Atma Jnana

The word … in Sanskrit … means … the knowledge of the soul. Indic studies report it as the key to creation … and is a source of tremendous power in an individual. It is that which divided the human races into groups … created male and female … and makes possible … the seed to plants … anima … and man. And in these times … it creates the suggestion … that it is opening itself up to be learnt by man … for his continued progression of the species.

 

Long held as a divine secret … in the community of monks … mystics … and men of the cloth … the knowledge … forms the basis of our understanding of man … and the pace of evolution that we encounter. Obviously the mind has always engaged it … in the ages of man … but what human insight suggests … in these times … is the ability of man to become a partner in the process … and to make his own contribution for its advancement. Its an invitation to the layperson.

 

Its both frightful and wondrous to realize that we hold in our hands … the key to our future … as a specie. Frightful … because … the first time we encounter the prospect … human bias leads it in the direction of the pleasure principle … indiscriminately … and the results that appear in the morning's papers … are horrendous at times. It is no exaggeration to say that the health issues facing man … today … are a strong indication of our errors of experimentation with our thoughts and in combination with the power of atma jnana … its quite a lesson in proper methodology.

 

I can name the list of ailments we have encountered recently … in the world's experience … from AIDS … to SARS. But the purpose of our intimation with these issues … is not to cause fear in man. Rather the message is that … we are encountering something … quite considerably big … and that some self-regulation on the issues … based on the guides of religion … science … and the store of past knowledge … is critical.

 

Science today provides an admirable guide … for an insight into the nature of the genome process … and its workings in an individual. Everybody today can get a report of their genome map for a price. It makes possible … perhaps even encourages man … to go ahead and apply himself to what he is coming to understand … maybe to stretch the limits of knowledge … and bravely go … where he has not gone before.

 

I recall clearly … the time I got my introduction … to the study of these matters. I was about 32 years of age … and had been under a severe depression for the previous 10 years. That's when I first sensed the push to open my mind … to areas that defined my sense of reality. It was stuff that kept me normal … sociable … and generally healthy. The thrust of the impulse … immediately rang all my alarms … about something that was way out of line. Ambition? Unrestrained greed? Perhaps madness … is what I first suspected.

 

And so … for almost 30 years after that … I've been pulled by wild horses … to get into it a little at a time … while I've been digging my heels in … to slow it down … until I can understand better what its about. And always … always … there's the weird birth of a deformed child in the papers … that persuades me that the dangers are considerable. But when I say I don't want to get messed up in this … the accompanying admonishment reminds me … that man will eventually have to undertake the exercise.

 

My own volition on the issue became amenable on account of this . I spent close to 15 years … reading everything I can lay my hands on … about what it means to be human. Then it moved me further down the line … ' to create.' Sainted mother in heaven! … no! … I meant where's my mother when I need her?

 

Okay … my guides pulled me back a little … and showed me how artists create paintings … that sets a mood … and influences a person's behavior. Oh! Then … baking a cake. Notice how the cake makes a person … so wonderfully cheerful. Hey! Here's a way of looking at things. Wouldn't it be nice if all of life was one big wonderful cake. Okay … I promised myself … I'm not going to get into baking cakes.

 

Back to the drawing board. How does a person undertake something as obviously huge as this? Basic principles … first look around and affirm what has been already created in the world … and then ask yourself … ' Where do we think we want to go from here?' It sets a direction … and in a gradual pace of understanding … that opens up … brick by brick … I set about the task of learning it … like an ant on the ground … scouring every millimeter of the landscape. Its slow … but it made me feel better.

 

' Teach me the art of making … Merlin!' cried the delightfully ambitious Morgana of Cornwall … to her benefactor … the Grand wizard himself … of the arts. We realize today … that its not just in the movies. Secondly … the rush of excitation … is not a recommended impulse for learning. Thirdly … to truly learn we cannot learn from someone else … but its possible to get an introduction. Fourthly … there ought to be some safeguards … regarding getting carried away with ambitions for creature comforts. Fifth … a system of measures are important for gauging progress.

 

 Everybody throws up the first time ' … a line from the movie ' The Matrix ' … tips us on knowing what to expect. But past the fears and the injuries … the broken sewage pipe … the high paranoia … the cold sweat … the sleepless nights … and the fears of damnation … I have today come to one final acceptance of what it is trying to say. It does want me to learn.