Page 118 - Wisdom Unfurled
P. 118

realization has always been dear to the heart of all those living in this country from time immemorial. It has even been extolled as the highest purushartha or goal of human endeavour and existence. But, as the Master puts it, like the conception of God, the idea of God-realization has also been enmeshed in controversy and shrouded in mystery to such an extent that any sincere man of reason and science is put off by the very mention of the word. The subject has been presented in all sorts of artificial colours according to the taste and mental skills of the scholarly saints. The men of learning express their opinions on Realization or the conditions pertaining to it generally on the basis of their learning and not on that of their experimental or experiential knowledge and for that reason realization has become, regretfully a present day art.
Reality has sunk down deep leaving out only the colours with the result people begin to focus their attention on those very paintings and get into them that which is neither spirituality nor Reality. The Master says with characteristic finality that one must not have the right to touch the subject of Realization unless he has attained to that state living the life of practicality and whereby the Divine wisdom has awakened in him. Naturally one is interested in knowing what it is to attain the state of realization. In what follows we attempt to survey briefly the views held by the various schools of thought on the subject.
Different yardsticks for Realization
Some people hold that seeing light like a flash of lightening or a dazzling and multihued luminous orb of radiance within or without is an indication of that state; the Master disagrees emphatically with this view and states that He often felt and witnessed luminosity in the early period of His practice but proceeded on further under the watchful support of His Master as Light is not the Goal. Some others think that being in a protracted cataleptic trance is a sure sign of the state of realization. Another favoured viewpoint is that the vision of one’s ishta devata in the waking or dream condition is a hallmark of the exalted state. Experiencing the arousal of the kundalini, it’s piercing of the six chakras and its subsequent merging in the Sahasrara has also been spoken as the condition of realization in the Tantrik school of sadhana. This has been spoken in glowing terms as the mystic union of shakti and siva bestowing infinite bliss and the state of immortality upon the aspirant. The brahma sutra in Vedanta speaks of it as the condition of satyam jnanam anatham brahma- truth, knowledge, infinite. The adherents of the path of jnana have described it as merging and becoming one with that unalloyed pure consciousness, eternal and unchanging, the Supreme Self of all. According to the Patanjali yoga sutras the object of yoga for the Jiva is to attain kaivalyam, a state of supreme
 






























































































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