1) The Journey to Sainthood: Understanding the Path Beyond Material Life
Why Do People Become Saints?
This is a question rarely asked because most people do not aspire to become saints. Yet understanding this journey offers insights into our deeper spiritual calling.
Saintliness is the condition of a human being who becomes unsatisfied with materialistic things. A true saint is someone who continuously searches for something beyond everything that this world offers. When material possessions, achievements, and worldly pleasures no longer bring fulfillment, the soul begins its quest for higher meaning.
The Beginning of the Spiritual Search
This spiritual search is not common for everyone. Most people's search stops when they find satisfaction in material things. However, for some individuals, no amount of worldly success brings lasting peace. It is at this point that the spiritual journey begins.
The search for the ultimate truth continues for many years until one achieves complete satisfaction of the mind. During this period, the seeker may abandon the materialistic life and begin on physical journeys, traveling from place to place in search of answers, and eventually find the right place where they can settle and continue their spiritual practice without constant movement.
The Role of Spiritual Guidance
The attraction towards the materialistic world never motivates anyone to begin this search. Instead, the quest often arises from listening to spiritual talks or reading spiritual books, which create questions without immediate answers. At this crucial juncture, the seeker may try to find the right Master who can provide guidance and clarity.
A right Master plays a vital role in satisfying the disciple's quest and helping them realize the ultimate truth. The connection between Master and disciple is most important for anyone searching for spiritual enlightenment. During this spiritual journey, numerous questions and doubts naturally arise. If these doubts are not properly clarified, the search may come to a halt.
Finding the right Master for a disciple is often difficult. Similarly, finding the right disciple for a Master is equally challenging. This sacred relationship requires perfect compatibility and mutual understanding.
The Difference Between Saintly and Materialistic Life
Saintly life is fundamentally different from materialistic life. Materialistic life demands numerous comforts and luxuries to maintain happiness in this world. However, these facilities and luxuries do not create happiness for a saint. Despite having access to all worldly comforts, a materialistic person can still transform into a saint when their inner search begins. The saint becomes so deeply involved in their spiritual quest that they have little time or interest in materialistic activities. The needs of a saint become simple and minimal. What once seemed essential for happiness becomes meaningless when compared to the joy of inner discovery.
The Transformation Journey
It is important to understand that initially, all saints were materialistic people just like everyone else. However, their transformation into saints occurred due to their persistent search for something beyond everything.
This transformation doesn't happen overnight. It is a gradual process where the person slowly loses attachment to worldly things while developing a deeper attachment to spiritual practices and self-inquiry. The external life may appear to become simpler, but the internal life becomes infinitely richer.
The Ultimate Realization
Once their spiritual search reaches completion, saints realize the ultimate truth of existence, the realization of their true "Self," not the limited identity defined by name, form, profession, or relationships, but their eternal, unchanging essence.
This self-realization brings complete fulfillment that no material achievement could ever provide. The saint discovers that what they were searching for externally was always present within. This understanding marks the end of seeking and the beginning of being established in truth.
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The Living Dead: Understanding This Spiritual Condition
What is the Living Dead Condition?
The condition of the Living Dead means the seeker has gone beyond the ordinary egodriven life. The "I" that clings, desires, and fears has dissolved, but the body continues to live. This is a state where a person has died to their ego-self while still living in the physical world.
Characteristics of the Living Dead Condition
Inner State and Mental Condition
Complete Inner Silence: Silence prevails within. The constant mental chatter has stopped, and only pure stillness fills the mind.
No Ego: There is no "I" that claims ownership of actions. Things simply happen without a personal doer.
Unshakeable Stillness: Whatever happens externally (loss, insult, illness, or praise) does not disturb their stillness. Joy and sorrow are like passing clouds; they remain like the sky. They live fully in the present because the past and future hold no grip on them.
Daily Life Activities and Relationship with the World
Physical Needs Without Attachment: The body still has to be maintained. Eating, drinking, and sleeping happen as before. But there is no attachment or indulgence. Food is taken as fuel, not as enjoyment. They neither resist nor cling. If food comes, they eat; if not, they are equally peaceful.
Transformed Relationships: Outwardly, they may interact with family, friends, or society. But inwardly, there is no possessiveness. No "my son, my wife, my property" as a binding thought. Love flows naturally, without expectations. They may care deeply, but without attachment or fear of loss.
Complete Detachment: The Living Dead do not run after possessions, achievements, or relationships for fulfillment. They engage with society when needed but remain untouched by praise, blame, success, or failure. Nothing binds them.
Natural Action Without Doer-ship: They do what comes naturally, without a personal agenda. Work gets done, but there is no pride, no burden, and no anxiety about results.
Natural Compassionate Presence: Often, such a person radiates peace and helps others, not by effort, but by the natural overflow of stillness. They remain in their families or society but free of attachments. Their mere presence uplifts others.
Teaching Through Being: Sometimes they may guide directly, but mostly, their silence and being itself becomes the teaching.
Death Without Fear: Death for them is not an event, because the "I" who dies has already dissolved. The body falls like a worn-out cloth, but they were already free while living. A living dead person lives in the materialistic world until physical death because the body still has prana, but inwardly they are free, like a lamp kept in a windless place, burning without flicker.
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The Master's Role in Our Transformation
The Path of Constant Remembrance
The journey to the Living Dead condition begins through constant remembrance of the Master. This remembrance brings the Master's energy into the seeker. This energy gradually demolishes thoughts, ego, and negativity.
The journey begins with "remember to forget" and progresses to "forget to remember." When remembrance deepens, the seeker naturally slips into Silentation. At an advanced stage, the seeker forgets to remember because remembrance itself has transformed into stillness.
Until one reaches this condition, one requires the Master. Once the inner Master (My Master) is completely established through constant remembrance with unconditional love, what remains is pure stillness (Nishchala tattvam). This stillness leads to Jeevan Mukti or the Living Dead condition (Nishchalatattve Jeevanmukti). This condition is the "Beginning of Becoming Chivam." Here, the "I" is gone, but the body remains alive. On reaching this condition, he becomes the "Master of himself."
The stillness established within will naturally lead to becoming Chivam.
Why the Master's Presence Remains Essential?
The Anchor of Stability: The Master is the anchor, the one who stabilizes stillness in the seeker. Without the Master's grace, the seeker might slip into dullness without inner transformation.
Energy Transmission: With Master's energy, the seeker lives as stillness in action, radiating peace without effort. The Master's physical Presence strengthens the stillness and prevents subtle ego or thought from creeping back until the “I” is completely dissolved.
Regular Recharging: In Chivality, just remembrance of the Master and the Silentation practice are not enough. While constant remembrance and Silentation practice help us stay mentally connected with the Master when we are physically away from Him, attending Chivasangh helps strengthen this connection. Attending Chivasangh at Mouna Mantapa and being in the presence of the Master at least once a week is essential to recharge with Master's energy.
Cleansing of the mind happens faster and naturally in Chivasangh, as it is like bathing in a river; the water flowing is naturally cleansing without much effort, as the Master's energy flows like a river and cleanses the mind without any effort from our end. When we are away from Him, we have to draw His energy and then cleanse, like collecting water in a bucket first and then bathing; this requires effort.
During Chivasangh, energy transmission occurs naturally, sustaining and deepening the stillness.
Conclusion: A person who has attained the Living Dead condition lives like ordinary people outwardly, but inwardly they are free, silent, unattached, and established in stillness. They have transcended the ego while continuing to live in the world.
The Living Dead condition represents the ultimate potential of a human life, a state where one lives with complete freedom while remaining fully engaged with the world. These individuals become beacons, showing that the highest spiritual realization is not an escape from life but the most authentic way of living. Through the Master's grace and devoted remembrance, what seems impossible becomes natural.
