A VITAL CONVERSATION – Part 1

Sri Hari

Do all those who have a darshan or come in contact with saints progress spiritually ?

Bhagavan Sri Krishna in the Bhagavath Gita says that four types of people do the bhajanam:

People with need, People with desire, People thirsty for liberation and the gnanis(those mahaans who have realised the truth)

Similarly, many types of people approach a saint. We can broadly classify them in two categories

A)    People who are in dire need or who desire to enhance their standard of living. They would approach saints for getting solutions to their mundane issues. Some in this category also approach mahaans as it accrues virtue(punyam) for them. This is ofcourse perfectly alright, but the approach does not aid the person in his/her spiritual progress.

B)    People who thirst for spiritual progress, who aspire for Inner Transformation to transcend this world to truly a divine life.

This desire for spiritual progress, this thirst to tread the divine path must be truly deep and burning , to such an extent that no obstacle is too tough, no hurdle is too insurmountable, no effort in this direction is too difficult!

This upward journey towards the divine is exactly like climbing a mountain. If someone truly wants to get to the peak, would (s)he be deterred by it’s difficulty?

Such people who thirst for spiritual progress are also broadly of two types.

Finding true spiritual aspirants is rare. To explain this further, it is rare to find aspirants who are truly terrified of being born again; genuinely see themselves as caught in the tumultous ad dangerous waters of the ocean of transformation(samsara) and so the desire to liberate themselves, to cross samsara is like a matter of “life or death” to them. These mahaans are very very rare to find. Some of the exemplary examples of this type of mahaans are Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, Sri Buddha.

How do people of this category get this deep burning desire to overcome samsara – the cycle of birth and death?

It is through fear on seeing and examining the world : When we see some animals taken for slaughter, when we see the torture they are subject to, like putting green chilies in their eyes to keep them awake for extracting work from them, we shudder to think of a next birth like this. One moment of imagining ourselves possibly subject to such torture brings in deep fear. This leads to the deep desire to overcome the cycle of birth and death. So it is very very rare to find such genuine spiritual seekers

Rarer still are the second category of seekers, who have an immense craving to see God, who are prepared to do whatever it takes to have a glimpse of God. In my opinion this class of seekers who thirst for the glimpse of God and shall do anything to realize this are the greatest class of seekers.

Is this journey short? Would the destination arrive quicly? Is this easy? No! Not at all! Firstly, the quest must be deep and unwavering. Only when we are truly thirsty and desperate for water, do we intensely search for water and drink in deep when we find it.

Hence the aspiration for the glimpse of Bhagavan must be intense and deep within us, the spiritual journey in this direction should be steadfast on track and then steady progress is possible.

So the journey is long and one must be ready for it.

When even great mahaans like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had to endure ten years of intense, unwavering, constant desire to see Devi – the divine mother; what to mention about others.

So, when one approaches a Guru with the intention of seeing God or with intense desire to cross samsara, only then true spiritual progress happens. The others, as we mentioned earlier who approach a guru for solutions to mundane problems and worldly desires would not find much spiritual progress.

The true spiritual aspirants must merge their mind with that of their guru totally, in such a way that the aspirant only follows the instructions or words of the guru with total sincerity and obedience.

(S)He should never try to rationalize or analyse the guru’s words on such matters.

In short, he must only walk the path shown by the guru.

Then and only then spiritual progress can happen!

–       (To be continued)

You can find links to the rest of the conversations below:

Vital Conversation – Part 2

Vital Conversation – Part 3