judge yourself from the view points of others, you will always find yourself in some trouble. Do not care about the opinions which hurts you. Those might be fabricated for you to get into suffering. Therefore, listen to your 'self'. And, Listen carefully to keep yourself in the right direction!
None can enter your mind. Only you are responsible to clean and purify it and handle your ego. Only then you will understand what true knowledge is. The more educated a mind is, the greater is the need for its cleansing and purifying before it becomes receptive to true knowledge. The attachment to knowledge brings arrogance, builds walls of resistance in the mind and blocks the entry of true knowledge. Therefore, ego should be understood beyond any attachment. It is the sense of being. The sense of 'I' without any association! Not even, my mind or my body.
I is within you - appearing as space, nothing, emptiness, void to your mind - completely non-material and non-mental. You have borned from the I and has been given an identity by the world around you. I is the 'self'. I is the pure consciousness or the spirit. I is beyond your body and mind. I is exactly the same in everyone! You are different only at the mental or physical levels. Your mindspace is all inclusive with 'The self' and 'The world' at its two ends -
The self -> Myself -> My Mind -> My Body -> My Need or Desire -> My Actions -> My Life -> My World -> The World
Give up your mindspace, you will find the I within you. The distinction between 'The self' and 'The world' ceases to exist. Therefore, there can't be any distinction between the I in me, and the I in you!
The scriptures are not there to be followed blindly. The purpose of learning from them is to develop the understanding which leads to dharma. At many places the content of these scriptures are written to test the understanding of the learner. It is this understanding which makes any book holy, otherwise it is just like any other ordinary book. You must be at guard at the door of your mindspace armed with your understanding to validate each and every entrant. First a belief comes in as an entrant, you validate it through your understanding. When you are satisfied you allow it to enter. This is how a belief gets converted into knowledge. The experience of this process makes you more and more intelligent!
Scriptures are there to help you develop your own understanding and to make your own guidance. If you follow scriptures blindly, you always find an escape for your failures by finding an excuse. But, if you make your own guidance by your own understanding, you can never hide from taking responsibility for your actions. Just believing in scriptural knowledge is always inferior to the knowledge one gets through experience and self-understanding. Nothing should be trusted or taken for granted, however authoritative the source may be. The knowledge gained through inner purification and self-transformation is much more superior.
Beliefs when understood becomes knowledge. Knowledge when verified beocomes wisdom.
One can be forced to be voilent, but cannot be forced to be compassionate.
One can be forced to be a killer, but cannot be forced to be a healer.
One can be forced to be an enemy, but cannot be forced to be a friend.
One can be forced to be evil, but can never be forced to be good.
All living being follow natural laws. Only human mind needs to control and guide itself, according to dharma. Dharma can never be forced upon anyone, it comes from within. The greatness of dharma is such that one gets overwhelmed by every step of understanding!
The divinity is felt exactly same by everyone. It is alike hunger, thirst or pain, which is there naturally, in all human beings (and may be in all other creatures as well!). The feeling of divinity generate related thoughts and emotions which might be different from person to person. But, the feeling itself is never different. Likewise, there might be many different references, related objects, words, symbols etc. which brings that same divine feeling in your mind.
Without attachment, in the mental state of being, there is the sense of love, not an object of love. There is the sense of divinity, not an object or reference of divinity. Likewise, there is the sense of being (ego, not arrogance), not an object or reference of me i.e. I. All objects, references or labels are only indicative to recall those senses and get into the state of being - pure consciousness, bliss, divinity etc. Distinctions or references are required at behavioural level, but they vanishes completely at spiritual level as all objects, references or labels indicate to the state of being.
To cross a river, a boat is needed. But, after crossing the river, the boat has to be left behind. When a child learns walking, he is given all support which is needed to make him learn. But, when he can walk by himself, he becomes independent of those supports. If he falls while walking in his life, the responsibility lies with him. Similarly, when a student, disciple, seeker or learner, develops his own understanding and establishes dharma within him, he has to detach himself from all the means by which he has attained it. Dharma provides him the capacity to take his own decisions. The entire responsibility lies with him. While taking decisions, if you look at the options without attachments, you always know which is the right one.
When paddling your boat, you must know when to right paddle and when to left paddle. When swimming deep into the water, you must know when to go up and when you can go further down. All that is needed is to take right decision at every step. This is how right directions are found!
You develop your understanding by taking help from others. But, they can never decide for you. Even if you ask someone to take a decision for you, the responsibility for taking that decision and finding a direction lies with you. The judgement of your direction by someone else will be always, a calculated guess!
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