23. Part 1 - The Ascent

<< Previous - Bed Time Stories

From bits and pieces of information that flowed from different people and books, I have written a story below. This story will show that self-enquiry is not dry, but will lead to such colorful stories ;) Self-enquiry sometimes gets diverted into big-time dreaming! And this is what we can munch before going to bed ;)

Just a few details before we go into the story. A river named Saraswati is mentioned at several places in the Vedas and some Puranas. Rigveda goes to the extent of saying "Saraswati is the best river, best mother and best Goddess". It has mention of people crossing this river in ships - such big was this river. There were supposed to have been battles that took place between the people living on either banks of this huge river. Where was this river and where is it now? Indians blindly believed the stupid Aryan invasion theory written by a westerner, and put it even in school text books. It is only recently that some real fact-finding research has been undertaken (and real facts of older researches have been revealed) and the glory of ancient India is coming to light.

Satellite images have revealed that a huge river still flows several miles underneath Rajasthan. And there are sufficient evidences now to know that it is the river Saraswati. A book was published in 2010 "The Lost River: On the Trail of the Saraswati" giving details of the research findings. Saraswati was flowing majestically once upon a time, in today's Rajasthan desert, and nourished its children for several millennia towards the immortal knowledge - the knowledge of the Self.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Thousands of years ago, on the banks of river Saraswati, a civilization flourished and reached the pinnacles of glory. Their science was developed so much that they could even travel to different worlds and communicate with extra terrestrials. Today, science means going to a lab and doing an experiment. No doubt, this is one way of scientific development. But this is not the only way of scientific development. The Saraswati civilization had developed science in their own way and were quite advanced in technology. The secret behind their success was its sustainability – unlike today’s science which only sucks and slowly drains nature, their science was in tune with nature and harnessed all the potentials of nature without disturbing the balance of ecosystem. That is why the civilization could sustain for a few thousand years without any sort of disruption.

They had discovered Surya Vijnana (the science of the Sun) which deals with subtle cosmic rays. They found two primary types of rays – Solar and Lunar. They are not to be understood as merely sun rays and moon rays. They were not the normal electromagnetic rays of light. The rays belonged to a subtler realm and the names given – Solar and Lunar - were based on the characteristics of these subtle rays. Same as how you give title names to a person based on his characteristics. Then they found permutations and combinations of these two rays giving rise to several different types of rays. Same as how electron, proton, neutron permuted differently give rise to different elements. All physical objects and manifestations, they found to be made up of combinations of these rays.

Each manifestation at physical level has a corresponding ray-signature at subtle level. For e.g. water has a particular ray-signature, dryness another signature etc. Each living entity – human, animal, plants etc – all have specific energy signatures of their own. And within one species, again there will be variation in energy signatures. For e.g. rose plant will have a different energy signature than a banyan tree. They found that fire can be used as a medium to manipulate the energy signature of the surrounding environment as a whole. They did experiments after experiments and found what plants, what type of oils can manipulate water content in the atmosphere and produce rain. These plants and oils were burnt in fire and consequently a particular energy signature would become rich in that region. This will slowly manifest in the physical world as rain. Rain was the primary focus, but not the only energy signature that they learnt to manipulate. They had learnt to regulate all of nature’s forces through different types of Yajnas.

You may ask “What is the need to regulate nature? Will it not work perfectly if left alone?”. Well, yes. Plant and animal kingdoms are programmed and they live almost without choice. So, they do not harm nature and the nature-regulation will evolve very slowly over thousands of years. But human beings got the power of intellect and free choice. Currently our generation is using the intellect to disturb the balance of nature and degrade the evolution and regulation of nature. So, that makes up two possibilities – maintain as it is (animals and plants) and inhibition (current civilization). Then why can’t the third possibility be explored? Why can’t human beings, with their intellect, catalyze the regulation of nature and make it evolve towards perfection faster? That is what Saraswati civilization tried to do. They tried to make nature more beautiful and well regulated through their efforts. Because finally it is only going to help the inhabitants in their struggle towards perfection. Their science was more of common sense than complicated logic.

This way they had used science and common sense to make a better living in harmony with nature. Then they found that regulating the nature alone was insufficient to make them feel secure and self-assured. Something was missing. They realized that if people constrict themselves into smaller groups, they invariably get to face extremes of good and bad. Whereas if the group is big and the whole society lives as one family, complementing each other in all the needs and difficulties, then the fluctuation of fate reduced. Thus, they added ‘Dana’ to all the vaidika karmas that they performed. If some needy are not given money, food etc then the vaidika karma was not considered complete. It was made a mandatory part (Refer Rationale Behind Service).

This constituted the initial part of the Vedas – the Karma Kanda. It promotes primarily two things – Rituals and Service. Rituals were designed using Surya Vijnana to bring harmony between man and nature. And service was promoted to bring harmony between man and man, so as to boost oneness.

This way positivity was boosted by using two basic entities – common sense and service attitude. A sect of people was assigned only this duty – boosting positivity in the society – and they were called the Brahmanas. They performed Yajnas on behalf of the society. They did not accumulate wealth. But society took care of them with respect. Kshatriyas were given the charge of protecting the society through proper administration and Vaishyas looked after business, banking and trading. All the remaining miscellaneous professions were categorized as Shudras – From doctors, engineers, sportsman, actors to sweepers and servants.

This continued well for several hundreds of years. The beautiful harmony and positivity built in their society catalyzed their mental evolution to a great extent. And slowly, people began thinking about the meaning of life, ‘Who Am I’ etc. Since there was nothing whatsoever to worry about in their wonderful society, most of them could peacefully contemplate and enquire about deeper concepts of spirituality. The question ‘Who Am I’ became very strong in some of them. Just as how Ramana Maharshi got pulled into the strong current of Self-Enquiry and got the answer in a flash, many got pulled into it and found the answer to this ultimate question ‘Who Am I’. This was the culmination of all their science and efforts. Many of them wrote down their experiences and that became the later part of the Vedas – the Upanishads or the Jnana Kanda.

These people proclaimed that it is only for Self-Realization that everybody and everything exists. There is no other purpose for life. It was the most blissful, most powerful, most free state and the entire experience couldn’t be put in words. They said it can only be experienced. This became the hot topic of the times, just as how money is the hot topic now. Everyone wanted to desperately attain that state and know their Self. Several conversations between an aspirant and a Guru were also recorded and added as Upanishads. “Self-Realization”, “Brahman”, “Atma” these words echoed throughout the cities and forests. Thousands and thousands of people were so eager that they were ready to give up anything to attain that state. Money was not heard of anywhere! It was just there as an entity of transaction, but hardly spoken about by the people! Most of them were least bothered about accumulating money. They were happy with whatever they had. A person going after excessive money was thought to be an eccentric “What is wrong with him? What will he get with money?” was the notion. Same as how people today say “What is wrong with him? What will he get with spirituality?”.

The design of the entire system was such that Durga (Power - Kshatriyas) and Lakshmi (Money - Vaishyas) should finally aid their sister Saraswati (Knowledge - Brahmanas). The final goal was always Saraswati, with Lakshmi and Durga being secondary and assisting factors. Any activity was considered meaningful only if it supplemented Saraswati, knowledge of the Self. Else it was considered useless. Same as how today anything is considered meaningful only if we can get some money out of it. The question ‘What is the use?’ in today’s world relates to money. But in those days the same phrase related to knowledge, knowledge of the Self. “Why should I do this? Will it take me closer to Self-Enquiry?” was the slogan. Thus, the river, which was the backbone of their survival was also named as ‘Saraswati’. The vital nourishment they received from the river Saraswati was symbolic of the nourishment they received from knowledge of the Self.

When a vessel of water is heated, although the water is getting heated as a whole, all the water will not evaporate at once. First only one bubble will form. Then another and so on. One by one bubbles will rise up and then evaporate into the air. Similarly, although the entire society was peaceful and serene, first only a few bubbles escaped. Only a few got into the quest and realized their Self. But they understood that their realization was the product of the whole society’s effort. The water bubble is formed due to the selfless convection of water molecules within the vessel. No water molecule will stay at the bottom and say “I will receive more heat and escape fast”. But there is a continuous convection of molecules within the vessel to see to it that heat is uniformly distributed throughout the water content. Finally, one bubble gets formed first – and that is the product of the effort of all the selfless molecules of water. The bubble should be thankful to the entire water content for enabling its formation by heat convection.

Similarly, not all of the society got into Self-enquiry all at once. It was like the gradual boiling of the water. Some got realized first. And they promptly noticed that the whole system is working as a whole. They knew that their realization was the fruition of the effort of the whole society. Most of them remained amidst society and guided the remaining bubbles towards freedom. And in turn, these realized people were the most revered of all in the society. They never asked for anything from anybody. They just lived with what came to them unasked and took only as much as they needed for the basic survival of the body. Serving them was considered to be the most important duty of a householder, who is still in the process of getting boiled in spirituality. Householders, by following the injunctions of Karma Kanda (scientific rituals and loving service), would one day naturally be pulled into the current of self-enquiry.

- Continued