The Path of the Seeker
Divine Life
Society Publication: Kathopanishad – The Science
Of The Inner Life by Swami
Krishnananda
The Sruti says,
"Arise, Awake! Through obtaining men of wisdom, know it. A sharpened edge
of a razor, hard to tread, a difficult path it is – thus sages declare."
The individuals of the
universe are all sleeping persons or dreamers in the night of ignorance. They
are exhorted to wake up to the day of knowledge. The path of Sadhana is beset
with great dangers. The Sadhaka has to experience sorrows and very unpleasant
conditions in the process of the transformation of the individual into the
Supreme Reality.
Knowledge arises, in the
beginning, not through mere self-effort, but through the company of the wise,
the result of which is accelerated by the effects of past meritorious deeds.
Self-effort takes the form of an intellectual undertaking, and the intellect
being very strongly influenced by internal convictions and experiences of the
individual concerned, the effort is many times not well directed. Every right
effort should be preceded by right thinking, and no right thinking is possible
as long as the individual is controlled by personal prejudices and desires.
Hence the need for the company of the wise, which shall break open the fort of
preconceived notions in the individual.
Further, the path is a very
difficult one to tread. The search for Truth is attended with many dangers. The
Sadhaka is likely to be tempted, opposed, misled or held up on the way. The
inner propensities take concrete forms and present themselves before the seeker
because of his attempt at concentration of mind. Concentration is a death-blow
given to mental desires, and hence the latter rise up with all might to put an
end to the practice of concentration.
Moreover, Sadhana is the
method of the disintegration of the personality consisting of the five material
sheaths. These sheaths include within themselves the substance of the entire
universe. Therefore, when the aspirant turns his face against these sheaths, he
is actually acting against the lower natural current of the whole external
universe of manifestation. Here lies the danger of the practice. The objective
powers of the universe rebel against the internal consciousness, and though this
consciousness is more powerful than any objective power, it does not appear to
be so because of its non-manifestation.
The aspirant seems to be
defeated, because his condition is one where the external tendencies are
opposed and the internal Self is not known. Hence, he has no help until a
higher state is reached, though he is unconsciously being led higher by the law
of the Absolute. It is in this helpless condition of the absence of knowledge
that the power of the result of previous discriminative practices raises the
individual above the material entanglements.
The object of knowledge is too
subtle to be easily known, and the object of the senses is too gross to be
easily avoided. This is the reason why there is every likelihood of the
seeker's falling back into relative experience. But there is one great helping
hand which pushes forward every Sadhaka, in spite of the several oppositions
before him.
Every bit of action that is
done as a Sadhana for perfection, produces such a power that it can never be destroyed
by any material force of the universe. When a Sadhaka is opposed by an external
power, the impression of the previous practice urges him forward, and this
forward march is another act which adds another fresh stock of power to the
already existing one. Every step taken forward adds more power to the previous
stock, and the cumulative effect of Sadhana-Sakti becomes so great that it is
able to overcome any external power.
The subject is always more
powerful than the object, because the subject is conscious and influences the
object. The knower has a power over the known. The fact that the knower has the
power to know the entirety of Nature shows that Nature is subservient to the
knower. If the knower were less than the known, it would never have been possible
for the knower to have complete knowledge of anything.
Knowledge of everything means transcending
everything in quality as well as in quantity. The path to perfection is,
therefore, the way to the expansion of the localized being into limitless existence.
Since every being is essentially consciousness, it is possible for everyone to
become the greatest and the best, and exist as the Absolute, in the end.
Excerpts from:
The Path Of The Seeker - Kathopanishad – The Science
Of The Inner Life by Swami
Krishnananda
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