| Question:
When should one begin on the spiritual path? Swamiji: NOW. . . We exile ourselves from spiritual practice by our own fears. The Christian feels: I am a sinner, born in sin, packed and labeled for sin. This negative mind is in the majority of us. Because we are foolishly waiting until we are good enough, we never begin. So spiritual practices are meant to make us as good as we want to be. Q: But I mean are there certain qualities that a person needs to ensure success? S: The seekers must have the necessary courage to inquire. We must not just accept all statements of truth merely because some ancient and learned sage has declared them. Both our head and heart must assimilate any new ideas before they can really be our own. We hear or read an idea, then we must reflect on it until the light of understanding dawns in our own bosom. In fact, only by this contemplative process can any philosophical creed readily reach the heart to guide us in our day-to-day life and its transactions. Q: But some of us come and listen to you and make an honest attempt to live up to the ideals, but we fail to experience this true Reality that you are pointing out. Perhaps we were not ready for the spiritual path. S: Certainly, as in any field of study, the candidate for Self-realization also must have certain preliminary qualifications if he is to benefit from discourses on Vedanta. When we hear the grave term—“the four-fold qualifications” necessary for a student of Vedanta—spoken of, we are apt to feel uncomfortable. Upon a closer analysis, however, we shall find that we already have developed these qualities in facing our ordinary life. They now must be refined and focused in another direction—toward spiritual endeavors. The first of the qualifications is a capacity to discriminate the Real from the unreal, the True from the false, the Essence from appearance, the object from its shadow. Who doesn’t have this ability? We are not mere worms and animals. We are a cultured society of men and women who are continually applying our power of discrimination in our everyday life. The second qualification is detachment; that is, the quality of the mind that enables one to be detached from false and painful things. Do not be frightened away with some weighty concept of dispassion. Who among us doesn’t have it? When the intellect has come to a sure and definite understanding, and is consequently fully aware that a given thing is but a shadow and valueless, the mind naturally detaches from it. For example, you marry a lovely princess in a dream. When you awaken you cannot maintain your love and attachment for her. The moment you are awake, you realize your dream-love was a falsehood. This detachment, gained as a result of personal knowledge, is dispassion. These two qualifications—discrimination and detachment—are necessary for an understanding of Vedanta. When they are present, the other nobler qualities of humankind, which are the third qualification, automatically arise and link up with the fourth qualification: an eagerness to experience your own essential Divinity. Q: So we have these qualifications to some extent, but maybe they are not developed enough. S: Yes, now you must apply these qualities to the higher realms of thought. The purpose of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita is to guide us from the outer levels of our personality into the innermost sanctum, the seat of the Infinite, reigning in all glory. A student of Vedanta will start his inquiry with the external world: From where has the world come and where it will go? Once we understand the outer world, our inquiry will be into our physical body and its five sense organs. To a man born blind, there is no form. To a deaf man, the canon appears to be only smoking, not roaring. In order to enjoy tastes and smells, one needs a tongue and a nose. If we were to take away the five senses, there would be no world for us. That is, our concept of the outer world is gained through the gateway of our sense organs. Next the inquirer will start to investigate the function of his or her mind and intellect. So step by step, he continues examining from the gross outer world to the subtler realms within. These external coverings can be said to encase the Reality within. Our physical body, with its sense organs, is the grossest encumbrance; then there is the vital air sheath, which consists of the breath and the subtle powers the body uses to maintain itself. The mental sheath is even subtler, then we have the intellect sheath, then the bliss sheath, the seat from which the joy element bubbles forth. One attempts to reach and recognize face to face, the subtlest of the subtle, the Self. This is the moment of true meditation when the robes of these gross layers of our personality vanish and our true Nature is recognized. Q: But what if one just honestly does not have the qualifications to understand Vedanta that you mentioned. What can be done? S: There are spiritual exercises given in the scriptures, such as in the last chapter of Kaivalya Upanishad. After the teacher has imparted the entire Upanishad revealing the One behind the many, a student is sitting there with a blank face, wondering “When is the Upanishad going to begin.” He hasn’t understood a single concept. In his infinite compassion, the teacher tells this student, “I am going to give you this one very special verse. You chant it throughout the day as you are doing all your activities, whether you are walking, bathing, eating or even taking part in some sensuous pleasure. You just go on repeating this verse, for it is an antidote for all sins. If you repeat this verse continually for thirty days, it will wipe your mind clean of all its past.” The teacher knows that when the student is able to accomplish this exercise he will then have the mental purity to understand the Upanishad. Q: What about the path of devotion? Where does it fit in? S: All spiritual disciplines are to make the mind meditation worthy. For the body, you have karma yoga. You do your work with all actions dedicated unto the Lord. For the emotional mind there is bhakti yoga. You give your love to the Lord; only he can return love in equal measure. For the intellect there is jnana yoga. You study and inquire into the scriptural ideas. There is not even one question that the intellect can ask that Advaita [non-dual] Vedanta cannot answer. Vedanta covers all possibilities, so that the intellect is finally blasted beyond logical thinking. In the path of devotion when you have the attitude, “I surrender all to him,” the Lord comes down to you. In the path of the intellect, you attempt to reach the Lord with your understanding. “I’ll do it myself; I’ll come to you” is the attitude. But this coming up or going down is all the same. If you are moving closer to the Lord, the Lord is coming closer relatively to you. |