Realisation of God through Penance

If you see in Indian epics, people have taken up penance by going to forests for meditation and  for pleasing their beloved deity. Especially kings resorted to forests and taken up penance to get children or to get some powerful boons such as deathless life, victories etc., At the point of their success in penance the deity appears before them and grants boons according to their desires. How can it be possible? Let us think over and see what our Spiritual Masters wrote about it.

Generally one craves for something and concentrates on heart, nose end, spine end or on a point on forehead in between the eyes (bhrukuti) thinking that his deity will appear duly pleased by his penance. This thought  of energy by concentration on a point will bring the form of deity before him and grant boons proposed by him. This happens by enfoldment of Kundalini Shakti (power knots in the spine cord) and power gets unleashed.

In this process only Ravana the villain of Ramayana saw his proposed form of four headed Brahma and got tremendous boons from which he performed innumerable violent deeds. But some pious ones like Druva got the boons in a similar way but he has  not misused them. So people used to take up penance to gain power but their usage is according to their will and pleasure only.

By this it is understand that doing penance and getting the vision of God (deity) is not final and the end. There is life after it whether good or bad, right or wrong. So in this we find no salvation. The problem of life  still remained unsolved. This is happening only because we are not having right goal or target before us. Appearance of God is by mere strong supposition. If a person travels on the sea for months together and becomes home sick, he begins to think of his people and native places strongly. At that time he sees villages and people before him on the sea which is not true. In the same way the people in  penance see their own contemplated Gods before them. But getting power is due to the opening of Kundalini (power knots in the spine) by one pointed strong concentration. Seeing God in the form of our own liking is not right. But we should be prepared to experience God as He is. God cannot be seen, but can only be experienced. God speaks in the language of feelings raised in the inner most core of our heart.

Even after getting the vision of the deity, the demon Ravana was put to punishment by Lord Sri Ram for his wrong actions. Dhruva got a great boon of shining in the sky as a star. But he cut a sorry figure for not having a right goal in his mind to pose before the Lord when he appeared. He became dissatisfied for not asking realization (or) mergence with the Lord, when the opportunity came.

Penance is a must to get the beloved one. What is that? That is nothing but God, the embodiment of pure love. In olden days the society was good. People were happy and comfortable with their kith and kin in solitude in the society. Whatever was needed for common life was available. So if they want to get anything more and special they resorted to forests for penance as forests are the only fit places for penance. In forests there was no protection from wild animals, from winds, from fire, from chill etc., thereby they selected forests to have penance in solitude.

Now let us come to our present day life. We should have a goal of life. What is that? And how do we take up the penance for achieving that. The time and space is endless. Our life in them is very minute, so somehow or the other we should complete our life cautiously and have to go back to our source (i.e.) from where our entity started, that is nothing but God. We have to merge in the Ultimate escaping from the numerous unwanted birth and deaths. For that we have to take up penance and leave attachments with this world. We have to please the God by thinking of him and him alone having no other wants. Regarding other pains and pleasures, they come and go. The real man never cares for them.

At this time and according to the changed present conditions of the world, we need not go to forests for penance. Especially for family holders house itself is enough for penance. Mahatma Ramachandraji says like this. Please observe:

“It is good to be put to worries. The home is the training centre for submission and endurance. To put up patiently with the day to day events of life is the highest form of penance and sacrifice. So instead of anger and resentment, one must cultivate in himself a meek temperament. For others aloofness, solitude and dissociation might be the means for cultivating contentment, endurance and freedom from the entanglement of life, whereas for us, to put up with the taints and rebukes of the family, friends and society is the greatest form of penance and sacrifice. In fact to put up coolly with miseries and troubles contributes much to our betterment, hence they are valuable assets to our progress. It is only by their wrong use that we spoil their effect and thus get deprived of their best advantages.”

So, for the household man, the way shown by Sri Ramachandraji Maharaj is the best for the Realization of God. For other details and guide lines of Sri Ramachandraji Maharaj, see other articles in this website labeled as Sahaj Marg.

Courtesy: Sri P.Subbarayudu, Preceptor and Sri B.E.Sampath Kumar, abhyasi, of Sri Ramachandraji Maharaj Seva Trust, Kadapa.