What is Enlightenment - Meaning Definition and Its relation to Self-Realization

What is Enlightenment?

What do we really mean when we talk of Enlightenment? Is it not the bloom of life for a true seeker of spirituality? The life itself comes to a full circle the moment one reaches the stage of Enlightenment. Seeking Enlightenment in the present age (the metallic age aka Kali Yuga in Hinduism is more of a curiosity than the faint hope of being able to achieve it within the present lifetime.

Truly speaking even spiritual stalwarts like Swami Vivekananda, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghosh and many others in the line failed to reach the stage of Enlightenment. The reason is fair and simple... some like Swami Vivekananda never desired reaching the stage of Enlightenment in their lifetime whereas both Rabindra Nath Tagore and Aurobindo Ghosh attempted but failed in their mission. They have category stated in their literary works that they did not reach the stage of Enlightenment.

What is it while proceeding on the path of Enlightenment that is difficult to achieve? Even when it was possible for Swami Vivekananda to have gained Enlightenment under the guidance of his spiritual master and a god realized soul Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa, he did not exercise the option! Why?

Enlightenment (in other words self-realization) is the culmination of all we know as spirituality. There is nothing beyond having reached the stage of Enlightenment that is left to be achieved by a human being. Having reached the Mount Everest, Edmund Hillary became quite depressed for he realized that the goal of his life had come to an end. There was no further to go anywhere? The moment one comes across the final goal of his life... it is all over for life itself. Probably, life loses its meaning.

Is it not true that the essence of life is while pursuing our goal? And one who gains Enlightenment merges his identity with the larger whole... the God Almighty himself. Having lost our identity of life it becomes difficult for a human being to be able to recognize one as a friend, a relative, a teacher and even your parents. For an enlightened person it is not difficult to maintain the relationship but while living in the society it becomes difficult to maintain the balance between the spiritual end of life one has achieved and the relationship with the physical world.

A flower having bloomed loses its meaning... it is no more related with the plant which gave it life and also everything which the bud needed to have flowered into a full-blown. The identity, the ego, the self lost its meaning the moment the bud bloomed into a beautiful flower. As long as the society, the community felt the sweet fragrance of the flower... it got recognition and the moment came the time to wither out and die... none cared! Life moves on and does not wait for anybody.

The essence of life lies in moving on and on until one gains Enlightenment. And this Enlightenment is the stage when one is totally liberated forever from everything we call as the materialistic world. Materialism is a phenomenon of the physical world. On the contrary, Enlightenment dwells in the absolute truth of our life. It is only related to our true inner self... our soul (the true self of us). And the moment our soul realizes and reaches its final potential... the need for the body vanishes.

Every enlightened soul has to abandon the body for ever... the cycle of life and birth ceases for this enlightened person. If I say that only two persons have gained Enlightenment in the last 150 years out of the 6000 million people residing on mother earth... then Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Maharishi Ramana were truly blessed by God Almighty to have gained Enlightenment even when the society presently is passing through such a bad phase on the materialistic plane. Everything presently is measured in terms of materialistic achievements.

In the present times a spiritually enlightened soul residing in the deep dense forests of the Himalayas would not find as much public appreciation as the likes of Bill Gates... One who shall not be able to carry the wealth one manages onto the next life but always seems to cling on until the last moment of life arrives. The false hope one maintains that money can buy one the best in life in the present and the afterlife is an absolute misnomer. We fail to remember that it is only the likes of Madame Curie who shall gain a special status in the next life for the ones like Madame Curie come once in thousand years... those who dedicate everything one could have called their own to the mankind at large. They truly live for the society until the last breath and it is for that they shall be repaid by God in the next life.

Even though Madame Curie may not have gained Enlightenment... but chances are that these thinkers and true philosophers of life would gain Enlightenment a few lives from now on. A true enlightened person lives like a true trustee believing in the fact that everything belongs to God and one is only a maintainer on his behalf. It would not be in the interest of the trustee to look forward to materialistic riches in life. Every true trustee would do whatever possible within his means to work for uplifting the society.

I again repeat that every god realized soul loses everything in the materialistic world. It simply means our true self, the real self of us who exists within us as our soul... the moment it reaches its pristine purity, the dross having completely removed... the physical body losing its meaning... and one truly gains Enlightenment.

Vijay Kumar... The Man who Realized God in 1993 explains the inner meaning of Enlightenment. subscribe free Newsletter "Spiritual Secrets Unveiled" - Explore hidden cosmic truths- Tread the unchartered territory of Enlightenment