The Reverse Path

Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj

The "King of Knowledge" (I AM) influences all of the senses, and seems to grant these senses the "lordship" over the sense objects. It is because of this externalization that the fact that He is present prior to the senses does not attract any one's attention. Over many births, the mind and intellect have acquired the habit of only looking outwards. Therefore, to "turn within" has become  a very difficult task. This is called "the reverse path" which the Saints follow when they turn in the opposite direction, and behold the mind completely giving up seeing all that is external. Where an ordinary man is asleep, the Saints are awake, and where an ordinary man is awake, the Saints doze off. All beings find themselves awakened to external objects, and have become extremely skillful in this type of awakening. The Saints, however, have closed the eyes to external things, and it is the Self, to which other beings are asleep, that keeps the Saints wide awake.

One who gets a million rupees is worried about how to double it the next day. He pushes himself to acquire more and more. However, the Saints warn him, "Turn back, turn back, you may be caught in the whirlpool of Illusion (maya). This Maya has come in like a full tide, and you might be carried away." The modern technological advances that come to the world with newer and newer innovations, as well as those yet to come make a cyclone of "Great Illusion (Mahamaya). Be certain that you will be held captive by it. Who knows to where the one who is caught by this great cyclone will be carried off? When the Saints see one whose attention is taken up by these modern advances running here and there, struggling in his pursuits, they try their utmost to bring about an awakening of Self-Knowledge in him.