A different kind of Self-realization

“I’m concerned with the earth, not with worlds beyond for their own sake; it is a terrestrial realization that I seek and not a flight to distant summits.” – Sri Aurobindo.

“Salvation is physical.” – The Mother.

The idea of self-realization has been an integral part of Indian conception of human life. It has been, in some sense, the backbone of our multi-millennial history. Teacher after teacher, prophet after prophet, bard after bard, Avatar after Avatar have taught, in various ways, what it is and how to achieve it. One had said that you would be self-realized when you have discovered this great Void called Nirvana, which marks and end of all your suffering. Another had said that self-realization is the discovery of this great unitary Self that reveals itself when you understand that the universe you see – the blazing suns, the wetness of the rains, the people that surround you, their tiny joys and haunting agonies –  is all a profound illusion. Pursue that Self, and be done with the world. Because once you find it, you do not have to be born in this wretched world ever again.

 Another had said that the Self is not a lonely, cold emptiness but a living, loving Entity, a lasting Friend and a rapturous Lover. Lost in His love you will find all things of this world pale, colorless, devoid of meaning.  Find Him, melt away in His embrace, and you will not want to have anything to do with this world again.

For two and a half thousand years these powerful and profound ideas have permeated the Indian psyche. They shaped our world views, our attitudes toward life and nature. Life on earth is a painful sojourn, a terrible curse. Life is impossible, insufferable. Hard it is to swim across oceanic life in the world, iha samsaare bahu dustaare. Live life right, do the right things, follow Dharma and at long last you can get out of this prison.

These ideas perhaps have a great truth in them in their origins. But over the millennia they are reduced to a dull, unthinking practice, calcified in rigid and absurd social tradition. Unknowingly we have cultivated an attitude of contempt towards the world and paying for it dearly to this day. Because we think it is intrinsically something inferior, we do not want to improve it, make it beautiful. Because we think it is an illusion, we do not want to study it, understand it, master it. Slowly we lost our grip on life and world. Conquerors rode over our prostrate bodies; colonialists sucked the life-sap out of our society. Our deepest strength, ironically, also turns out to be our greatest vulnerability.

There is a different kind of self-realization that comes to us essentially from the West. The idea is not new but it is gaining momentum in India in the recent times. The idea may be expressed as follows. Every single one of us carries inside us a beautiful seed, a promise, a spark of a talent, that seeks to come out and express itself. We are obliged to take the trouble to find out what it is and express it action. To make real in the world without, a power that is hidden inside, is the definition of the new Self-Realization. A Disney feels within himself a talent to “make people happy”, envisions an organization and breathes life into it, creating the Disneyworld.

For the new Self-realization too, God is within. But that God is simply that luminous idea that is buried in your heart which you must seek and find out.  Life, for each of us, is a quest, like in the tales of Greek myth. Greek heroes  voyaged to distant lands seeking adventure and unspeakable treasure. The quest is to “find yourself”, conceive that vision of yourself, and give it a shape in the real world, thereby fulfilling yourself. That something in you is your own personal “God.” Finding that something is “God-realization” for you.

The new Self-Realization is not the pursuit of an extracosmic God, nor does it preach an escape into a world Beyond as a solution to the miseries of this world. In fact, it urges people towards a full-throated engagement with the challenges of the world.  You are asked to take the bull of the world by its horns. You grow in stature, your powers increase as you grapple with the world. Your mind develops, your creativity blossoms, your energies are amplified as you work towards your own self-chosen Goal of life.

The new Self-realization not only inspires the individual to grow; it exhorts him/her  to nurture and develop a patch of life connected to him/her. It does not abandon the world to its fate. It in fact embraces the world, heals its wounds, nurtures it, makes it whole, and imparts to it a lasting glory.

These ideas are now seen to be permeating popular thinking in India. They come to us in the form of self-help literature. The self-help movement had swept across the world for more than half-a-century. In the pre-self-help era, people looked up to God, the church, the priest, the monarch, or the State for support. In the self-help era, we learn that all the help that we need is inside ourselves. The founts of a tremendous power and genius are inside human psyche. Therefore, by invoking it, we help ourselves and help each other.

Isn’t it high time we brought in these elements into our Indian brand of spirituality? Or perhaps these elements are already there but deserve a stronger emphasis. The Gita speaks of life as a battle that must be fought – turning away is unacceptable because it is un-Aryan – with the help of the guidance of the Indweller. But perhaps since such ideas are too strong a medicine, the majority idly and passively gravitate towards a senseless and easy religiosity.

What is the use of a spirituality that does not accept the burden of developing people as the first and foremost objective? Are not these legitimate concerns in a country where literacy rate is a mere 75%, and 90% make less than Rs 12,000 a month?  What is the point in keeping ourselves busy praising the beauty and harmony of God, while all the time living in material surroundings that are filthy, chaotic, dangerously unhealthy and often times revolting?

There is a need to recognize and correct the slow, tenuous and insidious distortion that had set in our spiritual tradition in popular practice.  

Let the new Self-realization lay the foundation for life in the new India.