Enlightenment

Enlightenment
Almost everybody, even people who are not spiritually inclined, have heard about the word “enlightened” and phrase “path to enlightenment”. Different people have suggested and interpreted this word and phrase in different ways. Some have suggested that this is the state when a person feels really happy; others have argued that this is the state when a person gets nirvana.


Enlightened Masters of the Past

To understand this term, we need to direct our attention to lives of the known Enlightened Masters of the past. The most famous ones that come to mind are Buddha, Guru Nanak, Ram and Krishna. What was common to all of these Realized Masters that caused them to become enlightened? The most important thing that was common to all of them was that after they became enlightened, none of them were born again. As a result, none of them died again. What does this suggest to us? One thing this teaches us is that enlightenment is liberation from the continuous cycle of birth and death.

How did they become enlightened? Was it continuous Meditation on the name of the Supreme One in the birth during which they became enlightened? No, rather this was the result of dedicated Nishkaam or Unmotivated Meditation (Meditation without desire for anything in return) on the name of the Infinite, along with Sewa (Selfless service) of their Masters, spread over several births.


What happens after Enlightenment?

Enlightenment is the state after which nothing that can be known in this universe remains to be known. Such an individual can read your mind; can travel the universe in a time shorter than the time it takes to blink your eyes. He/she can be anywhere and everywhere at the same time. The past, present and future of any individual can be known instantaneously. This person can liberate or enlighten any other person also if he/she desires so. After this last birth, this individual will not be born or die again. He/she will merge with the Supreme One and will reach the state of permanent bliss. Nothing - sadness, happiness, desires, anger, ego, etc. can touch this individual now. He/she will be above these things now.


Reincarnation / Avatar

Some of these Realized Masters are considered to be reincarnation or Ishwar Avatars of God. This is not entirely true. These Masters became enlightened and will never be part of the cycle of birth and death again. To reincarnate, the person needs to be born again.


Aiming for Enlightenment

Starting on the path towards enlightenment is not easy; on the other hand, it is not difficult for the lucky ones. It requires vigorous introspection, honest approach to life and finding a Real Master who knows this path, getting initiated by this Master and then following the path diligently. Some people will spend their entire lives searching for such a Master while a few lucky ones will seem to get such a Master without much effort. The progress made towards enlightenment will depend on the sincerity and effort put in by the disciple. Some disciples will make more progress than others.

The Real Master will give the disciple one of the many Names of the Supreme One, like Aum, Waheguru, Ram, etc. (all names of the Infinite are equal) and show the disciple where the Real Heart is (Real Heart is where a portion of God resides in every human body irrespective of religion, race, etc. and is not the same as the Physical Heart). The disciple will meditate on this Name concentrating on the Real Heart and increase his/her bank balance of the Name. This bank balance unlike the financial bank balances of today’s life is carried over from one birth to the next. Finally, after the efforts spread over several births, this bank balance will reach the limit specified to attain enlightenment. Bingo, you are enlightened now!

Very good post! Excellent first post!! Welcome to IndiaMike!!!

Some of your opinions are presented as "statements". Am not about to nit-pick, just presenting another side. I hope the argument remains very civil and gentle.

One important point about the avataar needs to be mentioned as it is part of the undisputed tradition, ALL Hindu factions accept this part, never mind their fights over many other principles of scripture.

An avataar is the condensation of the Supreme Spirit or para-brmhan as a so-called human body. In other words, the Infinite decides to appear as a finite body for a purpose. Examples: Sri Raama and Sri Krishna. Raama was an avataar with 15 out of sixteen aspects whereas Krishna was a full blown avataar with all sixteen aspects. [poorNa avataar] From their birth itself, every breath they took and every action they undertook/avoided was for loka-kalyaana [universal welfare]. They never ever needed to do saadhanaa like us but pretended to do so. at least Raama pretended totally whereas Krishna was prolifically manifesting miracles even as a suckling baby.

Us humans must undertake saadhanaa, do [or try to do] nishkaama karma, bhakti, saadhanaa etc. Humans are born due to debit/credit/both balance of karma, whereas the Supreme brmhan takes birth merely out of its supreme will. Humans work towards self realization till they reach the stage where they can say "I am God". If this is so in actual experience, then such an elevated being has all knowledge of past/present/future and is located literally at all places. In other words, has become omniscient and omnipresent. As far as powers are concerned, all powers except the power of Creation are held. This is for self realized humans.

The avataar however, is omnipotent, unlike self realized humans. He is self realized from birth. No saadhaa is needed, even though he appears to do saadhanaa for the sake of setting a good example. [He can end the entire Universe right now if He so wishes.]

Rama and Krishna did not become enlightened. They knew the Absolute Truth from birth itself. They were a case of light itself being personified, so to say. I respect your opinion, though. You are entitled to your beliefs.

In your opinion.

The word itself means "God descended" in the sanskrit language. If you wish to re-interpret it, be our guest.

This is the region behind the physical heart and slightly to the right inside the spine according to the shruti vaakya:

तस्य मध्ये वन्हिशिखा अणीयोर्ध्वा व्यवस्थितः ।
नीलतोयतमध्यस्थात् विद्युल्लेखेव भास्वर ।
नीवरशूकवत्तन्वी पीता भास्वत्यणूपमा ।
तस्या शिखाया मध्ये परमात्मा व्यवस्थितः ।
[From the taittiriiya braamhaNa, mahaanaaraayaNa upaNiShad; prapaaThaka 10, anuvaak 13, verses 11 and 12]

A lighter side to enlightenment: [this is a true event]

My nephew had gained admission to the BKS Yoga school of Zubin Sir in Matunga. He was delighted coz this teacher admits very few students. Zubin Sir is a Parsi by birth and most Parsis are natural comedians and excellent at it too!

One day everyone was practising the headstand, and one of the students was taking support of the wall. He was very near the main electrical swithboard and was in danger of touching a live wire with his feet. [which were up & head down]

Zubin Sir, suddenly fearing this chap about to get electrocuted, shouted :

"Hey so-and-so, watch your feet. If you touch that board, you will get straight enlightenment!!!" The entire class crashed down laughing.

You may find some of these links on a similar/related topic here on IndiaMike:

What is karma?

Bhakti Yoga for the Esoteric Traveller

What is Yoga?

How did Krishna die?

Yoga in India

Welcome to IndiaMike!

when i hear the word enlightenment the Van Morrison song plays through my mind - "Enlightenment; don't know what it is". i'm not sure what he means by that, but for me it seems to be a humbling place where we realize that we know nothing.

from my teacher, Lama Surya Das:

"Enlightenment is not about becoming something or someone else. It is the recognition of our intrinsic human nature, which is absolute truth. This absolute true nature is called "Buddha nature." The term Buddha, from the Sanskrit tatha, or tathagata, means "gone beyond," going beyond an ignorant state to become completely inseparable from absolute truth, which is our genuine ground. This is the essence of Buddhism and the main focus of our understanding and practice."

~ Mindroling Khandro Rinpoche

My thought for the moment on Enlightenment is that of shedding the ILLUSION, the more that we shed, the more of the REALITY that we experience. In essence EN ~ LIGHTENMENT is just that becoming lighter, the less karma, the lighter is our burden, the less attachment the lighter is our burden. More possessions more possessed, less possession, less possessed. Less attachment to the mind and the ILLUSION the lighter we become; more attached to the nature and purity of Love the more enlightened we become.

Merging in the LIGHT of LOVE = En ~ Lightenment

yes, scaling down to a place where we realize attatchment to anything is binding and resticting. i leave a lot more to the realm of mystery these days and realize that i do not need to know everything. Besides, i know nothing, really, which removes me from the burden of arrogant judgment. What a relief it is.

One aspect to consider is that we cannot survive in a vacuum, we must be attached to something, it is the nature of the attachment that is the cause of our problems or the release from or problems. Say for example that we are attached to rock music, then we are absorbed in all of the trappings that go with that, if we become attached to the Anahad (various spellings) Shabd, then we are absorbed in all of the trappings that go with that. In spiritual matters we are to bind, to be bound to the Shabd in order to be released from the world of Illusion, the Chaurasi, being the cycle of transmigration.

It is said that when one knows nothing, one has reached the state of the nothing.

" At the instant when the 'whim' surged in the finite Everything the Creation point or Om point manifested as the most finite Everything.

Infinite Nothing was latent in the infinite Everything, but when the 'whim' surged the infinite Nothing got manifested through most finite Everything, which is the Om point.

Thus, through the most infinite Everything, the infinite Nothing is ejected gradually, manifesting itself as expanding ad infinitum.

Simultaneously with the projection of the latent Nothing and with the manifestation of Nothingness, the consciousness which existed as Nothing, latent in the infinitude of God-Is state, also got projected and manifested itself gradually as the consciousness of God, and made God experience Himself as God the Creator of all things that projected out of His state of the Everything as Nothingness.

Whereupon, gradually gaining full consciousness, God in the state of the Creator became entangled in the maze of most-finite Nothingness found as infinite, stretched out and upheld through His own infinite trio-nature.

The paradoxical irony is that the infinity itself of God makes it infinitely difficult for God to escape the false apparent infinity of Nothingness which goes on expanding ad infinitum through the closely linked infinite trio-nature of God which is infinite power, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss.

But the entanglement is absolutely necessary in order that God in the infinitude of the God-Is state should gain consciousness fully and completely for Himself and of His infinite reality, and in this way experience consciously His unbounded, unlimited, infinite trio-nature of infinite power, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss.

The fundamental fact is that full consciousness once gained can never be lost. It remains eternally, regardless of whether that consciousness fully gained is the consciousness of the false Nothingness experienced as real, or whether that consciousness is the consciousness of Reality Itself."
Meher Baba

But do you know 'the' Nothing 'really'

People call me an 'enlightened man' -- I detest that term -- they can't find any other word to describe the way I am functioning. At the same time, I point out that there is no such thing as enlightenment at all. I say that because all my life I've searched and wanted to be an enlightened man, and I discovered that there is no such thing as enlightenment at all, and so the question whether a particular person is enlightened or not doesn't arise. I don't give a hoot for a sixth-century-BC Buddha, let alone all the other claimants we have in our midst. They are a bunch of exploiters, thriving on the gullibility of the people. There is no power outside of man. Man has created God out of fear. So the problem is fear and not God.

______________

I discovered for myself and by myself that there is no self to realize -- that's the realization I am talking about. It comes as a shattering blow. It hits you like a thunderbolt. You have invested everything in one basket, self-realization, and, in the end, suddenly you discover that there is no self to discover, no self to realize -- and you say to yourself "What the hell have I been doing all my life?!" That blasts you.
JUST QUOTING U G KRISHNAMURTI

maybe if people stop running after "It", it will come to them.

after all, Buddha just sat down under a tree and watched his breath. nothing more, nothing less. it really IS that simple.

Very thoughtfully said.. but that applies only to a seeker.

A normal human being might be too busy to even think of enlightment.

It seems that enlightenment has lost its charm or is it that all of us are enlightened to some extent.I still am not able to define or understand what is meant by enlightenment !Is SAMADHI a atate of mind of an enlightened person or is it a sort of self induced hypnotic state? Is there anybody who has gone to that state of mind while meditating. I asked a few monks I met- honest persons, I should say, who told me that they have not been able to be in such a state of mind. I have read in a book by a renouned sanyasin that even the sanyasins who could be in SAMADHI for hours were not free from so many temptations of life-yes, our Maharshis were sometimes tempted by many worldly attractions including woman.So SAMADHI is not the last word it seems. More on this from who knows.

I know. An enlightened person is one who does not have an unanswered question in his mind.

From a mystical Saiva Sampradaya (HINDU) perspective... not to argue, just to share
Some of the prerequisites before enlightenment
..humility
..virtue
..honesty with self, and others
..celibacy
..renunciation of desire
..incredible amounts of will
..ability to sit still, as well as still the mind for long periods of time
..all this and much much more allows kundalini to rise
..seeing light within the head (cranium) and lots of it even in a dark room(the origin of the term en light enment)

Aum Namasivaya

Namah Sivaya. Thanks.
I may differ on a few things. Celibacy, ability to sit still for long periods of time, kundalini and seeing light within the head (uranium) and lots of it in a dark room (enlightenment, really).

Differences make the world's forces spin. This is just the way it is.