Condensed from Talks by Pujya Guruji Shree Rishi Prabhakarji from RishiVani.
Q: Guruji is there consciousness in rocks, plants and animals? Why is manava janma (human birth) so important?
Every particle (organic) and non-particle (inorganic) is full and complete in itself.
It depends on your vision of the all-pervading Brahman. Every particle is alive reverberating, full of knowledge of the past, present and future. In every particle of sand lies the entire secret of the universe.
Love can make you see the sweetness in your sweet heart. Love sees the preciousness of the cub by the mother tiger, who carefully holds her baby in her otherwise ferocious mouth, which is a place of death for all other creatures. Love for shape makes one kiss a quartz crystal. Love of light makes one admire a diamond.
The more you love, the more you understand. All particles are held together by love for each other. There is no place where consciousness does not prevail.
Why, then is human birth so important?
The intelligence of a system is measured by its ability to protect itself under more and more threatening situations. Of all systems designed so far, a human being is the most intelligent. Humans can survive the bitter cold, extreme heat and exist in a space where there is no water or air. The Human nervous system evolved rapidly, as the vertebrates shifted the position of their spine, from a horizontal to a vertical state.
Then man became neutral to the magnetic forces on earth during his waking hours. This neutrality led to his ability to live in the cold north and in the hot equatorial region. Man conquered the earth. That is why meditation is done with the spine perpendicular to the ground.
In a state of Samadhi, you free yourself from all boundaries and reach the highest state of creativity.
That is how our Rishis understood all of creation, as discovered and expounded in the Vedas. In this human frame, one has the potentiality to free oneself from all limitations and attain immortality. Complete mastery of the physical phenomenon is possible.
The physical is the bounded. The human body even though bounded, can become unbounded. This has been demonstrated by Saints like Meera Bai, Sant Tukaram and Sant Chaitanya Maha Prabhu. Sant Gyaneshwar moved a whole wall as his flying machine. (While he, his two brothers and sister sat on a wall, an arrogant Sadhu came to meet them riding on a tiger’s back, Gyaneshwar, a little child of about seven or eleven requested the wall to take them to meet him and the whole wall moved on.)
There are steps to this process of mastery. At first you enter into Laya Samadhi and experience Bodylessness, taught in the Siddha Samadhi Yoga basic program.
Then you can enter into Nitya Samadhi, with your eyes open as in the SSY Retreat. Bhava Samadhi is a state of intense merger, where the subject and object merge with eyes open and mind concentrated. This happens when you are ecstatic and dance to the heavens.
Next comes Visishta Samadhi, where you can see a special significance of everything. There is nothing insignificant in this cosmos. This happens in the Satya Vrata.
Visishta Samadhi is followed by Avadoota Samadhi – A practical life of absolute freedom, freedom from all laws of society. They may appear mad but they are the wisest. This Samadhi culminates in Siddhis, where nature obeys man. A Sai Baba, a Ganapati Sacchidanada Saraswati, are our present day Siddhas. I am fortunate to be loved by them deeply.
Finally, the Avadhoota’s exit in the form of Jeevan Samadhi, as in the case of Sant Gnaneshwar and Sri Raghavendra Swami.
The exit could also be in total disappearance of the body, as in the case of Lord Jesus Christ and Adi Shankara. Or else, it may be a merger with their favourite deity, as was the case with Meera Bai and Chaitanya Maha Prabhu. Or, it could be like being carried away to Vishnu loka as in Sant Tukaram or Sant Tyagaraja.
This is what makes Manav Janam so special and different from other living beings – the plants and the animals.
