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Swami Suddhananda |
Constantly fed by the vague, the miraculous, the
bizarre and the unsubstantiated statements and information, the
average man seems to have gone crazy. Especially in the matters of
religious faiths and practices one can encounter the lunacy of the
worst kind. If a person is vague about a scientific information, one
can or may convince him by various experiments open for all to see.
But the religious practices and their results are usually not
available for being challenged and experimented upon.
As a result, centuries of traditions have been
established and not many can dare to challenge the practice. In case
the whole religion is based on pure unverifiable faith, then one has
the freedom to accept or reject the tradition that he encounters.
But when I see people born and brought up in Hindu
tradition either accepting or rejecting without any questioning,
then it becomes very frustrating. This is a tradition of teaching
and learning where there is no one-way traffic. One does not have to
accept just because a teacher or scriptures declares a view. One has
the full authority to challenge it as no book or the person is the
authority in the existence of anything.
A thing does not ‘exist’ because a book or a
person says so. Rather, because ‘a’ thing exists, the book or the
person talks about it. That is why the teacher or the books reveal
what is already existent and in case of Vedanta, it goes from the
finite to infinite, from the mortality to the Immortality.
The book of geography is a collection of
information gathered about the world around. And the book also has a
map that gives an authentic shape and picture of the planet. While
going about in our small, village and town and then looking at the
map, we know that the map has a very authentic picture or
representation of the area. That gives us hope that the rest of the
map and atlas must be the truth and we follow it to reach different
places on planet earth. Slowly today we are mapping the ocean, the
ocean floor, the mountains, the valleys, the jungles, the desert and
also the distant stars and galaxies in infinite space. When the map
as well as the planet – both belong to the same physical world, man
finds it easier to believe the map and the immediate verification.
Whereas the Upanishads, the Vedas that represent
a beautiful map of the both gross and the subtle universe, are
doubted because of the limitation of the perception when the eyes
read the book, the mind must see the inner landscape. And the
greatest difficulty in the maps that represent the inner landscapes
is not read as it should be read, but with many preconceived
notions. The individual has already picked up various notions about
his own thoughts and the identities and thereafter strives to find a
similarity with the map that is the Vedas or the Upanishad.
That is how many march on to discover the Truth
with very many preconceived notions, biases and prejudices. They
read the Upanishads not to see it as it is but to see that their
notions have a place in that body of descriptions. That is how many
pick up vague notions about the food, dress, rituals, experiences
almost bordering on rigidity, permissiveness or lunacy. Extreme
behaviours become the hallmark of such vague misunderstandings.
Nobody can tell for sure as to when or where
exactly the Vedas started or were compiled. That line of enquiry
becomes redundant if somebody is interested in finding the solution,
the apparent mysteries of existence. If it solves our problem that
should be our greatest concern and not when or where it started or
who started it.
The inner landscape that is described in the
Vedas or Upanishads deals with the most extensive view of the human
mind as it apparently begins with the fine, limited to end up with
the Infinite, limitless. That helps one to discover that even the
apparent beginning is made in the beginningless, endless expanse
called Infinite.
Most of the learnings in schools and universities
deal with the perceived creation and sometimes very elaborately to
discover the hidden physical laws. Those are exploited to add to the
human comforts and conveniences of the physical kind.
But ‘the perceiver’ always remains unknown or is
vaguely known. When ‘the knower’ or ‘the perceiver’ is vague about
himself, all his interpretations and emotions involving himself will
also be vague. If the perceiver does not know himself, his
perceptions will not be vague or the eyes will see what the eyes can
see. And the interpretation of that perception will also be
authentic if the person is not biased by a version of the perception
already picked up.
That is how a Galileo must have blacked out the
concept of a geocentric universe to question and understand the
planets and the stars. No authentic discovery can be made with the
prejudiced minds.
Similarly, nobody can understand the inner
landscape as it is, with a notion about the thinker himself. That
notion about the ‘I’, the thinker apparently becomes the most
insurmountable obstacle. Seated with the notion about himself, the
‘I’, the thinker, goes on ‘interpreting’ the thoughts and
information. There is nothing to interpret, but to see the whole map
of the mind or the inner landscape as it is. There ‘the seeing’ is
‘being’. The Upanishads reveal the nature of creation, the body, the
sense organs, the organs of action, the thoughts, the emotions of
various kinds, the thinker, the happiness that is the Absolute
freedom, God the Infinite. The child begins with a clean slate
knowing nothing about creation. He can grow up and die like an
animal too. But that will be a waste of a magnificent potential that
can help man discover the Infinite in himself.
We all have started that travel with education of
various kinds. But, unfortunately, the educational system, as
prevalent now, does not take learning to an appropriate end. Man
begins with no identity because of total ignorance about himself. In
between, while trying to remove various types of ignorance through
perceptions and learning, the individual picks up different roles
and the crisis begins within. The learning, therefore, must
logically end in an awakened non-identity, transcending all the
relative identities.
But this learning seems to be very difficult as
the individual gets infatuated with one or the other picked up
identities and loses himself in the sensations and the perceptions
of various kinds. The tragedy is that no child ever begins with a
sense either of limitation or of limitlessness, but seems to
surrender to the notions of limitations in time and never
consciously looks for limitlessness!
That is where a tradition like a vedantic
tradition can help the individual at least to be aware of the
‘possibility’ of discovering the limitlessness, happiness or God
right here and now. How does one look for something without being
aware of the possibility? In a physical world, one may stumble upon
many things while searching for something else. But, how does one
stumble on Infinite if later on it is not authenticated by the
information already existing about the Infinite! In fact, everybody
is always being himself – the limitless, infinite, immortal
existence without ever knowing about it!
But the person can never believe it as such
possibilities are not talked about. What is talked about are the
difficulties, the impossibilities, the mysteries surrounding it, the
austerities, denials, indulgences, the absolute unquestioned faiths,
the fear of the god, the unknown, the helplessness and the
hopelessness of human existence! Each one is bent upon making it
more difficult, more mysterious and, therefore, always an
unattainable impossibility.
I have met such people all over the world who are
either deceived by many faiths or charmed by ‘their’ intelligence
that deciphers everything according to the information that it has
picked up, but is never open to the new possibilities. They pick up
ideas from various sources and wish to pass it on as their own.
Never have they questioned the source. Neither have they, most
importantly, questioned the questioner himself.
The individual questioner indulges in the luxury
of questioning everything except himself or finds comfort in various
notions as long as that does not disturb his material securities,
food habits, drinks, dresses or other physical conveniences and
comforts. God or some such faith comes handy to pass on the buck in
case of failure or frustration in life. Both the belief and the
disbelief can keep the ‘I’, the individuality, in suspended
animation and that is how millions can sleepwalk through life. But
once their beliefs in the belief and the disbelief is challenged,
the individual feels disturbed. Everybody avoids as far as possible
disturbing the individuality – himself - and that itself shows the
weakness of the turf on which the individual stands.
Long before somebody or something challenges the
individual, it is better the individual challenges himself – by
questioning the questioner himself. That is what Vedanta does. It
goes to the most fundamental question, answering which every
question is as well answered. Thereafter, happily one can question
all that one perceives and can discover millions of possibilities,
but no more he remains a victim of any particular identity, role or
notion.
Time is ripe for millions of educated prosperous
or not-so-prosperous people to have a look into themselves, the
inner landscape, without indulging in vague generalities,
superficial practices, exotic notions of different kinds. Of course,
none of us can escape a few notions while growing up in life, but
the growing youngsters must be initiated into the direction of
learning to question themselves while learning to question the
objects and the people around. The deficiency of any generation will
be the lack of self-enquiry and the ultimate Self-knowledge. But
that does not mean the search for ultimate self-definition must
continue at the cost of the knowledge of the world around. While
pursuing the immediate understanding and the knowledge of the world
around, the element of self-enquiry or Self-knowledge also must be
inculcated so that every man finds a perfect balance – the harmony
that the creation is and shall be always unconscious of, but the
human being alone can discover and reflect in his life!
Let us do it!
Swami Suddhananda
Samvit Sagar Trust
Tiruvannamalai
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