The world is in the throes of a new birth. A new
pattern of culture is emerging. The ways of
science have paved the way for the reorientation
of human aims and goals. Though men are
presently thinking in terms of better ways of
existence for all and have been forced to
conceive of life as a whole and not as for
oneself and a few, yet the means and methods
adopted for arriving at that goal or realisation
of a welfare state have not been satisfactory.
Man muddles on with the rationality vouched for
his growth. Yet it is a fact that man is in
search of happiness. This happiness and peace of
mind seem to be closely linked up. Man has to
realise that he belongs to a great world not
only of humanity but also of other kinds and
types of life, not only on this Earth of ours
but also on other worlds. Science has been
opening up the frontiers of our knowledge in
very vast directions. We have almost begun to
enter into a greater world. But our minds are
yet incapable of thinking to that scale and
indeed we are incapable of adjusting to this
mortal world and the prospects it is offering.
Man feels himself to be a greater being in
reality or at least capable of realising himself
in the world and fulfilling the demands of his
body, life and mind. His efforts in this
direction have been continuous, and labour of
extreme concentration has gone into his struggle
to grow, to live and to realise happiness in
terms of the wants of his body. It is true that
some mighty minds have held that all this search
for happiness in the world by adapting the world
to one's needs and happiness cannot avail, and
the precariousness of the achievement is more to
be known. True also indeed they have counselled
that in transitoriness of happiness achieved
there can be no real happiness. They have also
held that the very definition of illusion is
precisely transitoriness of all happiness. The
search for the eternal and the permanent
happiness is the real search and this entails
the renunciation of the search for the
transitory happiness or success. However, man is
not quite prepared for this renunciation of the
transitory happiness which according to him is
in the hand, for the sake of the permanent
happiness which is far off. Better the bondage
of the immediate if it is pleasant than the
freedom of the eternal which needs renunciation
of the immediate. So too the renunciation of
finiteness or individuality is impossible
because of the promise of attainment of the
Infinite.
Surely men have sought a different solution
for wish fulfilment. They would like to realise
the eternal in the temporal, the infinite in the
finite, the unbounded in the bounded, spirit in
the bosom of matter, and so on, because of the
double demand of the human nature for both the
worlds. There have grown several philosophies
which seek to do justice to the claims of man's
desires or wishes here and yonder. That
philosophies are governed by such desires or
wishes is a fact that reveals the psychological
roots of their thinking. Such thinking has not
released itself from the goal-directing impulse,
and rightly too, though it must be confessed
that reality is not capable of being a goal
unless all happiness-claim is dropped whether it
is of the temporal or the eternal order. Reality
has a claim to be known for itself without the
limitations and strictures of desire for any
goals such as happiness or pleasure or power. It
is to be known as it is in itself and for
itself; that is the law of one's real being and
reality. Man feels his reality to be of
paramount concern and the realisation of that
reality is the basic impulse of his being; and
happiness, pleasure, power and so on are just
means considered and surrendered on the march
towards his own reality-realisation.
The methods by which this
reality-consciousness is to be attained are of
great antiquity and had varying fortunes just
because of man's dual aims. It is only when one
seeks oneself that one realises one's reality
and not when one turns to the world to realise
oneself or oneself in it. Several indeed have
been the philosophies that imagined or built up
the systems and they have become incapable of
showing the way to the reality-consciousness.
Nor was liberation achieved with their help.
A return to the need for personal experience
of the Ultimate has become urgent, and most
people tired of philosophies and logistics and
so-called rationality are turning towards a
method by which they would have the experience
or intuition and realisation of the essence of
being or existence. There are of course some who
do not think that experience can solve any
problems and believe that belief alone in the
methods or means of philosophies will be
sufficient and personal experience is merely a
lure and a mirage. With such thinkers we of
course do not agree and man has never agreed.
True indeed this personal experience should be
of the highest and not merely a hallucinatory
product of one's wishes and constructions -
mental projections so to speak and not reality.
Hallucination is the projection of one set of
illusions in the place of those it is said to
replace, namely the experience of Nature.
The evolution of man into a higher
consciousness or reality is indeed our
endeavour, and this evolution can no longer be
achieved through the old patterns suitable to
lower species and forms of life including man.
The growth of a cosmic consciousness, or an
intuition that can grasp all in one sweep of
consciousness rather than in fragments, or that
which will integrate all knowledge and perceive
the integral reality is a divine gift and cannot
be expected to be attained through natural means
of mere aspiration. Science expects this to
happen in natural evolution through man's
infinite capacity to adapt the environment to
his needs, and also to rouse within himself
powers and capacities latent in a sense (such as
he had already done) such as rationality,
intelligence, instinct, will, consciousness
itself and creative imagination, co-operative
activity and social unity. However the ascent of
life is marked by breaks and one wonders whether
these breaks or leaps are due to an innate force
or elan, or an upward force that has leaned
towards it to pull it up. Religious experience
in man reveals this leaning of the cosmic
consciousness or divine and transcendent grace
consciousness towards it. Thus in man this
conjunction of the divine and the human is made
possible for the first time in evolution. But a
jump to the Ultimate consciousness or Being is a
long way off. And the natural evolution of man
will reveal that in his life the incidence of a
force much vaster and superior to himself takes
its hand. This is the beginning of spirituality.
The self confronts its own deepest urge to be
this urge towards the ultimate reality without
which its own future is impossible and
untenable.
This is the call to knowledge of the self, to
fulfilment, to perfection, to ultimate happiness
and bliss, and above all to the feeling and
realisation of reality of oneself which seems to
be slipping away in its own original nature.
The seers of India had long ago seen this
necessity for the help of the Highest and
Ultimate Spirit for lifting man to higher levels
of consciousness and awareness, such as
super-consciousness and absolute consciousness
or experience. Super-mind belongs to the regions
of the level very much above the human mental
and over-mental. There are levels of being such
as the pinda, anda, or brahmanda, parabrahmanda
and the Highest transcendent which is called by
Shri Ram Chandraji of Shahjahanpur as the
central region, and the Centre. Indeed we can
reveal the parallels between these and the
worlds described as bhuh, bhuvah, svar, mahah,
janah, tapah and satyam. Consciousness at each
level is a higher, suited to the plane of its
being, and goes through modifications or twists
and limitations when it descends lower, and is
thus said to form the several centres or
granthis or chakras, that distribute the power
of consciousness according to the laws of the
centres which emerge as and when the centre
forms.
The yoga of self-realisation demands then the
approach to the highest state beyond all the
levels of consciousness and being. The question
arises whether this is possible. Whether it is
not a gradual process of ascent which enables
man to proceed from the level of man to the
level of the superman with a super-mind and so
on till the highest level is reached, this is
the second question. There is much to be said in
favour of the gradual theory of evolution. The
immediate possibility of arriving at the Highest
level is also open to the human soul that has
become aware of the urgency of its attainment
and existence. This is what Shri Ram Chandraji
assures as possible, and by the yoga directed by
one who has attained that Ultimate Central
Reality it is positively easy. Evolution of the
individual becomes swift even while in the human
body, which is purified by that highest
consciousness or power and transformed in every
one of its cells.
The power of the Highest can descend thus
into the human heart and begin to purify and
lead it to the highest state. The human frame
itself is so made as to receive the
transmissions of highest energy or sakti divine,
at several centres corres-ponding to the cosmic
centres and super-cosmic regions. The human body
being thus purified in its nervous, circulatory
and other systems can enjoy or experience the
peace, the power and the transcendence even in
this body. The need and process are really to be
trained by an adept in this raja yoga path.
Shri Ram Chandraji in this book entitled
Commentary on Ten Commandments of Sahaj Marg
elucidates the conditions which are necessary
for realising the Ultimate. They are
Commandments which one must follow implicitly.
They are not merely orders arbitrarily given,
but clearly explained in order to show their
rationality in respect of the goal that has to
be reached. They are of course easy to follow
when there is the earnestness to reach the goal
or the Ultimate.
The simple formula of prayer gives us our
objective in this search - it is God who is the
All Master, and who is the only person who can
lead us to the destination. Our wishes interfere
with our reaching the destination and are
prapti-virodhis - enemies of our attainment.
Surrender to God who is the power omnipotent is
the essential need, for God is both the means
and the end. The Master who leads us to the
Highest is one who is so much absorbed in the
Ultimate that He is as it were God in descent
towards the soul that seeks and strives, and
struggles for help.
The ancient methods of practice are
beautifully explained showing the rationality of
worship and meditation at the sandhyas or
conjunctions of the day - morning, noon and
evening. The angas of yoga are also neatly
expounded and the natural method of spiritual
adaptation and adjustment to the goal is given
in a simple and straightforward manner. The
purification of the system by the subtle process
of transmission by the Master is an achievement
that can find no parallel in the spiritual
history in recent times. To live in God, for God
and by God is the burden of the path of Sri
Ramchandra's Raja Yoga and this naturally leads
to the realisation of one's reality in God, for
God. So too one becomes harmonious with all
without any distinctions. The higher worlds open
up to one who has become one with God by living
in Him and for Him alone. Spirituality is not
like religion just a form of worship or
technique of observances; it is a living in the
awareness of God and in His essence.
Shri Ram Chandraji points out how the
individual soul by following the Commandments
can even at the first contact come to experience
the peace that passeth understanding, and then
grow in this peace towards the highest possible
to man. Liberation or moksha is something that
naturally follows from this practice. Perfection
too may be open to one who is Divinely directed.
There is a little amount of metaphysics or
physics in the exposition which it is not very
important to discuss as it will become clear as
one proceeds on with the abhyasa.
There is no doubt that there must be complete
transfor-mation of man's nature and he must be
taken up for guidance by the cosmic and
super-cosmic Nature so that his attainment may
be felt to be more and more reality (sat). As
one approaches the Centre or the Ultimate, one
increases in his reality and all that went
before appear to be more and more unreality.
However the abhyasi's aim is to gain this
increasing reality that arises as one begins to
get near the Centre.
Shri Ram Chandraji's discoveries in this
realm are remarkable for their dynamic practical
nature. God is not far and distant but very near
and ready-means (siddhopaya) and man has but to
turn towards Him to feel His presence and His
power of transformation. We owe it to Shri Ram
Chandraji of Fatehgarh for making this
experience possible to all, and to Shri Ram
Chandraji of Shahjahanpur for spreading this
gospel of redemption and transformation by
demonstrating it practically to whosoever turned
towards him.
This book is in a sense for the advanced
practicant, but it is a very illuminating book
which should be read after the study of Master's
Reality at Dawn and Efficacy of Raja Yoga.
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