Enlightenment is an enigmatic topic. It supposedly happen to 'special' people who experience that coveted 'illumination' of new idea, realization or spiritual elevation. In a deep spiritual sense, it refers to a rare event when a special person sees 'beyond' the ordinary to realize the larger perspective of life, including its causes, effects, precursors and consequences.
Enlightened people are supposed to be above the travails of the world. They are above the materialistic levels and transcend lives. They are in such elevated state that they see god or they are beyond the shackles of birth, death and banal travesties of life. They have seen beyond the 'normal horizon' that is the limit of normal people.
But can that be experienced? May be yes. May be in a person's own little way. Every realization has its own dimension. A sophisticated and extraordinary personality might experience a grand realization. A worldly, ordinary and down-to-earth person may go through a much smaller realization. But that would be the difference of degrees only, not the occurrence of the event.
I almost had a similar experience sometime during 2017. I was pondering over so many things and naturally, my thoughts wandered to my village, my parents, the surroundings, the people in the surroundings and their lives. I was pondering if all that world that I saw and perceived was only for me. What would happen if I cease to exist? Will all that still matter for me? Or will all that matter at all? Then, out of nowhere, I experienced as if I saw the locality and its activities without myself, beyond myself, almost sans my existence. I had a vivid picture in mind that the same place continued to be, same people continued to exist and same event continued to repeat themselves without any need of me.
Suddenly I realized that the world would go on as well without me as it was going on with me. I was just a small side story beside a much larger main story that never ended. Only actors, like me, changed. I suddenly realized that there was something beyond this life. The visualization and the feeling is still very clear in my mind and it repeatedly creates goosebumps and sends shivers of excitement down my spine.
It was a petty experience of a worldly person like me who has so many desires, dreams, material wishes and ordinary worldly aspiration. Probably because of the mundane life that I have, my enlightenment was also almost mundane. Still, that forces me to appreciate the grandeur of feeling when a person with a life devoted to spiritualism, philosophy and grand ideas attains enlightenment. The message, the realization, the visualization and the overall feeling must be on a much larger scale, to have similar profound effect on a being already on a much higher pedestal that a commonplace person like me.
No wonder these realizations might have led to the emanation of grand philosophies, ideas and teachings that continue to inspire, enliven and enrich lives of countless millions over the ages.
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