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What is Enlightenment? Meaning Definition and its relation to Self-Realization |
What is Enlightenment? Meaning Definition and its relation to Self-Realization
© Copyright 2005 Vijay Kumar
What is Enlightenment?
What do we really mean when we talk of
Enlightenment? Is it not the bloom of life for a true
seeker of spirituality? The life itself comes to a full circle
the moment one reaches the stage of Enlightenment.
Seeking Enlightenment in the present age (the metallic
age aka Kali Yuga in Hinduism is more of a curiosity
than the faint hope of being able to achieve it within the
present lifetime.
Truly speaking even spiritual stalwarts like Swami
Vivekananda, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghosh
and many others in the line failed to reach the stage of
Enlightenment. The reason is fair and simple... some
like Swami Vivekananda never desired reaching the
stage of Enlightenment in their lifetime whereas both
Rabindra Nath Tagore and Aurobindo Ghosh attempted
but failed in their mission. They have category stated in
their literary works that they did not reach the stage of
Enlightenment.
What is it while proceeding on the path of
Enlightenment that is difficult to achieve? Even when it
was possible for Swami Vivekananda to have gained
Enlightenment under the guidance of his spiritual
master and a god realized soul Swami Ramakrishna
Paramhansa, he did not exercise the option! Why?
Enlightenment (in other words self-realization) is the
culmination of all we know as spirituality. There is
nothing beyond having reached the stage of
Enlightenment that is left to be achieved by a human
being. Having reached the Mount Everest, Edmund
Hillary became quite depressed for he realized that the
goal of his life had come to an end. There was no
further to go anywhere? The moment one comes across
the final goal of his life... it is all over for life itself.
Probably, life loses its meaning.
Is it not true that the essence of life is while pursuing our
goal? And one who gains Enlightenment merges his
identity with the larger whole... the God Almighty
himself. Having lost our identity of life it becomes
difficult for a human being to be able to recognize one
as a friend, a relative, a teacher and even your parents.
For an enlightened person it is not difficult to maintain
the relationship but while living in the society it becomes
difficult to maintain the balance between the spiritual
end of life one has achieved and the relationship with
the physical world.
A flower having bloomed loses its meaning... it is no
more related with the plant which gave it life and also
everything which the bud needed to have flowered into
a full-blown. The identity, the ego, the self lost its
meaning the moment the bud bloomed into a beautiful
flower. As long as the society, the community felt the
sweet fragrance of the flower... it got recognition and the
moment came the time to wither out and die... none
cared! Life moves on and does not wait for anybody.
The essence of life lies in moving on and on until one
gains Enlightenment. And this Enlightenment is the
stage when one is totally liberated forever from
everything we call as the materialistic world.
Materialism is a phenomenon of the physical world. On
the contrary, Enlightenment dwells in the absolute truth
of our life. It is only related to our true inner self... our
soul (the true self of us). And the moment our soul
realizes and reaches its final potential... the need for the
body vanishes.
Every enlightened soul has to abandon the body for
ever... the cycle of life and birth ceases for this
enlightened person. If I say that only two persons have
gained Enlightenment in the last 150 years out of the
6000 million people residing on mother earth... then
Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Maharishi
Ramana were truly blessed by God Almighty to have
gained Enlightenment even when the society presently
is passing through such a bad phase on the
materialistic plane. Everything presently is measured in
terms of materialistic achievements.
In the present times a spiritually enlightened soul
residing in the deep dense forests of the Himalayas
would not find as much public appreciation as the likes
of Bill Gates... One who shall not be able to carry the
wealth one manages onto the next life but always
seems to cling on until the last moment of life arrives.
The false hope one maintains that money can buy one
the best in life in the present and the afterlife is an
absolute misnomer. We fail to remember that it is only
the likes of Madame Curie who shall gain a special
status in the next life for the ones like Madame Curie
come once in thousand years... those who dedicate
everything one could have called their own to the
mankind at large. They truly live for the society until the
last breath and it is for that they shall be repaid by God
in the next life.
Even though Madame Curie may not have gained
Enlightenment... but chances are that these thinkers and
true philosophers of life would gain Enlightenment a few
lives from now on. A true enlightened person lives like
a true trustee believing in the fact that everything
belongs to God and one is only a maintainer on his
behalf. It would not be in the interest of the trustee to
look forward to materialistic riches in life. Every true
trustee would do whatever possible within his means to
work for uplifting the society.
I again repeat that every god realized soul loses
everything in the materialistic world. It simply means our
true self, the real self of us who exists within us as our
soul... the moment it reaches its pristine purity, the dross
having completely removed... the physical body losing
its meaning... and one truly gains Enlightenment.
Vijay Kumar... The Man who Realized God in 1993 explains the inner meaning of Enlightenment. subscribe free Newsletter "Spiritual Secrets Unveiled" - Explore hidden cosmic truths- Read Glossary of Words in Spirituality http://www.godrealized.com
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