Break Down the Wall of Ignorance And Enter the Stream of Eternity

Break Down the Wall of Ignorance

And Enter the Stream of Eternity

Birthday Message by Swami Jyotirmayananda

HUMAN EMBODIMENT is very short on this earth planet. From unknown one comes, to unknown one goes. But within this short time, if life is well-utilized and the personality is well-integrated, one can work out one’s Liberation. Within the short duration of one’s life, one can attain eternity through God-realization. It doesn’t matter how long you have lived, but if you have accomplished the purpose of life, your life becomes blessed. If the purpose of life is not accomplished, then life remains shallow.

In the midst of numerous problems and preoccupations, people hardly reflect upon the true purpose of existence. That true purpose is realizing the Self, or realizing God, or attaining the Kingdom of Heaven, or attaining Nirvana. All religions point to the same goal, using different terminologies. That goal must be kept in view. Everything else will come and go. Life lingers in swirling illusion. But when you have the goal in view, life becomes meaningful.

I will give you a short parable. A person found himself on a high wall, dying of thirst. How he came there he didn’t know. He looked around and saw in front of him a river of sweet water flowing, and his mind became filled with joy and hope because the water was there. But how could he get at the water if he was on a high wall? Soon he realized that he could remove the bricks from the wall one by one and throw them into the water. As he eagerly went on doing so, he heard the splashing of water and that was the most delightful music to his ears.

The spirit of the river asked him, “Why do you pelt me again and again?” He said, “It is to listen to the music which flows with you. With each brick that I throw I am listening to the song of life. The water is life. And further, as I go on throwing off these bricks, the wall is coming down and I am coming closer. And when the wall is broken completely, I will be there with you. I will plunge into your sweet water. I will quench my thirst forever.”

That’s the parable of life. Every individual personality is on a high wall. How did you come there? It is hard to know. When did it all begin? That question is bothersome and has no meaning in life. A biologist may say that life began so many millions of years ago; or a spiritualist may say that your spirit has gone on transmigrating in so many ways. In Hindu tradition the world is beginningless. The cycles of creation and dissolution continue like day and night. How many ages have passed no one knows. Millions of yugas have come and gone. Millions of Brahmas, the creators, have come and gone.

And so in this beginningless and endless world-pro­cess, if you do not terminate your karmas, if you do not bring about the end of ignorance, the spirit will continue to enter into another embodiment, and that process will con­tinue endlessly.

In Yoga Vasistha there is a story of two brothers, Punya and Pavana. Their parents died and the brothers began to grieve. One of them, however, overcame his grief very soon by reflection. The other asked him, “What am I to do? Our parents have gone. They will not come back again.” Then the older brother, Punya, told Pavana, “Young brother, you had many parents in previous lives. You are not grieving for them. The parents who just died were only parents during this life. But in the series of millions of parents these parents are insignificant. And so why should you grieve?”

The idea behind this story is that you must realize and reflect upon the understanding that as an incarnating soul you have passed through numerous embodiments, and presently you find yourself on a high wall. The wall may not be the same height for each person, but as long as Self- realization has not been attained, everyone is seated on a wall somewhere. Eternity is at a distance. The stream of cosmic life is at a distance. What should you do?

Many are on the wall and have turned their backs to eternity and are looking at the darkness where there are sounds of hissing snakes, hooting owls and vultures. That is, many are non-reflective. Their faces are turned towards darkness. They are satisfied with things as they are, they continue to tumble from one embodiment to another. But some, who become aware that this is not the way life should be, find themselves. Their awareness gradually reveals the fact that the stream of eternity, the river of peace and joy is flowing very close by. Those are the aspirants, the spiritual seekers, who become aware of the fact that life has a purpose and one can attain the purpose of life by breaking that wall.

Now the moment that awareness dawns, the project before the aspirant is to break that wall. In the beginning the wall seems like a solid mass of concrete; you cannot move any bricks. But as you develop more aspiration, as expec­tation for the water of eternity becomes more keen, you realize that the wall has bricks that are not glued together. So you begin to lift the bricks and toss them away. That’s what you have to do day by day. Ask yourself how many bricks you have already removed, how many bricks there are yet to remove, and what you are doing about removing them.

Removing of the bricks means sadhana, spiritual dis­cipline. Each time you remember the Divine Name, each time you meditate on God, each time you offer prayer to the Divine Self, you are throwing a brick. Sometimes it may just be just a small brick, sometimes it may be a large brick, sometimes it may be a whole mass of bricks. And each time, no matter how tiny the brick, as it enters the river there is a delightful splashing sound.

The moment you call out to God, there is a call from eternity in response, and there is nothing sweeter than that call. When you call out to the Divine Self, “O God, give me refuge. Let me come into the Kingdom of Heaven,” there comes the voice, ringing through the atmosphere into your subtle ears, “Yes, I am waiting for you. Come, the sparkling water of eternity is here, very close by.” So not a single effort for God-realization is ever wasted.

Spiritual discipline is designed to integrate your per­sonality in such a manner that the Divine vision begins to flow through your personality in an unobstructed manner. Every person is like a musical stringed instrument such as a Vina or a violin. The moment you integrate the strings of your per­sonality, Divine vision begins to flow. That harmonizing of the strings has to be done day by day. One must have the attitude of string play­ers: every time they play they must twist certain pegs, twang the strings, put the instrument up to their ears. They never ask, ’’Why shouldn’t we have an instrument that is always tuned?”

Much in the same manner, every morning when you start the day, “tune” yourself through the practice of a little reflection, a little remembrance of Divine Name, a little japa, a little prayer, a little study of scriptures. And even during the day, again and again your mind must turn towards the Divine Self.

THE THREEFOLD PLAN OF SADHANA

According to the great teachings of Yoga Vasistha, the classical work of Vedanta phi­losophy, the plan of personality integration has three aspects: tattwa jnana, which means intu­itional knowledge of the Self; vasana kshaya, which means destruction of the subtle impres­sions of the unconscious; and manonash, the destruction of mind, or freeing the mind of raga and dwesha — attachment and hatred.

Tattwa Jnana

Attainment of tattwa jnana, or intuitional knowledge, is the most advanced project before an aspirant. You acquire it through constant listening to the scriptures and reflecting deeply upon their meaning. The theme behind that reflection is “Who am I?”

Your intellect must gradually show to you that you are not the transient personality. You are the eternal Self. The Upanishads declare, “Tat Twam Asi" — “Thou art That.” All religions have spoken of the Divine identity, either indirectly or directly. “Know ye not ye are Gods?” Jesus says. “The Kingdom of Heaven is within Thee.” And similarly in all religions you will find that the spirit in man is a spark from eternity, and it must return to that eternal Self. So that is the project of tattwa jnana — to enlighten the intellect so that is can regain the awareness of its essential identity.

Vasana Kshaya

Vasana kshaya literally means destruction of the subtle desires or the subtle impressions of the mind. It refers to educating the unconscious in such a way that it becomes filled with positive impressions instead of negative impres­sions. Negative impressions are impressions of egoism, hate, jealousy, pride, etc. Instead of these impressions, gather impressions of joy, contentment, truthfulness, uni­versal love, and peace — and finally transcend even the positive impressions.

Every individual is a flower gatherer, and the basket is your unconscious mind. Every day you are entering into the garden of the world, which has flowers that are fragrant as well as flowers that are full of stench. If the ego is dominat­ing that basket, then your spiritual nostrils become sick. You will not gather the fragrant flowers. You will always gather stinking flowers of jealousy and hate and of things that have very little meaning for your deeper life. An unconscious that is not well-trained goes on collecting impressions of hate and anger day by day, not realizing that such negative repeated effort brings about deep-rooted karmic involvement in the world-process.

An aspirant must have an entirely different attitude towards the negative aspects of his unconscious than an ordinary man in the world. An ordinary man in the world is generally content to know that in good circumstances, when he is not provoked, his behavior will be good. An aspirant, on the other hand, is not just satisfied with being good under ideal conditions. He must root out his errors totally. He must become transformed in the depths of his personality.

When you lack reflection, your errors simply subside and come back again and again. People are able to hide many of their errors, but these come back again and again. And nature is such that it draws out your defects, no matter how hard you try to hide them.

For example, you may be the type of person who always puts on a most cheerful face when you appear before people. However, if you have not reflected upon the root source of anger in the depths of your mind and have not removed it, then one day a situation will come when you will find yourself in an awkward condition, shouting at the people to whom you have always been the example of smiling serenity.

You must understand that Nature is merciless in bring­ing out what you hide within yourself — merciless as well as Divine. You cannot hide all your cobwebs and dust under the rug. You have to one day remove them. Similarly, there must be transformation in personality. That is the task in vasana kshaya. Your unconscious can be trained, and that is done by satsanga or good association, repetition of mantra, meditation, and the most powerful method of all— Divine Love.

In order to develop Divine Love you need satsanga, good association. Divine Love is like a fire, and you cannot kindle that fire within your heart unless you take it from a living fire. Therefore, it is in association with people who have profound devotion to God — saints and sages, spiri­tual teachers, enlightened personalities — that you catch that spark. You may read voluminous books written by great scholars, but you will not catch that spark. It is just like sitting near a beautiful painting of a winter home with a wonderful fire. That fire does not kindle a real flame within your heart. But when you come into vital contact in satsanga, the fire of Divine Love enters your heart. And when that fire enters, the basket of your unconscious becomes magne­tized to attract only the most fragrant flowers, only the most positive impressions.

Further, as you pursue the project of vasana kshaya, you learn to stop complaining about the world. You under­stand that once a person develops that complaining habit there is no end to it. There is no situation in which you can find perfection for yourself. God never planned the world to be so. God is a jealous God and he doesn’t want people to be away from home. This world is a foreign land. All his children must return. Therefore he will not let people be satisfied in the transient world.

Manonash

The third aspect of sadhana is called manonash or destruction of mind. Your mind is practically destroyed if it does not come under the sway of attachment and hatred. Your sense of duty is disturbed if you are colored by love and hate. Like every individual, you have a duty to perform and through that work you will evolve. That is the insight into karma yoga. You have a significant work to perform through your personality. Nobody else can do that. There is a divine intention. But when the mind is colored by raga and dwesha, attachment and hatred, your sense of duty becomes mixed up and you begin to create karmic involve­ment instead of a process of mental upliftment through action.

Action is divine. That is the teaching of the Gita. Your life is most joyous if it is lived with purposeful action, and you should hope to live up to the last breath performing action — action that purifies your heart, that reaches out to humanity with radiations of goodness and harmony. Such a mind that is freed of attachment and hatred is as if destroyed, as if non-existent. That is the art of manonash.

To summarize then, the first aspect of spiritual sadhana that I have talked about, and the most advanced, is tattwa jnana — the process of enlightening the intellect through deep reflection so that it can help the soul regain the awareness of its essential identity.

The second is vasana kshaya, the project of educating your unconscious, making your unconscious a basket that is filled with fragrant flowers. Day by day you pick up impressions of peace, harmony, joy, and devotion to God and these impressions are carried from one life to another, uplifting your soul. And if these impressions become abundant enough, you attain enlightenment and break the cycle of birth and death entirely. You enter into eternity.

And the third is manonash — keeping the mind free of attachment and hatred, training it in such a way that you are not completely involved in or completely colored by cir­cumstances. Life will always present pleasant and painful conditions. If you are colored by the conditions, then your mind is always in a state of agitation. If conditions are pleasant, your mind becomes elated. If they are unpleasant, the mind becomes depressed. Therefore, the deeper pur­pose of life is not attended upon. One simply moves on, depending upon circumstances. That should not be so.

The art of maintaining the mind in a state of content­ment, in a state of serenity and balance, must be well-learned. Clouds will always be there. They have their purpose. But you can keep your head above the clouds. You can grow taller than the clouds. You can become a moun­tain with its silvery peaks glistening in the light of the sun.

Therefore, adopt the project of disciplining yourself, and in this project, let every sadhana that you do, every effort that you put forth, be like throwing a brick in the stream that is flowing close by. Sometimes you throw big bricks, sometimes small. Nothing is ever wasted. And as you continue there comes a demolition device from God, who helps you to demolish the whole wall in a very short time, without demolishing yourself. And with that Divine Grace you enter into the sweet water of eternal life, never to find yourself thirsty and stranded upon a high wall of ignorance ever again!

May God bless you with God-realization!

“International Yoga Guide” Vol. 30, NO. 6, February 1993

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