|
What Happens When the System is Cleaned?
In Sahaj Marg we speak very specifically about the process of cleaning
which refers to the impressions of the past, which are buried in us
as samskaras. In a sense it is these samskaras which become the burden,
tying us down to this existence, being worked upon by gravity, let us
say. Now when He cleans us, Master refers to what He calls a vacuumization
of the inside of our own system, so that something new can be put into
it. When you remove something from the system, a space is created inside,
into which He pours His transmission.
When you remove the samskaras, there is that which is eternally present,
a glorious light, the Divine Presence. So we don't have to bring God
from somewhere and put Him into you. It is like cleaning out the rubbish
to put in the new furniture. And that rubbish, all of it put together,
is the devilish part, the dark part, the baser part of each one of us.
What we are afraid of depends on the samskaras we carry inside us.
Therefore when this cleaning is finished you cannot have fear any more.
Therefore saints are fearless. They will go in the jungles, you know,
the elephant comes, the lion goes with them, the tiger walks in front
of them, they have no fear. How can they be afraid? - there is no samskara
here. I am tempted by something by which you are not tempted. Temptation
is not outside, it is inside. So temptation, fear, everything must
go when cleaning is complete.
The physical existence with which I have come, will follow me till
I am dead. Then what is the idea of cleaning? You know, if you buy a
crystal glass and clean it, it does not change its form, but it becomes
a fit receptacle for something you can put into it now. So, by cleaning
that which was unfit, it becomes fit to receive the Grace of the Almighty.
This is the correct idea of cleaning. It does not mean a poor man will
become rich, or an ugly girl become beautiful, or a weak man become
a strong man, though I must say, there will be normalisation of all
functions.
Cleaning must be understood very critically. Cleaning does not affect
the physical existence, in the sense that my body cannot be changed,
the colour of my hair cannot change, the colour of my eyes cannot change,
etc. But the quality of my life will change. When it changes, diseases
can be eliminated, because a disease is not really a physical thing.
Some intelligence can be awakened - at least to the level of normalisation
of the human level, because there is a limit to what we call intelligence.
If you consider the phenomenon of weight, it is gravity which holds
us down. If you could just cut off gravity, even mountains could fly.
What is so wonderful about flight? Similarly, it is the weight of our
past which is holding us down. And I may say with absolute confidence
that the cleaning aspect of Sahaj Marg alone is sufficient to give us
most of the blessings of spiritual practice, since ninety percent of
our deficiencies, of our drawbacks of the gravitational hold of samskaras
is released in one stroke.
When we do the cleaning and we remove the samskaras and our different
personalities fall off bit by bit, which we call change in character
- aggressiveness goes, for instance, greed goes, lust goes. One by one,
all these samskaras go and our personality changes. It is as if peeling
an onion. You take off skin after skin. You can say it is the peeling
of the personality. When we take away everything from ourselves,
we reveal what is within.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE RITUALS OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL
CLEANING? This, I consider, is something unique to Sahaj Marg. Though
the idea of cleaning is not foreign to even religious systems, it has
remained a superficial approach to physical cleansing and, perhaps,
to psychic cleaning process - to my knowledge nothing more than that,
nothing deeper than that. And therefore all temple rituals, church rituals,
have remained merely rituals. That is why when we go there and come
out, we don't feel a sense of either elation or lightness or joy, which
almost without exception every abhyasi feels after the cleaning process.
I hope you have all experienced this.
So that is the fantastic difference between the rituals of religion
and spiritual cleaning process as given by my Master: this buoyancy,
this feeling of lightness; and that is why in a sense Babuji says, "We
don't see light, but we feel light." And how does this feeling
of lightness come? Precisely because the weight of samskaras is removed;
I therefore repeat, it achieves ninety percent of what we have to achieve
under spiritual practice.
WHY ARE PEOPLE AFRAID OF CLEANING? Now Babuji Maharaj
has said, if you receive transmission while your tendencies are still
active, only those tendencies will be strengthened. As he puts it very
pithily, "If you transmit to a thief, he will become a perfect
thief." That is why I have always felt that transmission without
cleaning cannot achieve much, or at least it cannot achieve much in
the direction we want it to achieve. Therefore I have emphasized the
fundamental requirement, the most important requirement of our sadhana,
the cleaning process. Therefore we also advise abhyasis: whenever you
cannot meditate, at least do the evening cleaning, because it keeps
the vessel pure to receive the transmission. So this is the very great
benefit of the cleaning process, and whatever else we may neglect, the
cleaning should not be neglected under any circumstances.
If I have stored gasoline in a bottle and I wish to buy milk in it,
I have to clean it first. So when we are trying to put something into
us which is of the highest order of existence, the divine essence of
the Master by way of his transmission, we have to make ourselves fit
to receive it. That is the cleaning process.
So, transmission without cleaning can actually damage a person. So
transmission is always done only after sufficient cleaning has been
done. That is why we give these introductory three sittings (sometimes
it has to be more) which are devoted solely to cleaning. No transmission
at all. All the lightness that you feel during a sitting is not due
to transmission at all, it is due to cleaning. Cleaning gives you
lightness.
WHEN YOU CLEAN A MAN, HOW DO YOU BRING ABOUT TRANSFORMATION IN HIM? You know the beautiful story of a great Caliph. He
set up an art competition. He said such and such will be the prize
for the best entry. There were hundreds of entries. Then came
a Chinese team, and everybody was awed because of the greatest
painters. And the last was an Iranian team. And they got two walls
of a room with a partition in between; a curtain. So the Chinese
team was asking for fabulous paints, golden dust, silver dust.
Thirty days was the time given. And they were working twenty four
hours, round the clock, and asking for more and more material,
glittering things, polish, emerald, rubies, what not. The other
people (Iranian Sufi team) were asking for many mundane things
- the Caliph could not even imagine how they could be applied
to art: "Anyway, let them do it, we will judge on the thirty
first day." On the thirty first day, after judging everything,
he came to the Chinese painting. He was gasping with wonder at
how this could be produced! It was a stupendous marvel. And for
about half an hour, he was just gazing, he had to be reminded:
"Lord, there is one more painting, the last one to be judged."
Reluctantly he said, "Yes. Let me see it." They pulled
the curtain. And he swooned in wonder! All that the other group
of men had done was to polish the surface so beautifully that
it was a reflection of the Chinese painting! And it was better
than the original thing.
You don't have to create! So, Master's first step is cleaning in Sahaj
Marg. If you want to get milk, don't you wash the vessel first? So transformation
is first by removal of things and then by elevation of the THING itself.
|
