Company of the Divine

While dealing with the subject of Surrender Dr.K.C.V. asserts that God is constantly with us and ready to help us provided we express our desire for such an assistance. The immediate question that would arise in any aspirant would be if that is so why is it we do not seem to be progressing in the path as fast as we would like to? This statement of assurance however welcome has certain conditions which he states later in the article. He states that 'The most important thing in this matter is, we are willing to seek God or Master. That is an act of "will" not of "inclination" alone. If we have decided that we want the Master's help for our own higher evolution, or to reach the Ultimate, we will find that God is very near." It is not seeking help of the Master for petty desires and wishes that gets us the help of God. When we realise that we are slaves of our wishes and are determined to get over them and seek Him for His sake we find Him closest to our heart. To come to that condition we have to move sufficiently in the path. Dr. K.C.V. states that "Virtues such as Satya, ahimsa, aparigraha, asteya, brahmacharya, sauca, Dana, daya etc., and also austerities such as observing vows and fasting, reveals the training that is being given to the sense and motor organs, and the mind itself, in order to prepare one for the receipt of Divine Grace or power." (Reference: Vol 1 - 376)

He quotes from Isa Upanishad the following mantra and gives its meaning.

"Om Krato smara Krtham smara; Krato smara Krtham smara".

"O lord of Sacrifice or Surrender! Remember what I have done and the second statement "Remember what I have done" means God will have to complete the act of surrender Himself." After sufficient sadhana which includes hearing the Masters of the Order and also after sufficient mentation we gain a fairly gross understanding of our true status and are realised to that extent. We realise the importance of prayer and feel breathless without the same even for a minute or less than that time. The Upanishad continues after the above mantra and states the importance of prayer in order to attain liberation. With this intent in mind, the Supreme as present in Agni is worshipped --

"Agne naya supatha raye asman visvani deva vayunani vidvan: yuyodhyasmajjuhuranameno bhuyistam te nama uktim vidhema".

The meaning of the prayer is "O Lord, as 'Agni', you are verily the controller of the body, and even of the whole universe; lead us by the highest path to the wealth of liberation; you fully know all that we know, all the efforts we have made; remove from us the effects of past sinful acts that are causing bondage, thus we pray unto you with our fullest knowledge and devotion."

Dr. K.C.V. states that "Now this is a very difficult point to explain and many people want to be lazy enough to say "let Master surrender. Why should I surrender, let Master do everything and I shall be the recipient". I do not think that is the meaning. If we go a little way, God takes us a long way. If we make total surrender, He will complete the surrender by taking us up. That is, we are enabled to surrender more and more willingly to His treatment and training without any protest, without resistance and without egoistic self assertions that we have done the surrender and that He has not done it. The whole point therefore is that our devotion will develop when we observe that not only our physical body is prostrated before the Master every day or every hour, but our vital bodies which are full of desires, cravings and other tendencies, get controlled. "Sama" and "Dama" equally follow it. Then, the mind also ceases to wander and we find constant remembrance and our spiritual faculties begin to develop. In other words, we find that we are more and more absorbed even without our being conscious that we are in God or the Master. This is devotion. Once this occurs we recognize at once that God's Grace is flowing through us. And I hold the view that God's grace has begun to flow through us the moment we surrender either mentally or physically or vitally. Now all these things show that God is constantly with us and ready to take us up at the slightest sign on our part of accepting Him."

After discussing the states of consciousness Master says 'Once the attainment has set in, you would have achieved divine attributes.' He continues stating that "Now having reached the attribute, say, you have come into the Sunshine. Prior to it we were aware of only our own attributes." (SDG P.42) That means we know only ourself and our attention to the divine is subject to the condition of our self. Rev. Master continues "Now your swimming started in what lies just beyond God i.e. just after it." This is really blasphemous! Going beyond God when we are talking of surrendering to Him? But in fact for those who have experienced this condition the idea of God is off and the journey is on. Master states further that "Having come up to here we now get tidings of going still ahead. When remembrance has progressed to the extent that the awareness of remembrance itself is lost, then the form of remembrance gets changed and this we know on moving beyond it. "One is unaware to the extent that he is aware. (JISKO JITHNA HOSH HAI UTNA HI BEHOSH HAI) It will be premature to reveal it. The tidings of this, on arriving at that state, will come when one automatically starts trying to reach it, by one self." (SDG 42-43) I humbly submit to all the aspirants to note that the condition here is had only when one tries to reach it automatically at that stage and the role of the Master is minimal here. Master makes a remarkable statement when he said "The sages of yore have regarded the state of acceptance of and happiness in Lords' will as surrender. Now, I give a prescription. "Yearning pure and simple to reach Him and Him alone!" But we should remember this yearning is not the same as the yearning we start with, it is a condition after crossing the limits of divine attributes and even God. This surrender is entirely different from the surrender we have in the Fourth knot.

Without a doubt, instinctively the most profound desire and yearning of each human being is to unite with God - in other words, to find God within himself. Some seek this through mysticism and the domination of their desires, and others choose the terrible path of sensual and material rapture which leads the aspirants in that path to almost insanity. The only wise way to find God is through the practice of the highest spiritual virtues and with the direct help and guidance of the divine itself. As practicants of the path of PAM we are blessed with the direct awareness of the presence of the Divine through the imperience of the divine attributes of peace, calmness and deep quiet. During meditations it appears to us as though the heart is emptied of all thoughts and feelings. Actually, emptiness of mind is not even a state of mind, but the original essence of mind which we imperience by the grace of our beloved Master. "Essence of mind," "original mind," "original face," "emptiness"--all these words mean the absolute calmness of our mind.

Many aspirants inspite of the imperience they have express their desire to stop sadhana as they find the call for the necessary discipline being beyond their capacity. It is no wonder that persons who are accustomed to instant food and instant coffee etc., lack the patience and perseverance necessary for sadhana. For them the words of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita may appeal better.

"Listen to the principles of yoga. By practicing these you can break through the bonds of karma. On this path effort never goes to waste, and there is not failure. Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear. Those who follow this path, resolving deep within themselves to seek Me alone, attain singleness of purpose. For those who lack resolution, the decisions of life are many--branched and endless." -Bhagavad Gita 2:39-41

Not withstanding the presence of the divine and the imperience of the divine attributes during our sadhana we tend to doubt the presence of the divine. This is essentially due to the pull of our thoughts by the lower mind which moves more in the realm of pleasure rather than happiness. Many a time we are afraid to follow what is right and good for us and to humanity because of the consequences of social and relational threats. If we are aware of the divine in our heart and can only yield to that we will understand that security is not the absence of danger, but the awareness of the presence of Master, no matter what the danger is. If only we can say to God who is with us always that 'we are Thine', the promise of the Srimad Ramayana i.e. "Sakrdeva prapannaya tava asmi iti yachate; Abhyam sarvabhootebhyo dadami etad vrtam mama" will be experienced as true.

The topic of the seminar is clarifying 1. That God is with us constantly and 2. That we are to be ready to accept Him and 3. That He would readily accept us on such intimation. It is obvious that we meditate on the heart. It is our experience that as great as the infinite space beyond is the space within our little heart that is consecrated with the presence of God. We find that both the divine and mundane are contained in the chambers of the heart marked as U and L by our great Master. Brahman resides in the space within the heart and within that space is the cessation of all our desires and it is that space we are longing for realisation. Realisation we know is a state of mind where the non dual Love is imperienced. Love is unconditional acceptance. It is love of parents for child; also the non-possessive love of partners; also the caring love between all people that enables forgiveness. It is above energy, though it may be expressed energetically. It is the Universal consciousness and it is the binding force of the Universe, inherent in all that is. If we can love one selflessly we cannot help loving all. If that one is the Master the results will be splendid. Then the following of the commandments become easy. For truly loving another means letting go of all expectations. It means full acceptance, even celebration of another's personhood. When we practice and live such a type of love we will be inwardly free of all hopes and desires, but outwardly do what needs to be done. Without hopes in our heart we live as if we were full of hopes. Giving up the idea of being a doer becomes easy when we love others and all our acts then take the status of being service and sacrifice. We can then live with our heart now cool and now warm just as everyone else. Having thus been embraced by the divine this is how we live in the world, completely free from the least trace of ego. Further having emptied ourself we find experiencing emptiness is also experiencing peace, and the potential of peace is it's unfolding as harmony among all people, animals, plants, and things. The conditions of uparati, upeksha, Atma nivedana and sthirachittamu then get matured and transformed into the condition of surrender and the individual will is totally negated and the will of the Master takes over the governance of the individual. The commandments of the Master formulate this harmony.

It was stated by a wit that the test to find whether our mission on earth is finished is to ask if we are alive and if yes we should think the mission is not finished. This is a great truth expressed simply. As long as God is not living in us our mission in life is not satisfactorily completed. We have to die and die in the divine consciousness terminating our petty individual consciousness. As Master has said it requires courage to say so and live in such a way that others say so. A suffering heart cannot have such courage. We should realise that nothing brings suffering as does an untamed, uncontrolled, unattended and unrestrained heart. Such a heart brings suffering. The temple of God need not be put to such a condition and we have the option to totally dedicate the same to the divine. That brings happiness in the real sense and grants happiness to others. Such a heart always radiates and transmits the divine force which grants the persons in and around him peace and calmness and in some fortunate cases bliss too. We should know that our heart and mind are sacred enclosures given in trust to us and nothing harmful can enter it except by our permission and promotion.

The Master or God who is said to be ready to respond the moment we call him is what we seek during meditation. An act of meditation is actually an act of faith, a faith in our spirit, in our own potential. Faith is the basis of meditation. It is not so much a faith in something outside us, a metaphysical God, an unattainable ideal, or someone else's words. The faith is in us, in our own "Master-nature." We too can be a Master, an awakened being that lives and responds in a wise, creative, and compassionate way.

When we say we are Masters in spiritual life we are only saying that we live in a non personal consciousness. The more generous we are, the more joyous we become. The more cooperative we are, the more valuable we become. The more enthusiastic we are, the more productive we become. The more serving we are, the more prosperous we become. Such is the possibility in following the Natural Path of our beloved Master Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur.

It is necessary that we translate the feelings of embrace of the Master who holds us in close intimacy and many times chocking us with His love infinite, into our daily life activities. We should not forget to bring the good experiences of meditation into our daily activities. Instead of acting and reacting impulsively and following our thoughts and feelings here and there, we should keep close watch our mind carefully, and be aware, and try to deal skilfully with problems as they arise. We have to take heed that when effort is too strenuous it leads to strain and when too slack to laziness. In adversities we should have the wisdom to realise that when our heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left. So we have to make a firm determination that we will adopt the middle way, not allowing ourself to struggle or to slacken, but recognizing that faith, energy, meditation, concentration, wisdom are the blessings of the Master and are the fruits of a calm and equitable Natural Path which we follow. It is then we can say we have moulded our life to serve the divine purpose and mission. By the order and blessings of my Master I have been in the service of aspirants who seek to enter as well as those who are in the system of Natural Path. But the acceptance of the Master being close by is something that is not always acceptable to them.

It is my experience that instead of accepting totally the divine who is close by they tend to search for solutions for their dark and depressing states of consciousness on their own. While they profess a love for the Divine light within, whenever an unwanted moment appears they look into the dark abyss where they think the roots of the problems lie. But they see no Light there and it is only total darkness. Then comes an immediate resistance to it and instead of yielding to the Master within they look more into the darkness and naturally the darkness and depression rules the day. Let me shed some light on this problem. Things are not always as they are seen.

I am not in the habit of seeing cinemas. But I read a review of a film called 'The Wizard of Oz'. The story was woven around one Dorothy who was trying to find her way back home. She had three odd companions on the path. Firstly there was the scarecrow, then tin man, and thirdly a cowardly lion. They were all going to see the great wizard who would grant each of them their most fervent wish. The scarecrow wanted a brain, a mind with which to reason and know the truth of things. The tin man hoped for a heart to beat in his hollow tin chest, so that by its warmth and rhythmic beating he would know the presence of the love for which he longed; and the cowardly lion wanted courage to face his fears, to meet any form of darkness with what it takes to defeat it. By the end of the story, largely as a result of what they go through because of their love for Dorothy, each makes this glad discovery: the very quality of character for which they had gone out searching was already living within them!

Even so we have forgotten that our true nature cannot be made a captive of any dark condition any more than a sunbeam can be caught and held in a bottle. Our True Self is Union with Master itself, in every meaning of the word, because Master by His very presence in our heart as divine light fulfils and liberates all that He touches. If we have the determination we will not mind all the voices that no doubt we hear shouting at us when we decide to be with the Master consciously. That which is dark does go gently through being made new and bright. So there is hard work involved. But the Light we realize within us never fails, it literally carries us above whatever mountain is before us by revealing it to be nothing other than what we are determined to reach. We cannot control the way the world turns, we cannot change day into night, we cannot keep what is not ours and we cannot hide these facts from ourselves, no matter how hard we try. But what we are given to do and that turns out to be the one power of ours truly capable of transforming the whole of life, is that we can choose, moment to moment to be with the Master in whom we are intertwined.

Pranams.