Sadhana is the way to Liberation. In certain schools of philosophy, it’s called Moksha and in some, it’s called Nirvana. In the Yoga Sutras and in Sankhya, it’s called Kaivalya. Kaivalya is derived from the word Kevalam, Only. So Kaivalya is to understand that there is only one witness to everything that’s happening.
Does everybody crave liberation?
We do our work, eat, enjoy, multiply and then we die. Although we have heard the word ‘liberation’ many times, very few people are seriously interested in it.
The seed of freedom or liberation is there from childhood. It’s built in, but caught in the pleasures of the senses and the world and we tend to forget this desire to be free.
A little baby after 10 months in the mother’s womb is actually longing for liberation, to come out. It’s very interesting that the same muscles which have been looking after the child for 10 months inside the womb, when they find that the child is ready for liberation, to be independent, the same muscles turn around and push the child out.
You give a little child a room, lock the doors and give everything that the child desires, how long can you keep the child in the room? It will like to get out at some point. If you don’t open the window, it might jump out through the window.
All the freedom struggles that have happened throughout the ages in different countries actually stem from the desire for liberation. So it’s not as if the seed of the desire for liberation is not there in people, it is there, but we tend to forget.
We think if I am liberated from my wife or husband, I am liberated. That is not liberation. You will go after somebody else and get caught.
So, the seed is there, but the actual mode of what is truly liberation comes to few people who realise, sometimes, passing through the difficulties of life, hit by sorrow, getting into trouble, that maybe this is not the aim of life, there must be something else or there are some people who from childhood have this desire.
It’s only when we are faced with difficulties and sorrow, when we are faced with the understanding that we are insecure and incomplete, that the desire for completeness takes over us in most cases.
In the Bhagavad Gita – Yoga of Arjuna’s Vishada.
The first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is called Arjuna Vishada Yoga. Vishada can be translated as sorrow, insecurity, uncertainty etc. It’s from there that it starts, you are faced with a situation or death.
When you face that, you begin to wonder, is life just this much or is there something beyond? Am I this limited individual who is born, who then multiplies, who dies or am I something more than this? Am I part of that eternally free Supreme Reality? These thoughts begin to occur.
And when these thoughts become very strong, then there is a desire for liberation from the bonds that have kept us wrapped up in our small little identity.
When you see this and you want to be free of this little identity, the small self, then one begins to feel, I want to be liberated, I want to be free. It can happen only if there is an internal strong movement towards liberation. Otherwise it cannot happen.
In the ancient Shastras, there is a beautiful shloka, it’s linked to liberation. It comes from the Vedas, Upanishads.
Poornamadah. Poornamidam. Poornat Poornamaduchyate. Poornasya Poornamadaya. Poornameva vashishyate.
Which means, it reminds you that eternal origin of yours is Poornata, fulfillment, complete fullness. Some schools of philosophy call it Shunya. The Shunya is not nothing. Shunya means no – thing.
It’s not a thing which can be understood, which can be defined. It’s beyond our definition. So, the only way you can describe it is Shunya, but Vedantins tend to call it Poorna, completeness.
When you say Poornamadah, it means the root of this entire universe is from that Poorna, including myself and yourself. But then the question is, if that is Poorna, I find that I am not Poorna, I am incomplete. So, what is the relation between that Poorna and this Apoorna, incomplete.
I always feel I am inadequate, I am incomplete, I need to do this, acquire more. Never seem to succeed, but it goes on and on. So, the good news from the Upanishad is, it also says, Poornamidam.
This is also complete. But we say, no, but can’t be, I am always incomplete. I feel i have to do more because I want to complete myself. It’s not only in the mind, it’s also biological, physiological. Suppose I have a wife, I want my genes to spread and become Poorna, complete. I have children, and it goes on, endlessly because of the mind’s innate desire to be Poorna, full, not incomplete.
Suppose I have a motorbike. I decide I will feel more happy, complete, if I have a car. Then I try hard and I take a loan from the bank and buy a car. The car is parked in my garage. For some time I am very happy. Till I find that my neighbor has a better car. I acquire it in some way, then I am happy.
So what I think or believe, is that it is perhaps the car that is standing in the garage that contributes to my completeness and happiness. The great yogis say that it is not due to the fact that the car is parked there. It is because for a short period when you acquired the car, your mind stopped craving. This is the happiness that you are deriving. It started craving again, then happiness came back. But that short period when I acquired something, the mind is for some time ‘not craving’. So there is peace and happiness. And I think that it is because I have acquired that padartha, that actual car, that I am happy.
The yogis say, is there a possibility to calm the mind, no matter what you have or what you don’t have? Perhaps when the mind stops craving! Is there a way to find out how to find peace and completeness by stopping the cravings of the mind?
We have great teachers who have come to us, the great teachings from the Upanishads onwards which show us that deep inside, we are not different in any way from the all-pervading Supreme Being, which in the Nirvana Shataka has been described by Shankara, Chidananda Rupah, Shivoham, Shivoham.
In true nature, when I am free of conditionings and cravings, yes, there can be one desire, the desire for liberation. When that desire becomes very strong, and the mind calms down because there is no longer running after anything outside, in that stage, you can touch this understanding, that deep inside me, the big S (Self) is the reality and not the small s (self). I am not what you see, but I am the essence of consciousness. When this is touched, then there is liberation.
When this is touched, then what happens to you?
You are no longer there except as a shadow. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said, it’s like the salt doll trying to measure the depth of the ocean. Do you find the salt doll anywhere? It’s gone. Maybe the string with which you dropped the salt doll in ocean, will still be left.
So, this has been universally described as the understanding of one’s true self, which liberates one from conditioning.
Why is it that, if this is so simple, everybody is not finding it?
The reason is, just as you apply your entire energy and mind to building up a bank balance, if you apply it to finding liberation, you will find it.
It’s simply that one doesn’t. One doesn’t see the importance of it.
And believe me, you can lead a normal life. I lead a normal life, and have a family. However, If you want to fully dedicate your life to understanding the Truth and liberation, it might be necessary to give up things and lead a life of solitude. But once it is found, you still can live in this world and work. The work will be there, but it won’t be self-centered. It will be for others. This is called Karma Yoga.
As you go into the process of liberation, it might be necessary sometimes to go into solitude, to live a simple life, not to get mixed up with normal people, as we call them, and so on. When the thought occurs that perhaps there is a way out of this, perhaps I am not who I think I am, then you see how bound you are, how caught we are in the conditionings of the world, and you want to break free and run.
You don’t have to go to the Himalayas. You can stay where you are and still find it.
Liberation, therefore, is a state of mind which transcends the ordinary mind, in which you realize that the all-pervading Supreme Reality, which the Ishavasya Upanishad calls Isha Vashyam Idam Sarvam, that which pervades everything here, the same reality, is also in the depths of your consciousness, in your heart.
The modes to reach that may be different. There are people with devotional mentality who reach this through devotion. There are people who reach it through selfless service, Karma Yoga. There are people who reach it through the practice of Yoga. They are the yogis. The great Jnana Margis who reach it by saying, I am not this body, then who am I? The search begins.
But the ultimate aim of all this is liberation, freedom.
Freedom from your limited identity and therefore the discovery that you are part of the eternally free.
In the Rig Veda, it is said, Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti. There is one truth, but the wise may call it by different names. Therefore there are different approaches. There are infinite paths to the Truth. And the Truth is your inner self. However, in the sadhana, to reach that, one has to practice selflessness. One has to practice love. One has to stop hating others.
Because who are you hating? It is the same essence. Are you hating yourself? And the biggest obstacle is the ego – I. I did this, I did that.
Is there a shortcut?
There is but it is difficult to cut the ego into two. Not easy.
Even I can’t fully say this is possible. But what you will notice is that it is this ‘I’ that comes in the middle of you and your liberation. I did this. I did that. You do nothing actually. Everything happens and you are a witness entity looking at it.
I am not saying you shouldn’t do anything. After having done that, you should realize I did nothing.
If one can look at it and say, you have done nothing, then one steps into that realm which is beyond the conditionings of this nature and beyond the descriptions. The only thing you can describe is vague things like love, affection and so on. There is nothing else.
Even love you cannot define. How can you describe That which is beyond, which is Supreme? So the great sages have said, the words have failed us.
In fact, the Upanishads said, ‘That which words cannot describe’. But the good news is that it is the essence of every human being, no matter who.
Wish you a very Happy New Year!
-Sri M
