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In the next section of His work Master mentions
the several ways to realisation. In this
connection, I should say that there are many
number of ways propounded by the ancients. Some
of them have been very subtle. Many of them have
been gross. And gross practices lead to gross
results and subtle processes help realization.
And at every stage in the history of
spirituality, we find that some people are able
to grasp the subtle aspect of the Yoga, where as
a large number of people are much more tempted
to take to the gross ways and that is the reason
why decadence came in every system of Yoga of
the ancients. It is not that the Yoga which has
now come to us is the root with which those
systems started. I hold the belief that every
spiritual leader was very subtle at the
beginning and the close disciples of the
original Master knew the Inner Secret and Power
of that system and they found that. But they, in
their anxiety to teach people who are lower down
in the scale of understanding tried to make it
amenable to the lower type and purposefully
grossened some of the aspects of the Sadhana,
with all good intentions, I assure you. But,
good intentions and spirituality or reality do
not go together. As it is very nicely put: "The
path of Hell is paved with good intentions".
That is why, we are today seeing a gross
practice in every system or religion - the
higher religion or the lower religions - it does
not matter at all. Every one of them is wrought
with grossness. Now, it is necessary to
remember that we are starting the practice of a
new method devised only for subtle realization
of the subtle reality. Therefore, we are in a
condition to appreciate the subtle things and
subtle quality of the meditation, and the means
prescribed for attaining the Reality is
propounded by Shri Ram Chandraji, because we are
about the first set of people and that is an
advantage which we can claim. Therefore, I would
say, without any attempt to make our system
gross in order that men lower down in
understanding can appreciate, we should try to
see that this very subtle system need not be
made gross for lower people to understand. I
hold that this system is equally capable of
taking up the gross men to a subtle condition
without reducing or making it grosser in order
that gross men can be taken up. "Do not try to
be more intelligent than the Master" - that is
what I would say to all the preceptors, because
it has been his study that any attempt to make
this grosser for the understanding of ordinary
men, believing that the ordinary man is grosser
than you is a mistake. All efforts of spiritual
being are at heart. I emphasize the word "at
heart", because the first thing in this System
we are dealing with is to clean the heart so
that the heart becoming simple, you can
understand the subtle, simple process.
Therefore, Master firstly wants us to create in
us a sense of 'non-attachment' to the `gross
ways' of worshipping or praying or meditating to
God. Even this you may say, is very difficult
for you to achieve. Now, he suggests, therefore,
that the individual should take to meditation
through "Pranahuti". Of course, that involves a
person who could do this Pranahuti. It is a
subtle force which is infused into the heart of
the man who is sufficiently aspiring to get out
of the miseries that surround him. And therefore
what happens is, the individual's heart gets
cleaned and that cleanliness itself leads to
non-attachment to everything, except that
particular course.
It is true, non-attachment is said to be the
first practice by other people. Vairagya is very
necessary. But real vairagya does not mean
giving up of of possessions, family or duties.
Real non-attachment is non-attachment to the
things of the world in preference to realization
of God. If you cannot think that God is more
valuable than the world, then, there is very
great difficulty. And, many people instruct that
the world is valueless just because things in
this world are transient. They are fleeting.
Everything grows, becomes old and finally dies.
Therefore, why do you hold to them? Therefore,
be prepared to drop this body at any time, drop
your attachment or hold on things of the world
like wealth or pleasure. And this non-attachment
can be practised at any place, if you do not
practice greater attachment by going to a
forest, leaving everything here and getting
attached to something.
As we know, there is an old story of a saint
trying to preserve his kaupeena. For this
purpose, he had to get a cat to preserve his
kaupeena from the rats. Then, for maintaining
the cat a cow and for preserving that cow, he
had to have wife and so the family started, and
it was in the forest for all practical purposes,
unattached to city life! Village life has not
made people less attached. Most probably, the
people in the urban cities are more detached for
the obvious reason that everything has become a
disillusionment. Disillusion may be had and
detachment is developed more in the context of
an urban life than I think in the context of a
village life or a forest life or an Ashram life,
if you do not mind. We get more attached. So,
attachment is a state of mind. And that state of
mind can only be got rid off when you have a
value higher than and greater than and nobler
than for a life, lived for the body, in the body
and by the body. That is why they said you ought
to be firstly changed in your mind.
Our people cultivate moral virtues for this
purpose and ask you to be prepared to sacrifice
everything for that. The performance of duties
then creates detachment. If you are really
attached to duties, then detachment occurs at
once. Dharma is the only cure for Kama.
Therefore, our people taught the doctrine of
Dharma as the best means of attaining
detachment. And the greatest number of Dharmas
are given to the householder. There are very few
things so far as the Brahmachari is concerned,
very few things for the Sanyasi. But positive
injunctions to do things, by your children, by
your parents, by your guests, by your Gods, by
the dead as well as the living are given to the
Grhasta. That is the detachment that is coming
in the life of householder. And that is why,
Master thinks that the most perfect life is that
of a householder, for, the great amount of
detachment can be practised and revealed not
merely spoken of as in text books. We know, many
Sanyasis can be said to be preaching and
especially Sanyasis in the old age are more
preaching and love preaching about detachment,
without it.
Master says that the greatest goal can be
achieved by Grhasta who does his duty. That is
why, Swarga is within the reach of every man,
but certainly not within the reach of the people
who do not follow the Grhasta Dharma, I think.
Therefore, non-attachment comes to us fully when
we are doing our duties in the family. We can do
our duties in the family on one condition, if I
may put it to you, if we can also attain perfect
Union with God. Now, the whole difficulty about
Dharma sastras is, "do your duty, but do not
worry about consequences". That is a great
doctrine of Sri Krishna. It is not a full
doctrine, nevertheless. Let me tell you frankly,
it is a very very partial doctrine. Do not do
duty for the sake of the fruits they give, but
do it. "What will happen to me if I serve my
children, serve my father, serve my mother,
serve my gods, serve the man who comes in the
street, or who comes as a guest, or the dead?
What is it that I get?" They have been
prescribed as duties as a matter of love; not as
a matter for argument. If you begin to argue you
connect it with Artha and Kama. What is it that
I get out of it? What is the love and the
quantum of love that I have to display in each
case? Now all that is not there. Duty is duty.
But then, that is so far as social life is
concerned detachment occurs. But, you are not
capable of deciding what duty is; there are
conflicts between duties, what you call "Dharma
Sankata", under such circumstances, what is the
guide? It is good to go to a man who knows how
to reason between the duties and values, put
them in the balance, of course, as a judge and
advise you. But such men must be people who know
with insight what duty should be preferred to
another in the clash. Normally, the ancients did
not make these duties to clash with each other.
And therefore, you must look up from the point
of view where they do not clash. But nowadays,
that is not the view. You want a man who is very
highly judicial in his temper and is anxious to
guide and not mislead. Therefore, you want
something else. And this something else is only
God, or what you call Conscience. You must
develop the power to hear directly the voice of
god. And how to develop that contact with God,
because it is a very personal application of a
universal difficulty. And each man has to
develop that Consciousness. And you do not have
judges enough with either the competence or with
Spirituality and not matters of property. We do
not have direct contact with God. We take
somebody's advice and follow. That's all. Now,
we want a more assured guide in a world with
such conflicting situations where duties clash
and many duties have been forgotten, thanks to
our training and all that. I think nobody cares
to study the Dharma Sastras despite Sri
Krishna's advice to follow Manu, even the best
of the followers of Sri Krishna do not want to
touch Manu. I do not think anybody has heard the
name even. Whatever it is Master says Meditation
is the right way of starting the detachment and
the performance of duties. Meditation means
getting contact with the Ultimate Consciousness
through Pranahuti and that will start our link
with the God and as it grows stronger and
stronger, our detachment becomes stronger and
stronger and completer and completer. Then,
every other thing fails. In fact, in this
system, we start with Dhyana and not with Yama,
Niyama, Pranayama or Asana. Why? What is central
to Yoga is the connection with God and once that
connection with God is made, then every other
physiological or physical posture or adjustment
or moulding happens naturally. In other words,
we proceed to change man not by changing his
outer physical form but by Inner Transformation
and this is the most important differentiation
between this Yoga and other yogas.
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