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Indian Spirituality

When we try to realize why we have taken birth in this world, probably a satisfactory answer can be found only through Spirituality. Spirituality nurtures souls. It arouses compassion and wisdom in a person with positive attitude. The person first grows intellectually, then emotionally and then he becomes aware that he is growing spiritually also. Ancient Indian literature covers this growth. Lots of books on Indian spirituality are available; some of them are of recent publications and some of ancient. Writings of many great thinkers like Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo are available easily and written in English. There are many other literatures on Spirituality; but unfortunately multiple schools of thought exist and some of them are causing controversy and even confusion. So a simple, short and useful writing is felt necessary for impartial readers. I have done that in this article. I have tried to avoid the controversial issues in Religion; because the fundamentalists are very passionate about proving ‘their religion and their method of worship are best’. This article is for the people of all religion, who are rational, positive and open to secular thinking.

Since Swami Vivekananda participated at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893, many attempts have been made to reconcile religion with science; but never succeeded. This was necessary, because both Spirituality and Science are outcome of search for truth. Modern civilization has not contributed to Spirituality. When we humans were not civilized and living in the wild, we were not up to destroying the nature by over exploiting it. Today we still live off ‘Mother Nature’. But for the sake of money we are up to destroying Mother Nature and consequently our own future. This is going away from Spirituality. So spiritual growth is essential. When we progress spiritually, we transform step by step. This article is on that growth.

Spiritual Progress.

Most of us use the words Religion and Spirituality synonymously. But there are differences. Even if you do not believe in ‘God’, you can still have spiritual progress. What Hindu Siddhas say is, ‘Human mind can take a person to the Divine and merge with Him; that progress is the spiritual progress. And wrongly guided mind can push him down to a behavior worse than that of an animal; that is going away from spirituality’. Most religions do not consider these. Religions depend on the belief of the people. Spirituality depends on rational and logical analysis of facts. Religion is based on faith on God. Spirituality is based on Philosophy. Spirituality begins where religion ends; and it is a journey to come in touch with one's inner truth, universal truth, and in understanding one's relation with Mother Nature and the Creator. The deepest potential of any human being is spiritual in nature. Knowing God is enlightenment; we all have to aspire for that enlightenment in our lifetime. Both Religion and Spirituality aim in taking us to that enlightenment. We are doubtful if science can play a role in that. Yet attraction for science is always irresistible.

Attempts to reconcile religion with science did not succeed; because scientists and their institutions never truly put their mind to such reconciliations. They believed that, ‘Science is truth, and spirituality does not fall into the matrix of truth; and spirituality and science dwell in two different domains, former is about immeasurable concepts like love and bliss, whereas latter is governed in empirical and measurable facts’. But the facts are not all that clearly definable. Today one thing is established as a fact by a scientist, tomorrow it may not remain so after further discoveries. Whatever may be the opinion of scientists, one conclusion can be drawn that, Science and Spirituality are not contradictory to each other, but are complimentary. Both search the truth. Both have rational approach. Great scientist Einstein said, “Religion without science is blind; and science without religion is lame”. Mankind has to search for the truth, whatever may be the approach for that. Truth remains ‘truth’ always. Science must go further and deeper into truths that pervade the cosmos enabling human mind to transform mundane into transcendent. Then Science will reconcile with Spirituality.

We live off what ‘Mother Nature’ produces, but we are up to destroying her by over exploiting it. Everything we use, from the raw material to product, has nature’s contribution. But human society does not give much importance to that perspective. Man has developed a way to value everything in terms of money. And attraction for money is so much that we want money more than what we need. For the sake of money we are up to destroy even the Mother Nature and consequently our own future; and we do not appear to be aware of that.

Endeavour for Spiritual Progress is Penance or ‘Sadhna’ as called in Sanskrit. It is the search for what a Sadhak ultimately wants. Sadhna is also called ‘Tapas’; Tapa means heat and Tapas means facing the heat. The trouble that we take to achieve something ‘great’ is like facing heat. This is to signify that Sadhna is not easy. But what type of efforts should be Sadhna and what type should not be. There are some misconceptions in this. Hindus celebrate their religious occasions. That is not Sadhna. Celebration does not give any spiritual progress. When you are celebrating, your divine awareness is absent. On the contrary, you have divine awareness when you have a problem, or when you are suffering, or when you are praying to God, or when you have ‘constant remembrance’ of God, or when you have surrendered to Him or when you are meditating. As the divine awareness goes up and we achieve a blissful state. The rituals of ‘Puja’ in a temple, or listening to a preacher etc are useful for people initially, when they have no spirituality. In conventional ‘Puja’, it is considered that the God is somewhere outside the devotee, who is trying to reach Him, i.e. externalization. What Upanishad says on level of worship clarifies this: ‘God realized state’ is the highest level of worship; next is ‘Meditation’; third level is ‘singing songs praising God’ and repeated chanting of God’s name; and ritualistic Puja is at the lowest level.

Once we come to the question, to what extent have we spiritually progressed so far, we shall find people of four types among us. First common men, who may not have any spirituality in him. As our attitude changes and we become at peace and at harmony with people, nature and everything around us; then we have start developing spirituality. Even those deal with us, will feel that we have become better persons. Through Sadhna spiritual progress increases. Initially we may not even feel that we are doing Sadhna; it is just felt as being as normal and as good as possible. Then transformation comes in us, but it appears to be more natural and practical to our common sense. In this stage we build our character and usually satisfied at that. Then we are of second type of spiritually progressed people. This stage is discussed here.

Third type of people cannot remain satisfied just by becoming a good and successful person. His interest in Sadhna grows. More subtle internal changes take place in him. He starts many new subtle perceptions, as if coming from outside the known sources. Then we observe new subtle developments in us, and we realise we are progressing spiritually. But other people may not notice our change. This stage is also discussed here.

Last type of people is the God realized persons, the 'Siddhas'. Transcendence of space, time and causation comes. This is to be experienced; it cannot be discussed. In Spiritual sense, this is realization and then union with God. In simple words, you ‘merge with the infinite, and immerge as infinite’. Then you have so called super natural capabilities; and you know past, present and future. You know what is going to happen, but you would not tell that; because God wants everybody to have efforts to create his own destiny. If a man is told what is there in his future, then he will have no motivation to work for that. He will live like a parasite on the society.

Character Building.

Here character building means improving our nature, becoming more effective in our work and in getting what we want in life. Many books and many scriptures cover this. In this article, we are not getting influenced by any of them. We are honest people, good people and we are progressing spiritually; that is the reason why we are improving. This is called practical stage of spiritual progress. Many of us, who are satisfied in life, have already arrived at this stage.

Everybody is on a journey of his or her own, towards the dream of a future or a goal. But each journey is different, even though purpose can be similar. You will have to guide yourself in that journey. For that you must understand your life first. More you understand your life, more you grow spiritually. You try to know what your strengths, weaknesses, virtues and values are; then you know what issues are important for you; and what is required to achieve your dream. Then you can easily know where you are going, where you need to apply course corrections or what improvements are needed in you. Then you consider your opportunities and the threats that you are facing, then you know the situation. You should be aware of these. You take up meditation, which will be your Sadhna and that will give you the improvements you need.

First, make a list of strengths which you believe you have, used them effectively or not. Then you need to list your weaknesses or those aspects that are holding you back in some way. Later, you can use techniques of meditation to remove these weaknesses. Then, check the specific areas of your life that is troubling you, and take them up one by one to analyze and understand what measures are necessary. There can be several emotional problems you are facing. Dealing with other people, even your own relatives and friends, can be problem. You may be low in self-esteem and motivation. You may be finding yourself over worked and over stressed. If you think such analysis of problem areas are difficult to do alone, you can take help from your well wishers, like parents and Guru.

One of the most common problems usually is fear. Every young knows what he wants to be. At that point in his live, everything is clear and everything is possible; and he is not afraid to dream. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince him that it is not possible. Dream is replaced by the fear of failure. Fear blocks what he wants to say or wants to do. Fear makes him not to express self. Fear has influenced capacity to reason, discriminate and take decisions. So you have to overcome your fear. Remember, you will have positive attitude to manage your problems, to manage your anger, to manage your stress, to improve your self-esteem or motivation, to be a Leader in work place or society. You should also consider your authority in your field of work, your responsibility, your accountability to your organization and to your society, your areas of sensitivity to influences around and the extent to which they are influencing your mind etc. Then consider what is effecting on your mind, ego and wisdom. Your 'Self-Enquiry' is useful in all these. We shall come to 'Self-Enquiry' as a method of Sadhna, little later.

What you value is what you care about the most. But many people are not fully aware of their values or do not choose their values to align actions to it. When you choose your values, you utilize your time on them. Time is life; understand your Time. When you are in control of your time, you control your destiny. Consider all virtues or values; like: Forgiveness, Trust, Courage, Understanding, Kindness, Patience, Tolerance, Generosity etc. Understand them; then you choose what you feel most important for you. Be alert to opportunities. In a mysterious way the need on one side and opportunity for its fulfillment on the other, are drawn together. For example, peace is a value. You may ask yourself, "What would make my place more peaceful?" You can do this, through your own attitude, through your own behavior with people, the way you organize your work and by being a peaceful listener; but you will know what should be done.

Normally the belief is, when we share a thing or resource, we are a little poorer. We believe, only to the other person will be benefitted. So we do not want to share. In fact, when we share inner resources like happiness, peace, love, wisdom etc, we become richer with those resources even more. When we share a thing or resource we get many more things than what we had given out. In fact, we get back more in return in the form of experience, confidence, self esteem and happiness. We should enjoy giving as such, without expecting anything in return. God has His own mysterious way of rewarding the person who is helping others.

We are mirror to each other. Our relationships are the laboratory of our life. Relationship is not simply getting along with others, it is about understanding, building, nourishing and caring. Explore, how your relation with your dear one is, and ask yourself what it tells you about yourself. The Laws of Karma is operating in every relationship. The Laws of Karma remind us that whatever quality of energy we give out, we get back the same. If we give pain, it will come back to hurt us. Now let us consider the question of wealth. Do you think that a person is wealthy when he or she has lots and lots of money? There is more to wealth than money. Real wealthy person is the one who is always happy. Positive mental attitude, health, caring relatives, career, achievements, ability to take a challenge etc are wealth! You also must remember, always things pass by; and we shall just be witnesses to that. Life comes and goes; happiness comes and goes; sorrow comes and goes. You will not be disheartened if anything goes wrong.

There is a saying, ‘You become what you are destined to become. An apple will not become an orange’. Does that mean ‘purpose of your life’ will be any way achieved without your doing anything? No. God controls your fate, but do not want you to think that way. He does not want you to be a ‘drift wood in the current’. A ‘drift wood’ never grows spiritually. He wants you to be an achiever. He wants you to be a ‘Karma-Yogi’. You will have to endeavor for that. Your enterprise is required to take you to your goal and create impact for the benefit to generations to come. In ancient Indian Texts, the Purpose of life is stated to be getting ‘Chaturvarga Fala’, or four types of results: Kama (Fulfillment of desires within righteous limits), Artha (Getting riches through righteous means), Dharma (The practice of righteous duties of a person, commonly misinterpreted as the Religion) and Moksha (Complete liberation to the natural state of the Self). Moksha is total freedom: freedom from hunger, freedom from diseases, freedom from old age, even freedom from death. Achieving ‘everlasting happiness and peace’ also come along with Moksha. Spirituality is aimed at Moksha. After getting ‘Moksha’, other three i.e. ‘Kama’, ‘Artha’ and ‘Dharma’ looses meaning, still you have to start with these three first. Because, even you have understood what Moksha is, it may appear to be just a dream. Purpose of life becomes the base on which further actions will stand. But most people are just running after money blindly, thinking money means everything. Money may give ‘Kama’ and ‘Artha’ parts, but it cannot give you ‘Dharma’ part and takes you away from ‘Moksha’.

What you send out you get back the same. Each one of us is sending out all the time: thoughts, feelings, attitudes and actions; like the packages we are radiating them into the world every moment. And it all comes back finally. The principle of ‘karma’ at its simplest level is - sowing and reaping, action and reaction. Law of Karma is the law of reciprocity and it is a law of the universe. Understand and accept karma and you understand and accept that any hurt you caused to others, always returns to you; it may be from thoughts / attitudes / actions. You give out positive and positive will come back. You give out negative and negative will return. In short the universal debt collector will come to settle what we owe to others.

We have to understand ‘Karma–Fala’, ‘Karmic Account’ and ‘Karma-bandhan’. Our action results in Karma-fala; that again leads to the karmic account (often called ‘Papa’ and ‘Punya’). Karma-bandhan is being bound to the ‘Karmic Account’ through the cycle of birth and death. Karma-yoga says, ‘Actions are to be performed as part of yoga, that is, without any expectation for the result and without any attachment’ (ref. 2nd. and 3rd. chapters of Geeta). Actions are Karma. Past Karma refers to the past action, on which we do have no control; but it has influence on our present and future. What we do today will also determine our future, and we have control on that. So we have to give importance to the action now. Due to ‘Karma-bandhan’ one has to take birth again and then use up what is there in Karmic Account by suffering (or ‘Bhog’), till he nullifies it. Common man takes this ‘use up’ as ‘Papa-kshay’, though this account may contain good record or ‘Punya’. ‘Papa’and Punya, both cause ‘bandhan’ or obstacle on the way to 'Moksha'.

To understand attachment we just talked about, let us take a simple example. Emotion or disturbance inside your mind builds up when the object of your attachment is affected or threatened. If someone walks up to your car with a coin in their hand and scratches it, what do you feel? Anger would be most people’s response. Anger is a disturbance inside you and you have created it, because you are attached to the car. If I scratch your car and you feel pain, as if you are the car! This is attachment. There is nothing more certain in life than the loss of whatever you become attached to; because God wants to give you the moment of freedom from it.

Thoughts are very powerful. It is thought power that creates the atmosphere at any place. It may or may not be positive depending on the thoughts of those present there. If I can control my mind and develop its positive power, I can influence atmosphere around me, rather than be influenced. I will gain satisfaction and within that satisfaction there will be great strength. Wanting to escape should not arise; though I am in the society I do not like, in my thoughts I can be beyond its influence. We activate our subtle energy field (aura) that surrounds us and we carry its influence with us wherever we go. Positive vibrations comes out of our positivity, and we influence those who interact with us, positively.

Every day is filled with different scenes, and in every scene we play a different role. If we play the wrong role, we definitely cause disharmony and conflict in the scene. The manager, who goes home in the evening and forgets to drop the role of manager, is in for a tough time. His children want him to play the role of a father and his wife a husband not a manager. When we understand life as a role-play, we begin to see ourselves as actors; or simply the creators of actions. Develop your inner potential to play every role effectively. An all round development is what you need.

Progress in Spirituality beyond Character Building.

For further spiritual progress, we should resort to meditation; and in addition we should resort to some other methods of Sadhna as well. In this stage, subtle changes take place at the soul level. Sensitivity to subtle perceptions develops. Spiritual experiences, like feeling of peace, sixth sense of understanding on what is going on around, love for all, happiness, contentment etc show up one after another. All these experiences are transformation processes. Many other changes take place to the Sadhak: in his attitude, in his thinking, in his perception and in his behavior.

At this stage, we have to learn several things and we have to overcome several obstacles to progress. We have to learn to complement rather than compete. Nature works on this principle of complementing. This can be seen with the seasons, with day and night and in the cycle of birth, growth, maturity, decay, death and rebirth. Even our bodies work on this principle. Look at the faces! Each face has eyes, nose, mouth and ears, all in the right position and functioning in an appropriate way. Each feature has equal value. When we recognize the equally important value in all things, we stop comparing, competing, or feeling superior / inferior. While competing, we exploit the situation and we exploit the weakness of those we think as opponents. We even selfishly exploit whatever can be used, but on the long run we make everybody looser.

Different ways of Sadhna may be advised by different ‘Gurus’ or different ‘Prophets’. However, Sri Ramakrishna had said “God is the objective, but there are many paths to Him and each religion is a path”. Most religion externalizes the search for God, spirituality internalizes the search and real progress occurs from inside the Sadhak. I am separate from God is a concept of ‘Duality’. Then the understanding is like this; I worship because I am afraid of Him, or I am a servant of Him, or He is almighty and I am nothing, or I can get some rewards if I worship Him or as He has created me so it is my duty to worship Him. Most religion has come from these stand points. When we give up this duality then spirituality comes up. So we have to learn to adopt ‘Advait (oneness) with God or adopt ‘Sho-Aham’(He and I are same); this is the meaning of sound ‘Ohm’. Although spirituality is holistic in nature, it is natural for a Sadhak to check and ensure that the path he has adopted is appropriate for him. These are also useful in self analysis and midway course correction in his Sadhna when required. We see a journey in understanding how the Sadhak and his ‘Object of Sadhna’ are related; that is from Dvaita to Vishishtadvaita to Advait (from duality towards oneness).

We can see there are a lot of Sadhna methods. We may have confusion when we hear of many types of Yoga also. It is quite likely that a Sadhak needs somebody to guide him, i.e. a Guru or a Teacher. Please read what Ramana Maharshi says on Guru: “In the highest and truest meaning of the word, the Guru is he who has realized oneness with the Spirit that is the ‘Self of all’. God, Guru and Self are the same. The Guru is one who at all times abides in the profound depth of the Self. He never sees any difference between himself, and others and he is completely free from the notion of distinction: - that he himself is the Enlightened or the Liberated; while others around him are in bondage or in ignorance”. The Guru is he who has realized oneness with the ‘Param-Atma’ (God). Such a Guru is commonly called ‘Sat-Guru’. But there are persons without much of spiritual progress, pretend to be ‘God-Man’ and take on disciples, give discourses on scriptures and make propaganda on his own glory, misleading simple people. Avoiding such possible cheating is to surrender to God and depend on Him to provide you ‘Sat-Guru’.

We get information on Indian spirituality from ancient Indian books like, Vedas, Upanishads, Shada Darshnas (6 books of Philosophy) etc. These books talked about realization of God. But God has never been realized by just reading books. That can only be done by developing spirituality through Sadhna. And what is realization? Is information coming through the sense organs is realization? Not always. There are five sense organs; let us take one and understand it. Normally we use eye maximum for getting information. Seeing is not only that by physical eye, which sees the optical image formed on retina; mind analyzes the image; imagination and wisdom interprets it; finally the soul knows the truth. So all of these are seeing, but soul is sensing beyond our sense of seeing. Similar things are happening in perception by any other sense organs. We can even be able to tune in to the silent vibrations of others. Vibrations are constantly being transmitted by all things, and by all beings; more by living beings. We are able to understand what is going on, feeling the vibration. Another obvious thing is body language of the person we observe. There can be soul to soul communication. We can achieve empowerment by plugging in to the Supreme Source (God) in silence; that is Meditation. Meditation is also a personal connection soul to soul with God. If my mind is caught up in negativity, the dissimilarity between my nature and that of God creates distance and connection breaks.

Sadhna method can be of different categories: ‘Mantra Sadhna’, ‘Tantra Sadhna’, ‘Yoga Sadhna’, ‘Service’ or ‘Self Enquiry’. In this article, we shall see what these methods are. However we have to concentrate little more on ‘Self Enquiry’, because that is most useful. Sadhak usually practice more than one methods together. In all cases, Sadhak’s attitudes should be same: Love, Devotion, Gratitude for all that he has received in life, etc should be there.

Mantra Sadhna

Mantra Sadhna uses recitation of verses of Vedas for spiritual progress. Sage Jashka, an well known Vedic scholar had explained that each verse of Vedas has three types of interpretations: (a) Adhi-Yagnya (rituals used for Puja or Yagna), (b) Adhi-Daiva (puja to superior beings called Deva.) and (c) Para (for mystic part and related to God. This is the spiritualism). Last one is the ultimate aim of Mantra-Sadhna. Along with the recitation, understanding of the verses is must.

Tantra

Tantra Sadhna deals with special techniques to raise ‘Kundalini Shakti’ or Serpent Energy, a universal energy under control of the feminine aspect of God. God has two aspects together, Shiva and Shakti, and together is half God and half Goddess. There is lot of literatures on Tantra. Literatures on Shiva are known as Shaivagam Tantra and those on Shakti are known as Shaktyagam Tantra. Both types of Tantra discuss how to raise the Serpent Energy. Once the Serpent Energy is awaken, it is intelligent enough to find its path upwards through the ‘Susumna Nadi’ (central passage inside the spinal cord) and crosses the seven ‘chakras’ or major nerve junctions and then ultimately gets connected to God through an energy channel passing through the head. And then divine energy flows down through that channel to every part of the body.

Yoga

Yoga means improvement or addition of something essential to life. Yoga aims at making a practitioner a perfectly balanced person. In Geeta, Sri Krishna advises Arjuna to become a yogi. Through Yoga Sadhna, Sadhak improves himself physically, mentally, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually; and understands the meaning of life. Patanjali Yoga-Sutra is the treatise on this subject. As per Patanjali there are eight levels of Yoga, out of which last four levels mainly cover different aspects of spiritual progress. The eight levels are described below in short:

Yam is the first of the eight levels of yoga and forms the base of human development. It deals with ethics in life. Both social ethics and moral ethics were covered in Yam. It includes: Integrity, Sincerity, Honesty, Truthfulness in talk and intention, Power to control emotions, Feeling of shame of any wrong doing, Simplicity, Purity, Non-stealing, Non-violence, Not to take undue benefit from others, and Celibacy till marriage and no sex outside marriage. In Sadhna, Celibacy is essential to come out of Body-Consciousness.

Niyam is second level; it advises us to lead a disciplined life. Main emphasizes are on: to be regular and on time, Cleanliness of body and mind, be satisfied with what you have or what you get, lead a simple life, do your duties, read and learn, worship and remember God.

Next Ashanas deal with ‘free hand exercises’, including static postures and dynamic movements. Most of the yoga teachers teach only this part of yoga.

Then Pranayama deals with controlled breathing and breathing exercises. Keeping mind concentrating in these exercises helps in mental and emotional well being of the practitioner.

Then Pratyahar practices withdrawal of attention of the 5 senses away from their subjects, such that mind can concentrate on Soul.

Then Dharana is to realize concept of God and His relation to Soul.

Next Dhyana is meditation. It is directing mind to only one thought, the subject of meditation. As this is the most important Yoga step, it is called the king of Yoga or ‘Raj-yoga’. Practice of Meditation is ‘Upavasa’. This Sanskrit word has two parts; one ‘Upa’ means near and second ‘Vasa’ means living. So ‘Upavasa’ means living near God, or in contact with God. And how we do that? When we stop our mind from deviating from subject to subject and keep it on only one thought, we are meditating. More we think of one thing, the thought expands and fills our lives. It is important, therefore, to choose as the object of meditation that we want to become. The goal is God realization or Self-realization because the divine exists within Self. God being infinite and without attributes, the object of our meditation need not have any name or form. Therefore we choose the most subtle and pure thing to meditate upon, which is the divine light within us coming from the soul. Non-attention is the best response to unwanted thoughts. Thoughts without attention have no power; and sooner or later we slip into a thoughtless state. And we expand into the Self, beyond time, space and individual identity.

Last level is Samadhi. Meditation leads the Sadhak to lose sense of ‘surroundings’ and to submerge in bliss. This is Samadhi; and this is coming in contact with God.

In Geeta, Spiritual Upliftment is the main objective of yoga; and it was divided into four types: Gnan Yoga, Karma Yoga, Abhyas Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. Aim of Gnan Yoga is to understand: starting with understanding self, understanding one’s surroundings and finally understanding God. In Karma Yoga, one’s action (work) in relation to his attitudes, duties and responsibilities is considered. This gives character building and still progressing in Spirituality. Abhyas Yoga is same as Raj-Yoga Meditation. Bhakti Yoga is devotion to God and surrendering to Him. In his book ‘Synthesis of Yoga’ Sage Sri Aurobindo shows that all these four types of yoga are complimentary to each other.

Service

All Sadhak take up ‘Seva’ or service for quicker spiritual progress, in addition to whatever method he may have adopted: Mantra, Tantra or Yoga; though Seva alone can give spiritual progress, if you are doing it as ‘Karma Yoga’ style. Seva is selfless service to others. Attitude of love and service are very important in Sadhna. But most people do service for Ego-satisfaction or for getting recognition; if not for simple monitory gain. Total selfless service is possible only when one has unconditional love and feeling of gratitude for all. Seva is the best way to express gratitude and give back something in return of what we have received in our life time.

Self-Enquiry

We have to know self; I must understand me, you must understand you. I must know, why I behave the way I do. This understanding must go deep. This is the knowing of our inner truth. This process leads one to look inward always, then one day Sadhak will lose sense of his ‘surroundings’ and get submerged in bliss. Self-enquiry starts with understanding body mind and soul. Basic mechanism of all cars is same and if you learn to repair one car you will be able to repair any other car. Similarly all human beings are basically same. Learn your own inner truth, if you want to understand anybody else. You can understand yourself easily. But there will be problem, if you start this process of knowing with someone else without understanding self first. Even that ‘someone’ may be very close and you felt a great need to understand him or her. But there is no shortcut. Trying that short cut would make you conclude, mankind is very complex; none can understand them fully! Once you understand your own behavior by self-enquiry, then you can compare others with yourself to understand them. Remember; never compare yourself with others, which may lead to complexes.

The process of self-enquiry has several aspects, but can be put as eight questions. Answers to these have lot of power, especially when realized as experience. Short answers are given here as per the ancient Indian literature. The questions look simple, but answers are complex. The questions are: (1). Who am I? (2). What am I? (3). How do I work? (4). Where am I? (5). How does it all work? (6). Why am I here? (7). From where have I come? (8). What happens next?

In answer to question, ‘who am I’ you may say, ‘I am a combination of three aspects together: body, mind and soul’. Soul is the real thing; body and mind are just temporary items. What is the nature of the soul? Soul is consciousness and origin of soul is Purusha, the ultimate soul, or the Param-Atma or God. Body and mind comes from the Mother Nature; and Mother Nature continues to support us, like a true mother would. Soul has several primary qualities; main five are: peace, purity, love, knowledge and happiness. Peace is serenity, the personal inner state of non-violence. Purity is a state of honesty, sincerity and cleanliness, where I am the same inside and outside. Consequently there is no room for artificiality anywhere. Love is perhaps a difficult original quality, because it is mixed up in our mind with attachment, possessiveness and dependence of a person. Human being finds it difficult to realize true form of love, which is unconditional and for all. The quality of love means "I care", “I share” and “I liberate”. It means respect, tolerance, forgiveness, compassion and flexibility, sense of universal belonging, openness of heart, and a generosity of spirit that is all-embracing. Knowledge is to know what I am eternally and truly. Happiness is the natural expression of joy in being alive and interacting with others. I relate to people and nature and experience the fulfillment of life through relationships. During Meditation practice, we absorb these primary qualities from the Supreme Soul to our individual souls. And transformation starts inside us. The God is the supreme source of power to change us to what we are to ultimately become. When we cannot identify ourselves as Him; we surrender to Him and He helps as a ‘Devine Guide’. Why we cannot do that, is the explanation of Maya or illusion.

I am not what I see when looked in the mirror, or what I do, or where I live or what I believe. They are all the result of wrongly learned self-image around the physical things in life. We are the conscious beings brought to life in a body made of five types of matter. Our self-definition changes according to our mood and situation, and the ‘part’ that we play. In one sense, our whole life is our part in a drama on a stage we call earth, which cannot be taken by anyone else. We may play many roles: at office I am an officer; at home I am a father, a husband. We choose the roles, and we get to write our own scripts.

Ancient Indian literature talks about five types of matter the body is made of. They say the matters are: Kshiti (solid), Ab (liquid), Tej (energy), Marut (gas) and Bom (space or ether). Physics normally talks about three types of matter: solid, liquid and gas. After Einstein’s theory, energy is accepted as a type of matter. And modern scientists are not yet sure if space or ether can be counted as another type of matter. Probably, ancient Indian sages had much advanced knowledge to say, ‘there are five types of matter’.

The question ‘how do I work’ is addressed in Indian scriptures by comparing the body with a chariot. The soul or self is the charioteer; the five senses are the five horses that provide the power to go. The self keeps the senses working together, controlling their tendency to go out of control.

Modern science has made good amount of information available on body and mind. But Indian literature tells us, 24 Tattwas (subjects) describe body and mind. All of the 24 Tattwas came from the Mother Nature. They are: 5 sense organs, 5 types of subjects that interest senses, 5 working organs, 5 types of matter body is made of, and 4 Antar-Indryas (or inner organs). The four inner organs are Mana (our conscious Mind), Buddhi (our intellect / wisdom), Chitta (a record book or a data base containing record of our impressions from our past, our feelings, our grossness in behavior, our subconscious mind) and Ahankar (ego). First four groups of Tatwas (each having of 5 items each) deal with the body and are easy to understand; and we know how all these work. Body as a whole is to be treated as one entity, a temple of God. Here self realization takes place. But understanding of the four Antar-Indryas are required.

As this article is in English, we are all along using English meaning of the Sanskrit word as close as possible. But we must remember, often that meaning is not exact. For example, we have used Soul as the meaning of ‘Atma’ and Body as the meaning of ‘Sharir’. It will not be exact. Christian meaning of soul is equivalent to ‘Shuksma Sharir’ (subtle body) of ancient Indian concept, which comes out of the physical body when a person dies. Atma is there in this Shuksma Sharir, but is much subtler than what comes out. What ancient Indians think is: Body is made of five layers over the Atma or self, and each layer is called a ‘Kosha’ or cell. Inner most layer, immediately next to Atma, is called ‘Anandamaya Kosha’ or bliss body. Next over it is ‘Vignanmaya Kosha’ or body of spirit; next is ‘Manamaya Kosha’ or mind-body (because thinking faculty, wisdom, subconscious mind etc are present here); next is ‘Pranamaya Kosha or energy body (because energy like light, heat and electricity are present here); next over it is the ‘Annamaya Kosha’ or physical body. A living person has an aura or faint light around his body, which can be recorded on a photographic plate on long exposure in darkness, this light comes from the ‘Pranamaya Kosha’. Three inner layers from ‘Manamaya Kosha’ to ‘atma’, are part of ‘Shuksma Sharir’. After ‘Moksha’ or liberation, ‘Atma’ will discard all the layers of ‘Shuksma Sharir’ and merges with Lord; and after that there is no rebirth. This is a state called ‘Nirvan’.

Indian books are telling, ‘I am the ‘Atma’that came to the earth in a body with four Antar-Indryas. As time passed, changes have taken place, not only in the Body but also in these four’. Atma is pure and permanent. Atma is meant to control these four; then work using them. But it appears to most of us that, mind controls the body and all its actions. As if, the soul is under control of some external influence (or illusion) and it is bound into some confinement (called Bandhan). This is body-consciousness.

The mind is influenced by both external and internal factors, which can be either positive or negative. These are the 7 influences, called bikars. The bikars are: desire, hate, happiness, sadness, conflict, awareness of the surroundings, patience; and our thoughts get affected by them. Just as electrical energy produces heat, sound or light depending on the device through which it passes; similarly consciousness functions through the four internal factors of mind and produces different effect. Through Mana we create thoughts. Through Buddhi we understand, judge and decide. Ahankar does not allow one to come out of the body consciousness.

In ancient India, mind is compared with sea with waves after wave falling on the shore and leaving a faint impression on the beach. These waves are like actions of the mind or thoughts. Always there is some thought in the mind. Thoughts lead to feelings, emotions, opinion and ideas that are happening one after the other. One action leads to another, and all actions have reactions felt in the mind. These actions and reactions then develop impressions that remain in the mind and influence our behavior. Even a simple incident that a mosquito bites and causes irritation will be stored. They remain like a record in Chitta (Sub-conscious Mind in modern Psychology). Now some impressions recorded can be negative and harmful to the person and influence his behavior badly. An impression becomes stronger by repetition of the same or even similar experience that has caused it at the first place. Impression is called ‘sanskar’; and this can be very active and will try to control conscious mind. Sanskar is the reason for ‘Grossness of Behavior’ of a person. Sanskar has originated in the past and has no value for Spiritual Progress. We don’t need to carry things like, grudges, sadness, pain, fear and regret. These are all originated in our past, and living in us as sanskar. All these only take us away from our happiness. Dropping them will help us to take responsibilities of what is happening around us and to decide what our action should be. Sanskar is trying to control our Mana. However, ego is usually more prompt than sanskar in trying to control Mana.

Let us take an example of how a sanskar get strengthened. Say you are a gymnast on beam and one day you make a mistake while practicing, and fell and got hurt. The incident has made some impression in you. Now you go on analyzing the situation that led to the hurt, thinking that you will avoid future mistakes. You are strengthening the corresponding sanskar present in Chitta. So your thinking is more likely to have opposite effect of what you want. Next time when you are practicing gymnastics on beam, your new sanskar will occupy your attention; and your ‘Mana’ will not be able to give full concentration on the practice. So you will not be able to do the necessary maneuver perfectly and you will make mistake again. Our relationship with the people around us, and the circumstances we face daily are important. We should be aware how we are getting affected by our sanskar, and how we are strengthening the sanskar. Even with the best intentions, we can find ourselves stuck in a cycles of negative thinking. These cyclic thoughts waste our time, and can be depressing and destructive, when remains as Sanskar. Whenever you are complaining on some incident or some fault, you are strengthening the impression you already created on that. You are strengthening the negativity. Liberation comes only when you can come out of the clutches of this sanskar. So Yoga says, ‘do not complain, just create what you want, and be what you should be’. We are constantly developing our Buddhi (Intellect or Wisdom) in this life and even we did so in our previous lives. Our vision and intelligence come from Buddhi. If you develop your spirituality and consequently your spiritual vision, then you will understand that everything is working as a ‘Law of Spirit’. Also the ‘Law of Karma’ will be applicable. This law is briefly described by the saying, "as you sow, so you shall reap”. This particular law is similar to the Newton’s Law, 'for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction'.

Identification with the ego creates a false identity with inferior or superior feeling (known as complexes). It brings in 'I' thought, based on gender, religion, nationality, achievement or talent. It makes the person compares himself with others. This leads to insecurity; that again leads him into wanting others to act and think in the same way as him. Ego in the person does not recognize that everyone should express self in his own way. So only 'yes' people are allowed to be close. Explanation of ego, given by Ramana Maharshi, is very precise. What he said is: “The ‘I’-thought arises from the ego that presumes ‘I am the body of flesh and bone’; but that is a fundamental error. The body is insentient, hence cannot say ‘I’. The Self (or Soul) being pure consciousness do not say ‘I’. However the spurious ‘I’ arises due to ego that flourishes identifying with the perishable body; that causes the ‘I’-thought. By self-enquiry you can trace to the source of this ‘I’-thought and get it dissolved”. Transformation takes place when ‘I’ is dissolved.

Overcoming all the obstacles has to take place through Sadhna. Upanishad says, Mana is the most important sense organ as it is the doer and it is the sufferer. On the other hand, it can take a person to the height of spirituality. Influences of Karma-bandhan, of our own ego and sanskar, of our attitude developed during our lifetime, of 7 Bikars, of 6 Ripus, of 3 Gunas etc come up as obstacles. We have to overcome our habit of negative actions. For example, can we stop a negative habit like smoking? Problem is we have not understood fully why we smoke; so if we take a resolution ‘hence forth I won’t smoke’, then quite possibly one day go back to the old habit. If we try to change this in our subconscious, by analyzing what is recorded in our subconscious, or by different therapies; the results are often not satisfactory. There is always some traumatic event, or painful experience behind a worry or fear or anger or restlessness, which caused us to cling on to a habit. Although it is possible to recognize our fears, anxieties etc; if we do not replace them with something beneficial, very often we shall be tempted to the old systems; even knowing they will make us unhappy. To eliminate sanskar recorded in our subconscious, meditation practices are more effective. We can do a positive affirmation using ‘Willpower’, and thus introduce a new habit to replace the old one. Casual affirmation may result in temporary belief only. Affirmations are promises that we make to ourselves. If it is to be effective, there must be acceptance and understanding behind them. And we must repeat it to ourselves quite often. Proclaim the affirmations with feeling, and believing in them strongly. Repeated and strong affirmations will make it recorded in our subconscious deeply. All our negativities are result of our past; and changing them or erasing them is not easy. We have to clear them and make our subconscious ‘Nirmal Chitta’ through Sadhna.

Every Guru talks about releasing of accumulated Karmas and negative Psychic Impressions (Sanskar) for Spiritual Progress. There are many Sadhna methods: Karma-Yoga, ‘Nishkam-Karma’, Action without attachment, Gnan-Yoga, Meditation, Yoga-Samadhi, ‘Shiv-Yog’ etc. Better be guided by a guru who has already realized God, and do Sadhana under his guidance. Then you can break the limitations of body and mind, and be relieved from ‘Karma Bandhan’. All these impressions in Chitta form the ‘Mal’ or unwanted dirt. And they are preventing the liberation of the soul. So we have to remove them. And this process is called ‘Chitta-Samshuddhi’.

In olden days, there was a simple method of catching monkeys in India. All one needed to do was to get a small earthen pot with opening of about 3 inch diameter. Tie the pot with a rope and secure it firmly with a peg. Then put some fried gram in the pot and observe how the monkey comes to the pot and enter its hand into the pot. It holds some gram into its feast and tries to take it out. Since the size of the closed fist is larger than the mouth of the pot, it can just not come out. When the man comes, monkey cannot run away; it is stuck in its self created bondage. Man will hit mildly at its elbow so that the monkey’s fingers open out in shock and the hand comes out empty. We are all like that monkey, living in self created bondage, because we cannot let go what we should ‘let go’. ‘Letting go’ is a paradigm shift in attitude. Our past consists of our experience, learned beliefs and all our mistakes. Life today cannot truly begin until we are able to say goodbye to yesterday at will. Like a filing cabinet, the past is a resource of information, but it is not a place to live. The influence of the past on our personality, hopes and fears is deep and difficult to trace. The past is by definition a collection of memories. Certainly there are benefits in learning from our past mistakes, but attachment to the past can damage present satisfaction. Many of us are so worried about avoiding a repetition of past disaster, that we forget how to enjoy the present or how to hope for the future.

We have to let go our past value system towards our relationship, towards our society, towards happiness, towards environment and all that. For example, let us consider value system towards money. Remember what Thakur Ramakrishna Paramhansa said about ‘Taka mati, mati taka’, i.e. ‘Money and a lump of soil have the same value’. No point using limited life to chase unlimited money. Money is not yours until you use it. When you are young, you use your health to chase your wealth; and when you are old, you use your wealth to buy back your health; but it may be too late. How happy a man is, is not how much he has, but how little he needs.

Large amount of influence on us is working of the Mother Nature. She is like the mother who does not want her child to become independent. She wants all the living beings (Jiva) kept in the dark bound by Pasha (rope). Jiva under Pasha is called Pashu. Lord Shiva liberates Pashu, if Jiva surrenders to Him, so he is called Pashupati. There are several Pashas, like, Illusion of our body being alive, Fear, Hate, Shame, Worry, Anger, Pride, Looking for faults in others, Desire etc. We don’t see spiritual qualities in others.

Prakriti has generated more means to control us. She has time; has her capability to charm; has fate, knowledge, attachment and Guna on her side. Out of these Guna is most important in our practical life and hence we shall take up Guna in little more detail. Two chapters of Geeta deal this subject ‘Guna’. Three Gunas influence our behavior. Different person will have different Guna of different amount, not equal. The three Gunas are:

1.	Sattwa guna. It stands for understanding and knowledge. It leads us to better behavior, positivity, bliss and peace. It ensures progress emotionally and spiritually.

2.	Rajas guna. It stands for action, ambition, tendency to dominate others and pleasure seeking. But it leads us to attachment, anger, unhappiness and frustration etc.

3.	Tamas guna. It stands for lethargy and relaxation. Our understanding will be missing due to this guna. And it leads us to inefficiency and indifference to duties.

Even one’s worship, penances, devotion, charity and food, are not free of these Gunas. Your foods also have influences of these three categories. The first, 'Sattvik' food is filled with vibrations of purity, self-awareness, love, peace and joy. 'Rajasik' food contains a mutative energy of restlessness and change. 'Tamasik' food has a force of dullness, inertia, intoxication and attraction towards sensuality. You have to embrace Spiritual-balance and transcend Tamas and Rajas and be effective through Sattwa. Then it is even possible to go beyond all the gunas. Like that, overcoming all the influences is the aim of Sadhna.

We talked about transformation through Sadhna. Understand quality of transformation from the example of roses. These beautiful flowers, although nourished by smelly manure, but do not take any of its odor or color. They just fill the garden with fragrance and beauty. The roots of the roses are able to transform the manure eliminating any negative effects. The human world is like a garden with manure like negativity, ego, fear, anger, attachment, mistrust, etc. Spirituality in Sadhak can accept all these negative things and use them for personal growth without the negativity penetrating in. Sadhak takes those negative things in the world as an opportunity to create a miracle in lives. If we compare to the oyster, when a tiny foreign particle enters it, it secretes a liquid that combines with the particle to create a pearl. In the same way, instead of reacting negatively to an event, we can mould it; we can regard a problem as an opportunity to develop strengths and remove weaknesses.

An evolved Sadhak has developed his inner potential, as he progressed spiritually. He has progressed through a series of transformation stages like: (a) inquisitive stage, (b) feel introverted, (c) mind becomes subtle, (d) glimpse of truth, (e) truth getting established in subconscious, (f) perception and merger with divinity. Transformation can be understood as a process of continuous change. What you do is, stop identifying oneself with the physical world; then understand your gross body and then identify oneself with the subtle body; then identify oneself with the Atman (or Soul) and finally with the all pervading Brahman (God).

Appendices

Key Words

Spirituality, Spiritual Progress, Sadhna, Mantra Sadhna, Tantra, Yoga, Levels of Yoga, Raj Yoga, Gnan Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Seva, Self enquiry, Inner Truth, Antar-indryas, Mana, Buddhi, Ahankar, Chitta, Sanskar, Tattwa, Bikar, Guna, Karma, Karma-Bandhan, Transformation.

Index

Spiritual Progress

Character Building

Further Progress in Spirituality

Mantra Sadhna

Tantra

Yoga

Service

Self-Enquiry

References

1. Life of Sri Ramakrishna. By Swami Nikhilananda, Advaita Ashrama Publication Department, Kolkata.

2. Tapobhumi Narmada, by Sri Shailendranarayan Ghoshal Shastri; Director, The Vedic Research Institute, Kolkata.

3. Srimad Bhagvat Geeta.

4. Yoga Vashishta.

5. The Secret of the Veda, by Sri Aurobondo, Sri Aurobondo Ashram Publication Department, Pondichery.

6. The Synthesis of Yoga, by Sri Aurobindo; The Sri Aurobindo Library, Inc, NewYork.

7. Guru Vachak Koval, by Sri Muruganar, translated in English by Sadhu Om and Michael James; Ramakrishna-Vedanta Study Circle, Athens.