VAGDEVI SPIRITUAL PROCESS [#15009] CONVERSATION

To observe how your car moves on the road, you have to stand on the roadside and ask someone else to drive it on the road. Many a times it becomes necessary to have an opinion of someone absolutely unconnected and uninvolved with the job you do to obtain a true and fair appraisal of your performance. Will you agree with me if I say, to know what the life is, one has to stop living? Highly unlikely, but the question is valid as we shall see in this article.

In our day to day life, we use expressions like ‘independent view’, ‘detached view’ or sometimes even ‘overview’ to convey that the one who is well within a process finds it very difficult to understand the various nuances about the real time progression and dynamics of the process.

Ancient Indian scriptures have used two very meaningful words about one’s conduct in life.

1. PRAVRITTI (social action)

PRAVRITTI means living to fulfill one’s worldly duties and interests with the senses and actions directed towards the external world. Man has to survive in this world just as other living beings have to survive. Less intelligent beings have instincts; the nature has made them that way. Human beings have developed individual and social ways to ensure their survival. A newborn human infant begins his journey with considerable care that he receives from the others. Then, there is training to help him grow in a physically healthy way. His intellectual growth comes next coupled with an education that is much needed to help him earn his livelihood in the modern context. He earns money to take care of himself and his family and to save for his old age. Of course, there are some social responsibilities, for which he pays taxes and votes for the type of governance he has an option to choose. In the entire process of his life the desires and aspirations, he may have or develop depending on many factors, play a pivotal role. He may take care of himself and his family without being concerned about the others or he may make some sacrifices for others, it all depends on him. Primarily, pravritti is, making efforts for one’s physical well being. Pravritti can lead one to live an ordinary life, remaining more or less satisfied with whatever one could do for one’s survival; or it may make a man too ambitious about his physical comforts and related luxuries, making it difficult for the society to contain him. He may cause much harm to the fellow beings to possess whatever he wants to.

2. NIVRITTI (inward contemplation)

NIVRITTI, on the other hand, is the path of “not accepting things as they appear to be”; instead giving high importance to introspection, spiritual contemplation, and giving utmost importance to listening to one’s inner voice. It generally leads to placing the God at the centre of our existence, at least, after fulfilling one’s worldly duties. At some stage in one’s life, maybe in the old age or otherwise, one may find that a self-centered life is an avoidable drudgery or routine. He may decide that having intelligence to do it, he must think about the meaning and purpose of the life. He may “pull himself away” from objects, people and ideas that bind him with things that become a cause of sorrow because they are destructible and are not expected to be there forever. One such thing could be one’s own physical existence.

In a very simple language we can say that Pravritti attaches a man with the world, and, Nivritti detaches him therefrom.

Pravritti may lead one to live his life passionately with varying degree of intensity. Here, the role of one’s emotional satisfaction through the things those are temporary in character becomes pivotal. As a result, it becomes difficult to anticipate when one starts causing harm to a fellow human being, a living being or the nature that maintains and sustains life in the universe.

Now, let us see what a man does to survive in this world. He makes efforts using his body, intellect and his ability to communicate with fellow human beings. In a nutshell, he ‘acts’. Man’s intellect, his emotions, his desires and his Ahankara (his I am-ness or ego) may prompt him to make errors that can cause harm to other living beings and the nature. If he does it, (and the history has conclusively established that he does so) he harms others as well as himself, and, thereby becomes the cause of destruction.

Although, ancient Indian scriptures insisted for the rule of Dharma (duties that naturally come upon the man), they used every opportunity to emphasize how suicidal was the man’s tendency (Pravritti ) to ‘act’ for ‘living’.

Instead of going into many details I will only quote a very short version of what Shuka, the son of Vyasa, a highly learned Rishi with an impeccable character, spoke about thoughts and words of Vyasa.

“Vedas say, ‘Do all acts.’ They also say, ‘Give up all acts.’ Where does one go with the help of ‘knowledge’ and where does one go with the help of ‘acts’? Vyasa has dealt with this contradiction. He explained that there are two paths. The one of the ‘acts’ leads to the destructible. And, the other, that of the ‘knowledge’ leads to the indestructible. The path of the ‘acts’ is that of Pravritti . It leads to the repeated cycles of birth and rebirth with all sorrows and pains of life. The path of ‘knowledge’ is that of Nivritti. It leads to emancipation.”

Many spiritual thinkers, even today, preach Nivritti, knowing full well that not even one from their audiences or followers would ever adopt the path of Nivritti. They present the well thought of concepts of Nivritti with an exploratory fervor of what is unknown due to sensory limitations of the man. There is no doubt that a genuinely detached person becomes harmless for the world and he can also reduce at least some violence arising out of human Pravitti.  It is also acceptable that in depth contemplation and experimenting with knowledge cannot be sacrificed. However, no one can over look the fact that a vast majority of the human population had been ‘acting’ for its survival since ages. It is also a fact that the extent of untruth is increasing day by day because human actions are becoming more and more grounded on the untruth. VAGDEVI Spiritual Process, therefore, considers that it is more important to reduce the extent of untruth from the actions of modern man; because then, even a marginal reduction in untruth from an individual action would amount to a major reduction from the rising bulk of untruth in this world.

Untruth is attractive; it is appealing to human senses. It tastes sweeter. The truth is somewhat unpalatable. But, truth must be spoken. An elementary thinking reveals that the spirituality is for the benefit of the man, the common man. It is not for the God; or for only those who, for the reasons best known to them, describe Him (the God) with the help of the illusory part of His character, that is, His Maya.

Like many others VAGDEVI Spiritual Process has enough reasons to accept that most of the scriptures are well grounded in the truth; in fact, many sift out the truth from a plethora of human experiences. While there is the path of Nivritti, the path of ‘knowledge’, there is also the tried and tested path of Nishkam Karma, the path of ‘selfless service’. Unlike the learned people, possessing great knowledge, the majority ‘acts’ first, for his survival and ‘thinks’ later. The path of selfless service suits them.

VAGDEVI Spiritual Process relies in a spiritual process that could prevent a man from inflicting further injuries upon himself, when he is in action for his survival. The path of selfless service will also ‘heal’ many of his injuries of the past in the natural spiritual process; as the nature itself is the best ‘healer’.

Any right thought that is not followed by the right conduct is like a momentary lighting in the sky. A right thought must be nurtured by a right conduct that follows, if it is to be used for the benefit of the man.

In Process # 15008 we said spirituality is not a state, it is a process. Here, in Process # 15009, we said right thoughts have little meaning unless followed by the right conduct.

[This series is being presented by Promod Kumar Sharma, who has also authored “Mahatma A Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]