Master and Apprentice

The subtle relationship that exists between a spiritual master and his apprentice is something that goes beyond time immemorial and transcends both life and death. It is the most powerful relationship in the whole world, and its constancy and virtue can only be experienced and not related in words. A master is someone who is free from the recursive and redundant way of existence that the human life is. Simply put, he is a causal being who is not bound to his physical existence owing to his karmas.

Sant Dnyaneshwar

Sant Dnyaneshwar

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The master is a liberated individual who only returns to the physical existence with a purpose in mind; a purpose of selfless benevolence that is instituted in the progress of his apprentice. The master may accomplish this feat through many means. He may either incarnate or manifest in this world as a human being. Both incarnation and manifestation have different meanings to them. We will elaborate on this in the near future, but for now it will suffice to say, that the master always remains near his apprentice to guide him and shape him accordingly, so that one day, he may become a master himself. The worth of a true living master is beyond all quantitative measure. It takes lifetimes of good karma on part of the seeker, to be in the end blessed with a living master. Many seekers, through the course of time, take to themselves many masters, but in the end they fail to realize the fact that it is not the apprentice who seeks out the master; it is the master who finds the apprentice. A seeker can only get to the point where he can get a living embodied master, through sheer perseverance and unshaken faith in the lord. The lord tests the resolve and the constancy of the seeker’s desire all the time and in the end when he feels that the seeker can truly transcend the illusion of choice and come to a point where his perceptions would remain the same through time. The master is an invaluable and imperative asset in the spiritual journey of the seeker, and the seeker on his part has to prove his worth to be granted that boon.

The master’s scope of work is hardly something that can be described in words He is an individual in whom the divine cosmic energy instantiates itself and manifests itself to the seeker’s perception. Being a liberated individual himself, the master possesses all knowledge pertaining to the seeker’s past, his present and his future. To put it crudely, the master knows each and every significant karmic liaison that is enlisted in the seeker’s name. He is aware of all the latent desires that the seeker bears in his heart. The master knows and cognizes the fact that the seeker can hardly progress on the spiritual path with a heart that is burdened with the regret that stems from unfulfilled desires and a boatload of unrequited karma to his name. Thus the master on his part chooses to liberate the disciple through this recursive and redundant form of existence. In the end, the master achieves this when he instantiates the same form of cosmic energy in the seeker; i.e. when he instantiates the image of God in the apprentice; when the apprentice in the end transforms to being more than just a man; when the apprentice in the end himself becomes the master.

The journey referenced in this article is a journey that transcends thousands of years. It is a journey that takes great perseverance and dedication to complete; but most of all it takes great devotion and unparalleled spiritual desire to be selfless and to be benevolent. That is the only way into God’s kingdom. Many a times, some spiritualists claim that a person is his own master. That stage is a very advanced stage of spiritual evolution and does not necessarily apply to everyone. Those who get to that stage can only do so with the guidance of a realized master and hence they on their own accord never ever proclaim themselves to be great realized souls. An astute example of this is Sant Dnyaneshwar, who all through the “Dnyaneshwari” (a commentary on The Gita written in the 13th century by the great saint) never even refers to himself as a saint or a great master. He always refers to himself as the apprentice of NivruttiNath (“nivrutti daasa mhaNatee”)

Thus the point of the matter is that the master is of paramount importance in the life of any seeker. We should always be aware of this and with gratefulness and humble austerity continue our journey on the spiritual path…:)

The featured image is that of Sant Dnyaneshwar Maharaj.

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The Human Mind

The human mind is one of the most highly regarded and misunderstood phenomena in the whole world. Every day we see thousands of people around us swear by the power that the human mind bestows upon them and the way it helps them shape their destiny, but rarely do they cognize the truth behind that simple word; rarely do people make an honest endeavor to realize the truth behind the human mind. What exactly is the human mind? Is it indeed so virtuous? The answers to those questions are hidden in the many intricate folds of human existence. Simply put the answers to those questions are hidden within the individual who asks them.

The human mind is nothing but a dissipation of energy, which takes place inside the human body. This dissipation of energy is the result of the duality that ultimately reigns supreme within every single individual on the face of this earth. People symbolize the two poles of this duality as being the ‘head’ and the ‘heart’. Through the ages, the head has been attributed the power of shrewd and calculating intellect, while the heart remains content with being attributed as emotive, caring and sacrificing. In the midst of these two metaphorical enigmas, the will of the discerning individual dies a slow death. What exactly is the human mind? The point of the question remains the same. As an individual lives through life, he realizes that he has a divided will pertaining to every single question that is asked of him. He realizes that the duality within himself endures beyond time and if he does not surpass it with the sheer force of his will, it will lead him to his doom. The duality which reigns supreme in every single human being is essentially a dissipation of energy that takes place owing to a person’s will being diverted between the instinct and the intellect. The instinct which always relates itself to the baser and more primal facet of human existence constantly relishes at the prospect of gratification. On the other hand, the intellect is an entity that is solely developed through the lessons that man learns through the many different experiences that he undergoes in this world. The intellect in turn is directed towards an entirely different motive; that of self-preservation and self-enrichment. The differences between the motives that represent the two entities of instinct and intellect are subtle; but in the end they matter a lot.

In the duality that is created within the human being owing to the difference of motive and the difference of purpose that always exists between his instinct and his intellect, he can never rise above his limitations. Consequently he always remains impaired by the many weaknesses that rise as a result of this dissipation of energy. In the turmoil that thus rages within him, man loses both the motivation and the will power to remain pro-active in this world. Thus the human mind remains the single greatest weakness of a human being that on its own accord, keeps him from achieving greatness.

A simply example of the energy dissipation that takes place on account of unneeded thoughts can be demonstrated by simply observing oneself as one progresses through the day. In time an individual will realize that his breathing rate varies with the rate at which he thinks. The more an individual thinks, the faster he breathes. This is owing to the dissipation of energy that takes place in the thoughts that emit from the human mind. The breathing rate of an individual increases in order to produce the excess energy that is needed to create those thoughts.

Thus, unneeded thoughts only end up making an individual more weak in his will as they seep away the motivational energy that is instrumental in remaining pro-active in this world. Thus the fact that any individual must always bear in mind is that he should always be a dispassionate observer of his thoughts. He should always be aware of the source from whence those thoughts spur. He should be always aware of the motivation that goes behind every single thought-thread. Through that awareness, the needless thoughts will gradually cease existing and the individual will then transgress to the stage where his mind won’t be a deterrent to a productive and creative way of life…

P.S. The human mind can be further disintegrated into various facets and entities that influence its creation; but that would be pointless in itself as it would lead you nowhere…:) That is the perpetual bane that is laid upon philosophy…lol

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