The students in the monastery were in total awe of the elder monk, not because he was strict, but because nothing ever seemed to upset or ruffle him. So they found him a bit unearthly and even frightening. One day they decided to put him to a test.
A bunch of them hid very quietly in a dark corner of one of the hallways and waited for the monk to walk by.
Within moments, the old man appeared, carrying a cup of hot tea. Just as he passed by, the students all rushed out at him screaming as loud as they could. But the monk showed no reaction whatsoever. He peacefully made his way to a small table at the end of the hall, gently placed the cup down, and then, leaning against the wall, cried out with a shocked, “Ohhhhh!”
Human mind is so fickle and full of strange ways of thoughts and processes that he looks for every opportunity to utilise the negative aspect of the mind to the fullest extent. Scriptures and ancient books give an impression that every Master, Preacher, Messiah is a super human being who should be tested on every whimsical fashion a seeker can think of.
The seekers forget that as a human the Master has also similar emotions and feelings like any other person. His body would feel pain, heat, cold and all the climatic variations. Then what is it that makes a Master special? He too is susceptible to illness like millions of other people, undergoing medications and operations.
Guru is a concept, which is not related to the mortal body; the sharira (body) forms clothing for the awakened jivatma, the Guru, who is ever present and is in a state of jivanmukta (soul in a liberated state). The bhautika deha (gross body) loses its relevance the day the antaratma (soul) awakens and then the role of the sharira remains only as a medium of expression for the jivanmukta. It is a unique experience for only one who has tasted this state of mind can talk about it. Others can only make assumptions about the thought processes that may have become the part of the jivanmukta.
The seeker only sees the bhautika sharira and bhautika buddhi of the awakened soul and this makes him pursue a path of providing troublesome life to the Master. The sadhaka waits and tries to emulate each movement of the master and if some movements or habits are beyond his comprehension, the seeker creates a scenario where the gross mind of the master gets perturbed.
For a seeker the biggest aim, which becomes an obstacle, is enlightenment. Sometimes the Master is not able to explain the concept of enlightenment to the seeker, which gives a wrong impression to the seeker that enlightenment means becoming super human. Enlightenment becomes the biggest trap there is, for the perception sinks deep in the mind of the seeker that enlightenment will isolate him from the family and provide him with super powers. This again becomes a power game for a hungry seeker. This poses problem for the sadhaka because he will never find what he perceived to be. This will in turn generate frustration, anger and hatred because the seeker is searching for something that is physical in nature and the Master explains it more in the mental realm, which is neither physical nor spiritual. He uses a mix of gross terms for explaining an event that is inexplicable in the first place. It is very similar to an attempt at explaining an emotion like happiness or bliss.
Awakening frees the seeker from the bindings of the ego but hatred and anger never stop. Awakening will allow the person not to relate to the emotions yet the emotions would still be there. An interesting thing one can see in the life of Ramana Maharishi is that when people brought to him problems of their lives he used to cry with them. Enlightenment is the first step to become human. The efforts are become to human than becoming God-incarnate.
Enlightenment is the willingness to learn how to be a human being. That is the purpose of me being here and not becoming someone who is beyond or someone who is extraordinary. Rather, I am here to share what I have, teach and bring the teachings to everyone in a practical manner. Being human is in itself a very difficult task and that is what I want to share with you all.
Being a human means being in centre. The whole world may spin but the centre should have utter calmness. That is enlightenment. The world, in which all of us, live is chaotic, filled with millions of problems and tensions. The body will react in a normal manner when certain things are done which are inhuman. Atrocities are committed against fellow humans, animals, flora and fauna. Trees are being cut mercilessly for widening roads or people living in the past, do not let present become a part of them or animals being tortured for superfluous wishes of humans. Inflicting pain creates various feelings in the bhautika buddhi but the core remains calm. This is a raw truth. Going inwards to the centre and being there does not mean the person himself but it is the pure consciousness which is in a continuous state.
This consciousness is the eternal being which has been given various names. But in the beginning, the seeker’s search begins with an egoistic journey of knowing God for the God has a form this is an egoistic search. Once the search ends and the inner consciousness is awakened then the efforts should begin to become human. All of us are Gods but becoming human is the most difficult task. All Gods have egos, but humans can only have humanity.
This is the divya maya in action. Everyone seeks God. God, as such, is in you who seek the brahma swaroopa, which is pure human consciousness. This search is for shedding the layers of conditioning that have grown on us. A child is the purest form we can think of as human for all the feelings he has, are present only for a moment – anger, happiness and sadness all are for a moment and as the moment passes he leaves the baggage behind and moves ahead. As we grow older, we take things with us and then we try to play hide and seek from becoming human again.
Be and Being are two different things. Be is a process we are all in and each day the Be is becoming a bigger and stronger opponent of our own self. Becoming the Being is going back to the roots where the importance of right and wrong becomes null. Neither has any superiority over the other. Being a Master is a path of failures for every step takes you inwards and every step makes you a bigger failure in the world outside. Every disciple, a master creates, makes the master a failure for the ego of the disciple looks for a great master, an all-powerful one, which stops a master from becoming a human.
The ego of the people is due to the conditioning they have been groomed into for they train their minds to create a perfect image of parents who could never had any diseases, flaws. Similarly they create an image of the master, who is too perfect, so perfect that he seems like a God who can never have feelings or sufferings. Disciples over the ages have been striving hard to create a perfect image of Master – one who never had any flaws. This is a dangerous situation, which everyone falls into. Master is to be revered as a medium for reaching the divine. The divine is the truth and the divine plays in the form of jeeva (form). It is a game of endless cycles of life and death.
Millions of lives you have lived. Millions of deaths you have faced. Yet the yearning is there. This is the game of the divine. This yearning is the first sign that shows the path to the peace and calmness.
The moment this feeling occurs, the fear of ‘this’ and ‘that’ vanishes; ‘me’ and ‘you’ vanishes. For the moment of awakening shows what the Master has been doing. Master is only showering you with love and care. This love and care is only thing master can offer, this realization occurs when the disciples themselves awaken and feel the truth in its true sense and then the Master and disciple merge; merge into ParaBrahma (Universal energy).
The whole path of spiritual awakening is painful and requires many efforts for it is like containing the ocean in a cup. Pain would be there but that itself is an identifying sign of the cosmic bliss and happiness, the more the awakening, the more would be the pain. He who says that waking up process is not painful is telling a lie. You can never trust such a person for he has never traveled the path.
Copyright : Soul Searchers & Maitreya
Extract: Atma Sanchaya Dhwani, 15th March, 2007, Volume 1 Issue 22
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