What is Enlightenment? Meaning Definition and its relation to
Self-Realization
What is Enlightenment?
What do we really mean when we talk of Enlightenment? Is it not
the bloom of life for a true seeker of spirituality? The life
itself comes to a full circle the moment one reaches the stage
of Enlightenment. Seeking Enlightenment in the present age (the
metallic age aka Kali Yuga in Hinduism is more of a curiosity
than the faint hope of being able to achieve it within the
present lifetime.
Truly speaking even spiritual stalwarts like Swami Vivekananda,
Rabindra Nath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghosh and many others in the
line failed to reach the stage of Enlightenment. The reason is
fair and simple... some like Swami Vivekananda never desired
reaching the stage of Enlightenment in their lifetime whereas
both Rabindra Nath Tagore and Aurobindo Ghosh attempted but
failed in their mission. They have category stated in their
literary works that they did not reach the stage of
Enlightenment.
What is it while proceeding on the path of Enlightenment that is
difficult to achieve? Even when it was possible for Swami
Vivekananda to have gained Enlightenment under the guidance of
his spiritual master and a god realized soul Swami Ramakrishna
Paramhansa, he did not exercise the option! Why?
Enlightenment (in other words self-realization) is the
culmination of all we know as spirituality. There is nothing
beyond having reached the stage of Enlightenment that is left to
be achieved by a human being. Having reached the Mount Everest,
Edmund Hillary became quite depressed for he realized that the
goal of his life had come to an end. There was no further to go
anywhere? The moment one comes across the final goal of his
life... it is all over for life itself. Probably, life loses its
meaning.
Is it not true that the essence of life is while pursuing our
goal? And one who gains Enlightenment merges his identity with
the larger whole... the God Almighty himself. Having lost our
identity of life it becomes difficult for a human being to be
able to recognize one as a friend, a relative, a teacher and
even your parents. For an enlightened person it is not difficult
to maintain the relationship but while living in the society it
becomes difficult to maintain the balance between the spiritual
end of life one has achieved and the relationship with the
physical world.
A flower having bloomed loses its meaning... it is no more
related with the plant which gave it life and also everything
which the bud needed to have flowered into a full-blown. The
identity, the ego, the self lost its meaning the moment the bud
bloomed into a beautiful flower. As long as the society, the
community felt the sweet fragrance of the flower... it got
recognition and the moment came the time to wither out and
die... none cared! Life moves on and does not wait for anybody.
The essence of life lies in moving on and on until one gains
Enlightenment. And this Enlightenment is the stage when one is
totally liberated forever from everything we call as the
materialistic world. Materialism is a phenomenon of the physical
world. On the contrary, Enlightenment dwells in the absolute
truth of our life. It is only related to our true inner self...
our soul (the true self of us). And the moment our soul realizes
and reaches its final potential... the need for the body
vanishes.
Every enlightened soul has to abandon the body for ever... the
cycle of life and birth ceases for this enlightened person. If I
say that only two persons have gained Enlightenment in the last
150 years out of the 6000 million people residing on mother
earth... then Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Maharishi Ramana
were truly blessed by God Almighty to have gained Enlightenment
even when the society presently is passing through such a bad
phase on the materialistic plane. Everything presently is
measured in terms of materialistic achievements.
In the present times a spiritually enlightened soul residing in
the deep dense forests of the Himalayas would not find as much
public appreciation as the likes of Bill Gates... One who shall
not be able to carry the wealth one manages onto the next life
but always seems to cling on until the last moment of life
arrives. The false hope one maintains that money can buy one the
best in life in the present and the afterlife is an absolute
misnomer. We fail to remember that it is only the likes of
Madame Curie who shall gain a special status in the next life
for the ones like Madame Curie come once in thousand years...
those who dedicate everything one could have called their own to
the mankind at large. They truly live for the society until the
last breath and it is for that they shall be repaid by God in
the next life.
Even though Madame Curie may not have gained Enlightenment...
but chances are that these thinkers and true philosophers of
life would gain Enlightenment a few lives from now on. A true
enlightened person lives like a true trustee believing in the
fact that everything belongs to God and one is only a maintainer
on his behalf. It would not be in the interest of the trustee to
look forward to materialistic riches in life. Every true trustee
would do whatever possible within his means to work for
uplifting the society.
I again repeat that every god realized soul loses everything in
the materialistic world. It simply means our true self, the real
self of us who exists within us as our soul... the moment it
reaches its pristine purity, the dross having completely
removed... the physical body losing its meaning... and one truly
gains Enlightenment.