Integrated Personality

The Daily Rising Kashmir

Both life and truth are important and to accommodate both integrated personality is needed

Mahavira proposed two principles: transcendental and empirical. When we want to work, we should be empirical and when we want to attain the truth then we should move to the transcendental level. We cannot attain truth, while existing in an empirical world and we cannot conduct our life with a transcendental approach. Both life and truth are important. Life has to be lived and we have to reach the truth. Therefore, we have to develop an integrated personality. Preksha dhyana is the practice of spirituality. People practicing Preksha dhyana are actually practicing spirituality, which takes them to the self. The external boundaries are terminated. There is a lot of difference between the within (internal) and without (external). Externally what we see as truth is a misnomer. Externally we may like a thing but while seeking within we may observe it differently.

A person, who has not realized spirituality, cannot have an integrated personality. All religious people say that happiness and sorrow are felt through our sense organs. Eating, drinking and making merry are all sorrows. The above statement will appear false to a person living in the sensual world. He will say, “I am enjoying total bliss. When I am hungry, I take food. When I feel thirsty, I take water and feel satisfied. When I feel sleepy, I sleep well. I feel the pleasure altogether here.” But only the person, who has meditated within his inner Self and activated his conscious centres, can understand the true nature of happiness. He only can feel the truth, whether the bliss is within or without. When the intuition centre and the bliss centre are activated then only real bliss is realized and man is able to clearly differentiate and declare that such bliss can never be experienced through food, drinks and other material enjoyments. This is an entirely different kind of happiness. Now only the person who has reached that level can understand why the spiritual masters did not consider external pleasure as happiness. In their opinion, external bliss is very weak, monotonous, and dull as compared to internal bliss. But if a person has never understood the inner Self, how can he have an integrated personality? He cannot understand it at all.

This realization comes only when man has looked within. Only then does he know that bliss exists within also; otherwise he can never accept and believe what his spiritual masters have said. True faith in religion and spirituality can exist only in that person who has realized it from the very depth of his consciousness. It has to be perceived, understood and finally known that immense happiness lies within. The person practicing Preksha dhyana achieves concentration and the restlessness of his mind starts disappearing. Concentration leads to peace and bliss. What is bliss? Eating and drinking do not lead to bliss. Bliss is basically our electric vibrations. Vibrations exist within, and when they merge with our mind, bliss is experienced. If you eat while your mind wanders, you will not enjoy the food. If a person eating very delicious food is informed that he has incurred a loss of ten million, will he be able to enjoy the delicious food?

Actually bliss is experienced only when our inner vibrations get activated with the concentration of the mind. When the mind is diverted by some anxiety then pleasure will not be experienced. Where does bliss lie, in the material world or in the mental state? During the activity of the mental state and vibrations, when the mind is relaxed then bliss is generated. So actual bliss lies within, though we have assumed this to be available outside in the mundane world.

Imagine that while eating delicious food, a man hears that his beloved has expired. What will happen? He may start weeping. Now, you be the judge and observe, had the bliss been existing in the material world, then he should remain happy, but he starts weeping. It is only because, when our mind is burden-free, we experience happiness. When our mind is pious, we feel pleasure. When the state of the mind changes, the state of happiness also changes. This truth is grasped only when we are aware of our inner Self and the external world. Our personality is integrated what we experience within (internal) we experience without (external).

A disintegrated personality has a lot of wrong beliefs. Communal intolerance and fanaticism are due to a disintegrated personality. People are highly attached to their community and do not feel perturbed while harming others to protect their community. They do not have any hesitation in uplifting their own community and pulling down other communities.