GURKHA SEPOY'S SUDDEN RENUNCIATION

     [ Brother B.R.Cooper of Hyderabad wrote to me on 26-8-1952 soliciting my opinion regarding the Sudden Renunciation of a 25 year old Neola Thapa, of the Special Army Force, who discarded his khaki uniform, put on yellow robes, perched on a high mound, opposite the Nagapur Government-house gate and sat in meditation, with eyes closed for three days without food. According to his associates in the force, Thapa had a dream in which he felt the presence of God. He immediately went up the mound and sat in meditation determined to realize the Almighty.]

     What is the cause for this sudden manifestation of high devotion in the heart of the Sepoy? Is it the outcome of gradual development? Or is it a sudden outburst? We have no details here regarding the antecedents of the sepoy. Proceeding on the news item itself, let us try to understand the matter.

     The history of an individual soul is an ever recurring round of birth and death, extending over innumerable lives. Man has an immense past which is casting its shadow on his future. The sepoy must have led fairly devotional lives in his previous births. In this life, owing to some, Karmic effect, he was born in a poor family and had to eke out his livelihood by serving as a sepoy.

     The life of a sepoy, in this case, has a great significance. Because of the inner propulsion of his good samskaras(tendencies), Neola Thapa must have been finding the duties of a sepoy highly irksome. But poverty stared him in his face and his indigence compelled him to somehow eke-out his livelihood by working as a sepoy, despite his dislike for the same. From his deepest depths, he must have been getting devotional impulses now and then; but because of the overpowering necessity of external circumstances, he must have been often curbing them. In this way, the inner conflict must have been going on day after day un-noticed by others. He must have been waiting for the release; but not knowing the way out and lacking in sufficient determination, he must have been tamely submitting to the rigour of the external circumstances.

     When his past Karma became ripe, the devotional urge that was silently working deep within him ,gained momentum, took shape, manifested itself in his dream and left an indelible imprint on his half-awake mind; for it was much easier for the same to manifest in the dream state, because of the absence of the limiting adverse circumstances as in the waking state. The imprint must have been strong and powerful enough for him to remember even after waking. Prior to this, he must have been getting weaker impulses of devotion now and then, only to be curbed by the overpowering necessity of external circumstances. But now, because of the powerful dream, when he felt the strong imprint of the devotional impulse even in his waking state, he must have mustered up the necessary inner strength to kick off his job and sit in meditation for three full days, thereby giving his much tormented mind the needed peace and rest.

     Here, in a way, his out and out hardy profession of a sepoy ultimately turned out to his greatest good. The brutal life of a sepoy and the devotional life of truth, purity and love are poles apart. Because of this antipathy between his inner devotional urge and his external profession of a sepoy, the conflict in his mind must have been extremely poignant and continuous. If it were not for this extremely unsuitable life of a sepoy and the consequent inner pangs he must have been silently experiencing, he would not have suddenly taken the drastic step of discarding his profession and sitting in meditation for three full days, oblivious of food and other bodily needs. If his external circumstances were to be to his own liking, and he had no inner conflict, he would not have taken the dream seriously and explained it away as a mere figment of imagination. Even if he had attached any value to the same, he might have given a devotional turn to his external life, but would never have taken the extreme step of kicking off the job and assuming Sannyasa. Perhaps, extremes only lead to extremes. It was the revulsion against the extremely brutal life of the sepoy, that pushed him to the other extreme of total Sannyasa. It is only through the conflict of the opposites that man gets the urge to rise above them, for then only can he come to experience the Supreme Peace that passeth understanding.

     The sepoy's sitting in meditation for three full days continuously is the result of his violent reaction against the extremely brutal life he was leading. The mind that was wholly involved in low world activities recoiled and got totally introverted with a bang. Surely, this extreme state of total introversion cannot be maintained for long, for the natural tendency of the mind is to flow out once again, but this time, with the new awareness of the underlying unity. To make this awareness of unity in diversity permanent and natural, the mind must not lean too much within into the underlying unity or too much without into the diversity, but it must maintain its poise between the two extremes.

     The mind, from one extreme of diversified external activity, has taken a steep jump into the vast expanse of inner unity. But to get the full experience of the Supreme Truth, both unity and diversity must be integrated into a comprehensive whole. As a matter of fact, going within is not as difficult as maintaining the poise between the two extremes. The internal and external are the observe and the reverse of the same Supreme Truth. The one does not exist without the other. They are inter-related and one in essence; the unity flowing out into diversity and the diversity converging into the underlying unity. That is why the spiritual sadhana is so arduous.

     In the very nature of things, the sepoy could not sit in meditation for more than three days. After having experienced the Truth within, he must come out and connect it with the manifestation outside. Instead of doing this, if he simply sits in meditation night and day, with eyes closed, he will get only one-sided vision of the Truth, that is within. Perhaps, it is because of this, when Vivekananda requested Sri Ramakrishna to bless him, so that he might remain in Samadhi for three or four days at a time, Sri Ramakrishna chided him saying " You are very low minded! There is a higher state yet than that; Don't you sing 'Thouart all that be'? " Hence, introversion is only a first part of the Sadhana. The second, and the more important one, consists in bringing the mind out and balancing it evenly both within and without. This is extremely difficult and needs constant practice. Only through the Saving Grace of the Supreme Lord, one can attain the perfect poise, for there is always the chance of the pull from within or without being greater as to make him fall within or without.

JAI SRI RAM