Consciousness Reacting

              The small reacting box in the shape or form called human is an amazing creation. It reacts to outside stimuli and this reaction varies according to time, place and situation. Those who try to bring universal harmony in the manner of reaction are what we call leaders. Leaders are in every field but the same leaders in material world are scientist, political leaders while in spiritual fields they are what we call son of God, Incarnation etc. Leaders in material field seems to be in quest of something that is permanent, unchanging but Incarnations are conscious of it. In the world of matter the tendency is towards preservation of matter in terms of body or material we love while in spirituality the Vedanta speaks of something inconceivable by thought. Although the awareness exists without thought but the thought of existence without thought is a paradox that seems to perplex us. Until and unless this consciousness recedes from body and one goes to states of being consciously conscious of consciousness we are not able to know what "Samadhi" is? Our scriptures speaks of "Purusha" beyond the unmanifested called "Prakriti" in Sankhya Philosophy. 

                        Speaking on Purusha, Swami Vivekananda says, "The Purusha is neither mind nor matter the reflex from it is all that we know. We are sure if it is omnipresent it has neither death nor birth."

                       "Nature is casting her shadow upon it the shadow of birth and death, but it is by its nature pure".

                        Suppose in the dream we become conscious of dream world as 'Dream' and want to wake up, what can we do then? We will wait with tremendous preserver. As till date no one has been able to decipher the process of waking up from sleep. Amazingly we wake up in the morning, every morning and find the same world continuing. Coming to the point, if we realize that we are dreaming this great world we will do what ever is required in the dream to make our self awake. Sometimes it happens that the state is reached where one is conscious of this body in world but also continuous its existence in the dream world. Then the intense pain or happiness in dream world is made nonreactive by the conscious body state or partial awakening state. In 1896 while giving lectures at London about "The Absolute and Manifestation", Swami Vivekananda says, "Time, space, and causation are like the glass through which the Absolute is seen, and when It is seen on the lower side, It appears as the universe." The mind configures our world as time, space and causation and we make futile attempts to find permanent happiness in it. Unless the mind is transcended we are not able to know as we are without it i.e consciously conscious of consciousness. Below is the picture used by Swami Vivekananda to deliver the lecture mentioned.

Again Vivekananda in one of his lectures says that the world can never be made a better place it is like a dog tail. This play of world will go on  and on until we wake up in our real individuality, the Individuality of infinite. Two rays of light form a single source illumines a small size ball and a big ball. if nature of size of ball is determined by point of view of ball, one is small and another is big! But from the point of view of light, it is the same light that is the cause of illumination of both of them or seen in them. In term of attributes of body qualities, one is small and another big but from the point of consciousness of infinite, it is the same consciousness that is illuminating everything from a small sub atomic particles to the Lord of Universe.

Remembering Someone Lost.

Standing before the funeral pyre my mind was pondering over the questions, which has been the subject of debate for thousands of years, but except some few great souls the collective humanity either ignores or just not able to think about the only reality of life called 'Death'. In the Mahabharata we find Yudhistira answering the question put forward by non-other than Lord of Death, Yamraj:

 Yamaraja asked Maharaja Yudhisthira,

‘What is the most wonderful thing within this world?’ 

Mahārāja Yudhisthira replied:

“Hundreds and thousands of living entities meet death at every moment, but a foolish living being nonetheless thinks himself deathless and does not prepare for death. This is the most wonderful thing in this world.” 

The passing away of friend’s mother has again brought back the memory, which as a child seeing the sleeping father I would cry thinking and feeling, what if father does not wake up? Life seems to have moved long from that period but still the great secret of life is not unlocked. Although has read some of the works of great souls but when the body bereft of life lay before me I can’t but have deep inexpressible emotions. Surrounded by the relatives, well-wishers who have come to pay their final respects, it was simply an emotionally moving sight. And when the dead body was taken outside of home for final rites the thought flashed, “Where is the love of son toward mother which does not allow it to remain inside home”.

 As she was a teacher the school authorities came and requested the family members to allow them for taking the deceased body to school so that the colleagues and students can give their last homage, which they hesitatingly agreed. The vehicle, “Swargarohan” came and amidst of so many people surrounding the body it was carried and taken towards the school. The long queues of students on both sides of roads waiting to receive the body of their departed madam who was alive just someday back shows the deep respect she commanded in her life of profession as teacher. Vice principle, PRO, colleagues and Senior citizen of that area came forward to receive their beloved comrade. Everyone offered flowers which were followed by some words spoken in memory of her by Vice Principal, senior citizen and students. Finally after one minute silence and pray for her soul to rest in peace, the body was taken to the cremation ground for final rites. On the way to cremation ground, driving my car, I along with my friends followed Swargarohan reflecting on the meaning and purpose of life along with various inputs given by friends besides me.  As the body was taken from the vehicle and put on pyre, clothes taken away and body made ready for the “Mukhagni” the first fire to be given by eldest son, I saw the face of ‘Khuri’ as I use to call her lovingly to see if she may wake up any time and throw away all the wooden pieces kept on her body. At last just to convince, put my finger on her closed eyes to see and have my last confirmation. 

The eldest son followed by his brothers made rounds and lit the fire as if their mother is no more!  As the lord Agni began to consume the body the thought came of the last day, when I met her alive. Although a beautiful smile always adorned her face most of the time but on that day she was little sad and seeing me near her, she asked, “Why you came after so many days, is this love of you and between you all”.  Whenever I met she would often talk about her son’s marriage and happiness. She would also think and speak about her school colleagues, acquaintances that she meet in her school making a comparative discussion as life of teacher and a mother of four sons who want a successful life for their children. As the fire took enormous size, again the thought of ancient thinker came questioning the validity of love, “ as soon as the one we love dies , we take it to fire, to burn it “ is this the love by burning! Lord knows. But what is gone is gone forever. May be she take another life for fulfilment, may be as the Katha Upanishad says, she has gone to place where there is no sun shining, no moon, no stars, only that by shining which everything shines.