First of all, contrary to materialistic interests, one should have the urge to know about atma. At all times, all ages, man is more interested in materialistic developments. Very few people – highly evolved souls like Jesus Christ, Gautam Buddha, Lord Shiridi Sai Baba – are exception to it. Most people are usually interested in money, wealth, prosperity, name, fame, physical, happiness and comforts.
According to saints and gurus of repute, the atma, after leaving the physical body by means of death, will enter another body formed in a mother’s womb in the third month of pregnancy. The cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth goes on for long time. After this long prosess, the athma acquires knowledge and at one stage the atma starts thinking by itself. It start questioning the process of life and death. How long will it have to spent in this cycle of life ? What is the way to come out of birth and death cycle ? Upto this stage the atma inside the human body cannot think of its own existence.
Life is spent in a passive way, caught in the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. Only when it is vexed with this repeated process, will it think about its own existence. Every atma will be and acquire more knowledge is called Samskara or development of character. At this stage only will any person think of atma. In some selective cases, by coming in close selective cases, by coming in close contact with a mahatma, an evolved person, or areal Guru, one can change his own psychology, way of thinking, goals of life, ets.; but these are very exceptional cases. These are requirements for a person seeking the truth and the path to atma. All other persons who have not reached this stage will be purely interested in worldly matters like money, wealth, name, fame and physical comforts.
At this stage, we will try to understand the qualities of a sadhaka or a shisya or a practitioner.
* Unlike other people, a sadhaka should have the interest to know about the atma
* He should not be interested in materialistic things. Alienation from materialistic things will not be achieved immediately, But one should be mentally prepared to lose everything, because all visible things in the world are subject to decay and destruction at one time or another. Without mental steadiness, one cannot move even a step ahead towards atmagnana.
* Even though one is mentally prepared to develop disinterest in the world, physically all sense organs will try to disturb the mind of a sadhaka by dragging him towards worldly objects,
* At is stage, a feal guru’s (one who has seen his atma ) guidance is necessary, because a guru has already crossed this stage. With his own experience a guru can show ways and means to control the sense organs from being distracted by worldy objects. This is actually sadhana (practice).
* At this stage a shishya, or sadhaka or practitioner should be prepared to sacrifice some portion on his time, money, comforts, etc., for the sake of atmagnana.
Keeping the above requisites in mind, a person who wants to go ahead with atmagnana should be careful in his selection of real guru and sacrifice all worldly objects. Without these two things, one cannot call himself a sadhaka, or a shishya. People of all religions interested in the study of atmagnana should reduce all wants and desires to the minimum, otherwise they cannot achieve anything in this life.
No comments:
Post a Comment