5 The Seeker and the Path "5 The Seeker and the Path" \l 1
Man forever wants to know. Even if the mind does not ask it, there is an inward urge which shouts out all the time to ask one question only, and that question is, “Who am I?”
Divinity is there. The only qualification needed by a person to find his inner self is sincere seeking.
To get back to our primal innocence is the duty and purpose of life.
Being by nature inquisitive, a person has to inquire and inquire and inquire. He wants to know the cause of things. He wants to know why this flower grows, why the wall stands upright, and a million things of that nature. He thinks that by knowing the causes of exterior things he will be left somehow to find the causes of himself. Again his questing comes down to one question: “Who am I?”
Knowledge, as we know it, is an accumulation of facts with which we burden our little brains. But wisdom is a knowingness, and this knowingness that wells up from within cannot be acquired with a half dozen Ph.D. degrees. If it could, then every university professor of philosophy would be a self-realized man, and he is not. After having studied every possible philosophy, a professor of philosophy is often more confused than before, and less able to answer the crucial question: “Who am I?”
The main question inherent in all human beings is, “Who am I?” This question can go through many superimpositions, and our search begins by inquiring into various facets of life, such as science and the arts. To find the answer to the question, “Who am I?” a person starts searching outside of himself.
Now the modern scientist is no better than the primitive man—the only difference is that now he inquires in a more sophisticated way. Primitive man, searching outside himself, created the river gods, mountain gods, cloud gods, rain gods, and so forth, that could answer questions for him. The primitive man’s mind got involved in various superstitions. Modern scientists’ minds get involved in various dreams. The difference between superstition and dream is very fine. A superstition is but a projection. A dream is also a projection. The difference is that the superstitious primitive man believed in what he thought, while the dream of the scientist is devoid of belief until he can verify the dream.
The purpose of the acquisition of knowledge is to find oneself; everything else is secondary.
Even on the spiritual path there cannot be self-satisfaction because the forces within us, the very forces that constitute the ego—the three gunas—are forever in turbulence, and it is this very turbulence that pushes one on and on and on. There is no rest for man until he reaches self-realization.
People today are operating more on the level of the mind and less on the level of the heart. That is where our teaching differs from most of the systems in the world; with our practices there is a simultaneous development of the mind and heart. The heart feels the joy and the mind appreciates the joy. This is the message of today, age-old, but presented in its modern context.
Brahmacharya is the most misinterpreted word that has ever been given out to this world. Many people feel that Brahmacharya means celibacy—complete continence, non-indulgence in sex. Brahmacharya does not mean this. Brahma means Divinity, achar means the way, the path. So, to be a Brahmacharya, means to walk in the path of Divinity. That is the true meaning of Bramacharya.
As we said before, as above, so below. What is below is above. It is just a different level of existence, and man can live at a higher level of consciousness. People call it an altered state of consciousness. There is no such thing. You cannot alter consciousness, you can only live at a higher level of consciousness. Consciousness remains the same. What alters is you, yourself.
The path of Yoga is not as simple as it seems. The path of Yoga, Vivekananda said, is the path of heroes, the path of the warrior. There has to be determination. Krishna said, “There are a few types of people that want to reach me: the one that wants worldly gain, the one that is in distress, the one that is a seeker, and last, but not least, the one that has real spiritual knowledge and wants to remain forever in touch with his Maker. He wants to be at home all the time, and not stray away.” Raja Yoga is the royal path to that union.
We do not preach any particular religion, but we try to delve into the depth of all religion. I have found that, as Ramakrishna would say, though ways may differ, they are like rivers coming from different directions and ultimately becoming one in the same ocean. So the basis of all religions is but one.
If you are a Christian, become a better Christian; if you are a Buddhist, become a better Buddhist; if you are a Hindu, become a better Hindu. For at the basis of all religions lies the same basic principle, and the same basic question—”Who am I?”
The spiritual value in human being might not be able to be proven in a test tube, but it can be experienced!
When it comes to the question of effort, the most important thing is not the physical or mental exertion that is involved, but the attitude that one develops in doing things.
If you have the temperament of love, devotion, right action and doing spiritual practices, then you find the direct route to that inner self where all peace resides.
Sometimes the uneducated are more sincere in their search. They are more honest with themselves and they are more inclined to the heart because the mind does not stand in the way.
It is good to doubt. Doubts spring from your mind—and remember, they have nothing to do with the teacher. If you overcome your doubt, you are overcoming the discrepancies of your mind. So doubt is good, because a doubt is the springboard for further inquiry. As you go on inquiring, inquiring, inquiring, you will find you have to knock for the door to be opened. You have to seek to find.
What necessity is there for great personages like Jesus and Krishna to take birth on this earth, to teach of higher principles? What purpose is there? Why should all this be happening? Why should you be suffering? Why are you not totally integrated? Is there something missing in our lives for which we are searching? Why are we here? We are searching for something, we are searching for a purpose. That purpose might not be a conscious search, for the mind is a funny animal. The mind can delude you to say that all this is purposeless, yet if we ask deep within ourselves, we feel there is something, and we are trying to find what that something is. There again the question arises, “Who am I?”
A real doubter must be an earnest seeker. Doubting should not be engendered by curiosity. Doubting should come from a genuine, sincere search. Why you seek sincerely you will overcome your doubts.
The going cannot be smooth all the time. The rose is beautiful but it comes with thorns. Everything in life is like that—everything.
Even if a person starts with doubt, it is good. At least a start is made and that is important.
On the spiritual path there is no laziness, there is no self-satisfaction. Self-satisfaction is called delusion.
When a person is a true seeker, then the environment that is necessary for his growth comes to him; all circumstances lead him to it.
When you say, “I have come from God and I am going back to God,” you are measuring it in terms of your own mind, which can only think in terms of time and space. Beyond time and space, there is no coming or going—you are just there.
What happens in practical life is this: if our attention is only on the material, forgetting the spiritual, then the material value for everything will forever keep on changing, changing, changing. When anything is changing all the time, we find very quickly that it is impermanent—and there is nothing.
Life is never purposeless. Any person that stifles his purpose of life, or denies that there is any purpose to life, will only flounder like a rudderless boat.
Inquiry into the various aspects and facets of life must not be stopped, because if a person has an intellectual tendency, this can be his starting point. As he goes on analyzing various things he will know for himself that this is not it—there is something more.
In daily living, the qualification of spiritual unfoldment shows in the way we tackle our problems. When we can turn that which was previously unjoyous into joy, that is a sure sign of spiritual unfoldment.
Today, people want to experience first and have faith later. In olden times it was the other way around—through their belief and faith people would experience something. Today, they want to experience.
It is said, in eastern scriptures as well as Tibetan, that if you are a seeker of truth, you do not need to go anywhere.
Do not hanker after enlightenment. The more you hanker after it and try to perform actions towards that end, the further you chase it away.
There are signposts on the spiritual path that will tell you how far you have reached. But is your conscious mind receptive enough to notice these spiritual signposts?
The purpose of life, or the attainment of any higher value of life is attained by one-pointedness.
To know yourself, you are at liberty to use whatever is offered to you in your circumstances and learn from it. This is very important.
Be alert!
It is very seldom that those who are knowledgeable, and proud of it, will reach the kingdom of Heaven.
The signposts are there, but it is not necessary to see them or know them. You are still on the path, a pathless path. It is just the cleaning of all the dirt that has gathered around you; it is taking a bath. And once the dirt is washed off, you are clean, pure, and naked as the innocent child . . . no wiles, no fancies, no whims . . . just love.