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Self-knowledge - The Ultimate Insulator
by Shri Ashutosh Ji Maharaj
The need for a shock absorber for the bumpy road called life is a universal clamor. Riches do not make an affluent truly happy, and the poor are too sorrowful and distraught due to lack of monetary power. People suffering from physical ailments are looking for a panacea from medical professionals. Those with mental and psychological disorders are without a doubt the greatest sufferers of mankind.
Psycho-somatic ailments and impoverishment making its subjects unhappy is understandable. But why are the rich and privileged a discontented lot? They have all the comforts and luxuries to earn happiness. Feelings of emptiness and incompleteness agonizes them as well. This clearly shows that true and lasting happiness lies elsewhere. Human beings, essentially and inherently divine, naturally look for the divine spark, the Spirit within, with which to align themselves in order to be at peace.
Just as we insulate ourselves before touching uncovered electric wires so as not to get electrocuted, even so, it is essential to get ourselves insulated with an eternal mechanism that all sages, prophets, seers, incarnate teachers adored and subsequently preached, penning enlightening texts for posterity. The Lord of the Universe, being ever merciful and benevolent in His dispensation, sends down incarnate teachers to help tormented humans rise above the body-mind complex and to teach them the God-ordained eternal mechanism that insulates our being. Man thus becomes immune to trials and tribulations of human life.
A very common example of the human tendency to look for insulation is in the touching of an extremely hot object. We use tongs or mitts to protect our fingers from burning. Surprisingly, we do not strive to attain the eternal mechanism to protect ourselves from the distressing pangs that we face in day-to-day life.
To lead a calm and serene life, it is absolutely essential that we consider, attain and follow assiduously the prescription and dose of insulation that can be attained from an enlightened soul or an incarnate teacher of time. Genuine masters impart the perennial panacea to alleviate unhappiness out of sheer love and compassion for humanity.
Unlike mundane objects of insulation, the eternal mechanism is internal insulation. Our daily life experiences are enough to suggest and convince us that our body, mind and intellect are vulnerable to the influences of the world. These three constitute matter. But always etch in your mind that we are not mere matter. We suffer so long as we continue to identify ourselves with body, mind and intellect. These three are inert minus the Self within - the energizing agent in all sentient beings. We are Spirit which cannot be cut by weapons, wetted by water and dried by wind. As Spirit, we are always free. This fact is theoretically known to some but the majority are ignorant of this great revelation.
Both, however, require this knowledge in a practical fashion. Sages and scriptures call it knowledge of Self. Unlike mundane or even scriptural knowledge, knowledge of Self is a supra-mental experience of the Divine which only an enlightened soul can impart. Scriptures declare it to be a sovereign science. This knowledge is ultimate insulation against the troubling experiences of the world. Armed with this divine knowledge, influences of the world do not affect and perturb us. This acts as an impenetrable protective shield for those who follow the path sincerely. This knowledge imparts immunity from the jerks and fluctuations of life.
We know well what happens in the absence of this internal insulation. When our expectations are not realized, we become violent, heated up and erupt with anger and frustration. Unfavorable circumstances disillusion us and calamities wreck us both emotionally and mentally. We are easily disturbed, deviated, jolted and take to sense-indulgence and partisan behaviors. Unable to resist the lure of senses, we embrace wretchedness and in the course of time ruin ourselves. Modern science, by providing opportunities at the doorstep, is adding fuel to the fire of self-indulgence. Modern technology has enhanced the already high combustibility of sense-fuel. The inferno of our sense-bound nature is ever ready to engulf us in the absence of this internal insulation provided by supra-sensorial knowledge of the divine.
Earlier, life was simple and we had plenty of time at our disposal for self-introspection. Now, in modern times, we have been literally invaded by and deluged with information technology rendering human life as fast-paced and hectic, thereby placing enormous burdens upon us. We have lost synchronicity of body and mind. Our intellect is grounded in a swampy field, making its primary task of discrimination and sifting the good from bad a bit too difficult. In the wilderness of abundance and deluge of options, often the intellect finds itself drowning in confusion.
Now a little about the knowledge of Self. Here, we can provide only brief verbal description. We often find people talking about it and then leaving us guessing and thinking as to whether it can be practically experienced. Theory sans practical experience does not last long and the impressions it imprints are erased by even light oscillations of life. But the Self, the Spirit which is omniscient, omnipotent and all-pervasive, can be practically seen and perceived through the divine eye. Everybody preaches dwelling on the Self but unless this greatest mystery ever is demystified by someone, how can we expect anybody to get this internal insulation?
This protective shield is first revealed by a perfect sage and then one nourishes and strengthens it by meditating on the Self. First revelation and then meditation: is the process. It is an extra- sensory perception, a trans-dichotomous experience of cosmic vision which sets one on track for building and strengthening the internal insulation.
Once one is through the process of revelation, meditation on light of consciousness, and builds around oneself a strong and burly layer of insulation, what then is life like? The best analogy is of a lady dancer giving her performance on a limited space of stage. A person armed with the insulation of knowledge of Self leads life like the dancer performing remarkably within the constrained area. She is sure of her movements in that there is no fear of taking a step over the edge. An accomplished dancer achieves it with ease. Likewise, a person donning the insulator of knowledge of Self goes on the journey of life without even an iota of fear, stress, tension and distress.
Such a one, who has so far lived life of finitude, enters the world of ultimate reality, the inner world of infinity. He goes beyond bondage and albatross. Troubles vanish. Such a person becomes an embodiment of freedom, liberation and attains emancipation while living.
Shri Ashutosh Ji Maharaj is the spiritual head and founder of Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan - [www.divyajyoti.org]. DJJS is a non-denominational spiritual organization headquartered in New Delhi, India, and is engaged in establishing a world of peace and harmony through the imparting of spirituality as a science of experience. The organization is working worldwide for realizing the goal of a global family through chaplaincy in prisons, universities, schools and professional institutions. Education on practical spirituality, meditation and holistic living through inner experience is offered at the Mission. For more information, please write to info@divyajyoti.org. Discourse sessions are also held in the Brampton, Ontario area. For more information, please write to djjscanada@hotmail.com
Posted by editor on January 18, 2005 05:06 PM