SPIRITUAL SOLUTION TO MONASTIC PROBLEMS II Psychological Problems and Existential Problems
SPIRITUAL SOLUTION TO MONASTIC PROBLEMS
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Swami
Shivananda
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Love
What
holds together our monks as a true brotherhood is a divine love of
Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother. Love is generally thought to be a
form of attachment. Hence the basis of monastic community life in
traditional Hinduism and Buddhism is friendly cooperation and
dedication to a common ideal. The love that Sri Ramakrishna radiated
was love for God as the Supreme Self (Paramatman) in all beings. It
is divine love or spiritual love and is therefore unselfish, pure and
free from attachments. The Holy Mother was the fullest embodiment of
this divine Love. She stands as a great luminous center of unity in
our Order, and devotion to her can help us in solving many of our
problems of adjustment in community life.
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Sri
Sarada Devi
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Psychological
Problems and Existential
Problems
Psychological
problems are those problems which are caused by the rise of good and
bad impulses, desires, emotions, and instinctual drives in the mind
and the ego's attempts to control them. These problems cause mental
disturbances, conflicts, psychosomatic diseases, depression, and even
suicidal tendencies. Psychological problems are very common in
monastic life. Instead of blaming others for our failures and mental
problems, we should find their causes deep within us.
Towards
the end of the 19th century Swamiji showed (even before Freud and
other Western psychologists did) that psychological problems are
caused by the samskars of past experiences lying buried in the unconscious part of the mind. Swamiji also showed how by the practice
of meditation, we can dive deep into the unconscious and discover the
forgotten causes of our present mental problems
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Swami
Vivekananda
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and
be free from them. To quote Swamiji: "Meditate! The greatest
thing is meditation. It is the nearest approach to spiritual life the mind meditating." 10 Swamiji's Raja Yoga is primarily meant to
enable us to solve our mental problems through meditation. If our
Sadhus gain sufficient experience in deep meditation and succeed in
solving their own mental problems, they can be of immense help to
thousands of people, especially in the West, who are eagerly waiting
for proper guidance.
Psychological
problems have external causes. But there are certain other inner
problems which do not have any external causes. They arise because of
the very nature of human existence. They include the meaninglessness of
life, loneliness, lack of love, the feeling of insecurity, etc. Such
problems are called 'existential problems.' These problems have only
a spiritual solution.
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BANERSHAR
SHIVA LINGA
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Spiritual Problems
Strictly
speaking, Sadhus should have only spiritual problems. All the other
problems arise only because we do various kinds of social service and
live in a community. Some of the real spiritual problems are:
How to
realize God?
Why God
does not reveal Himself to me even
though I pray so much?
What is
the nature of genuine spiritual experience?
Is God
formless? How do the Forms of God arise?
What is
the nature of Mukti?
These
basic questions of spiritual life deserve to be thought about and
discussed more commonly by our monastic brothers.
Conclusion
To conclude our discussion on monastic problems, is there one basic
problem, one root-cause, of which all other problems are different
manifestations? Yes, there is.
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Ma
Bhabatarini (Kali)
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According
to the ancient sages of Vedanta, the one basic or ultimate cause of
all our problems are the alienation of individual self (jivatman) from
the Supreme Self (Paramatman), the separation of man from God. This
alienation or separation is caused by avidya or ajnana, primordial
ignorance.
The
ultimate solution to all the problems is to overcome this root cause,
primordial ignorance, realize our true divine nature and attain
oneness with God. This is why Sri Thakur has stressed as his
central teaching: 03 S tch (Išvar lābhi mānus jivaner uddeśyo).
God-realization is the ultimate solution to all the problems of life.
Sri
Ramakrishna as the God of the present age (yugeswara) is the goal of
our life as well as the means of attaining that goal. In Swamiji's
Vesper hymn Khandana bhava-bandhana, Thakur is described as the Goal,
and in his second hymn Om Hrim Ritam, Thakur is described as the
Means.
Our
monastic Order is like a ship carrying us across the ocean of
Samsara.
As
Sri Akshaya Kumar Sen has stated in his song, পাখী
তুই ঠিক বসে থাক রামকৃষ্ণ
নামের মাস্তুলে (Pakhi
tui thik bose thak Ramakrsna-namer mästule)..., all that we have to
do is to hold to the mast of Thakur's Name.
संसारार्णव
घोरे य:
कर्णधार
स्वरूपकः ।
नमोऽस्तु
रामकृष्णाय तस्मै श्री गुरवे
नमः ||
Salutations
to the Supreme Guru Sri Ramakrishna! who is the helmsman (of the ship
of collective life) in the ocean of transmigratory existence.
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