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Pujya Dr. K.C. Varadachari - Volume -1
 

Talks and Lectures on the System of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga

Dynamics of Spiritual Life

  
Though I would present the subject in a subjective way my illuminations of this subject would be from the point of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga, a system of realisation propounded by Sri Ramchandraji of Shahjahanpur. That does not mean that Shahjahanpur theory is a new one. It is new in so far as it tries to bring about a more, healthy and normal unification of the power of man, which have been unfortunately divorced from each other in the long history of religions, not only here but elsewhere. When I chose the subject of the Dynamics of Spiritual life, I was almost thinking about the division usually made in physics about the statics and the dynamics of matter. We have a static view of the world, a view of the world which is so fixed that we are, each one of us given a particular part to play and that alone and there is no question of evolution or growth but only emancipation from the burden of that work. So, every one of us born in this world is said to live a life in the routine way prescribed by the Sastras following certain duties, according to the status of life for the function to which one is born and according to the age to which one belongs, age group to which one belongs. Therefore, everything was said clearly and rules are being framed rather rigidly and as in all cases of rules, they need exceptions and exceptions become the rule. So much so, the rule becomes merely something in the statute and not really followed. So, the statics of our religious life in this country and elsewhere has been a growth of religious patterns of behaviour which may well be described as ritualistic patterns said to be good but really not delivering the goods. Man feels bond. He does not feel freedom even in the performance of the rituals or his duties. But, really that condition has produced one phenomenon that we in India, are considered to be Karma-bond. We are creatures of Karma and therefore we are karma ridden. Nothing can make us get out of Karma, the bond of Karma, or the bondage to Karma and all our efforts are to find out a way, by which we can get out of the bondage to Karma. Then, as it was suggested there was a heavy theory called the doctrine of Karma that our past binds us, and will bind us and we can do nothing about it. It has made it much more impossible for us to seek a doctrine of Moksha or liberation. So, so far as we are concerned, we are people obsessed by the concept of Karma and Karma in the largest sense of the word includes Dharma or duties and these duties are so fixed that we can hardly emancipate ourselves from that. To break out duties was to court excommunication in ancient times, in earlier times till last century, I should feel. And, when we came under the foreign rulers whether they were Islamic or Christian, we became more rigid about our observance of Dharma because we were afraid that we will lose the little security that we have in our Karma. Well, that is rather a paradox. But then you know such a thing alone forged us to a resistance to the invasion of Islamic and Christian power and made us Hindu-conscious or Hinduism-conscious but what a Hinduism have we inherited now? Here again there are two types of people - the reformist Hindus and traditional Hindus and both of them are struggling, one for the preservation of the karma and another to modify the karma to suit the modern age whether it is Islamic modern age or Christian modern age or the technological modern age of today. So, on the whole we are finding it rather a very difficult thing to believe that religions can emancipate us and the methods given for emancipation seem to be certain kinds of formulas. For instance, if you want to emancipate yourself, they counsel ANASAKTHI YOGA OR NISHKAMA KARMA. Do all your actions according to the principles of nonattachment to the fruits thereof, or try to imagine that you are Brahman and that you are not caught by this Karma. But imagining merely that you are not caught by Karma has not emancipated you from Karma. And a formula has not released us. Every one of us has been uttering Japa or the Maha Vakyas or other doctrinal thesis of the other vedantins. But merely a reaffirmation or reiteration of the ancient slogans called Mantras or tenets has not provided the clue towards emancipation. Now-a-days people are confronting the materialist world with so called Bhakthi, devotion and devotion to what? devotion to ancient past modes of behaviour, devotion to certain types of worship and without any kind of desire for real emancipation. Now therefore the static condition has arrived. We are now in a static condition. As against this static condition, Sri Ramchandraji has provided a dynamic mode of approach to the same problem. There is no use in merely confronting man with duties of the society or towards the society nor by confronting with formula of Veda nta-Advaita, Visistadvaita, or Dvaita or any in betweens, as we may know. Nor is it alright to say it is enough to say that we are listening to Puranas and Ithihasas and spend time chanting the names of God only. What really matters then, is, we do require a higher consciousness to help us out of the situation. To provide that condition is the business of a great teacher. It must be possible for one to bring the liberator into consciousness into the consciousness of the unliberated. The slave must certainly safely feel the presence of the emancipator and one who emancipates man from his past and from his bondage is a real emancipator. This forward looking spirituality, as I call it, rather than backward looking, religiosity has been provided by this new methodology devised by Sri Ramchandraji. He himself does not claim that it is altogether new in the history of the Universe. He states that this was an ancient method nearly 10,000 years ago. Well, you must believe there was civilisation 10,000 years ago and then, it was that a great Rishi of that time used to utilise this divine force and make people transform themselves into divine nature, that is into free beings. Somehow that technique was forgotten and what remained was the Raja Yoga practice that we are getting and have got from Patanjali and others. There have been several types of yogas - Hata Yoga, Laya Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Japa Yoga and then all the three modified in the systems of Gnan Yog. Bhakthi Yog, and Karma Yog. So there have been any number of yogas and latterly we have Tantric yogas called the Kundalini yogas which have attracted so many of our people and promised liberation by rousing of the Kundalini. But, how is this to be done? It was an arduous process and that was an obstinate way by which a man should persist by rousing up a force which he could not control. That is why at one stage, especially in the Raja Yoga of Patanjali it has been completely omitted. So Raja Yoga of Patanjali took up the real aspect namely that only the mind can be utilised for getting over its own bondage because MANAYEVA MANUSHYANAM KARANAM BANDHA MOKSHAYOH. Man's Mind is the cause of his bondage and mind should be made the means to his liberation. So, if mind is the cardinal principle in man, man is known as one who has a mind. We do not say the animals have a mind but perhaps we may say that animals have a mind namely an animal mind. Nothing in the world is without a mind. But man has that mind which distinguishes between the right and the wrong, that which binds and that which liberates. He has the discrimination to say that this thing will bind, this thing liberates. He can reason from causes to effects and finding that an effect comes from a particular act, he can either repeat the cause or negate the cause, in order to be emancipated from the effect or rather the evil effect. So, taking the mind as capable of discrimination as the means by which we can, not only make it move to the objects but restrain itself from the objects, which corrupt its action. He suggested that the control of the mind is the most important thing. And if you control the mind, you are able to have a kind of calm. But the end is not of course to control the mind alone. It is realisation or Kaivalya or Moksha. Moksha is the goal. Every other thing is only a means. Control of the mind is only a means, towards liberation from the mind ultimately or rather liberation from the mind that tends to bind. So, we must reserve the activity of the mind - which ties us up to objects which ties us up to certain experiences - what we call enjoyments of the world or powers which make us materialistic. So, the mind makes matter, makes us enjoy matter, but after some time finds by that matter binds its own activities it strives to liberate itself. At this point Patanjali himself intimates that individual effort, by itself, cannot control the mind i.e., Man's mind, a bonded mind cannot liberate itself without the help of a higher mind, and this is called ISWARA. That is why, it says if you want to get liberation, you must seek the help of Iswara-Iswara Pranidhana is necessary. You must surrender to the higher consciousness and the mind of God. And your surrender will determine your capacity to control your mind or rather you will experience the control of your mind by means of the divine grace. So, this particular aspect of controlling the mind was therefore left to God. In the yoga doctrine, Iswara is only the Guru. A function of Iswara in Yoga - in our yoga, is to be the Guru, one who introduces his consciousness or his mind, or by the use of His mind controls our mind and brings it to equalisation with his mind (Samatwa). That is why, the importance of a Guru, who is like God or God himself, cannot be exaggerated. But then this God is different. This God is not the creator, sustainer, destroyer of the universe. He may be all that. But that is not what we are having as a form of God. The form of God for us is the form of a teacher or the Guru who is introducing his consciousness or his mind to control or bring it to balance or equanimity. This is the unique function in this system of the Guru or the Iswara. So the choice of God as a Guru is very important. God alone must be chosen as the Guru and he who can do it, controls my mind in terms of his mind and liberate my mind from its bondage seeking activities. He is very near God. You can define him as God and if you can do it, well you may be considered to be candidates for God-hood, but that does not mean that we are having the idea of only one God and all that. I just do not want to discuss that metaphysics. Dhyan is the method by which the divine mind has taken charge of your mind. Your Manas is therefore taken up and made to retrace itself to the nature with which it came from its liberated condition to the bondcondition. That is, you reverse the tendencies of the mind. That is its Vasanas, its sanskaras and its past are slowly being thrown out of it. Its bondage to its own past. Its own previous movement towards objects. The mind becomes turned inwards and upwards. This is a process done only by the Master and that is done by the introduction of this divine consciousness into his being.

Now this particular secret of the introduction of the divine consciousness into our consciousness, and transforming it, is a discovery of Sri Ramchandraji. We have all had it by saying that we should be in the company of great men, who have inward turned gaze. But the actuality with which it has been realised, in each one of us is a special message and work of Sri Ramchandraji. How to introduce it into the heart of a man? How to help the Dhyan of the individual to go on - so that it can reach the highest state of liberation even when one lives in one's own body is a special discovery, as I said, of Sri Ramchandraji. This he calls 'Pranahuti', the giving of life to the JIVA. It is the giving of life - a divine life. Practically demonstrably into the heart of every individual and leading him towards the higher experiences of equality with the divine consciousness -Samatvam (Adhigachathe) as Sri Krishna put it. That Samatva -that equality that Samadhi with God consciousness -to make it Sadhamya the same function and nature of the divine consciousness is done only by this supreme consciousness God himself. That is why in the dynamics of this system the Master actually takes the individual soul in its bond condition, in its bond mind and leads it by purifying the mind, removing from it the gross that has accumulated in the form of Samskars and Vasanas either Prarabhdha or Sanchitham and takes it straight up to oneness of the divine consciousness or likeness with the divine consciousness; like function.

SARUPYA, SALOKYA, SAYUJYA are all possible because it is done with the help of the divine consciousness itself and not by individual effort. No individual effort is needed as a special offering to the divine to bring about the transformation of man's nature. Now true spiritual life is the attainment of identity or equality with the divine nature. We have been so far accustomed to hear that any one that merely says word of God or name of God is spiritual. Well, we do not accept that view because that is too gross a view. For instance, I shall mention that God is not only one status. God has infinite status. Our ancients knew that very well YEKAMSAT VIPRAHA BAHUDA VADANTI. Agni, Varunam, Aryama, Indra and so forth. Now what is the status of each? As the Itreya Brahmana puts it very nicely and elsewhere also, Agneh Avamaha Vishnoha Paramaha. Agni belongs to the earth, Vayu to the air - Anthariksha and so on due to the work. We know the Gods have been allotted to several planes. BHUR BHUVAH SUVAH MAHEH, TAMAH, JAPAH, SATYA. They are in different planes. Now what is the status with which you are worshipping God. So our people have created a large theology about it, and theogony as I will say or Cosmogony and placed him everywhere and then what is your liberation. If you are merely worshipping God on the physical plane, would it liberate you - or the middle plane or 3rd plane, the 4th plane or the 5th or the 6th or the 7th. Obviously liberation come when you go to the 7th plane - Satya Loka, where everything is real. Now the God whom you have to worship should be the highest. And we in this country are struggling to find out who is the highest and I think we have not even today decided as to who is the highest. That is why all that may be said about our own excellent variety, of manifoldness and realistic approach to the levels of reality only shows partial ideas of God-head and not the total liberating aspect of God. As I said at the beginning we must think about God as the liberator, as the Guru who liberates rather than as one who is controlling the universe, ordering the universe, as one who is establishing the Dharrna or even as PARITHRANAYA SADHUNAM VINASAYACHA DUSHKRUTAM DHARMA SAMSTHAPANARTHAYA SAMBHAVAMI YUGE YUGE protecting the good, punishing the wicked and for establishing dharma everywhere, is born in every age - quite good in themselves but where is the emancipation? The fundamental aim of worship of God by man is for emancipation - Mumukshatva. You must desire liberation and the bondage to any God is a bandage, though it is a silken bondage. It may be a gold one - it may be a silver one - it may be a copper one or may be an iron one - may be a silken one. Even the bonds of love can be bonds. So which is the KASMAI DEVAYA.

As the Upanishad puts it which God shall I adore? Which God shall I worship? Well we in this system know that we want liberation. We must only think about the transcendent supreme god head, who is known as the divine - THADEKAM - that one supreme being alone can give us liberation and he is called one because no one else can give that liberation. He is the only one who can give liberation because he is transcendent to all processes and all the levels of this world and consciousness. So the idea has been that though religions have given us a realistic picture of the world that have been governed by Gods and powers and they are indeed worshipable, praiseworthy and we have been doing that they have not liberated us. If we want liberation, the real spiritual life - far beyond the material world, which binds us, then we must worship only that ultimate form of God as liberator, as one who makes us free from all bondages, rather who makes all our bonds light and not bonds at all and who gives us opportunities of a further growth into his infinite nature. It is one of our great discoveries in this country that God has been called Anant-Infinite and to that infinite are we wedded in true spiritual life. We have got two terms which we use - God as Atchutha and God as Anantha. Atchuta is one from whom you cannot fall down once you reach Him. Anantha is one who gives a dynamic aspect of taking you farther and farther into deep levels into his infinite nature, which we cannot in our finite mind, and by our finite consciousness, understand. So, this dynamic nature of the supreme being which you realise, when you become of the same mind that is, Samadhi with equality with his mind and again Sadharmya with him opens up the infinite before you, the words of liberation which do not bring about any bondage, of any sense. That is said to be true spirituality. That is why Sri Ramchandraji used to put it in this way. The end of philosophy is the beginning of religion. The end of religion is the beginning of spirituality; the end of spirituality is the beginning of reality. So you will see that till you reach that ultimate state of Ananta which is possible to us, you do not realise your real nature and you are not a selfrealised being either. Realisation means that when you realise the reality when you become one, with the reality and begin to form and act upon to the laws of reality-the laws that do not bind but enhance your infinity. You begin to act according to new laws with new freedom. This is a vista, a possibility opened up by this simple process of what is called transmission or Pranahuti which is the introduction of the divine consciousness into the heart of the Abhyasi so that his mind might get accustomed to the new laws and become one with these, with the divine life and the divine mind. This is a very big experiment in spirituality? I may tell you that this was the aim of the earliest of saints, That was far far in the past of our spiritual life. I do not know whether I should say that was the Satya Yuga since, and then we have become degrading ourselves using lower minds and still lower minds. Today, we are using only this time conscious mind, bound by time, and all its bondages. To liberate this consciousness is a divine effort, not merely a human one. We can take it therefore that this is an opportunity, not ungrounded in the reality. It is not merely a utopian dream and a visionary one. It is something within the possibility of every one of you and this is another thing which the new dynamics of Sri Ramchandraji shows. That is when any man comes to do this particular practice, he finds that there takes place particular change of being leading him into a larger consciousness. It is first experienced as the dawn of calm or silent mind. His mind becomes gradually more and more silent but not ineffective. He finds that when bondages are being released or removed and when the dirt is being taken out of him, he is able to function in a clearer and a swifter way. It is a new possibility of seeing and experiencing by us, at least, and I should feel almost every one of us in a little way or a bigger way has experienced this there is quickening of the functions of the mind in a liberated way, uncontaminated and untrammelled by the past or by the rules which have been previously governing matter. Now that is to show what Siddhis are available within this system. But we do not pursue the Siddhis for the sake of Siddhis. The Siddhis are natural products due to the liberation of the mind from the trammels of its own past or Vasanas or desires. Now all this is achieved in an absolutely unobstrusive way but then they are not our goal and as the liberation process would get arrested. The divine takes us rather fast through those stages till we reach the state of Samabhava or Samatva. That is why in this system Samadfii happens normally without all that which go on in that obstinate way of human effort. That is why it is so easy to have the Sarnadhi state and also the Sahaja condition to feel that you are always in that free condition. The mind does, not seem to be bond. It experiences freedom. But there is no ego in the matter. The ego also is surmounted, because at the -very start the ego is taken over into custody by the Divine consciousness. So, we find some of us who have experienced it find that liberation comes from the very first moment we are introduced into this system. But to appreciate it, requires only the willing surrender of the individual, constantly to the operation of the transmission, He must open himself to the transmission, and seek it with a fervent prayer that you may experience spiritual life or liberated life in its truest sense. The time taken by the other systems is much longer, some times the whole life is not sufficient. Some people have said that even a whole life of Karm yog would bring us into Gnan yog and another whole life of Gnan yog will bring us into Bhakthi yog - devotion to the divine. Then of course there are quarrels about which should be first undertaken, and I am not going to enter into that. As I hold that when these three are one yoga what is the use of pulling down the one and not pulling down the other two. So, I am not going to enter into what is called the casuistical process by which our Pundits have been spending their time. I would much rather take man as a whole and therefore l dedicate myself to the realisation of the ultimate which I think is Parajnana. If I am said ,to be intelligent, why am l intelligent? I have chosen the ultimate not the penultimate. I have chosen that which liberates. I have not chosen which binds me however softly. So l have chosen wisely and my devotion to the ultimate to reach it somehow by dedication, by surrender, by giving up my ego or by subordinating my ego, to it even my thoughts, even thought itself my reasonings, my doubts - all these things l subordinate. Just keep them in abeyance with a freedom to revise them if I want. That devotion must be there. It comes naturally and every one of my actions is directed towards realising this oneness with the divine. Whatever I do, whatever I think about, whatever I desire, is always towards that one goal of freedom. Therefore all the three portions of my being are integrated in this particular way and so there is no quarrel about which yoga I shall follow and therefore I need not take many births in order to realise God. They say it is much richer to go through every experience and then finally achieve the ultimate and then if you want that kind of going about every experience not one life, but many lives or millions of lives will be necessary before you reach God. But supposing a man reaches God first, and all these things are given to him and he knows and understands his real nature, is it not a much shorter way? Therefore our people stated "first know God and then everything will come to you. All experiences would be possible to you, without binding you, without tempting you, without making you go astray - this gives you a perfect picture of a liberated man in a liberated world". That is why the great promise of this particular system of dynamics of spiritual life, which I call the principle of introduction of the supreme consciousness into the heart. It facilitates, quickens and arrives at that supreme state of equality with the divine, without any possibility of stepping oneself down into the lower nature, falling a victim to the lower movements of the mind. This is a great contribution to the modern mind tossed society, a society in which neurotics are much greater number than healthy people where psychological people are trying to become pathological experts. We are in difficulties because the true psychology of man and his nature comes from a spiritual angle and a spiritual determination of the divine purpose which has decided that man should be emancipated from his lower mind and brought in consonance with the divine mind and because this optimism somehow inspires me that man is destined to become divine and his mind has to be made identical with the divine mind, and that the human mind should operate in terms of the laws of divine mind itself.

I have great pleasure in introducing this topic to you today as the real dynamics of our being. We have to forget the statics. We have got to take up the dynamic mood in that lies a possibility not only for our country but the whole universe. But ultimately when you become divinely conscious you become cosmically conscious - not only cosmic conscious, you become transcendent conscious - not only this cosmos but every cosmos is brought into your vision and action and participation. Then alone you will be able to say with the Vedic Rishis SARVAM KALUVIDAM BRAHMAM. Then alone can you say that, the whole world everything in this universe is verily Brahman vast spiritual the divine, otherwise the meaning of our ancient Upanishads is very shallow indeed, however, eminently mouthed but that does not deliver the goods sub-consciously. So, I am glad on this occasion to be able to speak to you something about the direct possibility of a divine approach and a dynamic approach for the problems of spiritual life of this country and of the World.