Laying the groundwork

“After many, many births and deaths one achieves the rare human form of life, which, although temporary, affords one the opportunity to attain the highest perfection. Thus, a sober human being should quickly endeavour for the ultimate perfection of life as long as his body, which is always subject to death, has not fallen down and died. After all, sense gratification is available even in the most abominable species of life, whereas Self-realization is possible only for a human being.”  –   Srimad Bhagavatam 11.9.29 (https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/9/29/)

The soul has to pass through millions of life forms before it transmigrates to a human body. But what is a soul? – The soul is a spiritual particle dwelling in a material body. The material body is considered dead or lifeless as soon as the spiritual particle exits the material body.

Every yuga has its own positive and negative qualities. Kali is considered as the fallen age because it is full of negative qualities. The Symptoms of Kali-yuga explains this in great detail. Please read: (https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/12/2/). Thus, the opportunities of achieving self-realization in Kali Yuga is very limited unless one makes a very sincere attempt.

Despite this, even the inhabitants of Satya-yuga and other ages are aspiring to take birth as human beings in the Kali age (Srimad Bhagavatam 11.5.38 – 40 – (https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/5/38-40/). This is because in Kali Yuga, the means to achieve perfection it is comparatively very easy (simply by Hearing and chanting the names of the Lord) compared to the other three ages – Satya (prolonged meditation), Treta (performing great sacrifices) and Dvapara (Worship Lord in the temple).

The steps of manifesting the Lord in our heart for achieving self-realization is a gradual process:

1. It starts with regular prayers and chanting of the names of the Lord.
2. Then it proceeds towards pondering over the attributes of the Lord and its various meanings
3. The inquisitive mind then starts looking for answers by reading our glorious scriptures to the questions that arises constantly.
4. Then like-minded individuals gather for discussions and for further inquiry.
5. An Acharya or a Guru who is already self-realised suddenly manifests to a true seeker.
6. For the unlucky ones who cannot find such a suitable Guru, the realisation that the Supreme Lord is already in one’s heart happens, one starts looking at the inner self to seek guidance from the supreme self.
7. Events in life happens automatically leads the seeker to find solutions through one’s own life experiences.
8. If the aspiration is strong enough to seek a self-realised Guru that also gets fulfilled.

Thus, a pleasing process is set into motion and the seeker is on an upward process to realise the self. This is just like a minute spark that has the potential to light a huge forest.

This knowledge of self-enquiry that a person gains by constant inquiry and study together with constant prayers, chanting and meditation has an impact on the person’s overall attitude towards life.

This affects the following primary constituents being one’s material possessions, work, own body and self, family relations, relations with fellow human beings and other life forms in general.

Finally, it has to result in completely understanding the most confidential secret of Bhagavad Gita 18.66 – Seek Complete surrender to Lord Krishna and He will give protection no matter what. The ultimate perfection will be reached only then!