Human life is precious. God created man with a purpose. Our ancestors believed in fulfillment of life. They believed it to be a rare gift of Almighty God meant for achieving higher objectives of human life, the divine oneness with its creater, the merger of soul into Super Soul or the ‘Atma’ transforming into Parmatma. This is also as per the ‘evolution’ of man into ‘Superman’.
Looking at the magnanimity of the largest and a short span of human life at our disposal not even a single moment is to be wasted. Great sages in the holy scriptures have preached that every breath of life is to be properly utilized and offered unto God for establishing communion with him.
It is advisable that before directing one’s endevours in one particular direction an aspirant should contemplate and decide the ultimate objective of his life and then there should be nothing beyond that. And no subsequent change of opinion or transcendence by some other thought, feeling or experience should take place. Deciding once for all, this is single ‘aim’ should ‘stand’ before one’s eyes all the times and everything else in the world should merely prove to be an instrument, a way, a mean or an accessory for the fulfillment of this single noble objective. And for that purpose life is to be understood in ‘Toto’, entirely and in its very completeness, without any bias or precondition of good or bad, desirable or undesirable, necessary or unnecessary, true or false because these are all relative terms deriving their meaning from conceptual notions ‘prevalent’ in the society. None of them is ‘Absolute’ since they are all existant, we should not make mistake in deciding some of them to be useful ‘aids and other as obstacles in the realization of our ‘fixed’ aim. They are all alike simply varying in degree. Once we realize and –understand it well, no sudden emotions or spurts enthusiasm will be able to sway our mind away from our coherence and subtle connections with our central purpose in life.
All this would mean that it is not advisable or practicable to ignore delete any aspect of life totally, as if it is completely irrelevant to the purpose of one’s life. At the same time, it is a difficult task, not humanly possible to ponder over every aspect of a situation arising in one’s life during course of ‘sadhana’. So in order to get out of such a bewilderment one has to be under the benevolent guidance of a competent ‘Guru’, a spiritual master, a realized soul who himself had in the past, passed through all such difficult situations and phases of life during his ‘sadhana’ where an aspirant is sure to get confused and rumble down never to be able to rise again and move afresh on the right path. The ‘Guru’ alone can help in such a situation by suggesting ways of entertaining such a comprehensive vision of things which is the precondition of a true spiritual life or a life of higher consciousness and meditation.
The question arises as to what a man should do under such like situation and circumstances. Should he become a total obstainer or that he should renunciate everything. Is that really possible? What would be its outcome ? By virtue of human nature one craves for economic and material needs and vital longings for acquiring all comforts and satisfaction in one’s life. How can the human being shift and deny his non-existence ? He is what he should be. It is a must and has to be as such under normal conditions and an utter ignorance of all this would be against the very laws of NATURE.
But at the same time we have the noble goal, the higher objective of human life, already decided and fixed as our ultimate target and have vowed not to get astrayed from it. The ‘Guru’ in such a perplexing situation tells his disciple to follow the sacred path of growth, the ‘sadhana’. He should pass through all the phases of life with an aim of sublimation of all urges and worldly desires and not for enjoying sensual pleasure or gratification of senses. The normal activities of human life should not prove as hindrance but should mean an enrichment in one’s experience and understanding of life to move ahead on the path of ‘sadhana’ and not look back for one has already passed through it. On this strong foundation of living a life without attaching oneself to it, one can erect a building of ‘sadhana’ to any height without any fear of its collapsing provided the mortar and cement applied is genuine is the form of true, regular, unhampered practice of sadhana under the sublime guidance of ‘Gurudev’ the spiritual Master of the ‘sadhak’, the aspirant.
Now one can live a life of reasonable seclusion practicing of his own various aspects of yoga to move still further on the path of ‘Sadhana’. This would generate in him considerable confidence and capacity to stand independently without aid of anyone for nearing all the more to the ultimate goal of gaining perfection.
This seclusion provides more time and more congenial atmosphere to the ‘Sadhak’ to practice and penetrate more deeper into mysteries and subtle aspects of Sadhana. Every minute, every moment he is under an umbrella of cosmic divine radiations piercing in to the innermost layers of his body and mind converting him into a cosmic entity tuned perfectly to perception of ‘celestial rhythm’ and ‘harmony’.
At the same time one should understand that this seclusion should not mean escapism or self imposed liberation for reasons of one’s incapacity to face the atmosphere with all its activities, the disturbances around him. This means that one should not be incapable of living in seclusion or a social atmosphere as and when a situation arises. From time to time he should expose and subject himself of various circumstances and situations in order to judge his capabilities and thus improve further to become a living ‘Power House’ of cosmic divine energy.
Sometimes the mind of the ‘Sadhak’ sitting in seclusion revolts and rushes to its previous place of living. With repeated cycles and impulses the intensity of these thought waves grow indefinitely to a stage where it become unbearable and the sadhak himself runs-back leaving behind his secluded hut, to re-enter the world of dazzling glamour with added attachments, allurements and bondings of worldly illusions. This proves catastrophic and the ‘Sadhak’ get ruined with his hands empty and everything lost forever. But still there are instances where many of the sages in the past had staged a come back.
A lot has been said that such a situation may not arise at all. Through constant practice a ‘Sadhak ‘ attains maturity, ripeness, stability and firmness, a state of equilibrium never to be disturbed again. It requires an unshakable faith, patience and tolerance on the part of Sadhak. Self analysis and Auto suggestion also help a lot. All the more since the Spiritual master the Guru had already made him aware of such like situations and hindrances coming in the way of ‘Spiritual Sadhana’ and had taught him to face them with added ‘will power’ determination and humble prayer unto HIM to relieve him of the pressure dragging him to the ‘ditch’. This is to be carried in such an absolute ‘light heartedness’ that the Sadhak smoothly comes out of this with a harnessed ‘mind’ never to be let loose again. A perfect calm peace and serenity prevails just as one feels after a storm passes out peacefully without doing any harm.
In this game of mind the sadhak should play tactfully and take refuge under the mind itself and himself pose as an onlooker. The self in such a case gets divided into two halves. One urging to go back while the other arguing to move ahead on the path of ‘Sadhana’. This can prolong for long till the time the mind dragging backwards gets tired and exhausted while its other part associated with wisdom pulling forward is made to come out victorious and triumphant with the conviction and faith that ‘love of God’ is far more precious than all the values and treasures that the world has in its store to allure the man.
Practice of Sadhana itself also proves beneficial. ‘Swadhyaya’ , ‘jap of mantras’ and ‘meditation’ are the three pillers of ‘Sadhana’. ‘Swadhyaya’ does not mean study of any books that come in the way, it is rather a deep study of Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagwat Gita and other religious books required to drive into the mind the conviction about the supremacy of divine knowledge a stage comes when a soul enters into trance or feeling of ‘super consciousness’ as his eye-roll on the lines in the holy scriptures telling the tales of His Glory, Grace, mercy and all embracing benevolence.
‘Jaap Mantra’ or ‘Guru Mantra’ with mind set on the words and the meaning conveyed by them should be performed at a fixed place in a convenient pose at fixed hours for fixed durations everyday without a break Slight sound with movements of lips may be there in the beginning. This helps in concentration and distraction of mind from wordly objects. At a later stage only lips move with no sound and finally the recitation of mantra takes place in the mind of a Sadhak and is felt with the inhaling and exhaling of breath. This is a higher stage and the mind does not wander during the Jap and is constantly set on the target, the favourite God.
Sitting in a convenient pose the Sadhak surrenders himself to the Almightyh God or Sadgurudev during recitation of mantras, the ‘manas Jaap’ and gets lost totally absorbed in Him. In due course of time the recitation also stops. What only remains in the deep absorption the oneness of sadhak with God. This is so sound so intense that the sadhak parts with consciousness of the self and becomes a part of Divine itself as a drop becomes ocean itself after merging into it.
If such a blessed state persists for long it is termed as Samadhi – the ecstacy the highest state of super consciousness when Atma gets transformed into Parmatma and the sadhak reaches the states of culmation of his sadhana sealing the highest cliff of his highest objective and then nothing remains to be achieved in this world and one becomes the Master of the Universe himself.