Page 98 - Wisdom Unfurled

attained. A practical example of aptavachana for the abhyasis of SRRY is the teachings and revelations of our great Master and competent guides regarding the system and its practice, the Master and the guides inspiring the aspirants by their own examples and imparting the spiritual training out of an all- encompassing love, compassion and empathy with the self-less motive that the aspirants shall also attain to the goal of life which they themselves have attained.
Spiritual knowledge- Master’s definition
The Master is concerned chiefly with the manner in which the term ‘knowledge’ is used with reference to spiritual knowledge. The way it is used leads to a lot of misunderstanding and confusion. The range it covers as to the implied meaning extends from the baser level of common understanding to the higher reaches of inner enlightenment. For instance a man who has learnt a few scriptures recites choice Vedantic phrases such as aham brahma asmi ‘(I am Brahman)’ claims to be enlightened. The masses are also prepared to accept him as such and hold such avowed jnanis in high esteem and if he were to wear the ochre clothes in addition he is elevated to the status of Jagat Guru or world teacher. According to the Master, Jnana in its real sense refers to the inner state acquired by a person by following a proper spiritual discipline. During the course of one’s spiritual journey he passes through several knots or granthis as revealed by the Master (Ref. Path of Grace) which are loosened and made to open by the application of the inner powers of the trainer through the process of Pranahuti. This enables the aspirant to apprehend and imbibe within himself the various states of progressively refined consciousness or degrees of enlightenment corresponding to the knots. If one were to attempt to gain such knowledge by external application of thought power such as repeating to himself the Vedantic phrases as above it will be artificial and of no avail. The so called Mahavakyas actually correspond to states of consciousness imperienced by aspirants traveling the Natural Path under proper guidance.
The Master has provided descriptions of the key stages an abhyasi experiences while traversing any particular knot, consisting of, firstly, the free movement or saralata followed by the state of mergence wherein he is saturated with the condition; this is followed by the state of settledness called sarupyata or identicality, a fully matured state of mergence which may be called the embodiment of the condition. There is the last or the fourth stage of yet further refined identicality called sayujyata or complete oneness with the condition where the impression of the state of merging and identicality also becomes extinct leaving the feeling, ‘every thing is gone’. The Master states categorically that only after a person acquires this state of sayujyata in a knot