The cause of pain is forgetfulness. You have forgotten who you are and where you have come from or where you are heading. In ordinary day-to-day life also, when you forget something, you become restless. It often happens that you forget a word or thought. You know it, and it is right there at the tip of your tongue but you cannot remember it. You try very hard to remember it because you are so sure of it. But it goes on eluding you. Then you put it aside and go about the business of life. You start watering the plants or go into the kitchen and start cooking. Suddenly, that word comes up clear as day. When you gave up the effort to recall it, it came up. Yet, when you were trying so hard, you could not grasp it.
If a simple word can cause so much agitation, you can imagine what the ultimate truth, which has been forgotten, can do to you. The spiritual journey is all about remembering what you have forgotten. It begins from where you are, in a state of forgetfulness, and ends in remembrance of who you are.
The reason for this forgetfulness is that you live in a dream world. In fact, you remain in a state of stupor, semi-consciousness, a dreamlike state. It requires very little awareness to do the daily activities of life. It is only when something out of the ordinary happens that you become more conscious. Let’s say if you get into an accident suddenly you will become more aware. You have been jolted out of your slumber and you need all your wits about you to handle the untoward situation. Later, you will realise that you can remember every minute detail of the incident.
Memory is one of the greatest mysteries of life. It plays many tricks with you. You remember certain things and forget the rest. Actually, your memory is directly proportionate to your awareness. Anything that you did consciously stays in your memory. Everything else slips into the unconscious mind. All these forgotten things that are lying in the store of the unconscious mind can be brought to the surface through hypnosis. Through hypnosis it has been proved beyond doubt that the mind registers everything but chooses to remember only a fraction of it. The rest of it is not lost but stored in the unconscious, far away from conscious memory.
So, it is a question of bringing it to the surface. The fact is that you can only achieve what you already have; there is no provision for attaining what is not already there. This is to reiterate that you have forgotten who you are. The spiritual journey is all about remembering your true self. It is about asking the eternal question: Who am I? It is a process of eliminating all the things with which you identify yourself. Are you the name by which you are known? No. Are you the face by which you are recognised? No. Neti neti; not this, not this is the long and arduous process. Asking this question incessantly and with all your heart and soul in it, you will come across the true self or the original face. It is like peeling an onion. You need to keep peeling one layer after the other, because so many lives have gone by and layers and layers have accumulated on top of the truth that unless you panistakingly remove these layers you cannot encounter your true self.
Some of these layers are mentioned here to try and understand how everyone in the world is caught up in the same net. And, because this phenomenon is so universal, it is seldom questioned. But, truth has nothing to do with the majority. Truth, whenever it is realised, is realised in private, by the individual alone.
The first and the deepest layer of falsehood is the layer of conditioning. From the moment of birth, the infant is conditioned to become what the parents want. He is given a name by which he will be known. It is a practical compulsion. If the name is not given how will he be known to others? But, the conditioning goes so deep that he begins to identify himself with his name. Whereas the truth is that he was born without a name, and when he dies the name will die with him. The name is not a part of him. It has been imposed on him from the outside. Yet, this name becomes ever so important for him. He develops an ego and a personality around this name. With each passing day, this conditioning becomes stronger and stronger. It is like a fortified wall which stands between him and his real self. This wall has to be broken in order to get a glimpse of the original face.
And, name is perhaps the least resistant of the layers of conditioning. He is conditioned as a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Sikh, depending on which organisation the parents subscribe to. The fact is that he was born without any of these labels. These labels have been attached to him without his consent. They were given to him at a point of time when he was too small to object and too innocent to understand its implications. These divisions don’t end here. Then, there are distinctions between castes and classes, between high and low, rich and poor, man or woman, black or white and so on and so forth. All these are layers upon layers that are thrust upon him. He begins to think of himself as a Brahmin or a Shudra, a rich man or a poor man, and moulds his life around these labels. They are the innumerable walls erected between him and his true self. They are the walls that have to be broken to get a glimpse of the original face. These are the walls that hide the truth from him which is why he has lost sight of it for so long that he has completely forgotten about it.
Since the basic conditioning of having a name and an identity is necessary to fit into the society, there is no way one can uproot it and throw it out of the window. (Though, it is true that most of the discriminating distinctions should be thrown out because they do more harm to the society than good.) All one needs to do is to understand them for what they are — utilitarian and necessary for the smooth functioning of the social system. We live in society in the company of others; therefore, we need to live by the rules of the society. No more and no less.
However, the society has become so important that you have lost sight of your inner existence. Everything you do or don’t do is in the service of the society. And, because society has gained such a status that you have projected your inner self also outside. You have taken your place of worship outside and built temples, mosques and gurudwaras outside; consequently you never look within to meet the divine residing within you. You have taken your marketplace into the temples instead of bringing the silence of the temple inside you.
Remembrance or simran is to take an about turn from where you are. You have to take a 180º turn from the outside to the inside. You have to break these walls to get inside. It is not an easy task. There are many steps that will be helpful. But, one must remember that they are only steps; they can lead you to the ultimate goal of remembrance if you keep moving. If you stop at any one step, then you are stuck there. Then that becomes another wall; may be an ornamental one, but a wall all the same.
The first step is to listen silently. Initially, you will need to reduce the external noises to listen to the silence outside. Then you will have to listen to the inner noises non-judgmentally and wait for them to go. You cannot fight with these thoughts; don’t deny them or identify with them. Just watch them come and go. One day, you find the gap between two thoughts. One thought has gone and the other has not yet come. Hold on to this moment of silence. You have hit upon the secret. You have found the key. You can open more locks with it. Now, you can dwell on this one moment and gradually these moments will come more frequently. Then you know who you are, and will remain in that state. Once you know, there is no need to make an effort to know. You simply know. You don’t need to remember the sun. You know it is there.
In order to get to this space, you may take the help of many methods. The most common method is of chanting. Chanting means repeating the same sound again and again. First you repeat the sound with your tongue. Then you repeat it with your lips closed, in the throat. Then you repeat it in your heart soundlessly. The important thing to remember is to let go of it once the chanting becomes soundless otherwise it will become automatic and mechanical. Then you may go on chanting but you are not aware of it. Without awareness it is of no use. In the initial stages when effort is required, your awareness will be there to chant. But, once it becomes automatic, you will take your attention elsewhere. It is like learning any skill. If you are learning to cycle, in the beginning you are aware of all your movements. But, once you learn the skill, you can keep talking or singing or thinking anything and cycling will go on automatically. In the whole exercise, it was awareness that is of value. When awareness is lost, it is time to give up this method and move on to the next. You have to let go of one step to go on to the next step.
The noise in the mind is of thoughts. There are all sorts of thoughts piling up one on top of the other. They are like heaps of junk collected in the storehouse. In order to clear it you have to unclutter it. Just as you would pick up one thing at a time, look at it and decide whether you want to keep it or discard it, and put it in a separate pile, you need to do the same with your thoughts. Look at the thoughts and sort them out. You might like to preserve the positive thoughts and get rid of the negative thoughts. In the initial stages, this can be helpful, though in the end you have to discard all positive and negative thoughts unconditionally. This is the method of introspection. It helps in sorting the thoughts and facing them head on. Many of these thoughts have been buried under wraps for centuries. The deeper they are buried the more noise they create. Introspection helps in bringing them to the surface and looking at them squarely in the eye. You have to come to terms with them before you can get rid of them. If not, they will crop up again.
In order to create awareness, the method of concentration can also be helpful, though it is not the same as awareness. Awareness means being awake to everything whereas concentration means focusing all your attention on one thing, which can be done only by blocking out the rest. As a stepping stone to become aware, concentration can be practised. Just focus your attention on a point, outside or inside, and go on practising till you become oblivious to all else. Once you achieve this, give it up. It has served its purpose. It is not remembrance but it has taught you how to become aware of one small thing.
Remembrance will happen on its own. You cannot make any effort for it. All these steps and efforts are by way of preparing the right atmosphere for it. Everything significant in life happens on its own, or with divine grace, if you like. You have no control over it. You have no control on your sleep. You cannot make yourself sleep. The more you try to fall asleep the further you will go away from sleep. You can only create the right environment for sleep and wait for sleep to come. Simran will also happen when the time is right, with the divine grace. You have no control over it. You can only make a comfortable bed, switch off the lights and lie down with your head on the pillow. But, you cannot make yourself sleep. It will happen on its own. Similarly, you cannot make your stomach digest the food you eat. You can only create a congenial atmosphere. Remembrance will happen when you have created the right environment.
Remembrance or simran is the path and remembrance is also the goal. Gurbani refers to simran in almost every shabad, on every single page of the Guru Granth Sahib. However, Gurbani sings of the glory of simran; it enumerates the benefits of simran and highlights the unimaginable power of simran. Gurbani is the expression of experiences of the gurus and the saints who had already reached the state of remembrance. They are showering the bliss of what they have achieved.
The greatness of simran comes from the end point. The effort that goes into reaching the state of remembrance is the individual’s own understanding. Gurbani shows the way, but the seeker has to walk on it himself. It is not possible to walk the path by simply repeating Gurbani. Instead it is important to understand Gurbani and see the path shown, and most importantly, walk on the path. You have to walk on the path with your own two feet, one step at a time. You may fall many times, you may forget many times, but don’t lose heart. Get up and dust your clothes and start walking again. Even if you get a tiny glimpse of remembrance, you will get a ray of light that can illumine your path and help you go on and on. The best thing is that you don’t have to wait for a goal far away. Every moment of remembrance is a part of the goal. Every step on the path is the goal itself because simran is the path and simran is the destination as well.
