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“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”
Dr. S.V.Raghavan
It is but appropriate that we are taking up the
above topic for our deliberations in the seminar on
this auspicious occasion especially in the backdrop
of the initiation of the new calendar formulated for
the Revered Lalaji Era commencing the 14th
January 2011, with the month of Samavarthi. In many
ways the topic can be considered as an aphorism for
which the entire system underlying the Natural Path
would justifiably form a commentary! The statement
enshrines the very principle of Rajayoga in which
the power of pure superfine thought of a thoroughly
divinized Master is used for the spiritual
transformation and upliftment of another fellow
human being in the spirit of service, sacrifice and
fraternal duty.
The statement under consideration is taken from the
message of the Master, ‘Method of Training’1.
This year’s diary opens with the thought of Master,
namely, “The main purpose of training is that a man
should begin to imbibe within him as much of godly
attributes as possible.”2 Going further
into the article of the same reference, we find the
Master declaring that if the said objective is not
achieved the system of training is defective and
consequently of no avail. “Proper making of a man
must be the natural result of the right type of
training. Proper making comprises the right moulding
of the mind with due moderation in the exercise of
all our senses and faculties.”2
The statement, “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”,
clearly speaks about the possible evolutionary and
thereby noble transformation of man from his present
deteriorated state to a state wherein he has
realized his real nature and lives according to his
full divine potential. That is when we can call
‘man’ truly ‘man’ or in other words as the Real Man,
the ‘man’ behind ‘man’.
The present state of man in general however is far
from the state of Real Man, his life being mostly
governed by the basic drives and urges in common
with those of the animals namely hunger, thirst,
mating and sleep, the higher faculties in him such
as thinking, discriminative intelligence and refined
sensibilities being ignored or even put down
deliberately. He has become quite materialistic in
outlook and his behaviour is vitiated by self-centredness,
competition, aggression, greed, jealousy, pride,
prejudice and intolerance. Passion and violence have
poisoned the atmosphere. His mind remains always
disturbed and restless as he is full of unfulfilled
desires and his senses are unruly. Continuously
faced with problems on various fronts health,
economic and relational, he has no peace of mind not
to talk of happiness. This lack of individual peace
and harmony has had its own impact on world peace,
order and harmony and polluted the cosmos. As our
Master says it is only through turning towards and
accepting a spiritual way of living governed by the
Ten Commandments laid down by Him in the Natural
Path that man can attain to peace and harmony inner
and outer. This also paves the way for his growing
into the status of the Real Man. Our own experience
on the path validates the above premise.
The topical statement signifies transformation as
can be readily seen and according to it one can
actualize such a transformation by placing himself
entirely in the hands of a real Master. Considering
first the question of transformation or change, we
have to look at the means or instrument through
which it can be brought about. All of us practicing
the Natural Path are well aware that spiritual
transformation is brought about speedily and
effectively through the transmission of the highest
superfine consciousness of the nature of Original
Thought or Stir into the heart of the aspirant
through appropriate suggestions backed up by the
will of the person (trainer) qualified and competent
for such a task. In fact it is the unique feature of
the Natural Path. All of us have good clarity as to
the nature and efficacy of Pranahuti conceptually
through the vast literature available on it and much
more vividly by means of our imperiences during its
repeated influx into our hearts in the course of
sadhana.
Turning now our attention to the term ‘real Master’,
we find in the various writings of the Master the
description of the real Master in his perfected
state given from various perspectives. Master says
3 that such a person permanently abides
in a state characterized by perfect tranquility,
moderation and complete harmony with nature. In this
state of mind all senses and faculties are so to say
in a sleeping (dormant) condition. Their working
becomes automatic bearing no impression on the mind.
Here even consciousness of the perfect peace enjoyed
in an earlier stage, a fairly high one at that,
fails. The condition is rather peculiar, being
neither bliss nor otherwise. Words fail to express
the real condition. Master states further that
such is the condition we have to finally arrive at
and for which he and he alone can be real Guru who
is permanently abiding in the above condition and
has the power and capacity to transmit by his will
force the spiritual states into the heart of the
abhyasi and remove complexities there from. None
below this level is fit to impart spiritual training
to others. We are aware that our beloved Master is
such a real Master who succeeded in making Himself
zero so that divinity can express itself fully
through Him for the carrying out of its purpose
which is chiefly the divinization of man. It may be
noted that that such personalities with no persona
or mask appear quite rarely and that too only when
Nature has a demand for the same.
Ideally speaking only a person established in the
realm of God such as the Master would be able to
utilize godly effulgence as yogic energy as
envisaged in the process of Pranahuti. However the
Master with a keen intent to ensure that the largest
number of persons should achieve His own condition
expeditiously and His message reaches the people in
the shortest possible period of time decided to
prepare spiritual trainers who are adequately
equipped spiritually for the task. Another noble
objective of His is that the public be so awakened
that their work can be done and their character,
conduct and behaviour can be remodeled and
straightened out 4. We cannot help but
being deeply moved by the unbounded love and great
concern He bears for humanity and the restless
urgency He feels in His heart for the spiritual
upliftment of fellow beings up to the highest
approach.
It was considered by Him in this context that a
person who has at least transcended the realm of
physical existence as being fit to offer Pranahuti
provided he is trained. The Great Master also
enabled the trainers to have access up to His level
in an indirect way and prepared them to work their
way through to the actual condition of reality.5
For best results the trainer is exhorted to
endeavour for securing laya avastha with the Master
to the greatest extent possible and be oriented
completely to the aspirant with genuine concern for
his spiritual evolution working all the time in the
spirit of karma yoga. The institution of trainers as
in our system has no parallel in any other spiritual
tradition ancient or modern. The tradition started
by the Master is being successfully continued in the
Dr. KCV Order in the ISRC for rendering invaluable
spiritual assistance to all seekers.
We may now examine the aspect ‘necessary changes
gradually come out of themselves’. The implication
is that the transformation process is not immediate
and sudden, all that is necessary is already within
man and the trainer’s job is just to bring them into
the open or in other words make the latent patent in
a natural manner.
In this context we may review how man has come down
to his present condition. Master has stated 6
that our existence in the present form is
neither sudden nor accidental but the result of a
slow process of evolution. His account in the
beginning of the article Method of Training 1
in this regard stated in brief is
that every function of the material existence
commenced when we brought in our share of the
awakening (life) and in the beginning this was more
in relation with Divinity from which life started.
With the progress of life actions continued having
their effect according to their nature leading to
the loss of our balanced character. The misuse of
action which is a strong thing being connected with
life has produced wrong effects and each centre has
lost its originality and has begun to imbibe
different effects. With each birth we took the
effects of grossness accumulated such that we have
become actions themselves, that is, without any
discriminative intelligence (viveka). We have formed
the poles according to our actions and repeated
actions made the centres (of the nerves) strong.
The outcome is that we remain embraced by the
commands we receive from different centres for each
faculty. Our life changed from spirituality to
matter and we became worse as the process continued.
Aspirants on the Path are well aware that the Master
has mainly identified twenty three circles (may be
viewed as the principal coverings) split into the
three regions, the Heart, the Mind (Godly) and the
Central through which the seeking soul has to
traverse for attaining the supreme object of life.
He has also given another view point, namely, that
of the knots, granthis or plexuses localized in the
frontal side of the human body establishing certain
correspondences between the two view points; the
major knots are thirteen spanning the three
principal regions mentioned above with innumerable
minor ones strewn in between constituting what are
termed as buffer zones by Him. In the practical work
undertaken for spiritual transformation it is the
knots that we are concerned with. We will not go
into any details concerning the characteristics of
various knots and the journey through them covering
the three regions as they are available in the Path
of Grace 7 and we have all had our own
imperiences in that regard during the course of
sadhana. However some observations relating to the
present discussion on the subject are in order.
Master has stated that the process of manifestation
started with the kshob or Stir- Primal Thought which
stirred up a churning movement in the sphere of
latent motion. The flow of this thought energy in
creative descent went through twists and turns, the
twists forming the various knots beginning from the
occipital prominence (13th) to the heart
(1st). The knots could be regarded as
brackets in which there is a whirling flow of the
descending thought energy comparable to the flow of
oil. At the start of the spiritual journey in almost
all cases the flow inside the knots is constricted
at both ends of the bracket keeping the sadhaka
enwrapped as if it were in the knot preventing him
from moving forward to the next knot. It is the work
of the trainer in the system to smoothen and balance
the flow in the concerned knots and loosen them
through the process of Pranahuti so that a free flow
of the energy back to the Base is possible
facilitating thereby the seeker’s progress up to the
destination.
Though the abhyasi may succeed in performing the
yatra on his own in the initial stages, he would be
utterly helpless in his onward journey without the
active assistance of a capable trainer who has
travelled through the knots and imbibed the
characteristics therein. This applies particularly
in the higher regions where the downward current is
quite powerful as it gets increasingly subtle
pushing the abhyasi down with its force. The seeker
has imperiences which are unique to each knot and
this is made possible as he attains mergence or laya
in the knot during the course of his yatra. 7
What are the changes we are talking about? Master
states 8 that the changes are felt when
the yatra is started and as to the nature of these
changes He refers us to His work Towards Infinity
(Path of Grace). He adds that there are only four
conditions which are felt in each centre and these
conditions become rarified as we proceed further in
the region and continue till we reach the final
stage of Being. The changes occur in the abhyasi’s
attitudes, beliefs and behaviour according to the
conditions he has owned up. The changes are mainly
in the nature, universality and subtlety of
consciousness. We may say very briefly that we move
on from the ‘L’ consciousness to the altruistic (D
consciousness) and further go on to attain
discriminative intelligence, trusteeship attitude,
swaswarupa jnana or interdependency, devotion
surrender and balance through the yatra in the pind.
The macrocosm is a replica of the microcosm and the
imperiences in it are subtler and finer replicas of
those had in the pind. It is all expansion here as
we are in the realms of the infinite. The
consciousness undergoes further refinement moving
through parahita without even awareness of the
services rendered (D1) to viswahita with the
aspirant moving in the viswaroopa of God (D2) 7.
The further developments which occur as the journey
continues through the realms of the Divine are not
our immediate concern here. In this context we
should not forget the effect of the five layers of
being, annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya
and anandamaya with their binding and liberating
factors on the proper unfolding of the knots.
7,9 The final transformation is
possible only when the binds in the kosas are
removed and the liberating factors come into play.
Our rev. guide brings a new perspective on this age
old problem of human transformation. As space is a
constraint I would limit myself to a couple of
observations in the author’s words as much as
possible. He says that it is not proper to consider
the higher and lower nature as opposed to each other
and that there is hardly any possibility of bringing
about harmony between the two. Most religions and
philosophies have tried to repress the lower nature
adopting precisely the manner of the lower nature.
The process of Pranahuti on the other hand has the
“natural ability to mould the lower nature properly
in terms of its own nature which is the highest and
thus confers on the human organism inclusive of the
senses and the mind a peace and calm.…Once the human
organism is made responsive to this inner deep and
fundamental Real Being by the introduction or
ingression of the Ultimate then they become
responsive slowly but surely to the Reality which
has been experienced uniformly as the peace that
passeth understanding. The Ultimate Being does not
refute matter but makes it the vehicle of its own
supreme functions which are of the highest nature.”11
The abhyasi has also a significant role to play in
transformation. He must really seek it and be
prepared for making necessary changes in his
attitudes, beliefs and behavior. He must have goal
clarity, faith and confidence in himself that it is
possible; he must will it himself and rest not till
the object is achieved. Most importantly he must
surrender totally and unconditionally to the capable
Master and cooperate with him fully.
Lastly we may look at Master’s sayings regarding the
making of man. He states that transmission given
“without proper moulding is of no avail; rather it
is detrimental and even dangerous. The making of man
involves the purging the mind of all darkness,
physical and mental grossness and the unbalancing
condition of senses and indriyas. Thus it is not an
easy job. It is a long and tedious process which
requires continuous strenuous combined efforts on
the part of both the teacher and taught.”12
I would like to end this paper with the inspiring
words of Rev. Dr. KCV “The Ten Commandments, the
practice of meditation are but uniforms that the
sadhaka has to wear. No doubt they are to be pure
and perfectly ironed. But that is only a
preparation. The individual elevation in
consciousness is but a step in the greater task of
the divinization of man. If every abhyasi really
believes in the Master, he has the onerous
responsibility of shedding through his actions and
behavior the Radiance of the Divine Personality
deeply embedded in him. He should be conscious of
the fact that he is walking temple in as much as
Master is present in his heart.”13
Pranams.
References
1. Showers of Divine Grace - pages 47-54
2. Basic Writings of SriRamchandra – page 231
3. Basic Writings of SriRamchandra - pages 222-3
4. Showers of Divine Grace – page 177
5. Imperience 2002
6. Basic Writings of SriRamchandra – page 188
7. Path of Grace - page 230
8. Showers of Divine Grace – page 109
9. Self Evaluation Tool
10. Bodhayanti Parasparam volume IV – pages 214-6
11. Satya Padamu 2010-1 pages xv (New Era)
12. Sruti V1 – pages 571-2
13. Complete works of Dr. KCV pg 584
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