Don’t stop! Keep evolving till you are doubtless.
By Vivek Sharma
The Vedas are sacred for the Hindus and why not? They are the realisations of the rishis, who witnessed the truth as we witness ourselves in the mirror—as it is, as we are.
I would like to share with you all today how our system of education had been evolutionary and not superficial. You are supposed to grow out of what you have learnt. That is evolutionary—don’t stop, keep growing, is the principle. It is a fact that when you think you have learnt everything and there is nothing to be known, a kind of boredom gheraos you as it gheraoed Ved Vyas after having done with the Vedas. The boredom is the sign that there is something wrong with your perception of having learnt everything—you may have learnt and mastered many things, but there is still a need to evolve to the state of doubtlessness! This is what happened with the best of the brains of the time—Maharishi Ved Vyas. To be frank he has no match yet.
So he was bored for some time. Soon he was inspired by Intelligent Energy to go further—enough of this intellectual understanding and tapasya. Get up and realise it all through the heart. The energy is in the heart. It alone could make your intellect functional, was the message. He then wrote the Bhagwat Mahapurana, a great book on devotion, reason and pragmatism. Can you imagine a person as erudite as Ved Vyas too had to grow out of his learned perception. (Read these words carefully.) ‘Stop nowhere. Move on,’ is the principle.
I give you the example of Ramkrishna Paramhamsa. He was full of wisdom and devotion. But, Intelligent Energy pushed him to cross over and learn from Totapuri, the advaitin yogi, the formlessness of the Existence. Totapuri even pierced a piece of broken glass between His eyebrows to tell Ramkrishna how to focus on the formless, as He was only seeing His Mother Divine when He closed the eyes. Totapuri commanded Him to cut asunder the image of Mother with the sword of wisdom and move ahead. He did so and then he entered into a samadhi for such a long time that even surprised Totapuri. After that Ramkrishna observed that Mother of the Universe has become everything which is formless and with form.
The same way Krishna commanded His favourite disciple to go beyond the Vedas and experience the reality. He said
त्रैगुण्यविषया वेदा निस्त्रैगुण्यो भवार्जुन।
निर्द्वन्द्वो नित्यसत्वस्थो निर्योगक्षेमात्मवान्।। २/४५
It means The Vedas’ content matter is only the three-dimensions of Nature. Get rid of them and cross over then alone you shall go beyond the polarity of the brain and get established in the Existence forever and get freed from the basic impulse of acquiring something and having acquired something.
This is the state of final evolution. As long as you have the consciousness that you need to acquire this and you have already acquired that in the material or spiritual worlds, you shall remain in the realm of the three dimensions—time, space and causation of the Vedas and that would mean you have not yet really evolved and got established in the reality forever. The idea of every effort is only to evolve to the state of reality and get established in it.
So guys, if you think you have achieved what you needed to and have nothing more to achieve then you are getting stuck in the mud. Are you doubtless? This is the question which is the standard of gauging your evolution!