THE JOURNEY WITHIN...

Ironically enough, what we seek all our life desperately, has always been right within us - abundantly. We can only find it within where it exists but where we don't usually try, not outside where we desperately hope and struggle to find it .... but where it exists not!

Not only the goal, but even the journey is within - it is actually a journey in consciousness, not in time and space.

What is usually lacking, is personal leadership. Personal leadership? Self leading the self? That means there are two selves? Yes, indeed. The Soul that can lead, and the ego (mind-body complex) that must follow. Let's go little deeper.

All our life we look out for something that would give us true happiness - we look for it in human relationships, money and possessions, food and other sense pleasures, name and fame, power and social prestige, knowledge and learning, etc.

Sooner or later, we fail to get that ever-new, permanent happiness in any of these. Why? The reason is simple. Perishable things can’t deliver permanent happiness. How can it give what it does not have? It’s not possible.

Yet, when we do find that joy within, even simple things give happiness; actually, we add it to them. It is always inside out, not outside in.

Indeed, all along, an ever-new joy - that which we really want - hides within our souls awaiting discovery, if only we would care to look within! But we don't.

The Divine plan is very benign and benevolent. There is a Guru-Disciple relationship at different levels right within us. Let us take them one by one.

Mind-Body level: At the lowest level, the mind can guide the body through the senses, but usually it becomes a slave of the senses. There is no leadership. The animals have undeveloped minds, they live mostly at the body level and go by natural instincts. The bull or cow, for example, does have a mind, it has eyes and ears, it can see the rushing traffic - but yet it would mindlessly sit in the middle of the road unaware of the risk of being run over! Humans have minds that they can develop. The human mind creates wonderful things in art,?science and technology but it is troubled by itself -by its ego and ignorance, attachment and aversion, fear and worry, etc.

Intellect-Mind level: The sensory mind is very undisciplined and it is hard to tame. It is our main trouble, but it can be a great resource when tamed and focused. Usually, the mind is finicky and whimsical. It often gets negative, angry and restless.

The intellect (Buddhi) is the mind's elder sibling; it reasons out, compares, weighs, discriminates and rationalizes,?and the mind, if it would, can follow the intellect and establish a better harmony in life.

Heart-Intellect: The heart feels while the intellect reasons. The heart takes a direct perception, the intellect infers and deduces through a serpentine path. The intellect eventually finds life dry, the heart hopes, consoles and reassures.

Education cannot help beyond a point because higher education does not necessarily usher a higher level of consciousness which is what really matters.

The intellect, as hinted above, can actually be thought of as the higher mind, and about their conflict, you may like to see this poem: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/poem-mind-heart-conflict-hans-dholakia/

Soul-Heart: This is at the highest level; the soul is the ultimate Guru - totally divine and omniscient. The heart gets attached to people and things in the name of love and it despairs as it meets disillusionment, the soul then intuits and pacifies. The heart gets hurt often in its relationships, the soul teaches to accept, forgive and move on. Once the soul-consciousness awakens, other levels also benefit. The soul teaches intuitive wisdom to the intellect, equanimity to the mind, and self-restraint to the body, etc. The whole life gradually transforms.

The soul balances the intellect's reason with the heart's compassionate feeling, and the result is intuitive understanding or pure wisdom.

And this goes on until what was human becomes fully divine. In how many lives this can happen, is a matter of individual choice.

At each stage, there are conflicts - that's the real Mahabharat. There is insubordination and there is failed leadership, too; the controller becomes controlled, what was meant to be a master, ludicrously becomes a slave. This is most pronounced at the first level (mind-body). It is only the soul that never fails to be a leader because it is divinely endowed, but it has constant threats from the body-obsessive ego, the pseudo-soul, as it (soul) strives to establish its rightful dominion.

Yoga-Meditation is for expediting this inner journey by re-ordering and executing the correct inner hierarchy.?

The mind and the body can also self-indulge, but when the soul enjoys itself, that is different; it is the ultimate experience, the supreme bliss of Self-realization.

Indeed, the soul is Spirit (‘Ayam Aatma Brahma’), and as another scripture says, ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is in us’.

In this great journey within, we are our own guides if we care, or our own worst foes if we don’t! That’s why (1) daily introspection, (2) habit auditing, (3) good company, and (4) wisdom-guided will for self-transformation, are immensely helpful.

So don't we need a Guru? We do need very much, but only at the stage when we start waking up to our existence at the soul level, when the yearning for a peaceful bliss (God) becomes strong enough. Then God Himself comes as the Guru Preceptor. Under the external Guru's guidance, we gradually discover the Inner Guru - the awakened soul. The two gradually merge into each other.

There is a Sanskrit saying: Yatha Pinde, Tatha Brahmande, i.e. as in the body (the micro level), so it is in the cosmos (at the macro level). While fighting this inner psychological battle, we can do our family duties, social and professional duties, etc. Actions in themselves don’t bind us, desires and attachment for the fruits of our actions, bind us. My Master taught that we can choose to be 'in the world but not of it', by being 'Calmly Active & Actively Calm' and through daily devotional meditation. We can, and must, do all our role-plays, without being sucked into the drama, emotionally. We can be good actors!

The title picture compares us with a chariot at various levels in this inner journey, as given in the scriptures. For fuller understanding, the brain was added by me as the 'hardware' interface between the body and mind; the heart here is not just the blood pump as most people think it is, but as the seat of feeling that scriptures and now even the neurocardiologists know it to be.

Please comment and thereby add value. If you need personal life coaching help online, please feel welcome to write to me at [email protected]

Hans Dholakia // Holistic Motivational Trainer & Online 1:1 Life Coach