REACHING GOD: THE METHOD

REACHING GOD: THE METHOD:

NG Chandorkar: Baba, again I am asking you for the third time, who God is, what he is like and where he is?

Baba: I have already told you. If you act upon what I have said, you would be equipped with Sadhana Chatushtya i.e., the four helps.

NG Chandorkar: What are they?

Baba: 1. Viveka, 2. Vairagya, 3. Scama, 4. Mumukshuta

First is (Viveka) Nitya-Anitya Vastuviveka i.e., discriminating between the real and unreal. Some people make others believe that they are such vivekis and become varkaries i.e., pilgrim toPandharpur, without however, knowing who Hari really is, what he is and where he is. But this pilgrimage is not real devotion, but a mere device to get respect from others.

Persons who merely read and memorise many works without making their hearts pure, pour out precepts at debates, cavil at others and are full of self adulation. These are not vivekis and they do not attain Brahma Jnana.

Vairagya is second. The real vairagi cares not for the good things of this world or of the next.
(Baba's Vairagya. (1) When Damia Rasane offered Baba a share in the profits of his proposed business Baba said `I am not to be entangled in anything. (2) Baba's advice to a Madrasi Swami. : If you are so fond of your mother, why did you assume the garb of a sanyasi. Kashaya and mamata (attachment) cannot go together. … Utter renunciation alone leads to bliss. Bo Bhagavatha Sapthaha thrice with intended meditation. That will quench all vasanas. All illusions will end.)

Scama, the third. Scama is preventing the mind from going into the objects of the senses. Dama is the withdrawal of the mind, when it does go in, by control of external activity.

Titiksha is putting up with pain that results from prarabdha karma, without murmur.

Uparati is looking upon wealth, women, children, friends etc., as unreal and thus escaping the meshes of Maya.

Sraddha is faith (Viswasa of the mind)

Samadhana is equanimity i.e., looking on pain and pleasure equally unexited and with firmness of mind.

Mumukshuta is the fourth help

Mumukshuta is strong desire for Moksha (with dislike of joys and sorrows of phenomenal existence), accompanied by the idea that Aparoksha jnana i.e., realisation of Brahman alone is the solution.

Moksha is not Heaven, Kailasa or vaikunta. It is subtle and not gross. It is the invisible origin of the universe-pure consciousness, pure being-Suddha chaitanya. Being or becoming that is moksha. That is immortality and that is the goal of human life. All other alms are worthless.

N G Chandorkar: Pray, tell us about Suddha Chaitanya, what it is.

Baba: That is the origin, the essence, the foundation and the permeator of the entire universe, sentient and insentient, as also the end of it. The source is Suddha Chaidanya. You cannot exactly describe `Chaidanya', but every moment it exists in your existence. There is no place without it but it has no form or name. in that it resembles air, which has no colour or form to be seen, and whose existence however is unquestionable, Suddha Chaidanya is called Brahman. The wise do upasana of it under the name `Brahman' and then, are called Brahmavit. Vegetable, animal, human and all other lives are contained within it. It is the original cause of all appearance, perceptions and knowledge. It is the one root of the many. It pervades everything. It may be characterised as sat-reality, chit-consciousness, Ananda-bliss and Ekatva-unity. All of us are that. We are not distinct from it.

N G Chandorkar: Baba, you say Brahman is bliss, i.e., without pain and that, it is unity, i.e., without multiplicity. Yet you say the same Brahman is all and everything in the world, wherein there is not merely multiplicity but also suffering. How can bliss appear as pain and suffering? How can the one appear as many, How can the real appear as the unreal, Again, it each of us consider ourselves as Chaitanya as Brahman there must be many Brahmans (and not one)because we are so many. Further, if all of us are the one and same Brahman, each man must feel the pain and pleasure felt by others; but he does not. Just as our bodies are different, our souls must be different and not one. Please explain.

Baba: You are wrong. Just listen red, black, white, blue, yellow, etc., are different colours. Add them to water. Is not water still one and the same water, despite the different colours. That, you will see by separating the colour from the water. The result will be that you get water in each case. Just like that, the Atman or Brahman is one. But the hearts it occupies, are different. It is one and the same Atman that runs through all the hearts. As far pain and pleasure, these are not the functions of Brahman or Atman, but only of the hearts. To make the heart, a heart, is the function of the Atman or Brahman.

I will further explain the matter. Chaitanya appear through three gunas and is classified further as Paramarthika-Satya, Vyavaharika-Satya and Pratibhasika-Satya just as one body has three stage, childhood, manhood and old-age, so Satya has these three stage. A person in Paramartik stage (called a sage) sees truth as truth and acts according to sastras, i.e., without differentiation. One in the Vyavaharik stage (called the Good) tries to follow the sastras but goes on differentiating at every step selecting the good and rejecting the evil. One in the Pratibasik stage (called the ignorant) does not see the truth either entirely as it is or with the addition of differentiation merely, but sees it quite inverted i.e., in the way quite opposite to the Vyavaharik person's view. He sees good as evil and evil as good.

But Atman or Brahman is common to all these three stages.

I will give one more illustration. There is (1) the King, (2) the King's deputy and (3) the King's messenger. You see the common point running through all the three i.e., Kingliness; yet the three are different. It is just like that, Brahman runs through all the three classes, which appear different.

N G Chandorkar: How can you divide Regality? It is indivisible.

Baba: Right. Regality is one and indivisible; but in point of fact we note the division of Regality in the above three and their difference between them. Similarly Chaitanya (Brahman) is unlimited but each limited ego partakes of it, i.e., to the extent of its capacity and exhibits it, i.e., this chaitanya or kingship. Take another example, viz., space or Akasha. Aksaha though illimitable is in a small pot (then call Ghatakasha), in a big pot then called kumbhakasha and so on. All have Akasha in degrees. Just like that Brahman appears in different forms in this world which is the play of Maya. It is the union of Brahman with Maya that causes Bramanda, the universe.