The Disconnect: Part 1

 The Disconnect!

Part 1:

Last night after dinner we sat to read as we do regularly. My 88 year old mom, my husband and myself. Currently we are reading Das Bodh ( Advice for A Servant of God. Or Advice from a Servant of God….whichever way you want to translate it.) It is a big text dictated by the 17th century activist saint from Maharashtra Samarth Ramdas. It gives a detailed account of spiritual truths as well as social observations. We are halfway through the text, reading the 10th out of 20 chapters. Each chapter has 10 subsections, each about 2-3 pages. 

The subject matter touches upon spiritual concepts, in Samarth’s distinct style, which is simultaneously both direct and mysterious, making it complex for a novice to comprehend. My mom particularly keeps complaining that she finds this text too difficult to understand compared to the Bhagwad Gita which we studied together earlier. 

A concept unique to the spiritual domain expressed in the Upanishads, Bhagwad Gita and other important literary works on the subject is that Truth or Reality lies in a level of consciousness that is higher than the consciousness we ordinarily experience in our waking state. The Sanskrit and Marathi term often used for this state of consciousness is Turiya. 

Thus according to spiritual context consciousness spreads itself through 4 states depending on presence or absence of nescience( unawareness). Total absence of unawareness is in the Turiya state. In positive terms, Turiya is complete awareness. 

Waking state as we know it is a mixture of awareness and unawareness. 

Sleep is subdivided into REM and Non REM periods. 

REM state is that in which we can see dreams. Here too there is a mixture of awareness and unawareness. 

Finally, the last stage is deep sleep or non REM sleep where there is extreme unawareness of surroundings or objects.

There is something common between wakefulness and dream state of sleep. In both these states there is perception of objects. The falsehood of perception of the objects in the dream state only becomes evident when the person wakes up. 

There is surprisingly something in common between Turiya and Deep Sleep. That is the total unawareness of objects. But the reason for this unawareness is entirely different in each case. 

In Turiya there is full awareness, yet no objects are perceived. It is because one has “woken” up from the ordinary waking state and realized that the perception of objects during the waking state was false, just like one knew it was false in the dream state. 

In the deep sleep state there was zero awareness. That’s why no perception of objects. 

A mixture of awareness and unawareness is essential for perception of objects. That happens only in the waking and dream states. 

Based on these observations, the conclusion that the individuals who experienced the Turiya state arrived at was unanimous and unambiguous. They experienced that the appearance of objects is an illusion. Appearance of multiplicity is an illusion. Reality is undivided, undifferentiated, unmodifiable in its absolute form. It however has the ability to create an illusion. 

The multiple beings that arise within the illusion are composites of reality(awareness) and illusion(ignorance). This is where confusion takes over. What part of them is real and what part is illusion they ordinarily cannot figure out. They accept the composite as it appears to the eye and start believing that the illusion is real. 

Even if wise men who have firsthand experience of Turiya try to tell them that the in the ordinary state of waking, there is a mixture of illusion with reality, they are not willing to ponder and believe. There is mistrust, scepticism. They think that such suggestions are merely myths, or fantasies or unproven theories. 

So here we are studying Das Bodh regularly where Samarth is consistently discussing the concept of Reality( Parabramha) and its power of illusion ( he refers to it as मूळ माया Mool Maya.

Now the interesting story from yesterday.

We read the chapter about Pralay or dissolution of creation. Samarth has elicited 5 categories of dissolution observed in the existence. Two at individual/ personal level( physical and mental levels respectively), two at larger universal levels( at corresponding physical and subtle form levels), and one at higher contemplative level. We concluded the chapter yesterday with a prayer. 

Then my mother asked a question that had been going through her mind all along. The question was about a story from the Ramayan that she narrated. Kaikeyi’s life before she met Dasharath. How she got a blessing that she would achieve a good name and also a curse that she would be disgraced. In the future she went on to be praised for holding her finger in the ground when Dasharath’s chariot was stuck during a critical celestial war where Dasharath fought on the side of Gods against the Demons. 

Mom’s question was isn’t that a true story? Isn’t Ramayan historical, therefore true? Going by that, how can someone go to heaven to fight a war while they are living in the mortal world?

For a moment I couldn’t help but be silent. 

I asked her, true from what perspective?

She said, from reality. Like I am here and real. Ram was real like that. In flesh and blood. So was Dasharath and Kaikeyi. And the entire historical account of Ramayan. 

I said, isn’t that what Samarth has been telling us through our study that what you experience in the waking state is a dream. It is an illusion. Your physical existence is not real in the absolute sense, it is an illusion. From that perspective everything that happened in the past is also to be understood as an illusion. A myth of sorts. 

She said, almost reflexly, “ I’m talking of real life. Not about what we are learning from the book.”

That’s where rubber meets the ground.

The human brain takes spiritual truth and concepts as fiction. Physical experience as real.

We are halfway through the book and right after we have spent an hour or so discussing the book, mom asserts her existing idea of what is real and dismisses Samarth’s teachings as something imaginary and removed from reality. 

This is the barrier. 

So innocently and casually mom had revealed the resistance of her mind to accept Samarth’s words as truth. Her reality was unwilling to accept anything that contradicted it. 

That is our bottom line. 

The human disconnect from Truth.

I will continue the discussion in the next post to share my thoughts on how this disconnect impacts our life and the converse argument, about how a connect between spiritual reality and physical reality can bring a positive experience for us humans. In short my thoughts on the practicality of a connect between the spiritual side and physical side of human existence, and putting it in the context of the current situation we are seeing in our world.