This jagat (phenomenal world) is perishable (nashman) and all its causes and effects are also perishable; that the wise and shrewd man is he who having carefully examined the burden of its activities (karobar) and having discovered that this is a fantasy world (kalpit) and mythical (mithya), has fruitfully and gainfully employed this human body (and its related instruments and material) in the remembrance (sumiran) and contemplation (bhajan) of the Absolute Lord; that having benefited from things with which the Supreme Doer (the Absolute Lord) has equipped this human frame, he has restored his invaluable core (jauhar-i-be-bahaa, i.e. the quintessence of his being or tattva vastu which is the surat or jivatma) into its real, original abode—the Radhasoami Sphere whence it descended. (a) Jagat: The term in Sanskrit literally means “what moves”. All creation is movement—an uncoiling of Maya-Shakti. As the nature of this movement is circular or spiral, the circular world is said to have evolved in recurring cycles. (b) Asbab: The plural of sabab or “cause”. The word asbab means the causes including their effects. In common parlance it means “baggage” containing personal belongings for a journey. Everything that man has in this phenomenal world must be deemed to be an aid in preparation for the final journey back to the spirit’s eternal abode. (c) Chatur: Literally, one who knows all four aspects or dimensions of an issue and has acute vision, foresight, hindsight and insight of men and material—the beginning, the evolution, the middle and the end of any thing or phenomenon. 1. Jivatma (the embodied spirit), i.e. surat is called as ruh (literally, breath or perfume). And having descended from the highest sphere, i.e. the sphere of Satt Naam and Radhasoami, it has come to abide in this body. And it has got tied up with three gunas (sattva, rajasa and tamas corresponding to oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen respectively) and five elements (ether, air, fire, water and earth), and ten indriyas (five instruments or senses of knowledge and five of action or karma indriyas) and mind, etc. Such bonds (bandhan) have come about between it (i.e. surat) and the body (sharir) and its related objects of pleasure (padarathas) that release from them has become quite difficult. This release is called as moksh (emancipation). The internal bonds refer to cords that bind the surat with senses, elements and the mind. The external bonds imply the strings which tie up the surat with object of pleasure, family and clan (qabila). In both these bonds, the jivatma has become so entangled that it has lost all remembrance and consciousness (denoting or relating to a part of the human mind that is aware of a person’s self, origin and history, environment, and mental activity) of its real abode. Its destination (original abode) has become so distant that its return to its original abode has become extremely difficult without the grace of the perfect murshid or Satguru. All that man has to accomplish is to take back his surat or ruh to its head spring and source, i.e. the spheres of Satt Naam and Radhasoami. Until and unless this task is accomplished, there can be no release from the worldly gaiety and grief (khushi and ranj) and all the pains and pleasures pertaining to this (phenomenal world). (a) Atma and jivatma: The word atma is derived from at, “to go always” or “to move”, and ma, “matter” or “mane” or “creation”. It is the force which moves and vibrates a being or entity. It is that which evolves itself always into the names and forms of the universe. The realisation of atma or self-realisation means to detach one’s self from these names and forms. According to Vedanta, the atma—the ever present universal spirit—is free from all conditions (as organs of senses etc.), whereas the deh as lingadeh or astral body is bound by many conditions. Atma is the internal governor of this deh (body) which is the governed and therefore external. It is all conscious intelligence and all holiness. The deh, i.e. the gross body, is all flesh and blood (i.e. heart) and therefore unclean. Atma is the illumination of the universe and purity itself, while the body, evolved from ignorance, is all darkness. The atma is permanent, eternal and therefore existence itself, whereas the body is non-eternal (subject to change) and non-existence incarnate. It is the self-illuminating power of atma which enlightens all the objects of this universe. Its light is unlike that of fire, for fire cannot dispel all darkness. Indeed it is only on account of the illumination proceeding from atma that darkness or fire or any such thing becomes comprehensible. It is that self-sustaining light which illumines all and is not opposed in its nature to any thing. Atma is described by the Vedantin as the substratum of the ego—the Universal Soul or Brahman – free from all changes, without any form, ineffable, undecaying and indestructible, beyond all disease, not within the reach of comprehension, free from all imagination, and all-pervading. It is unaffected by the three gunas (qualities of matter)—sattva, raja, tama—motionless, eternal, ever free from all conditions and unique, free from every impurity, ignorance or avidya, immovable, infinite, holy, immortal and unborn. Atma is indeed the Purush; it is the substratum of the ego which remains the same in childhood, young age and old age, although the body keeps on changing. He who during waking, dreaming and dreamless slumber knows the mind and its functions which are goodness – this is the ego. He who cognises every thing, who is not seen by anyone, who vitalises buddhi (intelligence) and the others, and who is not vitalised by them—this is the atma. It is that by which this universe is pervaded, which nothing pervades, which causes all things to shine but which all things put together cannot make to shine. But, then, according to saints, the atma is yet the ultimate form of mind itself; it is mind’s subtlest layer. Beyond the atma is the supreme tattva, i.e. surat which is dedicated to itself, which is the current (dhara) flowing from the shabd (the Lord or Soami: see Prem Updesh Radhasoami, Soami Bagh, Agra, para 107). This mystery was revealed for the first time by the Revealer of the Radhasoami Faith, Soamiji Maharaj. The surat is a drop from that Ocean—the Supreme Radhasoami, Anami, beyond space and time, void of vikalp, of boundary, of lineament (roop-rekha), of motion, of modification, of within and without, the Formless, even Soundless and Nameless, in a State of perfect bliss—“So Am I”. When surat assumes body and form, it becomes known as jiva (entity) or jivatma. Surat is experience or anubhav (vijnan) as shabd or Sound is anubhav (vijnan). As light characterises the sun, coolness water, and heat fire, so do satt, chitt, anand and nirmal tattva typify the surat. Surat has no vikar (change or modification) and buddhi, no jnanam (supra-knowledge) at anytime. Jnan is only confined to surat so that there is no jnan apart from surat, and surat cannot be known by buddhi (intellect). Surat is from Sanskrit sva, “self”; rat, “absorbed”, i.e. “that which is absorbed in itself”. It is the quintessence of atma; the breath or the stream of consciousness directly flowing from Radhasoami Dayal, the Compassionate Lord. It is the same as Sound (shabd). It is, for the time being, wedded to manas and Maya so that it could come into its own. Before descending into the body, it was unconscious, made dormant by the layers of Kaal (mind) and Maya (matter). The purpose of its descent is to enable it to shed off these layers, in the company of Kaal and Maya. This is possible only when the surat (jiva surat) comes into intimate contact with the one who embodies the Adi Surat, viz. the Satguru of the age. Through him, the jiva surat will get access to Adi Shabd or Soami. The Adi Surat is a current from the Adi Shabd and is in constant communion with the Adi Shabd or Soami. Thus Radha (surat) gets merged with Soami (shabd or Sound). An attribute of surat is to become fixed up and turned to a higher spiritual region through its journey upward. It has to be disjointed from that intermediate region by a force which is called as vi-rat or bi-rat (that which separates). And, then, the surat is driven forth to a higher region; that force is called as nirat (the force that discriminates). (b) qabila: A group of people interrelated by ancestry or marriage (c) Moksh: The term moksh is a combination of mo, “I-ness, ego or ahamkar” and kshai, “extinction”. Moksh, therefore, means “the extinction of ahamkar”, which is the root of all sins (sab paapon ka mool). [Mukti: The word mukti literally means mu, i.e. “I-ness” or “ego” or “ahamkar”, and kti which means “liberation from ‘I-ness’ or egoism”.] Secondly, this amounts to the release of surat (quintessence of soul) from the thraldom of Kaal (Universal Mind) and Maya (matter or body and its appurtenances, the indriyas) and its arrival in Satt Desh. Thirdly, it is not through karma that moksh can be attained, for karma is performed by mind and body from whose imperium and dominium the surat has to be released. It is only through upasana and devotion (bhakti) that the task of emancipation of the surat can be accomplished. Fourthly, this devotion or bhakti is not the traditional bhakti of Vedanta or Gita, for the doer of that bhakti (bhakt) is mind or body or both, and the object of bhakti (Bhagwant) is Kaal or Universal Mind, and the level or plane from which that bhakti is performed is the plane of body and mind. Fifthly, the fourfold key to bhakti in Sant Mat is the perfect Satguru of the age; Satt Shabd or Sattnaam, i.e. the “Radhasoami Name”; satsang; and satt anurag or ardent, sincere love for the Supreme Being—Radhasoami Dayal and His nij dhara, the Sant Satguru. Sixthly, the royal route to moksh is complete surrender (sharan) of the devotee—body, mind and surat—to the Sant Satguru, for that alone will lead to extinction of the ego or ahamkar. Seventhly, the deliverance of the surat from the bondage of body, senses and mind means its gradual ascension and eventual entrance into the Radhasoami Dhaam through the practice of Surat-Shabd-Yoga. Eighthly, the abandonment of all the past practices like idol worship, pilgrimages, fasts, worship of gods and goddesses, avatars and prophets and past preceptors, penances, Karmakand and sharia, obsolete names and false shabds, and the realisation that the Lord or “Soami” is shabd swarup, that the Sant Satguru is the epitome of “Radha”—the Adi Surat which has flowed from the Adi Shabd, the first manifestation of the Lord. The jiva surat is distinct from that Adi Surat and although the jiva surat is a particle of the Supreme Being, or a ray from the Supreme Sun, or a drop from the Supreme Ocean of Spirit, having descended from the highest region, it has become encased in material coverings (gross, subtle and causal bodies and five sheaths) and has become engulfed in indriyas, manas, buddhi, chitt and ahamkar. In a manner, this surat has become intermingled or joined up with matter and has become in this third subdivision (Pind Desh [physical/material realm]) subject to the forces of carnal desires and passions resulting from such matter or granthis (jad-chetan-ki-gaanth). Ninthly, moksh means emancipation from the pains and pleasures caused by the surat’s close association with mind and body. The desire for carnal pleasures drives the surat towards metempsychosis. Moksh therefore implies release from the cycle of birth-death-rebirth both individually and collectively. While in the Pind Desh, death is individual, in the Brahmand, death or dissolution (pralai which literally means lai, “merge” and pra, “the next realm”, i.e. “to be merged in the world beyond”) is collective (desh abhav). It is only in Satt Lok and above that there is no matter and no mind and therefore no rebirth, no dissolution. Tenthly, the so-called jnan marg—study of scriptures, gathering of book-learning—makes a person merely a preacher, a theoretician (vachak or Brahman jnani) who ipso facto places himself beyond redemption (Sar Bachan, Prose, Part I, paras 2, 58, 60-64 and Part II, paras 51, 83, 104, 180, 195, 203, 205, 206, 234, 258). The real jnan is that which enables the person concerned to have a direct encounter (saakshaatkaar) with Brahman. The tincture, essence, flavour, aesthetic experience (rasa) of that sight (drishya) is such as would put to shame the pleasure of ruling the seven realms. Of course, one must have the aesthetic experience of that summit of Brahmand which is beyond laksh swarup and vach, in both of which subtle Maya inheres (ibid., para 65). But the path of the Sant Satguru goes straight to Radhasoami who is far above Brahman and Paar Brahman and beyond the range of Kaal and Maya. One who follows the surat shabd path and listens to the reverberation of the Sound “Radhasoami” will be redeemed from the debt of Kaal and Maya and obtain moksh (ibid., para 67). This, then, is the Radhasoami view of moksh, the key to which is called prem marg or millat-i-ishq. It is entirely different from all the yogas. According to Sant Mat, moksh requires the jiva to follow that spiritual technique by which the surat can reach its real abode—Radhasoami Dhaam. For this, he has to examine the essential nature of this phenomenal world and finding it imaginary, illusory and mythical (mithya) become convinced of its ephemerality and devote himself heart and soul to the remembrance of the Absolute Lord (Radhasoami). Engagement of the surat with the body and mind has given rise to carnal desires which, in turn, have gripped the surat in a tight bondage with body and senses and with innumerable sense objects. So tight are these bonds that it has become insurmountably difficult for her to get released. Then, there are inner bonds with desires and longings, yearnings and cravings pertaining to the sensory and motor organs, and interplay of tattvas and the gunas with which mind and its allies like intellect, attention and ego constantly play. Moksha, therefore, means the cutting asunder of the strings of bonds referred to above and getting released from them to get back to its fountain-spring, viz. the abode of Satt Naam
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 06:14:00 +0000
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