WRITTEN BY S NAGARAJAN

Date: 29 August 2018

Time uploaded in London – 8-37 AM (British Summer Time)

Post No. 5373

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ச.நாகராஜன்

மிகப் பெரிய மகான்களுக்கும் தீர்க்கதரிசிகளுக்கும் இறைவன் அவர்களின் உள்ளிருந்தே பேசுகிறான்.

Inner Voice என்று குறிப்பிடப்படும் இந்த் தெய்வீகக் குரல் தான் அவர்களை வழி நடத்துகிறது.

மகாத்மா காந்திஜி தனது உள்ளிருந்து வந்த குரலின் படியே நடந்து சென்றார்; மக்களுக்கு வழி காட்டினார்.

உண்ணாவிரதம் இரு என்று உட் குரல் சொன்ன போது அவரே மலைத்திருக்கிறார்; எதற்காக என்று? ஆனால் பின்னால் நடந்த சம்பவங்கள் அந்த உண்ணாவிரதத்தை நியாயப் படுத்தின.

உப்பை எடுத்து சத்யாக்ரஹம் செய்வதா என்று பெரும் தலைவர்கள் உள்ளிட்டோர் சிரித்தனர்; ஆனால் மகாத்மாவை எதிர்க்க முடியுமா?

சந்தேகத்துடன் சத்யாக்ரஹத்தில் பங்கேற்றோர் அது தேச சரித்திரத்தில் ஏற்படுத்திய மாபெரும் எழுச்சியைக் கண்டு வியந்தனர்.

ஆக அந்த தெய்வீகக் குரல் பற்றி அவர் என்ன நினைத்தார் என்பதைக் கீழே உள்ள அவரது வார்த்தைகளே தெளிவாகத் தெரிவிக்கின்றன.

அவற்றைப் பார்க்கலாம்:

 The Inner Voice

There come to us moments in life when about some things we need no proof from without. A little voice within us tells us, ‘You are on the right track, move neither to your left nor right, but keep to the straight and narrow way. (L, 25-12-1916)

There are moments in your life when you must act, even though you cannot carry your best friends with you. The ‘still small voice’ within you must always be the final arbiter when there is a conflict of duty. (YI, 4-8-1920, p3)

Having made a ceaseless effort to attain self-purification, I have developed some little capacity to hear correctly and clearly the ‘still small voice within’. (EF, p34)

I shall lose my usefulness the moment I stifle the still small voice within. (YI, 3-12-1925, p422)

Penances with me are no mechanical acts. They are done in obedience to the inner voice. (YI, 2-4-1931, p60)

No False Claim

A person falsely claiming to act under divine inspiration or the promptings of the inner voice without having any such, will fare worse than the one falsely claiming to act under the authority of an earthly sovereign. Whereas the latter on being exposed will escape with injury to his body, the former may perish body and soul together.

You have to believe no one but yourselves. You must try to listen to the inner voice, but if you will not have the expression”inner voice”, you may use the expression “dictates of reason”, which you should obey, and if you will not parade God, I have no doubt you will parade something else which in the end will prove to be God, for, fortunately, there is no one and nothing else but God in this universe.

I would also submit that it is not everyone claiming to act on the urge of the inner voice [who] has that urge. Like every other faculty, this faculty for listening to the still small noise within requires previous effort and training, perhaps much greater than what is required for the acquisition of any other faculty, and even if out of thousands of claimants only a few succeed in establishing their claim, it is well worth running the risk of having and tolerating doubtful claimants.(M, III, p229)

Nobody has to my knowledge questioned the possibility of the inner voice speaking to some, and it is a gain to the world even if one person’s claim to speak under the authority of the inner voice can be really sustained. Many may make the claim, but not all will be able to substantiate it. But it cannot and ought not to be suppressed for the sake of preventing false claimants.

There is no danger whatsoever if many people could truthfully represent the inner voice. But, unfortunately, there is no remedy against hypocrisy. Virtue must not be suppressed because many will feign it. Men have always been found throughout the world claiming to speak for the inner voice. But no harm has yet overtaken the world through their short-lived activities.

Before one is able to listen to that voice, one has to go through a long and fairly serve course of training, and when it is the inner voice that speaks, it is unmistakable. The world cannot be successfully fooled for all time. There is, therefore, no danger of anarchy setting in because a humble man like me will not be suppressed and will dare to claim the authority of the inner voice, when he believes that he has heard it.(H, 18-3-1933, p8)

My claim to hear the voice of God is no new claim. Unfortunately, there is no way that I know of proving the claim except through results. God will not be God if He allowed Himself to be an object of proof by His creatures. But He does give His willing slave power to pass through the fiercest of ordeals.

I have been a willing slave to this most exacting Master for more than half a century. His voice has been increasingly audible, as years have rolled by. He has never forsaken me even in my darkest hour. He has saved me often against myself and left me not a vestige of independence. The greater the surrender to Him, the greater has been my joy.(H, 6-5-1933, p4)

Voice of God

For me the Voice of God, of Conscience, of Truth, or the Inner Voice or ‘the Still Small Voice’ mean one and the same thing. I saw no form. I have never tried, for I have always believed God to be without form. But what I did hear was like a Voice from afar and yet quite near. It was as unmistakable as some human voice definitely speaking to me, and irresistible. I was not dreaming at the time I heard the Voice. The hearing of the Voice was preceded by a terrific struggle within me. Suddenly the Voice came upon me. I listened, made certain it was the Voice, and the struggle ceased. I was calm. The determination was made accordingly, the date and the hour of the fast were fixed…

Could I give any further evidence that it was truly the Voice that I heard and that it was not an echo of my own heated imagination? I have no further evidence to convince the skeptic. He is free to say that it was all self-delusion or hallucination. It may well have been so. I can offer no proof to the contrary. But I can say this, that not the unanimous verdict of the whole world against me could shake me from the belief that what I heard was the true Voice of God.

But some think that God himself is a creation of our own imagination. If that view holds good, then nothing is real, everything is of our own imagination. Even so, whilst my imagination dominates, me I can only act under its spell. Realest things are only relatively so. For me the Voice was more real than my own existence. It has never failed me, or for that matter, anyone else. And everyone who wills can hear the Voice. It is within everyone. But like everything else, it requires previous and definite preparation.(H, 8-7-1933, p4)

Rightly or wrongly, I know that I have no other resource as a satyagrahi than the assistance of God in every conceivable difficulty, and I would like it to be believed that what may appear to be inexplicable actions of mine are really due to inner promptings.

It may be a product of my heated imagination. If it is so, I prize that imagination as it has served me for a chequered life extending over a period of now nearly over fifty-five years, because I learned to rely consciously upon God before I was fifteen years old. (H, 11-3-1939, p46)

இப்படி 15 வயது முதல் சுமார் 55 ஆண்டுகள் அந்தக் குரலில் வழி காட்டுதலின் பேரில் தான் நடந்து சென்றதை அவர் குறிப்பிட்டதிலிருந்தே அவரை வழி நடத்திய உள்ளிருந்து எழுந்த தெய்வீகக் குரலைப் பற்றி அறிந்து கொள்ளலாம்.

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இனி அரவிந்தர் Inner Voice பற்றிக் கூறுவதை அவரது சொற்களிலேயே  பார்ப்போம்:

அரவிந்தர் கூறுகிறார் :

“This inner voice does not give any reason: it only says, ‘do this; if you do not do bad results will follow’. Sometimes strangely enough bad results do follow if you don’t listen to them. Lele used to say that whenever he did not follow the inner voice, he had pain and suffering.

I also heard a voice which asked me to go to Pondicherry. Of course it was the inner voice. It was impossible to make a mistake about it or disobey that voice. There are some voices about which there can be no possibility of any doubt or  mistake. Charachandra Roy wanted me to go to France so that we may have no further trouble. When I arrived at Chandranagore he refused to receive me and shoved me on to Moti Roy.

ஆக தெய்வீகக் குரலே அரவிந்தரை வழி நடத்திச் சென்றது. அவரைப் பாண்டிச்சேரி செல்லுமாறு வழிகாட்டியது.

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Rational Philosopher என்று அனைவராலும் போற்றப்படும் சாக்ரடீஸும் தான் ஒரு தெய்வீகக் குரல் சொல்வதைக் கேட்டு நடப்பதாக அடிக்கடி மக்களிடம் சொல்லி வந்தார். அவரை விசாரணைக்கு அழைத்து வந்த போதும் விசாரணையிலும் அவர் இதையே வலியுறுத்தினார். ஆனால் அவர் சொல்வதை நம்பாமல் அவருக்கு மரண தண்டனை விதிக்கப்பட்டது.

அவர் குற்றவாளிக் கூண்டில் கி.மு. 399ஆம் ஆண்டில் நின்ற போது கூறிய சொற்கள் இவை:

“I have a divine sign [daimonion] from the god which… began when I was a child. It is a voice, and whenever it speaks it turns me away from something I am about to do, but it never turns me towards anything. This is what has prevented me from taking part in public affairs, and I think it was quite right to prevent me. Be sure, gentlemen of the jury, I should have died long ago otherwise.” (Plato, Apology; quoted in Berman, 2014, p. 1676; the word daimonion in brackets added by Berman)

ஆக சாக்ரடீஸை தேவையான காலம் வரை வாழ வைத்ததும் தெய்வீகக் குரல் தான்!

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மனித குலத்தை வழிகாட்ட வரும் பெரியோர்கள் இப்படி Inner Voice படி நடப்பதை ஏராளமான எடுத்துக்காட்டுகளால் அறிய முடிகிறது.

இந்த Inner Voice  நிகழ்வுகள், தெய்வீக சக்தி ஒன்று அதன் திட்டப்படி உலகை வழி நடத்திச் செல்கிறது என்பதை அறிய  வைக்கின்றன, இல்லையா!

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