Anatomy of the divine
spiritual fire
May 23, 2020, 2:00 AM IST Speaking Tree in TOI Edit Page | Edit Page, India, Spirituality | TOI
By Jayant B Dave
Spiritual fire refers to the flame of
knowledge in the heart, the Jnanamaya Pradeep says the Bhagwad Gita’s Dhyana
verse. This is your essential and innermost Self, that is of the nature of
peace and bliss. The phrase spiritual fire is also common in Christianity and
is deemed to cleanse, illumine and uplift one’s being. While evolved souls keep
this fire burning, in ignorant persons, this divine flame fades under the
influence of maya/ avidya and gets extinguished.
Just as physical fire requires certain
ingredients to keep the flame going, spiritual fire requires three ingredients
to initiate and sustain it. Noble thoughts crossing the mind, latent spiritual
impressions embedded deep in chitta, subconscious, and wisdom in buddhi, the
intellect – due to discretion and dispassion – serve as flammable materials.
Satsanga and svadhyaya serve as oxygen. They
keep the mind in elevated subtle state and keep the spiritual fire burning. If
satsanga is not continuously kept up, the fire of spirituality goes out. Adi
Shankara in Bhajagovindam Stotra says that satsanga leads successively to
non-attachment, freedom from delusion, abidance in Self and finally, liberation
while living. Whenever there is excessive influence of satsanga and svadhyaya,
spiritual fire becomes more voluminous and energetic. We normally experience
this spurt in spiritual fire in the company of spiritually evolved souls,
during a sadhana camp or concentrated spiritual practice in seclusion like
anushthan.
One has to transcend physical and
psychological consciousness to cosmic, divine consciousness at least for a
moment, to enable ignition to occur. Joy derived from rendering selfless
service, devout worship of chosen deity, tranquillity of mind in a meditative
state or flash of intuition emanating from reflection on wisdom teaching
provides a proverbial spark. Once the fire is lit, flammable materials and oxygen
are required to keep the fire burning.
A strong spiritual impulse has to be generated
for fire to proceed. For realised and evolved souls there is a steady flow of
brahmakara vrittis, divine thoughts, with extinction of vishayakara vrittis,
worldly thoughts. This state is tantamount to auto-ignition
temperature where no ignition spark is required. In fact, they abide in divine
nature forever and spiritual fire is alive forever and there is no need for any
ignition to take place.
The products of physical fire are oxide gases
of various elements and remnant inorganic ash. Gases such as carbon dioxide
have many undesirable effects like causing global warming as they promote the
greenhouse effect. The products of spiritual fire are innocuous and disseminate
perennial peace and unalloyed bliss.
Scriptures refer to spiritual fire as fire of
knowledge or a well-lit lamp. The Gita conveys that just as blazing fire
reduces fuel to ashes, fire of knowledge turns all present and accumulated
actions to ashes. This means that all accumulated deep rooted samskara,
impressions and vasanas, subtle desires, are burnt so that they do not
germinate again and a seeker becomes free from transmigration circle of birth
and death.
Equally important, the realised soul, knower
of the Atman, passes beyond sorrow in this very birth – Tarati sokam atmavit
iti, says the Chhandogya Upanishad. Shvetashwatara Upanishad
regards spiritual flame as identifying oneself with nitya nija svarupa, own
essential nature, whereby enlightened soul attains realisation of oneness with
Brahmn, Paramatma. Spiritual fire can be taken as both the means and end, the
goal of divine life.
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