The much-awaited sequel to Sri M’s bestseller, Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master, titled The Journey Continues defies the essence of modern science and harnesses the mystical world of the mind
It was a cold Himalayan night. Babaji and I sat facing each other on a large flat boulder in front of Mouni Baba’s cave. Around us, the silvery snowclad ranges glowed in celestial light. Inspite of the crackling fire we had made earlier and the thick blankets wrapped around me, I would shiver when the icy wind blew across my face. Babaji presented an utter contrast to my swaddled and cocooned form, as he sat there bare-bodied save for a single knee length cotton loin cloth tied across his waist. He had mastered the yogic technique of adjusting his body temperature. Sitting in padmasana, on the folded woollen blanket, he looked at me with a kind smile. “Relax,” he said. “Be comfortable.” His words acted as magic and my tired body, felt miraculously revived. Soothing warmth flowed from him to me, permeating my whole body. My mind became alert with an acuteness I never knew I possessed.
M: Babaji, I have been reading Vedantic subjects for some time now. When I began, I thought I understood everything, but as years passed and I went deeper into the subject, I began to realise how little I had grasped. There are so many questions that have remained unclear. Please unravel the mystery of this statement made in the Isha Upanishad — Andham tamah pravishanti ye avidyaam upaasate tato bhooya mai to tame ya u vidyaayacon rataab — They who worship ignorance enter into darkness and they who worship knowledge enter into greater darkness. The first part is clear. We have always been taught from childhood that ignorance is to be overcome by acquiring knowledge, so it is quite baffling to hear the rishi say that to worship knowledge is to enter into greater darkness. How can this beIJ If both ignorance and knowledge lead to darkness, is there something beyond both knowledge and ignoranceIJ If knowledge also leads to darkness, is there something beyond knowledge and ignoranceIJ
Babaji: Now be alert, son. To be alert is not to strain but to relax and let the teachings sink deep so that you will have no more doubts. listen carefully and after that ask me further questions, if you have any. We will discuss matters as two close friends discuss their personal problems. let us have complete love and frankness between us. Yes, many have been perplexed by the apparently contradictory statements of the Upanishads. However, if you examine them carefully, there are no contradictions. They who worship ignorance enter into darkness. Isn’t that quite clearIJ Ignorance, avidya, is a lack of knowledge. It is by acquiring knowledge, jnana, that ignorance is destroyed. Nowhere does the Upanishad say not to acquire knowledge, for knowledge is the only instrument that can dispel ignorance. Everything that we learn is knowledge, including what you are hearing from me now. Then, how can knowledge lead to darknessIJ listen carefully. The Upanishad does not say that knowledge leads to darkness. All it says is that those who worship knowledge enter into greater darkness. This has to be examined closely. You walked into a field full of thistles and you get a thorn lodged in your foot. You now try to pull it out with your bare hands but to no avail. So you find a sharper, longer, sturdier thorn to remove the one that is lodged. Similarly, you remove the thorn of ignorance and pain with the thorn of knowledge. Tell me, will you after getting rid of the painful thorn, stick the larger thorn into your footIJ No you won’t. You will throw it away. So it is the thorn of knowledge used for removing the thorn of ignorance. Both of them are discarded by the yogi, the seeker, whose aim is liberation. Before we go further, let us see what knowledge is. You understand something or an event and say that you have acquired knowledge of that. This means that you have stored all the information or as much as you can with regard that event or thing in your memory. You can now refer back to it, recognise it and react accordingly to it in the future. All knowledge is like that — that which is stored in one’s memory. The moment you have listened to my words, they have vanished from the present and become a thing of the past. They constitute memory and memory is a thing of the past. Knowledge, as we know it, is then something that you remember whether from the recent past or a split second ago or years ago. All knowledge is therefore memory, a thing of the past. Now, Brahman, the ultimate reality is never a memory or a thing of the past. It is the living present, the eternal, immediate present and therefore can never be comprehended by knowledge, which only has the past as reference.
M: If all knowledge is memory, what is it that can know BrahmanIJ
Babaji: When the mind, understanding this fact perfectly, gives up all mental effort and becomes quiet and tranquil then all that remain is Brahman.
M: Am I then to understand that knowledge, as we generally understand the term, is uselessIJ
Babaji: No, certainly not. The capacity for knowledge, whatever the level of perfection, is the highest faculty of man. Each level in the hierarchy of knowledge I spoke about has its proper place. Without experience derived through our senses, however unreliable or unreal they may be, we cannot comprehend our immediate world of living. However, our reasoning faculty itself can show that reason is often unreliable, coloured as it is by our subjective prejudices. When the mind, which is nothing snore than a collection of thoughts, is transcended, knowledge, which is memory, a thing of the past, comprehends fully how finite it is and therefore how it cannot reach out to the Infinite from which intelligence itself proceeds. Giving up all reasoning, arguments and doubts, the mind, then lets go of the chain of thoughts and becomes as still and placid as an infinite expanse of clear water, without a single ripple on it. It is in that calm, mirror-like, pure mind that the ultimate, absolute, blissful reality, the Brahman, is reflected. This is what the Kenopanishad means when it says: ‘That which even the mind cannot reach but because of which the mind acquires the faculty to comprehend; That, O seeker, is the true Brahman, nothing that you worship here.’