Discourses on The Philosophy of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga - Lecture -2

It was suggested in Sri Ramchandra's Raja Yoga, and Master himself has stated in the 'Reality at dawn' that 'the end of religion is the beginning of spirituality, the end of spirituality is the beginning of Reality and the end of Reality is the beginning of Bliss. Reality goes beyond all spiritual, religious and philosophical systems.

The ideology of Sri Ramchandra's Raja Yoga has to be propagated. That is why this book was written. What is the ideology of Sri Ramchandra's Raja Yoga which is different from the ideologies that have come into philosophy for the last two thousand years? Philosophy, for some, means merely observation or experience through senses. Or, it is something that is improved on the basis of the senses or it is something that is an interpretation of the revelations which have been made by certain extraordinary people. And the extraordinary people might have recorded what they have seen but we are expected to take with good trust and not even verify it. One can question them only at the cost of excommunication as in the west. The last word has been said and we cannot change a letter in the word nor can a verb be changed in the sentence.

I do not concede the claim that we have triumphed the Nature. Nature has its vengeance on everything. Nature will modify every good thing. I therefore, consider most of the revelations to be beautified ancient Truths. If you are a person who wants to find out what should have been the original fossil, well you may try it. You can use carbon tests and other tests. After all, you cannot get the bones of Reality. Those bones in Sanskrit are called Asthi. I do not say they are false. I say they have to be recovered, and verified. Therefore, we are trying not to experience in the sense that is coming from outside, but by an inner contact with Reality, a contact by which Reality can flow into us and we might be able to know the Eternal meaning of things and therefore be able to verify properly the most ancient relics and place them in the proper perspective or correct them so that they become all true. It was said of the great interpreters of the Vedas that they are using their small instrument of reason for understanding Cosmic or Supra-cosmic things. So all that you have from the translations of great Pundits must be taken as such.

So I hold that this ideology starts with a real connection with the Ultimate, and so meanings of the big words were found by our Master. That is what Shri Ram Chandraji of Fatehgarh did in some of his writings. Some of them have been recovered. And Shri Ram Chandraji had to rescue those writings. A few have been published in "Sahaj Marg" and our friend Sri Saranad of Gulbarga has translated the writings of Master into English. They are yet to be printed.

Take for instance, the Vedantic words Atman and Brahman. We are told that Atman is Brahman and that is a great Mahavakya "Aham Brahma Asmi" - What do these terms exactly mean? According to our Grandmaster, the word Atman has got two words in it. Ath and Man. Man is the thing. Ath is to live. The thought with the Ath is Man - thinking in terms of particulars. We are all people who think in terms of particulars. Individual particular things we gather, observe particular things alone and we have to use some other faculty to put them together.

Now all these come under this classification and so Atman is a person or mind which thinks in terms of particulars. And so, how can it seek about the generality of nature of Reality then? Mind is accustomed to observation of particulars. Not even that knowledge is perfect, because there cannot be a particular unless it is a part of a whole and unless you know the whole, you cannot know the part fully. One man said "If I want to know about the full nature of the flower in the garden I must know the Reality of which it is a part". So, the whole knowledge should come into picture. The individual mind, the Atman is very much fitted for doing some actions - for finding its food and only those things which are edible and giving up the inedible things. As it was said by an Irish poet "We are men by anguish taught to distinguish false from true".

Therefore, we have to trust the 'Pure light' to understand the Reality. So Atman is mostly not whatever people say something very good. That is why, in our system, Atman is fixed at a point in the right side of the chest. Now, what is it that the word Atman means. It is a particular consciousness of thinking capacity - a capacity, a thinking in terms of particulars.

What is Brahman? Mind - Man - it thinks in terms of Cosmos. Some minds do not think in terms of particulars. They think in terms of all alone, not of parts. And the great prophecy of the Vedic seer was that in fact these two are one. The Atman cannot exist without the mind and the mind cannot exist without the Atman.

The total consciousness is necessary to understand the particular, and the particular knowledge is absolutely necessary for the whole. The two ways of knowing - one proceeding from the cosmic to the particular, the other aspiring from the particular to the Cosmic. Now, here, two words have come. (I know a little bit of philology.)

Let us take another word - the word 'Prana'. What is Prana? Prana is that by which everything lives. And most things are living, some of them non-living, some of them are quarter-living, some of them are half-living. There are degrees of living. We cannot say that we are living fully. If you are living fully, you would not have come here. Because we have found that our living is not good, and in fact we are dead in some parts of our being we want the full life. And, what can that mean? We want life to feed us in every part of our way. And this life can only be given by the Ultimate Reality, because the Ultimate Reality sustains the so called 'non-living' by just becoming and flowing towards it. You think that there is no life at all in the inorganic material. Thought has become gross. But if you can somehow break that particular grossness of matter, you will find that it releases thought. So, this is the experience of matter or the atom. This experience of an atom on the one side and Atman on the other side shows that if you can introduce this force into anything it becomes alive. So master says this offering of the spiritual and highest consciousness sometimes makes it grow into greater sensitiveness and awareness of the life. Atom is not conscious of its Reality. We are only partially conscious of the Reality and are aspiring to have full consciousness of life, so that we can live fully both in the atom of our bodies and Atman of our being and Brahman. That awareness is possible only by introducing different types of Prana.

Prana means outer air for most people. In fact, the inner air is called Prana and the outer air is called Vayu. That is not the fact at all. The true fact is that it is a Divine power that makes things which are dead come into life. Growth is possible only when there is Prana. When Prana is decreased, then, there is no growth. And that is the basis of Pranayama. People extend the duration of the breathing. They ask us to breath the air, 'keep it down to that' etc. This exercise goes on for half an hour or an hour. Some people think that they can go on doing it all through the day.

So far as I know that is a very troublesome one, and we who are doing our work, cannot afford to take to this type of exercise which does not take us to the Reality. And, if it is so in your case, what about the other things which cannot breathe? What about the elements? My own feeling is that Master said that this Prana has Ultimate force or original force, and this should be offered into the hearts of men and when this is introduced as the Food of the Soul, the Soul begins to look up for its goal. If you want to say that for any plant to grow, you want fertilisers, you have to fertilise your Soul by giving this Prana. Therefore, it is a very necessary process to have this Prana, and this is the uniqueness of our system.

What is the differentiation between this system and other systems? Not in the idea of God, not in the idea of the Individual soul and not in the idea of Brahman does this system differ from others, but in the introduction of the Divine Force into you, by which you will grow to a true spiritual stature, which means that you will be able to realise yourself as the Reality. We pass from the unreal to the Real, from immoral to the moral, from ignorance to the Knowledge, of which we are ignorant, and this cannot be described by the ordinary mind. This Pranahuti has to do an extraordinary amount of work. It prepares for the future. It wants you to think beyond this body. Life is continuous whether it is having body or not and that life is real.

So, the language which our Master has used for the system of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga - atleast for these three terms - is unique. As for the word Natural Path, what does it mean? Master says it is a simple path. It is not a path that requires extraordinary practices. Control your body in order to control the mind that we do not accept. Nor do we think that by controlling the mind we can control the body. Firstly, you cannot control your mind. Mind cannot be controlled by you. It cannot be controlled by your gross-mind. In this context I remember one man who has been very assiduously teaching for the last 50 years that you can control your mind by agitating it and analysing it. And suddenly it seems the mind will extract. But it will result in fatigue and that is not Reality. Some people say that discourse between the master and the disciple (both of them become exhausted) leads to Reality. That is Vada - Vada, what is called as dialecting, Tarka. But, you do not find it in Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga. Battling with words will not help. Arguments and all that is not the way towards Reality. That is not Sahaja. The ambiguous use of words is one of the secure places of refuge for debaters. So they are not honest in trying to describe Reality. You cannot describe Reality without honesty. Now Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga is not of that type. In Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga, we do not want extraordinary methods for attaining a simple thing. A simple Thing - God - is very easy to attain. He can be got if you know how to approach. The only way to approach Him is to get a capable Master to lead and guide you, who can take you to the Highest Realization, to the supreme Liberation and Realization. Liberation happens almost the very moment when you are connected with the supreme consciousness. When once you are connected, you will have to cross a few points to attain Liberation. You will not return to this kind of grossness. But that is not the goal. The real goal is the realization of Reality, beyond Philosophy and beyond Religion. This is a new language. A way for every man, who is willing to offer himself, and nobody is prevented from coming. But if a man excludes himself I can do nothing. Everybody can come if he can sit for half an hour. The choice is not left to the Master, he must impose some restrictions. Here, everybody knows that there are no restrictions, except the patience for sitting for 45 minutes or half an hour per week and for individual sittings half an hour. Nothing more you are asked to do. And, I think, our commandments are very simple in ordinary living. While we have to get along with the neighbours, we want the irritation to be reduced as much as possible. And, that is not very difficult to practise. It will be difficult for those who create difficulties for themselves. To give up their difficulties is the only difficulty that they have to face and the Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga tells you the simple process of training your mind. Your perverse ways of behaviour can also be cured without much effort on your part. These are small things which our new ideology is prepared for.