FOUR PATHS TO ALMIGHTY REALIZATION IN HINDU DHARMA

FOUR PATH HINDU DHARMA

We need to know the basics of Hindu religion before we proceed to reform it and make it suitable for modern days. Hinduism was an extremely scientific religion in the ancient times. Reforms happened almost in every period of time.

According to Hindu Sastras, there are four paths to the ultimate reality, four varnas among the people and four ashramas or methods of life relevant to them

The four paths to ultimate reality are  -(i) Jnana Yoga (ii) Dhyana Yoga (iii) Karma Yoga and (iv) Bhakti Yoga. Religion and spirituality revolve around these four paths.

The four Ashramas are (i)Sanyasa (ii)Vaanaprastha (iii) Grihastha (iv) Brahmacharya. These Ashramas lay down how people have to lead their lives at different ages. This is more a social need than a religious need.

The four varnas or categories of people, based on their Guna and Karma are (i) Brahmana (ii) Kshatriya (iii) Vaisya and (iv) Sudra.

The four paths to ultimate reality are complete in themselves and are suitable to all Human beings according to their mental makeup. We can adopt any one path or a combination according to our needs.

The four Asharamas namely (i)Sanyasa (ii)Vaanaprastha (iii) Grihastha (iv) Brahmacharya depend upon the Individual’s mental makeup, his age and family circumstances.

Brahmacharya way of living is to be followed in childhood and youth, for the entire duration of learning the Vedas, Sastras etc under a Guru, usually in his Ashram. We must stay away from the opposite sex and focus on our learning during this period.

Grihastha way of living is relevant to those who get married. This is usually the longest period of life. Grihastha must take care of his spouse, children, aged parents etc and lead a responsible life in the society.

Vanaprastha is the time to hand over the running of the house to the grown up sons and partially retire from active Grihastha life.

Sanyasa is the old age period when we must totally retire from active life and focus on realization of the almighty God. Usually people go away and stay in forests, along with wife, if she is still alive or alone if she has died.

 The practice of these methods of living is no more feasible in modern days. However, keeping in view the idea behind each ashram, and the needs of people at different ages, we need to restructure our Society.

Modern education system is vastly different from Gurukul method of learning.  Co-education is becoming the norm. Brahmacharya with focus on learning and staying away from opposite sex is still relevant in different ways. We need to teach respect for the opposite sex and ensure the safety of women a lot in our educational institutions.

Grihasthasrama is still relevant but in a modified way. In many households, both husband and wife have their active professions. Sharing of household duties equally must be taught at school itself. Cooking skills especially must be taught in schools so that either spouse does not shy away from any household duty.

Vanaprastha is retired life when people are still somewhat active. We need to practice how to stay healthy and happy in our twilight years. We also need to teach children to take care of the elders.

Sanyasa is when body does not support the self reasonably and greater assistance of children is needed. This too must be taught from school stage itself. Unfortunately, our school and college curriculum does not teach us the needs of us at every stage of life and how youngsters must support elders and how whole society must keep its elders happy and secure. This means that suitable structural changes must be made in the education system and in the way we run our homes.

After the Ashramas, let us look at the Varnas. Lord Krishna has declared in the Bhagavad Gita that he has fixed the four varnas as per Guna and Karma. But, somehow, in practice, these have got rigidly fixed based on birth alone as the criterion. This has degenerated the Hindu system very badly . People have got divided into caste based silos without much interactions. This needs drastic reform.

We have seen in earlier chapters that inter-caste marriages, inter racial marriages, love marriage by the choice of the 2 persons involved and different choices for child bearing were freely adopted and were common in Dwapar yug itself.

After Dwapar Yug, these have all become uncommon in current days. Hindu society has become a badly divided, rigidly exclusive caste based society. This is giving rise to unhealthy and unchecked migration from Hindu society to other religions.

Therefore, my major focus in this Booklet is on the reformation of the Varna or caste system. The focus of Hindu society today must be on making major revamp of the caste system to make the entire society a unified,  harmonious society, meeting the religious and spiritual needs of all sections adequately. This will be dealt with in the coming chapter.

After Lord Krishna left the earth, India’s History remains unrecorded for a long period of time and is shrouded in mystery. Nothing much is definitely known on how Hindu society existed and transformed culturally, religiously, economically, socially, educationally and so on, over thousands of years after Lord Krishna’s demise.

Geographically, India was never a single entity from the earliest days, but a single culture pervaded the entire region. Hundreds of independent kingdoms and smaller independent principalities existed in India. Of course, India had a distinct and common cultural thread which connected all these kingdoms and principalities.

India never had a rigidly structured, self regulating religion like Christianity and Islam. There was no single religious head like Pope, no hierarchy of temples and temple heads (like Bishops, pastors, Mullas, Moulvis etc), no arrangement to enforce the systems, laws, principles and procedures of Hindu culture ever existed. Either you follow, or, you don’t follow, others don’t really interfere. Individual freedom existed to a large extent. There was no structured arrangement of schools and colleges to teach religion to all Hindus. Nor was religion taught in a structured way in temples.

Therefore, despite a common thread, cultures in India differed vastly from place to place, town to town and village to village - in many aspects of life, like procedures, festivals, dressing methods, marital habits, eating habits – in fact, in almost every aspect of living.

The most colourful festival of Holi is absent in south India. Likewise, many festival of south India are absent in North India. Marriage rituals differ vastly from region to region.

Gods devoutly worshipped by people of different regions were also  different. People followed Siva, Vishnu, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Indra and many others with different forms, shapes and names, whichever people liked. There was no compulsion. Many villages created their own Gods with different forms and shapes.

Most people followed more than one God or many Gods too. Every town and every village created its own Image of God or Goddess, gave their own choice name and built temples to the Gods chosen by them. It was a Great freedom of religion. Nobody was afraid of God but loved him or her.

Males felt like children of the God if the God was female in form. Females felt either like children or like devoted, blind lovers if the God form is Male. God can have either male or female form or even a combined form called Ardhanareeswara. So much religious freedom existed which does not exist in any other culture.

All these beautiful methods had their own justification. These were followed sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously, sometimes with awareness of the implied meaning and sometimes without such awareness.  Till today, worship of both male and female forms of Gods continues all over India.

All these practices were approved by great Jnanis and sages who themselves followed one divine entity which is nameless and formless but which existed all over the universe. Since the ultimate divine entity existed in every particle of the Universe, we can visualize that divine entity in any name and form.

The whole universe is full of both male and female energy, both of which are inseparably inter-twined and inter-dependent at all times, all over the universe. It is so even in the human beings. We cannot therefore say whether the ultimate divine entity or the ultimate God is  HE or SHE. He is both. It was recognized that male energy also flows through female forms of all beings and female energy also flows through Male forms of all beings.

Half of Siva is Durga. Lakshmi resides in the very heart of Vishnu. These are symbolisms but with deep significance for human worship. Humans are expected to understand and follow these examples of Gods. Great Respect for the female is an integral part of this culture.

Gods were also recognized in rivers, hills, trees, various animal forms and so on, as the ultimate God existed in every particle of the universe.

We can’t see the ultimate God with your five senses. He is beyond their capability to experience. But we can see and experience God in the vast variety of his creation. Idol worship must be seen as worship of the ultimate divine form in his creation. Hindus worship the distant Sun, Moon, planets , stars and so on also. Nothing in the world is not a God form. He exists everywhere and can be experienced everywhere.

Hindu imagination started story telling about God in various forms and linked all the God forms to each other in various relationships, just as humans themselves are related to each other. People linked different Gods through marital bonds, family affiliations and so on and this formed a sort of Unity of Gods and unity of their devotees. People following these closely connected Gods felt themselves connected to the supreme, to whichever God they prayed and worshipped.

Mother was considered as a personification of God. Father was also considered so, Guru was also considered so, and even Athithi or the person who comes to your home with the request for food is also considered to be so.

This is in sharp contrast to other cultures. The implicit idea is obviously to see the almighty in all his creation, especially in the most beneficial parts of creation. Who else is the greatest benefactor for a human being than the mother?

While these multiplicity of Gods, with multiplicity of forms and names catered to the religious and spiritual needs of a large section of Indians, another section of highly evolved people understood and worshipped a nameless, formless God, called Brahman and aspired to attain to Brahman through the path of wisdom or the path of yoga, as prescribed by Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita.

There is nothing but Brahman in the Universe and the Universe itself is in Brahman. Brahman is thus a single almighty that exists all over the Universe, or, the entire Universe exists in Brahman. This is the ultimate wisdom understood as Jnana Yoga. Jnana Yoga is suitable for highly evolved, highly intelligent beings while idol worship and worship of other forms is suitable for other people at various levels of intelligence or innocence.

Sun God is worshipped as the benefactor of everything to all earthly beings. Worship of Moon, stars and different planets is also common. The ultimate God’s presence is seen in all of them.

Vedas talk of multiplicity of Gods to adore, but, Vedanta, the last part of Vedas, otherwise called as Upanishads talk of a single Brahman. In Jnana yoga, complete understanding of Brahman itself is equivalent to becoming one with Brahman.

Some people preferred Dhyana Yoga, some preferred Karma Yoga and some others preferred Bhakti Yoga for attainment to God or heaven, as per their individual preference.

All four paths (including Jnana yoga path) are available to all Individuals. Individuals can choose a right combination of more than one path or all four paths, if their maturity and surrender levels are appropriate to it. There is huge freedom in the choice of any one or more paths for every individual.

Bhakti route specifically accepts, approves and recommends name and form worship of a God, which makes surrender to that God very easy. To the true devotee, the form and name worshipped itself transforms into the almighty God. For others, it will remain a stone, or tree or whatever the physical eye perceives it to be.

Women especially are seen to choose Bhakti route to salvation easily as unquestioning acceptance and unconditional surrender come very easily to them. Pregnancy and child birth period are said to be great enablers for women to choose Bhakti path. Bhakti is a wonderful way to salvation provided unconditional surrender and acceptance come easily to the Individual.

Many men also adopt this Bhakti route once their belief in a particular name and form of God becomes total. Stories of Great Male Devotees are often heard across India even in current days. If logic, criticism and analysis predominate in any Individual, male or female, he or she is not fit for Bhakti way to salvation.

In some people, the level of love for their duty and compassion for others is very high. For them, Karma yoga or selfless service to others is the way to salvation. In service to others, they see the consciousness of god flowing through all. Followers of karma yoga path need not even be believers of God. They can be non-believers also. If they perform their Karma like Yogis, that is enough for their salvation. Any individual in need is considered as Athithi and Athithi is said to be a God form. Athithi devo bhava is the Mantra. We are not generous to him by feeding him but he is generous to us by coming to our door step for food etc.

For others, it may seem that the Karmayogi is doing extreme selfless service to the needy and suffering people and himself suffering in the process. But, for the Karmayogi, the whole process feels like divine presence and divine blessings.

Some people can easily focus their five senses and the whole body upon their mind and travel deeper inside their consciousness. They try to go beyond their body and mind and stay fixed in the supreme consciousness that exists within us. For them Dhyana Yoga, or simply Yoga, is the best path. Yoga is an inward journey into one’s own deepest self. This requires discipline, practice, non-attachment and some other conditions. There are huge physical, mental and many other benefits that come to the Yogi as his Yoga practice progresses through different stages. Maharshi Patanjali and Lord Krishna are both great exponents of Yoga. Yogi experiences the greatest truths of this universe within himself. I have written a 740 page book on Yoga called "COMPREHENSIVE TREATISE ON PATANJALI YOGASUTRAS", which is available on Amazon.in.

Some people can experience the supreme consciousness or Brahman all over the universe and mere identification with Brahman results in realization of Brahman. Their minds can see through the clutter of this universe, unravel the complications and perceive the presence of Brahman everywhere, including within themselves. This is the Jnana Marga or the path of wisdom.

This is a simple way of defining the four basic routes of attaining to the almighty or Brahman – that are prescribed in Indian ethos. Of these 4 paths, Bhakti and Karma paths, are the methods generally available and adopted in cultures originating outside India. Yoga and Jnana paths are almost unknown to them.

Why is Image or Idol form of worship allowed when Brahman is formless and nameless? Image, form and name are tools for focusing our attention away from the rest of the universe, on a single object first, as the human mind otherwise stands distracted all the time all over the universe. This focusing on a single form is a initial human need, a basic necessity for most people.

For any success in any worldly task also, we need to give up all distractions and focus on one single object or one single goal. This is the normal success principle. Image or Idol is just the application of this success principle to the realization of almighty.

Once sufficient focus is achieved in the stone or the Image, it itself transforms into the deepest infinite self, connected with the whole Universe. Now, wherever the devotee looks, he sees the almighty presence. The story of Prahlada and many other devotees is just that. His father, Hiranya kasipa can’t see the God in the stone and pillar. But, Prahlada can see the almighty everywhere. What the devotee can, Others cannot.

Whether a God in that name and form which is focused on, really exists or does not exist is immaterial for the devotee.  If he can focus attention on his favourite Image and name associated with it, he can experience the God in that particular Image. The almighty definitely comes to exist in it. It is the DIRECT EXPERIENCE of the Devotee. Others have no right to call it a hallucination or dreaming and so on. Devotee’s experience is his. Others’ experience is theirs. Our experience is ours. Individual experiences can be transformative at their peak.

If you see something only as a stone, then, you don’t see the almighty in it. The devotee does not see the stone but experiences the almighty in it. In principle, God exists everywhere and therefore, in that stone too.

Millions of Gods exist in Hinduism just for this reason, even though ultimately, all Gods merge into one Brahman. A devout Hindu sees God in stones,  animals, birds, ants, cobras, and in so many other things. The essence of what Prahlad told his father, Hiranyakasyapa is that - God did exist in the Pillar pointed out by his father and everywhere else.

Theoretically, the Yogi and the Jnani also accept that God does exist everywhere but focus on themselves. Karma yogi experiences almighty in his selfless work.

The sloka “anoraneeyaam, Mahato Maheeyaam” means - Smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest, the All-pervasive Brahman remains the Eternal Witness of everything. Brahman exists in every atom. He exists in every Image / stone / tree etc also. This is the logic of worshipping God in everything everywhere.

Problems came much later when worshippers of Siva and Vishnu claimed supremacy over each other and clashed with each other on silly issues. Ignorance of the essence and Ego were the causes which blind one to the ultimate truth. So, they became like two warring religions of two mutually opposing Gods. Many Sages built bridges of friendship and relationship through stories, among all these Gods and most people accepted the unity of both Siva and Vishnu or, at least deep friendship of both. Yet some people became ferocious followers of either Siva or of Vishnu, not accepting the godliness of the other, because of ignorance and ego.

Despite Jnanis and Yogis existing and counseling, these ferocious followers of particular Gods continued their religious war with each other. Puranas etc talk of such wars, which finally were put down by Siva or Vishnu or both or some other God. Wars of the followers, basically, can be seen as  ego clashes and not religious clashes.

We must understand these Basics of the four path dharma, each of which is suitable to a particular type of persons. Otherwise, it is difficult for anyone to grasp the beauty of Hindu culture and its extraordinary inclusiveness of all people into it.

The freedom of religion and spirituality available in the four path Dharma is not available in any other culture anywhere in the world.