The purpose of this study:
The main objective of this study is to acquaint ourselves with the qualities that make a person ‘Divine’. They are human and divine, infinity in finite form, immortality in mortal form. This is how we can define them, although a definition always falls short of what they really are. We too are human but potentially to be divine. We are a transitional being travelling from animal nature(95% DNA matches with Chimpanzees) to human, from human to enlightened human, enlightened human to divine human. This is, perhaps, the whole of the journey: call it human evolution or inexorable destiny. They are like signposts declaring the possibility of our reaching such heights or beyond. They are the proof of a possibility. Their call is irresistible for those who are open to light but the deaf cannot hear, blind cannot see, the heartless cannot feel,(not literally) the ignorant with little information of this infinite existence fails to grasp the magnitude of their dimension. Finite is our limited nature, infinite is our possibility, being and becoming ‘That’ is the Truth of our life.
SRI AUROBINDO
The life of Sri Aurobindo since his settling in Pondicherry in 1910 at the age of 38 years till his leaving the body in 1950 was lived away from the sight of common people except giving ‘Darshan’ along with the mother on designated days. As he himself said, “My life was not lived on the surface…” What we know about his life of transformation is through books, letters and reminiscences of some of his closest followers. He never initiated anyone directly in his yoga but sincere Sadhaks had flocked to him in search of an enlightened Guru who could fulfill their aspirations to realize the Truth of life and he carefully chose them.
What Rabindranath Tagore had to say after meeting Sri Aurobindo, “At the very first sight I could realise that he had been seeking for the soul and had gained it, and through this long process of realisation had accumulated within him a silent power of inspiration. His face was radiant with an inner light and his serene presence made it evident to me”. The Mother on her meeting Sri Aurobindo for the first time she wrote in her diary, “"It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance, He whom we saw yesterday is on earth; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth.".
These are certain indications we have about Sri Aurobindo by people who, by their own right, excelled in life and recognized by the world in addition to hundreds of admirers who had felt likewise. Whether we believe in God or not but people with godly qualities do exist, they are creative, original and set a new way of life in motion. The only difference between a godly man and other creative people is, a total transformation of personality who has subdued his/her senses, in the later only excellence in the subject of his or her creativity, otherwise he or she remains ordinary. The godly man/woman is worshipped and other creative people’s creation is valued but the person is only respected by the society. The godly man’s reputation increases by the day, and the other creative man’s status declines by the day while their discovery/invention increases in demand.
The books that we can lay our hands on written by Sri Aurobindo are indeed encyclopedia of spiritual principles, its applications, step by step rising from the inconscient to the highest Supramental consciousness – Truth Consciousness. He deals with the evolutionary process of consciousness and how this process fulfills itself by merging into the infinite consciousness. In the first reading it is difficult to follow his writings but you have to be persistent and read again and again before you develop the taste of insight into the trail of ascending higher peaks of consciousness. His writing is like a blazing sun, there is no shade for respite, it scorches your inner hidden ignorance and help you establish a firm relationship with your self and the Divine. People with higher aspiration of becoming one with the Divine through ‘Karma Yoga’, Bhakti and Gyana, a synthesis of these paths may undertake to study to arrive consciously to a different dimension of life not experienced before.
RAMANA MAHARSHI
Ramana Maharshi left his home at the age of 14 by the call of Arunachala. He lived at Tiruvannumalai for 28 years on the Arunachala hill and rest at the base of the hill. He too passed away in 1950. He was available for common people round the year till his last day on earth. He too neither initiated anyone or advised people to take a life of formal renunciation away from family.
Ramana Maharshi had a simple teaching: Find out ‘Who am I’ Go to the root of your inner being from where all the thoughts emerge. Eliminate by the thought process, this is not ‘I’ that is not ‘I’ what remains is your Self. Once you get hold of this ‘Self’ and your identity becomes total, you have arrived at the core. He speaks of a spiritual heart where in a cavity the ‘Self’ exists. It is on the right side of our chest. His austerity is comparable to that of The Buddha, days on end he lived in total absorption of the ‘Self’ absolutely being unaware of the world around him. Only the inner ‘Self’ continued to remain one with the supreme consciousness. He believed in following the traditional values and cultures of the time not that he was attached to them, but he did not want unnecessary conflict of values to jeopardize the real goal of life – Self Realization.
There are many books Maharshi himself worked on with the help of his devotees. He quite often cites examples from religious stories and Gods and Goddesses and their miraculous power to drive home some points of abstruse philosophy. He himself being a ‘Gyani’ but insisted that a ‘Bhakta’ is also equal to a Gyani, there is no difference.
In 1949 Maharshi had suffered from a cancerous wart called ‘Sarcoma’ in his left hand. Finally, that became the cause of his leaving the mortal body in 1950. Many asked him why this suffering for him was happening. In answer to that he said that the physical body has to abide by its own laws –birth, growth and decay. There is no escape from this suffering but the Self is beyond this duality. When one is established in the Self, the physical ceases to be of any importance.
SRI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMHANSA
Sri Ramakrishna, an absolutely illiterate who could not even sign his own name, had the opportunity to worship the ‘Goddess Kali’ at the temple of Dakshineshwar. He was so attached to his ‘Brahmin caste’ that he would not take food offered by Rani Rashmani, a Sudra by caste, but cook himself. As he developed an intense longing to experience the ‘Conscious force’ of the Goddess Kali and lose himself by a ray of her glance, all caste factors and other prevailing customs dropped away from him as a ripe fruit. His practice of ‘Islam’ and ‘Christianity’ and of course, Bhakti, Tantra, Vedanta led him to one Truth, only different in manifestation. He handed over the saffron robes in the care of Vivekananda for all 12 disciples. His oft repeated saying ‘As many religions so many paths’. Each one to find the Truth as it suits him/her. But don’t think mine is the highest and the best. Each one is great in its own place. He could be met with at any time during the day without reservation. When finally he was given charge of worshipping the Mother Kali on the demise of his elder brother, he agreed on the condition that Hriday, his assistant, took care of the Goddess’s ornaments. At that stage he differentiated between profane and sacred. In spite of his consistent effort of realizing the conscious manifestation of the Mother Kali, he failed to do so till he picked up the sword of the Mother and tried to kill himself. “A look from Her eyes” made Sri Ramakrishna plunge into the sea of super-consciousness.
In case of Sri Ramakrishna, in fact much is known of his period of Sadhana, his 12 disciples and innumerable household devotees. He worshipped the Mother Kali and treaded the path of a Priest and eventually reached the highest realizations of the Vedantic Truth of Oneness – in finite form and in infinite formless.
He did not stop there. His next exploration was in Vedantic realization of Oneness by his Guru ‘Totapuri’ and next delving into the Tantrik process of realization ‘the power of Shiva and Shakti’. The next in the line was to realize God through the devotional path. In this process his teacher was Jatadhari. He continued his journey through Christianity, “Mother Merry and Baby Jesus” and experiencing Jesus merging into his being. The Islamic process of Namaz was also practiced by him till he found himself one with the Allah. His trying out different paths to reach the Existential Truth is a proof of the validity of every religious process. As the majority of human beings do not cross the threshold of senses, the conflict between religions, based on blind faith, continues to trouble the humanity. When we will have more of such adventurers into the life beyond limited senses, the world will blossom like a beautiful fragrant flower.
His most prominent disciple of Sri Ramakrishna was Swami Vivekananda who preached to the world, first at the ‘Chicago Parliament of Religions’ followed by his tour of USA and United Kingdom this Truth of Oneness of religions and Yoga, meditation, renunciation and service being the means to reach the unreachable and manifest the godly qualities among the striving ones. A number of Western disciples followed him to India to help him in his mission – Realization of ‘Atman’(Self) through the service of humanity.
Set the process on the move
Most of us do not really grasp their role by their so called doing nothing but ushering in a new horizon of Truth nearest to human consciousness as they live in a domain of unknowable. We, the ordinary mortals, still study their books, meditate on them, visit their centers and make sincere effort to lift ourselves to higher levels of penetration so that our clarity becomes deeper and try and understand to certain extent the mystery of life –horizontally and vertically. The intrinsic core of our being what drives us to pursue this path as to manifest the dormant divine nature we are in possession of. This is beyond our likes and dislikes as if we are forced to ascend the higher and higher peaks of universal principles. once we understand the limitations of material nature in heralding a permanent ‘Peace and Bliss’ into our lives, we start searching for That unknown and the unknowable.