Central Chronicle
The Doctrine Of The Awakened Life (1)
The person, who has become aware from within, is truly awake irrespective of his age and experience. The person who is not aware from within may have attained a ripe age still he is in the state of sleep only.
Religion is mainly meant for improving conduct and not merely for praying, worshipping or performing rituals. Society, without the spirit of cooperation and compassion, loses its existence. The awakened person is one who has compassion, mental peace and commitment towards the truth. Society must reform but before that, the person changing the society has to perform. The process of Prekshadhyan is primarily meant to reform the one who reforms society.
One routine of life is to sleep and to wake up. When the conscious mind of a man is awake we say that the man is awake. When the conscious mind is sleeping, we say that the man is sleeping. In fact, people who have contemplated deeply have realized that though the conscious mind is awake, the man may be sleeping physically and vice versa. An American named Robert, used to sleep in meditative caves in Rajsamand Tulsi Sadhana Sikhar (an institute of meditation). One day he said "I was sleeping inside the cave. I saw that my body was sleeping and I was witnessing that body. One body was sleeping and other body was awake. One body was dreaming and other was witnessing the body which was dreaming." This shows the difference between sleeping and becoming aware, and also indicates the truth of our being separate from the material body.
The mind has two levels, the level of conscious mind and the level of unconscious mind. One activity of sleeping and awaking is at the level of conscious mind and the other activity of sleeping and awaking is at the level of unconscious mind. We understand the activity of sleeping and awaking from the materialistic point of view - which man sleeps at night and wakes up at day time. At which level did he sleep and at which level, did he wake up? This question remains a mystery, until awareness descends on man and his nature is changed. There is an important statement of Mahavira in this regard, "A person, who is not a mystic does not have knowledge. He remains in sleep always. A person, who is a mystic, has the knowledge. He remains awake. A non-mystic sleeps even while waking, where as a mystic remains awake even while sleeping." Lord Krishna has also supported the same fact in Gita, "Some people keep awake, even during sleep and some people keep sleeping, even when they are awake." A controlled person remains awake even while sleeping and an uncontrolled person keeps sleeping even when he is awake. We should try to understand the meaning and secret of sleeping and waking in the context of spirituality. The person, who has become aware from within, is truly awake irrespective of his age and experience. The person who is not aware from within may have attained a ripe age still he is in the state of sleep only.
Today's genetic scientists claim that the attitude of man grows from within along with his life. Yesterday I read an article in which the discussion was centered on the subject that the attitude of man is determined on the basis of his hormones and it is already predetermined. As a matter of facts, we have to retrospect and become aware, where our nature is actually being formed for true awakening. In case, we cannot retrospect, then there is absolutely no difference between sleeping and waking.
Today we have a burning question - that in spite of so many preaching and sermons from different religions the actual conduct is not changing at all. Man is the same, unchanged. Anuvrat revolution (a movement initiated by Acharya Tulsi in 1949) explored its reasons and preached that human conduct is most important from religious point of view, not the worship or performing of rituals. The foremost is conduct; worship and rituals are secondary. Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that nowadays a prayer, worship and rituals have become primary and human conduct, behavior and character have been rendered secondary or ignored. Deliverance cannot be achieved by repeating any word in particular; it is achieved by directly experiencing the ultimate truth. Also there is no predetermined path. That is the reason that religious sermons appear ineffective, dull and impotent. Religion is not able to influence and transform the individual and society.