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Pujya Dr. K.C. Varadachari - Volume -1
 

Talks and Lectures on the System of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga

Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga: Its principles and practices

  

Lecture delivered at Allahabad on 15-9-1966

I am very grateful for this opportunity of meeting you all and for the opportunity of exchanging a few of my thoughts in the presence of my Master.

My Sadhana, the evolution of my Sadhana, which started nearly 45 years ago, is an important event in the life of most of the young men. I belonged to the First movement of non-cooperation. My activities then made me think of our aims, this country's goals-and I remember arriving at my own axiomatic thought that through Spirituality alone can this country be raised.

My very first attention was drawn to the work of Svami Vivekananda, and naturally to his Guru and Master Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Then rapidly it was shifted to the thoughts of Svami Ramatirtha when his books came to me where I was. I then spent some of my time between spinning and Yoga. Then I came across 7 volumes of Sri Aurobindo's "Arya". It was an event of very great importance. Sri Aurobindo's language and thought are some of the most difficult for most people. I read, or rather drank, those volumes of the 'Arya'. As I said, Sri Aurobindo's language is very difficult. It is couched in an obscurity of style, which is difficult to follow. But not so for me. His style was no bar to me. I feel even today the remembrance of those 7 volumes.

Then I went on to study Philosophy in College. It was my good fortune to have had some of the most advanced and fundamental thinkers of those times as my teachers. They also enabled me to get a thorough grasp of Western Philosophy.

Then Sri Ramanuja attracted me. I spent a few years on the study of Sri Ramanuja's metaphysics and his theory of knowledge. In this connection I must mention one small incident which gave me great conviction. It is unusual for a man equipped with Western methods of Philosophy to do research on Sri Ramanuja. I was attempting this, and I had consulted an astrologer whether I would make good headway in my research on Sri Ramanuja. I then asked him how this prediction could come true when I couldn't find anybody even to teach me the Sri Bhashya! 'Surrender to Sri Ramanuja'-he said! I took him at his word. I quietly stood up and prayed to Sri Ramanuja to help me in the work. That surrender had immediate effect. It was my very first experience of surrender to a man, and that too to one who had lived about 900 years ago! He began to operate immediately, and in such a way, I will tell you! I wrote my first paper on Sri Ramanuja after 10 months of research work. A great savant read it and said "What it took me 20 years to learn, you have grasped in 10 months"-and he added the very important sentence "You have the Grace of Sri Ramanuja".

Now you see, this was a natural contact with such a great Seer. Such surrender to a person we have not even seen is perfectly possible. I could say nothing is impossible if you can devote yourself to great rishis of yore by true surrender.

Later I went on to several other things and on to other great Saints of South India to get their guidance.

Finally in 1954 December, at a most important moment, at a crucial moment in my life, I came across a book "Reality at Dawn" by Shri Ram Chandra, who is here, a great personality. I found in that book a deep and profound Spirituality and a willingness to experiment. Unlike the other books and Philosophies, here was one that was not burdened and labouring under dogma and other things. It was full of Spirituality of the highest order.

The system of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga which it expounded was discovered, or rather re-discovered, by Shri Ram Chandraji of Fatehgarh. It is due to his great Master Shri Ram Chandraji of Fatehgarh that he (Shri Ram Chandraji of Shahjahanpur) has been made to develop and carry out a forgotten technique of Transmission. This is a technique of awakening in each individual the spiritual force that is in him, by transmitting into his body that highest Ultimate force of the Divine. That was my first contact with this unique system, and with Shri Ram Chandraji, my Master.

Younger men are fortunate in getting this contact at a much earlier age. But the great thinkers of the past have really contributed to my make up. They have been responsible for keeping my aspiration for Reality awakened, in a state of awakening. Though apparently they have stated different positions or aspects, all such differences and barriers are taken away. In my case I had no confusion, no difficulty. On the contrary I found an integrative process taking place, and I could enter into each system with a wonder that God pervades all of them. That is what I found. But our difficulty is that one good system corrupts.

We live unnatural and artificial lives. We all appear to be something that we are not. We look happy, cheerful, at least most of us. But who knows what we are inside where no one can see us? Most of us are composed of volcanoes, seething inside, ready to burst at a moment's notice. Modern living conditions all go towards such a makeup of man. So what should we do? We should think of the modern world as a trial to help us to awaken us from a mentally depraved mankind.

To rectify this unnatural state of affairs my Master has said that it can be done by a proper type of meditation. We must try to become natural. Normally every struggle to become natural makes us only more unnatural. If you try to untie a knot, you only make more knots. To ask you to get back to nature, original nature, is a great call indeed.

I can understand why this system by this great Master is to make every one get back to naturality. What it means is the Original condition from which we came down and got involved in the grossness. The theory is that we have an Original condition of peace and equilibrium, but some movements have pulled or taken us away from that state of Shanti. We have been thinking that this state of non-peace and non-equanimity is the real state. This has come about from our experience of the variegated phenomena of this world in which we live, a world full of objects of enjoyment supposedly created for man's enjoyment; a world of beautiful things to be acquired, beautiful women with their vices, handsome men with their weaknesses; that all this is for man's enjoyment. Yes! It is a magnificent world! But then why should it be mixed up with so much evil, so much corruption, so much misery? This question is unanswerable, why there should be so much misery and ills. The great writer Somerset Maugham has asked this question. So have others. I don't think anybody has an answer to the sins, the ills, the injustices, the torture of the human spirit even at the lowest strata of mankind. Man cutting man; man robbing man; all this we see clearly.

Would you consider that this is the State of Nature? You may remember Hobb's definition that Man is red, tooth and claw. He is in perpetual conflict with Nature and his existence is one long tale of suffering, misery, violence, hate and passions. The least that is to be achieved is a rationality under which men will at least not kill each other. All these experiments in human associations have been made and are continuing to be made. But the Psychologists will tell you where we have got to, or rather where we have NOT got to.

India has ever been the land of Dharma, of right conduct, of right action. Dharma is the Indian way of life. It meant, in a word, regulation, and so meant our safety. That is what the Sanatana Dharma has given to us - the safety of self-regulation. We may still be maladjusted, ill-disciplined but there was in a total way, this Dharma, this self-regulation which helped us to live peacefully and grow with a little amount of happiness.

If you can share with Thoreau the idea of living with Nature, you might be able to see how nature is capable of being moulded to our own needs for growth and development.

So we have a higher nature, each one of us. It is to this, the Atma, that we have to address ourselves to. Please note that no cliches are to be bred. Our connection should be sought to be established directly only with Reality, the Ultimate Reality. I use the word Atman not in its philosophic sense. In fact I would rather say higher nature, our Self, for Atman.

It demands harmony, a peace, which life in Society and in this body hardly provides. Back of you all, when alone, when thrown upon yourself, you find yourself isolated, your real nature comes out. How can I improve this Self? How can I add to the quantum of this Self and diminish the attention to lower self? Be prepared to die for this, or that, or the other! What is it He wants you to do? Surrender! Let it be for a great Cause. Surrender to an extraneous cause is no use. It cannot help us. That has been amply proved. Then what? Can you die? And everybody must die. All must die. Why not make use of it? Put this body to the use of Dharma-of Swadharma-for nature.

Who am I? The problem is what is that which is my Self, which I have got, to know. In this search it is better to be objective rather than subjective, for you are your own object! You are not that now. You have to grow into it. Tell yourself 'I shall not spend all the 24 hours in looking after this body'. It is only an instrument -

Sarira Madhyam khalu Dharma Sadhanam

All look after the body. Do, but you are not doing even that properly. It is also unconscious. The material is Nature. How to come to terms with it unless you see true and original nature, the creator of the organic body? This is the concept of original Reality, which is called as TAM by Shri Ram Chandraji. That or Tam is not a Hindi abbreviation of Tamas. It is Tam - that, or the object - the second accusative case of 'Sah'. And precisely that is 'Tat Tvamasi'-the object. If you know the object, then identify with it. Then you begin to draw the sustenance of the Source. 'Tatwamasi' is more important than 'Sohamasmi'. But let that be. We are not concerned with that now. But remember one thing, Sohamasmi is ancient, but just because it is ancient it is not true, and just because something is modern it is not false.

You must be led to divinisation of your nature. If you reach this, then everything follows. You can develop a Philosophy if you want. You can have an experience.

But for Shri Ram Chandraji it is a Reality, a most natural and outstanding reality. It is that which makes us most natural, most divinely natural. Now some of you may ask, is it a philosophical arrival at this truth? How do you expect us to come into this contact with that Reality? It is a question that has to be asked.

We know of the Christian concept of the sinner. Man is born in sin! So they have baptisms and other things as well. That is the first thing. Now most of us here are under another Cosmic illusion - under Maya. Everything is Maya, we say. In this illusion all problems are solved! I don't say my ignorance covers me, is me etc. I don't. How am I eligible? I can't get rid of this world. It is too much with me. That is what we say.

But if people are in sorrow and misery, I suggest you like sorrow and misery and all the others that go with them. I say if it is there, you like sorrow and misery and so they are with you! That is what I suggest. Even sorrow is pleasant! Whether this is sadism or masochism it need not concern us. All that matters is you take delight in it. Mankind is not willing to give up its sorrows and miseries, or even to have an idea of the higher. How can religion help in overcoming this obsession for these things?

Religion has created idols or ideas. The mentals worship ideas, others worship systems-Advaita, Visistadvaita, etc. Concepts have become opaque to our understanding. Idol worship is no worse. We have any number of idols-Sri Krishna has 'said in whatever way you may worship me, in that way I shall come to you - To Gopis, a lover; to warriors, a warrior; to Saints, a saint'. So you could remain what you are! But while all this is alright, have you known that gamut of experience that Sri Krishna was? As Badarayana says, 'You must know me in the transcendent form Janmadyasya Yatah'. We must know the history of the great leela of God in all His manifestations, as the antaryami, as Virat, in all. Have we penetrated the idols? We can have idols, all idols, but they are not amenable to experience.

The real nature is the Transcendent which alone can give meaning and Reality to our existence. Idols can be smashed to pieces. Our conquerors have proved this to us. You may say you can put new idols in their place. But then we also know that all material things have to go. If not today, to-morrow or the day after. Even Cosmic personalities like Brahma also have to go. So what remains? Only the Cosmic Spirit.

Who can connect me directly with that Cosmic Spirit? Because out of that connection alone there is Yoga. That is what Yoga means. Connection with the Ultimate, the Tam. Anything less is of no use to us.

Sri Aurobindo, if I may humbly state, fell into that error. During my study of his system I found the weaknesses of the system. Sri Aurobindo stated that the Supermind alone can be connected with you. That is the Vyuha form, and not the Para form. That is what he meant. He thought the body will be torn away if connected to the Ultimate!

Now, of course, there is something in that. We all know the story of Bhagiratha. He wanted to bring Ganga down to the earth. He went and prayed to her to come down to the earth. She agreed, but said that if she came down by herself the world would be utterly destroyed by her very descent. Therefore, he had to find somebody to bear her and transmit her down to earth. So he prayed to Siva, and we all know the story of how Siva bore her descent on his matted locks and led her down to earth. Therefore, Shiva is taken or represented as the First Guru, as in the Ramayana. Shiva rolled up Ganga and flowed her down through his hair.

Shri Ram Chandraji profoundly told me that Tam can come. What it has made it cannot destroy, and what it has made, it can perfect. So don't be afraid. If it could be done once, it is possible again and again. This connection is made possible in the system known as the Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga. By Tam alone can you reach the Tam. Nothing less than the force of the Guru can help. God can be known only through Himself. He cannot be known through anything less. He cannot be known through any intermediary.

"I give them my own body" that is what He says. 'Not only do I choose the man, but having drawn him, I give Myself unto him'. That is what is meant by Grace. Grace - it is a much hackneyed word - it is a modern cliche. But Grace is not merely some kind of mercy. It is a real transforming force as a Christian mystic put it. It is a real force that is put into your body, and which takes you up to the 'unground' of Boehme, the dark infinite.

Well, that is the way. No human being can go to that point alone. That experience is of such tremendous impact that every cell and atom of your being gets transformed and charged into the movement of that ultimate vibration. I can testify to that experience in my own humble life. In the Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga the transmission of the Master makes Divine Nature our own nature. Our humanity does not get abolished, but it functions as the instrument and organ of higher consciousness. It becomes dynamic without parallel. That is why this system is much more significant.

To my mind other systems put the cart before the horse. They talk of vices. How am I to be saved from them? I am unfit. That is what the other systems make man say. They make us vice-and-misery conscious. But about the abhyasi God knows. It is for Him to judge. You shall not be the measure of your own adhikara. We want to appear to be what we are not. The sinner wears his sin to prevent God from coming to him. So also a worldly man. He wears his possessions and worldliness to prevent God from coming to him. We say, let me see if I can increase our wealth.

My Master has been able to pick his men from all strata of society. I say 'pick' even though it seems to us that we walk in. When we contact him then a direct relationship, after a preliminary cleaning, with the Divine is effected. Thereafter you are taken care of fully. Your co-operation is needed only to permit your transformation. You see, conscious obstruction is easy to handle, but the real difficulty is with unconscious opposition. It is possible to have unconscious opposition even though there is conscious acceptance.

But once Transmission is given by Master, sooner or later it will penetrate and disperse the ignorance and tamas of the abhyasi. I say this in the presence of the Master. It is Sahaja because it is simple. It is Sahaja because it is natural, Divinely natural in the human existence.

Divine man appears to be unnatural, and so we have martyred some of our greatest masters. Psychologists will say that such great people are monstrous mutants, and so they were destroyed.

But to know the Supreme is to be the most natural.

Svami Vivekananda said "Indian Religion is distinguished from Western Religions by the emphasis on liberation from lower functions of nature". Westerners have never been anxious for liberation. They know only one way, the way of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, the great slogan of the French Revolution. But we find that this is irreconcilable in the modern concept of practical democracy. In such a democracy Liberty is impossible. Equality has produced more inequality. Inequality was there always, but in Varnashrama there was organized inequality. In the modern context there is only chaos. Liberty is in a precarious suicidal state. Everybody wants liberty. Fascism, anarchism, Catholicism, all are agreed on this. To suppress Liberty and call it liberty! That is our paradox.

Our Master says Liberation is possible even when you are in this body. This is in a sense an answer to Visistadvaitins who talk of Videha Mukti, in the sense that liberation is possible only after death, and not during life. Then we have the Advaita concept of Jeevan Mukti - but here the soul is free but bound by the body with its prarabdha and sanchita karmas! Now my Master tells me that Liberation is possible and absolute, even in this body. It combines two things, your function in this physical body with a higher spiritual function. There is no prarabdha. And you can feel the Liberation even now. When you reach Tam you can live in this body with freedom. Even the body offers no limitation or impediment.

Sri Aurobindo's statement that we will have a perpetual body is not included here. Please note that. But by practice a natural growth is made possible and peace gets established. You feel evolved into higher nature. This system of Pranahuti by injecting the Supreme Force, the Supreme Presence, the activity of the very Divine Himself, achieves this.

I have told you a little of my autobiography. I have told you some of the philosophy and metaphysics of the system. I have also asked you to practise it. You can build up this by striving to attain to this. Please try to be a Rishi, a Divinised one, with happiness and Divine existence. All of you can do this.