There are many myths about spiritual personalities and great yogi in India. One of them is that since whatever he or she does from a divine consciousness, it will be perfect, flawless, great, or a work of genius or world-class. The other myth is that he or she will be some kind of an omniscient demi-god who can know everything under the sun, solve all problems or answer all questions. These beliefs are not entirely myths. There may be a grain of truth in it but mixed with popular misconceptions. Let us briefly examine these truths and myths.
Spiritual consciousness or spiritual development need not necessarily lead to high creative quality in outer work or action because this outer quality depends also on the condition of the instruments or faculties of consciousness. A great yogi living in the highest spiritual consciousness may write poetry. But if his poetic or aesthetic qualities are underdeveloped, the outer aesthetic quality may not be great or even mediocre; it can never reach the level of great poets like Shelley or Shakespeare with a highly developed poetic faculties. It may have a subtle spiritual beauty or a great mantric power but the outer aesthetic quality may not reach the levels of Shakespeare.
“… the Yogis’s knowledge is direct and immediate… he looks, has the vision of things and this seeing is his knowledge”, or “He knows by his capacity for containing or dynamic identity with things persons or forces”. But not every one who calls himself or regarded as a “Yogi” possesses this knowledge. There are many types of yogis with various levels of inner realisation. In general, a Yogi who lives in the higher ranges of consciousness beyond the rational mind has potentially the capacity to know the deeper truth of things, if he wants to. But he may not be interested in becoming an encyclopaedia of knowledge. He may know or want to know only those things which are needed to execute his spiritual mission or comes to him spontaneously in the course of his spiritual journey or he may have the intuitive knowledge to answer the questions of spiritual seekers or to help them resolve their inner difficulties or guide them in their growth. A true yogi has no desire for mental knowledge. He doesn’t have the acquisitive curiosity of the ordinary intellect seeking for a variety of information or knowledge. So as the Mother elaborates further on the knowledge of a Yogi.
For example, yogi may have a deep spiritual insight into the unified theory of matter so much sought after in modern physics. He can perhaps even see the truth of it with his inner vision, as concretely as we see the table in front of us with our physical eyes. But he may not be interested in this kind of knowledge and therefore may not talk or write about it. He may not have the scientific or mathematical equipment to express it in the right scientific language which will bring him the Nobel Prize.
If a scientist grappling with this problem asks the yogi to help him to resolve the problem he may throw some vague or luminous hints but may not entirely reveal the secret. He may think it was not his business, dharma, to do so because it interferes with the natural course of evolution or, dharma, of science or the scientist, which is to arrive at the solution through the process of rational and scientific enquiry.
Swami Ramalingam was a great Yogi who lived in a small village in an Indian state. He writes in one of his poetic works that he saw how atoms are formed in subtle space. A modern scientist may spend his whole life to discover it but for Ramalingam it may be something insignificant which deserves only a few minutes of passing inner glance. He moves on to greater things. He describes briefly the higher vital and metal world, many mansions of the spiritual worlds and as he reaches the summits of the creation he says that he saw how all the billions of universes and the many levels of creation are formed from a tiny particle of energy dropping from the legs of the Divine Dancer, Nataraja.
This entry was posted on November 13, 2015 by integralmusings in Harnessing the Human Potential.