Of the inner destination

 
By Vijay Phanshikar
In an urge
to merge,
Waves surge ...
- Self
THIS is seen everywhere -- the urge to merge. 

 

THIS is seen everywhere -- the urge to merge. This is the most common and most urgent and most ardent emotion that defines everything -- from Nature in its numerous forms to humans in their multiple roles and actions. There is always a movement -- forward and eager to be at a destination ... ! The sea-waves surge eagerly towards the shore. The rivers rush to meet the sea. The humans constantly chase a destination or a goal.... ! All these point to an inner emotion of wanting to merge or to be one with something somewhere else. There is no one person or entity bereft of this urge. Everything has a chosen goal or destination, and the fulfillment of purpose of that existence is in merging with that destination -- of whatever nature. The rivers.

 

The sea-waves. The winds. Even the mountains that rest only when they attain their full height ... ! The sages also look forward to uniting -- merging -- with the divine. From that spiritual urge came the assertions such as Aham Bharhmasmi -- ‘I am the Brahman! Of course, there is a difference of the journey the sages have, and the journeys other entities undergo. First about the journeys of all non-sage entities -- humans or happenings in Nature. All these are all the time journeying outside their frames -- outbound, so to say. Each wants to merge into something outside their frames or terms. So, the rivers rush to the seas, and the waves rush to the ground, or the ordinary humans seek happiness in material issues. Sages are different.

 

They know the core principle of Aham Bharhmasmi. So, their journey is inward -- into the sanctum sanctorum of their soul, into the inner depths of their being -- looking for the evidence of Atman or Self. Their world changes the moment that self-realisation takes place as a final destination of their inward journey. After having arrived at that divine destination, the sages have nowhere to go. They then become stable lighthouses of inner glow for mankind. They, thus, light up the path for others.