Hari
OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
We are now undertaking basic technical
discourse on Vedanta. The text
forming the basis of these posts is 'Kindle Life'. Please do reread previous posts using the labels 'Workings-days' or
'Kindle Life'.
Ch.
25; VEDANTA - LIFE AND ART OF LIVING, continued.
Vedanta
recognises, so freely, the potentialities of the human intellect that the
children of the modern scientific age stand aghast at their own incapacity to
live up to its full destiny and to make use of their entire birthright by
exerting their individual intellect in the pursuit of seeking the good and the
perfect. Those who cry out that religion
is empty, a hollow bundle of superstitious beliefs insulting to the intellect,
are those who have not been initiated into the sacred freedom which Vedanta
liberally gives to the intelligent.
Through pure reason one climbs the path of Vedanta and it ultimately
leads us to discriminate between the Permanent and the ephemeral, the Real and
the unreal, the True and the false. It
makes us rediscover ourselves, to be the True the Real and the Permanent.
Godhood is the goal of Vedanta; it is the path of those who seek Reality
through Knowledge (jnaana).
To
serve men of mixed psychology, who seesaw between the cooing of their heart and
the call of their intellect, the karma yoga is advised. Here, the individual
during his softer moments of emotional desperation walks the path of devotion
while, during his intellectual phase, he runs out into the field of activity to
serve society as a manifestation of the Lord of his heart.
A
selfless worker is not a psychological wreck, diluting his potential, living
anxiously and fretting over outcomes or imagined results. To him the very field of activity is an
expression of the Lord's kindness and his only demand in life is that he may be
a true instrument of the Lord. The very
feeling of His blessing flowing through the devotee is sufficient reward, a
thrilling divine experience, and a selfless worker refuses to demand anything
more of the Lord. This satisfies both
the changing tides of the 'head' and the 'heart' in the individual belonging to
this composite personality.
Those
who belong to the last group, who have comparatively maladjusted 'head/heart'
balance, would have been the despair of every prophet and not religion in the
world could prescribe for them a treatment and a path by which they could
complete their biological evolution, walking the path of spirit and redemption.
The
acute intelligence, the highly evolved scientific knowledge of living creatures
and their structure, the divinely sweet temperament of love and charity, the
Godly urge to serve even the dullest - these whipped the Rsis to devise a
subtle method of physical exercises.
This is a system of conscious self-control by which such an individual
can slowly be awakened first to the full stature of man and thereafter be
guided out of the labyrinth of his own misunderstandings to the sunny fields of
self-discovery and infinite perfection.
The technique prescribed is called hatha yoga. It comprises the
exercises which popularly go by the names of aasana and praanaayaama (sit and
breathe).
With
open eyes and wide awakened intelligence, these Rsis from the peak of their
experienced perfection, observed man living in society and in their x-ray
vision they could read how the mind and intellect of every individual reacts to
the infinite variety of circumstances in life.
In the four paths described above, [NB;
last week and this] the attempt is really to gain a greater control over
the mind. Any practitioner in any one of the paths of this spiritual scheme
will certainly come to have a greater mastery over his own mind… and the
mastery over the mind ends in an intense integration of his personality. The more one gets integrated in the mind, the
more dynamic becomes ones' intellect.
Thus
purified, the mind and intellect equipment gains a greater efficiency and a
greater power of flight. Making use of
such a pair of wings, the individual soars higher into the brighter realms of
spiritual perfection.
Thus
ends chapter 25. Chapter 26 is nearing its end on Choose-days and this Free-day, chapter
32 will be given. This leaves only chapters, 27, 28 and 29 of Kindle life to
be covered. These will follow on
Workings-days and, note now, these pertain to some solid practice which can
immediately be of use. The methodology is not to be considered 'foreign' and a
theory only; what is given can be applied within whatever philosophical
framework you currently adhere to.
