Nivritti Marga

What man really wants is eternal bliss (shreyas). Only he does not know where and how to get it. He mistakes sense pleasures for pure bliss. This is why he desires the attractive things of this world and the next. Wealth, progeny, fame and hundreds of other things of this world attract him. He runs after them. He seizes some and enjoys them for a while. Some elude his grasp and he feels miserable. While some others remain in his clutches for a time and then suddenly disappear. Such losses hurt him. Then again as soon as he gains some coveted things fresh desires crop up and make him restless. He finds to his dismay that the senses cannot be appeased by enjoyment. Rather their craving is increased by the process. So his life becomes a non-stop race after these fleeting pleasures. On this path he never attains contentment. Misery, born of unfulfilled desire and parting with coveted things, dogs him at every step. And this goes on from birth to birth, for he has to face death again and again, though he may not like it.

Even the higher and finer worlds where he gets unalloyed pleasures, do not give him eternal bliss. There a man of meritorious deeds may go after death and enjoy intense pleasures. But that is only for a short time. After that he has to come down and be born again on this earth. Really, so long as man is driven by desire, neither this world nor the next can bring him eternal bliss. Desire is verily the chain that binds him to samsara. Yet man is loath to part with desire. The craving for sense objects dominates him. The camel likes to browse on prickly shrubs, though these make his mouth bleed. Just so, man gloats over sense-pleasures, though these bring him untold miseries through repeated cycles of births and deaths. The number of such men is very great indeed. For them the first step is to take the Pravritti Marga, that is, the path of desire. They are not to give up all desires. Only they have to regulate these by faithfully following the injunctions (vidhi) and prohibitions (nishedha) of the shastras. Those who do this enjoy the good things of this world and the next. And their minds become purified to some extent.

After enjoying the intense pleasures of the higher worlds they come back to this earth and tread the path of desire with more devotion. Again their meritorious deeds lead them to the intense pleasures of the higher worlds after death. This process goes on over and over again till their minds become very pure. At this stage they realize the vanity of desires. By their repeated experience they grasp the truth that desires are never quenched by enjoyment, just as fire can never be quenched by butter. Unfulfilled desires make one unhappy. Moreover, the period of enjoyment even in the higher worlds is limited. By their own observation they become convinced that the path of desire cannot lead them to eternal bliss. And it is this eternal bliss that they have been seeking all the time. Realizing the futility of desires, they go out in search of path that may lead them to eternal bliss, eternal life and infinite knowledge. This quest is the very strong point of real religion.

The Pravritti Marga is no more than a preliminary discipline. It serves its purpose by making our minds pure enough to realize the futility of running after sense-objects. This precisely is its scope. It takes us no farther than that on the road to perfection. So long as we remain pinned to sense-objects for our enjoyment, the divinity within us remains concealed from our view. Our gaze has to be drawn away from the sense-objects and turned inward to realize him. Then and then only it is possible for us to attain perfection, and get eternal bliss, eternal life and infinite knowledge. Our desire for sense-objects is, therefore, the only hurdle on the road to perfection. It makes us world-bound. We have to cross the hurdle. Real religion begins and ends with this crossing. The moment we are free from desire we become divine. The Nivritti Marga, that is, the path of renunciation leads us to this goal. It teaches us how we may root out our desires and thereby unfold our spiritual nature. This, therefore, is pre-eminently the path of religion. This is why those who extol the Pravritti Marga too much and consider it to be the supreme religion are denounced by Bhagavan Sri Krishna in the Gita. Indeed, religion begins with the path of renunciation.

In the Katha Upanishad, a beautiful sloka gives the whole thing in a nutshell. "The creator has made our senses outward-bound; this is why we ordinarily perceive the external world and not the self. Some poised men, however, desirous of immortality, realize the self after drawing away their senses from the sense-objects." Our Upanishads are abound with such passages. Take another: "Neither by rituals nor progeny, nor by wealth, but by renunciation alone some attained immortality." Compare with the above the common saying: "Where there is rama (god) there is no kama (desire), and where there is kama (desire), there rama (god) is not." Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has put it thus: "If you desire to attain god, you will have to renounce kama-kanchana (lust and possession)." This is the Nivritti Marga. The path is, no doubt, hard and long. Yet it is the only path to be trod, if we want to go ahead towards perfection. The Nivritti Marga however comprehends a number of alternative routes to perfection. The same destination may be reached by train, car, boat or aircraft through different tracks on land, water and air. It is for us to choose the conveyance and the route that will suit our convenience. Similarly, there are various routes within the Nivritti Marga leading to the manifestation of the divinity within us. It is for us to choose the route that will suit us the best. The different paths prescribed by Hinduism are suited to men of different nature. Some people like action, some prefer contemplation. Some are emotional by nature, some others want to rely more on reason than on emotion.

Our religion shows a distinct path to each group. These paths are called Yogas. Yoga literally means union. These paths lead us to a stage when we become aware of god. Hence they may be said to unite us with god. Of course, the union has all along been there; by yoga we become conscious of this fact. However, this is why these paths are called yogas. Broadly speaking, there are four such yogas to suit four fundamental types of men. For the men of action there is karma-yoga, for the intellectual men jnana-yoga, for the emotional men bhakti-yoga and for the empiricists raja-yoga. Empiricist is one who relies more on his own experience rather than on the scientific knowledge. In the Gita, Sri Krishna says, "Out of thousands of men, one strives sincerely for liberation." Indeed, few people want sincerely to rise above nature and be free. Only those who experience, through repeated births, the hollowness of sense-pleasures go in for renunciation. To them only the desire for sense-objects appears to be a bondage, which they want earnestly to break through. For doing this they have to take up any of the four yogas and go through the spiritual discipline prescribed by it. Their gurus or spiritual guides show them the paths that suit them best and advise them as to how they may get over their difficulties in the way. Hinduism is very clear about the necessity of a spiritual guide (guru) for a spiritual aspirant. We shall next discuss about raja-yoga.