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“One must become colourless while playing with
colours.” – Rev. Babuji Maharaj.
Smt.
Dipti Joshi
This sentence has been taken
from Pujya Babuji Maharaj’s article on Holi. In this
article, while referring to the festival of Holi, He
points out that people are mostly attracted to the
different colours of Holi and playing with them. He
further elaborates that there are some people who
play with colours with great enthusiasm and there
are those who do not play but are only onlookers or
bystanders. This does not mean that these onlookers
or bystanders are not interested in playing with
colours. Chances are they are equally interested in
playing with colours.
He then further says that we
should admire the colours not for their differences
but for the colour itself which can manifest in so
many different ways. Here, He makes a very important
statement saying, “That as long as the eyes bear the
power of distinction between black, yellow, blue
colours etc. which is the real aspect of colour, it
cannot be called to have discrimination (real
knowledge) about colours. So long as there is
variety in inclination, one does not give due
respect to colour”.
It is here that he poses a
question, “as to whether Holi comes to get the
colours distinguished or to display His
craftsmanship?” He says that the answer to this
question one has to figure for oneself.
Here Revered Master is using
the example of the colours of Holi to drive the
point that we should not get so involved in the
colours in life that we forget their creator.
What is meant by the colours in
life? Colours in our life mean the different
creations of God. We all are different creations of
God; all the living and non-living things in this
world are His creations alone.
We should carefully examine the
words, ‘variety of inclination’. What does ‘variety
of inclination’ mean? It means we incline towards
some things more than the others. So there is a
variety of inclination within us. Revered Master
states that as long as this variety of inclination
is within us we are not giving due respect to the
colour. How do we find this variety of inclination
within us? We find it when we come across different
people in our life; we also find it when we go
through different situations in our life. If we
examine why we have this ‘variety of inclination’ we
find that we have a particular set of preferences
regarding people, their working, different things,
and different situations. These are based on our
baggage of samskaras. We as followers of Revered
Babuji Maharaj have experienced that this particular
set of preferences which lends different colours to
our soul and gives us that ‘variety of inclination’
keeps us away from reaching a state wherein we will
be leading a balanced life.
Now the next question would be
should we play with colours at all?
Revered Master says “Our
ancestors had sought their ways of realization in
the forests, away from the life of action, forsaking
all ties of worldly connections with their fellow
beings and others”. The reason behind this was that
people used to think that it is impossible to think
about God and keep Him in our hearts constantly
while leading a grihastha life. In a grihastha life,
a person has to take care of the needs of his near
and dear ones. For e.g.: A man has to work to earn
money for the welfare of his family. A woman has to
love and care for the people in the family. While
doing these duties, a person is pulled in different
directions and if the person is not balanced in
his/her dealings then such situations lead to an
unsettled life. However Revered Master further
states in the same message, “We under the Sahaj Marg
system try to create such an atmosphere around us in
our homes so that they serve the purpose of
forests”. (SDG-118)
Therefore under the Natural
Path system, it is very much possible to attach
ourselves to God while in the grihastha life itself.
The colours of the grihastha life are not a
hindrance to our sadhana but if taken with the right
attitude, they are actually helpful in our endeavour.
Revered Master says, “To a man in ordinary sphere of
life, miseries are very helpful for his making”.
Referring to the domestic troubles and miseries of a
worldly life, He quotes His master’s saying, "Our
home is the training ground of patience and
endurance. To endure calmly the adversities of a
household life is for us the greatest penance which
is the noblest of all other forms of penances”.
Master further states in the same message, “Solitary
life in a forest and aloofness from all worldly
concerns may be, to some, the means of cultivating
patience and forbearance but to us, the taunts and
rebukes of our friends and relations is the greatest
penance and the surest means of success. In fact, to
put up coolly with miseries and troubles contributes
much to our betterment; hence they are valuable
assets to our progress” (Reality at Dawn – 29).
Therefore, running away from colours or not playing
with colours is not a wise option. Another reason to
not run away from colours is that our samskaras that
are nothing else but our strong likes and dislikes
towards some situations or things or people, which
we have accumulated over the past, need to come to
fruition and only then we can be free from their
load. The only way by which we can be free from
their load is by going through circumstances
bringing forth their fruition. When we run away from
the colours in life or from the normal circumstances
of a grihastha life, we do not give any chance for
the samskaras to come to fruition. It is only by
living a grihastha life that we can be relieved of
the debts of our parents, brothers, sisters,
children, spouse, and other people who have come in
contact with us.
Since escaping from the colours
in life is out of question, we have to change the
way we play with them. What does it mean to become
colourless? To become colourless while playing with
the colours in life means to have equanimity in our
dealings with everybody. In other words, have a
balanced approach towards everything that we go
through or towards every one that we come across.
How to reach such a balanced state and remain in
that state is what we need to find out. The sentence
taken as the topic of the seminar is the goal
towards which we have to work for. Without being
colourless, it is impossible for a person to be
happy and balanced.
The Natural Path system is the
only system that offers us a practical path towards
this goal and asks us to follow certain meditational
practices and the Ten Commandments that guide us in
our life towards this end. We are supported in our
spiritual path by the influx of Pranahuti which is
an extremely important aspect of the Natural Path
system. We receive Pranahuti during sittings,
satsangs and bhandaras.
Now from our personal
experiences we can very well vouch for this fact
that following the meditational practices in letter
alone is not enough. The system should be followed
in spirit as well. In addition to following these
meditational practices and the commandments, an
abhyasi has certain duties to perform which will aid
in his sadhana and make his path smoother. These
duties are:
·
Developing love and devotion towards
the Master. Revered Master says that developing love
and devotion is a very important duty of the
abhyasi. In one message, Revered Master states, “But
it is certain that in Natural Path, the fragrance of
Pranahuti indwells, but still the factors that get
left behind are Love and Devotion. Along with the
act of Meditation, it is essential that these should
also inhere therein”. He reiterates saying, “It is
your responsibility to engender these factors in
yourselves” (SDG – 106). Initially when we start we
are just attempting to feel the love and devotion
towards Master, however with sincere sadhana, these
qualities start developing on their own. Here
practicing the commandments sincerely will gradually
help us feel love and devotion towards the Master.
·
Inculcating self-discipline to do the
meditational practices. Though the meditational
practices given to us in the Natural Path do not
require us to do any difficult practices, following
the commandments requires a lot of self-discipline
at the physical as well as mental level. Doing the
meditational practices, at least in letter needs a
lot of self-discipline at the physical level. Mental
discipline requires that we remain alert to our
sadhana all the time in the sense that treat
everything that happens in our life on a day to day
basis as His will. In other words we should learn to
accept our situation whatever it is. That way we
will have the necessary forbearance and patience and
tolerance to go through life. The reason for
inculcating self-discipline is, when doing any task
if we do it sincerely, dedicatedly, and with
discipline the results will be seen appropriately,
otherwise half-hearted attempts at doing anything
will never yield results.
·
Giving top priority to our sadhana.
Our sadhana is not exclusive from our day-to-day
life. It is not even a part of our life rather, it
is our life. Once we understand this aspect, we will
find solutions to all our problems in the system of
Natural Path. We have to develop a habit of viewing
everything through the lens of our sadhana alone.
Ours is a very dynamic system and once we start to
learn to mould ourselves with a view to following
the Master thoroughly, we will be very efficiently
and efficaciously guided in our life.
·
Reducing the superfluities in our
life, in other words simplifying our life. We are so
much used to the complexities that we have generated
in ourselves that this aspect of sadhana takes a
little time to understand. The superfluities in our
lives are there because we have felt the need for
their presence in our life at some point or the
other. So now when we are asked to reduce
superfluities, the thought is not very appealing
because we are looking at sadhana from our current
complex situation which has a reason for every
current complexity. However when we yield to the
Master, gradually we start realizing the superfluous
thought patterns that we are holding on to and the
superfluous actions and habits that we have
developed. Letting them go can help us a lot in our
sadhana.
·
Choosing the higher path always and
resisting the temptations of the lower path when in
conflict. Conflicts are with situations or people.
Our first reaction is to take charge of the
situation and try to change it as it suits us and if
this does not work, we sulk about the situation or
complain about it to everybody. However any one of
these options of dealing with the situation leads to
misery because that situation repeats till some
related lesson is learnt by us. The higher path from
our imperiences suggests us to accept the situation
as it is and not fight it or escape from it. By
doing so we allow the higher mind to take control
over the lower rather than the other way round. As a
result of which we do not form further samskaras.
·
Being kind to one self. It is but
natural that we cannot be successful in following
the system both in letter and spirit perfectly from
day one and consistently for a long time as we are
not used to such kind of disciplined life. However
wallowing in guilt about not being able to follow
the commandments well is not going to help us out of
the situation. The 10th commandment is
given to help us in this aspect. However, initially
since the efficacy of the system is not established
in our hearts we think that by being harsh to
oneself is the right way or by talking to ourselves
we can improve. However this is a wrong way to
tackle the problem. Because now we are focused not
on the goal but our own selves. So the sooner we
accept our lapses and seek forgiveness for them in
our bedtime prayer and are careful of not repeating
them again, the sooner we will find changes within
ourselves with respect to our sadhana.
·
Deal with our weaknesses and move
towards effective sadhana. We are very shy of
admitting our own weaknesses and we can ignore them
for as long as possible unless we are forced to
acknowledge them. Rather than waiting for situations
to force us to face our own weaknesses, we should
admit them as soon as we observe them within us.
These weaknesses can be any number of things. Like
Master points out in Jamila’s story. The man liked
Jamila’s dance which he saw by the roadside and
because of that weakness of his, his life went in a
downward spiral very fast. Now Master has very
graciously given us a way out of such weaknesses of
ours. In the same context of Jamila’s story, Revered
Master states that, “Your eyes are caught by the
charming appearance of the dancer. Your thoughts
seem to be diverted for a while. Then also think
that your Master and not you, is seeing the dance.
You will at once lose curiosity for it, because your
Master's power will begin to flow in to relieve you
of the temptation”. The way I have understood this
and experienced it is, when we give this thought
(i.e. the Master is doing that action and not us) if
we are indulging in something not conducive to our
sadhana, we will be filled with disgust or repulsion
and will come out of that particular activity. We
should not misuse it by saying that when I watch a
movie, Master is watching the movie and continue to
do so without any qualms. Revered Master has given
us a way out from such kind of weak behaviour; He
says “A person must cultivate habits, which will be
conducive to his efforts for shattering the network.
For instance, the ears should attend only to noble
talks; the eyes should see only that which is pious
and good; the heart should be inclined only towards
that which is virtuous”. He further adds, “There may
be many such other things, which will automatically
come to his (person’s) knowledge if he is after it.
Besides this, he must also put in his own sincere
efforts to shatter the net” (IB – 37). Once we give
it a sincere try of not feeding such weaknesses in
our mind with further thought and get involved more
and more in our sadhana, then gradually we would
have removed our weakness and made our sadhana
effective to that extent.
·
Taking help of our fellow brother who
is ready to help us on the path. Many a times we are
faced with situations that have us trapped and we
find it hard to come out of them. These situations
are usually a result of our own attitudes and
notions. When faced with something where we are
unable to find a way out, we should take the help of
our guide. Initially there is a hindrance in taking
such a help for the fear of being judged, but
gradually this hindrance goes and helps facilitate a
proper communication with our guide who is there to
help us on our path.
·
Last but not the least, be open to
accept and try out different solutions to the
problems faced in life. We are all used to some
particular kind of thinking and working patterns for
the different situations of our life. In the society
today, we are all the time asked to defend our
thinking and working patterns to others. However
once we join the system, if we continue defending
our thinking and working patterns, we will see
little improvement within us. Rather if we have an
open attitude and listen to what our guide tells us,
contemplate on it, and implement it, it will benefit
us a lot and we will be saving valuable time.
It takes some time to practice
the system in its entirety with considerable
sincerity and dedication. However, once we do it,
viveka and vairagya start developing and we begin to
understand what it is to be colourless. Love and
devotion also start developing and we actually start
to imperience small phases of colourlessness i.e. we
remain unaffected by the situations around us. Our
internal state remains separate and undisturbed from
our outer circumstances. These phases, we observe do
not take us away from our goal but rather reinforce
its remembrance.
Consequently, our interest gets
generated in sadhana as the efficacy of the system
gets established in our hearts and we begin to
understand and implement what Revered Master states,
“Whatever act you do, do it in the thought “It is
the Divine’s command and therefore it is my duty to
do so”, so that the state of remembrance should
continue steadfast”. The necessity for doing this is
when we remain unaffected by situations and events
in our daily life and are balanced in our approach;
we do not form further samskaras or in other words
we are not attracting more colours towards us. In
addition to this, at the same time, we are clearing
off our past samskaras effectively.
To further explain how it is to
be done, Master says, “We are all family people, but
we must be moderate in all our dealings. We should
live a life like the coot and ducks in water. When
they are out of water, they are free from it.
Similarly, we should love all without getting soiled
with attachment. Really speaking, in this way we
learn non-attachment attachment” (SDG – 30, 31).
This way we learn trusteeship. Being a trustee means
we do our due discharge of duty towards our near and
dear ones and do not indulge at the cost of our
sadhana.
As we do this, gradually,
Master starts becoming dearer to us and we start to
feel the colourlessness. In the same message Revered
Master says, “The destination can only be arrived at
by him who has become crazy and mad after it”. He
further states, “Whoever has made progress in this
field, has adopted this very course”. He says, “All
the labour (practices) and abhyas is aimed at this
only”.
When the destination remains in
our view all the time, its qualities will come in us
gradually and all our current situations and states
start moulding towards that goal. Gradually by
following the Natural Path system diligently and
sincerely with love and devotion, we learn to stay
in that colourless state more and more. Once this
happens, our life gets its real meaning and we begin
to live life as a true creation of the Divine/God.
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