TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
When Maharaj's Nisarga Message Became His Primary Message
Yesterday, the shifts in the focus of Maharaj's message laid out how the message changed and why the message changed. Consider:
More than a year ago, the results of another study regarding the impact that payoffs have on the behavior of doctors reinforced what has been shown via prior research time and again, and the headline of the article discussing the latest research - written by Charles Ornstein, Ryann Grochowski Jones and Mike Tigas - explained what the wise have long known about medical care in the U.S.:
Drug-Company Payments Mirror Doctors' Brand-Name Prescribing
The key points: "A ProPublica analysis has found that doctors who receive payments from the medical industry do indeed prescribe drugs differently on average than their colleagues who don't. And the more money they receive, the more brand-name medications they tend to prescribe"
and
"Even those who simply got meals from companies prescribed more brand-name drugs, on average."
While some are aware that doctors credentialed by hospitals push their patients to have more tests than do doctors who are not credentialed or affiliated with a particular hospital because the affiliated doctors will be compensated for doing so; however, fewer have known that the brands of the meds which their doctors recommend are also influenced by how much money the doctors can make by prescribing one drug over another.
Now, more persons than ever have begun asking their pharmacists if there is a genetic form of a med that is cheaper than the one prescribed. Sometimes there is, and sometimes there is not, but I have never had a doctor prescribe a genetic. I have to request the substitute from the pharmacist. Sometimes, even when a less expensive generic was available, the pharmacist has told me that my doctor will not allow the substitution of a generic for a particular prescription.
The report revealed that "doctors who received more than $5,000.00 from drug companies in 2014 typically had the highest brand-name prescribing percentages." By contrast, "among internists who received no payments, for example, the average brand-name prescribing rate was more than 30% lower" than among doctors who were receiving payments from drug companies.
Whether ProPublica's research proves or does not prove this or that, their research did show that "payments are associated with an approach to prescribing that, writ large, benefits drug companies' bottom line" and which benefit many doctors' bottom line as well.
Now, to Maharaj:
Maharaj could have been compared to many modern-day doctors in a few ways: the people who came to him were seeking relief from pain or misery or suffering or a particular sickness; in his case, that was the Ultimate Sickness, and yes, sometimes, he did receive meals from those who came to the loft seeking relief from their Sickness.
[Admittedly, for many decades, most of the food needs of Maharaj and his four children were met by his guests. By the way, did Maharaj try to push specific food plans on anyone? No. He pointed out the insanity of allowing religious or spiritual beliefs to determine what one does or does not eat, saying, "If one type of food can restrict your spiritual progress, it would mean some other type of food can accelerate it". See? Nonsense.
It would be just as nonsensical as telling persons whom they should be attracted to and whom they should not be attracted to; whom they should marry or live with and whom they should not marry or live with; whose rights and very lives among a citizenry the government should protect, and whose rights and very lives among a citizenry the government should choose not to protect; who should love whom, and who should not love whom; or who among a nation's population deserves medical care and who does not.
As for Maharaj's take on telling people what to eat and what not eat, his children ate meat in their home and he had no issue with that. WHO, what person being driven by what ego-state, gives a damn?
Note: Regular visitors to this site do understand that there are three metabolic body types, and roughly 1/3 of the planet's population have one type, 1/3 have the second type, and 1/3 have the third type. Those among the first group can function well on a vegetarian food plan; those with the second body type require a high meat, high protein food plan; and those with the third metabolic body type function most efficiently on a combination food plan. Ignorantly, the U.S. Government has long recommended a "balanced food plan" for all types, so when that advice is followed, only 1/3 of the people are actually taking advantage of the food plan which would be best for them.
Yet even after all that, the information about different metabolic body types is shared and that's the end of it. There is no drive here to tell any individual what she or he should eat and what he or she should not eat; no campaign is under way here to tell any individual whom they should love or should marry or how to dress;
no movement is under way here to try to change anyone's preference from being attracted to, for example, blondes and to only be attracted in the future to brunettes or redheads; and there is no crusade here to convince others that my race is a superior race and that the members of any other race are inferior.
What arrogance and conceit and superciliousness and condescension that would be. What stupidity that would be. What ignorance that would be. How unimportant that would be. WHO cares? WHO wants that kind of influence and control?]
Moreover, some did occasionally give gifts of greater monetary value to Maharaj, though he did not request them. One provided an expensive rug which Maharaj did not want but finally took anyway. During the painful days when his cancer and its effects had advanced, he was more comfortable in a semi-erect position, so a man gave him a recliner. (When Maharaj took mahasamadhi, that recliner was hoisted onto the back of a truck and Maharaj's body was set up in it so that persons could see him as his body was being driven to the funeral pyre.)
One visitor even offered a monetary fortune in order to build "the most magnificent ashram ever" for Maharaj and his guests. He refused.
But the gifts of flowers and food and a rug and a recliner and certain other presents notwithstanding, the similarities between Maharaj and modern-day physicians end there. Why? Because unlike doctors who take money for ordering excessive testing and who take money for prescribing one drug over another which would be less costly, Maharaj's prescriptions were consistently the same for all who came his way.
Did his counsel vary from one seeker to the next? Of course. The advice offered was solely dependent upon where on the path the seeker's words indicated that the seeker was at that point. Once determined, the advice Maharaj offered to each was advice which was intended to move each to the next step on the path. Move on. Stop fixating. Always move on.
Did the version of the Ultimate Medicine which he prescribed also change? Yes, definitely, but not because of payoffs. It changed because he saw what was not working so he abandoned that form of the Medicine and tried something else. His loft would eventually evolve into something more like a lab, even as he was offering during certain periods what he thought at the time was a viable treatment plan.
In fact, the end result was that he was conducting experiments over the years, coming to see later on that the plans he had tried were not accomplishing the results which he had anticipated. Thus, his search for a more effective version of the Medicine happened more spontaneously than in a planned out fashion over the years.
A Hindu / non-dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine did not work. Tossed. Check. A spirituality / non-dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine did not work. Tossed. Check.
A psychology / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine showed some effect; thus, he stayed with that to end, addressing the issues of the mind which prevent persons from abiding naturally and which drive persons to try to live supernaturally or which result in their abiding unnaturally.
For those of you who have read the book Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and His Evolution,
you know that he tried many different types of yoga from the beginning of his teaching career to the end. It was only near the end of his years of teaching that he became totally dedicated to his namesake, the Nisarga Yoga, which he taught alongside the Direct Path Method. Why?
He saw all along that persons were too-often fixating at the religious or spiritual step (the third of seven steps on the path), attaching to their "new and improved personas," mistaking "the dawn for the noonday sun," and never "realizing fully" (meaning, they were never freed from living under the influence of the learned ignorance which had been stored in their minds).
He saw others feeling superior, claiming that they had reached THAT state and were abiding there alone. He saw that the summative statement I AM THAT; I AM" was often misunderstood and that the statement was taken by many to give THAT a superior role and to discount the AM-ness completely.
He understood that persons could abide naturally, supernaturally or unnaturally but that only natural abidance was sane. He saw that nisarga living was "the [natural] law of the land" around the globe, except among humans. He understood that there is "Reality" and "reality" and that the sane are in touch with both; therefore, the Nisarga Yoga is also offered here in conjunction with The Direct Path Method of teaching Advaita / Non-Duality.
This is what came to be understood as far as the post-"journey," post-realization existence is concerned:
The "realized" can enjoy the remainder of the relative existence as a result of all which is understood on the "journey" (and all which is discarded along the way) but afterwards, the "journey" to THAT is over and it is time to relish the freedom which allows for the enjoyment of the remainder of the manifestation.
It must be asked, "What good is it, if you are hungry, to go to the grocery store and buy food but then stay in the store forever, never returning home, never undertaking the relative existence task of preparing the food, and never enjoying the relative tasting of the relative meal?" The one who stays in the store can claim, "I have arrived," but that one will be totally insane to stay in the store and not enjoy the sweet taste of the nectar which the relative existence can offer those who have been freed of the three key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity."
For those that want to enjoy the remainder of the manifestation, then both the "I AM THAT" and the "I AM" are to be understood. If the "Reality" of I AM THAT is overlaid on the "reality" of I AM - of the manifested consciousness and the remainder of the relative existence - then only will the "journey" make sense.
If that does not happen, then what "justification" can be offered for following the entire "path" and completing the entire "journey"?
It is the Nisarga Yoga which allows for both Reality and reality to be understood, and it is the understanding of the Nisarga Yoga that
a. brings to an end unnatural living; and
b. brings to an end all efforts to live supernaturally; and
c. brings to an end all efforts to try to live magically, mythically, mystically, superstitiously; and
d. brings to an end living "paranormally" rather than normally; and
e. brings to an end living in a fairy-tale-like fashion; and
f. brings to an end all efforts - period - because natural, spontaneous, no-drama, no-histrionic, no-concept, no-duality, no-identity abidance becomes the only mode of abidance.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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