An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Nothingness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
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"To take appearance for reality is ... the cause of all calamities." - Maharaj
F.: So the working definition of "calamity" that Maharaj referenced is: "a relative-existence disaster or a relative-existence tragedy that results from either a natural or human-made hazard." A "hazard," in turn, is defined as "a situation which poses a level of threat to life, health, property, or environment that negatively affects society or environment."
Again, calamities and hazards all deal with the relative, and some will claim that they "have Realized and that the relative no longer is, as far as they are concerned." Of course, the claim could not be stated if the I-Amness were not yet continuing, so the very statement proves itself a lie.
When Realized, Reality is overlaid upon the relative, but the relative existence will most certainly continue to happen as long as the consciousness remains manifest. The more salient point is not that Realization eliminates the relative but that it brings to an end the strum und drang of the relative, the dualistic fluctuations of emotional intoxication, and an end to the discomfort (and, yes, even misery) of both imagined fears and the frustration of unmet desires.
So did the Realized Maharaj experience any "threat to life"? Not at all, but he was willing to address the cause of such issues when offering pointers to the not-yet-fully-Realized seeker who was still "experiencing" such "threats"; therefore, the issues of "threats to life" and "death" were not avoided but were - in the end -dismissed thusly by the Fully Realized Maharaj:
Maharaj: "For me the moment of death will be a moment of jubilation, not of fear. I cried when I was born and I shall die laughing."
To clarify, if you read his words when he knew that he would be taking mahasamadhi, "jubilation" might not be a fit descriptor. More typical among all the Realized was that which he did display during the days prior to mahasamadhi, namely, a firm and unwavering stance upon the platform of neutrality, witnessing the body's pain but not identifying with it.
From that platform, all that persons take to be "calamities" are not perceived as such by the Realized masters. Instead, there is no running away from life nor a running to life. Yes, the bird in the forest that is startled by a person walking through the woods will fly away - the manifest consciousness being "wired" to automatically try to extend itself.
So, even the Realized master might seek medical care at one level or another for whatever ails the body-cum-consciousness, but there is no attachment to that body. There are also limits to how far the Realized master will allow such care to go because it is totally understood and totally accepted that what comes together will come apart in this relative existence. Only the Real can continue.
The simple fact is this: the Realized do not become emotionally-intoxicated, running from "death" or running toward "life." The mad-dash running ends and the pure witnessing begins, post-Realization. Maharaj explained the subtle difference this way:
Maharaj: "...my attitude is different. I do not look at death as a calamity as I do not rejoice at the birth of a child. The child is out for trouble while the dead is out of it. Attachment to life is attachment to sorrow. We love what gives us pain. Such is our nature."
Does that mean that the Realized are cold-hearted creatures who do not care about other persons? Hardly. Maharaj's very mentioning of "calamities" is evidence that he understood what the masses are "up against," what they are trying to deal with - or not - and what the actual solution is. He did not, therefore, avoid discussing the relative issues that those early on the "path" still took to be Real and significant:
Questioner: "The war is on and there is chaos and you are being asked to take charge of a feeding centre. You are given what is needed, it is only a question of getting through the job. Will you refuse it?"
Maharaj said, "To work, or not to work, is one and the same to me. I may take charge, or may not. There may be others, better endowed for such tasks, than I am - professional caterers for instance."
But later he offered this pointer about war and fighting:
Maharaj: "Only a selfless society ... can be stable and happy. This is the only practical solution. If you do not want it - fight."
If abidance happens in a "selfless" fashion - in a fashion wherein no personal or Personal identification is assumed - then only can fighting end. In fact, not only could it end ... it would.
Neither "Personal" nor "personal"? Indeed, for history evidences the fact that the assumption of an identity involving Selfness (some "Supreme" Self) will often lead as soon to a sense of "separation" and "better-than-ment" and chaos and calamity as the assumption of one or more identities involving selfness - involving a false self or false selves.
Why? Both selfness and Selfness are mere "appearances" in the fictional "mind," and "to take appearance for reality is ... the cause of all calamities."
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
