Spiritual Realization From a Technical Point of View

The Aim of Life
In a preceding article, we said that man was on the Earth for a specific purpose, i.e. to attain divine realization, also known by several other names such as Self-realization, spiritual enlightenment, cosmic enlightenment, liberation, the Mastery of Life . In fact, all these names designate this state where man realizes, no longer intellectually but permanently, in his every day life, in his whole being, that he is one with the Divinity and with the whole creation. Not only is he, from then on, aware of his immortality, but Wisdom and the Love of God have also become a part of him to the point that he no longer lives for himself as he had been doing for ages, but lives to serve God and for the good of all beings. While the ordinary man’s love for others is always motivated by more or less selfish factors, a realized person, on the other hand, loves each being without any condition, even those who hate him, for his nature has simply become love and no ounce of wrong-doing or indifference is to be found in him.

The Sadguru
He is no longer attracted to worldly things. Never again will he pursue any personal or selfish goals. One who has attained this state is called a Master (he is also given other names) for from then on, he perfectly masters his mental, emotional and physical nature, as well as the laws of nature and spiritual laws. Only the person who has reached this summit is called Sadguru, the true Master, the true Guru, the true Instructor, for having trodden the entire path which leads from dark valleys of ignorance to the summit of the mountain of enlightenment, he is perfectly capable and has all the necessary experience to guide his brothers and sisters who accept to be trained in order to reach this same sublime goal.

A God Who is Unaware of his True Nature
When one reads the Scriptures of different religions of the world, one is struck by the recurrence of the number seven. This is because God always expresses Himself in the manifested world through a combination of seven energies in order to realize His goals. And this is what the Greeks, for example, mentioned in their mythology, an echo of the primordial and eternal wisdom, in giving a lyre with seven strings which sing the mysteries of nature. Therefore it will not be surprising to learn that man also is a being made up of seven bodies which correspond to states of consciousness of the same number, of which the most gross is that of the physical body, and the most subtle is that of the Atma (Spirit), a pure ray of God in man. It is this Atma which makes man a true son of God or a god as the Lord Jesus Christ said in Palestine,
“Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, 'I said, Ye are gods' ?” (Bible, John 10:34)
Lord Krishna had taught the same thing three thousand years before, to his beloved disciple Arjuna,
“He who sees that the imperishable Supreme Lord is equally dwelling in all the perishable beings, truly sees.” (Bhagavad Gita 13:28)

The Blocked Path
However, this divinity in man must be realized, activated - so to speak, for it remains latent as long as he has not attained Self-realization. Indeed, the average man does not at all live according to the consciousness of the Atma, the divine Spirit, since he basically expresses himself through what is called the triple lower personality made up of the physical, emotional and concrete mind bodies (indeed there exists an abstract mind to which the average man does not have access.)

Such a man does not even have access to his soul, which is not as high as the Atma, for it is found half-way between the top and the bottom, in the abstract mind, at the place where the parts consisting of the lower man and the spiritual man meet, and where intuition starts to manifest.

And why is he not aware of the soul and the Atma which, however, are are in his being? Quite simply because in order for the physical man to have access to these states of consciousness, he must clear away, rebuild and embellish the path which nature had initially built for him at the time of his involution (descent from the divine plane to the gross physical plane). With time, this initial and natural path became overrun and obstructed by weeds, the forest of errors and landslides caused by physical, emotional and mental growth which was a necessary stage to gain experience on the Earth and consciously acquire wisdom and love. It can therefore be clearly seen that ordinary man had the divinity within him, but cannot manifest it because he has lost the way.

Very Rare Moments of Grace
One can express the same idea by saying that concerning ordinary man, there is no direct, permanent communication between the soul and the physical brain because of the barrier made up of his thoughts, emotions and physical body which is not adapted. The result is that this man depends only on his brain, emotions and the needs of his dense physical body. Even more so, he can receive nothing from his Atma, which is higher. The fact that he is disconnected in this way from divine wisdom causes him to make many mistakes in his life. This situation is similar to the one where a very small child who is left alone on the ground floor while his parents (the soul and the Atma) live on the upper floors. Not being guided wisely, he will do many wrong things. One can notice that from time to time when man is in a state of great distress or when he is in great need of a solution for some serious problem, momentarily, he will completely surrender. The barrier made up of the lower self is then broken down, the veil is torn for a short moment thus allowing the soul, which always watches over him, to guide and protect, to give him advice through dreams or a remarkable flash of intuition.

But let us come back to the topic. Spiritual realization or enlightenment is obtained when the Atma rules over one’s whole being, from top to bottom, and when man in his physical body lives according to the Will, Love and Wisdom of God which emanate from his Atma, for there is direct communication, from the lower bodies to the higher ones, without obstruction between the Atma and the physical brain. That is spiritual realization from a technical point of view.

Building the golden path
Consequently, one sees from what has been said previously, that consciously progressing on the spiritual path (for there is an unconscious initial stage which precedes these two end stages made up of numerous lives during which earthly experiences and karma constitutes one’s path of progress) takes place in two great stages. First of all, contact must be established between physical man and his soul, and then using the soul, he must build a golden bridge to the Atma. For this, there are several disciplines which the Masters teach us in order to rebuild the path between physical man and his spiritual counterpart. Among them, there is, for example, meditation and japa (repitition of a mantra) which, combined with philosophic understanding and a certain healthy lifestyle, allows us to reach the goal one day if we are steadfast and regular in our effort. Each true Master knows what best suits his disciples.