Sthitha Pragna-Goal To Be Reached-Part II

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It is not so easy at all that to reach the highest State of Conciousness and gain the freedom from matter vestures. It is like the razors blade 'Kshurasya Dhara' walking on the blade of a razor, unless he has a tenacious aspiration for the Supreme values of life.

Bhagavan throughout the Geeta referred 'Him' as the goal to be reached and the direction of the sadhana is to the Lord's Feet. "Tad Vishnoh Paramam Padam". It is a known truth that the object of our worship become our own according to the degree of identification with the object. A purified intellect without any blemish contemplating on the Lord of his heart, His divine Love, His glories (Dharana) leads to, in stages to Meditation (Dhyana) where the identification of the subject is closer and closer to the object of worship and if the mind could be made more subtle and steady reaches the third and final stage (Samadhi) where there is merging of the subject and the object. Here human effort, while it is very essential, is not all.

One's own intellect, a drop of the universal intelligence - the ocean, in meditation assumes to become one with the ocean, the consciousness without - the universal homogenous consciousness- individuality dropped. This is where the human effort stops and the power of the Divine from within which is nothing but the cumulative effect of a disciplined life lived so long by the Sadhak takes on. His own Pure Self, the Atman, which is invoked all the time as the Lord of His heart during the whole process reveals itself as the strength and quietude within. The subjective intuitive experience is of one's own Pure Self the Atman the substratum on which the play of life goes on.

He becomes a witness consciousness, this wisdom gained from a subjective experience enables the sadhak to be composed and steady within - he is in his natural State of Happiness says the Sruthi. His knowledge is far superior to our knowing Brahman as an object always. This is the theme of second chapter of Bhagavad Geeta.

The qualities of a man of steady wisdom can be nothing but the life he had lived so long to become a Sthitha Pragna, where there is, no perception but 'That which is' the Essence of Existence declares the Sruthi.

About the author

Dr. Susheela Purushotham

Dr. Susheela Purushotham has written this article, for Vedanta Vani magazine, Chinmaya Mission.