LIVING THE INNER LIFE
Spirituality is living the inner life. The outer life of the senses draws the mind without while the Spirit hearkens to the call within. This titanic tussle between the outer and the inner world of the non-self and the Self constitutes the core of asceticism whose final fruition is the realisation of the beloved within, enthroned in the centre of the spiritual heart.
But the process is long and arduous, the path a steep ascent along a razor's edge and a single misadventure results in a precipitous fall to ruination. But good never breeds evil and the path brightens up for the fallen yogi in a fresh attempt to scale the peak in a new incarnation. Even in the old body all is not lost. A thousand falls may be overcome by a thousand and one rises and this is the source of hope that may sustain us in our struggle to reach spiritual perfection through the vicissitudes of life.
Spirituality is living the inner life. The outer life of the senses draws the mind without while the Spirit hearkens to the call within. This titanic tussle between the outer and the inner world of the non-self and the Self constitutes the core of asceticism whose final fruition is the realisation of the beloved within, enthroned in the centre of the spiritual heart.
But the process is long and arduous, the path a steep ascent along a razor's edge and a single misadventure results in a precipitous fall to ruination. But good never breeds evil and the path brightens up for the fallen yogi in a fresh attempt to scale the peak in a new incarnation. Even in the old body all is not lost. A thousand falls may be overcome by a thousand and one rises and this is the source of hope that may sustain us in our struggle to reach spiritual perfection through the vicissitudes of life.
We are essentially divine but the consciousness of this
divinity has got clouded somehow, covered up by the incessant flow of sensory
dreams, the phenomenal phases of life. Yet, through it gleam the stellar beams
that herald the birth of dawn, the onrush of the awakening sun. Nothing can
obliterate the Atman for it sure sustains all, no power can long suppress the
quickening soul of man for all power is lodged in the soul, no force may hold
down the rising spirit of man for the spirit ever triumphs over aught of earth.
Thus, the Vedanta offers hope for all, for the sage and the sinner, for none is so vile as may not be saved, none so bent as virtue may not straighten. The Vedanta alone in trumpet voice affirms the fundamental divinity, the inherent freedom, the essential spirituality of the externally bound man as his permanent state and his bondage to the eight fetters as so much vain imagination that will pass into nothingness in the fullness of time when the sun of the Atman will shine through the coarse cover of material darkness.
Here is idealism of the highest order but intensely practical for it covers the whole ground of man’s terrestrial existence and makes no artificial distinction between secular and spiritual. In fact, the Vedanta is the study of man in all his phases, physical, mental and spiritual. It leaves no segment of life out but fills it up with the Spirit. Nothing is profane save to say that man is a mere mortal, limited to his outer frame with no hope beyond the sufferance of an eventual termination of his earthly existence in death. And nothing is more blasphemous as to say that man is merely a finite being subject to the four-fold misery of birth, growth, decay and death where the terminal line is drawn. This is rank materialism and has nothing in common with the pristine philosophy of the Vedas which while accepting the outer man’s aforesaid four-fold terrestrial predicament of birth, growth, decay and death, nonetheless, extends the domain of man to the world beyond, the realm of the Spirit, the transcendental plane that eludes the grasp of matter.
Thus, the Vedanta offers hope for all, for the sage and the sinner, for none is so vile as may not be saved, none so bent as virtue may not straighten. The Vedanta alone in trumpet voice affirms the fundamental divinity, the inherent freedom, the essential spirituality of the externally bound man as his permanent state and his bondage to the eight fetters as so much vain imagination that will pass into nothingness in the fullness of time when the sun of the Atman will shine through the coarse cover of material darkness.
Here is idealism of the highest order but intensely practical for it covers the whole ground of man’s terrestrial existence and makes no artificial distinction between secular and spiritual. In fact, the Vedanta is the study of man in all his phases, physical, mental and spiritual. It leaves no segment of life out but fills it up with the Spirit. Nothing is profane save to say that man is a mere mortal, limited to his outer frame with no hope beyond the sufferance of an eventual termination of his earthly existence in death. And nothing is more blasphemous as to say that man is merely a finite being subject to the four-fold misery of birth, growth, decay and death where the terminal line is drawn. This is rank materialism and has nothing in common with the pristine philosophy of the Vedas which while accepting the outer man’s aforesaid four-fold terrestrial predicament of birth, growth, decay and death, nonetheless, extends the domain of man to the world beyond, the realm of the Spirit, the transcendental plane that eludes the grasp of matter.
Herein lies hope and herein lies the call to struggle for
perfection, the realisation of the infinitude of the Self, the Self which is
the substance of this void we call the universe, the Self which is the Void
which lies at the heart of the substance of the universe. The Self in me is the
Self in you, is the Self in all. This is the democracy of the spiritual world
discovered by the ancient rishis of Vedic India where no absolutist culture of
the personal God to the exclusion of the impersonal principle behind is admitted and
where the royal avenue to freedom is ever open to all irrespective of social
station or privilege of birth. God is sameness and through sameness must be
reached. All forms of distinction must be given up in the perception of the
essential oneness of things, all privilege forsaken, all desires eschewed from
the system before samesightedness is reached.
The Vedanta is the only thought-system in the world which
has no personal God but which allows everyone to have his own personal God, nay,
even to become in the highest his own personal God, which has no holy text that
must be revered as such but which considers all texts that pertain to truth as
carrying in germ the principles of truth, which has nothing sacrilegious,
blasphemous or heretical about it for it considers truth as impersonal and
inviolable by any human agency. This Vedanta is the hope for humanity as it
struggles through the resolution of past karma through violence and bloodshed.
As the world is educated in science and reason, the Vedanta shall stand out to be the only rational philosophical system which is also spiritual in its essence and future humanity, which will reject the superstition of past ages obtaining and accruing in the major world religions, will accept it as its spiritual life-line and the highest ideal to strive for. For the Vedanta, like science, has oneness as its highest end, is impersonal, grounded in rational rigour and is fearless of investigation and scrutiny. It is the spiritual counterpart of science, being itself the science of the inner world.
As the world is educated in science and reason, the Vedanta shall stand out to be the only rational philosophical system which is also spiritual in its essence and future humanity, which will reject the superstition of past ages obtaining and accruing in the major world religions, will accept it as its spiritual life-line and the highest ideal to strive for. For the Vedanta, like science, has oneness as its highest end, is impersonal, grounded in rational rigour and is fearless of investigation and scrutiny. It is the spiritual counterpart of science, being itself the science of the inner world.
And that brings us back to where we had begun --- the inner
world. Spirituality is concerned about the conquest of this inner world, about
gaining equanimity of mind amidst the vicissitudes of life, about training
oneself to never react to a situation out of compulsion but to do so, if the need
arises, out of a conscious choice, a determined decision.
The surface mind is turbulent but the mind deep beneath is calm and almost free of vibration. At the core of consciousness no distraction reaches and there sits the Self of man in all its resplendence. These are not mere affirmations of Vedantic texts but are facts of experience of countless sages and spirituality lies in the re-living of these experiences and thereby re-confirming their validity.
Acceptance of the principles of the Vedanta must be based on actual experience and never blind belief for there is nothing in the Vedanta that you may believe in but there is a lot that you may choose to scrutinise, investigate and experience by following the methodology for attaining to such spiritual states. Mere articulation of scriptural principles amounts to nothing. It is the life of renunciation that must be lived to attain to the perception of the subtler workings of the mind before one is equipped with a mind that is refined enough to apprehend the most glorious truth of all, the ‘satyasya satyam’ (the truth of truths), the Atman (the Self of man) which is also the Brahman (the Self of the cosmos).
The surface mind is turbulent but the mind deep beneath is calm and almost free of vibration. At the core of consciousness no distraction reaches and there sits the Self of man in all its resplendence. These are not mere affirmations of Vedantic texts but are facts of experience of countless sages and spirituality lies in the re-living of these experiences and thereby re-confirming their validity.
Acceptance of the principles of the Vedanta must be based on actual experience and never blind belief for there is nothing in the Vedanta that you may believe in but there is a lot that you may choose to scrutinise, investigate and experience by following the methodology for attaining to such spiritual states. Mere articulation of scriptural principles amounts to nothing. It is the life of renunciation that must be lived to attain to the perception of the subtler workings of the mind before one is equipped with a mind that is refined enough to apprehend the most glorious truth of all, the ‘satyasya satyam’ (the truth of truths), the Atman (the Self of man) which is also the Brahman (the Self of the cosmos).
In this age of deliberate distraction when Mammon is
worshipped shamelessly, when God has been reduced largely to
being a giver of wealth and a satisfier of earthly necessities, it is pertinent
to remember that Ramakrishna and his children have set in a movement to the
contrary which is working for the spiritualisation of humanity. Right from the
days of the Master and his superhuman austerities at Dakshineshwar the emphasis has been on spiritual practice and realisation of the truth of the Self. The
supernal lives of Ramakrishna and his disciples and the great tradition of
austere spirituality and worshipful service thereafter have been a bulwark
against the decadence of the age which even today threatens to sink humanity
into oblivion.
But the moot point is that the movement of Ramakrishna is founded on spiritual austerity and will weaken if this spirit is not kept up. It is, therefore, the duty of every devotee to take up the cross of the Mission and start living the inner life for in it lies true devotion to Thakur who is seated in the sanctum sanctorum of the devotee’s heart. Let us chant the name of Ramakrishna with our every breath, let us contemplate his terrestrial play, his spiritual states of blissfulness and freedom, and let us meditate on his mission on earth for which we remain accountable to him if indeed we deem ourselves to be his children.
May Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Sri Ramakrishna bless all of you is my ardent prayer at their lotus feet! May all of you remain in the blissfulness of contemplation of Thakur! Jai Ramakrishna! Jai Ma!
Written by Sugata Bose
But the moot point is that the movement of Ramakrishna is founded on spiritual austerity and will weaken if this spirit is not kept up. It is, therefore, the duty of every devotee to take up the cross of the Mission and start living the inner life for in it lies true devotion to Thakur who is seated in the sanctum sanctorum of the devotee’s heart. Let us chant the name of Ramakrishna with our every breath, let us contemplate his terrestrial play, his spiritual states of blissfulness and freedom, and let us meditate on his mission on earth for which we remain accountable to him if indeed we deem ourselves to be his children.
May Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Sri Ramakrishna bless all of you is my ardent prayer at their lotus feet! May all of you remain in the blissfulness of contemplation of Thakur! Jai Ramakrishna! Jai Ma!
Written by Sugata Bose
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