Exiting the Āṇava Mārga
Āṇava still exists in the other mārgas, but it diminishes. It first starts out as “I’ll do it all myself. I need no one to help me.” Fulfillment comes through fulfilling each individual desire. Self-preservation is a very important part of the personal ego. But then, later, as progressive steps are taken, spiritual identity fulfills the emptiness, as water fills up a container. Only at the moment that mukti occurs does the container vanish. Until then the āṇava is like smoldering coals in a burnt-out fire. New wood can be thrown upon them. They can be fanned up. Detractors to a spiritual movement will often try to reawaken the āṇava of its leader and kill out the rival movement by creating his downfall.
Āṇava comes strongly to the Hindu when not living up to Hindu Dharma, when not performing sādhana, when there is no desire for mukti. When he has a fatalistic view of karma, when his Sanātana Dharma does not include pilgrimage once a year, daily reading of scripture, home pūjā, temple worship, when he is overly involved in the acquisition of wealth, ignoring all the other goals of life—we have here the makings of a fine āṇava mārgī. Being overly involved with personal pleasures, kāma, neglecting artha, not understanding karma, we have the makings of a wonderful āṇava mārgī. Being overly involved in dharma or the desire for mukti, we have here the makings of a wonderful karma yogī, bhakti yogī, rāja yogī, jñāna yogī. The normal Hindu needs a normal balance of all the goals. It is no accident that the Hindu sages can understand the āṇava within man. Yes, of course, they passed through it themselves and are just tapping their own memory patterns, seeing the actions of others and knowing the outcome.
As the soul leaves the āṇava mārga and enters the charyā path, a budding love begins to unfold. He is now conscious in the mūlādhāra chakra, looking out through the window of memory and reason at the world around him. His personal ego, which had until recently been well placed on the āṇava mārga, is feeling bruised. It now has to deal with some very real challenges—loving one’s country, loving the world, family, friends. The charyā mārga brings him into penance, which eventually brings him into sādhana, which is regulated penance. Without sādhana, penance tends to be spontaneous, erratic; whereas consistent sādhana is the regulation of penance. Now the soul begins dropping off the bonds of karma, māyā and āṇava as it unfolds into bhakti, love. This is true Śaiva Siddhānta. All this is not without being a painful process. Therefore, the protective mechanism of fear, which in itself is an avoidance process, is right there to help—in the chakra just below the mūlādhāra. The presence or absence of spiritual surrender and willingness to serve shows whether a person is on the āṇava mārga or on the charyā mārga. Devotees on the charyā mārga are striving to unfold spiritually and reach the kriyā mārga. People on the āṇava mārga are not striving at all. They are their own self-appointed teachers and proceed at their own pace. When we are on the charyā mārga, we have a lot of help from family, friends and our entire religious community. When we are on the kriyā mārga, the entire Hindu community, the elders and others all get behind us to help us along our way. Then when we are finally on the yoga mārga, we have all the saptha ṛishis helping us. The satgurus are helping, too, and all three million swāmīs and sādhus in the world are helping us along the path at this stage. When we have entered the jñāna mārga, we are bringing forth new knowledge, giving forth blessings and meeting the karmas that unwind until mukti.