The Walk of Spirituality Part 2

The Walk of Spirituality Part 2

Based on this background let us come back to the law of causation and effect and how this works based on the earlier discussed points on impressions/tendencies/mind/ego etc. So every time a person does an activity with his ego attached. These form into a concrete memory/impression in our subconscious mind which has a definite reaction now or in the future.  In this case each and every action is performed with an intention, emotion behind it leads to deciding whether the action performed is good or bad. Any action that reduces the ego is usually considered as good action and any action increases the ego is considered as bad action. Who decides whether the action performed is good or bad; it is intelligence within our mind that decides whether it’s good or bad. We will dwell about this intelligence later.

The law of cause and effect is a peculiar and perfect system. The system sees the actions, examines it and delivers apt effect to the person based on action performed earlier.  

Now the point in spirituality is to scrub the sub conscious mind out of all impressions, memories etc, so that these memories does not affect us in the future which leads to cause and effect.

How do we scrub out mind (conscious and otherwise)? This we will discuss in detail now.

Firstly there are many methods that are mentioned in the scriptures. Let me enumerate few of them

• Chanting Mantra to purify mind
• Meditation to scrub memory imprints

The Walk of Spirituality - Part 1

The Walk of Spirituality

Since our early childhood some day or the other we think about the nature of our self. We also think about what is our relationship with this world/universe. I hope this has come to every mind and have tried to explore this with our limited knowledge at that point of time and eventually when we did not proceed anywhere, we tried to get this answered with our parents and elders who had better knowledge than us. But this turns out to be a futile exercise as most of them don’t give the right answers or try to avoid it. Because of this we get stuck. One more reason as to why we get stuck is that, as we grow older material happiness and problems starts take precedence over these questions and we tend to put this on the side lines and concentrate the problems before us (Though here we have to understand that most of the material problems are self-inflicted and can be ignored but the mind does not allow this).

Let us try to understand the problems associated with our life and slowly progress towards what would be the solutions.

When a baby is born its mind is free of impressions like a blank state, so in order to live, the survival mode of the organism kicks in and starts learning from the surrounding. It slowly starts accumulation information’s that are useful for its survival. So what happens here is that each and every activity that is performed is recorded in the mind in the form of memory and used whenever necessary. So suppose a child see’s a chocolate initially it will be skeptical whether to touch it, eat it etc. But once it eats it, it enjoys the taste of the chocolate and this get embedded as a memory and since it enjoyed the taste of the chocolate the impression in the mind prompts it to eat more or it, this is nothing but impressions which forms into future tendencies. So it is here that trap of life starts. The child proceeds to acquire innumerable impressions like this on daily basis due to which certain impressions are created and these impressions leads to certain tendencies which ultimately results in action and reaction (causation and effect).

The law of causation and effect is one of the most complex activities that take place in the human mind.  Because of this when an action is performed there would be an effect in proportion of that cause. The law functions with the impressions and tendencies in the mind and performs actions. Diving further let us understand how this works with the same example of the chocolate and the kid.

The first time a kid sees the chocolate the awareness within the person prompts the person that there is something before you. Now mind jumps in and tries to see what it is (by reviewing old memory) but when it is unable to decide it takes the help of the intellect. Intellect here tries to analyze what is the thing that is before it. It makes the mind to ask around to know what it is and once it is satisfied it makes a decision, mind now works with the ego and consumes the chocolate.

Since the chocolate is consumed for the first time the taste of the food leaves impressions of its delicious taste in the mind in the form of memory and since the mind has enjoyed the food, mind prompts the ego for more. This is where the initial seed of problems starts, as desire is now created and when left unchecked it rears its ugly head in various ways.

Let us understand how this works further, the enjoying mind which consumed the chocolate now has a tendency to eat more of it and has led to the desire of consuming this chocolate more and more. Usually at this point intellect comes into the picture and puts a stop on the urges of the kid says it’s not good to eat too much, but if the mind is filled with many such impressions and urges, intellects influence becomes weak. So in this example the child now wants chocolate, mind starts disturbing the intellect to come up with a solution to for procuring more chocolates. Now the intellects first things about what are the available options with it. So with the help of intellect the child asks the parents to buy more of eat for its consumption. Suppose the parents do not buy the chocolate saying this is enough for the day and no more will be given. This event will have varied effect on the mind of the child. If the desire for the chocolate is less, then the child will subside and keep quiet and go about with its other activities.

On the other hand when the kid’s desire has taken over the mind (or mind is filled with full of desire of the chocolate) the kid gets agitated (mind of the kind). The kid’s mind now direct the intellect to procure the chocolate in any way possible. So now the kid will starts crying and throwing tantrums against the parents. Even if this does not work the kid will try to steal the chocolate leading to disastrous actions and reactions. If the child gets the chocolate after an unruly behavior, the impression that being unruly will fetch results will get embedded in the mind and leads to a tendency of being unruly next time when it wants something that the parents or others oppose. Further if the kid steals the chocolate and eats it. Then an impression that stealing will fulfill the desire (minds restlessness is subsided). Finally what will happen is that these impressions and tendencies percolate in to something very big, making the same kid in the future to do unnecessary and immoral things for its end.

This is just one small example considering on small aspect, but when we consider our daily life activities there are innumerable number of such impressions and tendencies that get embedded in our mind and mix and match these impressions and tendencies starts ruling our life than it should actually be led. 

So we can see that innumerable impressions and tendencies which work within the mind make it corrupted and confused. Because of these impurities the quality of life that is led is also not good and we become slaves of our thoughts/emotions/ tendencies and not the other way around. 

Sadhana in Vedanta

Sadhana as per Vedanta

To achieve spiritual progress and finally understand “you are that”. Sadhana plays an important role in achieving the desired goal of realization.

To proceed towards realization the fundamental requirement is Knowledge. Knowledge is the supreme of all the paths. Now the question is that what is the knowledge which leads to the ultimate? 

It is nothing but all the Mahavakyas have enumerated, I’m Brahman, I’m Shiva (Shivoham) etc.

Now you may ask a question saying how am I Brahman, this can be explained in a simple example of Jagrat, Swapna and Susupti example, In this discernment process we try to understand one thing that there is something which we call as “I”, that which exists in all the three states. What are the three states of living it’s nothing but Awake, Dream and Deep Sleep.

If one observes these three states one can come to a conclusion that there is an existence of “I” which pervades in all these states, which is independent of these three. Meaning the existence of this “I” does not depend on the existence of the body and mind. But body and mind are dependent on this “I” for its sustenance. This “I” is beyond these three states and hence it is called Turya (4^th state of consciousness) and beyond this is Turyatita (Where there is no “I”)

This “I” is Existence, Consciousness and Bliss.

The first step towards progressing in the path of spirituality is to start with acquiring the knowledge and how do we acquire the knowledge? It’s with associating oneself with a realized Guru, if that is not possible then we have to listen to the lectures of great yogi’s and read the scriptures to understand the true nature of our self.

Once after acquiring the knowledge one has to constantly analyze the teaching and try to understand it completely. For any person doubts are common when he/she starts trying to understand the saying of the scriptures. At this stage he has to get this clarified with his Guru.

Once the knowledge is firmly established, to realize one has to follow profound and repeated meditation on the mahavakyas of great Upanishadic statements such as "That art Thou", “Shivoham” etc, to realize the identity of Atman/Brahman.

To take this further the next problem that comes up is that, Okay I have acquired this knowledge but I’m unable to experience anything. What is stopping me in achieving the ultimate? At this stage the likely reason for this ordeal would be the scattered ness of the mind and the mind is not grasping the teaching and it is not able to be still or is unable to focus. To get over this problem one has to follow Bhakthi or Raja yoga (Bhakthi yoga – Mind has to surrender to the Self, Raja yoga – is the one prescribed by Pantanjali consisting Yama - Self-control,,Niyama- Discipline,,Asana - Physical exercises,,Pranayama - Breath exercises, Pratyahara - Withdrawal of the senses from external objects, Dharana - Concentration, Dhyana - Meditation, Samadhi - Complete Dissolution) the goal of this is to still the mind.  

Even after this one may not be able to achieve the ultimate and this would be due to impurities of the mind (like doer ship, thoughts, tendencies and other mental modifications). This has to be overcome by purifying the mind to become still where the true will get unraveled. So one has to follow Karma yoga (Karma Yoga – Thought of doer ship should go away (always do the activity with established thought that it is the Divine will working through you and doing the activity or just do an activity and don’t expect any outcome, and offer any outcome to the Self)).

So to encapsulate the entire process, one has to follow below steps (given in reverse order).

• Remove impurities/Ego – follow Karma yoga
• Stilling the mind – Bhakthi/Raja yoga (meditation)
• Knowledge path – Acquiring /Understand and Practice of Mahavakya

Regarding the Self

Why the study of one’s own nature is required. If one observes the source of all experiences are this body and more importantly the mind. So whatever we feel is based on our thoughts and actions which invariably convert into reactions as our thoughts and actions are not controlled. When we enquire the nature of this thought and to whom this arises. We start our journey to understand ourselves.

Since all the experiences arise only in the arena of the mind it becomes very important now for us to understand what is it that makes us happy or sad and more importantly we enjoying or disliking things. From the day we are born our mind starts consuming information from external sources and stores it as memory. It is these memories which are the source of our miseries. When a person looks at the other when dealing with an issue, this if it is important for him will get embedded in the mind and when faced with similar problem he will try to replicate the response based on his 

memory.

Since most of these reactions happen unconsciously the person would not know why he reacted to a situation in this manner. Because of this he suffers from the problems that arise because of such reactions.

So the point where one starts to react to various memories in his mind would be collectively called Samskara's (mental impression, recollection, psychological imprint). So it here that it becomes very important for a person to develop good Samskara's. To put it in simple terms developing good habits is the key to avoid such repercussions. What is trying to be conveyed here is that if a person starts nurturing good thoughts in his mind eventually the good thoughts will take over his subconscious mind and when is faced with a situation he is likely to respond positively. Giving rise to good karma, otherwise no karma.

Now continuing further we will briefly try to understand, what is Karma? Karma is the sum total of actions (both mental and physical) of a person that has been recorded in his mind. The samskaras that it embedded in our mind makes us to do things in a certain way and samskaras that come from our previous birth forms karma in this birth most of the time. What does this mean? Say you have an experience and this experience is recorded in you sub conscious mind at the time at the time of the experience itself and this creates a certain tendency (vasanas) and these tendency with imprints usually come out of sub conscious mind it becomes as an action which is nothing but karma.

In simple words you experience something, which creates memory and minds works on these thoughts and creates desire/inclinations etc, there by an action is performed based on these imprints and inclinations which is nothing but Karma.

After a brief understanding on this aspect, let us get back to study of self and why this is important from the above perspective.

Now let us try to understand why our body is not the true Self. There are two or three ways we can say that body is not the self.

Firstly when we are in deep sleep there is no awareness on the body and mind, at this state we are in a state where nothing exists including our body and mind and yet Self exists (meaning you exist even though body does not exist)

Alternatively we can only be aware of objects and cannot identify our self with it. Meaning when I see a bag, I can only say that I perceive the bag or I’m aware of the bag but I cannot go and say that I’m the bag. So similarly the self only perceives the body and therefore is not the body. The self is aware of the body but it is not the body.

Then what makes a person to wrongly identify himself with the body? It is nothing but his ignorance.

Third way of looking at it is like this, we are born and we grow, become old and finally die. Here if you observe that, the Self within the body is the same when you were a baby, adult and old person.Here the body kept changing and yet you remain the same. Hence you are not the body

Surrender to the Divine and Destruction of Ego

The major hindrance in one's spiritual progression is the thought of "I", i.e. the ego plays a major role in making a person getting stuck in the cycle of happiness and sadness (dyads) leading to transmigration (cycle or re births) .

Whenever a person does something and says that it is because of him that this activity was completed or takes credit of the same, the ego raises its ugly head and inflates his arrogance, leading to disaster.

But when the same person en quire's as to who is doing the activity, or for whom is this thought being raised for, then ultimately the logical deduction will go to "I" which is the ego, and when you question who is this "I", there will be no answer, and at that time our intellect realizes that there is something which is supporting this "I" (ego) and it is this which is the cause of everything. This which supports the ego is the true Self (true "I") which is of the form of awareness.

It is this which people call it as GOD, Brahman, Shiva or Self etc. Which is nothing but pure awareness (consciousness) 

How do we justify that ego/mind ("I") is not the doer/cause but the awareness is? Simple during deep sleep state the ego does not exist and only after coming out of deep sleep, the ego realizes that it was not there in the deep sleep. 

So here there was an existence which was there even when the ego ("I") was missing (not there) in deep sleep. What is this existence? It is nothing but pure awareness (consciousness) which exists during wakeful, dream and deep sleep state independent of mind and ego (The point is he existed even though mind and ego was temporarily non existent during sleep, there by ego is the true "I")  . Hence we can also understand that this awareness is the source/cause for the mind and ego and not the other way around.

So once a person understands that all actions are not because of him (false ego) and it is because of the Self within. Then the process of surrender will start and destruction of ego commences.

So, the simple trick is to live a life where you repeatedly bear this in mind that all the thoughts and actions performed by you is not because of you (ego) but it is because of the Self within

Gradually when his false identification of himself from ego "I" to the Self within is established, there is complete surrender which leads to realization that you are nothing but the Self.

Happiness

Happiness

Due to certain actions, we experience pleasure or grief. So, first let us understand where these experiences happen in us. So, what we need to understand is that it is only in our mind that we feel happy or sad etc., meaning all that happens to us from the external stimulus are processed by the mind and intellect which decides if it is good/bad, happiness/sadness etc.

So, what we can clearly understand is that the actual place where we feel happy or sad is in the arena of our mind!!!

Mind by nature is outgoing, what do we mean by this? It’s very simple mind by nature cannot sit silent and it keeps jumping from one activity to another and cannot remains silent. Because of which its works in an overdrive and intellect also functions in similar manner to keep the minds confusion and thoughts at check. If this is the situation, there is bound to be actions and reactions which affects the person and he experiences these dyads (happiness/sadness, pleasure/griefs etc.).

When such is the situation it is practically impossible to experience happiness all the time as the mind is completely occupied with activities in search of happiness from external sources, though happiness happens in the arena of the mind, it confuses itself by getting attached to the stimulus and thinks that it (stimulus) is the source of his/her happiness.

Lottery winning (Stimulus)-----------> Mind receives/processes information ----------> Experiences happiness within (experienced within).

Now in the above situation for a poor person, if he wins a lottery as above he will feel very happy, at the same time when a person who is not interested in money wins the lottery does he feel happiness? Absolutely Not.

So, from the above example we can clearly understand that happiness is within and not from outside as the person who is not interested in money does not feel any happiness. So, stimulus here does not decide on what we feel.

In simple context, the source of happiness is within us and we must look inwards to achieve a type of happiness that is unconditional and unaffected of the things that are happening and surrounding us.

Meaning the happiness that was experienced when one wins a lottery can be replicated without he winning the same lottery and enjoy same state of blissfulness. In fact, the inner bliss that we are discussing here is say 1000 times more potent than what you enjoyed when one had won the lottery.

It is this we call it as absolute happiness (in Vedanta it’s called Ananda), which is ever existent (Sat in Vedanta) and it is in the form of absolute awareness (Cit in Vedanta)

That’s the reason the nature of our true self is explained as Absolute existence, Absolute consciousness and Absolute Bliss which is nothing but Satchitanada.

Self/Brahman/God

Now the point that we have to understand is the concept of omnipresence of God/Brahman. It is very interesting Vedanta to note that God is Omnipresent, he is present in good or bad, gross or subtle etc. He is the subtlest of the subtle.

Many Upanishads's describe Brahman as biggest of the big and smallest of the small. So now how do we understand this then.

Let us understand it in this way, Brahman/Self is something which is there in your thought, in your dream or in whatever you see and finally it is within you. Self is this article that is written and the process of understanding is also the self.

So one thing that is very evident here is that Self is everywhere, hence we can negate the relative existence, that is the material world, as it arises out of the Self and merges back into it, It's like the waves of the ocean when there is a wave - material existence happen and when it falls back, it merges with the ocean, so material world merges back to the Self.

Further what we need to understand is that Self is the foundation of all, meaning Self is supported by Self and there is nothing beyond it, it the subtlest of the subtle, it is independent and everything else dependent on it. The only existence that we can validate is the Self and nothing else.