Sahaj Marg question: Not "Who" but "What" is God?

By Victor Kannan - SRCM Preceptor

God is one, but religions are many. Life is a stream, but life forms are many. We need not be concerned with statements such as “religions divide” and the ranking of religion in terms of salvation. One thing is certain: these religious founders themselves did not coin their teaching into terms like Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, etc. They tried to teach how to live and emphasized the purpose of life for the people who were under their “custody and upbringing” – theologically speaking.

Religion as it is practiced today is an expression of the struggle of humanity to keep itself moral, pure and God-fearing. It is more a struggle to instill in the hearts of human beings the love for God. The word “God-fearing” strikes a peculiar tone, as God is love, not fear.

It is quite understandable if we pray to God for basic needs. If you ask a hungry man, “What would you prefer, God or bread?” of course he will choose bread. But we are bogged down so much in solving our material problems that we see God for the purpose of solving them, and blame God if things are adverse.

We even attribute our successes to God’s appreciation of our way of living, and hence they are considered rewards. By the same token, there is punishment.

We also seem to go to the extreme of saying that those who belong to a certain religion will be rewarded and the rest will be condemned. Many religious practitioners of the modern era seem to be fanatical about it.

One wonders who is right and who is wrong.  We seem to seek God’s partnership in business. We seem to be preoccupied in asking God for material things. How many seriously inquire if it is possible to become God-like in terms of our being full of compassion, love, wisdom and purity?

If you are a friend of a benevolent king, would you beg for what he can dole out, or would you just enjoy being in his whole kingdom?

God can’t have a system of punishment and reward. He can’t differentiate between sinners and saints. He is the ultimate cause and we are the intermediate cause.

If he is all merciful, he must make sure that we are prevented from falling and from our own misbehavior. But why is this not so? This has to be understood in the overall context of Nature and its laws.

How can God give humans preferential treatment in evolution while humans also have to abide by the laws of Nature? One of the laws of the Nature is to use the faculties properly. God has bestowed mankind with two important faculties – intelligence and will power.

The improper use of these two faculties is the cause of our suffering. On the other hand, it is only by using these two faculties that we can continue the ascent back to the kingdom of God.

Religions have introduced the concept of God as something superior, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Yes, it is indeed true. It is also something that watches our behavior, and hence we must be pious, loving, kind, etc.

No… Here also, the expectation of something rewarding from the super power predominates our affiliation with that God. And failure of the super power to fulfill that expectation seems to deny the existence of God.

Thus, God seems to be our creation rather than something eternal. If this is what we have made of religions, then these man-made religions have failed in showing us what God really is.

The question is not “Who is God?” but “What is God?” This is an essential difference between religion and spirituality.

While religions, in general, give us a list of Gods, Spirituality says, and also, the Masters of Sahaj Marg (Lalaji Maharaj, Babuji Maharaj, Chariji Maharaj, Shri. Kamlesh D Patel) say, God is within us and has no name and no form; it is a transcended condition, a feeling and an experience that all of us can have.

God is something that we have to become one with forever, eternally. When we ask the question, “What is God?” it brings forth the idea that God is perhaps a Principle. Like any principle, it is mindless. It behooves us to have sufficient wisdom, intelligence and knowledge to harness any principle for one’s ultimate benefit. And it is the domain of spirituality to deal with the subject of how to harness this principle of God in one's life for one's self.

Sahaj Marg can be looked upon as a science, and the individual is the experimenter, we being the laboratory, and the result is in attaining ourselves – a transformed self, a loving self, and a God-like self.

Sankalpa in Sahaj Marg

By Victor Kannan

I believe this idea of sankalpa* is unique in Sahaj Marg. It is not a mere will. It is not just a mere intention. It is also not just a plea, a condition, a loving compulsion or a resigned expectation; perhaps it’s a unique combination of all of the above.

Let us look at the components.

It is an act of will, because it requires a focused action on the part of the individual. But will alone is not going to get the job done, especially in the areas of inner human growth and transformation. At times, one would say intention is important and intention alone creates a field for action. But we all know the saying, “The way to hell is paved with good intentions.” Though cynical it may sound, it seemed to have been born out of human experience. It suggests that intention alone does not get us to the intended place or result.

Sankalpa also has the element of a plea or prayer or submission, because the required change is beyond one’s strength and capability. If a change is well within one’s own capacity, one must exercise one’s full strength and capability to achieve it. But more often than not, one resorts to prayer to a higher power for a desired change that is beyond one’s ability. Accepting the need to change is a very important aspect of this sankalpa, and a prayer to a higher power is needed. Moreover, with the inner condition of humility, admitting one’s powerlessness over the change process, the dependence on a higher power is emphasised.

This aspect of loving compulsion is nothing but the intense desire for transformation and the acute dependence on a higher power to effect the change. And after all this, a resignation to His will! Wow, if we can reach that state, I think all our mundane ills are cured! That is sankalpa to my mind’s understanding.

Kamlesh D Patel says, “When certain conditions have to be created inside us, sankalpa is the best thing. This is the best way to create something inside yourself or remove something from yourself. And it has to be prayerful, that, “My Lord, may this be removed.” It is like a prayer.
– Designing Destiny, p.100

* “Sankalpa means a conception or idea or notion formed in the heart or mind; a solemn vow or determination to perform; a desire, definite intention, volition or will” - Wikipedia

Hidden Potential of Consciousness: Shri Kamlesh Patel

Shri Kamlesh D Patel, the current president of Shri Ram Chandra Mission (www.srcm.org) and the Spiritual Guide of Sahaj Marg, visited France on 28th December 2015 to be part of a Seminar at Lyon. The seminar was attended by thousands of Sahaj Marg abhyasis and Heartfulness participants and Kamlesh Patel gave a few talks and several informal discussions happened with the SRCM abhyasis and SRCM preceptors. Kamlesh Patel covered many topics about volunteer work, abhyasis, preceptors and their responsibilities, and also talked about consciousness. Here is a short brief on his talk on the hidden potential and expansion of consciousness. 

In our daily state of activity, we use less than 10% of our consciousness. It is said that even those brilliant minds like Einstein only use such a very little portion of their mental capacity.

Imagine a 2 mm layer of water that is a metaphor for our awareness. Now imagine this thin layer sandwiched between two oceans, like the Pacific and Atlantic. The two oceans can be compared one to the superconscious mind and the other to the subconscious mind.

Our thin layer of consciousness can also be compared as being between the sky and the earth. When we soar high in meditation it is like expanding our consciousness into superconscious states as vast as the sky, and when we sleep after saying our prayer we go deep into the vastness of the depths of the oceans, which can be compared to the subconscious.

This expansion is like a game, and consciousness is to a spiritual person as a toy is to a child. We have to learn eventually to go beyond it in spirituality, and realise the base that supports our consciousness.

SRCM Sahaj Marg on Cleanliness: By Victor Kannan

The proverb “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” is well known in Judeo-Christian cultures, and its teaching and supporting belief systems have had a profound impact on our lives. In the casteistic culture of old India, too, cleanliness was observed to an almost inhuman degree. Traces of the same were evident in the old Talmudic Jewish tradition, with their very strict bathing, grooming and dressing practices associated with piety and devotion. These attitudes may have arisen out of a narrowly focused understanding of these scriptural values.

The practice of Sahaj Marg challenges individuals to look within themselves and find this idea of separateness from God as the main reason for suffering. The separateness can result from many things. One is a simple sense of ‘I’-ness: of thinking ourselves to be separate from God. It does not matter if we do this egotistically or ignorantly. It could result from our thinking of desires, whereby we stray away from the thoughts of devotion and remembrance of the Lord as a potential of our consciousness. Another reason is the set of impressions these desires and their actions leave behind. These layers form our personality and bring us farther and farther away from our potential of godliness. So, in Sahaj Marg we undertake this practice of cleaning.

This is one of the unique features of Sahaj Marg. First to recognize, without any prejudice, that we have formed impressions that hide our true divine nature. Hence, they are hiding our godliness. Then we accept the need to clean these impressions. These impressions are cleaned daily by our evening practice and by SRCM preceptors and the Master, using their will and yogic transmission.

Kamlesh D Patel, the current President of Shri Ram Chandra Mission (www.srcm.org) and the Spiritual Master of Sahaj Marg and successor of Chariji Maharaj, says, “When complexities are removed, we become simple, and when impurities are removed we become pure.” If God is defined as simple, and is pure, through this practice we can reach, experience, and exist in the height of simple and pure consciousness akin to Godliness.

So, in Sahaj Marg too we can say with confidence, Cleanliness is next to Godliness! If we think of Godliness as an aim of existence, then all the need for limited belief systems also drops off.  The simplicity and purity of one’s psychological, emotional and intellectual existences are the states of being of joy, peace and bliss.

Sahaj Marg – A Dynamic Path: Excerpts from Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol II and III

Sahaj Marg is a unique and special system – a modified form of Raja Yoga suited to modern day life, enabling human approach to the highest limit practicable for man in the least possible time.  

Anyone who is interested can practice the system to experience its effectiveness, and actualize the benefits in their own lives. The current Master of Sahaj Marg, Shri Kamlesh D. Patel has spoken a lot about the unique features of this wonderful system in several recent talks.

This article includes excerpts from the Complete Works of Ram Chandra (Babuji), written by the founder-president of Shri Ram Chandra Mission, highlighting the special features of this system.

A Path suited to the routine of Modern Life

Sahaj Marg runs along simplest and most natural lines which are easily adjustable to the ordinary routine of worldly life. It admits none of the methods of rigid austerity, penance or physical mortification undertaken with a view to effect the strangulation of the mind and the senses (indriyas).

-        From ‘The System of Sahaj Marg’ Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol II p 212

Balancing the Material and Spiritual Life

The Sahaj Marg system makes it possible for us to do our duty the way finiteness demands, and to proceed along towards the Infinite. It reveals to us our duty as the foremost thing. So we should correct both the things, that is, we should fly with both the wings. If we attempt the finite alone we proceed with an unsound base. We should attempt the finite for the Infinite. For this, dynamic methods should be adopted. And what can those methods be? Only those which introduce, from the very beginning, the character of the Infinite. I shall be very grateful to the readers if they ponder a little over this sentence.

-        From ‘Sahaj Marg – A Dynamic Path’ Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol II p 288

The Guru in Sahaj Marg

This can be best introduced by those who have imbibed the real characteristic within their own centres; who know how to draw in the power and piety from the higher centres to the lower ones, and who can transmit the effect into the student so that they may adopt the same character. For this a strong dynamic hand is always necessary.

-        From ‘Sahaj Marg – A Dynamic Path’ Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol II p 288

The worthy trainer with the power of yogic transmission weakens the lower tendencies of the mind of the student, and sows the seed of Divine light in the innermost core of the student’s heart. In this process the trainer uses his own will-force which has the Divine Infinite power at its back. In a way he is conscious of That and he just focuses It through the lens of his own will upon the heart of the student. The student may not feel anything at the beginning. The reason is that he is accustomed to feel only through the senses, and the Divine power is beyond the senses. After some time, however, he may feel the results of such transmission, which also are in the form of subtle changes of the workings of his vital parts and of the tendencies of his mind.

-        From ‘Spiritual  Training through Yogic Transmission’ Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol II p 304

Under this process the Master, by the application of his internal powers, awakens and accelerates the dormant forces in the student to action, and diverts the flow of the Divine current towards his Heart.

-        From ‘The System of Sahaj Marg’ Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol II p 214

Under the system of Sahaj Marg the dormant energies of the Centre and sub-centres are awakened so as to enable them to function properly. When the high centres are awakened they begin to shed their effect upon the lower centres, and when they come into contact with the Divine, the lower ones get merged in them. The higher centres take over charge of the lower ones. The lower ones too are cleaned so as to relieve them of the grosser effects settled on them. That alone is the proper, and the most natural, course which can bring about the highest results.

-        From ‘The System of Sahaj Marg’ Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol II p 216

Removing Impediments on the Path

The greatest impediment in the path is the unregulated action of the senses which have gone out of control. As long as we do not remove the grossness settled in our centres, the grace or effect of high centres remains far apart due to the grossness and complexities we have made. For this, the method of suppression or strangulation hitherto advised under older systems is not of much avail. Under the Sahaj Marg system of training the action of the senses is regulated in a natural way so as to bring them to their original state, i.e., just as it was when we assumed human form for the first time. 

-        From ‘The Essence of Sahaj Marg’ Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol III p 401

The practices advised under the system are not merely formal and mechanical, related with the closing of eyes for meditation. They have a definite object, purpose and an end. There are two aspects of it, one being the practice (abhyas), and the second the Master’s support through yogic transmission (pranahuti) which accelerates the student’s progress by removing complexities and obstructions on his path. Under the old ways of practice, it was the student who had to struggle hard for removing his impediments and obstructions while the guru’s job ended with prescribing for him certain mechanical practices for the purpose. It is, however, not so in Sahaj Marg where much of the responsibility in this respect rests upon the Master who removes impediments and clears off complexities from the student’s mind by applying his own power through yogic transmission.

-        From ‘The System of Sahaj Marg’ Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol II p 213

Then the Heart, instead of being a field for defective mental activities, becomes the ground of Nature. Everything is changed into Real.

-        From ‘Meditation on Heart’ Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol II p 275

The Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating

If you go on counting the leaves of a tree it is likely that you may soon begin to forget what you have already counted. The method will never enable you to have the taste of the fruit which it bears. If you want to analyze the leaf, it is better to analyze the very fruit which it bears. How can you analyze it? The modern means are to test it in the laboratory, but the ancient way is to eat it and digest it to feel its effect.

-        From ‘Meditation on Heart’ Complete Works of Ram Chandra Vol II p 276

You are welcome to find out more about the system of Sahaj Marg and the Heartfulness approach by visiting heartfulness.org