The Spirit Of Spirituality: The paths to self enlightenment

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.

The Spirit Of Spirituality

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In earlier posts, I have talked of the concept of the Atman, the Brahman etc. Based on this knowledge, what next for me as a novice spiritual practitioner? What is my purpose in life?
Our purpose in life is very simple. Since we know that the only reality is Brahman or supreme consciousness and anything else is illusory, the purpose of life is to get over this ignorance which has given rise to the illusory world of dualities(happy/sad, beautiful/ugly, like/dislike) and recognize the supreme consciousness and attain bliss. One may think that this sounds so simple. The final act of realizing the supreme consciousness is called as self realization, enlightenment, nirvana etc. Again depending on the school of thought, the concept of nirvana varies. One school of thought says that nirvana is when the individual soul(Atman) becomes part of the supreme consciousness(Brahman). A second school of thought says that nirvana is when the individual soul(Atman) realizes it is the supreme consciousness(Brahman). A third school of thought holds that individual souls are different from each other and from the supreme soul and at best the individual soul reaches the supreme soul, but remains separate. I do not plan to talk about merits or demerits of each of these thoughts since each has been propounded by the greatest teachers and I do not have the capability to look into their thought process or reach their lofty level of thinking. I brought up these in the context of defining self realization. My focus in this post is on the means to achieve the goal without worrying too much about the final goal(my soul merges or becomes part or goes near the supreme soul). Whatever the soul does depending on individual beliefs, the paths to that remain the same.

There are commonly the following paths shown to self realization: karma yoga(the path of action), bhakti yoga(the path of devotion), jnana yoga(the path of knowledge) and finally dhyana yoga(the path of meditation). I have read various interpretation of this, but i like this the best. Dhyana yoga is like the super highway to self realization. The other 3 paths are like feeders into this super-highway. Once you get on the super-highway, there are very few obstacles and the path towards self realization is fast. The other 3 paths are slow with several obstructions. Why then should we not straightaway get on the super highway? Well it is like a child who is just learnt to ride a tricycle wanting to get on the German super fast highways. We need a lot of preparation before we get on to the dhyana yoga super highway and the other three paths prepare us for the super highway.

Each of these paths by itself is not sufficient. All three paths are needed to get to the super highway. Just as we need to get on a taxi to traverse roads, a light rail shuttle to get us to the flight terminal and then the aircraft to fly into the sky to reach our destination, all three paths of yoga are needed to get on to the super highway. To give another example, just as rice, water and heat are needed to cook a good food, all three paths are essential. The only thing that varies from person to person is the proportion of the three paths.

Let us start by looking at karma yoga. This is the path of action and is ideally suited for those individuals with high energy and always keep doing something. For such people, with a change of attitude, the action they do can be converted into a spiritual practice. What then is the difference between normal action(karma) and karma yoga(the path to self realization)? In normal karma, there is a sense of ownership of the self to the action in the sense that I am the doer. Secondly there is an expectation of fruits from the action. Thirdly there is a feeling that i am doing an action for myself. So there is an element of selfishness.The same action when converted into an action done knowing that I am not the doer, but I am only an agent of the Lord and I am doing his work takes away the ownership aspect of action from the action. How is this possible, one may say. How can I not be the owner of what I do? Well, the whole universe is acting. The earth revolves around the sun, the sun around some other star, trees grow and bear fruit, clouds form and rains come. So the whole universe is acting daily and at every moment according to some plan. So if I realize that whatever I do is part of a much grander plan and I am just the instrument chosen by some super grandmaster to do the work I am doing, the sense of ownership of the action gradually dies. This is similar to an actor on a stage doing his part. So long as he does his role knowing that his role is part of a larger plot being developed by the director, all is well. This does in no way imply that we should not be sincere in whatever we do since we are mere puppets in a grand scheme. This just means that when we do any task we should realize the grand scheme of things and the invisible hand that is causing every action of which our action is a part.

The lowest level of action is something that is done only to benefit the self. For such a person, with very little effort, it is possible to rise to a level where he works for the benefit of his immediate family. From there it is a gradual step by step process to work for the larger family, friends, community, caste, religion, country and the whole humanity. This is not a process that can end in one life time. So long as the intention or direction of action starts moving away from one self and starts encompassing a wider and wider circle, the person is on the path to giving up the selfishness aspect of a normal action.

The third attribute of action is attachment to the fruits of action. I do not want to spend much time here on this since I will be posting on this in the next shloka from the Gita related to karma yoga. Suffice, it is to say here, that the person putting focus on the action itself without worrying about its fruits will finally reap much more fruits than the person who just focuses on the fruit without focusing on the action needed to get the fruit.

So any normal action when bereft of the sense of ownership, selfishness and the desire for fruits becomes karma yoga or the path to self realization.

The next path is Bhakti Yoga or path of devotion. This is ideally suited for people with an emotional temperament. Does bhakti mean going to temple, church etc and praying to the Lord or bring out our musical instruments and start doing bhajans or hymns praising the lord? Not at all. Bhakti yoga, in short is an attitude of gratitude for what we are and to remember at each stage there were several people who contributed to every thing that I have achieved. I may be the greatest programmer who can create a totally new wonderful application. But would I have been able to do it if my mother had not cared for me; if my elementary school teacher had not taught the alphabet; if the great authors had not written books on programming? So when I achieve something, so long as I have an attitude of gratitude to the several people behind my success, that is bhakti yoga. Each day our heart beats several times and pumps blood everywhere giving me the energy to do what I want. Is it not right to spare a word of thanks to that wonderful hidden power within me which tirelessly does its work? This is an attitude of gratitude and is bhakti yoga.

The third path to self realization is jnana yoga or the way of knowledge. When we say knowledge here, it is not the worldly knowledge contained in physics, chemistry etc. They are all pieces of data in these books which are needed to explain the world as we see it, but are of absolutely no use in gaining true happiness which is the goal of self realization. The only knowledge that is needed for bliss is the knowledge of the higher purpose of life, the knowledge of the supreme consciousness, the knowledge to discriminate between what is real and what is an illusion. It is possible for a brilliant scientist to be absolutely ignorant of such knowledge and to be miserable in life and a pain to his family. At the same time, it is possible for a person to have no worldly knowledge, but still be a very blissful person with the true knowledge mentioned above.

As indicated earlier, these three paths are a means to burn off three levels of desires. By doing karma yoga, one can burn off physical desires. By doing bhakti yoga, one burns off emotional desires. Through jnana yoga, one burns off intellectual desires. Once these three types of desires are burnt off, we are on the path of dhyana yoga where there is deep meditation regarding the unification of the soul and the super consciousness. As meditation progresses and becomes deeper, it is not an act at all. It is a process of "becoming" what is sought and in the final stage, even this is given up and self realization is achieved so long as the person doing dhyana yoga does not fall a prey to spiritual ego where he feels he is spiritually superior to others.

This then is my understanding of what self realization is and the paths to achieve it.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality