Purification..is there any end
to this!
7th Feb. 2011.
Dear associates in the Path,
1.
I am
happy to be with you all again on the auspicious
occasion of the birthday of Pujya Lalaji Maharaj. We
have been treading the path assiduously and progressing
in the path. Most of us attend to the routine meditation
practices and find certain amount peace and calm
settling in us. We do feel the influx of Pranasya
Pranaha and are immensely pleased about it most of the
time. However when we contemplate over the thoughts that
do come to us during meditations and even otherwise
during our daily transactions we find certain thoughts
hovering over us all the time.
2.
We do
find ourselves perambulating in a continuous circle,
retracing the same steps year after year after year.
Last Basanth the same thoughts, in the earlier one the
same ones and now too! We all have areas in our lives
where we are locked into patterns of behaviour that we
have not been able to break.
Each of us knows at some level, where we are stuck. The
longer these behaviours exist, the easier it is to get
used to living with them, and in a way, give up on
ourselves and say O! Master help me!
3.
We
should be clear in our determination that change is
possible and we shall attain the desired condition soon.
The change is possible with the tools provided by the
system of Rajayoga that we are practicing. We can work
to create a fresh start, to change our circular path
into an upward spiral towards new experiences, instead
of repeating old patterns. The path is not easy, but it
is true and real and worth the effort. But even as our
Master has stressed determination is required. We should
like Spartans attempt the goal with courage and
confidence. It is necessary that when we practice the
path we should have no doubts about the methods given to
us. We should not try to approach the problem as a trial
and error attempt. We should have the courage to say "I
want this, and I am willing to work for it."
4.
We do
have imperiences of Ground, Void, Silence, Absolute, and
Oneness during our meditations and during congregations
like the Birthday celebrations of our Masters. They may
be few. They may occur occasionally without any notice.
They are of the very nature of our being that we are not
aware of what it is most of the times. But we do have
such Oneness and Suchness. Dr. K.C.V. says “The command
of God or the vision to execute in the temporal context
the intuited truths of the supramental vision is an
imperative, a sacred calling which the mystic or the
religious seer cannot even think of
disobeying.” (Reference: vol x - pg 510) To Imperience
is not enough. We should attend to the call of the
imperience with courage and confidence. It is an
imperative or a sacred duty. It is not enough that we
realise; we should enable others to realise as early as
possible. That is the greatest service we can do.
5.
It is
not enough to say that we meditate and follow the other
meditational practices as prescribed. Perhaps it is true
that nothing more needs to be done if we meditate as
prescribed. There is nothing better to improve our
spiritual well-being than meditation. Regular contact
with the divine promotes radiant health, inspired
thoughts and profound peace. Throughout the ages regular
meditation has been considered a praiseworthy practice
by the enlightened. But today's times are unique. With
the increased pace of life and the many more
responsibilities we must shoulder, most of us do not
have the luxury of spending years in cloistered
solitude, gradually increasing our
spiritual capabilities. There is absolute necessity to
reduce the time to be spent on the spiritual practice
and the system of our Master is the best we have today
to offer humanity.
6.
It is
very clear for anyone who pauses and reflects on the
conditions of our living, that humanity is crying out
for inner fulfilment, for awakening. Simultaneously, the
paradigm war of "love vs. fear" is being fought in
people's minds and hearts with a greater intensity than
ever before in the history of our civilization, We find
it is absolutely necessary to have massive amounts of
love and divine wisdom to descend from above as in the
case of our imperience of Pranahuti and this should
spread throughout the world. The time is now for each of
us to increase our spiritual bandwidth and the size of
our spiritual containers that is our hearts.
7.
During
our meditations we dive deep into our hearts and access
the divine impulse to the extent our vessel or heart
permits. Such a tapping into our divine self is, of
course, always good. But we need to improve our access
to the divine self more and more. With the love of our
Master backing us all the time we can access
ever-increasing amounts of love, energy and wisdom more
quickly and easily than ever before, if we are oriented
to the task of human transformation. The impulse that we
carry is enough for us, for our family, and for our
spiritual brothers and sisters who are crying for help.
This is the confidence and courage we shall have when we
pray at 9 P.M. for the good of humanity. Even as
Dr.K.C.V. puts it “ It is necessary to condition the
consciousness of the individuals all through the world
by a systematic, consistent, and uniform method of
substitution of universal ends in place of the narrow
parochial and patriotic motives must be conceded if life
should evolve to a better order and plane.” (Reference:
vol x - pg 514) All our practices are meant for this
purpose only. Such a state of mind cannot be achieved
unless we purify our hearts and souls.
8.
Many
aspirants have reported that after taking a sitting from
their trainer or other trainers they feel lot of energy
and power poured into their hearts and the Pranahuti was
very intense and engulfing. It is my understanding that
more the trainers work on others the more they are
centred on the Master and therefore better facilitator
of Pranahuti energy. The cleaning sittings we have from
the trainers cannot be treated as a substitute for ones’
own
prescribed spiritual practice. The sittings had from the
trainer will enable one to do better ones’ meditation
practices because then one would be clear, calm and
energized. And the benefits will not only come to the
aspirant but through him/her to the entire family,
friends and co-workers and spiritual brothers and
sisters. This is because spiritual light will be
radiating from persons who have moved into the higher
realms of spirituality. The movement into the higher
realms is not a myth or impossibility. Due to the grace
of our benevolent Master it is easy for sincere and
committed aspirants to move to higher realms radiating
spiritual energy simultaneously effecting transformation
of humanity to some or more extent according to ones’
own sphere of movement in spiritual path.
9.
It is
not enough that we move into higher realms of spiritual
life but it is our duty to give call to others around us
through such means as we are capable of, to move to
spiritual way of life for the sake of peace and
prosperity of this world. Thereby we will be deepening
our own self-realization and
simultaneously contributing to humanity's progress on
the spiritual path. The process of our purification is a
never ending workout on our selves. The more pure we are
the more balanced do we become. We can always measure
the extent of our purity by analysing ourselves
regarding the negative energies we have and the positive
energies we possess. The negative energies of hate,
ill-will, envy, jealousy, wrath etc., have to be given
up and the positive energies of love, empathy,
commitment to truth, non-injury, sharing and balance are
to be possessed more and more. Our conscience is our
best guru who teaches us thoroughly what to have and
what to eschew. There is no end to this vigil and such a
vigil gets rewarded abundantly.
10.
Many
times I hear from the aspirants that they are so pure
and so confident about their purity that they find no
necessity to attend to purification processes or the
need to go to a trainer for purification. They feel they
have progressed to such an extent that their master
would be amazed in the fact that they have surpassed him
in purity. They do find lapses in his philosophy and the
practices he prescribed and in fact they try to improve
on them. This is sheer Spiritual Arrogance.
They feel that they had developed capabilities that
were not only greater than those of others and their
status and acquisition of states is generally beyond the
understanding of the average associates in the path.
11.
It is
true that our Master desired the aspirants to move to
higher realms than that of his and my understanding this
approach of the Master indicates the extent of humility
we have to acquire. However the issue is not our level
of development, but the fact that we are striving to
develop. One of the keys to growth is recognizing that
there is always room for improvement. In any field,
whether it is sports, the arts, our profession, or
spiritual growth there are always going to be some
people that are farther along in their development than
others. We live in a society where real estate moguls
are idolized. Inevitably, there are people who feel the
need to tell us how much better they are. In the area of
spiritual development, this is known as "spiritual
arrogance."
12.
Unlike the spiritual understanding that All is One,
people suffering from spiritual arrogance will tell they
are advanced, implying that others are not. Some of the
worst offenders are those who have some understanding of
the spiritual laws and who have opened some of their
inner senses. While moving in the path of enlightenment
they somehow go astray and proclaim themselves to be
gurus. This is the worst impurity one can ever acquire
and Master has warned that those persons who feel even
once they are Masters are unfit to train others. When
someone feels that he is the Master another misfortune
arises in thinking: one often assumes genuine difference
of opinion to be an attack on their mastery. There is
another type of spiritual arrogance which we have called
in our Game of Life as sadahankara. The arrogance is
such they consider themselves to be guardians of
divinity and almost stake a claim of possessiveness over
the Lord. This impurity once developed does not go
easily and one has to learn the necessary halls of
learning.
13.
Spiritual arrogance makes one think they know everything
that needs to be known. There are two major defects
arising out of this attitude:
i.)
It
inhibits one’s development. When we already know
everything, there is no room for additional wisdom. This
should be self-evident: but just giving the appearance
of knowing everything can deter people from
sharing their knowledge. This shuts off sources of new
knowledge. It is wise to remember that a wise man can
learn more from a fool than a fool from a wise man: the
ancient Vedic wisdom says ‘ let wisdom come to me from
all directions.’
ii.)
This attitude of spiritual arrogance wastes energy.
Anyone who has staked out a position as a guru is forced
to conform to this new self-image. This places an
unnecessary burden on them. Why anyone should himself
with having to live up to the expectations of some
image? Why waste energy trying to uphold such an image?
Why not
be
exactly who we are, so as to let our true inner self
shine in its original and pure lustre?
14.
In
contrast to spiritual arrogance, humility is the trait
of a real man. I have not come across a better example
of humility than our beloved Master Babuji Maharaj. It
should be clear to us that attuning with Master or God
is not a competitive sport. There is no need to live up
to exaggerated claims or false images, which are thrust
on any one who tolerates as if invariably promotes
sycophancy. A perfect and pure personality recognizes
that he/she is a part of the ONE. Purity lies in being a
student for ever learning every second contemplating on
the amazing oneness of existence. Pure ones see
themselves as students, helping those that might not be
as far along in their studies, just as their masters
have helped them in their sadhana. The pure being
recognizes even the "spiritually arrogant" as merely
passing through a phase. True humility involves the
willingness and open-mindedness to accept help and
insight from all sources and move on the path with
conviction and faith in the Just One. Needless to add
that this attitude of eternal learning from all sources
is not an act of greed but an act of fulfilling one’s
own destiny of spiritual well being.
15.
It is
my prayer that all the associates in the Path move on
cleansing ourselves as we progress dropping our various
sheaths of being and stand naked before Master for such
further treatment that he may decide.
