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

Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga: New Darsana : Part-1 :The Darsana

Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga and Ontology (Nature of Reality)

  
Every darsana, as a Vision of Reality, has a notion of the nature of that Reality. In one sense this notion is not considered to be out of place.

Reality is all this that is being experienced. Nothing unreal can be experienced. The non-existent is incapable of being, and so cannot be an object of any knowledge. Even though the world is riddled with contradictions and illusions, and even though hallucinations are not rare phenomena, nothing unreal can be an object of knowledge. But we have to grapple, not with these problems of the theory of knowledge, but with reality as such. The Real is the Ultimate source of all realities and sustains all. It can be said to be the Substance of all that is real. Being One, it manifests the Many. This experience of the One Substance is transcendental to all our known sources of knowledge. Its reality is confirmed by transcendental experience rather than by any proofs or arguments for its existence on the basis of our instruments of knowing the outer or inner regions of being. Oneness of the One is an experience, even as Allness of the One is; but it is an oneness which brings out of itself all these, both the cosmic and the individual, the world of experiencing subjects and experienced objects.

The individual's intuition, as it develops, begins to grasp its own cause. Through intuitive seeking one discovers how the effect could come out of the cause and how it could enter back into it. It is not merely a process of thought which imagines the descent of effect from the cause in which it is deemed to be potentially present, or even of the ascent of the effect into its cause. No rational explanation can show how the manifest returns to its own potential state as cause. There are of course persons who hold that this cause-effect mutuality, or reciprocal involvement and evolvement, is nothing but an intellectual device to explain immanence. Novelty seems to be ruled out of this causal law. However, when one discovers in experience that planes of being emerge and immerge and lead up to the experience of the one womb of all manifestations, then it will be seen that there is a truth in the Oneness of Reality.

The intuitive experience of the One Reality, which makes all diversity of experiences possible, is considered to be the Ultimate. Being beyond all the categories of Nature and the individual, it is indescribable. That becomes all these - Nature, individuals, worlds and all. One's real existence is drawn from That, so too are all individuals and things. It is the source of all existence and maker of it; it is the source of all awareness or consciousness, and of all bliss or delight. In a sense, it is that which makes all possible both to itself and to all that arise from it. Therefore it is called the Original Ground, the Origin and End of all things.

The Original Ground is the Original Peace - the Quiet or quiescence that all souls seek in the world. The world of manifestation is in constant movement and fulguration or divisive manyness. Therefore there is loss of peace. The loss of peace is experienced as misery, though this has also the possibility of growth and interweaving and inter-relationships with other entities equally divided and moving. Harmony is worked out of these manifold forces and movements which become congealed into entities or particles or monads. The living and the non-living seem to be governed by the same principle of interlacing, interweaving struggles and to be engaged in conflict and tensions. Harmony is sought to be evolved through the principle of life (prana) that unites what would fall apart; it makes growth possible and thus organizes the inorganic and the unorganized. This prana is the essence of the original quiet whilst all these movements are the products of a first thrust of the Quiet out of itself. This is the mystery of the Original Movement or Whirl - Kshobha. That this too is immanent in the Quiet or Peace must be conceded, as it is also experienced. Kshobha and Aksobha seem to be the supported and the supporter respectively. But Ksobha is just a portion (partial vibration) of that Aksobha or Ultimate Ground.

The original impulse throws out the potentialities into the realm of movement or manifestation. Creation thus proceeds in radiations and circles which are concentric. This original impulsion leads to the fulgurative diversity which proceeds from the utmost subtle condition to the grossest condition, as the radiations move more and more away from the Central point of impulsion (ksobha). The worlds and planes of being or of manifestation appear to come out of that primary source in succession. One may call this the descent into manifestation (pravrtti), and all possess not only the Original ground but also the impulsion. Thus, subjectively, the individual particles and monads seek the substance of being in rest or pace, while at the same time they are struggling onward to manifest further possibilities of organic unity immanent in them - the ultimate solidity that almost annihilates all movement whilst preserving the Peace which is a mere reflection of the Original. The pull from the Centre remains always as the one inextinguishable impulse to return to the Source connecting all with it. This pull cannot be resisted; it has to fulfill itself by returning through all the various processes through which it had passed. From the inorganic it has to move towards the organic and then to the supra-organic and spiritual being. As is the pravrtti so too is the nivrtti. Evolution is a movement back to the source, in the modern language of moving from materialistic homogeneity to organic and supra-organic heterogeneity of original radiating fulguration. The return or ascent in evolution is not built on novelty, but is a renewal of the supra-organic that had slumbered in the inorganic creation.

The truth of experience is, in its highest condition, beyond experience itself. The transcendence of Reality to experience is such that many empiricists would deny it. But the Infinite is something that goes beyond the experiences of the most advanced consciousness itself. The evidence of the being or reality of the Transcendent lies in itself rather than in consciousness which appears to be the second order Reality. This fact becomes an Experience that reaches beyond itself, and gives the impression of endlessness or infinity (anantatva). This Transcendent is not, however, a nothing or mere Zero, though according to some it may be called so. The truly transcendent is Transcendent to all consciousness, and as such, capable of bringing into being consciousness of all levels and grades.

The Reality thus becomes the very spirit of existence and consciousness, and verily the source and experience of delight or Ananda.

The permeating nature of Reality is such that it is the meaning and soul of all things. All things live and move and have their being in It without fully knowing it. In moments of deepest sleep or rest alone do they sometimes become aware of that Reality. No wonder all things seek rest, quiet, immobility, permanence, satiation, fulfilment and security in it. But it is the hidden fact (nidhana), the treasure-abode, to which one returns after every exertion for renewal. It is also called therefore the death, which is rest itself, before one takes up another birth.

In the world-creation there always exist the two processes - the manifestation and the withdrawal. To the ancients the waxing and the waning of the moon symbolized the two processes of evolution and involution in all planes of Being. Reality is that which sustains both the processes and gives meaning to life and all its processes. Thus, Sri Ramchandra's Raja Yoga ontologically accepts the One Reality which is truly transcendent to all existence, consciousness and delight, but which manifests all multiplicity with all the triple forces of sustaining existence, consciousness and bliss in all the planes of super-consciousness, consciousness, unconsciousness and matter.

The path of descent from the Central Substance or Reality (Tam) ( The conception of the Tam as the Reality is unique. It is like the "unground" of Jacob Boechme. It is the Reality. From it arises the Ksobha, which is called Naada by taantriks. It is also called the Sudarsana by the Pancaratra. It is Sakti. It is the Godhead or Centre of all creative movement - the Vasudeva, the Visnu, omnipervasive Being who is known as the Jagadkaranavastu, or jagadyoni. It is also Nature, Prakrti. This is its para-form. The lower form develops as the radiations fall away from the centre or move away from the source. This first is also called Manas - the first Mind, the cosmic form which develops the individual forms for each one of the rays of the Centre. The amsas are soul-like living rays of the Divine which enclose themselves in the prakrti which tends to become grosser and more and more material for forming the bodies of the souls higher up or lower down. The Inner ray becomes the interior, whereas the gross becomes the exterior and outer, parallel to the inner. Thus there is always this parallelity between the outer matter or outer mind and the inner mind or spirit, manifested and related by the operation of the reason or intellect in some practical way. Sri Ram Chandra has described this process of parallelity in a more luminous form than Spinoza, Leibnitz, or the Jainas did.) is through the vibrational radiations which form rings and knots, or a chain with links of several levels of consciousness which encircle and bind the central radiational monad, and form the objects of knowledge and utility to other equally fulgurated monads.

Thus atoms, bodies, and monads are all different levels of the One Ksobha; the spiritual souls (these 'souls' being the highest) are however eternal in the sense that they, in their transcendent being, are of the Centre merging and emerging from it during creation without developing the rings and knots and chains.

The metaphysics of the Sri Ramchandra's Raja Yoga thus implies the acceptance of the Transcendent which is beyond all description, and yet is the fountain-head of all descriptions. It is Infinite and indescribable, but it is capable of being realized. It is that which grants ultimate peace, perfection and liberation to all. It is that which is to be known, seen and entered into. From it all our senses recede, and our mind also recedes, but it can be transmitted as superfine Original consciousness through which it can be realized and entered into.

The manner of communication of this Reality is only through transmission of the Prana, which is pranasya prana, and therefore of all instruments of knowledge and being. Therefore it is that all efforts to reach this culminating experience are centred in the principle of Transmission. The really awakened one is one in whom the prana of the Centre, the primary ksobha or vibration, has begun to function without any interruption and deviation or grossening. Even a little of this superfine force is sufficient to keep the entire organic structure and planes of being alive and athrob (in tune) with the Infinite. Each and every atom, and monad, and cell, of the body becomes resonant with the primary vibration or throb, and registers peace and calm and non-resistance or ease (saralata). Therefore one has firstly to develop the capacity to receive this superfine consciousness-force and perceive the Reality in its primary nature.

Thus the Reality is experienced beyond all experiences of the senses. The dynamic organic explanation of the Sri Ramchandra's Raja Yoga reconciles the basic concepts of creation with the development of parallelity between the inner and the outer. The inner, seen through inner vision, is spirit, animated with that basic and central life, whereas the outer is seen to be the matter, the body of that inner, and there is the transcendental interaction between them. At any moment one could pass from the one vision to the other and realize that both are real and that a central force alone makes for the transformation or translation of one into the other.