Nothing is understood well until there is a description of a role model for us. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks Sri Krishna for a description of a man of enlightenment and the qualities of a Sthita Prajna, a man of steady wisdom, were described. In the Moha Mudgara too, a disciple of Adi Shankaracharyaji gives a verbal description of how a man of realisation may look.
He will walk by the wayside, clad in a patchwork quilt of bits and pieces of waste cloth stitched together. He may have an appearance of one dressed in rags. His path in life is free of actions done to gain merit or punya or refrain from non-meritorious actions—Apunya.
He is a yogi or one whose mind is yoked to the intellect that is steady within. Being in that state of self-realisation, he moves around.
To the onlooker, however, he may appear like a small child. Sometimes he may look like a mad person. Some other texts also mention that he can even look like a ghost in his behaviour. A child lives in the present moment and keeps expressing ideas fearlessly as he/she has no sense of duality or otherness that limits his/her behaviour.
The man of realisation is sometimes compared to a mad person because his actions are born out of a supreme state of realisation that it is not conformed mostly to the decorum of the mundane routine life that people go through.
To praise someone’s lifestyle, characteristics and way of expressing is to subconsciously strive towards living such a life oneself. Praising the topic chosen is one important part of the Shadvidhi Linga or six qualities of any composition in Sanskrit poetry. Here the poet showers paeans on the life of realised masters who have touched the peak of thought and yet remain many a time disguised as a beggar or a madman. The warning here is to never judge a person by his/her looks. There is a great man of wisdom disguised as a beggar or someone who behaves oddly.
What is the use of such a state of mind? Well, it is a blessing to be in such a state. When there are pinpricks or big problems approaching them, their mind is undisturbed. It is not a static state, but a very dynamic one where they can very cool-headedly work out the solution to any problem that presents itself.
How to get there? With the constant reflection on the ultimate realisation and divine grace, you and I too can achieve that state of enlightened existence.
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