Monday 18 January 2016

Specialty of Sahaj Marg - Cleaning (Revealing the Personality, Chapter 6 by Shri P. Rajagopalachari)





“Now we are taught to be continuously thinking. We are thinking machines. Thinking has become a habit we are not able to stop. Therefore, even in meditation, thoughts bother us. We cannot stop them. We have no control. We have no regulatory capacity over our own thoughts. 


“But what can I do, Chari? The thoughts bother me.” How do they come? If, in your house, flies are coming into the room, you look for an open window and close it. If there is a stink in your toilet, you look for the source and remove it. How can you be subordinate to your own thoughts? Why not look for the source of your thoughts and remove it?"


— Taken from the book, "Revealing the Personality (2nd edition, 2009)", 
Chapter "Relationships", pg. 52, by Shri. Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari

The most common myth about meditation is that it is very difficult. Why? Because when we close our eyes and try to focus on one thing, hundreds of thoughts intrude our consciousness, disturbing us. The mind flirts from one thing to another so fast that soon we are lost in an ocean of thoughts. But what is the source of these thoughts? Our likes and dislikes, our desires/ temptations and fears - anything that makes an impression on our heart and mind. 


Chariji (the previous SRCM President) explains beautifully in one of his talks that temptations, fears etc. are not in the object, but in ourselves. Two people are not tempted by the same thing. If six men walk on the street, one walks into the bar, another goes behind a woman and four just walk on. Why did the first man get tempted by the bar, the second by the beautiful woman and the other four were unaffected by either of them? Because something inside them are pulled towards these things. 
Something inside us bind us to our tendencies, desires and fears. And until these are minimized or removed, thoughts about these will disturb us during meditation. 


The Sahaj Marg System of Raja Yoga teaches its aspirants a unique technique called the cleaning. Through this process of cleaning, SRCM abhyasis easily clean these impressions. So when we meditate the next morning, we have lesser number of thoughts that disturb us. And with the help of yogic transmission (pranahuti) and the enormous help that we receive from the current Sahaj Marg Master Shri Kamlesh D. Patel and the hierarchy of the 
Masters of Sahaj Marg during every meditation and satsangh, the grip that tendencies, desires and fears have on us is minimized. Thus transformation  and evolution becomes very simple. 



Thursday 7 January 2016

Three Instruments of Sahaj Marg - Revealing the Personality, Chapter 5 by P. Rajagopalachari


Three Instruments of Sahaj Marg


“Now how can I avoid guilt except by being, or leading my life in such a way that I don’t have to feel guilty about anything. You know, if I go to a shop and quietly put something in my pocket and walk out, I am a thief. I may not be caught, but I am a thief. Sometime, somewhere I will feel guilty about it. People have been known to send back money to their offices, stolen goods to hotel and restaurants. “Please excuse me, I took this away in 1986, but I feel guilty. I want to return it to you.” People have even sent tax to governments like that. 


So you see, guilt arises out of our own judgment about our own selves. It is not something to do with God or religion or the Pope or the archbishop. We are always tending to blame religion. It’s not religion that makes you feel guilty. It is you who feel guilty about yourself. 


And you can only overcome this by correcting yourself in such a way that the guilt is erased. My Master, Babuji Maharaj said, “What you have done in your past, you cannot change.” Absolutely. It is finished. But does it mean I am condemned? No. Why? Because I have a right to change my life in such a way that the past has no effect upon me - through cleaning, through meditation. Cleaning gets rid of the past, meditation creates the future, remembrance now prevents me from indulging in my fancies. In His remembrance, what I do is always right. 


So you see, the three instruments of Sahaj Marg - cleaning, meditation, constant remembrance - in my mind, they are infallible, unbeatable, totally effective instruments. 


Being new abhyasis, I hope you will all do these things sincerely. It is not done in one day, obviously. So the aim of Sahaj Marg is to make this cleaning possible within, say, a few years, through doses of transmission. Fill you with the divine light. Strengthen you from inside through constant remembrance. Make all circumstances of this life almost totally ineffective as far as you are concerned. They don’t impinge upon you. They don’t create any more impressions upon you. 


So this is the divine possibility that is offered here.”


 — Taken from the book, "Revealing the Personality (2nd edition, 2009)", 
Chapter "Talk to New Abhyasis", pg. 44-45, by Shri. Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari


Guilt is an emotion every one of us feels when we do something against our heart. No one escapes it. And this burden weighs our hearts, becoming heavier and heavier as it piles up. All of us carry this burden that gives us sleepless nights, nightmares and interferes with our interpersonal relationships. But how can this be removed so that our hearts become lighter? 


“What we sow, so we reap,” is a very popular saying. And this is most apt for the life of the soul. Normally, every samskara or karma that is created by our thoughts and actions results in a consequence that we have to undergo in order to remove them from our system. This is called bhoga.


Sahaj Marg teaches its aspirants a special technique called the ‘cleaning process’ that helps them to remove these samskaras by the power of our mind. Thus our hearts become free of all these burdens of guilt, prejudice and other  traits that burden it, free to rise higher and evolve.


As Chariji mentions very beautifully, the three processes in Sahaj Marg (meditation, cleaning and remembrance) are totally effective when practiced sincerely. Cleaning removes the burdens of the past, meditation with the help of transmission helps us to transform our hearts and fill it with love. Constant remembrance of God helps us to be immersed in the heart through out the day, helping us to listen to the inner guidance that would enable us to perform the right action in any situation without forming any impression or samskaras on the heart. 


Now external circumstances do not affect us any more and we can live a life of inner tranquility, peace and love. We can live a blessed life.


Sunday 3 January 2016

The Secret of Rebirth - Revealing the Personality, Chapter 5 by Shri P. Rajagopalachari


THE SECRET OF REBIRTH


“Spirituality says, think of your life also as a vehicle. Between birth and what we call death is a transit through the physical world which must be treated as a school so that in this time that is allotted to you, or which you have chosen for yourself in the past, you are able to learn the lesson which, upon reaching your destination, you don’t have to come back again. It is not death. It is the completion of my journey.


But people are afraid of death, they are terribly afraid of death. Why? Because we are living life wrongly. Like a boy who has never studied for his exams. He is terrified of his exams. He gets nightmares. He doesn’t want to go to school. He doesn’t want to appear for his examinations. He prays that he may have fever or become sick so that he need not go. But Nature will not oblige so easily. So when that boy comes back to his same class the next year, can you say the school punished him? Or the system punished him? Or his teachers punished him? He was not fit for the next level, so he is retained at this level.


This law applies to our life too. Rebirth is nothing but my having to come back to learn lessons which I did not learn when I had the chance. So I come back and say, “Please, one more year. I have to learn this lesson because without doing it, I cannot go forward.” 


So please remember, rebirth is not a fact, it is not a punishment. There is no Satan, there is no God involved. It is we who are involved, each one of us for ourselves. Suppose I am going to Copenhagen by car, where I have a flight to catch in six hours. But on the way I find this very very nice ferry from Fyn to Sjaelland. It is beautiful. So I keep the ferry going up and down. I take tickets and stay in the restaurant drinking beer. My flight has gone. Whose fault is it? Can we blame the ferry? Can we blame the pilot of the aircraft who left? I have only to blame myself.”


— Taken from the book, "Revealing the Personality (2nd edition, 2009)", 
Chapter "Talk to New Abhyasis", pg. 38, by Shri. Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari


In his talk to new SRCM abhyasis, Chariji Maharaj reveals the profound secret of death and rebirth in such a simple manner. Most people, consciously or unconsciously, have a fear of death. Why? Because what lays beyond it is unknown. In fact, what exists before our birth on this world and after our death is a mystery that has captured the fascination of millions of people around the world.  


Sahaj Marg teaches us that existence of the soul is Eternal and a part of the journey that the soul goes through is embodied life in this world. In a more simpler way, Chariji calls life in this world as a school where we come to learn. Learn what? Learn to love and evolve our consciousness so that we can go up to the next level after death.


So death is nothing to be afraid of. It is just a pause, where the soul evaluates its next step. If it has passed this test of life and evolved, it is liberated from this mortal world and graduates to the next level of existence. If it has failed, then it comes back again to this world to take the test again.


So life (and rebirth) is an invaluable opportunity for evolution that, if utilized properly, can take us to the highest level of evolution possible. Babuji Maharaj describes liberation as just a toy and that the highest state that can be achieved in this mortal existence is much beyond it. The problem comes when we get distracted by what we deem as pleasures and waste our life seeking it. And like Chariji says, we miss the flight.


So Sahaj Marg lays a lot of emphasis on fixing our eyes on the goal of life and remaining steadfast in our efforts of reaching that. In fact, the third Maxim of Sahaj Marg says, “Fix your Goal which should be complete oneness with God. Rest not till the Ideal is achieved.”


Babuji Maharaj describes very beautifully in his book, Commentary on the Ten Maxims of Sahaj Marg, how when our eyes are fixed on the goal every moment, all the temptations and distractions wither away like unwatered weeds. Now the entire focus of our mind and heart is on one thing. Restlessness to reach the goal increases and the immense power of this, combined with our sincere practice of meditation and cleaning, pushes us forward towards the final goal of human life.