The Destiny of the Body

Chapter II

The Traditional Challenge

Perfect knowledge must lead to the trance of Samadhi....

True Knowledge cannot be attained except in Samadhi.

(Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathasar, p. 247)

Nor is it enough for the Sadhaka to have the utter realisation

only in the trance of Samadhi or in a motionless quietude,

but he must in trance or in waking, in passive reflection or

energy of action be able to remain in the constant Samadhi

of the firmly founded Brahmic consciousness.

(Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 349)

When the ego-sense gets completely dissolved, the body,

the product of ego, gets disintegrated too.

(Yogaśīkhopaniṣad, I.34)

When the root-cause of Avidyā is destroyed, the body must

perforce fall away.

(Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha, III.92.6)

Without desires the body cannot live.

(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 346)

After a man has attained samadhi all his actions drop away.

(Ibid., p. 80)

The ego-sense is not indispensable to the world-play.

(Sri Aurobindo, op. cit., p. 418)

Desire and ego and personal will and the thought of the mind are the motives of action only in the lower nature; when the ego is lost and the Yogin becomes Brahman, when he lives in and is, even, a transcendent and universal consciousness, action comes spontaneously out of that...

(Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, I, p. 303)

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Action without desire is possible, action without attachment

is possible, action without ego is possible.

(Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga p. 684)

Many are the spiritual seekers who would feel skeptic about the feasibility of the high goal of our spiritual endeavour which is no less than the dynamic divinisation of our total existence even to the dark dungeon of the subconscient. What the Yoga of Transformation seeks after is not "the perfection of introspective, indwelling or subjective spirituality"¹ but "the perfection of the whole nature in a dynamic, kinetic spirituality objectivised in the life, master of its environment, sovereign in its commerce with world-nature."² The integral transformation we envisage must thus embrace fully the dynamic being of action and creation, these latter remaining no more the expression of ego-bound desire-tainted ignorance as at present but becoming the perfect expression and flowering of the Truth, the Light and the Divine Ananda.

The realisation of this goal naturally implies that our waking state involving even its most physical functionings must be totally rid of all ego-trace, for in the epigrammatic utterance of the Mother:-

"Ego is that which helps us to individualise ourselves and that which prevents us from becoming divine. Combine the two together and you will know what the ego is. Without ego, as the world is organised now, there would be no individual, and with the ego the world cannot become divine."³

Similarly, desire in all its guises gross and subtle must be altogether extirpated from our waking consciousness, if we would like to acquire a divine life of action and creation firmly established in the consummated transcendence of the universal Ignorance; for, contrary to what is generally assumed, it is not desire that is the true creative principle. In fact, "desire has no place in the Supreme or in the All-Being.... Desire is the result of incompleteness, of insufficiency, of something that is not possessed or enjoyed and which the being seeks for possession or enjoyment. A supreme and universal Being can have the delight of its all-existence, but to that delight desire must be foreign, — it can only

^{1 2} The Life Divine, p. 960. (Italics ours)

³ Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Vol. XII, No. 1, p. 69. (Italics ours)

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be the appanage of the incomplete evolutionary ego..."¹

But is it at all possible to have an egoless desireless waking state? Is it practicable to possess a purposive dynamic life in which action will not lower the consciousness or becloud the vision of the soul?

Those spiritual seekers who emphatically assert the impossibility of these realisations and hence, a fortiori, the impossibility of a divinised waking physical existence, seek to do so basing themselves on their own personal experience. Therefore, it becomes incumbent upon us, if we would like to establish the validity of a possible divine transformation of our physical being and consciousness, to take note of these contrary findings, accept them at their face value and then clearly point out how these well-authenticated deficiencies can be rectified and remedied. Pointwise, the most important findings and some of their representative documentary evidences are as follows:

(A) The Waking State and the Highest Realisation

It is claimed that the highest heights of spiritual realisation are not compatible with the waking state; they can be acquired only by means of the Yogic trance or Samadhi. In this connection the case of Sri Chaitanya is often cited. According to the accounts given by his associates he alternated between three different states: (i) the state of the bhakta, (ii) the intoxicated state and (iii) the state of Nirvikalpa or 'seedless' Samadhi. In the narration of Sri Ramakrishna:

"Chaitanya Dev used to experience three different states: antardaśā or the indrawn state, ardhabāhya-daśā or the half-withdrawn state and bāhya-daśā or the waking state. In the antardaśā he would have union with the Divine in the cataleptic state of jaḍa-samādhi; in the ardhabāhya-dasa he would dance in the company of the devotees, when he retained some awareness of the external world; in the bāhya-daśā he was fully aware of his external environment and in the consciousness of a bhakta enjoyed singing the holy name of the Lord."²

¹ The Life Divine, pp. 769-70.

² Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathasar, pp. 305, 309.

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(B) The Ultimate Realisation Burns Out the Body

It is asserted that perfect Knowledge, generally attained in the deepest or the highest state of Samadhi, must lead inexorably to the dissolution of the body. It becomes thus pointless to talk of the dynamic divinisation of life. It is perhaps some such finding that is hinted at in those verses of the Upanishads where it is stated that it is impossible to pass through the gates of the Sun and yet retain an earthly body. As Sri Aurobindo has pointed out, it was because of this failure that the spiritual effort of India culminated in Mayavada.¹

Brahmarshi Satyadev is emphatic in his assertion that the highest state of Yogic trance in which all the bhâvas are scorched out of existence can occur only once² in the life-time of an embodied soul; for, once attained, there is no return (vyutthāna) therefrom. And he interprets, we would rather say 'unjustifiably', the following verse from the Gita to support his view:

"My highest status is that from which there is no more return."³

Sri Ramakrishna too never felt tired of stressing this particular point. According to him, except for some rare specially gifted souls, the Ishwarakotis, it is absolutely impossible for the majority of Sadhakas to return from the exalted state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi to the normal plane of relative consciousness. "When the Kundalini rises to the Sahasrara and the mind goes into samadhi, the aspirant loses all consciousness of the outer world. He can no longer retain his physical body.... In that state the life-breath lingers for twenty-one days and then passes out. Entering the 'black waters' of the ocean, the ship never comes back."⁴

In his inimitable way Sri Ramakrishna narrates a parable bearing upon the same theme:

"While on their way four friends chanced upon a spot surrounded by high walls. All four felt eager to know what was inside there. So one of them clambered up the wall and peeped in. But lo and wonder! he uttered a shrill cry of 'ha! ha! ha! ha!' and tumbled down inside the compound: he did not report back. Then the other three, one by one, followed suit and everyone

¹ Letters on Yoga, p. 102.

² Sādhana Samara, Part I, p. 225.

³ yad gatvā na nivartante taddhāma paramaṁ mama.

⁴ The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 456.

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of them uttered 'ha! ha! ha! ha!' and vanished altogether. Who would report to whom then!"¹

(C) The Waking State not Compatible with the

Absence of Ego and Desire

It is often averred that it is futile to expect that while in the waking state one can be completely free from all trace of ego and desire. It is only in the highest state of Samadhi that this becomes possible. Thus we find in Sri Ramakrishna:

"To be sure, the ego does not disappear altogether.... In samadhi the ego totally disappears; then what is remains."² "The ego can disappear only when one goes into samadhi."³ "It is true that one or two can get rid of the 'I' through samadhi: but these cases are very rare. You may indulge in thousands of reasonings, but still the 'I' comes back. You may cut the peepal-tree to the very root today, but you will notice a sprout springing up tomorrow."⁴ "The 'I' cannot be effaced altogether.... It is like a goat that still bleats faintly and jerks its legs even after its head has been cut off."⁵

So, it is only in the highest state of Yogic trance that ego can be eliminated altogether. Conversely, on the elimination of ego-sense, a person must perforce leave the waking state and retire into Samadhi. And as we have mentioned above, for the general run of Sadhakas, this plunge into the trance-state is sooner or later followed by the dropping off of the body-sheath. For, it is claimed that it is the ego-sense that alone serves as the linchpin for the functioning of the body; so, with the eradication of ego, the body gets automatically disintegrated.⁶

The same remark holds for desires. In however subtle and attenuated a form desires must persist if the physical body has at all to function. For, as the Yoga-Vashishtha points out, desires form the supporting string for the formation of the garland of beads, which is no other than the physical body, and hence with the string gone, the body-garland vanishes in no time.⁷

¹Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathasar, p. 304.

^{2 3} The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, pp. 794, 101.

^{4 5} Ibid., pp. 102, 1014.

⁶ āhaṁkṛtiryadā yasya naṣṭā bhavati tasya vai dehastvapi bhavennaṣṭaḥ. ( Yogaśikhopaniṣad, I.34-35)

⁷ ayaṁ vāsanayā deho dhriyate bhūtapañjaraḥ tantunāntarniviṣṭena muktaughastantunā yatha. (Yoga-Vāsiṣṭham, I.3.10)

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But such is the case for the majority of Sadhakas whom Sri Ramakrishna would designate as jīvakoṭis. But what about those rare great souls, the īśvarakoṭis of Ramakrishnian terminology, who, like Narada, Janaka, Prahlada and others of tradition and Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and others of historical times, are reputed to have ascended to the Nirvikalpa state of Samadhi and then descended' therefrom for the welfare of the world, lokakālyaṇārtham? ¹

Even they, it is asserted, cannot come down to the waking state except through the mediation of some desire however trivial and innocent in appearance. Thus we read in the authoritative biography of Sri Ramakrishna:

"It is only a Ramakrishna who is able to come down and go to the Absolute at will, and even he assured his return to the ordinary consciousness by creating some desire of the simplest and most childlike nature before going into samadhi and repeating it insistently so that there was nothing left to chance. He would say, I-I-I shall smoke,' 'I shall have water to drink.' "²

And while remaining in the waking state for the welfare of others, the Ishwarakotis cannot of course be altogether free from all desires and ego-sense; they must retain what have been termed vidyāmāyā or the 'ego of Knowledge' and śuddha-vāsanā or 'pure desires', if they would like to have their bodies persist. As Sri Ramakrishna says:

"Returning to the relative plane after reaching the Absolute is like coming back to this shore of a river after going to the other side.... If one retains Vidya-Maya one comes back to this world. The Avatars keep this Vidya-Maya."³ "Some even after realizing God, retain the 'ego of Knowledge'. They retain this in order to teach others, taste divine bliss and sport with the devotees of God."⁴

Of course, this sort of ego-sense and these desires are not of

¹ Cf. "Generally the body does not remain alive after the attainment of samadhi. The only exceptions are such sages as Narada, who keep their bodies alive in order to bring spiritual light to others. It is also true of divine Incarnations, like Chaitanya.... The great souls who retain their bodies after samadhi feel compassion for the suffering of others." (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 81)

² The Life of Sri Ramakrishna (Advaita Ashram, Almora), p. 182. (Italics ours)

^{3 4} The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, pp. 931, 935.

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much importance from the point of view of traditional spirituality, for they do not obstruct the return to the highest state of Knowledge. They are, in the imagery of Sri Ramakrishna, "like a sword turned into gold by touching the philosopher's stone; you cannot hurt anybody with it."¹ The Varāhopaniṣad and the Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha adopt the simile of fried seeds incapable of sprouting again, to designate the same truth;² and Acharya Sureshwara brings in the image of a snake whose venom has been extracted, in order to demonstrate the harmlessness of the appearance of Avidya posterior to Realisation.³

But ego is ego and desires are desires, and we for ourselves cannot be satisfied with this sort of compromise achievement in which one "runs a boat-race back and forth, as it were, between the sixth and the seventh planes."⁴

(D) A Really Dynamic Life not Compatible with the

Highest State of Realisation

It is often pointed out that for a really dynamic life with purposive action, a certain fall from the supreme state of spiritual realisation becomes inevitable. Simple actions meant for the maintenance of bodily life may be altogether innocuous, but other actions are sure to involve the embodied soul in some sort of bondage and obscurity. And since actions tend to carry the consciousness outward and downward, work is generally considered to be an operation of Avidya or Ignorance and hence incompatible with the highest status of realisation. Thus the Shanti-Gita declares :

"Desires engender Karmas and the Karmas in their turn create desires (vāsanayā bhavet karma karmanā vāsanā punaḥ)...Karmas do not allow a soul to withdraw from the play of Ignorance (saṁ-sṛterna nivartate). Karmas are therefore the source of all troubles

¹The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 1014.

²bhṛṣṭabijavat. (Yoga-Vāsiṣṭham, I.3.13)

utpādyamānā rāgādyā

vivekajñānavahninā

tadā tadaiva dahyante

kutasteṣāṁ prarohanam (Varāhopanisad III. 24-25)

³ utkhātadaṁṣṭroragavadavidyā kim kariṣyati? (Bhadāranyaka-Vārtika, I.4.1746)

⁴ The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 456.

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(duḥkhahetustataḥ karma) and act as the shackles for embodied souls (jīvānāṁ pādaśṛṁkhalam). Shun then all actions (sarvaṁ karma parityajya)."¹

It is thus that actions are supposed to fall off from the life of a traditional spiritual seeker as he advances on the way of Illumination. Sri Ramakrishna expresses this supposedly indubitable fact of all true spiritual life in the following two parables:

"In the Kirtan the devotee first sings 'Nitāi āmar mātā hāti' ('My Nitai dances like a mad elephant'). As the devotional mood deepens, he simply sings, 'Hati! Hati!' Next, all he can sing is 'Hati!' And last of all he simply sings, 'Ha!' and goes into samadhi. The man who has been singing all the while then becomes speechless."²

"Again at a feast given to the Brahmins, one at first hears much noise of talking. When the guests sit on the floor with the leaf-plates in front of them, much of the noise ceases. Then one hears only the cry, 'Bring some luchi!' As they partake of the luchi and other dishes, three quarters of the noise subsides. When the curd, the last course, appears, one hears only the sound 'soop! soop!' as the guests eat the curd with their fingers. Then there is practically no noise. Afterwards all retire to sleep and absolute silence reigns."³

That Sri Ramakrishna did not consider a dynamic life of action and creation to be at all compatible with the highest state of realisation, can be surmised from his utterances on the occasion of his favourite disciple Narendra (afterwards known the world over by the name of Swami Vivekananda) attaining for the first time the Nirvikalpa state of Samadhi. Let us quote in extenso from an authoritative work published by the Sri Ramakrishna Order:

"About nine o'clock at night Naren began to show faint signs of returning consciousness. When he regained full consciousness of the physical world...[and] presented himself to the Master, the latter said looking deep into his eyes, 'Now then, the Mother has shown you everything. Just as a treasure is locked up in a box, so will this realisation you have just had be locked up and the key shall remain with me. You have work to do. When you will have finished my work, the treasure-box will be unlocked again; and you will know everything then just as you do now.'

¹ Shanti Gita, V. 36-38.

^{2 3} The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 81.

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"Afterwards Sri Ramakrishna said to the other disciples, The moment he realises who he is, he will refuse to stay a moment longer in the body. The time will come when he will shake the world to its foundation through the strength of his intellectual and spiritual powers. I have prayed that the Divine Mother may keep this realisation of the Absolute veiled from Naren. There is much work to be done by him."¹

We have made a brief survey of some of the main grounds upon which most spiritual seekers would seek to contest the possibility of any divine transformation of our waking physical existence. And if in reality, as it is generally assumed, such is the destined state of spiritual penury of the waking consciousness, the traditional spirituality is justified in putting its sole stress on the inner Realisation, leaving the outer Nature-part to participate as much as it possibly can in the Illumination of the inner Being and then drop off definitively at death.

But although actually and pragmatically valid, we do not accept that our waking physical consciousness is intrinsically and potentially debarred from getting spiritually transformed. But it is never enough to assert a high goal and a laudable objective; it is necessary too to see whether they are at all realisable in practice. And for that we must now examine the actual state of our waking consciousness, its present penury and future possibilities and seek to disengage the conditions whose fulfilment will lead to its divine transformation.

¹ The Life of Swami Vivekananda by his Eastern and Western Disciples (Advaita Ashram, Almora), p. 145. (Italics ours)

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