What is the fruition of the desire for liberation? It will happen only through association with saints. Surrender and taking refuge under a saint is also rare.
Temporary Freedom From Sorrow
How to free ourselves from sorrow? This is the fundamental question. There are some methods by which we can temporarily forget our sorrows. Immerse yourself in a productive task. Perform rituals. So long as your perform meritorious actions, your sorrow will be forgotten. Ok, take someone who is dear to you, a woman, a deity, Ishvara, mentally embrace them, meditate upon them. You will forget your sorrow immediately. Go into samaadhi (mental absorption), your sorrow will be dropped for that duration. And if you consume a pill that makes you unconscious, you will forget your sorrow as well.
But these methods of temporary relief from sorrow do not satisfy the seeker. Their effect lasts for a short amount of time. All these methods do not enable spontaneous happiness. They only enable an artificial or superficial kind of pleasure. Go into samaadhi for a while, but it will end eventually. Meditate upon your beloved, take a sleeping pill, perform a ritual, the sorrow will hide for a while but will reappear! Such methods do not encourage spontaneous joy.
Spontaneous joy means supreme bliss (paramaananda). Spontaneous joy does not refer only to the absence of sorrow or to the cessation of misfortune. It is the realization of the supreme bliss that is inherent within us. Also, this inherent bliss is such that it transcends limitations of space, time and object.
There is the absence of sorrow in samaadhi, but not the emergence of spontaneous joy, not of supreme bliss. Therefore, the happiness of samaadhi is neither liberation nor an immediate method of liberation.
Worship (upaasanaa) is a thought flow, a series of related thoughts (vritti) towards something that is dear to us. Here, liberation is only possible due to the grace of the target of worship. But this type of liberation does not free us from inferiority. If freedom comes from gaining something, then the one who gave it to us can always take it right back.
Freedom obtained through action (karma) will be perishable. The force of action perishes, and so, liberation derived from action will perish as well. This notion is supported by the Poorva Meemaamsaa school and Swami Dayaananda as well.
Therefore action, worship and yoga samaadhi cannot permanently end sorrow. Buddhists categorize liberation as follows : nirvaana, mahaanirvaana, parinirvaana and atinirvaana. But all these are levels of mental states.
Types Of Liberation
Some philosophers consider death as liberation. Among those people, some accept the notion of gradual liberation (krama mukti). Here, one first goes to brahma loka, and gets liberated in due course. Others accept instant liberation after death (sadyo mukti). Yet others accept living liberation (jeevan mukti) where one is liberated even while they are alive. A saint said : look here, why are you trying to categorize liberation? Liberation eliminates all notions of difference. Liberation is indivisible. Why are you creating division in it?
Once I asked Shri Udiyaa Baabaaji Maharaaja : "Is jeevan mukti superior or is videha mukti?". He said : "The thought of both is inauspicious. However, whatever, whenever we are, we are ever liberated. Our wave is called paramaananda, our light is called chaitanya, our is-ness is called adhishthaana (substratum,base) brahman".
Permanent Freedom From Sorrow
In reality, the permanent end to sorrow cannot be experienced as something different from our substratum, the self awareness (aatma chaitanya). The endless existence-consciousness self (sat chit aatmaa) is the spontaneous supreme bliss. Therefore liberation is another name for our own self. That self, which is perceived through removal of ignorance, is real liberation. This knowledge need neither action nor inferiority. It only needs the attainment of the always-available self. It is not concerned with attainment of any unattainable state, situation or object.
The self (aatmaa) appears to be bound due to ignorance, by knowledge it is ever free. That which is attained through ignorance is never there in reality, and that which is obtained through knowledge has always been there. Therefore, there is no bondage in the self, and liberation is its true identity, its true form (svaroopa).
Knowledge Equals Liberation
So therefore, the desire for liberation concludes in the attainment of liberation, and the attainment of liberation is the knowledge of the already-attained (siddha) liberating-nature (mokshasvaroopa) of the self. This knowledge is not born out of action, not out of worship and not out of yoga. This is the negation of apparent bondage of the self, and the evidence of its inherent freedom. This evidence is free from the faults of confusion (bhrama), inadvertance (pramaada), failure of senses (karanaapaatava) and deception (vipralipsaa), as indicated by Jeeva Goswami. This evidence is derived from the means thought flow (pramaana vritti) born of Vedic great statements (mahaa vaakyaas). It is only possible through taking refuge under a saint, and not through anything else.
People who earn wealth associate themselves with millionaires. Lawyers and doctors associate with senior lawyers and doctors as well, as do others in their respective fields. Now, you desire knowledge of brahman, but not the association with knowers of brahman! Why are you shy or embarrassed to associate with saints?
Approaching A Saint
Do you want to learn the Gita through the radio? You are stretching out on the sofa and listening to the Gita on the radio! Why so? It is so that the status of your ego (ahankaara) is preserved. But the status of your ego is one thing, and liberation or realization of Ishvara is another.
Association with saints means taking the refuge of saints while discarding your ego. It means casting aside your prowess, beauty, wealth, caste, knowledge, skill, title, all kinds of pride as you approach the saint.
"Only that knowledge gained from a saint is established". (Chhaandogya Upanishad 4.9.3)
Go to a teacher (guru) to obtain the knowledge of the essence. Do not call him into the house for Vedanta tuitions - you cannot buy a teacher. The teacher's status will fall and the student's status will rise. It is also not the case that Vedanta will come out of the shlokas. Only a sincere approach of the teacher is fit to be termed as the true association with saints (mahaapurushasamshraya).
Someone once asked a saint "O King! How does knowledge arise?" He replied : "How does a lamp burn?"
Hold a lit lamp next to another. The other will also start burning. One flame lights another. Association with a saint will remove all your obstacles to liberation. A certain air, a certain moon light, a certain fragrance, a certain touch emanates from a saint. It automatically gives us the capability of bliss, of reality.
When we start moving from the small to the large, we should understand that the largest of them all - Ishvara - is pulling us towards him. This is an indication of Ishvara's favour.
Only our will should be done - thinking like this is not Ishvara's favour. When we associate with methods of connecting us to Ishvara, we should recognize that as Ishvara's favour. Step one is human birth, step two is the desire for liberation, and step three is association with saints.
Any type of association with the saint - intellectual, emotional or physical - is beneficial. There was once a student of Shankaraachaarya Bhagavaan who did not learn anything. He was illiterate. He used to serve Shankaraachaarya Bhagavaan by washing his clothes and dishes, and always used to walk behind him and stand with folded palms. One day, Shankaraachaarya Bhagavaan was singing a devotional song. Other students began mocking the dull student. He became sad, and prostrated before his master in a mood of sadness. Shankaraachaarya asked him : "who are you?". He replied : "What do I know who am I". Then Shankaraachaarya placed his hand on the dull student, he said the following:
"I am not a man, a god or a forest dwelling spirit. I am not a brahmin, a kshatriya, a vaisha or a shoodra. I am not a brahmachaari, a householder, a retiree or a renunciate. I am only the ever pure free brahman which is of the nature of knowledge."
Everyone was amazed. This is the glory of association with saints.
No comments:
Post a Comment