Reach the Ruler Within
Life is full of conflicts for all humanity, with hardly any exception. “Oh, this dilemma is so difficult; what am I to do?” is the question in almost everybody’s heart; only the details of the problem vary.
Exploring various possible solutions to our difficult predicaments, we necessarily exercise our intellect and almost exhaust our logical abilities. This self-effort is something we must put in. Great people have indeed said that success is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.
Spiritual masters do not undermine this self-effort (purushArtha). However, they advise us to look beyond also. They would not like us to be blind to ‘prospects beyond reason’. The kathopanishad (2.2.1) declares,
There is a city with eleven gates
Of which the ruler is the unborn Self.
Whose light forever shines.
They go beyond sorrow who meditate on the Self.
And are freed from the cycle of birth and death.
For this Self is supreme.1
Our own body is the city, and the metaphor here counts its eleven gates. (Two each of the eyes, the ears and the nostrils, combined with the mouth, the navel, the genitals, and the anus, make ten. The science of yoga mentions an eleventh gate, the brahma–randhra, found on our head, through which the life force leaves the body in the case of the illumined yogi.) Ordinarily we look out and perceive this world of names and forms (nAma-roopa). No wonder almost all our thoughts revolve around the external world. We seldom suspect that there could be a supreme truth within us.
The mystic work from the yajurveda beckons us to a hidden treasure. The Self (Atman) is our own true nature, kept away from our view by the mischievous thoughts. Memories spur thoughts, which in turn evoke more memories from the past or projections into the future. This whole domain of thinking, as per the wisdom of the Vedanta, has sad limitations. At best, battles are won here but the war is lost. To hope for lasting peace in this field is an exercise in vain; it is a wild goose chase.
To turn within and to meditate on the Self, which is of the nature of Pure Awareness is an entirely different proposition. We do not build a bridge to happiness here nor place a ladder to climb up; it is rather a quantum leap where we discover the substrate of all our experiences. This ground was, is and will be an endless repository of pure bliss. This shift is a transition from reason to ‘beyond reason’. Please note it is not against reason.
The Ruler Within blesses us with a new vision. We then are clearly aware that the framework of space and time, in which all our sorrows occur, is actually a small affair. There is then the unbroken, intuitive understanding that we are the Self, unaffected by the worldly phenomena.
Swami Chidananda
Monday, June 09, 2008
1 The translation of this verse is by Eknath Easwaran, as found in his book “Selections from the World’s Most Sacred Literature,” published by Nilgiri Press in USA and by Jaico in India ; page 159