When I was a boy in Jubbulpore, we were frequently entertained by wandering groups of jugglers, wayside magicians, and especially by tightrope walkers. These tightrope walkers would rig up bamboo trestles at the two sides of the street, and string a rope tight between them, thus blocking the road. The length of the rope was generally between twenty and thirty feet. There would be a great deal of noise generated by playing on a hand-held percussion instrument, and by loud announcements by a strong man about the miraculous deeds on the tightrope that were to follow. A girl, colourfully, and often provocatively, dressed, was the star. She would flounce around, swirling her skirts for good measure, and after about an hour of such enticement, she would climb up the trestle at one end, and stand there for a further period of excruciating waiting on the part of the slowly assembling crowd of viewers. When the crowd was judged to be sufficiently strong to promise a decent income from the show, the girl would start walking on the rope, slowly, while the other members of the troupe played some loud and war-like music. She would delicately balance herself with a long bamboo pole held in her hands, I have watched such shows, and one thing I have noticed was that she could not move one step until she had balanced herself. When the balance was established then, and then only, could she take a step forward on the swaying rope, sagging where she was because of her weight on it. The better her balance, the more steps she was able to take. When the balance was upset, she would stand where she was and use the long pole to balance herself. I then realised that the ability to move forward on the rope depended entirely on balance. Why this rather unnecessary story? Well, for one thing life is a tightrope upon which we human beings are obliged to walk. The moral behind the tightrope walker's ability must be clear, that without balance, progress, which is only another word for moving onwards, is not possible. Where the life is one dedicated to one's own evolution, which is what spirituality is about, then the need for a balanced existence is of paramount importance. As my Revered Master, Shri Babuji Maharaj, always stressed, spiritual practice is impossible without this idea of balance. In the beginning, the spiritual sadhana has to be strictly practised to help one establish the rudiments of balance in one's life. When this has been achieved, then balance becomes necessary to enable one to make further progress on the path itself. Perhaps this has not been sufficiently clarified and emphasised so far. To take up the analogy of the tightrope all over again, as one proceeds on the rope, the sag in the rope where one stands makes the further walk steeper and steeper. The steps one has now to take to complete one's walk to the end appears to become more and more difficult! This apparent difficulty is itself an indication of the approaching destination. At the very end, the rope is really steep, but then it is one's own weight that makes the rope sag, and the walk appear so steep! It should now be obvious that were one to be almost weightless, then there would not exist this problem, and the path would be, for all practical purposes, a cakewalk! This is the important principle followed in Sahaj Marg. The idea of perfect balance makes it necessary for the spiritual aspirant to go beyond, to transcend, the ideas of the opposites which so plague one's existence. Right and wrong are here, in the life terrestrial, in the life mundane, in the life of the animal human being who has to be, perhaps, compelled to understand the need for ethics and morality, and then to lead a life governed by these principles. In the spiritual life, these values are very definitely necessary, too, but as one proceeds 'on and on' as my Master used to say, then there comes into being the intuition that what is necessary for a merely human existence has to be transcended in the higher life of the spiritual seeker. Now ideas of right and wrong give way to the superior intuition of effectiveness. What is effective in taking one up to the evolutionary goal is right. In the mundane world, and in the mundane search for success, there is a right way of doing and achieving. In the spiritual path, there is only the effective way! Some savants have called this the middle way. The word 'middle' implies that one is situated between two opposites. The middle of the road is between the two kerbs. The middle of the river is similarly between the two banks, and so on. But my Master's ideas are quite different. One did not abandon the concepts of right and wrong, for instance, or of white and black, but one rose above them. Where are the opposites now? One can be bewildered, as I have been, when introduced to Babuji Maharaj's system. Such a bewilderment can last quite a long time, as it did in my sadhana too. We are so deeply bound by these concepts that to understand that they can be transcended without breaking any rules or codes is often impossible - at least for a beginner! The Ten Maxims of Sahaj Marg are of very great importance in the spiritual life of an aspirant, precisely because they help the sadhak to attain this inner balance by adopting natural aids available in nature herself. The first maxim is the basic one for this purpose. My Master has revealed to humanity that at the time when day and night meet, as at dawn and again at sunset, nature herself is in a state of balance. By utilising this period of sandhi as it is called, which means the meeting point, one is able to, in some way, create within himself the identical state of balance as is prevailing. The fourth maxim has the same thrust in an identical direction. Nature is essentially simple, though her manifestations, when she chooses to display her powers, may appear to be complex and awe-inspiring. I believe that the sixth maxim, too, has a similar thrust. How can there be balance when there are extremes of all values in society? For instance, if there are the poor and the rich, where is the balance situated? Is it in not having too much or in not having too little? My Master has stressed that such is not the case, for what one earns and retains depends on one's samskaras, as well as one's character. Going back to the example of the tightrope walker, one who is weightless has a decided advantage because the rope will not sag, and so the path is level! Here comes the importance of the cleaning process in the Sahaj Marg Yoga system. My Master taught that if one moulds one's life according to them, the character formation itself becomes extraordinarily easy. Take the fifth maxim, for example. Is it not the foundation, the very cornerstone, of character? The same is true of the seventh maxim. The second maxim emphasises the need for love and devotion. It also emphasises the need to have a goal, as otherwise sadhana becomes pointless! The same is true of the third maxim. The time of the day is important for sadhana, as it makes it possible for us to utilise nature's balance for our own purpose. The fourth maxim makes this clearer, and points the way to achieve identicality with nature. The sixth maxim would be incomplete without the adoption of the seventh. If one is to know all men and women as brothers and sisters, how can even the idea of revenge manifest in one's heart? The ninth maxim reveals to us Babuji's hope that after growing ourselves, and even during the process of one's growth, one should conduct one's life in such a manner that it becomes an example which others would want to emulate. Thus does one become a living example to others, for them to emulate. This shows that mere book learning, or the repetition of mantras, are not sufficient. What a human being needs, above all else, is a living example for him to follow. This clearly indicates the need for an aspirant or seeker to have a Master of such a calibre that He is worth emulating in every aspect of His life. The eighth maxim, when adopted wisely, leads to a life in which one becomes progressively free of desire. Such a life becomes saturated with attitudes of honesty and piety. The Ten Maxims are therefore essential to create a balanced life in the seeker. Without them, I believe that a balanced existence would remain a mere dream. The non-adoption of these maxims, and a strict application of the hidden principles which become manifest only by practice, is perhaps one of the main reasons or causes for lack of progress. The outer balance which has to be established in a sadhak's life is essential if an inner balance is to become possible. Many are they who have tried to do sadhana with great vigour, but have remained unsuccessful in their pursuit. I believe that the reason is the imbalance caused by trying to fly with one wing alone. In a sense, therefore the Ten Maxims, their adoption as guiding principles in one's life, becomes one wing of the bird, while the direct sadhana, represented by meditation, becomes the second wing, as it were. For such an aspirant, the achievement of a samadhi condition, initially during meditation, and finally as a permanent condition of one's existence, becomes possible and easy. My Master has defined samadhi as the original condition when we first came into existence. At that stage, or in that condition, there is no longer the play of opposites as one understands it in the merely mundane and material existence which is the pursuit of almost all human beings. One achieves it by withdrawing one's self inward, throwing off the outer coverings one after the others, until one arrives at what my Master has called 'the naked condition'. Now one's inner and outer condition are in perfect balance. There is no more the struggle to create a balance, either of attitudes or of actions. One just is in a state of perfect balance, and it is so natural that others can hardly perceive it, except as very superficial patterns of what may be called balanced behaviour. Such a person remains unperturbed by anything, be it sorrow or joy, profit or loss, health or sickness. This being so, when such a One passes away, in the worldly sense of renouncing one's body, he enters into the state called Mahasamadhi. In this state he can neither be said to be alive, nor can he be said to be dead. He has transcended both life and death, and this alone can be truly said to be the state of immortality. He has gone inwards to such an extent that he has passed into a dimensionless state, where he neither is nor is not! That is the definition, a spiritual definition, of God Himself. The true importance of following the Ten Maxims of the Sahaj Marg system can hardly be overemphasised. Sadhana has two wings, as I have mentioned above. It is foolish to think of the two wings as only represented by the material and the spiritual elements of life. As every magnet has two poles, so also as one withdraws into the spiritual, the inner life of the soul, at each and every stage the two wings relevant to that stage come into existence, as it were. This is the refinement of the wings, but refined or gross, the two wings remain with us as long as we remain in this world. This reveals the need for alertness, so that one may not slip carelessly into the error of thinking that the journey is over. The higher one goes, the greater the need for alertness. This is made possible by the practice of constant remembrance. Sahaj Marg can thus be seen to be a complete system and its effectiveness is proved in its ability to take a sadhak up to the final stage of divinisation. (Talk given at the 95th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Shri Ram Chandra (Babuji) Maharaj at Eisenarzt, Germany) |
