Page 60 - Dawn of Reality an Exposition of REALITY AT DAWN of Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj

third Sadhana of the Vedantists and devote all our attention to the proper moulding and regulation of mind, which is easily accomplished by the help of the transmitted power of a worthy Master. Control of senses and Indriyas (or Dam) follows automatically when we fix our mind on one thing and one, alone which is the Reality, ignoring all others. Generally most of the sages follow this course. A few of the sects attempt an approach to Sham through the practice of Karma (action), others through devotion or Bhakti. There are still others who set aside both of these and proceed on through the medium of Gyana (knowledge). In fact the stages of Karma, Upasana and Gyana are not different from each other but are closely inter-related and exist all together in one and the same state. For example, in Upasana, controlling of the mind is Karma, the controlled state of the mind is Upasana and its consciousness is Gyana; in Gyana the process of thinking is Karma, stay on the thought-out object is Upasana and the resultant state is Gyana, while in Karma, the resolve to act is Karma, process of bringing it into practice is Upasana and consciousness of the achievement is Gyana. Thus it is that in our system of training they are taken up all together most efficiently creating automatically the state of Viveka and Vairagya in true sense. No practice is really of any avail if it does not naturally result in Viveka and Vairagya. The real form of Viveka is that when a man begins to realize his own defects and shortcomings and the bottom of his heart feels repentant for them.
We have dealt with first two Sampattis. We now come to the third known as Uparati, which means self -withdrawal. In this state a man is free of all desires, even those pertaining to the next world. He is not charmed or attracted by anything in the world. His mind is all the time centred in one the Real. It differs from the state of Vairagya in the sense that Vairagya produces a feeling of aversion for worldly objects while Uparati is a state in which both the feelings of attraction and repulsion are absent. Vairagya is really the incomplete form of this nobler and higher state. At this stage our mind, senses and Indriyas are completely purified. We begin to feel fed up with all external things and dissociate from them thinking them not to be worthwhile paying any attention to. We are free from the effect of attachment with the world. Even the comforts of paradise have no charm to such a man, nor does he feel any attraction for salvation, liberation or other higher ideals.
The fourth Sampatti is Titiksha or the state of fortitude. At this stage a man is perfectly satisfied with what is allotted to him by God. He has no feeling for injury, insult, condemnation or appreciation.
The fifth is Shradha or faith, which is a very high attainment. It is very different from the preliminary state of artificial faith as discussed in the chapter entitled ‘Faith’.