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“Faith, in true sense, is a
lively link connecting the mortal with the
immortal.”
(Basic Writings of Sri
Ramchandra, Reality at Dawn, Page 250)
Sri.
M.Radha Krishna Murthy.
Our beloved Master, Sri
Ramachandraji Maharaj devotes an entire
Chapter to stress the importance of faith in
spiritual sadhana in his work ‘Reality at
Dawn’ (Dawn of Reality). He observes that
will, faith and confidence are the
elementary factors for easy success on the
path of Realization. The above three phases
in one’s life represent attitudes in human
behaviour. The arising of will in a
practicant can happen only when he has an
acquaintance with the basics of a particular
type of sadhana for which a preliminary idea
about it forms the initial step. If, by
accident, one chances to step into a system,
a little amount of self-effort on his part
to give a fair trial would expose him to
initial experience, which in the system of
Pranahuti Aided Meditation is calmness and
peace of mind at least for a few moments.
Such an experience shall be the precursor
for instilling a certain amount of faith
initially. Repeated experience of a similar
type would establish confidence of one’s
performance in sadhana. This itself is the
first step in one’s developing faith in
one’s own self that he can certainly reach
the goal.
2. Clear and
definite concept of a final goal shall form
the base to a search for a correct path.
Babuji warns that longevity of a path for
practice may not be the criterion as it may
be most unsuited for the present times;
likewise, path followed by majority may not
also be the criterion as the majority may in
all likelihood be misled. Our faculty of
reasoning and past experience may come to
our rescue in selection of a correct method
to reach the goal. Persuasion under promises
of quick gains or temporary relief results
in belief only to vanish when adverse
circumstances had to be faced.
3. Selection of proper
means to reach the goal takes next
priority. There should be faith in
Reality. Multiplicity of Gods, Multiplicity
of means to achieve the goal results in
dilution of concentration, divided attention
and finally resulting in faith on shifting
sands with no stability at any point of time
in a given method. The existence of only one
God, which is the only reality must be got
firmly ingrained in thought, word and deed.
Search for proper means would in the first
instance lead us to a search for proper
guide who can provide us the necessary means
or methods to adopt. Here again, as is the
case with Reality there should be only one
guide (one Master) to lead us on the path,
one mission (purpose of reaching the goal)
and one method (practice, though there may
be many when gone into details).
4. The difficulty a
sincere seeker has to face in this ordeal of
a search for a path, guide and method can
directly be attributed to the confused state
in which majority of people having faith in
religion and are anxious of finding way out
of misery in life faced by them entangle
themselves in the existence of multiplicity
of Gods, variety of methods of worship
mostly representing rituals (long and
vexatious methods included therein) and
divided faith in any one of them.
5 Though all religions were
founded with pious intentions of guiding
huge multitude of people to realize their
own selves, with lashes of time, having
been sufficiently got polluted and corrupted
with interpolations, wrong interpretations
of the original texts by way of umpteen
number of commentaries(mostly available in
Sanskrit with which present generations are
not only not familiar with, but cannot grasp
or interpret the intricate meaning of the
complex texts) present a most confused state
of mind in the practicants.
6. Viewed in the context
of this state of affairs, we have been
fortunate enough to find a way to self
realization in a refined and remodeled
system of Rajayoga founded by Samarth Guru
Sri Ramachandraji Maharaj of Fathegarh
(U.P.,India) opened to mankind willing to
follow the path , making it easy of practice
and get benefited . His successor, Sri
Ramachandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur
(U.P.,India) whom we revere affectionately
as Babuji, established a mission in
remembrance of his guru Maharaj, further
improved the method spreading the same far
and wide being practiced by dedicated and
committed abhyasis spread all over the world
more especially in our country.
7.He maintains that God is
simple and means to reach Him should be ,
and are, in fact, only simple. Keeping our
attention on non-luminous light in the heart
(where it beats incessantly) only with the
presumption that it exists there, one should
lose himself in silence, not minding the
waves of thoughts that generate from the
mind, whose activity perceptibly is. The
purpose behind this psychic exercise is to
empty the mind of its past accumulated
samskaras emanating as waves of thoughts, so
that the heaviness and grossness of mind be
denuded and made light, permitting the
Divine inflow of prana in its pure form.
This is possible only by the process of
Pranahuti. . This entire process is an
invention named as
Pranahuti-aided-meditation. Every practicant
experiences this inflow of Divinity without
exception, which itself is an adequate
testimony of the efficacy of the system.
8. It is from this experience
of every individual that faith emanates
making him confident enough that he can
reach higher levels of consciousness by
constant practice.
9. This introduction of
Divine impulse into the heart of the abhyasi
through the process of Pranahuti is unique
to this system of remodelled Rajayoga
Sadhana. Master’s support continues till the
end. While this support is indispensable,
self effort by the practicant in assiduous
sadhana is a must for progress on his part,
following all methods. Methods in this
system of self realization include getting
rid of all belongings accumulated over
several births as one advances on the path,
feeling lighter and lighter on a daily
basis. Meditation on time at fixed hours;
meditation on points ‘ A’& ‘B’ ; following
of Ten Commandments making it as part of
life for moulding one’s own self to deserve
higher approaches in sadhana, which are of
utmost importance for achieving progress
and constant remembrance of Master at all
times during the day. Above all, craving to
reach the ultimate will help bringing us to
the true form of ours as we advance on the
path.
10. Our aim in sadhana is to
reach the goal which is the mergence with
the ultimate. This can only be achieved by
evincing unshakable faith in Master since
the lively link connecting us with the
Divine is only the Master and He is
virtually the connecting link. It is left
to the practicant to develop abiding faith
in Master, developing Maha-Viswasa, thereby
surrendering himself to Master completely
resigning himself to His will, depending on
Him all the time allowing Him to do whatever
He wants to do, leaving everything to Him.
When you develop an attitude of annyachinta
in all activities, leaning completely on God
, He promises to take complete care of ours
just as mother cat holds its kitten and
changes its young one to safer places from
time to time with least pain or strain to
the young one. If your faith is not that
total in its entirety, responsibility of
protection quickly shifts from the mother to
the child as in the analogy of
‘Markata-kishora-nyayam’ wherein the mother
monkey jumps from branch to branch with ease
not minding the hanging appendage of its
tender young one clinging to the mother on
its own strength with the risk of dropping
of at the slightest moment of its loose
holding of the mother. This analogy
adequately brings forward (viswasa ) which
is of routine nature as compared to
maha-viswasa signifying shraddha in the
third sadhana in tradition by name sadhana
chatushtaya. Babuji says that ‘at this stage
faith is real and genuine and so firmly
established that a man cannot even for a
moment get away from it’. Babuji also opines
that the real faith begins to assume the
form of self-surrender and the final stage
of shraddha (faith) is reached.
11. Finally, to end the
discussion, let us recapitulate what
Babuji says about true
faith. In His words “ true faith is really
an unspeakable virtue which is beyond the
scope of religion, it is the dauntless
courage which leads us to success, it is
that ubiquitous force which makes our path
smooth, it is in fact the only thing that
solves our problem of life”1.
Pranams
References
1. Basic Writings of
SriRamchandra – pg
250
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