According to the beliefs of the human beings, Sádhaná is not practicable in normal life and it is necessary for an aspirant to sever connections with the home and members of the family. This is fallacious. How can a sádhaka devote himself to Brahma when he cannot even support the four or five members of his family? A person is associated with a family right from birth. Every family is beset with one problem or another. If instead of solving the problems, you leave your home and live in solitude, will you then forget about these problems? Furthermore, while in solitude you will have to think for your food and clothes. Sádhaná is possible only through this physical body, and for the sake of sádhaná it is useless to create unnatural situations by forsaking the home. We can practise sádhaná by practising restraint in whichever situation we are placed. The only thing necessary for practising sádhaná is an ardent desire for it.
We should strengthen ourselves by remaining in normal situations and endeavouring to become superhuman. By developing superhuman powers we can awaken the element of eternal humanity amongst us. This eternal human entity alone is Brahma. In order to attain this power, meanness must be shunned, because this is the sádhaná for the Infinite. Feelings of differentiation are a great impediment. The feelings that a particular person is a Muslim, another a Hindu, yet another a Brahman and the fourth a Vaeshya come from mean thoughts. When every living being is a manifestation of Brahma, how can you know yourself, without shedding these differentiating feelings? No one is high and no one is low. Of course, according to one’s virtues and vices one is happy, one is miserable, one is rich, someone is poor, one is a fool and another is erudite, but all human beings. Differentiating feelings are the principal obstacles in the path of sádhaná and an elevated position cannot be attained without annihilating them. There is a story in the Mahábhárata.
Both Yudhisthira and Duryodhana had invited Lord Krśńa to their respective houses for dinner. While on his way there, Shrii Krśńa entered the house of Vidura. At that time the great Vidura was not at his house. Vidura’s wife was of very limited means and became nervous on the sudden appearance of Shrii Krśńa. She did not know how to give a proper reception to Lord Krśńa and there was no food in the house except bananas. Therefore, after washing His feet she seated the Lord and began to skin the bananas, and feed Him as she inquired about His welfare. Meanwhile the great sage Vidura returned home. He saw the Lord Krśńa sitting and his wife, fully absorbed in feelings, feeding Him the skins of the bananas. Krśńa was eating so happily, that it seemed as if He had never tasted a more delicious food. Vidura was greatly pained to notice the folly of his wife and asked: “What are you doing? You are feeding banana skins to the Lord instead of bananas.” Vidura’s wife was taken aback and started apologizing for her faults. Vidura also implored. “O Lord, Thou hast taken a good many banana skins; do kindly oblige this poor woman by taking a few bananas.” But the Lord said, “Vidura! My stomach is full now. These banana-skins had such an exquisite flavour that there could be no superior food. So long as your wife, forgetting all differences, was feeding me, ‘I’ was there, but now that the difference between the banana and its skin has intervened, ‘I’ is not there.” This is a small story, but it is very instructive. There are no differentiations before the Lord. Lord Shankaracharya was an erudite scholar. He has over-thrown Buddhism and revived Brahmanya religion, but there was a lack of full harmony between his principles and practices. Once after having a dip in the Ganges at Kashii, he was returning towards the road and he saw an untouchable walking with a number of dogs. For fear of his body being touched he attempted to bypass them. Then the untouchable said: “O Lord! Is this the result of your principle that there is only Brahma and nothing else? You are known by the name Brahmajiṋáni. The feeling of differentiation is developed even by treating a pariah as mean.”
The Supreme Brahma resides within the feeling “I am” situated amidst the concealed intuition of the mind. Our existence is in him. He exists in the sun-rays. Due to Him the perception of the world is possible. Having created our ego and scattered innumerable toys around us. He has hidden Himself among them. When we come to see Him in all things created by Him, our ego gets lost. The feeling of unit “I” shall be merged in the Universal “I”.
They say that women and Shúdras are not entitled to study the Vedas and acquire Brahma-Jiṋána i.e. Self-knowledge. This is also a differentiation. In India women were the authoresses of the Vedic verses. Therefore, this reasoning is not sound. Veda Vyasa was born into a fisherman’s family and it is he who divided the Vedas into four parts: Rk, Yajur, Sáma and Atharva. Therefore, the idea that women and Shudras are not entitled to read the Vedas is quite fallacious. It is undesirable that any differentiating feeling should abide in the aspirants’ hearts. In the Ajiṋánabodhini Tantra it is said:
Varńáshramábhimán- ena shrutidásye bhavennarah
Varńáshramavihi- inascha vartate shrutimúrdhani.
Brahma is an immutable universal entity. A mother loves all her children. She does not entertain differential interests towards them, whether they are good or bad. Likewise no one is good or bad in the eyes of the Lord. He bestows equal grace on all.
The feelings of weal and woe are creations of the mind. Although the mind is limited, its orbit is vast. The aspirant undertakes spiritual practice through the mind. When the aspirant merges his or her mind in Brahma through sádhaná, he or she attains Brahma. They earn an eternal abode above all weal and woe and they cannot entertain any feeling of difference. They see Brahma in everything. Yájiṋavalkya says to Maetreyii “The Átman alone is the place for bliss. It is expedient to listen to it, to think of and to meditate on it. You will get its light by deep meditation on it. After one knows the Átman, nothing remains to be known”. It occurs in the Muńd́akopaniśad:
Bhidyate hrdayagranthishchidyante sarvasaḿshayá
Kśiiyante cásya karmáńi tasmin drśt́e parávare.
The knots in the hearts of living beings are torn apart once they are united with Brahma, the cause of all causes. All reactions of past actions are annihilated.
Living beings have a desire to attain happiness and to avoid trouble. It is their Dharma to attain happiness and this desire is behind everything they do. Worldly pleasures, however, are born of attachments and do not give permanent bliss. If a person obtains one hundred rupees, he will want one thousand. In this way their desire progressively increases with the attainment of each thing desired. No sensory enjoyment is infinite. Therefore the desire for the Infinite is not satisfied through these finite objects.
Paramátman is Infinite; hence infinite happiness is only attainable on realizing Him, and for this sádhaná is a necessity. Without sádhaná there is no liberation from worldly bondages, Sacchidánanda is attainable through sádhaná alone.
Sádhaná can be practised at home, by family people and it is not necessary to take to the order of Sannyása. The true meaning of the word “Sannyása” is “devoted to truth”. No one can be devoted to truth except through sádhaná. The fact is that the word “sannyása” can only be used in the context of sádhaná
Oh! the followers of Ananda Marga, march along the path of Satya and awaken the Satya hidden in you. Develop the cosmic consciousness that is latent in you. In the same manner as Bhagiratha through his sagacious powers summoned the holy currents of the Gangottarii through the dark mountain-chasms. Through those currents of Satya, enliven your society and carry it along on the path of the infinite ocean of inseparable souls which are awakening on the road to the Supreme Union – the holy confluence of the sea. When this is attained, there will be no mean wanderings or the externalized struggle for existence. There will be one Universal “You” who will forget is own self in the serenity of the serene, the serene, the exaltation of Consciousness and the holy touch of the supremely blessed.
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