It is often misunderstood that the ‘Science of Spirituality’ or ‘Brahma Vidya’ is only useful to attain an at-present-unknown-state of self-realisation and has no practical use in day-to-day life of the common of the world. The moment the word ‘realisation’ is mentioned to the average man, his mind conjures up a picture of a sadhu sitting and meditating somewhere in the wilderness, or wandering without any worldly responsibilities.
No doubt, the ultimate goal that is set to be attained through ‘Brahma Vidya’ is the state of liberation or realization but this does not mean that there are no benefits that the seeker can obtain en-route to that goal or that those benefits are of no use in the seeker’s day-to-day life in the market place. Self-realisation is not just an isolated accidental experience that just happens in somebody’s life, but it is the culmination of a life lived intelligently and made progressively more and freer from the chains of slavery imposed by nature on man.
Is this not the same greater degree of freedom and happiness the aim of human being, whether he is a man in the market place or the sadhu in the Himalayan caves? In fact, the entire scheme of Brahma Vidya is to make man progressively happier and contended in his day-to-day life so that the spiritual unfoldment will take place within the individual automatically. Self-realisation is not a sudden superimposition of a special knowledge, but is the culmination of the evolutionary process in man.
Before we go into the details of how Brahma Vidya can be useful in the day-to-day life, let us see as to what this day-to-day life mean does. All the activities that a human being undertakes in this world are done with the hope to obtain a greater amount of happiness and to achieve more freedom from unhappiness. At the individual level, enjoyment of these factors in greater measures is called by the term ‘A Better Life’ and when applied to the humanity at large, it is called ‘Progress’.
Thus, the yardstick with which progress is measured and calibrated in terms of these two basic factors, namely — ‘Dukkha Nivriti and Sukkha Prapti’. All the so-called milestones of the history of human progress are nothing but man’s victory over a particular source of unhappiness or overcoming a limitation imposed on him by the nature. A closer look at the so-called discoveries starting from the making of the fire by prehistoric man to the splitting of the atom, space flight or the heart transplant by the modern man are nothing but milestones in man’s search.
Thus, Dukkha Nivriti and Sukkha Prapti forms the basis for what is known in the modern parlance as a ‘A higher standard of living’ and ‘A higher standard of life’, or popularly known as ‘Success in Life’ and ‘Happiness in Life’. Pursuit of these two objectives at the collective level is being undertaken by the governments of all countries. The politicians, economists and the scientists are all trying their best to rearrange the pattern of the outer world for the achievement of these two objectives.
The sad fact remains that no established pattern in the outer world of things and beings can remain long in any pre-arranged condition for any length of time. Added to this to find a suitable arrangement of the outer world to meet the demand of the innumerable variety of human beings is next to impossible.
At the individual level, each man by himself is also putting the best to achieve higher standards of life and living. But these efforts are so directed now, that at the most it can improve his standard of living and that too at the cost of the standard of life. Thus, it becomes clear that if man can re-educated that all the qualities that he is looking for in the objects of the world are not contained in them, but the same is always available in the self within himself then only he will stop his fruitless indulgence in sense objects. This process by which man is made to redirect his search within himself is known as ‘Brahma Vidya’. It can thus be clearly seen that even though the ultimate goal is self-realisation, in the process of achieving the same man comes to refine and improve the efficiency which alone can guarantee the success and happiness.
This article is an ‘Ashirvachana’ given by His Holiness Sri Balagangadaranatha Mahaswamiji, 71st Pontiff of Sri Adichunchanagiri Mahasamstana Math.