SWAMINARAYAN SPIRITUALITY-- BOOK WRITTEN BY SACHIN J. KARNIK (CLICK ON PICTURE ABOVE)

THIS BOOK IS STILL BEING WRITTEN.  IT WILL BE PUBLISHED IN MARCH 2019.

For further information, please contact Sachin J. Karnik at:

sachinkarnik@yahoo.com

Phone: 302-268-4480

EXCERPT FROM BOOK:

 THE JOURNEY BEGINS…. INTO AKSHARDHAM

When we look at the millions of stars in the night sky, there is the ineffable feeling of mystery, infinity, wonder, and profound curiosity. Humans have asked for millennia basic questions such as, “What is all this vastness in the universe, where did it come from, and what is our place in this world?” These questions have been asked by scientists, religious philosophers, poets, mystics, saints, and sages throughout human history. Scientists used their intellect to answer these questions and certainly much advancement in science has occurred as a result of this intellectual exploration of external reality. The approach taken by Hindu sages has been to examine the “inner reality” that exists within each human being. This approach led to the development of the mystical Hindu tradition known as “Vedanta.” The word “Ved” means “knowledge” and “anta” means “end of.” So, Vedanta means the “end of knowledge” or the end point of that which is knowable through the human mind and intellect. These Hindu sages where “inner scientists” and they examined in great detail the nature, function, and structure of the “inner world” that exists in all of us. Their approach to uncovering the mysteries of life and Reality was to take an inward journey and find for oneself all that exists deep inside human consciousness. So, this “inward research” was conducted in ancient India by these Hindu sages (inner scientists) who went into caves and performed deep meditation. They went into the mountains and stayed completely with nature to experience the natural world as it is without the interference of human civilization. The caves, for example, were an ideal place to meditate because the experience of the five senses was mostly cut off from all of external reality which provided these “inner scientists” an opportunity to begin internal exploration. This exploration culminated in an understanding of the nature of the human mind, nature of disturbances, nature of feelings, nature of desires, and other subtle psychological and emotional phenomenon. 

Out of this inner exploration came the scriptures known as Vedas and particularly, the end section of the Vedas known as “Vedanta.” This different approach to understanding the nature of Reality led to the development of the Sanskrit language and a multitude of ancient scriptures from the Vedic time. These ancient Hindu scriptures served as a means of recreating methods and giving clear understanding to the realization of the Ultimate Reality (Parabrahman) that exists within the heart of each person. So, to be clear, the fact is that “outward research” is the research of all objective sciences such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, etc. In India, this “outward research” was also performed, yet the researchers realized very quickly that there are limitations to this research. Consider for instance the fact that the human brain (mind) is the “instrument” by which scientific exploration is performed. The ancient Hindu mystics took this explorative capacity within themselves and asked these questions:

1) What is the mind?

2) What is thought? Where does thought originate?

3) What are feeling and emotions? 

4) What is desire? 

5) What is memory?

6) What is relationship between the physical body, the mind, and desires?

7) Is there a deep abiding spiritual reality within ourselves?

8) What is the root of human conflict in the world?

9) What is humanity’s relationship to the natural world?

10) Is there a Supreme Being (God)?

11) Is there anything like a spiritual self or the soul?

12) Is there reincarnation? If so, what is it that reincarnates?

13) What is the source of real peace and happiness in life?

The answer to these questions is the essence of what is known as Sanatan Dharma (The Eternal Religion) that has existed in India for thousands of years. The spiritual tradition of India has no one founder, has no one book, and has no one path to the realization of the Ultimate Reality. In fact, the tradition has placed much emphasis on self-realization which essentially means that one should begin to ask a basic question: “who am I?” This may seem simplistic or even futile to some, yet this is perhaps the most basic and fundamental question that anyone can ask simply because we exist in this world, we are curious by nature, and we have the capacity to explore our inner world. It is human curiosity and necessity that has led to great developments in all areas of science, economics, politics, etc. and it is human curiosity (jignasa) that has led to the development of the entire Hindu tradition. Curiosity does not belong to any one group of people and certainly, the rishis (inner scientists) of India had great curiosity and tremendous patience to enquire honestly and clearly into the nature, structure, and function of the inner world. Through this enquiry, they developed a universal vision of life and perceived with extreme clarity that all of creation was interconnected, inter dependent, and intertwined. This vision lead to the formulation of the famous term, “vasudeva kutumbakam” which simply means that the whole of humanity is one family. In fact, it actually means that the entire creation is one family. The concept of oneness runs deep in all the Hindu scriptures because it is not a concept, it is a fundamental truth about all existence. This truth is that all existence is interconnected, interdependent, and fundamentally, part of ONE Ultimate Reality. This is also expressed clearly in the expression “Truth is ONE, it is called by various names in different ways by different seers.  The Rig Veda (1.164.46) states:

इन्द्रं॑ मि॒त्रं वरु॑णम॒ग्निमा॑हु॒रथो॑ दि॒व्यः स सु॑प॒र्णो ग॒रुत्मा॑न् ।
एकं॒ सद्विप्रा॑ बहु॒धा व॑दन्त्य॒ग्निं य॒मं मा॑त॒रिश्वा॑नमाहुः ॥४६॥

“That which is One, the sages speak of as Multifarious (i.e. by various names.) (ekam sat bahudhaa vipraahaa vadnati).” The great seers of India were not merely intellectual philosophers; they were people who had direct experience (anubhava) of God. (It should be understood that the word “experience” is not some type of sensory phenomenon or a projection of thought. Here, the word is used in the sense that the mystics had access to a dimension of inner reality that exists beyond thought. So, the word “anubhava” is more appropriate yet the closest translations in the English language could by “personal experience, or personal insight, or introspective vision or Reality, or choiceless opening of Original Reality that exists beyond the limited structure, function, and dimensions of the Anthakaran.)  It’s interesting to note that God as a concept came much later in India. The conceptual understanding of God was propagated by these mystics so that the masses could ultimately enter into the direct experience of That which the word “God” points to. (It’s important to remember that any word, include the word “God or Bhagavan” is merely a symbolic representation of an actual Reality that exists, where the mystics were in direct contact with the actual Reality. Hence, as J. Krishnamurti would say on many occasions, “the word is never the actual thing.”) The mystics had profound transcendental experiences and it is out of these experiences that the original Vedas, Upanishads, Brahman-Sutras, etc. were written. Even the Sanskrit language is not merely a language. The sounds of words and interconnections of words have a direct connection to the Transcendental Reality. 

The mention of gods and goddesses in the Hindu tradition is, at one level, a symbolic representation of the multitude of energies & realities that exist within each human being. These energies and mystical realities were discovered by the “inner scientists” (i.e. the Hindu mystics) in the form of 7 major energy centers located within each human being. These 7 energy centers are known as the “chakras” or wheels. These chakras are not a mere concept created by the mystics. They are actual psycho-spiritual phenomenon that exist deep within each human being. To be more precise, they are the connectors between the anthakarana (composite inner instrument consisting of four functions: intellect, mind, sub-conscious mind, and ego) and the original self of each person known as the atma (spiritual self, or soul). The atma is not a conceptual idea or a mere fanciful notion created out of some psychological fears, superstitions, or intellectualization. The atma is the original nature of each living being and is considered to have infinite power given by the Supreme Being (Purushottam Narayan) who exists within the atma. The atma (soul) is also considered by the Hindu mystics to be composed of: sat (truth), chit (consciousness), and ananda (bliss). This was a profound realization within the inner dimensions of Hindu mystics who investigated within themselves where the aim of such investigation was to be completely aware of all physio-psycho-emotive function and then to go further to become aware of the “witness” of all physio-psycho-emotive processes that occur within the three bodies of each human being. The three bodies are: gross body (stula sharira), subtle body (sukshma sharira), and the causal body (karan sharira). The gross (physical) body is only 10% of the real nature of any human being. The other 90% is the subtle body, causal body, and transcendent to all these is the original self, which is the atma. 

With the basic background and without going into too much Indian history or other side topics, the author would like to emphasize the fact that India has produced many enlightened masters who have graced our planet Earth with their wisdom about how to use the human body for the purpose of God realization. The human body is considered by these masters (mystics, sages, etc.) to be extremely rare. In fact, it is stated in several Hindu texts that the human body is obtained by the atma (or Jiva-Atma) after 3.5 million creations and dissolutions of the entire universe (i.e. 3.5 karod prakrut pralaya). Hindu mystics had elaborate time scales that they developed by understanding the nature of time from an introspective point of view. They researched the relationship between thought, action, external reality, sensation, physical body, and time. They found that all that exists within the external universe (brahmanda) is actually within the human body (pinda). Hence, the expression, Pinda-Brahmanda. This simply means that if a spiritual seeker goes into deep meditation, inner examination, and exploration, then there will be great truth revealed to the seeker by this examination. So, even after finding these incredible time scales, they realized that the human body is extremely rare and a gift of God given for a great purpose. This purpose is to realize that God (Purushottama) where such realization puts an end to the cycle of transmigration (i.e. reincarnation or metapsychosis). So, it is through the human body that sadhana (spiritual practices) can be performed for the purpose of liberation (moksha). 

As stated before, there have been countless mystics, spiritual teachers, and enlightened masters in the history of India. India has been graced by a rich historical lineage of incarnations and enlightened saints such as: Shree Ramchandraji, Shree Krishna, Ved-Vayas, Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanajuacharya, Chaitnaya Mahaprabhu, Vallabhacharya, Tulsidasji, Meerabai, etc.) This great tradition of saints and sages makes India known as “sant bhumi” (i.e. land of the saints). As part of this highly spiritual tradition, a great mystic and incarnation of the Supreme Being (Purushottam) known as Shree Swaminarayan was born in India in a small village known as Chappiya in the north Indian state of U.P. on April 9th, 1781. He had a single mission in his life and that was to destroy the root ignorance (causal body – karan sharira) of each human being as it is the karan sharir that is the cause of birth and death. The purpose of writing this book on Shree Swaminarayan is to give an exposition of the immense spirituality propagated by Swaminarayan. Given that there are many books written in Gujarati and English on Swaminarayan, this book can serve as a supplement to those books for those who are already familiar with the teachings of Shree Swaminaryan. The fact is that the Swaminarayan Sampradaya is a part of Sanatan Dharma and the ideas expressed in this book will, hopefully, bring about a greater clarity about the place of Swaminaryan Sampradaya in the context of Sanatan Dharma (i.e. Hinduism). 

The fact is that all words (except Sanskrit Mantras and much of Sanskrit language itself) are merely symbols that are created by human beings for the purpose of “point to” an actuality that is beyond the words. (Please note that the Sanskrit language is a sound-based language where the sound of the language itself has effects on the experience of the realities of the waking and dream state. In fact, the language is a totally spiritual language with the aim of not only conveying great spiritual truths with great brevity, but chanting mantras has a direct effect on the experiences that are created for the atma based on the desires attached to the atma. This will become clear in later sections of this book….) Hence, all words are merely pointers to an “actuality” or “reality” that cannot be grasped by any human language or thought itself. The fact is that our own minds are a great mystery. Any description of what is beyond the mind cannot be the actuality of what is beyond. If you can see the truth of this fact then the indescribable cannot be put into words. Nonetheless, Shree Swaminaryan and all the great spiritual masters that came before him and after him have used words such as the “atma” or “parmatma” or “God” to refer to a reality that exists beyond the mind. Let’s take the words “atma, parmatma, God, or Supreme Being” to illustrate how the mind reacts to it. As soon as the word “atma” or “God” or “Supreme Being” is used, the mind will form a conception of it or will becomes fascinated with a description given by great masters and will then try to perform spiritual practices in an attempt to “experience” the contrived notion in the mind. Spiritual masters certainly have shown countless spiritual practices (sadhnas) to realize God, yet the fact is that the mind grasps on to an ideal and then performs spiritual practices in an attempt to “realize” that ideal. Is this not so? Please examine the truth of this for yourself and see the validity or invalidity of it for yourself. Any formulation by the mind of any spiritual reality such as the soul (jiva) cannot be the actuality. This should be clearly evident if the nature of formulation is understood. Nonetheless, conceptions and definitions of spiritual reality are necessary to give the seeker (sadhaka) an indication of the actuality and it should be clearly cognized that indications are NOT the actuality. Each spiritual word such as “jiva,” “God,”“Akshar,” “Parabrahma,”etc., are indicators of an actuality beyond the grasp of thought or emotion. 

(It is exactly for this reason that God (not the concept but the actual metaphysical, transcendental, and imminent tattva) incarnates in human form. We will explore this truth in more detail later as this human manifestation of God is a truth that Shree Swaminaryan has reiterated countless times.)

**** ADDITIONAL EXCERPT ***

Each human being is bound by the modes of material nature (sattva guna, rajas guna, tamas guna) and this bondage is the expression of the jivatma’s beginningless association and entrapment within mul-maya (mul-prakrati). The notion that the jivatma (i.e. bounded soul) has been trapped in the power of the Supreme Lord (Parabrahma) for infinite time in the past before this current point in time, is truly an unfathomable notion where such a notion is nearly impossible for the human mind to comprehend fully. According to Shree Swaminarayan, God (Parmatma, Parabrahma, Purna-Purushottam) and his residing place (abode) Akdhardham, and the liberated souls (muktas) are beyond the grip of Mahamaya. This Mahamaya (the great power of God within which exist an infinite number of souls) is also beginningless. The Sanskrit word for beginningless is “anadi.” The word “adi” means “beginning.” 

 Shree Swaminarayan accepted, as foundational, the Vedantic viewpoint of Shree Ramanujacharya that propounds the qualified non-dualism (vishitadvaita) vision of the Ultimate Reality. Shree Swaminarayan (i.e. Sahajananda Swami, Shreeji Maharaj, Harikrishna Maharaj, or Maharaj) further expanded and expounded up the foundation laid by Ramanujacharya by elucidating five anadi bedhas (i.e. five different material and metaphysical entities that comprise Ultimate Reality.)  (Ultimate Reality refers to the full material and metaphysical existence, as it is.) These five are: Jiva, Ishwara, Mahamaya, Aksharbrahma, Parabrahma. Ramanujacharya discussed three tattvas (Jiva, Maya, and Ishwara.) This difference is not due to a philosophical disagreement but based on the anubhava (i.e. direct experience) of Shree Swaminarayan who has himself stated that his words are spoken from Anirdesha and based on his own direct vision of Ultimate Reality. Shreeji Maharaj as explained the pach bedha based on his own direct vision and Anubhav (experience). Maharaj had mastered ashtanga yoga in 1 year in the Himilayas and had gone through the eightfold yoga process to reach Samadhi. He did this to demonstrate his amazing spiritual level, even as a sadhaka where he considered Gopal Yogi as his teacher of eightfold yoga. In that sense, Maharaj as Neelkanth Varni, through the yoga process was able to see jiva, ishwara, maya, Aksharbrahma, and Parabrahma. This vision is described by Maharaj in the form of a siddha-purusha. In fact, Neelkanth asked about these 5 bhedas during this travels throughout India and it was only Muktanand Swami that was able to give an acceptable answer to Neelkanth. Hence, Neelkanth know the answer based on his own realization of the Ultimate Reality. Hence, one can easily see a progression where Maharaj gradually revealed his own form, starting from as siddha yogi all the way up to the Parabrahma that exists beyond Aksharbrahma. 

In the opinion of the writer, Maharaj has placed emphasis on directly touching the Swaroop of God (in his own manifestation) rather than debating about God from various points of view, although such debates (i.e. shastrarth) were extremely common during his time. Hence, his words in the Vachanamrut are not spoken based on reading scriptures, thinking about them, and then his mind creating a vision of Ultimate Reality based on conditioning within his mind. This point should be understood very clearly because anything generated by the mind based on the conditioning process, cannot be the actual spiritual reality. Of course, Maharaj utilized and maintained a foundation of the Vaishnava tradition and placed emphasis on Lord Krishna, given that a cultural and psycho-spiritual foundation was necessary before he could reveal his actual Swaroop. Hence, Maharaj worshipped Lord Krishna, built temples with Lord Krishna as a central deity, placed considerable emphasis on Lord Krishna in the Shikshapatri (i.e. 212 commandments of Swaminarayan to his disciples), and remained in the role of a devotee of Lord Krishna for many years. This was all done to lay the foundation for him to express his own Swaroop (i.e. actual spiritual identity) as the human manifestation of the divine and non-material Supreme Being (God) who resides in Akshardham. Maharaj stated that the form of God in Akshardham is the same as the human manifestation in the form of Swaminarayan. This oneness was not an ecstatic oneness of a devotee towards God. It was Shreeji Maharaj actually revealing himself, as he is, without the background of tradition that worshipped previous incarnations like Lord Ram, Lord Krishna, etc. The fact that Maharaj placed countless into samadhi by mere grace was a testament to his tremendous spiritual power. Again, this type of extraordinary power has not been recorded in human history. The incidents of Maharaj placing people, animals, birds, etc., into a state of samadhi was supremely causeless and unfathomable grace. By placing these living beings in samadhi, Maharaj was able to remove the influence of maya and give the jivatma a glimpse of real freedom (mukti) from all pain and suffering. These incidents have been recorded in Swaminarayan scriptures and those who wrote these incidents were honorable sages who would not distort or hyper-emphasize events. For example, in Bhaktachintamani, Prakaran # 49, Shree Nishkulanand Swami has described in detail the way samadhi would occur where major intermediate realms of reality between the Earth and Akshardham have been described that were experienced by thousands of people, animals, birds, etc. Such remarkable grace of Maharaj itself shows his unfathomable immense power and of course, the power the stop the effects of maya. One may ask, if God in human form as Bhagavan Swaminarayan can remove instantly the effect of maya, then why does God simply not take the infinite number of jivas that exist within the beginingless mahamaya and place the all in Akshardham? Certainly, using a power known as “anytha kurtum shakti” (i.e. a type of power where God can do absolutely anything, including going against his own processes that he has set up for creation of infinite universes), he certainly can place the infinite number of jivas into the Akshardham. Yet, given the pach-bhed vedantic darshan of Shreeji Maharaj, each jiva must freely leave the attachments of maya and become exclusively devoted to the form of God in Akshardham. If God removes the maya, even by grace the jiva would be placed in Akdhardham by force and would not want to remain there. There is an incident when Shree Ram took monkeys to a divine abode and they could not stay there because of their inherent karana-sharir (causal body) that kept them attached to the material world. Speaking of the material world, the creative process described in Vachanamrut is done so using language that refers to transcendental phenomenon. That which exists beyond the waking, dream, and deep sleep state can only be described via analogies and certain scriptural terms only to provide the human mind with a conceptual understanding. Such conceptual understanding is never the actual reality that exists beyond the mind. The mind refers to four interconnected components: conscious mind (manas), buddhi (intellect); chitta (sub-conscious mind and storehouse of memories and impressions of infinite lifetimes of experience), and ahamkara (ego, the sense of “I and mine”). All the words of Maharaj in Vachanamarut are aiming to liberate the bound soul (jivatma) from maya and place the soul into the transcendental Akshardham, even while living in the physical body. To accomplish this great mission, Maharaj emphasized four major psycho-spiritual qualities: 1) Dharma (referring to living a life filled with righteousness); 2) Jnan (referring to an understanding of three bodies, three gunas, the jiva, Akshara, and Purushottam); 3) Vairagya (referring to a state beyond attachment and detachment as beautifully expressed in Vachanamrut G.P. 2 where Maharaj described the three types of Vairagya); 4) Bhakti (referring to extraordinary love for God). This combination of these four is known as Ekantika Dharma and the mission of Shree Swaminarayan was to inculcate these four qualities among his disciple. Maharaj had a synthetical vision and mission where he extracted the essence of all that is required for the jivatma to be liberated from beginingless ignorance (maya). Hence, from the scripture known as Vasudeva Mahatmya, he extracted the four-essential psycho-spiritual qualities of Dharma, Jnan, Vairagya, and Bhakti. Even as a child and in teen years as Neelkanth Varni, Maharaj had kept an extract of key Hindu scriptures with him and worshipped Shaligram (a form of Lord Vishnu). All this is indicative of the synthetical nature of Shreeji Maharaj’s thought process that aimed to provide all that is required to liberate the bound soul.

The Vachanamrut discussed three key points: a) Nature of bondage; b) Nature of liberation; c) Process of moving out of bondage into a state of living liberation (Jivan Mukti). The extreme significance of akhand vrutti (keeping the mind constantly connected with Bhagavan) is stated by Maharaj in the very 1st Vachanamrut ( G.P. # 1). All 273 Vachanamrut discourses given by Maharaj aim to explain how this state of Akhand Vrutti is to actually occur in the live of a bhakta (devotee). Hence, the turning of the mind away from worldly entanglements and placing the mind (along with the 5 sense organs and 5 actions organs) in constant association with the Swaroop of Shree Hari is culmination of all sadhana, as described by Maharaj in multifold ways. In this description, there is considerable discussion about metaphysical reality such as: a) each brahmanada (universe) is composed of 14 lokas; b) the existence of the atma beyond the three bodies; c) description of nature of of mahatattva and creation of virat-purusha; d) description of how infinite number of of Pradhan-purushas are created; e) nature of mul-prakriti and mul-purusha; f) description of Aksharbrahma and Parabrahma; g) absolute glory of Bhagavan Himself who is beyond Aksharbrahma. Hence, Vachanmarut elucidates the highest vedantic truths based on Maharaj’ own realization and state. He has clearly stated that the murti in Akshardham is him in human form. That murti in Akshardham is a “kishor muti” that is not male or female. It is God with form (sakar) and there is immense divine light that is coming out of this kishor murti. The entire Akshardham, all Akshar-Muktas, and Mul-Akshar all can get absorbed in merely a minute particle of the body of God (Purushottam). Such transcendental ideas are discussed by Maharaj.