Friends, Our ‘being’ has three-fold existence — our soul is expressed in life-form via three bodies. Our three bodies are physical, subtle (mental and energy body), and causal (astral). For spiritual development, the three currents Shraddha (Sraddha), Nishtha (Nistha), Pragya (Prajna) of the omnipotent life-force should be awakened and activated at the level of these three bodies. Expression of Nishtha at the level of physical body would improve our conduct, behavior, deeds. At the level of subtle body this would result in awakening of wisdom and virtuous emotions Pragya. Awakening of divinity in the inner self, and corresponding sublime transformation of our intrinsic tendencies, aspirations, inner urge, etc would imply activation of Sraddha in the causal body.
In simple terms, the syllabic form of Gayatri mantra is like a seed; but this seed would not sprout and grow unless nurtured by the essential ingredients (like soil, water, fertilizers) of Sraddha Nistha, Prajna.
Before going into the true meaning and deeper aspects of what Ïraddh³, NiÌÚh³, and Prajó³ are, and how we can awaken, cultivate and adopt these in all realms of our life, let me first give some examples to avoid the common confusion or misconceptions people have about these. These are elements of spirituality. Spirituality pertains to consciousness. It is the science of evolution of consciousness. What most of us know as science, namely, the modern science – physics, chemistry, etc, deals with material existence and manifestation of Nature. For example, it tells us about the body. What we consider as health science also deals with the body — e.g. it teaches us the exercises to strengthen our muscles, to keep our lungs active, etc. Most of our other activities also revolve around materialistic gains, and materialistic well-being. We work hard to earn money or some kind of material gain. Our planning, our imagination, our aspirations are also mostly concerned with materialistic aspirations. We do realize existence of consciousness in us via our thoughts and emotions but we hardly pay due attention to their improvement or illumination.
The methods of spirituality such as upasana, sadhana are meant for our evolution of consciousness — refinement and improvement of our thoughts, emotions, intrinsic tendencies, etc. Unless our inner awakening and refinement take place our so called activities of upasana would also be simply like our other mechanical activities. For example, without inner enlightenment and awakening of Sraddha Nistha, Prajna, your japa of Gayatri Mantra will be nothing more than a mere physical exercise of the tongue and vocal cord and maybe some kind of emotional exercise. So you may ask what exactly should be done?
“Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world. – Ramana Maharshi”
First of all you need to get rid of your prejudiced impressions, or misconception about spirituality in general and Sraddha Nistha, Prajna, in particular. For you all these are simply some kind of blind faith, emotional excitements, customary show off, hallucinations, or illusory concepts.
Once someone gifted me a Dakshinavarti sankha (special kind of conch-shell regarded as auspicious) and asked me to keep it on the Pooja Vedi (place of worship). “It is supposed to create positive ambience for blessing of goddess Laxmi (Goddess of wealth)” — was the comment of an acquaintance who was the owner of the estate of Alwar.
I told him that I live in a small rented house with minimum facilities so I don’t think such a place is really appropriate for the goddess of prosperity. Maybe you take this conch-shell with you so that she would definitely come in your palatial house. He was surprised at the generous offer: and kept repeating humbly – “No guruji I didn’t mean this, I don’t want to bother you, don’t give me your personal sankha ….” . Still I insisted and gave it to him, as I knew that he was under some financial pressure of repaying a debt of about 2 lakh rupees at that time and perhaps because of that he was begging for all kinds of miraculous objects as per his faith. Well, he took the sankha along. After about a year he met me. I asked him casually about the benefits, if any, he got by having the sankha in his house. “No guruji, I didn’t get any good omen. On the contrary my debt has even increased”. Then I explained to him that there is no miracle in any such things like Dakshinavarti sankha, etc. If there is any miracle, it is only in your inner self, in your own efforts, determination, will power and abilities.
In yet another incident of such faiths, one person came to me asking for real Rudraksh. According to him- “Guruji I have heard that somebody gave a necklace of Rudraksh in Nepal to Mrs. Indira Gandhi after wearing which she became the Prime minister”. I told him “I don’t know and I don’t believe in such things”. I tried to explain to him by the logical argument that this way by simply wearing or having Rudrakshas people would become prosperous, powerful, and maybe they would just enslave divine powers. Do you think such beliefs are rational? Will any thoughtful mind accept such things? It is only some kind of emotional blackmail that innocent people like you get trapped into. It is foolish on part of such people that instead of improving their own qualities and enhancing their efforts, they keep running after such auspicious or beatifying objects to get rid of their adversities or to gain undue benefits.
“It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up. – Eckhart Tolle”
Similar kind of emotional trap, false impression is associated with our faith in rituals. Many of us think that only doing certain kind of rituals, chanting certain kind of words (mantras, prayers) in certain styles would suffice as spiritual endeavor. Such beliefs are absurd. It’s better to do nothing than such activities in the name of spirituality or devotion. True sraddha is certainly not this.“You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul. – Swami Vivekananda”
True sraddha means intrinsic faith, unflinching trust in divine virtues, unconditional and limitless love for noble ideals. Often the disciples have sraddha for their gurus (spiritual masters or religious mentors). But mind you,
• sraddha is not like reverence for a specific human being. In such cases where people associate their devotional feelings and respects for particular person- the so called ‘gurus’, they often get cheated. I know many such fake gurus who exploit their disciples emotionally. So, what about people’s devotion.
•sraddha on specific forms of gods (deities – devi/devata)? Well in such cases there is no risk of being cheated. But one should be careful that one is not having sraddha simply as an emotional attachment by regarding the specific god as a human being, or having attachment with his or her specific appearance. One should also be careful that one’s sraddha is not merely for being blessed by the devi /devata.
Unfortunately what we see around among the so called devotees is such misconceptions of sraddha . Sometimes the devotees regard specific deity as present in an idol or picture and spend most of the time in decorating (worshipping) offering varieties of food in name of Prasad etc. Their sraddha remains confined only to such activities so much so that they get exceptionally attached to the specific idol or picture. Beyond such activities there is no sign of devotion or religious piousness in their mentality, character or behavior. Such devotion or sraddha is nothing more than attachment of people with specific friend or relative. Such devotees should know that god doesn’t exist in human or any personified form. The idols or pictures in specific forms are created simply for the ease of meditation and emotional engrossment in the divine virtues represented by those forms.
You should know that god is an omnipresent consciousness force. As electricity or heat or thermal energy are formless, but are expressed in different instruments in different functional forms, similarly the power of god is manifested in many expressions and activities of consciousness force in the elements and beings in nature. The idols or pictures of different forms of god are creations of human imagination. You may see varieties of idols or forms of the same god. For example – Hanumanji, sometimes huge and really like a monkey, sometimes in the form of human being with mild similarity of face and tail like a monkey, sometimes the features of idol would look like the locals residents etc. In some parts of India the complexion of deities is depicted as dark colored, in some parts it is fair, in some cases it is reddish, etc. Why such diversities? This is because god in reality is formless what we see in forms is only human imagination. You know the sun remains the same, looks the same no matter which part of the world you see, this is because it exists in that form and is seen from the earth like that. But this is not so in the case of god. How can there be a “form” of the Omnipresent, Eternal, Consciousness Force?
If you want to imagine god, remember that god is only a power. You think god to be someone like a human being or some form depending on what deity you see in the form of an idol or a picture etc. This is why I often say that there are 2 levels of gods – one the real who has created nature and the entire universe, and the second is the one created by human beings according to their own imagination. It is this image upon which you focus your sraddha and devotion. That is why your sraddha and devotion also remain confined to some ritualistic activities and emotional expressions associated with that object. For example if you have an idol of Ganesh or Hanuman at home, you would decorate it with new clothes and ornaments etc, worship it every day, prepare sweets for it, etc. However, in doing such things your mind gets so pre-occupied with the extrovert rituals that you forget the real devotion.
Friends, if you find it difficult to relate yourself to a formless existence, just think of where thoughts exist in what form? In what visible or otherwise perceptible (through sense organs) form do the emotions like anger or love etc are to be described. How does any kind of power or energy exist in its original “Form”. It is only its manifestation that you experience. Like, as I told you, electrical energy is there but not visible without any suitable medium; what you see as its power in the form of light is only the glow of a filament or some other physical/chemical element, or outcome of a process that takes place through the power of electricity.
Now you may argue why our sages, our religious scholars, our ancestors gave us the deities in specific forms? Why have we been practicing to worship some idols/pictures, other objects as part of devotional practices? Well, the answer is simple – the objects, idols or any kind of visible form help easy concentration, imagination, emotional attachment of human mind. That is why these objects are important to train or condition our mind in devotional meditation. Also specific forms represent specific powers, and virtues of the divine force of the specific devi /devata.
God, as I mentioned earlier, is Omnipresent Consciousness-Force, Eternal Omnipotent Power, Absolute Truth, Ultimate Knowledge, and Complete Ensemble of Supreme Virtues and Infinite Bliss — the Brahma; a spark or evolutionary impulse of which exists within us as the soul (jivatma). Unification of the jivatma with the Brahma is the ultimate state for which all spiritual, devotional, religious practices aim at. What happens after this unification? Does one become God, and hence formless? No. Physically the devotee remains the same, but his ego, selfishness, self-identity, get transformed into the selfless, limitless, omnipresent supreme self. The devotee’s consciousness experiences the highest realm of divinity and experiences the ultimate beatifying blissfulness and absolute enlightenment.
But all this is the highest level of spiritual attainment and self-evolution, for which the great sadhakas, yogis spend several lives. For you I would like to give, simple explanations that are associated with successive stages of spiritual progress.“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. – Buddha”
Source: Akhand Jyoti Magazine May-June 2019