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If we are in the hands of a real master, all the
things necessary for a ‘man to be called man’
gradually come out of themselves.
Sri Vidyadhar Joshi
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
With heart full of gratitude to Pujya Lalaji Maharaj,
to whose credit is the revival of the method of
Pranahuti, I share my little understanding on this
seminar’s topic, “If we are in the hands of a real
master, all the things necessary for a ‘man to be
called man’ gradually come out of themselves.” The
message is taken from the talk of the Master, titled
“Method of Training” published in Showers of Divine
Grace. The message impresses upon one, the problem
of our life first and then the method of training
which we understand happens through the process of
Pranahuti. It categorically impresses on the
indispensableness of this unique method of training
with which we are all blessed with. In the message
on Rajyoga, Pujya Babuji Maharaj says, “This age old
system of Yogic Transmission has ever been the very
basis of Raja Yoga but during the later period it
had almost been lost to the Hindus who were the real
originators of it. It is now due to the marvelous
efforts of my Master, Samarth Guru Mahatma Ram
Chandraji Maharaj of Fatehgarh, that this long
forgotten system has been revived and brought to
light. Under this process the master, by the
application of his internal powers, awakens and
accelerates the dormant forces in the abhyasi to
action, and diverts the flow of the Divine Current
towards his heart.”1
Pujya Babuji Maharaj in the message “Clue to
Reality”, says, “There are researches in the field
also and my Master Samarth Guru Mahatma Shri
Ramchandraji Maharaj of Fatehgarh (U.P.) India has
remodeled the 'Yoga' in a way that somehow you may
come into contact with the Divine speedily.”2
The word ‘somehow’ is intriguing. While explaining
the process of Pranahuti, we give the example of it
working as catalyst. We know by knowledge of school
level chemistry that if a substance ‘A’ is
ordinarily capable of reacting with a substance ‘B’,
it sometimes is not capable of starting the reaction
or takes an inordinately long time. Under certain
conditions, however a catalyst ‘C’ can be
introduced, that accelerates the reaction thus
saving lot of time. Drawing an analogy from this,
if we consider our self to be ‘A’ and Divine to be
‘B’, then the process of Pranahuti, which acts like
catalyst speeds our progress towards the Divine,
which is not really separate from us, with the
result that we start loosing our perceived sense of
self. Hitherto, we have been identifying so strongly
with our isolated sense of being, that we deem any
“Yoga” or “Union” itself as a theory. This is
because of the loss of memory of our homeland.
Pranahuti, though simplistically understood as a
catalyst, is more than that. It is itself that,
which we yearn for. In Bodhyanti Parasparam, Vol 1,
Pujya Sri KC Narayana Garu has expressed, “On behalf
of all of us He (Revered Lalaji Maharaj) prayed and
then he obtained that permission of the Divine. He
could enable, make the Divine yawn towards the
circumference as Revered Babuji puts it. The centre
is now yawning towards the circumference. That
exactly is the basis of our Pranahuti. From where
are we getting this Prana, Pranasya Prana as Dr.
K.C.Varadachari puts it? Yes, it is the Pranasya
Prana alone that we are having in Pranahuti. This
ultimate Prana only is what we are experiencing. It
is that centre only that is yawning towards us.”
3
The outcome is that we gradually get trained to
identify ourselves more and more with the Divine
Master and live accordingly. A real master is
capable of bringing such a transformation, wherein
the ‘self’ keeps diminishing. We have access to Sri
Ramchandra Consciousness and the method of training
graciously bestowed on us, allows us to have
repeated taste of this Consciousness felt as
unalloyed Love, through a fellow brother, quite
generously, as many times as we need, so that we may
dissolve our petty sense of self and gradually learn
to live in His Consciousness which is our homeland.
When we yield utterly to the method of Pujya Sri
Ramchandraji Maharaj and also to His method of
training which is had through a fellow brother
capable of offering Pranahuti, then we can say that
we have placed ourselves in the hands of a real
master.
Thus there is a caveat that needs to be understood,
lest a naļve understanding of the message of this
seminar, will erroneously lead one to believe that
having a master is all and enough. It will not.
Yielding is a pre-requisite. In the same message, He
says, “The abhyasi meditates on the heart as I have
already said, but there must be yielding attitude
towards the master”.4 I understand this,
that when we take help from our trainer, we must be
clear as to what we are seeking. We are choosing a
higher life and live in His Consciousness. We are
also aware that our weaknesses or defects and the
baggage of our samskaras, do not allow ourselves to
naturally live as per the commandments of the
Master. We must be prepared to take help and repose
full trust in the trainer for the task of living in
higher plane of consciousness and growing beyond.
This is preliminary yielding. Needless to say,
willingness to transform for the higher life is a
must. Without this aspiration, even the trainer
cannot do much. An aspiration to become a better man
is enough to start with in Natural Path. Then the
help of Pranahuti is fantastic. Our aspiration to
move out of the animal consciousness for a higher
life is aptly aided by the will of the trainer.
Pujya Babuji Maharaj in the message, Efficacy of
Rajyoga, states, “But something is essential for the
abhyasi also. In the first place he must have full
trust in the Master and must fully co-operate with
him in every respect. If it is so he will positively
go on developing day by day, and begin to feel
himself changed and transformed. The state of waking
consciousness of the lower type will get
transformed, and his journey through higher and
higher types of consciousness will be commenced.”5
We may be God minded, but that does not mean we
yield naturally to God. It is the master that makes
us realize through his transmission that there is
indeed a Superior Life Force to which we are always
subservient. In the Silence, peace and calmness,
that’s felt directly as a result of Pranahuti, we
find it much easier to yield to that Supreme Life
Force. When we yield to this imperience, we find
ourselves awakening to the Divine within. He says in
the beginning of the message, “Life is the awakening
of the State of Being”. Pranahuti thus wakes us up
from our deep slumber but it is up to us to remain
awake and alert to His call within. It is here that
a real master keeps helping us all the way.
Master states, in the same message, “In Sahaj Marg
alone the method of training weaves all the
requisites of spiritual fabric of the abhyasi, so
the trainers have got a very heavy work to do”. We
have had occasion to hear the hindi talk of the
Master, “Seena ba Seena”, where he mentions that the
task of cleaning the grossness is the most tedious
work of the trainer. Thus the message of the seminar
also has a connotation for the trainers to live at
the level where they are able to clean the aspirants
and foment. Master says this “doing” is the aspect
of the trainers and “becoming” is the part of the
aspirant. The “becoming” aspect of the aspirant is
his aspiration, yielding and cooperation to follow
the method.
What is the thing that comes out really? I
understand it in this context as morality as the
Master explains. Master’s definition of Morality is
of a high order as stated: “And what is morality in
the True Sense? It is that all the faculties may
come in harmony for proper use. How does this
happen? When a man begins to be away from the
"Self", it begins to develop. So all the methods
given in any religion are only for this end, and the
methods and procedure of Natural Path are very easy
for it. With the overemphasis on "Self" morality
decays. But it is the part to be played by the
preceptors alone that the self be turned to
Divinity.”
As we can see, this definition is not merely an
injunction to live according to some ethics of right
vs wrong but living a life where our faculties of
being are used to express the Divine and this
happens only when our sense of self gradually keeps
diminishing.
A real master never pampers our sense of petty self,
but by the process of flow diversion of our thought
to the upper portion of the heart, and to the atma
chakra, continuously foments us for that life which
we ought to be living as a man. In the commentary
in commandment 1, Master states, “Under Sahaj Marg,
our system of spiritual training, the teacher at the
very outset weakens the downward tendency of the
abhyasi by the effect of his own power, so that it
may get automatically diverted towards the Divine.
This is the philosophy of training and also the
foundation.”6
Quite ironically, it is the loss of self that
actually starts to give us a sense of being, a
feeling of wholesomeness and fullness that we don’t
feel with our ego but feel when we identify
ourselves with our Goal, the Divine Master. A man
who yearns to live in the higher plane always
strives to perfect this sense of being through
prayer.
O Master!
Thou art the real Goal of human life,
We are yet but slaves of wishes,
Putting bar to our advancement
Thou art the only God and Power,
To bring us up to that stage.
I understood this much better when I read the
commentary on Prayer by Pujya Dr. KC Vardachari. I
quote an extract from the commentary. “All of us
know that we depend on other things and we ourselves
are nothing, and by ourselves are nothing. So why
are we restless? Because we are trying to be and in
trying to be, we are not being ourselves. I am not
playing with words. I want you to see the full
meaning of what I am saying. The sense of being is
very important because none of us has the sense of
being but only of not-being. So we want this, we
want that, and we want the other! And if we get
that, we think we are yet less than others because
we measure the quantum of property we have; the
quantum of power that we have; where is the sense of
being? That is why we are restless. We have no sense
of being but we are asking for being. And we are
moving in the wrong directions. We ask for wealth,
we run after power, run after certain desires
thinking that by getting those desires we be. Of
course, I leave it to you to find out the instances
for yourselves. And then everything is chaos, and we
are not having any sense of being in this world or
everything is insecure, in a state where everything
is going away, slipping out of our grasp, what we
hold we lose. Now all this shows that we have no
sense of being. And that is why we must get the
sense of being. And we are struggling for it. And
this the Master CAN give, because the ultimate
reality is, in a sense, the being of which all these
are non-being.”7
Thus we can also say that feeling the prayer given
by the Master, is one of the things that comes out
gradually under right training.
Pranams
References:
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Showers of Divine Grace – 2006 Edition, page 88
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Showers of Divine Grace – 2006 Edition, page 151
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Bodhyanti Parasparam, Volume I, 2003 Edition,
page 24
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Showers of Divine Grace – 2006 Edition, page 49
-
Showers of Divine Grace – 2006 Edition, page 99
-
Basic Writings of Sri Ramchandra 2008 Edition
page 132
-
Complete works of Dr KCV Volume 1
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