Unsent Letter #1: The Way of the Bird

Dear Friend,

What does it mean to follow the "bird's way?" You probably know the story of how the term originally came about, but here is the version that I picked up.

When Sri Bhausaheb Maharaj founded this sampradaya (which means way of transmitting the teaching), he initiated his disciples by giving them a mantra to chant. He then taught them meditation. After Bhausaheb's death, Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj felt that there must be a quicker way to Self-realisation than the meditation/mantra method that he had been taught. After a long struggle, Siddharameshwar Maharaj came to the conclusion that there is a faster way, which is the way of understanding. His disciple, Sri Ranjit Maharaj, called this the bird's way, in contrast to meditation, which he called the ant's way. The ant goes very slowly and if he tries to climb a forest tree may die before he reaches the destination, while the bird flies easily from branch to branch.

For me, the most striking thing about this analogy is the idea that because flight is natural to the bird, being at the top of the tree is nothing special for it. The bird is in its element up there. In the same way, Maharaj always taught that you are yourself the reality, and so you are already free, free as a bird, without limits. You are He, the reality, right now, only you do not know it with certainty. To have that understanding of who you are, you must get rid of the false notion that you are something other than that reality.

Meditation, chanting the mantra, and various kinds of physical and mental disciplines may be useful to prepare the mind for understanding, but the end of seeking is not reached until there is Self-knowledge. The solution has to involve Self-knowledge because the problem is one of Self-ignorance. No spiritual practices that you undertake can solve that problem. You can meditate six hours at a stretch and enjoy blissful states, but as you soon as you stop that activity, you are back in ignorance again! You have to find the answer to the question "who am I?" When you know that, ignorance disappears and you know everything that you need to know.

That is the bird's way, as far as I am concerned. It means taking the time to think deeply about what the Master has said, not accepting it blindly, but experiencing everything and verifying everything in yourself. Then you make his thoughts your thoughts and you can say that you have accepted them. Like the bird flying from tree to tree, the mind can take up one thought after another and, through the grace that comes with faith in the Master, can become illuminated by the power of pure knowledge.

In friendship,

A.