Onlyness by Santosh Jha (red white and royal blue hardcover .txt) 📕

is only natural that many there are fed up with existing milieu and look for a life in reception mode. Indian society has largely been in the dominant attribute of reception. However, as material well-being is rising, it is going the old American way and now attributes of action and inertia are taking over. This change is cyclic with newer elements being introduced in every new cycle.”

“Shiv, it is gradually becoming clear to me as why we all behave in a way, which a dominant culture prescribes to us. Societal personality becomes an overriding consciousness for most of us. The popular benchmarks become a rule for us. Probably, this is why dad always asked me to rise above the populism and be my own decision-maker.”

“Now, we come to another important aspect. There is a realism, which is called drishta, the consciousness, which sees and observes that intelligence of a person, which his or her current consciousness lands him or her in. The consciousness has been referred to as the observer of human intelligence, which decides the matrix for any decision of life, in the larger realism of drishya (nature and culture). The Indian spiritual philosophy observes that the drishya and drishta (nature and consciousness) are continuously interacting with each other in a cyclic causality, in which, each affects other and in turn gets affected. The randomly multidimensional juxtaposition of drishya and drishta (nature and consciousness) engender different cyclical expressions of disposition. These cyclical expressions are infinite and all of them lead an individual to pains and troubles. This is because, as we talked earlier; these expressions link the self with discontinuous and immortal elements of drishya and drishta (nature and consciousness). The interaction of drishya and drishta (nature and consciousness) elements leads an individual to both gratification as well as renunciation. The Indian spiritual philosophy maintains that this cycle of gratification and renunciation is such a naturally intense and powerful realism that most people on earth remain attracted to it and become a part of the cyclic drift.”

“And how to come out of this cyclic causality of gratification and renunciation? How this super consciousness becomes a reality, which I think you say, takes one away and aloof from this powerful drift?”

“Melissa, this is the difficult part of the entire idea of consciousness. This is probably an idea, which is tough for the consciousness to imagine. The practice of it is far more difficult. The yoga philosophy says, there is a state of super consciousness, which is called ‘kaivalya’. This Sanskrit word has almost no parallel word in modern languages. We can say, it literally means a state of singleness, a conscious position of only-ness. For us, it is difficult to understand its true meaning as since long; we have been accustomed to collective and mutual existence and awareness of self. There is so much of contemporary culture within our conscious and subconscious minds. We are so used to our consciousness in complete collaboration and concomitance with our external as well as internal environments that for us, an idea in the domain of total and perfect singleness and only-ness is beyond even imagination. The idea, as elaborated by Indian spiritual philosophy enshrines that super consciousness is a state of being, where there is complete and perfect lack of any connection, causality and coexistence between the drishta and drishya. The subject, the consciousness, which observes the nature and the decision-making matrices of life, becomes completely free and detached from the causality and utility of external as well as internal milieus and nature. This super consciousness is a state of singleness and only-ness – the kaivalya state of consciousness. The idea is; in both the consciousnesses of gratification as well as renunciation, if there is a causality and utility of the subject with object, the consciousness acquires the element of ego and sense of self, as distinct and different from others. This ego has to go in the state of super consciousness, as this element of sense of self is actually a mortal and discontinuous element. Kaivalya is a state of consciousness, which is devoid of ego and sense of self as this state is the true element of immortality and continuity. The singleness and only-ness has only a singular element of continuity and immortality. This sense of self, needs to go away then only one can truly attain the state of kaivalya, the state of singleness and only-ness. This is very tough. There have been people on earth, who attained greatness and even understood the utility of it all. They became saints and helped the masses. Still, they could not devoid themselves of the sense of self, and this made them create rifts between different persons. The evil, which all cultures portray in human beings is this sense of self, which remains attached to egoistic attitudes. Kaivalya is possible only when this sense of self withers completely. Even greats are affected by the attributes of inertia and they stop practicing when they attain greatness. This dooms them and humanity. Kaivalya needs to be practiced lifelong. This is the state, in yogic philosophy, where jeevatma (human soul) unites with parmatma (cosmic soul). This is what they called yoga, the union. The different asanas are different ways to discipline your body and consciousness to arrive at the state of kaivalya. This is also something, the spiritual philosophy of Geeta, the chief holy book of Hinduism says. Somehow, the modern concepts of psychosynthesis and psychoenergetics also work around the similar ideas.”

“Shiv, you yourself say this and I too can realize that this attainment of super consciousness of kaivalya is truly very difficult. I understand that innate nature of we all are so oscillating and in a state of constant flux, it is really tough to discipline the consciousness to lift it to such heights. If only there could be a simple way to get there!”

“Melissa, you forget that you are an empress. An empress has everything at her wish and command. If she wants something, she shall have it. If you want the simple way to it all, you can have it. Why do you think there is a very stupid yogi with you here?”

“Oh God! How true! I am an empress. Shiv, you are such an amazing friend. Had I found you earlier in my life, I would not have been into these troubles. You always bail me out, even before troubles start to trickle in. You just tell me simple steps at arriving at this kaivalya state of consciousness. I shall follow them as you would say.”

“Empress, there is a price to it. You have to promise me that after I tell you the simple way, and when we shall go back to your room, there is something waiting for you there, which you shall accept with a consciousness, which we are talking about.”

“Promise Shiv. I promise I shall do what you say.”

“There is a cardinal rule to the success of every enterprise of life. At the start, every enterprise looks huge and tough. Human mind, as we discussed, is not good at seeing far ahead. Therefore, it is always advised to take small steps towards achievement of part of the enterprise and set aim for smaller goals. Your innocence and honesty is your best preparations to attain your goals. The simple idea is; it is your imagination, which makes you a winner, when you have to make any important decision in life. This imagination puts you above and aloof from the immediate milieus, culture and body-mind instincts, which often either blur your judgment or keep you in a flux. Worse, it makes you drift with it, beyond your conscious control. You have to use your power of conscious imagination to accept your being and self as someone, not only your body, not only your mind, not only your milieus and not even the interaction between them. You have to accept it as some super consciousness, which observes each of your thought-action-behavior matrices from a position above and aloof from all the dimensions of your consciousness and being. This enables you to hold every emotion, instinct and ideas back for a while, sit over them with an objective and independent super consciousness. As this super consciousness is a receptive mode facility, you shall be endowed with a power to observe and control all your instinctive and culturally induced thought-action-behavior of action-reaction mode. As you keep practicing to remain in this super consciousness self, you shall finally attain the kaivalya realism. Then, this super consciousness shall become you single and only consciousness. This is the stage where, you become the conscious decider of what should ideally present yourself with your decision-matrix at any point of time in your life. This small step you have already experienced when you accepted the gift of pebble as the most precious thing of your life. You used the power of imagination to instill a value and utility in an entity, which otherwise, from the point existing worldview has none. This is a sure facility for personalizing your own wellness and making them independent of milieus, culture and instincts. Anything you wish to attain in life, in societal milieu, which cultural benchmarks label as worthy, you shall decisively find yourself in competition and conflict with so many others, who want the same attainment and that too exclusively. The success of the enterprise shall only partly depend on your efforts and merits as there shall always be many factors in milieu and people, which shall be equally decisive. That is why success in our societies are exception, not a rule. However, when you wish to attain something, which is possible only just by your simple and innocent resolve, you shall be always successful. Like your resolve to find utility and worth in a pebble is only your own personal attainment. This enterprise is successful any number of times you do it. Moreover, the worth you have created in a pebble shall always remain with you as this is an intangible utility, nobody can take away from you, unlike a real diamond. The ancient philosophies tell us to align ourselves only with these intangibles as utility because; our own consciousness has worth only as intangible. Our consciousness is intangible and continuous and that is why, it shall find lasting and continuous wellness only in intangible elements. That is why, the philosophy prescribes, true and lasting relationship can happen only between similar and generic elements.

“So, my power of imagination is my most precious endowment?”

“It is Melissa but this power has to be protected against misuse. This is best ensured when you have innocence and honesty of character, which you already have. You need to be cautious that you keep yourself in milieus, both internal and external, which are conducive to protecting and prolonging your innocence and honesty. If not, then this power of imagination shall always be involved with your ego and sense of self, which shall then lead you away from objectivity of imagination. The kaivalya state shall be unavailable, as this sense of self shall put you in the groove of subjectivity, making you trapped in the cyclic causality of action-reaction. It is equally important that the body-mind entity remains ensconced in a conducive internal and external environment. This is crucial initially. Once you have attained the kaivalya state, you can live in any milieu, as you would then rise above all to be affected by them. Initially, you have to keep away from contemporary milieus and culture of gratification and action-reaction mode.”

“Hmmm…! Shiv, tell me, if you have to buy this land, where we are sitting right now, whom you have to knock to? I want this whole land to build a house here.”

Shiv smiles but says nothing. He rises, takes her hand and it is a repeat show. She is unwilling to move and Shiv has to pull her affectionately and tenderly all the way to her room, where he has to unravel to her the next stage