Articles for Saadhana

We had started speaking about the qualities of a good seeker. I think one day I spoke about viveka and perhaps extended the explanation further.

 Before speaking about dispassion, an idea which you may not always readily accept. Even if you accept, you may not understand how the functional aspect of this dispassion is. Before describing this I thought I will take up mumukṣutva. The word mumukṣu means – he who aspires for moksha and the state of being so is called mumukṣutvam.

What is moksha? Moksha is the freedom or redemption from … what? You can say, if you want to put a meaning, from moha, delusion.

Every one of us is suffering from a delusion. In fact, in our culture, we have got a maha-sankalpa, which says that:

anādyāvidyā vāsanayā pravartamānasya asmin mahati saṁsāracakre

The human life is described to be a kind of a revolution. In what?

anādi avidyā vāsanayā pravartamānasya asmin mahati saṁsāracakre

We are involved in a revolving wheel of saṁsāra, worldly life, and this has commenced from where? A desire. That desire is beginningless and the desire … how did the desire sprout? It sprouted from avidyā, ignorance. What is that ignorance? Ignorance about oneself and ignorance about the true existence.

We somehow forget our inner, inmost identity. We start perceiving many things here. At least one thing different from me makes me think of aspiring for the second. In a state of wisdom, there is only oneness and one truth. When this knowledge is somehow slipped, we get into ignorance and that ignorance gives rise to desires, so all the desire is a result of ignorance and this ignorance is beginningless, right from the beginning!

So the entire creation, particularly human creation, it is an outcome of ignorance. What do you have to understand from this? We are all suffering from a delusion. If this delusion is set aside, it becomes moksha and freedom for us. In another words, moksha means, freedom from the shackles which the mind and the intelligence imposes. When you see ten people, you will dislike four and like six. Why should the mind dislike four and like six? No answer.

So the mind traps us with a delusion. That delusion is working in the nature of icchā and dveṣa. Bhagavad Geeta would put it in this manner –

इच्छाद्वेषसमुत्थेन द्वन्द्वमोहेन भारत ।

सर्वभूतानि सम्मोहं सर्गे यान्ति परन्तप ।।

icchādveṣasamutthena dvandvamohena bhārata

sarvabhūtāni sammohaṁ sarge yānti parantapa

(Bhagavad Geeta 7.27)

Right at the time of creation, every being, every creature is gripped by a delusion, which expresses itself in the form of love and hatred. A newborn child, if you put something sweet, a little sweet drop is given, it will start licking it. Suppose you put something bitter, it will not like it. Now who told the child to dislike the bitter and like the sweet? Like that you will find every animal, every creature, including the human being, we are suffering from a delusion imposed by the mind, which expresses itself in the form of two opposite urges. One is pleasing, another is displeasing.

Now moksha is the freedom and redemption from this kind of a shackle. And so far as intelligence is concerned, it’s always having a doubt, a question and lack of clarity. Because we don’t have clarity the mind is allowed to swing in many many ways.

Sri Krishna says in Bhagavad Geeta;

व्यवसायात्मिका बुद्धिरेकेह कुरुनन्दन ।

vyavasāyātmikā buddhirekeha kurunandana

(Bhagavad Geeta 2.41)

In this karma yoga, the intelligence of the human remains resolute, firm and singular. vyavasāya means resolute, resolution. Very decisive. I am a human being. I am living in this world. I have interactions with this world. The interacted with objects are many, the interacting subject is the same. The interaction proceeds from me, subsists on me, concludes in me and all these interactions are supposed to give me joy and pleasure. Always it does not happen. Interactions are governed by their own law and process and sukha-duhkhas are bound to result. I cannot perpetuate sukha, nor can I eliminate duhkha, and to have both, I don’t have to struggle. It will naturally and irresistibly come. So where should I focus my mind on? Is it to perpetuate sukha? Impossible! Is it to eliminate duhkha? Impossible! Then what further, what better? To remain uniform, leaving the sukha-duhkha patterns to be what they are!

So transcend them, be indifferent to them, float over them, assimilate them, get enriched by whether it is sukha or duhkha, both! Now this kind of a decision you must have. So the intelligence is not able to take this decision. It is tossed by a number of doubts, a number of enquiries, a number of indecisions.

When the intelligence becomes clear about what human life is and what the quest and fulfillment are, similarly the mind is also relieved from the emotional urges which constantly keep the mind in state of tension, agitation, I think that is moksha!

Now one must have a burning aspiration for this liberation. So, liberation is not a post death development or a reward, it is actually to live in this world, peacefully and joyously, without undue agitation, tension and pressure, without any undue doubt or oscillation of the intelligence. When the intelligence remains unflickering within the mind, it is called the state of yoga.

Unfortunately, people relate the spiritual life and spiritual development to a number of mystic and miraculous developments. Somehow the delusion continues. Even spiritual seekers have spiritual delusions. There can be worldly delusions, secular delusions, religious delusions and spiritual delusions also. Our mind should be freed from all this. This is called moksha. And you must have a burning aspiration for it. This moksha, if you ask me, is it actually a spiritual attainment? Not in the normal sense of the term. It is spiritual alright, because our mind is not material. Because it is not material, it is a spiritual functional unit. Therefore you can say it is spiritual. Otherwise, I want to tell you that, moksha is a very, very practical, interactional gift. A very secular one!

We must be freed from the shackles of the mind which better your action. The other day somebody was coming and telling me, “Swamiji, I don’t have a confidence! Whatever I do, I feel it will not succeed.”

So a diffidence, a diffidence is something that the mind creates and it deters your action. Some people are pessimistic, very few are optimistic. Some are diffident, some are confident, some are hopeful, some are hopeless. Some can only expect the best. They can never get prepared for the worst. Expect the best and be prepared for the worst. This is a very famous formula.

So I think this moksha is relevant to the mind and intelligence of a human being and it implies or it means a stable mind and a stable intelligence. In other words, it means a mind which is given to evenness and an intelligence which is given to clarity and brilliance.

When these two are had, what happens? Not necessarily you become a sannyasin or go to a forest or construct an ashram. Your activities and interactions in this world will become better, more effective, more sublime. When the mind is calm and even, when the intelligence is clear, physically you cannot grow, but the capacity of the mind and the intelligence, tremendously increase. There is an action which others are shuddering to take up, if you have a stable mind and a stable intelligence, you will say, “I shall do it!” Where others flee, you will simply go and get involved. So, the capacity of the mind increases. The perceptive quality of the intelligence also increases. As I say, if you take one hour to read a matter and understand, you will be able to read it and understand it in half an hour or at most in forty minutes. This is what will happen, if you have these qualities of the mind and intelligence.