During his recent stay at Manapakkam Ashram
for about 3 weeks or so, the President of
Shri Ram Chandra Mission,
Shri. Kamlesh D. Patel gave a few talks, a couple of which were directed towards the process
of evolution. I was lucky to listen to two of his talks and based on what I
heard from Shri. Kamlesh, the Master of
Sahaj Marg and Spiritual Successor of
Chariji Maharaj, and based on further introspection, I present the following
points on this topic.
Spiritual science talks a lot about
evolution, progress, growth, transformation, change, becoming, etc., all very
confusing and rightly so. Shri. Kamlesh D. Patel, in his talks covered this
topic and at least for me, he de-mystified this topic to a great extent and I take
this opportunity to expand on this topic.
So, in the context of the spiritual journey
of a practitioner, what really evolves? Is it the body, any aspect of the mind
or the soul? Let us take the body first. Right from the instant of conception,
as cells begin to divide, the body goes through its evolutionary process right
in the womb itself and it continues as the body grows. But this growth /
evolution is purely morphological, a change in form. It is said that the body
goes through the shapes of various forms within the womb itself and then from a
baby to a child and then to an adult. This growth is limited in scope and we
all know about it and it is a topic for biology and enough research has been
done from that perspective in science.
Now, let us talk about the evolution of the
soul. Does the soul really evolve? Shri. Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari,
affectionately known as Chariji Maharaj has given extensive talks in this topic
in his series of books, “The Principles of Sahaj Marg”, and clarified that the
soul being pure and an “amsha” (element) of the divine, is already completely
pure and nothing to evolve into. The Yogic literature talks about this fact at
length as well, emphasizing the fact that the soul that is encompassed within
this body is pure and has no characteristics to either evolve or devolve.
So, we are left only with the mind. Now, what
really evolves in the mind? The mind, according to Indian philosophy and
various Eastern traditions and spiritual sciences, has 4 components to it. These
components are, the mind (manas), the consciousness (chit), the intellect
(buddhi), and the ego (ahamkar). Of these 4 components, the consciousness is
the playing ground for the other 3 components and based on the refinement of
these 3 components, the level of consciousness is “adjusted” if such a word can
be used for consciousness.
Looking into the 3 components and their
roles, let us start with the first one, the mind. This is the mental aspect,
the thinking aspect of the overall mind and its interfacing with the 5 senses.
The Sahaj Marg way of Heartfulness meditation helps in regulating this
component, bringing it under control. Considering the Heart as the seat of the
soul, through Heartfulness meditation, the mental tendencies gets regulated and
refined and one can say the mind begins to listen to the heart.
Next, we come to the intellect component of
the mind. Here, we talk about knowledge versus wisdom. As one slowly progresses
along the spiritual path of Sahaj Marg, through the work of the great Masters
and the transmission that the practitioner receives, the Intellect gets refined
to a great extent in a slow and subtle way. Whereas one initially tend to
depend on the mind and on knowledge, the progression of the practitioner in the
spiritual journey makes him more and more depend on his heart and a unique
sense of wisdom and intuition develops in him. This happens in a very natural
way in the practitioner’s journey, which is one reason why this system of Sahaj
Marg is also called as the Natural Path meditation.
When we address the ego, Babuji Maharaj has
talked about it and said that the ego cannot be killed or dissolved because if
one does not have ego, he becomes a vegetable without the capacity to do
anything. In fact, it is the ego that gives the drive force for one to say ‘I
can’ or do anything. But, to attain higher levels of consciousness, the ego has
to sublimated to a great extent. In Sahaj Marg, through the practice of
Constant Remembrance and by gradually and naturally developing love and
devotion for the Master, the practitioner can greatly reduce the effects of ego
on his system. The practitioner now begins to understand that it is only the
Master who is the real doer and that he is just an instrument in the hands of
his maker and must tune himself to become a pure and un-obstructive instrument
to get the work done.
So, by sublimating the ego, refining the intellect and regulating the mind, a person’s
consciousness levels can be raised to great heights and it can reach the levels
of divine consciousness. But as Babuji explains, most of these concepts have to
be only experienced and cannot be talked about beyond a certain level. However,
from all this explanation, one thing that comes out it is that, it is only the
consciousness that evolves, from its current level of consciousness,
progressively to higher levels of consciousness, super consciousness, and
divine level of consciousness. This progressive growth or evolution or
transformation of the conscious being is in-fact the sum and substance of a spiritual
journey.
