Challenges on

The Road to
Mastery
by
 What are you doing here?
It is time for serious thought. What exactly are we doing here,
in this factory, office, home, club or beach, beneath the
stars? Are we merely surviving? Are we here because we
have nothing better to do? Does our being alive have any
significance?

Does life have a purpose? If so, just what is it? Where did we
come from, and where are we going? In fact, just who am I?
What am I doing here? Mastery concerns itself with the
ability to understand and control this process. Life is all
about learning to master LIFE itself.

Queries like these are called fundamental questions. If they

pop up frequently in your mind, it’s a good sign. It means
that you are beginning to sense that there is a purpose for
your being here.
The Road to Mastery begins here. We all walk it
sooner or later.
 January
Far from city lights, I admire the splendour of the night sky,
ablaze with millions of stars. City lights must overpower
them. The starlight ambles across billions of light-years of
space-time, woefully slow when it comes to negotiating the
immeasurable expanses of the cosmos.

Some of the stars that I see no longer exist. But the photons
they emitted eons ago have journeyed across the ages to
reach my eyes. Who made the stars? Why? When? From
what?

When we look at stars, we are looking back into our past.

Scientists believe the present universe was created in a Big
Bang, about 13.7 billion years ago. As physics and
metaphysics converge, we begin to glimpse the answer to a
mystery. “The universe begins to look more like a great
thought than a great machine”, said Sir James Jeans.

This realization is the beginning of The Road to

Mastery . We all arrive at this point, sooner or later.
 February
You may well ask, "What is my place in the Greater Scheme of Things? Do I
matter?" Yes, you do. In this vast universe, there is only one of you. You are
unique, irreplaceable. Look at the densely packed hub of the Milky Way
galaxy, with its hundreds of millions of stars. Though it looks like a ball of
solid light, many light-years separate one star from another.
No human mind is capable of comprehending the immensity of the galactic
scale. It is ineffable. So are you. Within you are worlds, with more worlds
within those, extending so far down into you that it encompasses everything.
YOU are the universe. It cannot be what it is if you are not there.
See Earth's place in the Milky Way. At the outer edge of one of the trailing arms
of our indescribably beautiful spiral galaxy, an insignificant little yellow star
gamely rides the giant cartwheel as it whirls on endlessly through space-time.
One of its satellites is very different from its brethren: a sparkling blue-white
pearl. We call it Earth. When we look at our home planet from Outer Space,
we are overwhelmed by its sanctity, as was astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Love for this vulnerable little planet, and for yourself, comes from a realization of
the common origin and the intrinsic unity of all things – an important step on
The Road to Mastery.
 March

Stress upon spiritual evolution to a state of unity with God is

common to all religions, including Hinduism. The latter, far from
being a pantheistic religion as is commonly supposed, is first
and foremost a monotheistic faith. In the Bible (and the Holy
Qu’ran), we read that Jehovah, (God, Allah) tells men that they
‘shall have no other gods but Me.’

Now observe what the Gita says: “There is nothing whatsoever

higher than Me, O Dhananjaya. All this is strung on Me, as rows
of gems on a string.” (verse 7, chapter VII). Or consider this: “At
the end of many births, the man of wisdom takes refuge in Me,
realizing that Vasudeva is all that is. Rare indeed is that great
soul.” (verse 19, ibid). Or this: “And whatever is the seed of all
beings, that am I, O Arjuna.” (verse 39, chapterX).

Acknowledging our common heritage and our unity with

everything is a vital step forward on The Road to
Mastery .
 April
Nature, seized of the tragedy of Man’s lamentable shortsightedness,
relents occasionally. Born are men who have the gift of another
vision, enabling them to pierce the mundane and intuit a Greater
Perfection operating behind the apparent chaos of existence.

They are men of a different breed, marching to another drummer,

for whom the commonplace translates into a larger vision of
Reality that enables them to transcend the anarchy of the Human
Predicament…to see in it a credible, logical symmetry.

As realization grows in us that we are, at bottom, not body but spirit,

we sense that there is a higher purpose to life, something that
was meant to enable Man to evolve to a state of consciousness
where he identified with everything else, which is perhaps
another name for the unity we call ‘God’.

Experience of Unity means we are on The Road to Mastery .

 May
It takes a special sort of person like the late Carl Sagan to function
simultaneously as physicist, astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, and
teacher. It is not an easy feat to step down from the stars and speak of
them to ordinary men.
To effectively convey the intricacies of cosmic events that happened far, far
away and long, long ago, in an engaging and comprehensible manner, is
not a task for the faint-hearted. Cosmological problems need to be re-
examined in the light of latest discoveries, theoretical models constructed,
and conclusions tested.
All the heavier elements were created during the life cycles of stars. Our very
bodies are composed of elements made by countless trillions of stars as
they lived and died across 13.7 billion years. We are 'starstuff', as Carl
Sagan puts it.

We literally are the world …the Universe … and that’s everything!

“The cosmos is all there is, all there ever was, and all there ever will be”, Carl
once said. Strange, how he, an atheist, seemed to be echoing the
Bhagavad Gita – verses 7 & 19, chapter VII.
Teaching Unity means we are moving on The Road to Mastery .
 June
Quantum Physics deals with the infinitesimally small world of sub-atomic
particles such as electrons, which display nothing more than mere
‘tendencies to exist’, transient and ever changing.

Does it not mean that we too, who are made of such particles, are just as
ephemeral, just as united? We are not separate entities at all. There are
really no ‘particles’—at the sub-atomic level, ‘particles’ are massless and
extremely short-lived. There is no ‘particle’ that is not intimately connected
to all other particles—is all other particles.

Now at last we understand what the Great Masters meant when they told us to
serve our fellow men. For all men are really one, and all matter is but a
representation of Unity. Pierce the Great Illusion—maya. All it does is to
mask Reality. Only by remembering our true nature can we begin to
appreciate the vast intelligence behind it.

He who has penetrated the Illusion is on The Road to Mastery.

 July
Cracking the Illusion involves stepping into another reality… old texts
take on new meaning. The Buddha’s Four Noble Truths; Mahavira’s
stress on unity, universal love and non-violence;

Christ’s credo of meeting hate with love, his stress on retaining

equanimity under all conditions, whether favourable or hostile, the
emphasis on Truth; the Gita’s clue that the man of wisdom (i.e., a
Master) remains unmoved by either ‘good’ or ‘ill’ fortune, since
everything we perceive is but a manifestation of the Creator.

As the Illusion dissolves, we begin to realize that our mythologies are

inspired by things other than textual rigour. By allowing ourselves to
succumb to motivated codes of conduct, we throw the baby out with
the bathwater. Our texts preach love and brotherhood; we do just the
opposite. We end up flouting universal injunctions…all in the name of
religion.
Rejecting motivated mythologies – while acknowledging universal truths
– is a giant leap on The Road to Mastery .
 August
As the Illusion fades, as we begin to live with it but not in it,
we begin to sense a higher gameplan. Life is a gift that we
give ourselves. We create our own realities…with but one
end in view—successfully negotiating the Great Illusion.
Its purpose is to help burn away all the impurities that come in
the way of our realizing Who We Really Are…part and
parcel of divinity. It takes us higher and ever higher, and as
we evolve, so does the Creator; as we ascend, so does He
ascend with us.
In making us in His own image, He gifted us with the power to
Choose. He created us so that – through us – He could
experience His own magnificence. We are therefore co-
creators of Reality.
It is a myth that things just happen to us for, at a deeper level,
we create our own realities. There is no such thing as
coincidence. We experience what we create, for we are
creators, too. This puts us above the angels, who have no
such choice.
Realising our creative role in shaping our lives is a sign of real
progress on The Road to Mastery .
 September
With the realization that we have the power of choice, to shape
our lives as we want, comes the attendant realization that we
can choose to be happy!

Man has chased Happiness since the dawn of time, little realizing
that it not external but internal…it lies within us. It is not
something found outside; we have go within…or go without. It
is not a destination; it is a Way of Living. It is a state of mind.

We were meant to be happy…all the time. If we are not, it is

because we do not choose to be so. All great Masters have
taught us to find happiness in little, everyday things…a child’s
smile; dewdrops on a rose; a kite soaring in the wind; sunlight
filtering through storm clouds. Mastery over life means going
with the Illusion, knowing it is only a contextual field enabling
real learnings to flow.

The realization that life is only an illusion, a contextual field for

learnings to flow, is major progress on The Road to
Mastery.
 October
Autumn brings with it the realization that patience is indeed a
great virtue. Trees are models of patience. The acorn takes
years to become an oak. Masters know how to wait. Though
there is a place for decisiveness and action, there is definitely
a time for patience. Have you learned how to wait?

Wait for the sunrise...it is the gift of another day.

Learn to be still…and listen. Wait for guidance...

Wisdom comes with experience. Be patient…and observant.

Wait for the growth that comes in the fullness of time.
Wait contentedly...it is the secret of inner peace.

There is a time to act, as there is a time to wait. Learn to choose

which course of action to follow, for great things come to
those who wait. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Adopt the pace
of nature; patience is her secret.”
Patience is an important signpost on The Road to
Mastery .
 November
“We only have a few minutes”, says evangelist Billy Graham.
“The wonder of life is that it’s so short.”
Masters know how to s-t-r-e-t-c-h time. As Kipling wrote in If,
“If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds
worth of distance run, yours is the earth and all that's in it;
and what’s more, you’ll be a man, my son!”

Have you ever really perceived a flower? Don’t let the mind’s
idle chatter obstruct the process. When we perceive
beauty, we also experience the state of love.
Beauty and love are the same. Without love there’s no beauty,
and without beauty there’s no love. Beauty is in form, in
speech, in conduct. If there is no love for our work, there is
no beauty, and our life is meaningless. When the mind
perceives in peace, perception turns to timeless beauty.
Beauty emerges as the Highest Truth.

Perception of Truth, Love, & Beauty are all-important

landmarks on The Road to Mastery .
 December
Winter. It’s usually the best time of our lives. As Robert Browning
wrote,
“Grow old along with me,
the best is yet to be:
the last of life,
for which the first was made.”
When winter comes, can spring be far behind? It is a time of
reflection, of savouring memories, of sifting wheat from chaff. Life
is energy; it only changes form. Death is not the end; it’s a new
beginning. Without death, life would lose all meaning. As Tagore
wrote, ““Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the
lamp because the dawn has come.”
We are like ripened fruit now, laden with richness—lessons and
priceless memories—the only things we take with us, going home
from these brief excursions to the Great Illusion. We are astral
things, disembodied time-travellers on an eons-long search for
answers to cosmic questions. Our real wealth is the fund of
accumulated wisdom, skills, deeds and insights that we build up
over lifetimes.

Thus do we climb higher and ever higher as we come and go

on The Endless Road to Mastery.