This World and This Body:
Trap or Trampoline?

The saints mince no words in warning us that this world is a trap, a deception, an illusion. In Sar Bachan Poetry, Soami Ji exclaims:

Oh, soul, what foolishness you are caught in!
You wander about with the mind,
  misled, confused,
  not listening to the Master’s words.
You fall into the trap of wealth and sex –
  day and night you are obsessed with them.
Kal has spread this web of attachments
  and baited it to entice souls like you.
_{Bachan 14, Shabd 11}

Obsession is a mental habit that is hard to shake. Obsession comes in various forms: humans are obsessed, societies are obsessed. For example, in the Victorian age people were prudish and did not talk about sex. Today, we have swung to the opposite extreme and there is hardly any other subject that takes up as much media time as this. Samarth Ramdas, in a poem in Many Voices, One Song, identifies wealth and sex as the most significant enticements and chains on the soul:

Eyes, ears, heart and mind
  captivated by money and sex –
  this is called bondage to the world.

The modern mind uses both sex and wealth as bait “to entice souls like you.” There may be variations in how the bait is placed, but the web of attachments and the tricks the mind uses as bait to capture souls have not changed much over time. Obsession with wealth arises from greed, ego, attachment, pride – our negative tendencies. Sex travels along with lust and all lower desires. The outcome? These obsessions flash out as the extreme aggression that is war, the source of the greatest human misery. Obsessions also flash out as family feuds, property disputes, and alienation.

Saints not only warn us about the origin of our obsessions and their outcomes, but also give us hope and a helping hand. The Lord has entrusted them with the task of leading us from bondage to liberation, from entrapment to freedom. They awaken us to the danger we are in. They identify the sources and the outcomes of our negligence and ignorance of not paying attention to our real situation. We cannot use our will to cut our desires and attachments because they are an expression of our corrupt will that has become weakened over lifetimes of misuse and indulgence. So, what solves this problem? In his next verse, Soami Ji describes the remedy:

I am here to explain to you now
  that only the Master can save you.
Burn your attachment to the world
  in the fire of your love for the Master –
  the kind of love that should make you forget your body and mind.

The intensity of our love for the Master burns up all our desires, whether low or noble, or even spiritual. They all become forged into a focused, one-pointed desire and love for the One that naturally puts an end to all desires and blends our misguided will with his all-pervading will. Eknath, rejoicing in his ability to see the One in everyone, shares his secret:

But his servant has forged
  all his wants into one –
  that One alone lives in his eyes.
  that One alone lives in his thoughts.
_{Many Voices, One Song}

Love for the Master is not just the most intoxicating experience there is, but it is also the bridge from the world of duality to the world of oneness. Soami Ji continues in his shabd:

Obtain the alchemy of Nam from the Master
  and be free of all your confusion.
Then break free from your body
  and soar unimpeded through the barrier of the sky.

Our ultimate freedom from confusion and duality, from the bondage of the body will be achieved through the alchemy of the Master’s Nam. Alchemy transforms base metal into gold. The alchemy of Nam – the process of meditation – transforms the base metal of our inner darkness into the experience of Nam’s light and sound inside. We may feel that our meditation is filled with darkness, confusion, and fast-moving chaotic thoughts. The masters know our situation. Baba Ji frequently gives satsang at the Dera on the hymn by Soami Ji that begins:

Heavy, intense darkness prevails in the world…
Whether they are awake or asleep, I see people
  helplessly caught in the maze of the creation.
_{Bachan 14, Shabd 12}

Saints want us to be aware of the darkness, to be fully present to this darkness because behind its veil is the Master’s radiance, the inner light. Without confronting the darkness, we cannot access the light. This darkness, with our attention focused on it, is the cauldron in which the alchemy of Nam takes place. Experiencing this transformation brings spiritual maturity. It requires inner alertness and the opening of the eye of the soul, once our attention is trained to concentrate on the inner darkness. The soul must first come to terms with that darkness before it can experience and appreciate its own reality – the light and sound inside. Progress within requires a mature understanding of the value of the world and the human body as the cauldron in which the alchemy of our transformation through the philosopher’s stone, Nam, can take place.

To a beginner in spirituality there may seem to be a contradiction in that the masters talk so much about this world’s false, deceptive, and illusory nature. However, they also talk about the priceless value of human birth. They actively emphasize the beauty and magnificence of this God-created universe. They do not reject the world or turn their back on it. How to reconcile these opposing perspectives?

The truth is that the masters are the only ones in a position to see the true nature and the true value of the world. They speak about it as a trap because they come to liberate us from it; they also speak about it as beauty and order because it is our door to reality. If we practise meditation within this mysterious, false, confusing world, it becomes a trampoline or a springboard for us. If we foolishly let our mind and senses guide us, it is a hopeless trap. Only by obtaining and practising the alchemy of Nam as taught by the saints can we appreciate the body and its karmic circumstances as a trampoline, from which we can ascend to higher levels of consciousness, to the unifying force of the inner Shabd.

Through a dualistic lens, the world and our body on the one hand and spirituality on the other seem locked in a stark antagonism. However, those on the way to unity begin to see the value of this world. Bahinabai, in Many Voices, One Song, has beautifully captured a unified vision that does not see the world as dualistically opposed to spirituality. She does not present the world as an obstacle, but as a trampoline, as the platform from which the soul can rise:

It takes clear thinking
  to reach the Real through the unreal.
Only within this dream of a body
  can you awaken to Truth and rest in the One.

It is an axiom in spirituality that spiritual progress is faster in the human body than on the inner planes. The Neoplatonists believed that the soul can only realize its own true power from within matter. The foolishness, nonsense, and imperfection inherent in the material world can sidetrack the soul. However, the soul can also make the best use of its time in the material world and in the body to attain its goal and longed-for objective – reunion with the One. Realizing this is clear thinking.

One of the trickiest aspects of spirituality is understanding the correct use of the human body without falling into the pitfalls of overindulgence on the one hand or what modern psychologists refer to as “spiritual bypassing” on the other. Spiritual bypassing is the phenomenon in which practitioners use their spiritual practice as an excuse to bypass, or sidestep, family obligations, or the responsibility to earn an honest living, or the obligation to be a useful member of society. While there are mental conditions that do prevent some from fulfilling all these obligations, simply neglecting them with the excuse of pursuing spiritual work is a sign of spiritual immaturity. It may lead to further karmic entanglements due to the harm others sustain from our negligence if they are forced to shoulder our neglected responsibilities.

Bahinabai talks of spiritual bypassing when she says:

If you abandon your family
  because it isn’t your real family,
  this will be your loss, friend.
It takes clear thinking
  to reach the Real through the unreal.
_{Many Voices, One Song}

If we are to overcome the trap of this life and instead use it as a trampoline to propel us toward our true home, we must find a balance between our spiritual commitment and our worldly obligations to others. Our effort to reach the Real requires a tough yet delicate balance between engaging wholeheartedly in our liberating spiritual transformation and fulfilling our obligations and commitments to a world full of foolishness and deception – the unreal. The alchemy of Nam is possible only through association with a true Master and following his guidance, through the practice of simran and bhajan. As Bahinabai reminds us: “If you walk the way of a teacher of Truth, you’ll reach the Real through the unreal.”