Sri Sai Satcharitra is one of the most popular biographies of Sai Baba, written by Govind Raghunath Dabholkar ('Hemadpant'). People often do a 'Saptah' (reading within one week) of this book for special prayers or just because it is generally good. I had read the Satcharitra chapter-wise many times before but it was only during one Saptah I did that I realized that this book, very simply and beautifully, explains what I think is the crux of Hindu spiritual philosophy. I am summarizing what I learnt in three points below:
(I) In Hindu spiritual philosophy, it is said that there is one single, universal soul or Atma (called the 'Self') that exists in all beings. What is this Self? Barring your name and form, there exists a sense of being or consciousness of existence within you. This is the Self and once we realize it within ourselves, we can see it in other beings as well, eliminating all sense of differentiation (not so easy as it sounds! :D)
(2) So how do we know or realize this Self? What Sai Baba says is you already know it but this knowledge is buried deep within layers of ignorance accumulated over lifetimes. This ignorance exists in the form of the strong sense of identity or ego that we develop, which makes us think of ourselves as a feeble human being with limitations. We bind ourselves to the present identity we have taken birth in, give it a lot of importance, and take actions based on it, thus experiencing joy and sorrow etc. So what is needed is not gaining of any specific knowledge but rooting out of this ignorance that we are nothing but the identity of our present birth
(3) How do we go about destroying this ignorance? As said before, the ignorance arises from the strong sense of identity or ego we possess. So to root out this ignorance, we need to quell the ego. This can be done by surrendering our ego to our Guru or building your spirit consciousness. You see, we humans have two kinds of consciousness: sensual and spiritual. When our mind and senses meet the external sense objects, we experience the sensual consciousness which results in pleasure, pain etc. But when our mind and senses are withdrawn from the outside sense-objects, introverted, and fixed on the Self within, we experience spiritual consciousness. Through meditation on the Self, we can develop this spiritual consciousness over sensual consciousness. This will help us avoid forming more impressions through our actions that will add to the layers of ignorance that are clouding out our realization of the Self.
This is what I could understand from the English translation of the Satcharitra by N.V. Gunaji (a wonderful, must-read book!). I know this post kind of exposes me to the ridicule of people who are rationalists as well as spiritual people with far more knowledge on this topic than me :D It seems crazy to think that all that vast philosophy, on which thousands of books have been written, can be summarized into three points in a blog post! I don't pretend to know or understand it all but am just attempting to put down whatever understanding I got and think worth being shared.
(I) In Hindu spiritual philosophy, it is said that there is one single, universal soul or Atma (called the 'Self') that exists in all beings. What is this Self? Barring your name and form, there exists a sense of being or consciousness of existence within you. This is the Self and once we realize it within ourselves, we can see it in other beings as well, eliminating all sense of differentiation (not so easy as it sounds! :D)
(2) So how do we know or realize this Self? What Sai Baba says is you already know it but this knowledge is buried deep within layers of ignorance accumulated over lifetimes. This ignorance exists in the form of the strong sense of identity or ego that we develop, which makes us think of ourselves as a feeble human being with limitations. We bind ourselves to the present identity we have taken birth in, give it a lot of importance, and take actions based on it, thus experiencing joy and sorrow etc. So what is needed is not gaining of any specific knowledge but rooting out of this ignorance that we are nothing but the identity of our present birth
(3) How do we go about destroying this ignorance? As said before, the ignorance arises from the strong sense of identity or ego we possess. So to root out this ignorance, we need to quell the ego. This can be done by surrendering our ego to our Guru or building your spirit consciousness. You see, we humans have two kinds of consciousness: sensual and spiritual. When our mind and senses meet the external sense objects, we experience the sensual consciousness which results in pleasure, pain etc. But when our mind and senses are withdrawn from the outside sense-objects, introverted, and fixed on the Self within, we experience spiritual consciousness. Through meditation on the Self, we can develop this spiritual consciousness over sensual consciousness. This will help us avoid forming more impressions through our actions that will add to the layers of ignorance that are clouding out our realization of the Self.
This is what I could understand from the English translation of the Satcharitra by N.V. Gunaji (a wonderful, must-read book!). I know this post kind of exposes me to the ridicule of people who are rationalists as well as spiritual people with far more knowledge on this topic than me :D It seems crazy to think that all that vast philosophy, on which thousands of books have been written, can be summarized into three points in a blog post! I don't pretend to know or understand it all but am just attempting to put down whatever understanding I got and think worth being shared.
