If we are in the hands of a real master, all the things necessary for ‘man to be called man’ gradually come out of themselves.

Sri. N V Raghava Rao

A man’s consciousness is a continuous stream of consciousness and this can be broadly classified into three parts/categories.  On one end is the lower consciousness and the other extreme is the divine consciousness and in between is the human consciousness.   The lower consciousness consists of the animal instincts for the upkeep of the body.  The drives and urges are uninhibited and are impulsive in nature.  This leads to greed and hoarding.  Since we live in a society, interaction with other people leads to comparison and competition which results in jealousy, hatred and envy.

In the human consciousness the person adheres to the five principles of Satya, Ahimsa, Asteya, Aparigraha and Brahmacharya.  Kindness, sympathy and empathy find a place here.  These qualities enable a person to share and sacrifice out of care and concern for a fellow human being.  Brotherhood in a limited sense prevails here.  These qualities and many more qualities get refined and are expressed very naturally, as a sense of duty in the divine consciousness.

A man can live in any part of this spectrum of consciousness.  In fact he moves within the spectrum.  One should take care of the bodily needs and to that extent he lives in the lower consciousness.  He deals with others in the society and he lives in the human consciousness for this purpose.  He can also think of human good, universal brotherhood and contribute his part and live in the divine consciousness.

Each one of us dwells at a particular state of consciousness.  There is scope for improvement.  The knowledge that there is scope to grow to higher levels of consciousness is goal clarity.  There is no limit to it.  For us, there is no goal post; it is an ever receding goal.  Our journey is towards infinity.  For a man to be called man, he should strive to grow spiritually.  This is the beginning of our spiritual journey.

Having fixed the direction of the goal, the next step is to be willing to undertake the journey.  Goal clarity is one thing and willingness to grow is another thing which is equally important.  One should make a strong will to grow.  In any growth process, there will be ‘growing pains’ and one should be willing to endure the pain.  No pain, no gain.

What is the pain in the process? Growth involves expansion.  The existing structure can expand up to a certain limit and cannot expand further. There should be a structural change for any further expansion.  Then it expands to the limit of the new structure.  The cycle of expansion and structural change goes on alternately.  There is no pain at all in expansion; there is ease, relaxation, freedom and joy in it. The structural change causes the pain.  The structural changes and the pain involved can be seen in the growth of a child from the infant stage, to a young kid, to an adolescent, to a young adult.

The structure here refers to the condition, the feelings, the ideas, the notions and the governing laws of that state of consciousness. When we move to the next level, some of the previously held feelings, ideas, notions and the laws could change.  We may like the old condition and may not want to give up.

To explain the structural change, the example of states of water (ice, water, water vapour) can be considered.  In ice, the water molecules are tightly packed.  The structure of ice has its own shape and volume.  When heat is applied, slowly the molecules drift apart and then start to flow.  It turns into water.  It has no shape of its own and it takes the shape of the container.  The volume too changes.  On further heating, water becomes water vapour and the molecules drift further apart and occupy the whole space available. The water molecule in ice thinks that its freedom is restricted.  It cannot move easily, it is attached or bonded to so many molecules tightly.  The water molecule in water thinks that it has a little more freedom and can easily flow.  The water molecule in water vapour thinks that it has a lot of freedom and it can fly.  It feels freedom and the sky is the limit.  As the condition of the water molecule changes, the governing laws of the state change.  The structural changes are sometimes contradictory from the rational viewpoint, but the changes are liberating in the spiritual sense.

Similarly, in spirituality too, the laws change.  We too go through the cycle of unlearning the old and learning the new.  To put it in another way, we transcend the old and embrace the new.  One should be persistent and perseverant and should be willing to undertake the journey in spite of the growing pains. 

Willingness to grow, endurance and steadfastness in the path are required for this eternal journey.  Our journey is growing and expanding into higher states of consciousness.  We are incapable of undertaking this journey ourselves.  We need a master to lift us and hold us (lest we fall).  If at any point of time, we feel that we have learnt and we can undertake the journey ourselves; firstly we slow down because we refuse the additional effect of the master’s support and secondly in the straight path, there is a deviation i.e.  a curvature sets in.  Any path which has even a slight curvature is a circular path.  Instead of going straight towards the goal, we take a circular path and go downwards.

Throughout the journey, the support of the master is required to keep us on the right path and to speed up the journey.  Dependency on the master is a must.  We should yield to the master whole-heartedly and be in his company throughout. He is with us always; we should be with him continuously.  Constant remembrance with love and devotion towards the master makes our journey interesting and enjoyable.  Love means obedience to the master i.e. following the abhyasi’s role as best as we can.

We are bound by so many bondages/attachments to people, money, name and fame, our ideas and notions etc.  The heats that we see in our lives are the situations in our life with respect to our self, our family and the society.  An abhyasi with a stoic attitude will face the situations in a manner befitting a disciple of the master.  If we avoid the situation, the master is persistent and one will face the situation again and again till the lesson is learnt.  The master is trying to teach us lessons by utilizing any and every opportunity that the situations in life offer.  Each person has his own life situations depending upon the baggage he is carrying.  The master takes special care of each one of us and enables us to learn the lessons and move on, on the path.

If the wisdom that ‘master knows better’ and ‘master is with us’ is there in all situations, we can face the situations confidently, positively and fruitfully.   To apply this wisdom in positive situations is easy.  The difficulty is, to think so in not so favourable situations. For this one should be advanced in spirituality.  To be convinced of this fact in seemingly hopeless situations is real faith in the master.  The outcome of the situation is what the master wants.  ‘Master knows what is best for me and he gives that and that alone to me’.  This is surrender to the master, surrender to his will whole-heartedly with deep feelings of love and devotion.  A person with such an unshakable faith in the master is a positive thinker, confident, contended and balanced.  He is happy under all circumstances.

His wish is my command.  His mission is my mission.  I participate in his work to the extent he teaches me and allows me to perform. The feelings that I am the doer, knower and enjoyer in us gradually go down as we are convinced that it is the master who does, knows and enjoys.  Humility slowly starts developing naturally.  We are more and more convinced of our insignificance.  We work for the master and later the master works through us.  We reduce ourselves and the master takes over more and more.  These are the beginnings of negation and we have taken a few but solid steps in the right direction for ’man to be called man’.  There is miles to go, infinite miles to go.

A real master is one who has traversed the path to the farthest limit and who is willing to travel again with us (abhyasis), with each one of us individually, at our individual pace and enable us to get there.  He is our true companion and the only companion who is with us continuously from the beginning to eternity and beyond.

The master is planning our journey.  He is leading us and we are following him.  The first step is, he is waking up the sleeping man and reminding us that to be called a man we should undertake the journey to infinity.  As we wake up and get ready to start, he has already cleared the path (of the obstacles) so that we can take a few steps.  As we start moving, he clears a few more steps ahead of us.  As we move on the path, the path ahead is made ready by the master to move easily.  The point where we are moving is the KASBI condition and the point up to which the master has made the path ready for us is called the AKSI condition.  The aksi condition is always higher than the kasbi condition.  The aksi condition is the point up to which we can move/grow to, which is our potential of growth.  The kasbi condition is the point up to which we have moved on the path or it is the state of consciousness up to which we have owned up.  As we own up and go forward, we improve our kasbi condition.  The master too, in the meanwhile is taking the aksi condition higher and higher.  Our endeavour is to catch up with the master, to bridge the gap between our kasbi and the aksi conditions.  The faster the abhyasi improves the kasbi, the faster the master pushes up the aksi.  The master is more eager to take us higher in the aksi manner but is constrained to push the abhyasi beyond a point because the abhyasi cannot handle it.

If the abhyasi puts in his effort to improve his kasbi condition, the master can lift the aksi condition higher. By our working on improving our kasbi condition, we are cooperating with the master in letting him do his part.  It is a strange way of looking at cooperation where we cooperate with the master so that he can do his part for our benefit!

By self evaluation using the tools that Imperience provides us, we can estimate our kasbi condition.  In taking the sessions of pranahuti and in our individual meditations, we could get glimpses of conditions higher than our kasbi condition and up to our aksi condition.  We should be true to ourselves in our evaluations.  Imagining higher conditions in the name of positive thinking or evaluating too low in the name of humility serve no purpose.

If we are in the hands of a real master, all the things necessary for ‘man to be called man’ gradually come out of themselves.  It is gradual.  Awakening is sudden, understanding is gradual.  Enlightenment happens in a moment, owning up takes time. Enlightenment is given by the master and the owning up is the abhyasi’s task.  The spark is given by the master; the fire spreads by the abhyasi’s effort.  Master’s support and abhyasi’s effort are both compulsory and complementary.  This awakening and understanding, enlightenment and owning up is the growth process involving structural change and expansion that happens at every step in the journey.

The master’s support is through pranahuti offered by the trainers in the Dr KCV order.  We abhyasis yield to the master through the trainer and the masters of the order. 

We abhyasis are all blessed to be born at this time when the real master (Sriramchandra Consciousness) is available and accessible to us easily in the Dr KCV order and we are all growing.  We pray that the whole of humanity recognizes this real master and get into his fold and move towards the real goal of human life – The Real Man.