By
SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA
A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION
First Edition: 1976
Second Edition: 1984
Third Edition: 1996
(3,000 copies)
World Wide Web (WWW) Edition : 1999
Website: http://www.divinelifesociety.org/
This WWW reprint is for free distribution
© The Divine Life Trust Society
ISBN 81-7052-123-8
Published By
THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
P.O. Shivanandanagar—249 192
Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttaranchal,
Himalayas, India.
CONTENTS
Human life is a rare gift. It is a gift from the Lord. Three things
are very difficult to obtain in this mortal world,—birth as a human
being, desire for liberation and association with the wise ones,—and
they are obtained only through the blessings and grace of God. Of the
three, human birth is a very precious gift that has been put first and
foremost. It is that state of existence where alone the Jiva becomes
endowed with intellect and the extremely rare faculty of discrimination.
Therefore, human birth is considered as a very rare gift of God.
The purpose of life is to know your own essential nature or Atman by
knowing which you have nothing more to know. Every one must know that
the Divine is within him. God is within you and you are in Him. Attainment
of God is the Supreme purpose of life. Without this aim in life, the
life of an individual is a mere waste. It is essenceless.
In order to progress in this spiritual path one should know the fundamentals
of spiritual life. This book “Guidelines to Illumination”
serves the purpose of giving some practical and useful information in
this direction. It contains the essentials of spiritual life. This entire
book constitutes a sincere attempt to serve earnest seekers after spiritual
Truth and to spread spiritual wisdom that is likely to be of benefit
to mankind. Unlike other books containing one subject-matter, this book
“Guidelines to Illumination” contains many practical
hints useful to seekers in the spiritual path. It is culled from my
speeches given abroad during 1969-70, in various places. I place this
book in the hands of seekers who wish to know some of essentials of
spiritual life and earnestly hope that it will serve that purpose well.
I am grateful to Sri Swami Vimalanandaji (formerly known as Sri S.
Nagarajan) for collecting the material for this book and also to Sri
Bill Eilers (Sri Swami Atmaswarupanandaji) of Vancouver, B.C., Canada,
for going through the entire manuscript and suggesting the excellent
title for this book.
I offer and dedicate this book at the feet of holy Master Sri Swami
Sivanandaji, who is no more physically, but whose invisible spiritual
presence is guiding me even now.
Swami Chidananda
Sridhar Rao, as Swami Chidananda was known before taking Sannyasa,
was born to Srinivasa Rao and Sarojini, on the 24th of September, 1916,
the second of five children and the eldest son. Sri Srinivasa Rao was
a prosperous Zamindar owning several villages, extensive lands and palatial
buildings in South India. Sarojini was an ideal Indian mother, noted
for her saintliness.
At the age of eight Sridhar Rao’s life was influenced by one Sri
Anantayya, a friend of his grandfather, who used to relate to him stories
from the epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. Doing Tapas, becoming a Rishi,
and having a vision of the Lord became ideals which he cherished.
His uncle, Krishna Rao, shielded him against the evil influences of
the materialistic world around him, and sowed in him the seeds of the
Nivritti life which he joyously nurtured until, as later events proved,
it blossomed into sainthood.
His elementary education began at Mangalore. In 1932 he joined the
Muthiah Chetty School in Madras where he distinguished himself as a
brilliant student. His cheerful personality, exemplary conduct and extraordinary
traits earned for him a distinct place in the hearts of all teachers
and students with whom he came into contact.
In 1936 he was admitted to Loyola College, whose portals admit only
the most brilliant of students. In 1938 he emerged with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. This period of studentship at a predominantly Christian
College was significant. The glorious ideal of Lord Jesus, the Apostles
and the other Christian saints had found in his heart a synthesis of
all that is best and noble in the Hindu culture. To him, study of the
Bible was no mere routine; it was the living word of God, just as living
and real as the words of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita.
His innate breadth of vision enabled him to see Jesus in Krishna, not
Jesus instead of Krishna. He was as much an adorer of Jesus Christ as
he was of Lord Vishnu.
The family was noted for its high code of conduct and this was infused
into his life. Charity and service were the glorious ingrained virtues
of the members of the family. These virtues found an embodiment in Sridhar
Rao. He discovered ways and means of manifesting them. None who sought
his help was sent away without it. He gave freely to the needy.
Service to lepers became his ideal. He would build them huts on the
vast lawns of his home and look after them as though they were deities.
Later, after he joined the Ashram, this early trait found in him complete
and free expression where even the best among men would seldom venture
into this great realm of divine love, based upon the supreme wisdom
that all are one in God. Patients from the neighbourhood, suffering
from the worst kinds of diseases came to him. To Sridhar Rao the patient
was none other than Lord Narayana Himself. He served him with tender
love and compassion. The very movement of his hands portrayed him as
worshipping the living Lord Narayana. Nothing would keep him from bringing
comfort to the suffering inmates of the Ashram, no matter what the urgency
of other engagements at the time.
Service, especially of the sick, often brought out the fact that he
had no idea of his own separate existence as an individual. It seemed
as if his body clung loosely to his soul.
Nor was all this service confined to human beings. Birds and animals
claimed his attention as much as, if not, more than, human beings. He
understood their language of suffering. His service of a sick dog evoked
the admiration of Gurudev. He would raise his finger in grim admonition
when he saw anyone practising cruelty to dumb animals in his presence.
His deep and abiding interest in the welfare of lepers had earned for
him the confidence and admiration of the Government authorities when
he was elected to the Leper Welfare Association, constituted by the
state—at first as Vice-Chairman and later as Chairman of the Muni-ki-reti
Notified Area Committee.
Quite early in life, although born in a wealthy family, he shunned
the pleasures of the world to devote himself to seclusion and contemplation.
In the matter of study it was the spiritual books which had the most
appeal to him, more than college books. Even while he was at the college,
text books had to take second place to spiritual books. The works of
Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Gurudev took precedence over
all others. He shared his knowledge with others, so much so that he
virtually became the Guru of the household and the neighbourhood, to
whom he would talk of honesty, love, purity, service and devotion to
God. He would exhort them to perform Japa of Rama-Nama. While still
in his twenties he began initiating youngsters into this great Rama
Taraka Mantra. He was an ardent admirer of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami
Vivekananda. He visited the Ramakrishna Math at Madras regularly and
participated in the Satsangas there. The call of Swami Vivekananda to
renounce resounded within his pure heart. He ever thirsted for the Darshan
of saints and Sadhus visiting the metropolis.
In June 1936, he disappeared from home. After a vigorous search by
his parents, he was found in the secluded Ashram of a holy sage some
miles from the sacred mountain shrine of Tirupati. He returned home
after some persuasion. This temporary separation was but a preparation
for the final parting from the world of attachments to family and friends.
While at home his heart dwelt in the silent forests of spiritual thoughts,
beating in tune with the eternal Pranava-Nada of the Jnana Ganga within
himself. The seven years at home following his return from Tirupati
were marked by seclusion, service, intense study of spiritual literature,
self-restraint, control of the senses, simplicity in food and dress,
abandonment of all comforts and practice of austerities which augmented
his inner spiritual power.
The final decision came in 1943. He was already in correspondence with
Sri Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. He obtained Swamiji’s permission
to join the Ashram.
On arrival at the Ashram, he naturally took charge of the dispensary.
He became the man with the healing hand. The growing reputation of his
divine healing hand attracted a rush of patients to the Sivananda Charitable
Dispensary.
Very soon after joining the Ashram, he gave ample evidence of the brilliance
of his intellect. He delivered lectures, wrote articles for magazines
and gave spiritual instructions to the visitors. When the Yoga-Vedanta
Forest University (now known as the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy) was
established in 1948, Sri Gurudev paid him a fitting tribute by appointing
him Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Raja Yoga. During the first year
he inspired the students with his brilliant exposition of Maharshi Patanjali’s
Yoga-Sutras.
It was also in the first year of his stay at the Ashram that he wrote
his magnum opus ‘Light Fountain’, an immortal
biography of Sri Gurudev. Sri Gurudev himself once remarked: “Sivananda
will pass away, but ‘Light Fountain’ will live.”
In spite of his multifarious activities and intense Sadhana, he founded,
under the guidance of Gurudev, the Yoga Museum in 1947, in which the
entire philosophy of Vedanta and all the processes of Yoga Sadhana are
depicted in the form of pictures and illustrations.
Towards the end of 1948, Gurudev nominated him as the General Secretary
of the Divine Life Society. The great responsibility of the organisation
fell on his shoulders. From that moment he spiritualised all its activities
by his presence, counsel and wise leadership. He exhorted all to raise
their consciousness to the level of the Divine.
On Guru Purnima day, the 10th of July, 1949, he was initiated into
the holy order of Sannyasa by Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. He now
became known as Swami Chidananda, a name which connotes “one who
is in the highest consciousness and bliss.”
In November, 1959, Swami Chidanandaji embarked on an extensive tour
of America, being, sent by Gurudev as his personal representative to
broadcast the message of Divine Life. He returned in March, 1962.
In August, 1963, after the Mahasamadhi of the Master, he was elected
as President of the Divine Life Society. After election, he strove to
hold aloft the banner of renunciation, dedicated service, love and spiritual
idealism, not only within the set-up of the widespread organisation
of the Society, but in the hearts of countless seekers throughout the
world, who were all too eager to seek his advice, help and guidance.
Swamiji has toured the length and breadth of India and also South Africa
and Malaysia to serve devotees of the Society.
Again in 1968, Sri Swami Chidanandaji undertook the Global Tour at
the kind request of numerous disciples and devotees of holy Master Sri
Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj and visited South Africa, Rhodesia, Mauritius,
Malavi, Uganda, Kenya, Germany, Belgium, France, U.K., Greece, Italy,
Switzerland, U. S. A., Canada, Bahamas, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Fiji,
Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Wherever
he went devotees received him cordially and listened to him with rapt
attention.
Sri Swami Chidanandaji, right from the beginning is working and serving
the Divine Cause of Sri Gurudev’s Mission tirelessly and spreading
his Divine Life Message far and wide not only in Bharatavarsha but also
in countries outside.
Yoga is not only in Nirvikalpa Samadhi. It is in every moment. If a
thought comes and if you are not able to watch and put it down, you
have failed in Yoga, you have failed in the examination. In every thought,
in every action you have to assert your mastery over your Vrittis. Then
Yoga is fulfilled, divine life is lived; and what is the time taken
for this process? It is a moment. Within a split second so many frames
(cinema films) go away. Similar is the case with the mind. The entire
process takes place in a split second, starting from Samskaras and ending
with Cheshta or fulfilling of desires. From experience you get Samskara,
from Samskara you get Vasana, from Vasana you get Vritti. Imagination
makes the Vritti into a desire. Then ego attaches itself to the desire
and it becomes an urge, a Trishna. Now you are forced to do Cheshta—action—to
fulfil the desire. This process of the mind is going on.
The scientists are trying to find a perpetual motion machinery, a machinery
that never stops but is always in motion. If you have to find such a
machinery, now it is in you; it is the mind. We have to deal with the
mind. All the Vasanas and Samskaras, which you have formed, are already
there and you cannot help it. But you can at least do one thing. You
can prevent the formation of new Samskaras. And also let the past Samskaras
be not further strengthened by fresh ones. How is it possible? Daily
you get new experiences and daily you perceive so many things with your
five organs of senses. Then how can we prevent these experiences making
impressions upon the mind? Is there any technique? How did these objects
get into the mind and form Samskaras? Here is an object. You perceive
it through any one of your senses. First there is contact between the
sense and the object. That is the first thing, and then what happens?
So far only the outer fringe of man’s personality has been touched.
Supposing you are very deeply absorbed in some task, and your brother
or sister comes and lays his or her hands on you; you are not aware
although the object has contacted the sense, because the sense has not
conveyed it to the mind, and the mind is away from it. The objects have
contacted the senses, and the senses have conveyed it to the mind, but
if you are not there, if the sense of ‘I’ is not there, the
impression taken by the mind as a matter of routine, makes no meaning
to the person. So, if the ego is not there, the object does not go deep
into the mind. If the ego is engaged in some other thought, a particular
impression brought by the senses will not produce any effect. But if
the ‘I’ is there, the object goes and impinges upon your awareness;
and if this ‘I’ is in a state of heedlessness, is not vigilant,
it is in a state of illusion, a state of worldliness or Rajas, and it
will easily take these perceptions and create in you a desire for the
objects.
If you are not alert due to lack of understanding of the thought process,
the moment the thought of a lovely object arises in you, you will follow
it and the result is you want that object. You see money and immediately
you want it. Supposing it has come to this stage, there is only one
thing to be done. What can you do? You can simply burn up that desire
and reduce it to ashes. There is only one fire to burn all desires;
Nachiketas had that fire. So many attractive and alluring things were
offered by Yama. He offered money, beauty, strength, power, kingdoms
and lordships over all worlds, all Vidyas. He gave flowing descriptions
of the whole attractive and alluring worlds, but Nachiketas reduced
all such desires to ashes, because he had that one fire, and that was
Mumukshutva, aspiration. Aspiration is a positive fire in which all
desires, cravings are thrown and reduced to ashes. This is the fire
that should characterise all Sadhakas, Yogis and Vedantins who lead
the divine life.
If you want to lead the divine life, your inner heart should be a place
of aspiration and a fire of Yoga should burn in you inside always. This
blaze should be there. You cannot completely change the outward mode
of life, but inwardly there should be aspiration. This fire should burn
day and night, when you are awake, when you are sleeping, when you are
alone, when you are among men, when you are meditating and when you
are engaged in work. This fire should not be put out. This aspiration
should always form an integral part of your being. Then you are living
the divine life. If this fire is there, you need not worry what work
you are doing or in which place you are living. Because, you will be
leading the divine life. You cannot be a victim of sense-pleasures.
But you must at any time know if, in spite of your vigilance, an object
goes to the inner consciousness, how to burn it through aspiration.
If before it enters the outer threshold you have to burn it, what are
the techniques? There are two techniques. One technique is always keep
the mind indrawn. Never allow the mind to be completely extrovert, so
that even apparently when you are moving amidst objects, the senses
are not outgoing but turned inward. This is a very difficult technique,
but this has to be practised. This Pratyahara is very essential. The
ideal of the aspirant should always be to acquire this important qualification—Pratyahara.
The other thing is to be indifferent. What does it mean to you? It
does not mean anything to you at all. If a non-vegetarian goes into
the bazaar where they sell fish, poultry, etc., his mouth may water.
But supposing he is a pure vegetarian, they will not mean anything at
all, because he is not interested in them. Even so, we will have to
create an attitude within ourselves by constant reflection and constant
meditation on the Supreme Reality which will reveal the vanity of the
world, the worthlessness of earthly objects, and the perishable nature
of the entire creation. By constantly imbibing such consciousness in
one’s personality, an attitude of mind is created when all things
cease to have any meaning to you, and then, even when these things come,
there is no response from within, and this state is called Udasinata.
You are simply not interested, and when there is a thing which you do
not like, you are not aware of its existence. This attitude of not being
interested in a thing should be universalised. An aspirant should hold
an attitude of indifference when he is in the midst of objects. This
way you have to move in the world.
Day-to-day movements of men constitute the very essence of Yoga and
Vedanta. One should not commit the mistake of running away with the
idea that by merely having a great idealism that one can indulge in
every type of actions and words. Every action goes to form one’s
character even as every drop goes to form the ocean. Day-to-day movements
of men constitute the very essence of divine living, the very essence
of Yoga and Vedanta. If one is watchful of every thought and sees that
the broad principles of divine living are observed in daily life, the
principles which go to make up the foundation of spiritual life, the
edifice will come by itself.
Truthfulness, compassion, purity,—these are the broad things which
have to cover our entire life down to the minutest details. An aspirant
cannot afford to forget this detailed living of divine life, and his
whole life, at least in the beginning, should be characterised by self-restraint.
If a Sadhaka thinks that he can do anything and also meditate, he is
deceiving himself. Yoga is not a toy; which you can easily take and
play with. Therefore, every action should be done with awareness.
The whole personality should be restrained. One should live a life
of moderation. As said by our Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj
in his song: “Eat a little, drink a little...” we have to
understand it in its proper sense. There are two parts of this song.
“Eat a little, drink a little, talk a little, sleep a little”;
when he says these things he means moderation. These things should not
be done too much. These are not said in the sense that they are essential.
It means that you must not overdo them. The instinctive life of eating,
drinking, talking, etc., should be kept to the minimum. The other portion
wherein Gurudev says: “Do Japa a little, do Asana a little, do
Kirtan a little,” means not that they should not be done too much,
but here it is the other way round. Sri Gurudev has said that everyone
of these items is essential, and all these items should find a place
in your daily programme. All gross things that merely pertain to the
body should be kept to the minimum and all the higher aspects of Sadhana
should be given proper place in your daily programme. This is the broad
general outline of divine life or spiritual living, for you. All these,
Japa, meditation, Kirtan, etc., form the positive side. Living a life
of restraint, and not fulfilling the undue desires of the mind and senses,
understanding that to fulfil such demands is to become greater and greater
slaves of the mind and its promptings is the other side. Always be based
upon self-restraint and inwardness and make the best use of your quiet
hours in self-study, so that your Yoga may be fulfilled. This sums up
the essential principles of Yoga.
The differences in views and opinions in matters like politics and
economics are understandable. But it is surprising that such differences
of opinion and approach exist in the spiritual field also, even though
the seekers have one common end as their aim, viz., the realisation
of the Supreme Being. What could these differences be due to? One reason
advanced is that different facets of the Ultimate Truth are presented
to different seekers. Suppose a pillar is made of gold and silver—gold
on one side and silver on the other. Viewed from one side the pillar
appears to be nothing but silver, and viewed from the other, it appears
to be only gold. The second explanation given is that different people
have got different capacities of grasping or understanding. Each one
is able to grasp according to his capacity. So there are differences
in the method of approach, like absolute monism, qualified monism, etc.,
to suit different men of different capacities. Therefore, there are
no inconsistencies in the scriptures and they deserve our faith in them.
Even with a grain or a mustard of faith you can do what is seemingly
impossible.
Where is the need for faith? Cannot man use his intellect and know
things? No, because of the limitations of the mental process (Antahkarana).
Great people both in the East and the West, after having experienced
the Highest, have stressed the need for faith, and they could not have
made a misstatement, for they had no purpose to do so. In all our experiences
of external objects, there is the person who experiences, the process
of experience and object experienced. Without these triune factors one
cannot live. Every moment of one’s life they are present. These
triple factors have to be annihilated for attaining the Supreme Experience.
Triputi Laya has to be achieved. And then Consciousness alone remains.
The Supreme Experience alone is present.
The nature of the Supreme is existence. This can be illustrated by
an example. You go to a jungle and see a tree there. The tree is. Suppose
a wood-cutter cuts the tree; it is then called ‘log’. Though
the tree has changed its form and name, its existence has not disappeared.
It exists in the name and form of the log. If the log is then made into
planks of wood, then the log is not there, but the planks of wood are,
or each plank of wood is, there. The existence aspect continues. Suppose
these planks are converted into tables or chairs; then the planks are
not there, but still the tables and chairs are there. If after some
years the tables and chairs become useless and are reduced to pieces
of wood, then the tables and chairs are not there. If these pieces of
wood are burnt, then the ashes remain. The wood now exists as the ashes.
And if the ashes are also annihilated, according to the scientists,
they still remain as atoms. Thus existence continues. The ultimate Truth
is Existence, Eternity.
But, we are not able to experience the Truth with our senses and the
mind, for they are limited in their scope. One sees an object at night
as long as there is light. But if the light is put off, in spite of
his having his eyes opened he cannot see anything. So, the eyes depend
on an external object for seeing, viz., the light. But suppose there
is too much light. The eyes cannot see. The eyes will be dazzled or
even perpetually blinded by excessive light, as for instance, of an
arc-light. Again if a curtain hides an object, the eyes cannot perceive
it. If a crystal-clear glass tumbler is filled with pure water, from
a distance it cannot be said whether it contains water or not. If you
are affected with cold, you cannot smell an object. You cannot hear
a very low sound, and a powerful sound may deafen your ears. When you
are absorbed in some thought, you cannot hear the external noises. However
delicious it may be, a third or fourth cup of milk ceases to be delicious.
If the milk was really delicious it must have been delicious always.
Then, how is it that a fourth cup of milk is not delicious, and a fifth
cup causes vomiting? So, our senses are limited in their scope. We cannot
have uniformity of experience through the senses. You cannot remember
what all dishes you took yesterday. You cannot remember the past nor
can you foretell the future. However intellectual one may be, when something
goes wrong with his brain, he has to consult a psychiatrist or go to
an asylum. One dose of opium is sufficient to make him lose his consciousness.
Such are the limitations of intellect and senses. Further, jealousy,
anger, prejudice, depression—all these cloud man’s vision.
If a man is cheerful, everything is beautiful to him. Otherwise, everything
is ugly to him. If a man is filled with hatred, everybody becomes an
enemy to him. If his mind is filled with love, everybody becomes his
friend. Thus knowledge derived through the mind can never be dependable.
Our great master-minds have tried to show that anything that we try
to perceive is only appearance of a thing, and not the essence of a
thing. Take for instance, a piece of cloth. You say it is a piece of
cloth. Suppose you remove its warp and woof. You remove all the threads.
It is no more the cloth that it was formerly. It is now called a heap
of threads. Again it can be reduced to cotton, and cotton again to atoms.
So in reality we are wearing only atoms!
Then, are the senses and intellect not useful at all? They are useful,
of course, but to a certain extent. Up to a certain stage intellect
is useful, but when that stage is reached, the intellect is no longer
useful. It is an obstacle thereafter. It should be dispensed with. Even
in Vedanta, which is mainly a process of constant enquiry and analysis,
the intellect has to be avoided when one reaches the point of meditation,
of drawing the mind inward. Master-minds knew that mind was not the
essential part of man, and so they gave a kick to the mind and intellect
and boldly took a leap into the Unknown. They had direct experience
of the Truth and enjoyed the Supreme Bliss which they wanted to share
with others. So they said, “Come ye, O seekers, we will show you
the way to eternal beatitude, where there is perennial bliss and lasting
peace.” So to believe in their words is not blind faith.
Faith is Spirit responding to the Spirit. The ultimate essence in man
responds to the Infinite. Faith does not spring from the mind and senses.
Faith is the nature of the innermost Being of man. Faith is a power.
It is a great primal power which elevates man and lifts him to the transcendental
experience.
The giant intellect, Sri Sankara, himself has laid down ‘Sraddha’
(faith) as one of the sixfold virtues in Sadhana Chatushtaya which
consists of Viveka (discrimination), Vairagya (dispassion), Shadsampat
(Sama, Dama, Uparati, Titiksha, Sraddha and Samadhana) and Mumukshutva
(intense longing for Liberation). If everything could be understood
by analysis and enquiry, then why did he stipulate ‘Sraddha’?
Without faith, an aspirant cannot practise even Sravana (hearing). If
he has no faith in the teacher, if he doubts that what his teacher says
may be incorrect, how can he learn anything at all? Even in our daily
life, faith is indispensable. Somebody cooks food and we take that food.
We do not doubt that the cook might have put some poison in the food.
We go to a doctor for medicine and take the medicine that he gives,
without doubting that what he gives might be poison. In the spiritual
realms also, the same is the case. There have been sages who have plumbed
the depth of Truth and given out their experiences. We repose faith
in the words of persons who say that they have visited the moon. Similarly
it is reasonable to repose faith in the words of those who have seen
the Truth because they say: “We have experienced the Truth, so
you can also experience the Truth, provided you do what we have done
in order to experience the Truth. Experiment for yourself and then see
whether you attain the same result or not.” The sages give us assurance
that we can also experience the Highest Truth by following the proper
self-analysis.
Saint Tulasidas says that faith is like the handmaid of a queen. If
anyone wants to see the queen, he cannot be led by the servants of the
palace to the innermost chamber in which the queen is. Only upto the
gateway to the innermost chamber others can lead a visitor. Thereafter,
one of the handmaids of the queen alone can take the visitor to the
queen. All our reasoning, theoretical knowledge, etc., will take us
only upto a certain stage. Beyond that they cannot help us, but only
faith can help us in attaining the Supreme Experience. Faith is necessary
for all aspirants, be they Raja Yogins, Bhakti Yogins or Jnana Yogins.
May God bless you all with supreme faith to experience the Bliss.
Life is precious. Life is valuable. Do not think that life is all misery,
or all frustration, or all disappointment or all disillusionment. No.
Amidst all these passing phases of life the great and glorious fact
ever remains—that life ever beckons us to a high destiny, to a
destiny that is no less than attaining our eternal abode. Attaining
the experience of Supreme Bliss in God is our birthright.
God is the only Reality. God exists and He is the One Reality. He is
the very centre of our life and He is the most important concern in
our life. We have no other concern as vitally important and so very
absolutely indispensable for our very existence, our happiness, our
peace, our ultimate well-being as God is. He is our Goal.
It is not to get stuck in this earth-plane through which we are passing
on our way towards Him, but to make use of this earth-life to rise into
the blessedness of blissful divine communion with Him—the indescribable
experience of being one with Him, partaking of the sweetness of His
essential blissful nature. That is the great task. That is the great
business of life. That is the one great thing to be achieved in the
midst of innumerable little things. All these little things ever keep
changing, ever keep shifting and ever pass away, but this great business
of life starts with the cradle and it is not completed in the grave.
No. It is completed only when we attain Him, no matter how many bodies
we may have to take, that is the great business, the central business
amidst the passing distractions of our life here.
The present state of consciousness is a product of ignorance. Birth,
death, pain, sorrow and suffering are all due to ignorance, or the lack
of knowledge of one’s own essential Divine nature. This confined
personal identity is ignorance or egoism. This ego-consciousness of
‘I am a human being’, ‘I am a weak being’, ‘I
am full of defects and imperfections’ is the basic ignorance and
the prolific root of all sorrow, of all misery. Out of this springs
desire. Desire is born of ignorance. Likes and dislikes are born of
ignorance. Clinging to mundane life is due to ignorance, and the non-perception
of your eternal life in the Spirit, of your great destiny of perennial
life in God—Bliss Infinite—forever, is also due to ignorance.
Identification with the body is the great error of man on earth. Mistaking
this impure, inert and perishable body for the pure, immortal Atman
or Soul, is truly the great malady of this Samsaric life. Egoism, likes
and dislikes, desires, cravings and thoughts are all modifications of
this prime error only. From this prime error are created all sorts of
desires and their ramifications. To realise the objects of desire, the
human being does Karma or actions. He likes some things, dislikes others,
expect fruits of his actions which are not what he expected them to
be, and is, therefore, thus bound to the wheel of birth and death.
Attain supreme divine wisdom, or the knowledge of the Great Reality,
the wisdom of your own Supreme Self, and pain, sorrow and suffering
will cease. You will attain Bliss immortal, everlasting Peace and Perennial
Joy. You will be freed once and for all from birth and death. Discrimination,
dispassion, non-attachment, serenity, self-restraint, endurance, renunciation,
faith and devotion, cosmic love, courage, humility, truthfulness, compassion,
concentration and meditation; and burning longing for liberation are
all aids for Self-realisation, or the attainment of Brahma-Jnana (i.e.
knowledge of the Supreme, knowledge of the Eternal One).
God is Self-existent. He does not depend upon others for His existence.
He is what is called Svayam Prakasa, Svayam Jyoti. He is Self-luminous.
He does not want any other light to reveal Him. He is the Light of Grace.
God is self-proved. He does not want any proof. You do not want any
proof to know that you exist. You do not require another person to come
to you and establish the fact of your existence. Your existence to you
is self-proven but it cannot be demonstrated outside yourself. You are,
therefore you are. God does not want proof, because He is the basis
for all existence. All existence is made possible because He exists.
You are because He is. Because God is, it is possible for you to be.
He is that principle of Pure Existence or Pure Being within you. He,
Himself, is the basis for all the proof. He is Self-contained. He contains
everything within Himself—the entire universe is in Him. He knows
Himself by Himself.
There is a great deal of quibbling nowadays about God not being personal,
or being personal, and so on. Who are we to say that He should be thus
and not thus? A human being cannot dictate to God how He should be and
how He must not be. We should not quibble about all those things. It
is unnecessary. Personal or impersonal—what is all that to us?
To us He is personal. He may be impersonal to philosophers, to metaphysical
speculators. We are not in any way concerned with them. To us seekers,
to each one of us, He is intensely personal. He is close to us.
We cannot even know what is going on inside of ourselves. We do not
know how food is being digested. We do not know how blood courses through
the minutest capillary. We do not know how a bud opens to become a blossom.
And yet we would claim to know all about the nature of God and dictate
to Him how He should be. Ours is to love Him. Ours is to seek to know
Him. Ours is to approach Him. Ours is to live to get close to Him, experience
Him and enter into His very essence. That is the great goal. That is
the one thing that is worth doing.
Let us not talk about His nature. It is enough to know that He is inexpressible
sweetness—He is inexpressible sweetness—He is Bliss which
even the farthest reach of your imagination is powerless to comprehend
or conceive of. He is Bliss—He is Peace. He is wondrous Peace.
Be still and feel that Peace.
All Peace springs from Him. The highest Bliss that a human being can
think of is but a faint reflection of the illimitable. He is Bliss.
He is the marvellous Beauty of beauties, and the Radiant Light of lights.
He is the Eternal, Infinite Light—the Unchanging One. Peace, Bliss,
Radiance, Light, Eternal Being, Existence—all that He is. He is
Supreme Perfection. And more than all these—more than anything
else, He is our very own. He is your very own. Your relation to all
things upon earth has to end.
Enough of argument. Let us have no discussion—no arguments. Let
us just know God is our own and God is here and now. Time is fleeting.
Life is very short. We have to cut the knot of ignorance and experience
the Bliss of God. We are here for it and great Masters, like Swami Sivananda,
and many other Masters of both West and East, live in order to bring
you to that Fountain Source. They live in order to make the Sun of Knowledge,
the Sun of Wisdom arise in the firmament of your consciousness. They
live in order to lead you on to that great and glorious destiny. So
develop a heart of love. Remember the Saints. Serve all. See God in
all. That Inner Being alone is real. He is Blissful. We should directly
find our way to Him somehow or other through this imperfect, unsatisfactory
life on earth. Discipline the senses—discipline the eye—discipline
the tongue. Take little food, control your sense of taste, reduce your
sleep, and fill yourself with the thought of God. Fill yourself with
Love.
Overcome all your little dislikes and prejudices and disunities and
make yourself a reservoir of love, oneness, unity and good-will to all.
See no difference of race or religion or caste or creed, or barrier
of any sort. Embrace the whole universe in the arms of your cosmic love.
Remove selfishness, control anger, develop virtues. Do something substantial
while life is, while breath is in the body, and somehow pray, get His
Grace, and quickly finish this journey here and reach the heavens of
eternal delight in Him. Then alone life is fulfilled.
May God bless you!
Dharma is duty, righteousness, a life of virtue, in the fulfilment
of ethical standard in life. Dharma supports life. He who supports Dharma
is supported by Dharma. When you follow a life of virtue it brings you
face to face with God. Dharma leads to immortal bliss. Where there is
Dharma there is success, there is joy and peace. Dharma is a very unique
concept. It is the ideal—the life of idealism—that which ought
to be, things as they ought to be, not things merely as they are and
it is based upon sound science—not physical science, not material
science but upon spiritual science. No one wants to be unhappy. Everyone
wants to be happy. No one wants restlessness, fear, peacelessness, anxiety
or worry. All want the experience of happiness. Everyone seeks peace.
But very seldom people realise the absolute inseparable nature of these
two factors. Very few people know or recognise that there is an inexplicable
connection between these two factors. What is that connection? Happiness
entirely depends upon peace. Peace is the cause of happiness. Without
peace you cannot have happiness. Peace comes first. Happiness is its
spontaneous result. When incense is burnt fragrance is felt. When flower
unfolds fragrance is after it too. Happiness is the result of peace.
You cannot have happiness without peace—inner peace, peace of mind.
You can have peace without happiness because when you are perfectly
in a state of peace you wouldn’t think of happiness. Happiness
or unhappiness will have no meaning to you, because peace in the ultimate
analysis means supreme bliss. When you have a potful of honey you won’t
care for sweetness. So happiness becomes superfluous if you have true
peace because the very essence of happiness is already in peace, just
as in honey the very essence of sweetness is there. So, those who know
say: “Peace is the supreme goal”—Supreme peace, not merely
the absence of noise or absence of clash but a positive state of experience,
where even if there is noise and clash yet the peace is there that nothing
can touch, nothing can distort or destroy. Therefore, they call it an
extraordinary unique peace—a peace that cannot be understood by
human beings, peace that passeth understanding. That peace can be there
in the midst of trouble tribulation, disappointment or vexations. People
may hate you, all friends may abandon you, they may call you names,
even persecute you, but yet you will be full of peace. This is the peculiar
extraordinary peace that comes when you experience the deepest Self
within because it is a peace that nothing can touch. It is that peace
that some of the martyrs had. They said, “Our Father forgive them
for they know not what they do.” And they were able to pray for
those who were about to destroy them, because they were at peace with
themselves and the Supreme. That peace passeth understanding. It is
something which no power in the universe can affect, can change, can
alter or can take away even one little bit, because it is the only Reality.
It is a positive powerful state of experience—peace—and when
that peace is there you are the Emperor of emperors. A billionaire is
nothing for you. All the wealth of the whole universe is as dust before
you if you have that peace. That peace is the goal—Liberation;
Nirvana, Illumination, Moksha, Transcendental experience. They all mean
nothing but this great peace.
There is cessation of all desires—all delusion—no more restlessness,
no more hankering, no more craving. You are full. You are in a state
of overflowing divinity—peace. Supreme reality is profound peace
and that peace is the supreme joy. It is the Bliss-absolute of the Upanishads—That
is Brahman, that is the thing-in-itself. That is the supreme Tao which
cannot be described, attaining which there is nothing higher to be obtained.
One is in a state which nothing can equal and which is unvalued. That
is possible only in a mind devoid of restlessness. Where there is restlessness
of the mind due to desire, thoughts endless, ambitions, peculiar delusions,
in that restless mind peace is far off. If you think: “Let me satisfy
this desire, then I think I will have a little peace,” you are
the greatest deluded being. There is no greater delusion. Satisfaction
of desire will have only one result. It will intensify that desire,
because desire is an extraordinary peculiar mysterious force of Maya.
Desire is not subdued by satisfying it. Desire is subdued by transcending
it, by overcoming it and by sublimating it into a higher channel. If
you think every desire that arises in the heart spontaneously: “Let
me satisfy it,” you are making a sad mistake. You are not walking
in light. You will soon find to your bitter cost that you have got yourself
in an endless chain. Flowing along the stream is not the answer to the
question. It is not the solution to this problem of desire. Flowing
along the stream soon you will meet whirling begird. Only strength of
self-control can help you to come out of this. You have to assert your
higher nature. Giving way to the lower nature anyone can do. The jails
of this world are filled with people who give way to their lower nature.
It is nothing—it takes nothing. When desire arises immediately
go into it. But man is not chaos. Man is made in the image of God.
Desire is a disease of the mind. Desire is a curse of the psyche. It
is the pain of the deluded ego, false human personality, human individuality.
Desire is Maya and Maya is desire. This desire has to be overcome. This
is the whole of Yoga, whole of philosophy, whole of all the teachings
of all the saints and seers. Overcome it. Be a hero and overcome this
formidable enemy of desire. It is a formidable enemy. It requires exceptional
strength. Avoid them even if you have to destroy it. To give in to desire
is weakness. Therefore overcome it. Let us stop. That is Yoga. That
is spirituality. That is inner strength. That is individuality, true
reality. You are asserting yourself. When the mind asserts itself, or
senses assert themselves, or desires assert themselves, or the delusion
of the intellect asserts itself, you are not asserting yourself. You
are falling into a trap. You are distinct from that, absolutely different
from that. Our beloved Gurudev chants: “You are not this body,
not this mind, immortal Atman you are.” Day and night base yourself
upon this great truth. Base yourself upon this awareness. Never move
even a hair’s breadth away from this awareness, the central spiritual
awareness. Ever be on the alert. Don’t fall in the trap of the
senses, the mind and the intellect. You cannot afford because desire
is the outcome of a mixture of Rajas and Tamas, and as long as desire
dominates your mind, senses take you like a puppet on the end of string.
So, you can never have peace of mind because mind will be filled with
Tamasic and Rajasic qualities.
Therefore, understand this law and true peace can only come into a
mind that is at peace with itself, that has become refined and subtle,
that has been wiped clean of the Tamasic and Rajasic qualities,—the
desirous nature, the sense-nature. Where there is presence of Sattva
there is purity of mind. When the mind becomes subtle and refined peace
comes. In that peace happiness or the supreme reality begins to ascend.
Dharma lays down the pattern of life—a life of self-control, a
life of discipline, a life of discrimination and renunciation, a life
of the practice of virtues, of moderation, simplicity, self-restraint,
purity and dispassion. That is the essence of Dharma and that is why
Dharma becomes the spirit of life and the means for attaining God-realisation.
Meditation is the ultimate process when one has laid the foundation
of spiritual life, when one has overcome the constant pull of the senses
and has become the master of one’s senses, when one through true
discrimination and true inquiry, has realised the absolute hollowness
of all that is pursued, and therefore has overcome the natural tendencies
of the mind, towards appearances and has succeeded in turning away completely
from the desire for names and forms and attachment to objects and experiences,
when one has learned the techniques of withdrawing the mind from the
outer appearances, and when one has cultivated and created within a
state of quiescence, balance and equipoise. In that condition of being
firmly grounded in virtue, that condition of perfect sense-control and
self-restraint, in that condition of conquest of desires and the mastery
of one’s passions, in that condition of enlightenment, in that
condition of inner stability and equipoise, one begins to gather oneself
and move towards the concept or idea of what you feel of the Reality
as opposed to appearances. This—the ingathering of the totality
of your being and the centralising of this ingathered power in one specific
self-chosen direction—is the object of your meditation, and the
keeping up of a continued and unbroken movement of the ingathered totality
in that particular direction, of your entire being. Thus ingathered
and directed, when continued unbroken movement succeeds, you are in
a state of meditation.
So it is the successful movement, continuously, in a self-chosen direction
of the totality of your being, ingathered in a unity—a unified
whole—that is called meditation. All other things are individual
private notions of meditation. All other things are only what you think
to be meditation. They are not meditations. Meditation requires the
being perfectly grounded in virtue. Virtue means certain spiritual qualities
which are absolutely indispensable prerequisites for the interior life
of meditation, without which meditation is impossible. There are certain
spiritual qualities, which are the building blocks for the structure,
which ultimately attain the pinnacle of meditation. Meditation is, as
it were, the point of the pyramid, and that point of the pyramid cannot
be created in air. It is created from the broad base on hard earth.
The structure goes on and on and then you attain that point where there
is that one stone—that is meditation. And, therefore, it is a process
which is grounded in virtue. Virtue means spiritual qualities and why
those spiritual qualities are insisted upon is very simple to understand.
Because they are the qualities which keep out of your nature forces
that are the direct antithesis of the Divine experience—factors
which are direct contradictions of the spiritual experience. As long
as they are there, it is not possible to rise in spiritual experience.
You cannot be wet and dry at the same moment. And in order to put out
those factors there is only one way. That is, you have to create a strong
positive movement within yourself and then they are no more. They cannot
remain, because they are merely the negations of certain positive forces.
They have no separate or independent identity by themselves. So to overcome
them, certain positive factors have to be created in you. These positive
factors are called virtues for want of a better term. They are spiritual
qualities which are essential in order to keep out of your nature those
factors that are directly contradictory and the antithesis of the experience
which you are trying to attain.
Based upon that, meditation is an interior process. The senses always
have as their main task the keeping of your entire psyche in an exteriorised
condition. That is the very nature of the senses, and unless you know
how to control your senses, the psyche can never be ingathered. The
ingathering of your psyche is absolutely indispensable and necessary
for meditation. So, control of senses comes as the next preliminary
condition. But if the psyche is in a constant state of efflorescence
within, then even in spite of having success in making it ingathered,
you cannot initiate this process, which requires a certain degree of
stillness. Therefore, next comes the calming of the mind, its desires,
the passions, the various ambitions, the constant attachments and the
cravings that keep the mind always in a state of flux and ferment. They
have to be overcome, and this does not come in a day. This is a process
that takes time. This process of attaining a certain extent of absolute
quiescence of this mind takes many years. Even if it takes years, it
is worthwhile. Spiritual life cannot be in the presence of impatience.
It cannot be done in the presence of haste. The eagerness must be there,
tremendous eagerness—tremendous enthusiasm—, and at the same
time it should be accompanied by patience. So, this state of quiescence
can come about only if you are able to cast out of your mind miscellaneous
desires, attachments, overwhelming ambitions, plans and schemes and
what not. All these things have to give place to a unified aspiration.
The mind wants only one thing. In that it should not want anything else.
Total elimination of wants is impossible. Hunger, the desire for food
and drink, desire for clothing and other desires by their very immediacy
in your life are so very demanding and you cannot get rid of them. A
father will have plans for his child, but all miscellaneous desires
have to be completely out along with all ambitions and planning, and
there should be unified aspiration, meaning that, by and large, the
maximum predominant emphasis in your mind will be upon that ultimate
goal. The mind is relatively unified, even though there may be in its
periphery some of these unavoidable desires of the immediate life you
are living. Mainly, it will be unified, and when it is thus unified,
all dispersal will go. There will be no other ambitions, no other desires,
no other attachments, no other passions and cravings. The mind will
be totally in a state of ingatheredness and unity. We call it in Sanskrit
Ekagrata.
Ekagrata means attainment of a state of one-pointedness. This mind
alone, which has now been rendered subtle by giving up gross sensual
experience, by totally eliminating the gross sensual desires, and by
renunciation, attains a state of purity. See, mind is also matter. It
is very subtle matter compared to physical matter. Compared to the Spirit
it is also matter. When it is filled with earthly tendencies, passions
and greeds, it is full of Tamas and Rajas, i.e., it is very close to
the presence of the quality of inertia and becomes still more gross
due to the presence of the quality of restlessness, selfish desires
and activities. When these have been transcended and to a certain extent
mastered, then mind attains a state of purity and subtleness. Both these
are interchangeable. And in that state of subtle purity, mind assumes
an upward direction. Until this state of subtle purity comes into the
mind, mind cannot assume an upward direction. It is always horizontal
in its dynamics.
It assumes a state of upward direction only when it attains a state
of subtlety and purity. Such a mind, rendered pure, rendered subtle
by absolute purity and virtue, sense-control and elimination of desires
and passions, only becomes the instrument which can think of the Atman—the
Reality. Otherwise normal gross mind has not the state in which it can
think of the Atman—the Truth or the Reality. It only gets the capability
of thinking about the Atman when it is thus rendered subtle and pure.
That mind should be engaged in meditation. Unless you acquire that mind,
you cannot engage in meditation. Thinking that you are meditating is
only a thought in your mind.
You may be sitting straight and you may be thinking that you are meditating.
You are doing something with the mind but it is not meditation. Meditation
requires a different mind. The outgoing mind, the objectifying mind,
the mind with desires and ambitions, this mind cannot be really meditating.
Yes, it may be trying to concentrate and do some exercises and going
through valuable training, a valuable process of discipline. This is
not completely useless. It will always prepare the mind in a certain
way, but ultimately this total transformation in your interior, by bringing
the mind into that state of subtleness and purity, is absolutely necessary
to initiate the process of meditation inside, because that is the instrument.
A subtle, pure mind, completely still and calm and totally inward,—that
is the instrument for meditation. With that mind alone one can really
meditate.
Adorations to the land of the sublime Himalayas and the Holy Ganga
and the Yamuna. Salutations to our Guru Maharaj Sri Swami Sivanandaji,
who taught us to adore India, her philosophy and her religion, her lofty
culture, her ideals and her Dharma, and who showed us enduring greatness
of her wisdom wealth, and that her very soil is sacred and that her
very atmosphere is spiritual.
A land or a country or a nation is more than its mere geographical
features or its economic resources. It is more than the people who live
in the land. It is the way of life evolved by the people, who have lived
in it over the bygone centuries, that really constitutes a nation—the
idea that they have evolved and the goal for which they have as a whole
lived and toiled. The present is a product of the past and the tomorrow
is what we make of the today at hand. India today and tomorrow has to
be a fulfilment of the India of numerous yesterdays that have gone down
the corridor of many, many centuries, through countless generations.
There is a divine plan for humanity in this world. There is common
evolution of mankind. Each nation has to offer some specific contribution
towards this common evolution. The spirit of sharing and the self-offering
of one’s own wealth in the form of one’s own culture for the
common benefit of the universal weal and the universal collective progress
of mankind as a whole, is the principle upon which God’s plan unfolds.
This spirit of sharing is to be recognised more and more. This spirit
of sharing and common responsibility of all nations and of all races
towards the collective overall progress of evolution of the human race
upon earth, is referred to as the spirit of Yajna and Dana. Dana means
what you give of yourself unto others. Yajna means what you sacrifice
as part of your service unto mankind and to the world as a whole.
People of this great country—India, the land of great Gurus, the
Sikh Gurus, the land of Kabir, the land of Rama, the land of Ramakrishna
and of Swami Vivekananda—must ever be conscious of this great heritage
which they have inherited at this present day, if they have to fulfil
this principle of Yajna, the common responsibility of all nations towards
the evolution of mankind towards an ideal state of being here upon earth.
The great land of India is not so much the land that has devoted its
attention for countless centuries for the evolution of merely a materialistic
way of life, but the land that has the sense of spiritual value—the
ultimate value in terms of man as the child of God.
Blessed children of Bharatavarsha, you are here as pilgrims passing
through this earth plane. Therefore, life here is not an end by itself
but a means to a higher end. Life has been given as a great opportunity,
a golden chance to attain that higher end—the recognition of your
eternal relationship with God, the Divine Spirit. You are ever related
in your deepest and in your inmost essential nature with the Supreme
Divine Consciousness which religions call God or Bhagavan or Paramatman
or Allah. You are the children of that great Divine Principle. There
is but one world. The world is one. God is one, no matter what name
you call Him. Humanity is one and in this great family of humanity each
one of us has to lovingly recognise our oneness with the rest of mankind
through this common relationship with God who is our source, our root,
our support and our ultimate goal.
We address God: “Tvameva Mata, Tvameva Pita”—"Thou
art my Mother, Thou art my Father." Does it not mean that you are
His child? Therefore, you are essentially divine. As the Father and
the Mother, God is divine, imperishable, eternal, ever perfect, Satchidananda.
Then you, His children, are also imperishable divine spirit. This is
the essence of the culture of this great land of India. The essence
of India’s culture is a message to all her children and to all
mankind: “O man! You are essentially Divine. You are not this perishable
body. You are not this impure and restless mind. You are ever-pure and
ever-peaceful spirit. Santi is your name. Santi is your nature. You
are not this little finite intellect, sometimes reasoning clearly, sometimes
full of error and confusion, for you are the infinite ever-perfect Atman.”
This is the central message of India and life here must be lived in
this awareness. You should live to manifest your sublime higher nature,
your Spiritual Consciousness. You must live to manifest this purity,
this love, this goodness, this perfection that is already within you
as your changeless, eternal nature.
O man! You are divine but you have forgotten your essential nature.
You have been overcome by your senses and have totally mistaken your
identity which is absolutely foreign to your real nature and which wrecks
the very essence of your being. You are God yet bound in this physical
existence. You have forgotten your real glorious nature. Essentially
you are a divine ray of light, purity, bliss, wisdom, with the consciousness
of God; but you have now become a slave of your senses. All thoughts
spring from your identification with this petty personality which is
not your real Self. Therefore, wake up. Understand your real nature
and strive to rediscover yourself that you are Divine.
All Bliss and Joy lie within you. You are yourself all Bliss, all Happiness,
immeasurable Peace and all Perfection. This is your very nature. Your
innermost being—your true self—is essentially ineffable Bliss
and Peace. The recovery of this living awareness of Bliss is the great
task. It is the great purpose of life.
Manifest Divinity in your nature. You are not to manifest the body-nature
or the mind-nature. You must manifest the God-nature, the spiritual
nature. Learn the art of awakening this still, innermost, spiritual
principle within you, unfold it and develop it by conscious effort.
Realise this Divinity. Manifest this Divinity gloriously. Let your
life be a great radiation of truth, beauty, goodness, purity, the spirit
of service, the spirit of the oneness of all mankind. Recognise that,
in God, you are at one with all humanity. They are all your brethren.
They are one with you and therefore their joys and sorrows, their successes
and failures, their happiness and unhappiness, you must feel as your
own.
May you all attain this Supreme Goal in this very life. Attainment
of Perfection is the supreme ideal of man in Bharatavarsha. This is
the real India.
Sri Ganesa is known in South India specially as Siddhi Vinayaka, the
Siddhi-Data or one who gives perfection or success in all things.
Under the auspices of this Holy Vinayaka-Puja day we offer our adorations
to this great Lord who is worshipped at the beginning of all works and
all functions.
People know all about the traditional story of Lord Ganesa. We shall
here try to see if there is any special point about this deity, by a
study of which we may be able to gain something special and receive
some benefit which is above the ordinary.
Lord Ganesa has traditionally a very peculiar form and many people
have tried to interpret this Rupa (form) in their own esoteric way.
We shall not so much concern ourselves about the esoteric significance
of the form of Ganesa, but we shall try to study some of the incidents
in connection with the Deity, which are filled with very precious lessons
to us, specially of an important spiritual nature.
First of all, we must know that we owe an eternal debt of gratitude
to Lord Ganesa for a signal service He has rendered to us. This fact
is mostly forgotten by us. It is this. The greatest Dharmagrantha of
Bharatavarsha—the Mahabharata—was specially composed by Veda-Vyasa
in order to bring all the knowledge of Dharma—morality, ethics
and righteous living—to one and all. He gave this great scripture
containing everything that may possibly be necessary for man to know
about Dharma. Thus, it is a great treasure-house of all knowledge. The
Santi Parva especially contains the very mine of wisdom. It is said
that whatever worth knowing there is in all the great scriptures of
the world is contained in the Mahabharata; and what is not contained
in the Mahabharata is not contained anywhere else. It is due to the
grace of Lord Ganesa that we have got that scripture today. No one was
able to take down the outpourings of Vyasa during his inspired moments.
It was the task of Ganesa to sit and take down the dictation of Vyasa.
Though the author is Vyasa, the actual writer of Mahabharata is Sri
Ganesa, who did it as a pure labour of love in order that He may bless
us with the wealth of Dharmic wisdom.
Recognising Him thus, as the very fountain-head of the spirit of Dharma
in Bharatavarsha, let us proceed to study two wonderful incidents in
connection with Sri Ganesa, which reveal to us the very essence of the
highest Truth, the Brahma-Vidya. It is said that, together with other
adornments Lord Ganesa possesses a priceless necklace of gems. The story
behind this necklace is that one day when Lord Siva, Parvati, Ganesa
and Karttikeya were altogether, there arose a desire in the mind of
the Divine Mother to test the individual calibre and knowledge of Her
two great divine sons. Therefore, she held out the necklace she was
then wearing and said: “Here is this necklace. He who will go round
the entire universe once and reach me first—to him will I give
this necklace of gems.” Immediately, Karttikeya thought that it
was as good as His, because He knew that with His ponderous girth it
would be very difficult for Lord Ganesa to go round the universe. Karttikeya
Himself had a very fast vehicle, the Peacock, which would take Him quickly
round the universe. Immediately, He was off on the Peacock. But, Vinayaka
was not the least perturbed. He sat before His Parents for a long time.
When He thought that it would be time for Karttikeya to return, He went
round in Pradakshina (perambulation) of Siva and Parvati once and prostrated
Himself before His Mother and held out His hand. Devi Parvati at once
divined the depth of wisdom which had made Him do this. She saw at once
that His intuition was such that He beheld the entire universe as made
up of nothing else but Siva-Sakti. He beheld that they (Siva and Sakti)
were immanent in all things and within them they contained the entire
universe. Thus He got the necklace, and when Karttikeya returned after
His strenuous circumambulation, what He found was that the prize had
already been given to Ganesa. This is a small story, but it contains
within it the highest wisdom that the Upanishads give, viz., Sarvam
Khalvidam Brahma, whatever is, is none other than the Almighty Being.
It is this Almighty Being that has projected Itself as the entire universe.
So, if we adore the Almighty we adore the entire universe.
Lord Ganesa is an Akhanda Brahmachari. He has no consort. There is
also a story of deep significance behind this vow of celibacy. It is
said that once, when He was a small child, Ganesa in a mood of playfulness
beat a cat and injured it rather severely. He did not know what this
ultimately implied. Later, after the play was over, He happened to draw
near to His Divine Mother Parvati and He found marks of severe injury
upon the person of the Divine Mother. The child was shocked and queried
His Mother: “What is this? Who inflicted these injuries on you?”
The Mother replied: “Just who else, by your own hand.” For
a moment, Lord Ganesa did not understand how this was possible. He said:
“What do you mean, Mother? I have never injured you.” Then
the Mother said: “Try to recall, child, whether during the course
of this day you have inflicted injury upon any creature?” Ganesa
reflected for a while. Immediately He remembered His play with the cat.
“Yes, Mother, after all I beat a little cat; that is all.”
Then the Divine Mother smiled and said: “Can you not understand
that whatever you see, whatever names and forms there are in this universe,
it is only I who have become all these names and forms? There is nothing
else in this universe except Myself, there is nothing in the universe
but your Mother.” This is what Parvati revealed to Ganesa. This
truth entered into the innermost consciousness of this Divine Child
of Hers and He realised the truth of it and then and there He took a
vow that as long as He lived He could never take anyone as His consort
because when He knew that the entire universe of diverse names and forms
is the manifestation of His own Mother, all women became as Mother unto
Him. This is the deep significance behind the story of the celibacy
of Ganesa. This reveals to us the highest secret declared by the Vedas
and Upanishads, in all the Agamas and Sastras, viz., Sarvam Saktimayam
Jagat—whatever is in the universe is but the manifestation
of the dynamic aspect of the Supreme Almighty Self.
Thus, we have in these two incidents in the life of Lord Ganesa, the
very essence of Brahma-Vidya, the highest declaration and revelation
of the Upanishads. viz., Sarvam Brahmamayam, Sarvam Saktimayam.
The absolute identity between the visible universe and the transcendental
Supreme Being, and the fact of the immanence of the Supreme Spirit in
and through all names and forms in this created universe—the two
great truths—are powerfully revealed to us and to all seekers.
Our worship of Lord Ganesa is, as it were, a prayer unto Him to give
us also the great spiritual experience which He had through His Mother.
Therefore, let us pray to the great Lord Siddhi-Vinayaka that, like
Him, we too may receive the grace of the Divine Mother, and like Him,
to us also may be revealed the great truths that whatever is, is but
the Supreme Being and that the Supreme Being Itself has become all this.
In His own form there are some indications valuable to the seeker.
One is the serpent that He ties round His middle. They say that the
serpent is the sign of the ego. Therefore, a complete control over the
ego or Ahamkara is shown by this peculiar ornament of His.
Then we have also the incident in which He is angered at the moon and
He subdues the pride of the moon by throwing His Danta (tusk) at the
moon. This shows us the process of Yoga, viz., the absolute inhibition
or annihilation of all functions of the mind. Moon is the presiding
deity of the mind. It is that particular power that has come out of
the mind of the Cosmic Being. And the absolute subjugation of the moon
represent Mano-Nasa or Mano-Laya.
Thus, the annihilation of the separatist ego-consciousness and the
complete annihilation of the mind are the two secrets of practical Yoga
Sadhana that Sri Ganesa reveals to us through His personality.
The basis of eternal beatitude, life everlasting and the kingdom of
Heaven, the basis of God-realisation, the basis of Samadhi and Superconscious
Self-realisation, the basis of Cosmic Consciousness, the basis of Nirvana,
the basis of all this is right conduct, noble character, virtue, purity,
truth, kindness, compassion, simplicity in life, self-control, humility,
conquest of desires, moderation in all things and refraining from wasting
time, from gossiping, from miscellaneous thoughts, from useless pursuits
and from unspiritual desires. In short, it is a God-oriented life, a
life divinely lived with a character filled with divine qualities and
divine virtues. This is the eternal foundation. This can never be ignored
in spiritual life. One who wants peace and true happiness, must be good
in life, must follow the path of good, for happiness comes out of good
life, the life-pure, the life-virtuous. The life-virtuous may be hard
and unpleasant, may bring upon one great difficulties, sufferings and
much pain, but it will surely confer untold, indescribable and immeasurable
happiness.
Happiness is the power to overcome all pain, suffering, difficulties
and hardships. It is sometimes said that a man, who is seen to be good,
seems to suffer hardships, and a man who is seen not good, seems to
be very happy. This is a curious confusion of thought and failure to
perceive that which is beneath the surface. One who is good may endure
much hardship, but he will be very happy and there will be peace and
joy in his heart. He will bear hardship but will be peaceful and joyous
and sleep well. He will have no fears.
The evil-doer—the one who does not follow the good life—may
apparently have ease and comforts, but he will be restless. He will
be troubled at heart and will have no peace of mind. He will not have
real happiness. Happiness is independent of outward conditions. Troubles
and hardships can co-exist with happiness. This is certain. Comforts,
conveniences and pleasures co-exist with misery, restlessness, a great
deal of inner disturbance, much discontent and dissatisfaction.
The Supreme Law is that, happiness and peace follow in the wake of
Dharma. The eternal law of life is that joy is to him who is virtuous
and peace is to him who is good. Happiness and blessedness come to one
who is virtuous.
Righteousness is the path to supreme blessedness, supreme joy and supreme
peace. This is the truth, the basis of God-realisation—the highest
happiness. Divine bliss and eternal peace, are from goodness in life
and the path of virtue. The way of Divine Life, which leads to the progress
of inner spiritual unfoldment, is the way of selflessness and service,
devotion and worship, withdrawal of the mind from externals, concentration
and meditation. It is the way of ceaseless inquiry—"Who am
I?" and “What am I?”. It is the way of affirming: “I
am not this body, I am not this mind, I am not this intellect, I am
that innermost Being, the Supreme Self, the Atman, nameless, formless,
unborn, undecaying, deathless, Imperishable, eternal One. I am That.
That I am,—Sat-Chid-Ananda am I.”
So, based upon a life of truth, purity and goodness, simplicity and
humility, good conduct and character, self-restraint and freedom from
desires, the life spiritual, having God as the sole goal in the midst
of all activities and duties dutifully done, ever keeping in mind the
great goal, remembering God constantly with love and faith, seeing His
presence in all things and doing all things in a spirit of worship,
progress through selflessness and service, devotion and worship, concentration
and meditation and ceaseless Atmic enquiry, attain the supreme blessed
state of God-consciousness, of Divine experience and Self-realisation.
That state will bestow upon you the experience, the consciousness:
“I am the Supreme, I am the Sat-Chit-Ananda Atman, I am Existence-Consciousness-Bliss-Absolute,
I have no old age, I have no death, I have no restlessness or motion,
I have no fears, I have no sorrows, I am the Immortal One, I am bliss,
I am the peace. That I am in all conditions, whether I am young or old,
male or female, man or woman, weak or strong, tall or short, rich or
poor. It does not matter what condition the body is in, and what condition
the mind is in—depressed or elated. I can neither be depressed
nor elated, for I am the same, I am the One Sat-Chit-Ananda. In all
conditions, therefore, I am Consciousness-Bliss-Absolute. Whether the
body is well or ill, comfortable or uncomfortable, in whatever condition
it is, and whether the mind is satisfied or dissatisfied, whether it
is in an expanded or a contracted condition, I am the Reality in all
conditions, in all places, in times, and under all circumstances. Even
If I am clad in rags, even if I am in the role of unemployment, even
if some disease has affected me, even if society has spurned me, even
if my family has cast me out, and am friendless and have no one to look
after me, yet I am Sat-Chit-Ananda—Existence-Consciousness-Bliss-Absolute.
These outer circumstances cannot touch and tarnish the shining Reality
of my true Self, my essential Being.”
That experience, which triumphs over all things, is the supreme, ultimate,
victorious experience, attaining which one is filled with joy “Anandoham,
Anandoham. Brahma Anandoham—I am bliss, I am bliss, I am Supreme
bliss”—one exclaims. Attaining this, one is victorious over
all circumstances, all situations, all dualities and triumphs over everything.
What is that wonderful experience? Master Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj
was very fond of a certain song which he called “The Divine Injection.”
Even a single utterance of this song of Divine Injection immediately
raises you from the gross physical level to the radiant consciousness
of your true nature. It brings back to you remembrance of your ‘birthright’
and inspires you to claim that birthright here and now. That Divine
Injection is the song of your real nature. People used to call it “The
Song of Chidananda”, and urge Gurudev to sing it on all special
occasions when he stood before an audience. He sang it all over India
in 1950 during his all-India tour.
The Song of Chidananda, many of you know. Chidananda is not my name.
It is your real name; my real name also. ‘Chit’ means Consciousness,
and ‘Ananda’ means Bliss. In the Sanskrit language, when the
word ‘Chit’ joins with the word ‘Ananda’ the ‘t’
in Chit becomes ‘d’, and the combined word becomes ‘Chidananda’,
and it means Consciousness-Bliss. You must be able to experience this
and exclaim “I am Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute, without death and old
age, without fear and worry, without bondage, ever-perfect, I am Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute.”
Do not think you have already risen to that experience, but always be
aware that this is the goal and it is there in seed form. It is there
in a latent or dormant form slumbering, as it were. Therefore, Awake!
Come! Arise! and move towards this great experience. Do all that is
necessary to unfold the flower that is within. Let the bud that is closed
blossom to make the seed spin up into life and rise up into the tree
of Divine experience. You must work for it.
This realisation is already within you. It is there. It is like a locked
box in which there is a priceless diamond of unparalleled beauty and
the key is not to be found. You have to open the box to possess the
diamond. Even so, this eternal Perfection is dormant within you. You
are That already. Even as I talk and you listen, you are Existence-Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute.
You are the ever-perfect Atman. You are Sat-Chit-Ananda Consciousness.
That is your true consciousness. The consciousness you feel such as:
“My knee is paining, I have sat for so long, my back is aching,
etc.,” is physical consciousness or body-consciousness.
We have to face facts. We cannot put the cart before the horse. We
cannot avoid issues that have to be dealt with. So Sadhana is indispensable.
Self-realisation comes through Sadhana. What is Sadhana? Sadhana means
right living—living a God-oriented life, living a life where you
start manifesting and expressing That which you are. You are ever-pure
and spotless. Well, express that ever-pure, spotless nature in your
thoughts, words, in the pattern of your desire and inner motives in
your daily life. Practise that, live that, radiate that—that is
Sadhana. You are the Truth, the supreme Reality. Express this Truth.
Root out falsehood from your heart. Become an embodiment of Truth. Be
what you are. Let not your life be a contradiction of what you are.
This is the essential Sadhana. It is the direct path to live a divine
life, to be divine in thought, word and deed.
“Truth is my God” declared Mahatma Gandhi. God is Truth.
Truth is God. He was a great man—a great and heroic figure in the
Pages of Indian history. He gained Darsana of Divinity through Truth.
That is Sadhana. You can also gain it. Attain this great realisation
through a God-oriented life—a life filled with the spiritual quality
in every thing that you do and in every innermost thought. Step by step,
brick by brick, a great structure, an edifice is raised. Spiritual exertion
is joy. The mere living of a life towards the great attainment itself
is glorious. What can you hold as more worthy than the expression of
Divinity? Do not make your life a poor and despicable contradiction
of your true nature. If you go on contradicting your true nature at
every step, who can save you? Who can give you liberation? You are barring
yourself by your own acts and by your own life. You are for ever robbing
yourself of true happiness, true joy, true bliss and peace by contradicting
your own divine nature in your life.
The supreme Sadhana is a life lived divinely where every act, thought
and word is permeated with the divine quality. Through a divinely lived
life, expressing your innermost divinity in all aspects of your life,
attain this divine experience and rejoice. Declare thus with supreme
joy: “Chidananda, Chidananda, Om, I am Existence, Consciousness,
Bliss, in all conditions, I am Bliss-Absolute, Existence-Absolute.”
Strive for this and claim your birthright. No effort is too much. With
joy and hope, patiently work towards this goal. Even when you are working,
do not leave this inner consciousness, and awareness. Assert it at every
moment in all things. Be victorious over circumstances. Be the conqueror
of your mind, the subduer of your desires, and a master of your destiny.
Again I say, you must work for it. You must climb up if you want to
reach the peak, and when once you are on the pinnacle, all labour seems
as mere child’s play. Until then, you must be able to laboriously
climb up, step by step. Hold on to the Awareness and feel that you are
already on the peak, but don’t stop climbing. Climb up and up,
step by step. This is the secret of Sadhana.
May God bless you! May His Grace shower upon you in abundance. May
the spiritual benedictions of the Holy Master Sri Swami Sivanandaji
Maharaj ever follow you all the days of your life and enable you to
successfully live this Divine Life and shine with virtue. May you develop
noble character and walk the path of the good and the pure, the path
of Truth, purity and goodness, and move towards that glorious goal which
awaits you. This is your birthright, which you can claim and experience
in this very body. Do not postpone it. Be up and doing. The prayers
of this servant, will always be with you, that you may arise victorious,
and attain full success in this life. May you abound with the glow of
God-consciousness.
Puranas are sacred scriptures through which the wise seers of ancient
times have tried to give us the precious treasures of wisdom, inspiration
and guidance. They are holy books into which great sages have packed
in deep facts about human life and the secret of success herein and
hereafter. Thus these Puranas, the holy repositories of abundance of
spiritual knowledge, the sacred treasure-house of vast wealth of vital
wisdom of life, have ever exerted a profound influence upon the progress
and development of the glorious culture and civilisation of India. The
Puranas are the framework into which have been filled the knowledge
of the ways and means of conquering man’s lower nature, achieving
integral perfection and attaining the glorious goal of a sublime Divine
Consciousness. All these they have done through the medium of didactic
stories, narratives of deep esoteric significance and symbolism and
rich allegory. Knowing well that basically a Hindu is religious in temperament
and essentially a being of faith, these sages wove the fabric of such
allegory and symbolic narrative around some popular, powerful and permanent
aspect of Divinity or a great and renowned Rishi. This Divine personality
usually forms the central figure of each particular Purana. You have
therefore the Siva Purana, the Vishnu Purana, the Skanda Purana, the
Varaha Purana, the Matsya Purana, the Markandeya Purana, the Narada
Purana, etc. An important portion of the Markandeya Purana consists
of the renowned Devi Mahatmya which glorifies Divinity in its aspect
of Sakti or Devi. It is comprised of 700 verses and hence it is also
known as Devi Saptasati. And here you have a brief summary containing
the very essence of this great scripture of Devi Mahatmya.
Suratha, a king of the solar race, has been defeated by his enemies
and forced to flee his capital. He is wandering in exile in a forest.
Here he meets a Vaisya (merchant) named Samadhi who is in a similar
predicament, having lost everything reduced to penury and abandoned
by his own wife and children. Both the king and the merchant are dejected
and their thoughts are constantly going back to their family, possessions
and property, due to attachment. They fall into conversation and are
puzzled as to why their thoughts are again and again dragged towards
and centred upon those very persons, things and places whence so much
sorrow and pain have come upon them. To solve this vexing problem they
approach a sage dwelling in that forest. In answer to their query, the
sage tells them that their minds behave in this manner due to the mysterious
power of Divine Sakti, Maha Maya. The king and the merchant,—Suratha
and Samadhi—are eager to know more about this Divine Sakti, Maha
Maya and Her Lilas and glory; and in answer, the sage narrates Devi
Mahatmya; and the narrative unfolds thus:
Before the dawn of creation, at the commencement of the Kalpa when
Lord Maha Vishnu is reposing upon the bosom of the vast undifferentiated
ocean, two terrible Asuras,—Madhu and Kaitabha,—arise out
of His Cosmic Being. They are terrible. They are dangerous and having
perceived Brahma they set upon him to destroy him. Threatened by these
powerful Asuras and menaced by their malevolent motive, in great fear
Brahma invokes the supreme, indescribable Divine Power, the Primordial
Power, Para Sakti or Adi Sakti and implores Her merciful intervention.
The Divine Mother appears and awakens Lord Narayana from His Cosmic
slumber. The Lord engages Madhu and Kaitabha, the two Asuras, in battle
and destroys them both. Thus ends the first phase of the narrative.
All the gods and the celestials hail the Mother with cries of victory.
Mahishasura, a powerful demon, has overcome all the Devas and has subjugated
them. He is terrorising the three worlds. He is enraged to hear the
Devas crying victory unto the Mother. He thinks that he alone is supreme.
He is arrogant in the extreme. He will tolerate no other being to question
his power. Therefore, he decides to make war upon the Divine Sakti whom
the Devas are hailing. He confronts the Mother with drawn weapons. There
ensues a terrible fight. Bitter is the struggle. Asura fights from all
the elements. He takes fearful forms. But darkness cannot stand before
light. The Divine Power is the Supreme Power. Truth always triumphs.
Victory is to the Supreme Reality. Devi slays the Asura. The Divine
overcomes the undivine. Thus ends the second Phase.
The Divine Mother whose glory shines and dazzles in the three worlds
is seated in the Himalayan region in the form of Saila Putri. At this
time Sumbha and Nisumbha, two powerful Asuras, hold absolute sway over
all the worlds. They have subjugated all the Devas, Yakshas, Gandharvas,
Kinnaras and the like. They have rested and got into their possession
all the best of things like the celestial Airavata, Uchchaisravas, Kamadhenu,
Kalpavriksha and the Chintamani. They are intoxicated with the pride
of their prowess and their conquests. Their desire is insatiable. They
want to possess more and ever more. Two Dutas from the Durbar of the
powerful Asura brothers behold the Divine Mother and decide that She
should come into the possession of their royal masters. They inform
the Asura Sumbha of their find. Sumbha sends at once a royal messenger
to bring Devi to his court. Devi says She can come only to one who conquers
Her in combat. She refuses to go with the messenger. The messenger conveys
the news to Sumbha. He blazes with anger and sends Dhumralochana. Dhumralochana
tries to lay his hands upon Divine Sakti. Devi with a single Humkar
of anger reduces him to ashes. He is consumed in the flames of Devi’s
wrath. Next the Asura, Raktabija, comes to fight. He is an Asura of
extraordinary magical powers. Moreover he is in possession of a boon
by which whenever a drop of his blood falls on the earth immediately
a new Asura springs upon therefrom. So every time the Devi wounds him
and spills the blood, countless powerful Asuras spring anew and fill
the field of battle. Devi invokes Kali, the terrible dark-hued deity.
All-powerful Kali slays the Asura Raktabija, sucking in with Her terrible
outspread tongue the Asura’s blood more quickly than it can flow
out of his wounds. Kali sees that his blood never reaches the earth.
Thus, the Asura Raktabija is destroyed by the Devi. Sumbha and Nisumbha
now confront the Devi. A great battle ensues. Nisumbha is killed and
ultimately Devi with Her trident deals the death blow to Sumbha also.
The undivine forces are thus totally annihilated. The Divine rules supreme.
Vidya has overcome Avidya. Light has conquered darkness. Knowledge shines
with the destruction of ignorance. Joy, bliss and immortality reign
supreme. The Divine Mother shines in glorious triumph. All hail to Maha
Sakti. Glory be to the Mother.
You must cultivate the flowers of Divine virtues in the garden of your
heart. It is from virtue that one rises to holiness, from holiness to
godliness and from godliness to God-experience. From impurity one rises
to purity, from purity to sanctity and from sanctity into sublime spiritual
experience.
The great Sankaracharya, who established the pure monistic philosophy—Kevala
Advaita—in India, in describing the ascent of the individual soul
into the experience of the Absolute said that in this practical path
of Sadhana, three barriers have to be overcome. We are in a state of
grossness because our consciousness is bound up in this form in which
we dwell, the body which we are occupying, residing in. This embodied
state has brought about the state of grossness. Why? Because due to
an inexplicable, mysterious factor, we who reside in this body-house
have become totally identified with it in our consciousness and this
identification has made us feel that we are, ourselves, this body and
this body is ourselves.
No matter how much we may mouth the words: “I am not this body”,
yet the very next instant after so saying, our actual life and behaviour
betray simply “I am this body.” So, in effect, we demonstrate
body-consciousness though in words we may affirm or assert the contrary.
Experiment with this for yourself. Observe yourself and you will see
that even though your tongue may assert, your mind may think and your
intellect may reason and convince itself: “I am not this body,
I am the Atman”, actually the intellect may be engaged in a process
of discrimination. You may feel you have almost risen into a state of
Atmic consciousness, while it is so engaged. But at that moment if someone
suddenly comes and says: “You fool! you are wasting your time in
a sitting there; why don’t you go and work?”, then your temper
will immediately flare up and you will be in a state of anger. Vedanta
will vanish and the intellect will suddenly abandon itself to the anger
that has arisen instinctively in the mind due to long force of habit.
When this man looks at you and fixes his gaze upon your body and calls
you a fool, you will immediately conclude he is calling you a fool.
He addresses a name and a form, pointing to the body and says: “So-and-so,
you are a fool!” And So and so, the Immortal Atman, Satchidananda,
beyond mind and body and beyond all the pairs of opposites, immediately
gets up and prepares to fight. Your mind is in turmoil. It is agitated
and is thinking: “How can I repay this fellow?” Anger flares
up and the mind is thrown into agitation and you want to go and punch
the man in the nose. You have completely forgotten: “I am the peaceful
and ever blissful Satchidananda Atman, beyond body, mind, intellect,
name and form; I am all-full, complete, one without a second; so who
can call me anything; there is no second other than me; there is only
Satchidananda—Bliss, Bliss, Bliss I am.”
Now, this sudden wave of anger which changes our beauty into ugliness,
non-violence into violence, the truth of your higher nature into the
falsity of your lower nature and contradicts all the three fundamental
values of Divine Life,—truth, purity and compassion,—and transforms
you from Satchidananda Atman into something totally different, is impurity
(Mala). It is an essential impurity. Anger, greed, passion, selfishness,
arrogance, delusion, deluded attachment to the body, name and form,
its passions, envy and jealousy, all of these constitute the impurities
of human nature and every now and then they spring up in and overpower
the mind. They fill the mind and your Satchidananda consciousness is
obscured. It is forgotten, and pettiness, dishonesty, intolerance, pride
and the thought of “how dare one address me like this?”, come
into the mind.
These are all called impurities and are the basic blemishes of the
human personality. They have to be eliminated if you are to rise into
a higher state of consciousness. These blemishes constantly plague the
human individual and so long as these are fully active in our nature,
how can the ever-pure Atman manifest Itself in our consciousness?
So Sankaracharya said that one barrier is the impurities of such vicious
qualities which are the total negation of the Atman, the Divine Principle.
These impurities constantly put the mind into a state of agitation and
activity. They never allow the mind to be calm and serene. As long as
these gross impurities draw the mind outward to unspiritual action every
moment, how can the mind be inward-drawn, calm, serene, one-pointed
and concentrated? How can you meditate? How can you sustain one unbroken
current of thought of the Supreme Reality?
Due to impurities, mind is filled with lower qualities like Rajas and
Tamas and it is always in a state of restlessness, outgoing movement
and agitation. This is the second barrier, called ‘Vikshepa’.
This has to be overcome.
Still deeper in your mind is the third factor. You totally and completely
forgot about the essential Divine nature and you were only an angry
person wanting to retaliate. The thing which makes you totally forget
the Reality of your Higher Divine nature and comes as an impenetrable
veil, which is drawn between the Atmic Consciousness and your body-bound,
mind-bound consciousness, the consciousness that is identified with
the wave of anger, causes you not only to be identified with the name
and form but also with the mind and its modes. It is this mysterious
veil which holds you in a state of ignorance of the higher nature. It
is there all the time in the very depths of your being and is called
Avarana. It is a veil over the inner depths of your consciousness.
These three,—Mala, Vikshepa and Avarana—have to be overcome.
The lower impurities or blemishes of the human nature, the imperfections
are Mala. The constant restless nature of the mind, its constant agitation
and activity is known as Vikshepa which prevents the mind from being
one-pointed and introverted. Avarana is essentially non-awareness or
non-perception in the form of nescience, basic ignorance, spiritual
ignorance, the veil which hides you. This veil is made up of the identification
of the body-mind-consciousness. The veil of ignorance is present inside
the mind in the form of this identification of the body and mind. All
the three in their gross and subtle forms have to be overcome.
Now, grossness is the identification with the body. Inside this is
Tamas and inside Tamas is Rajas and the innermost veil is Sattva. Why
do you call it Sattva? Because it is awareness? There is knowledge.
So there is not total non-awareness or lack of knowledge as in deep
sleep where you do not know anything. Here you know. There is awareness,
but only the awareness of “I am Mr. so-and-so. I have just been
insulted.” You know something but the only thing is that you know
it totally wrong, you have it all wrong. There is Jnana but it is called
Ajnana as it is topsy-turvy knowledge, knowledge inverted. It is really
feeling yourself to be something which you are not. So, there is awareness
and knowledge but characterised by ignorance. Because it is a state
of awareness and it is a state of knowledge, it is the outcome of Sattva.
Sattva is the principle that supports this awareness. All awareness
is Sattva. This awareness is characterised by ignorance, and therefore
it is called Ajnana. This should be replaced by the knowledge of the
Reality.
So, Tamas, Rajas and Sattva,—impurities, restless tendencies and
the veil of non-perception or forgetfulness of your true nature,—these
barriers have to be gradually overcome, stage by stage in a methodical
manner. And then suddenly you see, there will dawn the light, the illumination
of Atmic Knowledge, transcending these three barriers. You will come
face to face with your true nature, and you will have transcendental
experience.
The removal of the basic impurity or blemish can be done only by overcoming
them by their opposites. What do you do when you want to remove darkness?
You do not bring mops or brooms or sacks to collect it. You would not
do anything of that kind. If the darkness has to go the positive opposite
quality,—light—should be brought in. The moment the positive
opposite quality comes in, the negative quality vanishes, because the
negative quality has no basis. A negative quality is not an independent
entity by itself. Mark this very, very carefully. Negative qualities
do not exist as independent entities. They have really no force. They
only imply the absence of some positive quality. He is a great liar
means he is a man who has no truth in him. There are no such things
as lies and falsehood but there is absence of truth in this person and
so he is called a liar. He says: “All right, I will try to become
truthful” and the moment truth comes, the fact that he is a liar
is no longer valid.
Hatred is not a positive quality. There is no such thing as hatred,
some dark thing wanting to jump upon you. It means that there is no
love, no kindness. So it only indicates a condition of the absence of
love. And for one who cultivates love and compassion, there is no more
hatred. The moment love comes in, hatred vanishes because the positive
is real and the negative is not real. When the positive quality is cultivated,
the negative quality ceases to be.
In the same way, our Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj said that
the cultivation of divine virtues is the method of overcoming the absence
of these virtues in the form of a very nasty impure nature. A nasty
impure nature only indicates that certain qualities that are desirable
and necessary have not yet been cultivated. They are absent. The moment
they appear, the person will become transformed. He will not be what
he now is, because he only lacks certain necessary qualities. He does
not possess any other positive quality. The required positive qualities
are just not there. There is empty space, as it were, in our moral fabric,
which has to be filled and the moment the right quality comes in, everything
becomes full.
Our Master, in his own inimitable way, has said that every day you
should practise the ‘18 Ities’ and then you will attain Immortality.
You will behold unity in diversity. He has said:
Serenity, regularity,
absence of vanity,
Sincerity, simplicity, veracity,
Equanimity, fixity, non-irritability,
Adaptability, humility, tenacity,
Integrity,
nobility, magnanimity,
Charity, generosity, purity,
Practise daily these 18 ities,
You will soon attain Immortality.
You will abide
in infinity and eternity,
Brahman is the only real entity,
Mr. So-and-so is a false non-entity,
You cannot attain this in the university.
And do your duty and Do It Now, D.I.N., and not K.I.V.—don’t
keep it in view. If you always keep it in view, when will you do it?
Heaven only knows! You will never do it.
So remember, cultivating virtues is a fundamental part of Self-Culture
leading to spiritual culture and Divine experience. This is the laying
of the foundation, as it were. If you want to cultivate a garden from
a wild piece of land which you have purchased, you do not go sowing
seeds right from the very beginning. You know what Jesus has said in
the Bible. If you simply sow seeds in the midst of thorns and brambles
what will happen is that when the seeds begin to sprout and grow they
will all be chocked and killed because the ground has not been the proper
one. So you must first prepare the ground. The first thing you will
have to do is to root out all the weeds, the brambles, the undergrowth
and unnecessary things. You will have to remove all stones and pebbles
and purify the soil. So this removal of these which are not wanted,
these which are contrary to the condition which you want, is an essential
part of the preparation. You must work at getting rid of the trash,
eliminating all that is undivine, unspiritual, the brute and bestial
nature, such as greed, hatred, anger, jealousy, selfishness, arrogance,
haughtiness and attachment. All these things must be removed and then
you are to plant the flowers of these eighteen virtues in the garden
of your heart. Then alone will you rise unto a state of godliness. ‘Cleanliness
is next to godliness’—this is said with more than one meaning.
One should have great deal of zeal in cultivating divine virtues.
In the sixteenth chapter of the Gita you will find these truths delineated
in a wonderfully inspiring manner. If you want to realise, “I am
not this body, I am not this mind, Immortal Self am I”, you must
practise virtue. You must cleanse yourself of the basic impurity of
the gross human nature. It is there. It is all a part and parcel of
our nature, it is not really existing, but appears to exist only due
to the absence of the good qualities. Cultivate the flowers of virtue
in the garden of your heart. Through cultivation of virtues, the removal
of the oscillating, tossing, restless nature of the mind is achieved.
Through prayer and other interior process the veil of ignorance is torn
aside. Through deep meditation and philosophical inquiry, discrimination,
Self-analysis, ceaseless inner philosophical speculation, you attain
to the state of Reality—Consciousness. Then what is your experience?
How do you feel? What will you say? How can you describe that grand
experience of Spiritual Consciousness or Divine Consciousness, I am
Satchidananda!
Supreme value of student period is incalculable and indescribable.
Student life is the most precious life. Youth is the best time. The
way in which you utilise this period will decide the nature of coming
years that lie ahead of you. Your happiness, your success, your honour
and your good name all depend upon the way in which you live now, in
this present period. In this present period, my dear student, you are
preparing your future. Remember this. This wonderful period of the first
stage of your life is related to you as the soft wet clay in the hands
of the potter. Skilfully the potter gives it the right and correct shapes
and forms which he intends to give. Even so, you can wisely mould your
life, your character, your physical health and strength, in short your
entire nature in any way in which you make up your mind to do. And you
must do this now.
O fortunate youth, recognise this great duty. Feel this wonderful privilege.
Take up this adventure. God watches you graciously, ever ready to help
and guide. I wish you to be great. The world has put its faith in you.
Your elders keep their hope upon you. Now youth means to place your
firm confidence in yourself and exercise your hopeful determination
and resolution and willing good intentions in this beautiful task of
self-culture. This will truly bring supreme satisfaction and fulfilment
not only to you, but to all concerned. The shaping of your life is indeed
in your own hands.
Practise virtue. Persevere in virtue. Become established in virtue.
Shine as an embodiment of noblest virtue and heroic adherence to goodness.
Youth is meant for this grand process. Student life is the active development
and fulfilment of these processes. This period of your time provides
the suitable and favourable fields for the working out of this extremely
important and most indispensable process in life. This is the special
significance, the great importance and supreme value of student life.
It signifies the creation of noble personality. It is Atma-Vikasa. It
is Atma-Nirmana. Please try to understand the correct implication of
the term ‘successful life’. When you talk of success with
reference to life, it does not merely mean succeeding in everything
that you undertake or do; it does not merely mean succeeding in fulfilling
all wants or getting whatever you desire; it does not just mean acquiring
a name or attaining a position or imitating fashionable ways and appearing
modern or up-to-date. The essence of true success is what you make of
yourself. It is the conduct of life that you develop, it is the character
that you cultivate and it is the type of person you become. This is
the central meaning of successful living. Therefore, you will see this
important matter is not so much a question of success in life (Jivan-me-Safalata)
but rather it is success of life. Such successful life is one that succeeds
in producing an ideal individual, a noble man. Your success is not measured
in terms of what all you obtained but in terms of what you become, how
you live and what actions you do. Upon this point reflect well and attain
great happiness.
In our grand culture they conceived of life in four stages—preliminary
stage, development stage, flowering or blossoming stage and the culminating
fruitful stage. These can be described as the preparatory period, the
practising period, the progressing or sharing period and the completing
or reaping period. The satisfactory growth of the latter three stages
truly depends upon the management of the first stage. Yours is this
stage of preliminary preparations for right and successful living. Herein
is its supreme value and great importance. This is like the ploughing
and sowing of seeds in the field by a farmer. Now, you can easily understand
what is the significance and importance of this in connection with the
harvest which anyone would wish to reap later on. And also, it is like
the laying of the foundation for an important building you wish to construct.
If this building is something very important to you, then you just think
how much more important its proper foundation becomes in your view.
The strong and continued existence of the building depends certainly
upon the foundation. This is the stage you are now in. Let your preparations
be wise, correct and of such kind that will lead to your true welfare,
supreme good and lasting satisfaction and happiness. This must engage
your active, enthusiastic attention throughout the period of your student
life. Our culture refers to this stage as the Brahmacharya Ashram or
Vidyarthi Jivan. Here, you acquire knowledge of not only subjects like
History, Geography, Mathematics, etc., but also about human nature,
correct Vyavahara, science of self-control, art of developing pure mind,
Dharma, the duties of man and the proper relationship between you, the
world and God. I shall mention briefly about the second, third and fourth
stages and then take up the important question of how you can manage
your present vital stage in a most beneficial way or method.
The Second stage which you know by the name of Grihasthasrama is really
a stage when the individual man starts to put into vigorous practice
all the knowledge of Dharma—right Vyavahara, proper duties, virtues,
conduct and proper fulfilment of his relationship to God and man. It
is in this stage that the nature of his preliminary preparation becomes
tests and trials under different circumstances and various kinds of
temptations, problems and changing situations. If the earlier preparation
of student stage has been thorough, then the Grihasthashrami manages
to stick to his ideals and overcome all temptations, obstacles and difficulties,
tests and trials of this stage and prove his real inner worth and develop
his spiritual strength and bring added maturity to his personality.
Such a man of inner strength, Dharma and ideal behaviour becomes a blessing
to society, an honour to his family and an inspiring example to others
around him. His life creates enthusiasm for goodness, purity and virtue.
In the third stage called Vanaprasthashrama, he progresses further
and begins to share his knowledge, his experiences, and his developed
talents for the welfare of the rest of the society. He becomes a guide
to the younger people, an encouraging adviser to Grihasthas and a selfless
Sevak of all. This is the meaning and ideal of the third Ashrama. As
a result of a careful preparation of the first stage, earnest practical
living in the second stage and selfless sharing in the third stage,
the individual finally reaches the fourth stage called Sannyasa, where
his mind is calm, steady and pure and his heart is desireless and free
from all cravings and is established in perfect self-restraint and virtue.
This ideal state is the fruit of the right living of the first three
stages. Here, the man automatically becomes absorbed in the contemplation
of God and moves towards God-experience. He reaps the harvest of rich
inner spiritual life, supreme peace and Atmic bliss. He attains that
ultimate objective for which he has taken human birth. All this becomes
possible only when the individual diligently makes himself fit for it
by right conduct and right effort in the all-important first stage of
Vidyarthi Jivan (student life).
What must you do? How must you live? What you should strive to attain?
What are the things necessary to arrange and manage student life satisfactorily?
These are vital questions that face you. Have you asked these questions
and answered them? Now please follow with keen attention.
You must form a correct conception of how you wish to develop and perfect
yourself. You must cultivate a clear idea of what you want to become.
Now this will give you a definite and clear-cut aim in life. Without
such an aim, your life cannot move forward powerfully and progressively.
You will be pulled from different directions and attention will be diverted,
mind will be distracted and much energy will be wasted. You can avoid
all these if you have a well-defined aim or a set of a few definite
objectives of similar nature. When your life has now acquired a definite
direction, it will not be pulled in other directions. There is no confusion
in your way. There is no confusion in your mind. You know what you wish
to attain. You know in which direction to proceed. Therefore, you also
understand what is right and what is wrong, what is desirable and what
is undesirable, what is to be accepted and what is to be rejected in
moving towards your aim of life. Such definiteness gives you inner strength.
It develops will-power. It makes you a positive personality. There will
be no more negative trend in your life.
The second important thing is to draw for your self a wise programme
of life to help you to develop along the desired lines and to gradually
attain the aim of life. Such a programme will provide a plan of action
in meeting with all problems that face the young student, the growing
youth, to deal with all situations that arise in his life, to meet and
overcome temptations with firm mind and to surmount obstacles with boldness
and self-confidence. The power to do all this exists within you already.
Only it is in latent unexpressed state. It has to be unfolded and activated.
A wise programme and a plan of action provide the necessary scope and
practical method for this unfoldment and active development of these
inner faculties. A proper understanding of your own mind, its behaviour
and habits and the law that governs the inner activity of the mind become
very, very helpful in living this wonderful and interesting period of
your life. Acquire this knowledge, read suitable books and get basic
knowledge of your mind and its working.
Now we come to the factors upon which depends the proper working out
of your programme of life. Health is the key factor. Without health
you can do nothing. Without health you can succeed neither in studies,
nor in character-building, nor in sports and social activities, nor
in home life. Health is a matter of careful living. It is got not only
from things you eat and drink but it is also obtained from your wise
and careful avoiding of such things that are not good for your health.
Eat for your health and strength and not for your taste. Eat to live
and to serve. Do not live to eat. Eat simple food. Go to bed early and
get up early. Acquire healthy habits. Do regular exercise daily. Be
moderate in eating and drinking. Chew your food thoroughly. Do not overeat.
Do not eat without hunger. Avoid things that do not agree with you.
Then you must conserve your energy. Never waste your energy in useless
pursuits. Too much talking and gossiping, aimless wandering, habit of
worrying, losing your temper frequently—all these drain away your
energy. They waste your nervous force. Give up all habits that are likely
to have adverse effect on health. Smoking is a curse upon students.
Use your will-power and overcome such evil habits. Have self-restraint
and controlled senses. Be established in perfect Brahmacharya. Give
up pan-chewing, smoking, snuff and similar habits. Lead a well-regulated
life of moderation. Preserve health, conserve energy, develop physical
and mental strength and thus lay the foundation of a successful life.
Value character more than anything else on the earth. Be perfectly
truthful. Do not let your speech be vulgar or rude. Speech must be clean,
polite and joy-giving. Speech is Sarasvati. If She is offended by rudeness
and vulgarity, you cannot advance in knowledge. Cast away egoism, pride
and selfishness. These three form the blemish upon human character.
They arise out of ignorance and greed. Ignorance makes you proud and
egoistic. Greed makes you selfish. They lead to dishonour and unhappiness
and failure in life. By leading a simple life and having a cheerful
disposition under all circumstances, you can overcome selfishness and
egoism. Your life and conduct must be the cause of happiness in other
people.
Adopt certain virtues and principles and stick to them in all your
activities of life. Never leave these principles. Never move away from
virtue. These principles will be your true friends and helpers. They
will assure your progress and ultimately grant you supreme happiness
and success. Periodically make certain simple resolutions to practise
those virtues. Maintain a personal diary wherein you make a careful
note of your day-to-day conduct, speech and behaviour. This will reveal
to you how far you are advancing and show you your mistakes and where
you must correct yourself. Such a diary will be your friend. It will
reveal your weakness and teach you humility. Pray to God and ask Him
for inner strength and guidance, God’s Divine Name has immense
power. Repeat His name always and remember Him under all situations.
Reflect upon the lives of ideal personalities. Draw strength and inspiration
from their lives and teachings. Try to mould your life upon their pattern.
Always have a great ideal before your mind. Think of it at all times—morning,
noon, evening and night. Develop it into constant background of your
thought. Then your mind will never be idle or vacant. This is important,
because right thinking is the key to noble living.
As you think, so you will become, just as you reap what you sow. In
the same way, you will ultimately experience and attain what you constantly
think and feel. Your inner thoughts lead to outer action. Repeated actions
grow into habits. Such habits become permanent qualities in your very
nature. This nature goes to form your character. Your future and your
destiny is the direct result of your character. Understand this very
well. Carefully bear this in your mind. Think and act with this knowledge.
Your inner thoughts are the seeds of your ultimate destiny. Safeguard
your thoughts and feelings. Think nobly, and virtuously. You will become
a noble man. You will attain greatness and make your life fruitful.
More than all the books that you read and study, more than all your
lessons and examinations, more important than everything in life is
the cultivation of virtue. Thinking of good thoughts, doing of noble
deeds and growth of grand character—all this will lead to a glorious
future. This is the source of ultimate happiness. This is the ideal
way of preparing yourself to face life as a true son of this great Punya-Bhumi,
our motherland. Live wisely and nobly. Become good and great.
Salutations and my loving greetings to you one and all seekers the
world over. I send you all my very best wishes for a happy New Year,
bright and joyful and may all the twelve months be months filled with
prosperity, progress, success and much auspiciousness, blessedness and
peace. May the grace of Guru Maharaj Swami Sivanandaji bestow upon you
peace, bliss and illumination.
Purity is the prerequisite to perfection. No spiritual progress is
possible without purity. Purity is the bedrock upon which an aspirant
builds his or her spiritual life. Purified mind alone can take one Godward.
Only a man of purity can strive in the path of Yoga steadily. Purification
brings a thorough transformation of the individual and he transcends
lower nature into Divine Nature.
The Supreme Self who is immaculate, Niranjana, pure and devoid of blemish
can be experienced only in a purified mind. He could be realised only
through one’s consciousness that is of crystalline purity, because
the Atman cannot be known through the mind or intellect as He is. He
is beyond sense-perception. He can neither be known through the mind,
nor the intellect, because knowing through the intellect and the mind
involves some processes and He is not the product of any process. He
is not the result coming out of any process, and so the perception of
the Atman cannot be had and the only instruments which we have are mind
and intellect. Intellect is part of the mind. The medium of knowing
God is in a different level and that level of our being is our own Svarupa,
Spiritual Eye, and they also call it Divine Eye. As long as our true
identity is covered with Mala (impurities), God cannot be realised.
As long as the inner eye or the eye of wisdom is not opened up, the
divine perception is not opened up, or is not activated, and therefore
we ultimately think and arrive at the great conclusion that God is not
a perceived being. God is not some one to be known; He cannot be understood,
and the Scriptures declare that He can be only experienced by the purified
mind. He is in essence to be experienced, not to be seen or known or
perceived, and for this experience they say one should attain purity
of mind by right worship. This is the only method.
Do worship to draw closer and closer to God, nearer and nearer to God.
Worship is referred to as Upasana or the process of drawing nearer to
God. So if you want to attain Perfection and draw nearer to God, do
right worship and then experience Him. In the ultimate stage, the actual
experiencing is only when you become in nature like Him. You can have
the ultimate experience through the acme of worship. Jnana and Samadhi
are the highest forms of worship. The highest worship you can offer
to God is direct communion with Him, in a state of deep absorption,
total state of absorption in meditation.
There are different types of worship, long gradations of different
types starting from the external nature, the worship through symbols,
etc. the lowest form of worship or Tamasic worship is also a part of
worship of God. Starting from the external, ceremonial and symbolic
forms of worship, you go on ascending to various grades of spiritual
worship until the highest worship within your consciousness in deep
state of absorption in meditation is attained, which is Samadhi. Meditation
is the highest form of worship and this supreme worship ultimately leads
to Samadhi.
In the state of Jnana and Samadhi, the consciousness becomes divinised,
totally spiritualised, totally diverted of all earthly elements. In
that state of pristine purity you enter into communion with God and
thus when you have experienced Him and become established in Him, in
that state, they say you actually become like Him. Going into His nature
and starting to worship Him, you ultimately attain a state absolutely
like Himself. Brahmavid Brahmaiva Bhavati—the knower of
Brahman becomes Brahman—is the ultimate declaration of the Upanishads.
All processes of Yoga in their different varieties culminate and unify
in this ultimate state of worship which is direct communion through
meditation. Actually you will find that meditation is a point where
all Yogas are unified. Though they start differently, proceed differently,
progress differently, and develop differently, ultimately they unify
themselves in the state of meditation. Meditation leads to Samadhi.
If you make a study of the spiritual history of lives of various Saints
and of the great mystics of the East and West, you will find that all
prophets like Buddha, Christ and others, have meditated and attained
Perfection. You will find that meditation is a common factor in the
spiritual practice of all spiritual seekers all over the world.
All the great scriptures point to lust, anger and greed as veritable
foes of a seeker. Anger is related to passion. Anger plays untold havoc
upon the body, nervous system, the mind and the very spiritual fabric
of the higher self. It is a Vikara of passion itself. Passion becomes
transformed into anger. These are the great obstacles to meditation.
These impurities have to be eliminated from the mind. The scriptures
tell us how to do it. One need not turn to any other quarter to find
out how to get over the enemies. These are the products of lower Gunas,
viz., Rajas and Tamas. Therefore, by making the entire life Sattvic,
by filling ourselves with Sattva, we can annihilate these enemies.
The only way to eradicate them from our nature is to adopt ourselves
a Sattvic way of living, in all aspects. One can get rid of anger and
passion by such a noble living. An aspirant should make every attempt
to free himself from the clutches of these lower Vikaras. Nothing that
is worthwhile is to be achieved without undergoing a corresponding amount
of pain and suffering. No enduring ideal can be attained without toil
and sweat. Any young seeker will have to go through similar and various
other ordeals sooner or later. He should face these trials with the
same uniform fortitude that our holy Master Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj
displayed during his Sadhana period. The path of Perfection demands
rigorous Tapas and heroic endurance at one time or other. This has been
the common experience of all such earnest souls who, fired by the ideal
of Self-realisation, turn their back upon the world of vanity and folly,
because the truth remains that the link between man and God is forged
in the furnace of trial and adversity.
A grim endurance of all vicissitudes and a dogged resolution to persevere
to the end are essential if one has to attain Perfection. On this glorious
commencement of the New Year, I pray to the Divine that He may bestow
upon you all wonderful health, all-round success in life and highest
spiritual blessedness. This is my prayer too at the feet of the holy
Master Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj.
Desire and want which arise from this prime delusion, destroy all peace
of mind. In a mind devoid of peace how can there be happiness? Happiness
depends upon peace of mind. It is in a calm tranquil state of mind alone
that happiness arises, for essentially true happiness is your inward
spiritual state. Fortunately or unfortunately the only media through
which it can be expressed are the intellect and the mind. If these two
media are thrown into such a state of agitation that they cannot serve
as proper channels for the welling up of this inner happiness, then
their condition becomes unfit and unfavourable. It is only when there
is peace and serenity in the mind and intellect that the inner happiness
makes itself felt. The robber of your peace and serenity is the sense
of want and desire which arise out of your prime error that happiness
depends upon objects. That is the error in which you start your life.
In childhood one is taught that to have a good time means going to places,
or doing things, or getting objects and so children grow up in this
delusion. The adult that is produced is at the mercy of things which
are outside of himself. The grain of proper understanding of this world,
as it really is, instilled into young people would grant a rich harvest
in terms of happiness and joy.
Try to evaluate objects as they really are. To lead a proper life here
on earth, one has to assign a limited value to objects. Certain objects
are indispensable for the maintenance of life. For that purpose and
to that end they should be utilised, but let them not assume an undue
prominence in your life. For, instead of serving as the proper sustenance,
they may become the veritable tyrants sapping life of all true contentment
and satisfaction. Your happiness may become mortgaged to these objects.
No longer of limited utility, they seem to be of utmost importance.
Therefore, they come to have a stranglehold upon you and tend to dominate
and enslave you. A proper understanding and a right evaluation of objects
as they are and for what they are worth, is of prime concern for the
human individual. “Thus far and no further”—you must
say, when they try to invade the interior kingdom of your life.
Simplicity of life is the true secret of happiness. Unhampered experience
of joy which lies within comes out of simplicity. Therefore, your life
should never be complicated with too many things. Due to too many things,
due to too many desires, modern man unfortunately has missed this. The
religious man always sings. He always dances. He is comparatively care-free
and filled with the happiness of simplicity and contentment. We envy
and even try to imitate him, at least for the time being by leaving
all distractions. It is unwillingly that modern man allows his life
to become so complicated. He knows that simplicity is the secret of
happiness. “But I can’t help it”—saying thus he
weeps. He takes tranquillisers. He goes into a saloon or a bar. He does
something—anything—to make him forget the total inadequacy
of his present condition. Man has the key to happiness in simplicity.
Have contentment. Have the capacity to derive joy out of whatever situation
you may find yourself in. Assert: “The situation has not the power
to alter my experience. My experience is alterable only to the degree
to which I allow it to be altered. If I say ‘no’, then I can
have the same peace and happiness within, no matter how the situation
changes. It can change every hour, yet I can be changeless.” So
many blessednesses will come if you have simplicity and contentment.
You will find, of all things, that you are free from debts. This nightmare
of instalments (of credit plans), that comes month after month, year
after year, will be gone. Some people do not have any freedom. They
just slave away for those various companies to which they owe instalments.
Right to the end of their lives they go on paying instalments on the
house, on the car, on the radio, on the TV, on the refrigerator, on
the washing machine, and so on; heaven knows how many gadgets have been
invented!
A simple and a contented life depends more upon God-made things than
upon man-made objects. There are hundreds of things that can fill you
with happiness if you only have the eyes to see. When you get up in
the morning, you can step out of your room and look at the dawn and
be happy. When the sun rises, still more happiness. When you hear the
birds warbling, even more happiness. When you feel the cool breeze blowing,
again happiness. Well, there is no end to happiness. Know the technique
for deriving happiness from these simple things—from the dawn,
the sunrise, the birds, the laughter of children, the beautiful blue
sky; the white clouds slowly sailing like majestic ships, little dancing
flowers. They can inspire you if you only know how to derive joy. If
you discover this secret there will be no end to your happiness.
Also learn to experience joy from the happiness of others. Instead
of envy, rather become filled with joy whenever you see others in happiness.
Feel happy by beholding the happiness of others. Train yourself to derive
happiness out of bringing happiness into the lives of others. Learn
the technique of joy by making others joyful. Your happiness will become
a thousandfold. At the present moment it is circumscribed by the experiences
undergone by yourself alone. But if you begin to get joy from all others,
then perpetually you will be happy. Everyone’s happiness will become
a part of your happiness and will go to multiply and add to it.
Try to derive joy out of the beauty of all things, not only from those
things which you possess. In this way you will develop an impersonal
capacity for happiness. Without touching a cent in your pocket you will
realise an illimitable treasury of happiness which lies strewn all around
you and everywhere about you. When we realise the things that God has
given for which we have reason to be happy, the whole day will not be
long enough for us to be thanking Him. Untold treasure He has given.
Just consider your own body, your own self. You have two sound eyes.
Supposing someone says: “All right, give me one of your eyes and
I will give you twenty thousand dollars,” which person in a sane
condition of mind would comply with such a request? Supposing you were
offered one hundred thousand dollars for your tongue; would you give
it? So that means that you have things that are worth millions and millions
of dollars! And yet there is moping and fretting for a few things which
we don’t have, not realising the untold worth of the precious things
which we already have. There are some people unfortunately deprived
of these things. If you simply reflect how much God has given, then
your whole vision of life will become changed. Know these little secrets.
They are little but they are very important. They can mean the whole
difference between darkness and light.
Learn to accept the experiences that come through life. There is no
use of fretting and fuming and making yourself miserable over them.
You, perhaps, may just add more misery to the misery which these experiences
already bring. Have calm and wise resignation. There is one Supreme
Intelligence that is guiding the lives of men here and these experiences
that come from that Source, learn to accept like human beings. Endure
the little troubles that come through life. If there is a little sorrow,
endure it and learn to take away its sting. Thus you may enrich your
life out of those very experiences which you find painful and unpleasant.
Be friendly to all. Towards your superiors, have an attitude of complaisance.
Do not be full of fear and timidity and nervousness in their presence.
That can also rob you of your joy. Be serene. With your own equals,
be friendly. Feel oneness with all. With those who are inferior to you
in status, in health, in strength, in beauty, have an attitude of kindness,
love and compassion. To those who are troublesome, wicked, unpleasant
and nasty, be indifferent. Do not work yourself up into a state of irritation
or annoyance or unfriendliness or hatred. Just ignore them. These four
attitudes will provide you with a means of not being put out of your
happiness—complacency towards superiors, friendliness and brotherhood
towards your equals, kindness and compassion towards those who are inferior
to you and a perfect indifference to all those who are inimical to you,
who are troublesome, nasty, evil or wicked. All these four categories
are bound to be present.
Above all, do not give way to anger. Anger, more than any other single
factor in this world, destroys happiness. It can totally wreck the entire
happiness of a home. If one member of the household has a temper and
gives vent to his anger, he can destroy the happiness of all members
of the home; even the neighbours may be affected.
Maintain a rational restraint over the senses. The urge towards carnal
enjoyment is the natural part of the human being, but it pertains to
the mental and physical part of your nature only. We have to recognise
this as such. However, it is the prerogative of every individual, being
endowed with a high intelligence, to hold a reign over the senses. By
that way they cannot destroy happiness. If they are allowed to hold
a sway over you, then while you are thus unrestrained, you cannot have
any happiness. This is the Law of the Universe.
Base your life upon virtue, upon truth and upon purity. If purity is
always yours guiding rule, guilt complexes and neuroses will go and
psychiatrists would be unnecessary for you. Happiness fills those who
base their lives upon virtue. Virtue is a direct emanation from the
Divine, just as happiness is the quality of the Divine. Although it
may be difficult in the beginning, yet how many headaches would you
save yourself if you would base your life upon virtue and truth! If
you tell a lie, to support it you have to tell a chain of lies. Sticking
to the truth takes away from you all anxiety and a thousand pin-pricks.
A life of truth and purity is a life devoid of many of the factors that
contribute to the misery and unhappiness of the modern world.
Even more important, keep close to the Great Inner Source of all happiness,
all joy, all bliss! Call it by whatever name you choose—I do not
want to give It a name. Make That the centre of your being. That is
the Eternal Thing that supports your life, which is your alpha and omega,
your all in all, your supporting substratum and your destination and
goal. Keep close to It by developing love. Love the Supreme. Always
remember the Supreme. Great Ones who have immersed their lives and become
absorbed forever in the supreme blessed State of happiness and bliss
have told us one great secret which provides us with an unfailing method
of attaining happiness. That secret is the Divine Name. They said: “Practise
Divine Name. The Name of the Supreme and the Supreme are not two but
they are one. If you have the Divine Name within you, you have the Supreme
within you.” This is a great spiritual truth. This is a great fact.
If you remember this fact and try to make the Divine Name your own,
if you are always repeating the Divine Name, always invoking the Divine
Name, always filling yourself constantly with the current of the Divine
Name, then happiness and blessedness will be present with you always.
Happiness, in the truest sense of the term, is that changeless experience
right within you. It is that awareness which being present enables you
to derive sweetness out of all other things, and which being absent,
deprives you of all the sweetness from anything. That is the most important
fact.
It works like the figure ‘1’ in mathematics. If ‘1’
is there, you may add to it any number of zeros and each zero progressively
increases the value of the number enormously and the zeros have tremendous
significance. If this ‘1’ is not there, all the zeros are
just ciphers without any value of their own whatsoever. Similarly, all
things gain the capacity for giving happiness only in the presence of
this One Being. Make Him the centre of your life. Make Him the most
important and paramount Thing in your life. Then you will never be taken
away from your happiness even for a single second. No one will be able
to take you away from It, for you are yourself that happiness. When
a fish is taken out of a little bowl and released into the ocean, it
swims about anywhere and always remains in the vast ocean. So, out of
the tiny bowl of deluded life where we have paid this undue attention
to external objects let us lift ourselves and enter into that vast Truth.
In God lies happiness and within me He is and He and I are One.
Within lies the perennial fount of eternal happiness. May you live
your life in this Truth. Then I assure you that your life will become
a stream of happiness. May your life thus flow forth not as a vale of
tears but as a perennial stream of infinite happiness. This is my prayer.
May God give you the strength and the inspiration to blossom out into
that simplicity and contentment, that shining and radiant virtue, that
serene state of detachment, that friendliness with all beings, out of
which this great gift that is waiting to be bestowed upon us will become
our own. May your life become radiant with joy and happiness. Supernal
Happiness—may That be yours.
We should have an intense sense of the pervasiveness of the ever-present
Lord. That ever-present Spirit, the Supreme Being, should make all our
actions spiritually fragrant. Our actions may be prosaic, secular, but
we should feel that we are moving in the ocean of Satchidananda which
pervades everywhere. Feel the presence of the Lord wherever you go for
He is everywhere. See Him in every action that you do during your daily
round of duties in the world. If we do our actions in this peaceful,
blissful awareness of His presence, then our actions become spiritualised,
and this is the supreme necessity.
One should have the right spirit or Bhava that whatever one does is
an offering and a worship to this ever-present Deity which alone is
visible to us through all names and forms. Animate and inanimate is
all the One Self. With this Bhava one should do all actions.
This Bhava is illustrated in a wonderful manner in the life of Guru
Maharaj Swami Sivanandaji. He saw the one Divine Essence in everyone
who came to him. He served the poor and the sick with this Bhava. He
saw the living Narayana in every one. For him, every one was the visible
manifestation of the Lord. He practised this Bhava until the very end
of his life.
Even when we have this Bhava, activity usually throws the mind outward
and it externalises the mind. And the Bhava can be held only if the
mind is introspective. When the mind is externalised, it at once goes
out and contacts the sense-objects and every one of them has got its
inevitable effect upon the mind. The Bhava or correct attitude is weakened
and in its trail other emotions are evoked. What is the remedy? Only
deep earnestness, genuine sincerity, patient and persevering practice
or Abhyasa.
Every time the mind gets externalised, try to keep one small portion
of the mind cling to the Centre, just as the mariner’s compass-needle
always points to the north in whatever direction the vessel is moving.
By this the undercurrent of the mind always holds the central essential
Bhava. That is to be developed by gradual practice. Then however much
the Upadhis or superimpositions may come and dash against it
and try to shake it, it will always be fixed in its central Bhava. A
stage will be reached when this Bhava will never be entirely shaken
or broken and thus the central thought of our divine attitude will not
be lost. Then our entire life becomes transformed from mere living into
real worship, Sadhana, Tapascharya and real Yoga. This is the aim of
life.
For this, a few practical pointers are there to keep up and intensify
day by day this Bhava of oneness of all life. We start our day by waking
and we end it by entering into sleep. So, the first idea to be impressed
upon the mind when we wake up fresh from a period of sleep, should be
a prayer: “O Lord, I awaken to worship Thee in all names and forms”.
The feeling that you are a Pujari (worshipper) of the cosmic form of
the Lord should be impressed upon the fresh mind when you get up from
sleep. Devise your own prayer: “O Lord, whatever actions I may
do, during the course of my waking hours of this day, by thought, by
word or by action, may it all be a continuous worship of Thee.”
With this idea in your mind commence your daily activities. If you perform
your daily activities. If you perform your daily tasks with this spirit,
then the work will not bind you any more; instead it will become a binding
factor with the Lord.
At intervals during the course of your activities, for brief moments
try to collect yourself and say: “This is all worship, whatever
I do is worship of the Lord.”
Try to behold the Lord in every being. Every now and then try to remind
yourself that this is your Bhava: Sarvam Brahmamayam. And, in
the end, when you retire to sleep, offer up all actions of the day at
the feet of the Lord. Say unto the Lord: “O Lord, I am Thine, all
is Thine, Thy will be done.” Feel that you are an instrument in
the hands of the Lord and that the Lord works through your mind, body
and senses. Offer all your actions and the fruits of the actions unto
the Lord. This is the way to do self-surrender.
Be a Nimitta. Feel that the place where you dwell is the temple
of the Lord, every action as service of the Lord, the light that you
burn as waving lights to the Lord and every word that you utter as the
Japa of the Lord’s Name. Feet His Presence wherever you go. He
is in you. He dwells in the chambers of your heart. He is nearer to
you than your friends and relatives. Behold Him in every face.
Make it a daily habit to pray to the Lord before you retire to sleep.
Say, “What all I have done through hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose,
tongue, or mind, I offer up unto the Lord as my worship.” Then
go to sleep with this idea impressed upon the unconscious mind. This
helps you in your achievement in spirituality and this is practical
spiritualisation of your life. Further, when you do certain special
actions during the day, try to see that at the beginning and at the
end of each individual distinct activity, this process is gone through.
For example, it may be done when you sit for food. You offer up every
thing to the Lord and then start eating and again before you get up
say: Brahmarpanam. When you sit to write a letter mentally pray:
“O Lord, may it be a worship of Thee,” and when you complete
it, say: Brahmarpanam. Every complete act that you perform should
thus start with a prayer and end with the offering to the Lord.
This is the simple secret and is a most effective and powerful way
of transforming all activities of the day into Puja, worship and sacrifice.
This is also what our ancient seers and saints have discovered and given
to us as our priceless heritage. We have also the beautiful Sloka in
the Gita which should be constantly remembered by aspirants: Brahmarpanam
Brahmahavih Brahmagnou Brahmana Hutam; Brahmaiva Tena Gantavyam Brahmakarma-samadhina—He
who thinks that the act of offering as Brahman, the sacrificer as Brahman,
the fire into which the sacrifice is made as Brahman and is thus fully
engrossed in Consciousness obtains Brahman Itself. This is the supreme
fruit which he attains by virtue of his having correct and pure Bhava
or right attitude of mind in all his thoughts, speech and actions.
The essence of spiritual unfoldment is the transformation of your consciousness.
The spiritual unfoldment is a matter of transformation of one’s
consciousness and this could be interpreted and expressed in the light
of different Yogas. What is this consciousness in normal human beings?
We feel, “I am Mr. So and so. I am the son of such and such parents.
I belong to this family, this caste, this household. I belong to a certain
place in America, Germany, France, India and these people belong to
me and I belong to them. This is mine and I am connected with this person,
connected with this house, connected with this field, with this motor-car,
with this bungalow, with such and such an office, etc.”
So, the consciousness is filled with numerous factors which are connected
with this universe outside and all these various relationships arise
out of the basic connection he feels in his consciousness that he is
so and so. And the immediate connections that arise are: “There
are my parents, these are my brothers and sisters, relatives and so
and so.” Then all other connections start. So, however much we
may philosophise, however much we may read books, however much these
higher spiritual things are discussed in the scriptures, yet our consciousness
is a consciousness that has to do with our physical form and similar
other external physical forms and names. So it is earth-consciousness,
body-consciousness, the world-awareness. When such world-awareness completely
dominates your consciousness, how can God-awareness come into this field?
There is no scope, and even if you close your eyes for sometimes and
try to bring it, it may come but it will immediately disappear as it
is a foreign element. A great saint used to say: “If you drop a
stone in a pond whose water is covered by moss, it will give way for
a moment and then quickly cover once again.” You can hardly see
the water, before it is again covered by moss. Just as this moss covers
the entire surface of the pond-water and makes it invisible and however
much you may drive them aside they once again come together, even so
the normal consciousness of the human being is totally covered over
with world-consciousness, physical-consciousness.
It is the normal state of all human beings, even of a Sadhaka. But
in a Sadhaka who continuously follows the process of removing this world-consciousness,
just as clearing the water-surface covered with moss, there is always
a little higher consciousness coming into his field. However, if he
stops his efforts for a few minutes, the world-consciousness creeps
in again. So, the whole of the spiritual process is a constant and unremitting
effort, persistent and tenacious effort, continuous and unbroken effort
to gradually cease this world-consciousness and to completely remove
and replace it by that spiritual consciousness. Then you are not aware
of this world, of this body and of yourself as an earthly being, but
you are aware of only that which is the source of all these, the ultimate
Reality, the very essence of existence—God. God-awareness will
come in, God-consciousness will come in, and this transformation of
consciousness is being brought about through a gradual process of absolute
purification of the entire inner instrument, because Consciousness makes
itself manifest through the mind. Of Consciousness as such we have no
idea, for we have not touched the depth of our being which is Consciousness
itself. To us It is only a concept or an idea. So we know of that Awareness
as mental awareness, and that is our definition of awareness. But this
feeling, this thinking awareness is something which is total emanation
or expression through the mind. So, first and foremost we have to work
only through the mind. Unless we work through the mind there is no method
of approaching that Consciousness, which is supramental, which is beyond
our mind, transcending the mind.
The spiritual process is a process of divesting the mind of all earthly
associations, all gross associations, everything that is of the world,
everything that is of Rajas and Tamas. How can you do it? These things
are not tangible, are not visible. So you cannot catch hold of them
one by one and put them out. You cannot do this process, because they
are in the mind, they are internal, they are invisible and they are
also abstract. This is the problem of the Sadhaka. They are all thoughts,
emotions and various modes of the Antahkarana, impressions, memory,
Vasanas and inclinations, gradually built up due to past experience.
So, we find that there is no method of physically going to them and
throwing them out. We cannot take a broom and clean the mind. Then how
to do it? The only process is to create new counter-impulses and counter-thoughts
within the mind which will gradually gain strength, become firm and
ultimately grow and expand, and bring about a total reversal of the
very nature of your mind, its normal condition, its ways of behaviour
and activity.
To achieve this, numerous processes have been prescribed which constitute
Sadhana or spiritual practice. So, the first consideration is the transformation
of the consciousness. You must be conscious of your Self and not a part
of this world or a part of your body. You are bound up in body-consciousness
and your relation with the outside object is created through this body-consciousness.
So this body-consciousness has to go and the higher divine-consciousness
has to come. You must be aware of God and not of yourself and not of
the body. You must be aware of yourself as a ray of the radiant light
that is God, as a drop in the great ocean, as part and parcel of that
great ocean of Satchidananda, of Divinity. Feel that you are infinite,
endless and limitless. Feel yourself as a part of It. Thinking about
that Consciousness always is the concern of the mind. Therefore, Sadhana
is the process of purification, concentration, identification and absorption.
You must purify the mind and arouse the first elements of that divine
Consciousness and then concentrate your mind upon that divine Consciousness
alone and intensify that state and ultimately, be absorbed in that completely.
Purify, concentrate and get absorbed. As you steadily advance in Sadhana,
this experience comes to you by itself. Potentially you are the deathless
Atman, you have no birth, no death, no sorrow, no bondage, you are ever
pure and ever perfect. This seed is there already.
The scriptures have declared this. Your teacher had told it to you.
He has told it to you in such a persuasive manner and forcible way that
he has created a conviction also in you. So, you know that you are not
this body and that you are the ever-pure, perfect and blissful Atman.
That knowledge is there. It is in a potential form. It is not available
for you as experience. You have not had the actual experience. You think
that you are in a state of ignorance even when you know your real Svarupa,
because you have not had the actual experience of the Atman or Brahman.
So, if someone passes an adverse remark on you, you immediately run
into temper and feel being insulted and you want to fight, you want
to quarrel, you want to retaliate and you want to revenge. If someone
fails to give you respect, you feel at once offended. If some little
loss happens to you, you break down and cry. If you fail in the examination,
if you do not get promotion, if you do not get increment, for days and
weeks together you are unhappy. So, everything affects you continuously
and as the result of your being affected by so many things like this,
you do not know that you are the Atman, ever-free, ever-pure, ever-perfect
and ever-full. But even though you have not experienced the Atman, yet
merely knowing that you are Atman, the Light of lights, will help you
a lot. Now and then a little bit of this knowledge will vaguely shake
you. You will think: “I should not have lost my temper; why I have
lost my temper? I should not have lost it because the Atman is not affected
by anything.”
Feel that you belong to God. In God there is no creation. No sorrow
can touch you. No bondage is there. No fear is there. You do not lack
anything when God is all in all. Feel that you are a child of God and
that you belong to God. God is your father, mother and everything. You
are here to share all His Divine Glory. Experience is one thing and
potential knowledge is another thing. The potential knowledge has to
be translated into actual experience, transformed into experience by
a certain process. The process is moving towards that stage and not
merely knowing that state to be the immaculate, spotless, ever-pure
state of divinity which is all-pure, which has no desire. The whole
of this process becomes a gradual moving towards the state of absolute
fullness, absolute perfection of good qualities, perfection of virtues.
The spiritual ascent or the spiritual unfoldment is the process of
moving towards that experience of the Divine nature, Daivi Sampatti.
That means the whole of Sadhana constitutes, right from the very beginning,
a gradual progress into that nature and therefore the coming to our
life of those elements that characterise the highest divine nature.
This forms the essential bedrock or the foundation of all spiritual
quests. It is the foundation of Vedanta, Yoga, Bhakti and Karma Margas.
It is the foundation of spiritual quest in Hinduism, in Islam, in Parsi
religion, in Christianity, in Buddhism, in Jainism and in every religion.
So the rock-bottom of all spiritual quest is a gradual spending of all
that is undivine, gradual elimination of all thoughts which are not
proper and are not spiritual, and a gradual acquisition of all divine
qualities enabling the unfoldment of the Divinity within.
Do not sit idle. Know that you are Divine in your essential nature.
You have not come here to weep and wail. Assert your Divine nature.
Awake! Arise! You are a pilgrim on the path of truth. You are Divine.
Find the way back to your spiritual abode of eternal Bliss. To be human
is to be unhappy. To be Divine is to be ever happy. Let your highest
ambition be to find God in your own heart. Let every effort of your
body, speech and mind be to encompass this end.
Stop identifying yourself that you are so and so and son of so and
so. No more such things. Identify with the pure Self or Absolute Consciousness.
You will become Immortal. You will attain Bliss eternal. May you attain
Perfection in this very life. This is my prayer.
Even though modern psychology sponsors positive relationship, it leaves
the soul untouched. In modern psychology the spirit being left untouched,
there is no concept of it at all. They say that the body and the psychic
being are closely related; but it does not at all affect the Vedantic
viewpoint. Even though you know that they are indivisibly connected,
what is it to the Soul? Because It is even different from the psychic
being, and the astral being. The soul is distinct from all the things
that make up this human personality. It is distinct from everything,
except its Svarupa (essential nature), that is, spiritual nature.
Its Svarupa is pure spirit, pure being, which has no beginning and no
end, which has no change, which is pure Consciousness. So, ultimately,
you must know this as pure Consciousness, Suddha Chaitanya, Chinmaya
and Satchidananda.
Now, could there be the discrimination between the Self and the body
without losing one’s individuality! It is not so simple as that.
It is not the discrimination between the Self and the body as we normally
understand it. It is the discrimination between the Self and all that
is non-Self, not only the body but all that is non-Self. If you have
strength of austerity, you will understand what is Self and what is
non-Self. And, everything that is other than Self is categorised by
Patanjali as Prakriti. So, ultimately, what you realise in your experience
of Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the distinction between Purusha and Prakriti.
Purusha means the Self and Prakriti means everything that is non-Self.
So, in Prakriti are included body, the five senses, the five sheaths,
the Antahkarana, the five Pranas, all the Vasanas, all the Samskaras,
all the world process, all phenomena, all perception, etc. So, every
changing mode of the psychic, in fact, everything that is made up of
senses, Prana, mind, even the ego and all their different modifications,
the impressions, the inclinations and tendencies is included in Prakriti.
And once you know the differentiation, you are no more afflicted by
the world process. So, there is a distinction between Purusha and Prakriti.
And as long as the mind is there, this distinction cannot be completely
achieved. Loss of individuality, annihilation of individuality or destruction
of the mind need not worry the aspirant because this individuality,
the false individuality, has no proper existence within itself. This
false individuality is due to the consciousness getting entangled on
account of its proximity to the Prakriti. When this proximity is severed,
what remains is the real entity. Loss of a false thing is no loss at
all. When we understand that this individual consciousness is part of
Prakriti and is not part of your real entity, this loss or annihilation
has no significance, no meaning. So, it is not mere control of the mind
that Raja Yoga aims at. In the beginning stages it is control of the
mind, so that a certain state may be reached through the exercise of
the control of the concentrated mind, in which state mind totally ceases
to be. Nirodha, in Raja Yoga Philosophy, is said to constitute Yoga.
Nirodha is only up to a certain point, in order to achieve a state of
meditation where you leave the entire plane of the mind and ego to go
into superconsciousness. There the mind is not existent. Mind becomes
extinct there. In that realm of superconsciousness where you realise
the Purusha, the mind ceases to be. Unless you reach a plane where there
is no mind, you cannot know the Self. The mindless state is absolutely
indispensable for the experience of Self. Therefore, to reach that state,
absolute control and absolute cessation of all activities of the mind
become necessary steps, necessary discipline, and Raja Yoga gives that
much of discipline. You transcend the mind, when this discipline is
perfected. Transcending of the mind and losing of individuality should
not worry the Sadhaka. This individuality is a most pernicious thing.
It is a great disease upon Consciousness. It is a blemish to pure Consciousness.
So, this loss of individuality is the greatest gain.
Now, a doubt may arise as to why we should destroy the principle of
individuality, since the highest stage of evolution is considered to
be reached only in the human level. Let us consider the answer. Why
should you want to stick to this human level? No doubt it is a high
stage comparatively, compared to all these subhuman species, from the
amoeba onwards—the amoeba, and then the invertebrates, worms and
insects, fishes and reptiles, birds and beasts and all others. All right,
but it does not mean that you should get stuck in that state. Supposing
there are ‘A’ class, ‘B’ class and ‘C’
class prisoners. ‘C’ class prisoners get whipping every day,
have to break stones in the sun for twelve hours, have only dry bread
and cold water, and have to sleep on the ground. ‘B’ class
prisoners get one extra dish of vegetable and are given a cot so that
bugs, worms and rats may not nibble at their bodies, and perhaps 10
hours work. And ‘A’ class prisoners may be given nice cottages
and allowed to cook their own food and all that. They are given a bedding
and no work to do. They can get newspaper, get magazines, perhaps can
have an occasional smoke also. Once a week visitors are allowed inside
the jail to meet them. Now, would you think: “Once I have become
an ‘A’ class prisoner, why should I want to get out of the
prison?” Similarly, the human state, compared to all the other
states, is the highest state in evolution, but this is still bondage.
So, freedom of the soul is something so unimaginably grand and glorious,
that even this stage of evolution is bondage. It becomes hell. Compared
to all other states, it is heaven and glory of God’s creation because
man is made in the image of God. But human being also can be very rotten.
He may do things which even animals would be ashamed of doing, and which
sometimes animals will be incapable of doing. What animals will be incapable
of doing, that also a human being does sometimes. And these are the
defects and imperfections of human life. Or, even supposing human life
is very nice, all good, all joy, all wonder, all perfection and all
beauty, who will simply want to stick to this if there is a state hundred
times better than that? That state is that of Divinity. When there is
still higher and grandeur and more glorious state, it is not wise to
want to perpetuate in the lower state.
How can we annihilate the mind, since thinking power is the very essence
of the human being? “Cogito ergo sum”—"I
think, therefore, I am", or “I am, therefore, I think”,
says Descartes. We can deny everything, doubt everything, but we cannot
doubt the doubter. But, then, Descartes left it at that. Who is this
‘I’ that says “Cogito ergo sum”, and what
is the real nature of ‘I’? That is the subject of philosophy,
the theme of philosophy. The real nature of this ‘I’ is beautifully
given in the Upanishads. The Upanishads are the intuitional outpourings
of the highest state reached in realisation and the declaration of the
realisation which they had reached through great flights into spiritual
realms through deep meditation and intuition. They realised that this
being, this ‘I’ who says, “I think, therefore, I am”
is a supramental being. This is beyond the mind. He transcends the mind.
He realises the true ‘I’ who transcends the mind. Therefore,
you see the need to get rid of this thinking power, which is a bar.
How can we annihilate the mind as long as the thinking power is the
very essence of the human being? Yes, thinking power is the very essence
of the human being, but your essential nature is not human nature. You
are not a human being. So do not continue the error of thinking that
you are a human being. You are not human. You are Divine. Essentially,
you are God. Therefore, you have to shed this human nature, and the
essential power of the human nature which is the thinking faculty. As
long as you go on thinking, you will be bound on the human plane only.
So, a time comes where the mind becomes a bar. In the beginning mind
is the instrument, mind is the path, mind is the help, and a stage comes
when mind becomes a bar. And when that stage comes mind has to be discarded.
This is very homely illustrated thus. Supposing your idea is to climb
up and go to the open terrace. You are on the floor now and the ladder
is your greatest friend and without it you cannot go up. Rung by rung
you climb, up and up, and reach the last rung of the ladder. Suppose
you fall in love with ladder, saying “O, it has got me up till
here,” and you do not want to leave the ladder. Then, what will
happen? You will not reach the terrace. A time comes when you are standing
on the highest rung of the ladder and you have to decide: “No doubt,
this ladder has helped me to come up so high; now, if I continue staying
on the ladder, I will be deprived of the pleasure of being on the terrace
and so, if I want to go to the terrace, I will have to leave the ladder
and jump up on the terrace.” Up till that height where the ladder
and the terrace meet, the ladder becomes indispensable, the most essential,
most helpful, but when that height is reached, to stay on the ladder
becomes a great obstacle, a great mistake. So the ladder has to be discarded
if you want to go to the terrace. That is the position of the mind in
terms of spiritual experience. The highest experience is that state
where mind becomes a bar, and to approach that level mind becomes the
greatest help, an indispensable instrument.
On the First of June, every year, we celebrate the Anniversary of the
Sannyasa Diksha of our revered Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj.
Upon this great and auspicious day let us bring before our minds those
glorious spiritual lights of Bharatavarsha—Sri Sankaracharya (the
glorious Avatara of Lord Siva) and his brilliant line of monks who are
the light and glory of this great land. Let us remember the Sant-Parampara,
the long line of monks and Mahapurushas who have kept up this glorious
tradition of Sannyasa upon this land. Let us today offer our thanks
to the Lord for having given us the peerless privilege of calling ourselves
his disciples and of trying through a close and humble observation of
his personal life, to attain the highest goal of human existence.
To unhesitatingly cast to the winds all considerations of one’s
own welfare or gain and to sacrifice everything that life might hold
sweet for the sake of commonweal, such have been the lives of most of
the great-hearted helpers of humanity. Similar has been the story behind
this modern sage, a story of an intense feeling heart, a quick and sudden
decision, prompt renunciation blossoming into a life of the most whole-hearted
dedication to the service and uplift of humanity.
Sri Swami Sivanandaji has come to be a household name recognised everywhere
as an awakener, inspirer and enlightner of thousands who would otherwise
have continued to remain heedless and indifferent to all questions of
higher life and loftier ideals. Born in 1887 (8th September), imbued
early in life with a genuine thirst to serve the sick, relieve the distressed
and help the needy, he studied medicine after a very brilliant college
career. At the age of 25, early in the year 1913, he took up duties
as doctor in the hospital in the Strait Settlements. For ten memorable
years the youthful doctor strove tirelessly in pursuing with earnestness
and zeal the sublime science of relieving pain, nursing, healing and
curing. But the latent life’s urge towards the monastic path was
ever growing inside him and the call to a higher duty and a loftier
and wider mission drew him out of the secular and raised him up to a
holy life up on the spiritual plane. Thus 1923 saw him leave for the
Himalayas, a lone seeker under the Indian skies, possessionless and
desireless, intent upon the realisation of his life’s mission.
Blessed indeed is this auspicious day.
He was initiated into Sannyasa in 1924 at holy Rishikesh and at once
plunged into a period of intense Nishkama Seva through the Satya Sevashram
Dispensary that he started in 1925. About a year and a half later, he
took to seclusion and meditation. Till 1935 his life was one of intense
Tapas, meditation and inner Sadhana and enlightenment. But he was a
man with a mission and the insistent call of humanity caught in the
coils of soul-killing materialism drew him out of his meditation and
cast him into the sublime field of Visva Seva.
It has given place since 1936 when he found the Divine Life Society,
to the working out of his mission of disseminating spiritual knowledge.
Ever brooding over the cause and cure for the modern malady of scepticism,
irreligion and sensuality, and the innate sympathy and understanding
of the Swami discerned the root cause as the ever-widening gulf that
had begun to separate the sons of the soil from a knowledge of their
own life-giving sacred lore. The system of education imposed by the
ruling power and the classical language of the scriptures were both
responsible. This baneful ignorance Sri Swamiji was combating with by
a nation-wide dissemination of the lofty truths of spiritual life and
he made available the contents of the scriptures to the anglicised hopes
of tomorrow.
The expansion of this work has been nothing short of marvel, seeing
that like the Sannyasins of yore he stuck to a holy spot on the banks
of the Ganga where he made his abode. His awakening message has reached
all quarters on the globe and nearer home his labour has resulted in
the moral and spiritual regeneration of the youth and the aged alike.
Seeing Siva in Jiva he carried on all activities as worshipful adoration
of the Cosmic Spirit.
He was successful in awakening the modern generation to the greatness
and glory of our civilisation and culture and implanting in them a healthy
reverence to the appreciation of the traditions, institutions and genius
of the Motherland. His words and works have resulted in making the average
man today feel the underlying oneness of all humanity. Sri Swamiji has
hammered home the truth that external differences and divergences which
are but superficial, matter not and that the essential part of all beings
is spiritual and identical throughout the universe. He has thus come
to be a unifying force of a nation and the world.
Believing in the destiny of India, as spiritual guide to the world,
his labours were directed at making the world mass conscious of this
high duty. Thus is seen that he aimed at awakening this spiritual sense
in everyone from children, students, youth, elders to the old fold and
women as well. The numerous Branches of the Divine Life Society constitute
centres of spiritual education and regeneration of groups of whole families.
They are unique units to inspire and train up the toddler, the youngster,
the mother of the family and the servants and neighbours as well. Sri
Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj was marvellously gifted with the peculiar
quality of not only doing effective spiritual propaganda but he also
made enthusiastic propagandist of every individual that came within
the pale of his powerful personality.
He has been a silent but withal an active and potent factor in dissolving
differences, breaking barriers and ushering in a year of amity and understanding
amongst all sections of the people. By dint of ceaseless industry of
his gifted pen, by his personal admonitions, instructions and guidance
of his inspiring epistles and through the silent unostentatious work
of the numerous Branches of the Divine Life Society he has brought about
a moral and spiritual revolution in the hearts of thousands. It is not
at all surprising that countless people of every shade belonging to
every caste, creed, sect and community have come to regard him as their
sole guide and philosopher.
In his methods of spiritual ministry he was refreshingly thorough.
He did not stop with awakening and inspiring, but spared himself no
pains in drawing up definite, practical programmes to suit every type
of aspirant. Thus he followed up by guiding and instructing, encouraging
and enlightening the practitioners at every step.
Unlike the ordinary missionary, fanatic in his loyalty to his Faith,
Sri Swamiji took a rational attitude to the question of religion and
was frank and direct in criticism where and when required. A tireless
advocate of religious life and the spiritual path, yet he exposed the
evils and pitfalls of the line, condemned its malpractices and point
out defects, at every stage. The supreme value of this trait in him
has been incalculable in that it thoroughly safeguards the seeker that
sets forth upon this rugged path. His frank forewarning acts as a safe
shield to the aspirant in his war with unseen factors in the spiritual
field.
The peculiar attraction that his teaching exercises over the youth
and the man of the world today emanates from the twofold fact of his
absolute non-sectarianism and presentation of practical religion with
a wise emphasis upon the true essentials that matter, by rejecting the
unnecessary, confusing superfluities that are of no real value.
It has been stated that not by words but by his deeds shall a man be
known. Fully has this Saint of Ananda Kutir justified the homage and
recognition of the grateful thousands that have come to have their lives
redeemed out of the dark depths of unbelief and transferred to the bright
heights of faith, devotion and blessedness.
Under the inspiration of his simple, forceful and eminent practical
teaching men and women have come to feel religion as a positive, constructive
and redeeming force in their lives, elevating them from dejection and
weakness to fresh hope and inner strength.
Amidst all this spiritual labour prompted by pure love, he was ever
in tune with the Eternal Centre ever living, moving and having his being
in the constant consciousness of the ever-present Reality; for, this
man of God had seized hold of the Divine hint uttered by the Charioteer
of Partha to “see Me in everything and see everything in Me.”
May his Grace be ever upon you all, is my prayer.
Srimad Bhagavata Purana, one of the eighteen Puranas and the most important
of them, called “The Great Purana” depicts the glories of
divinity as manifested in Vishnu or Narayana, with whom we are most
concerned, for He is the upholder, the sustainer, the nourisher and
the protector of this thing called life, this world, this universal
process—everything that happens here.
The divine power so far as we are concerned with it, manifests in three
fundamental aspects. It has numerous aspects but we are concerned with
only three of its fundamental aspects for we are in the universe and
the universe has come into being from the state of the pure unmanifested,
transcendental Reality—when there was no name, no form, no creation
and It alone abided, Supreme. In the beginning was God. God alone was
and He willed—"Let there be manifestation, let there be light."
The Bible says about cosmology—"Let there be light."
The Upanishads say: “There was one, one without a second, supreme,
alone and there arose in Him the mystical idea—’May I become
many’ and the many were brought forth, manifested, by the sheer
act of the Divine Will.”
Therefore, coming into manifestation is presided over by one functional
aspect of the Divine power, the aspect of bringing into being, the aspect
of the creative energy. When this great creative aspect of the divine
power is conceived of as a person, or embodied or personified, He is
called Brahma, the Creator. When this same force, at the end of a cycle,
ultimately absorbs back into the bosom of the Unmanifested once again
all these manifest names and forms, the power of reabsorbing, the power
of dissolving into nameless, formless condition, when personified, is
given the name of Siva. He who once again disperses all the phenomena,
dissolves them back into their original state, is the dissolver or the
absorber, though they call Him the destroyer. In human language, anyone
who does away with something that was existing is said to have destroyed
it. In that sense, every day we are destroyers, also. If we want a glass
of fruit-juice we cut the fruit and put it into the juicer and in this
way we destroy the fruit. If you want to convert the juice into energy,
it also has to be destroyed, and one becomes a demon who gulps it down
to transform it into energy. In that way, every creation requires destruction.
Siva is a benign power that dissolves, absorbs back into formlessness
that which has been brought into form. Brahma creates and is then finished
with it. Then, when the cycle comes to an end, Siva steps in and absorbs.
These two functions are terminal, and in between these two terminals
for hundreds of thousands of years, these things have to be taken care
of. They have to be maintained, preserved, and all that is necessary
for their continuation has to be provided for; and another aspect of
the same power takes care of this. In the past, present and future,
on and on through the ages, looking after everything, sending rain,
sending sunshine, providing all things that are necessary and looking
after the minutest detail of the entire process—the whole function
of protecting, nourishing, and setting right things that go wrong is
all but another aspect of the great Divine Power—Vishnu. This aspect
functions continuously and at no time is it not related to our lives
here and at no time does it remain unconcerned. Vishnu or Narayana has
been lauded more than any other aspect of Divinity because we cannot
get along without Him.
The aspect of Vishnu’s consort, Lakshmi, is present in this world
as corn that grows in the field without which we cannot sustain our
lives. She is present as well in the money that makes things go all
around in this world. She is also the power behind all secular knowledge,
knowledge of the sciences, knowledge of business—everything. She
is the royal power to maintain law and order, administer justice and
in this way, in eight different aspects, She looks after everything.
The elephant is Her insignia. It is the insignia of royalty.
In the Bhagavata Purana, the glories of Lord Vishnu the Preserver,
have been extolled. Of the entire twelve books in it the Tenth book
occupies the largest portion. In it all about the supreme incarnation
of Lord Vishnu as Sri Krishna is given. He was born in Mathura on the
banks of the Yamuna river. He was taken to Vrindavana soon after his
birth and there he spent his boyhood period in wonderful divine sport.
He saved many virtuous people, destroyed many wicked people and created,
first and foremost, the waves of real spiritual love in a vast number
of people. It is He who started or sowed the seeds of ecstatic love
for the Divine and created the way of Bhakti Yoga or the practice of
devotion in the right spirit. He is the Supreme object of Bhakti in
India. Bhakti Yoga started with Lord Krishna’s incarnation and
it has as its basis the Bhagavata. All Bhaktas get their inspiration
from the Bhagavata, from the life of Krishna contained in the Tenth
book.
The Lilas or sports of Sri Krishna provide a complete field for the
exercise of the devotional aspect of our personalities in relation to
God. The higher emotion,—not the lower human emotion,—ecstatic
Divine love, pure spiritual love towards God, has been given maximum
scope for its exercise in the Krishna Lilas.
The life of Krishna, especially His Vrindavana Lila, the love of the
Gopis, the simple cowherds, as well as the cowherd type of love of the
heart of the human towards the Divine, have ever been the inspiration
of countless devotees of Lord Krishna.
Bhakti Yoga is the path where you try to attain Divine experience or
God experience by relating yourself to the Divine through some particular
emotional link. This emotional connection is developed through various
exercises and brought to the highest pitch wherein this love fills your
entire consciousness, pushing out even the awareness of ‘I’.
You forget even your own self and become the very personification of
love. You turn into love-Divine and thus, through a total forgetfulness
of the senses you rise into a state of God-experience through this all-absorbing
love which saturates your consciousness. This love relationship with
the Divine has been helped by their suggesting certain patterns of relationship.
“How can I love a Being whom I do not know, who is strange to me,
whom I have never seen? He is remote, and unfamiliar and in what way
is one to love Him”. This is countered by a question: “How
can you know people here? How can you love people here? You love your
husband or your wife as the case may be, your son, daughter, sister
and so on; so where is the problem?” The reply is: “Here I
can love beings because I see them, I know them, and I am born with
some sort of a relationship with them and so it is natural for me to
love them. There is nothing unfamiliar, strange or remote about them.”
It is a problem. All right, we solve it by the very statement you have
made of the problem. You say that He is strange to you and so you are
not able to love Him; and you can love human beings because they are
familiar to you. Why should you think that He is strange or unfamiliar
to you? In whatever you relate yourself to your familiar and human relations,
relate yourself to Him in the same way.
So no strange or new type of love has to be created. You do not have
to go out of your way to find a new type of love which is unfamiliar
and a means to develop it. No unnatural or new type of love is necessary.
Whatever is the dominant aspect of love in your heart, direct the self-same
thing towards God. Go a step further and conceive of Him in the self-same
manner as the being to whom this love was and has been directed and
exercised all along by you. So, if you are very fond of your child,
the very love you have towards your child, direct that towards Him and
do not think He is a great big God, all-powerful and full of glow, but
think of Him as your child, as a simple little child, forget all His
glow and greatness and grandeur and feel that He is your Divine child.
I am very sure that very few felt awe before the child Jesus; on the
other hand, they were very much concerned for him and feared for his
life when Herod started massacring the children. So they hid the child
and escaped into Egypt. They felt he was helpless, required protection
and had to be taken away from the threat to his life. So they had all
the concern of a mother and a father for a little child and his grandeur
and his glow were not here for them.
In the same way, transfer your normal natural human love, that which
is dominant, that which is most familiar to your heart towards Him.
You can follow any one of these: If you are one who loves your Master
greatly, think of him as your God. If you are a boy or a girl who loves
your parents most, think of Him as your mother or your father and love
Him with all the love you have for your own mother or father. Similar
patterns of love are given and you are asked to exercise the self-same
love towards the Divine so that he comes nearer to you, becomes very
familiar to you, and not someone strange or remote to you. In this way,
one must progress in love.
Five different patterns are suggested and the highest pattern is the
deep, intense, passionate love a lover has for his or her beloved, which
is the most intense form of love. If that is the love most familiar
to you, all right, conceive of the Lord as your beloved, the object
of your deepest love.
In the Gopi and Krishna love, it is this form of love that is carried
to, the acme of perfection. But, mind you, this love represents the
love of the human soul to the Divine. The Gopis were well aware that
Krishna was the very embodiment of the great, all-perfect Divine Reality,
the imperishable One. With this knowledge they lavished their love upon
Krishna. How do you know it? You go to the Srimad Bhagavata which tells
you how their love was tested and came after much striving, prayer and
worship. They did not get Krishna’s love easily but only through
great penance. They arose at 4 O’clock in the morning in the winter
and took bath in the icy cold waters of the Yamuna river. Shivering
with cold they went and worshipped for an hour before the Goddess in
the temple, because someone said if you want to win the love of Krishna
you would have to perform this special penance and for several weeks
you would have to worship the Goddess. They did it and they prayed ceaselessly
day and night to Krishna: “Give us the gift of true love for Thee
and give us the return of Thy love.” And then they knew that He
promised. “All right; on a certain full-moon night, I will meet
you and return your love and I will show you the grandeur of Divine
love.” He played upon the flute and when they came they were all
completely overcome by the music of his flute, because it is divine
and celestial and hundreds of Gopis gathered around. Suddenly Krishna
started acting innocent and said: “What happened to all of you?
Why did you come here? Is it proper for you to come? You are all married
girls. You have husbands at home. Did you take permission from your
husbands or your mothers or your fathers? It is very wrong of young
girls like you to come here at this time of night leaving your husbands
and children and your duties at home. This is very wrong. What will
people say? What will the world say? Please, go—go back home!”
So, he becomes a teacher.
Do you know what the Gopis replied to him? You must read in the tenth
chapter of the Bhagavata. In reply to the questions they said: “Do
you think we do not know who you are? How can we leave our husbands
and come, because whom are we loving in our husbands? Is it not the
indwelling Being? Our love goes to the indwelling Being, and are you
not the Indweller of all beings? Are you not the Cosmic Being. Are you
not the one great Reality who alone merits all love and devotion? Knowing
this we have come to you. In your love is liberation. In your love is
emancipation and salvation. You are the Supreme Object, the endless
One.” Thus they tell Krishna they are well aware whom they are
approaching. They are not conscious of their bodies when they approach
Krishna. So it is a love where there is no body-idea, no body-consciousness.
It is not the love of this world. It has nothing physical about it.
As individual souls they are fully aware that He is the pure Cosmic
Being and they are completely free of body-awareness when they approach
Krishna and lavish their love upon Him. It is a transcendental drama.
It is a divine drama of the response of the human to the call of the
Divine and these Gopis are incarnated celestials.
Therefore, develop true selfless devotion to Lord Krishna like Gopis
of Vrindavana. There lies your true blessedness and happiness. Uninterrupted
devotion to the Lord will generate both renunciation and wisdom. Devotion
opens the eye of wisdom. God is easily moved by pure devotion and humility.
May Lord Krishna of Vrindavana bless you all with health and happiness.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya!
Portal Unto Perfection
(Message delivered by the Swamiji on the occasion of his 57th
Birthday.)
Homage unto worshipful Gurudev Swami Sivananda, the effulgent sun of
spirituality. May his light shine for ever. May his light light up the
lives of people all over the world.
Blessed Children of the Divine! You are here for the attainment of
the sublime destiny. This is no less than the attainment of Divine Perfection.
You have before you a glorious future. It is moving towards the attainment
of Supreme and Radiant Spiritual Beauty in life. This perfection and
this beauty is your birthright. For, your human life verily derives
these from an Eternal, All Perfect, Infinite Divine Life of pure Spiritual
Being. Thou art heir to spiritual splendour. Thou art heir to divine
perfection. Thou art heir to Infinite Beauty, Eternal Bliss and Indescribable
Peace.
This splendour, this perfection, this beauty, bliss and peace is your
Real Nature. This is the true Self within. This divinity is inherent
within your true being. Thou art Divine. This universe is but a manifest
expression, a revealed form of the Supreme Divine Reality. Your life
in this universe is actually a divine process. Therefore, live life
divinely.
What is life? To evolve and to manifest the spiritual principle within
you and to seek and obtain vision and the experience of the divinity
concealed behind visible names and forms,—this is life. To behold
the external world as God and to worship this revealed divinity through
ceaseless act of selfless loving service,—this is life. All this
here is sacred. The Divine Presence sanctifies all places and all objects.
Where you are, you stand before the presence of the Most High. Whatever
thou doest, thou doest unto the Lord of the Universe, the hidden God
Who pervades His own Creation. Therefore spiritualise your life.
Spiritualise your life. This is the portal to perfection. This is the
pathway to glory. This is the secret of supreme attainment. Every little
thought and sentiment, every single word and deed fill everything with
our attitude of intense reverence, devotion and worshipfulness. Let
all your life be pervaded by a spiritual Bhava. Thus raise up your life
and actions unto a new direction. Even while in the world tune yourself
on to a spiritual plane. Have a new vision and a new approach. Live
in the awareness of the Immanence of the Divine. Behold light of God
shining everywhere. God looks at you through all eyes. To live here
is to move with God. To live here is to have your being in God. For,
God is here and now. All life is spiritual. Therefore, feel this Truth.
Affirm It. Assert It. And strive to live in this Truth. Consciously
endeavour to spiritualise your life. This is the key to blessedness.
Our worshipful Gurudev, our glorious Master Swami Sivananda himself
lived and showed to us this way of life. To him everything was sacred
and holy. To him all activities were spiritual activities. To his vision
everything was God appearing in innumerable varieties of forms. In his
life to act was to adore, work was worship and to live was to pray.
Even the most common and normal activities of the body like eating,
drinking, talking, listening, sitting, moving, coming and going, all
constituted sacred processes and as such were offered up at the feet
of the Lord. All movements were accompanied by interior prayer or ceaseless
remembrance of God. Silent repetition of the Divine Name was to be carried
on simultaneously with all the activities. “I am Thine! All is
Thine,” this sublime inner feeling accompanied his every action.
Spirituality was the keynote of his life. His mandate to his followers
was: SPIRITUALISE YOUR LIFE. This was the heart of his teachings. It
was the essence of his message to mankind. One who follows this, indeed,
becomes liberated. He attains perfection.
Beloved Seekers! God is love and know all life is sacred. To live is
to worship the ever-present God. Lead this life spiritual, from this
moment. Fill your life with this spiritual vision. This is the portal
to perfection. You will come face to face with God.
Wake up at dawn each day to salute this Universal form of God. Bow
down in adoration unto Him before you start the day. Fill your day with
the spirit of worshipfulness. Act with devotion. See God in all names
and forms. Be courteous and polite. Be kind and generous. Be merciful
and compassionate. Forgive and forget. Do good unto all. Live to serve
others. Root out ego and selfishness. Become a servant of humanity,
a hope of all beings and a messenger of peace and unity. Live and act
for the welfare of all and for the happiness of all. Control anger.
Counter hatred by love. Be truthful and honest. Never deceive, harm
or hurt others. Strive to be a Sadachari and a Paropakari. Engage in
works conducive to the benefit of others, knowing that the living Presence
of God indwells all beings. Through control of senses and conquest of
mind, through the renunciation of selfishness and greed move onwards
towards your lofty destiny of Perfection and Liberation. Attain it in
this very life and become blessed forever. Life is transitory. Time
is fleeting. This body is perishable. Every moment is precious. Therefore
do not tarry or delay. Waste not time. Be up and doing. O Glorious Divinity!
Claim thy birthright. Evolve an ideal life. Shine with virtue. Be radiant
with Divinity. Move towards Perfection.
May God confer upon you peace, bliss and illumination. All success
to thee upon the onward journey to Perfection! Hail to the great Sat-Guru
Sivananda, dazzling Sun of spirituality and Light of our light!
The Divine Master is verily Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver,
and verily Siva, the Dissolver. He is indeed the supreme, unmanifest,
absolute Spirit in manifestation. To him, the Divine Master, the Preceptor,
the Spiritual Guru, I bow down in reverence and devotion and pay my
humble homage.
In the year 1887 was born the great Master, Swami Sivananda, who from
his holy abode at Rishikesh had set a flow of perennial stream of life-transforming
spiritual knowledge, the knowledge of the supreme spiritual ideal in
life, the knowledge of the supreme purpose of this precious human birth.
He has set aflow a veritable Jnana-Ganga—a Ganga of spiritual knowledge.
For, out of this stream of spiritual knowledge that had flowed forth
from his abode in Rishikesh through his ceaseless writings on all matters
of spirituality, religion and culture, through this knowledge a great
awakening has come about in all countries of the world among all peoples—an
awakening, a thrill of spiritual awareness, and aspiration. And this
great soul whom the world reveres now as its foremost spiritual leader,
had been for forty years unceasingly striving to bring this message
of spiritual life in and through the ordinary activities and the routine
day-to-day life of the world, a message of Divine Life, a life lived
in a divine way as an expression of the divine principle within us,
and lived upon the sublime pattern of great saints, sages and mystics
of all climes and upon the high standards of moral rectitude, faith,
devotion and worship.
It is this message which this servant offers to you with great joy
and in a spirit of sharing.
If you find anything of worth, anything of use to you in your day-to-day
life from this article of this servant then indeed our gratitude has
to go to the Great Master whose message it has been and of which this
servant has been but a conveyer. Let us all pray together and try to
express our gratitude and devotion to him whose birthday falls on the
8th of September.
In a small South Indian village by the side of the pure glistening
waters of the Tamraparni river, this great soul was born of high-caste
Brahmin Hindu parents in the year 1887. An ideal childhood and a brilliant
school career, followed by a medical career led this ideal young man,
who was full of compassion, purity, truth and integrity to the far-off
shores of Malaya in the Far East. There for twelve long years he ceaselessly
strove day and night to bring relief from suffering, pain and disease
to the countless people of those parts, and his heart expanded. He grew
in love of all. He grew in sympathy. His heart was filled with compassion
for the suffering of humanity. He made no distinction of people of different
castes, races or classes. Indian, Malayan, Chinese, Japanese and to
all alike he unstintingly gave of his love and sought to bring relief
to them in their hours of distress and suffering.
This close contact with the wretchedness of human life, deep suffering,
the magnitude of human sorrow and pain, brought about an inner spiritual
awakening in this noble-minded young man and soon the Divine Will stepped
into his life. From being a doctor of suffering bodies, he soon turned
into a higher level of life and entered into the noble order of Sannyasa
in India. Thus, there came to the world a spiritual doctor, one who
made his task the relieving of the pain of the soul of man and who was
intent upon showing to the afflicted the path beyond sorrow, the path
beyond pain that led to immortal life, perennial peace and bliss, supreme,
eternal well-being. Thus, what the medical world, the material world
lost, the spiritual world gained and what the small community in Malaya
lost, the whole of humanity gained.
That was a glorious day, the day Dr. Kuppuswamy entered the noble order
of Sannyasa and became Swami Sivananda. From that day his life had been
one totally dedicated to God. After years of intense and rigorous penance
on the banks of the Ganga, subjecting himself to severe mortifications
and austerities, this young doctor plunged into meditation day and night;
and at the end of ten years he came out of his seclusion as an illumined
Soul filled with the Light of God, the bliss of the Supreme and his
heart throbbing with love and compassion for all humanity. Thus there
arose in him, even as these arose 2500 years ago in the compassion-filled
heart of Buddha, a desire to share his wondrous knowledge, his bliss
and peace with one and all of his fellow-beings. So from out of the
deep penance and meditation, from his silence and isolation, from his
austerity and seclusion, Swami Sivananda stepped forth in the year 1930
and started his great spiritual mission of bringing about this essential
knowledge of the spiritual ideal in life, the knowledge of how to attain
this spiritual ideal amidst the din and bustle of the normal secular
day-to-day life. That is his supreme message. Not metaphysics, not philosophy,
not controversies or dogmas, not creeds, rituals and ceremonies—no,
but practical spiritual living, a life lived in the awareness of the
all-pervading presence of the Divine—the awareness of your eternal
oneness, your eternal link with the divine source of all beings. This
life is not to be lived in the forests or caves, on mountain-tops or
deserts, but it is to be lived here and now in the homes, in the offices,
in the market places, in the midst of the teeming masses. This life
is dynamic spiritual living, lived as a changed being and for a glorious
higher purpose striving through the normal avocations of one’s
life, to attain the Supreme Goal, by changing the angle of vision, by
regarding nothing to be secular, and all to be holy and by doing actions
in the spirit of deep worshipfulness and dedication. That is the secret
of divine life.
To one who was striving thus to bring the widest dissemination of this
spiritual message, who created around himself a colony of inspired,
enthusiastic, dedicated young workers and who specifically created the
Divine Life Society for the purpose of spreading this spiritual message,
and who has given unstintingly to the world his spiritual knowledge—to
such a one our hearts go out.
Blessed indeed is the moment when we think of such great men. Blessed
indeed is the hour when we honour such holy souls. The lives of great
men often remind us that we too can make our lives sublime. Remember
that during contemplation of these holy people, memory of their lives
inspires us and fills us with a fiery desire to walk in their footsteps,
to live in the patterns of their sublimely lived lives, to strive to
attain the ideal which they have embodied in their own personal lives
and inspiring teachings. I have the greatest happiness in wishing you
all a glorious life of spiritual endeavour, moral and spiritual progress
and sublime perfection.
I wish you the crowning glory of Supreme Self-realisation in this very
life in the name of the Master, under which we all gather together so
devotedly. The greatest honour we can pay to a sage like the Master
is to try to imbibe his teachings. The greatest homage and the greatest
reverence we can pay to a great soul is trying to live in the spirit
of his noble teachings. The greatest form in which we can repay our
debt of gratitude to such great ones is humbly and earnestly trying
to walk in their footsteps. Let us determine today to pay this great
homage to this great Sage through a life lived in the spirit of his
teachings. God bless you all.
Glory be to Master Sivananda. Glory be to all great sages and Masters.
May their blessings be upon you all. Live the Divine Life and attain
Self-realisation. May the blessings of the Master be ever upon you all.
The coming into the company of seekers, who love the Lord, and who
aspire for the attainment of Divine Consciousness, is in itself a tremendous
experience. It is a process of vital renewal and a spiritually recharging
and remaking process. In this process you once again revive your inner
awareness of the Changeless behind these changing names and forms. You
once again restore your relationship with That which is the very Life
of your life, the origin and source of your being, your invisible support
and the goal ultimate of your existence. In this Satsanga you once again
strive to re-establish in a vital way your inner spiritual link with
the Divine. This is the purpose and the meaning of Satsanga. It is the
drawing near to That which is the eternal, the immortal, the changeless,
the ever-perfect, the whole behind this fragmentary and chaotic flux
of momentary appearances of names and forms that are rising shadows,
and re-establishing your spiritual link with the abiding Reality that
is the innermost Self of your being.
Herein lies the unique value of Satsanga for it draws your consciousness
away from passing unrealities into the basic Reality which is the substratum
of that which is seen, that which is perceived and it is in this living
contact, in this continued and unbroken connection, in this vital spiritual
relationship that you have the assurance of true fulfilment in your
life. Take away this inner relationship, this inner contact, and your
life will soon run into a dryness. It will become arid and essenceless.
There will come upon it darkness, great dejection and a sense of frustration,
void and emptiness. Meaning will be taken out of the life of that individual
who loses contact with the Reality, not the appearances that masquerade
as Reality, but that Reality which is the very root of your being. It
is the source of your very existence and, therefore, that contact is
the vital factor that makes any meaning, significance, depth, a sense
of fullness and a sense of real acumen in life.
Take the example of a tree. High above the ground there are fruits,
flowers and leaves that are vital, alive, full of energy, dynamism and
growth. What is the secret of this life there in the air? Hidden from
sight, invisible and, therefore, for all practical purposes, non-existent
as far as one’s gross perception goes, there lies a certain source
of living energy. Hidden under the depths of the earth is this source
of life and sustenance which gives it power of growth. No matter how
far above the ground these various parts of the tree, they have a hidden
connection with that invisible source and that is the secret of their
life. If you chop off a branch, lop off a little twig, separating them
from the tree, immediately their leaves and flowers are dead and they
dry up soon.
Similarly with your life, there is a hidden source, a hidden reservoir
of all that is positive. When your life blossoms forth with the bliss
that is beyond all sorrow, into peace that transcends all turmoil, and
restlessness, into an illumined state of consciousness that is far above
this little half knowledge, ignorance and error, you attain the source
that gives you the dynamism to move towards this fulfilment of your
life and it is variously called Self, Atman, etc. Call it what you will,
it is something you cannot ignore. And you ignore it at the cost of
your own happiness, peace, sense of fulfilment, success and, in short,
of your own life.
A great saint summing up this great secret of the fact of life, said:
“Remembrance of God is life and forgetfulness of God is death.”
The moment one separates oneself by losing contact with the Divine,
stagnation begins to come into one’s life. And life begins to weigh
heavily and becomes a burden and is no longer a song of joy, a thing
of beauty, an unfolding and outer progress. It becomes a burden filled
with all the pains, sorrows and sufferings which are caused by this
little ‘I’ consciousness, the confined ‘I’ consciousness
cut off from its Source—the universal ‘I’ Consciousness.
Develop a relationship, or become aware of your relationship (it is
something that does not need to be developed in you but it needs to
be heeded, not to be forgotten or neglected) with the Divine. Become
aware that in your true nature you are ever linked with the Divine Source
of your being and progressively make it grow until God becomes the dominating
stuff of your consciousness. That is the great need. That is worship
and that is the way to make this life truly whole, truly successful
in attainment and to transcend the imperfections and defects of this
fitful transitory earth-life.
All religion, all worship has as its objective this renewal, this restoration
of the great fact of your being: “I am related a thousandfold more
to the Divine than to the mundane. My relationship with the mundane
is but for a fleeting moment. A little while ago I was not of this universe
nor did I exist for this universe. I am here now but soon I have to
pass on. A moment in time will come when my relationship with this external
phenomenal set-up will cease, and once again I shall be back in that
dimension from which I entered into this state of temporary contact
with this external phenomenon.”
How blind man is! He never sees the Reality. Maya is making the appearance
of the apparent to assume the status of Reality and thus making man
forget the Reality.
This process of developing and growing into a progressive state of
intense, inner, spiritual relationship, the recognition of the fact
that your relationship with the Divine is a fact and is a thousandfold
more real and valid than your relationship with passing material phenomenal
process, is the great thing that is needed if you really wish joy, fullness,
peace, plenty, beauty, harmony and all health to come into your life.
All the religions faiths and creeds, and all the saints have but come
into this universe with this one great objective—to recall to man
once again the great need to make this relationship into a dynamic and
living fact in his life. This is the central purpose of religion and
it is the central message of all saints and sages—whether of the
east or the west, ancient or modern. The central theme of philosophy
and the scriptures is to make the individual turn away from this kaleidoscope,
this circus of the many, and move towards the abiding and the changeless
one. One should not lose oneself in this dense jungle of earth-life
(Samsara) but should move towards the inner shrine wherein dwells blessedness.
This is the meaning of religion. All the processes of religion, all
the practices of Yoga, and every technique ever devised by any Master
or Guru or any adept have for their ultimate objective and purpose this
re-establishment and the development into all its fullness your relationship
with that One Being, the one Principle, the one Reality of which alone
you can really and truly say: “It is mine, I belong to That.”
About no other thing in this universe can you assert this truth: “It
is mine and I belong to it”—not even with regard to this body
which you think is so dear to you, so near to you and is your own self
and with which you are in an absolute state of identification. Even
the body will one day leave you in the lurch and depart and will say:
“Oh, no, you have no authority over me. I am here under some other
law, the law of Karma, and when that is over and done with, you cannot
claim me as your own.” Even when you consider the body as your
own, how much control have you over it? If only you take some wrong
thing in your diet the bowels start purging. Can you then say: “No,
you belong to me, stop, you should not purge?” It will not listen
to you and you will have to run to the toilet ten times. You may have
three Ph.D. Degrees, or be president of any country, but you have very
little control over the body. If you obey its natural functions and
treat it properly, then it will go along with you, but if you contradict
some law, then you will be taught how much control you have over it.
So we have to realise that it is only with one Being, Truth, that we
can assert: “Yes, Thou art mine and I am Thine,” and that
one Being Is.
God is your own. The Divine is your own. You belong eternally to the
Divine and in the Divine you have your all-in-all. The great need, therefore,
if life is to ever keep yourself closely related to that which does
not perish, which does not pass away, which does not change, which can
never disappoint you and which can never bring about disillusionment
into your life. All association with the non-eternal is ultimately fraught
with sorrow. This is the simple truth. Commonsense tells you, if you
will reflect, that association with the non-eternal is ultimately fraught
with sorrow and the Eternal alone can fulfil the longing of the innermost
depths of your being. The Eternal alone can satisfy the spirit and you
are spirit. You are not this physical body. You are not this ever-changing
mind, neither the intellect nor the spurious little ‘I’ personality.
You are Spirit, and the Eternal alone can ultimately give satisfaction
to your expression. In the Eternal alone can you find true joy, true
fulfilment, true rest and a true sense of becoming completely whole.
That is the great Thing to which one should remain close, which one
should never forget and with which one should ever keep an intense relationship
that is ever growing and ever dynamic.
How can you do it? You can do it with the faculties you possess. They
are your working tools. If that Divine Principle were a tangible thing
in the nature of an object to you, first you would make use of the physical
body to grasp it, hold it and keep it. But it is supra-physical and
invisible, at least in your present state of consciousness. Now your
consciousness is outgoing oriented thought, objective perception only.
So it is the world that is visible to you.
What is it that has brought you to this state of such confused involvement
with this universal process, the world outside with the objects here?
How is it that you are enmeshed in a variety of things and experiences
from which you do not seem able to free yourself? It is your sentiments
and your emotional involvements which have managed to bind you, and
you are attached. They have hooked you with your affections and your
likes.
The individual’s nature, which is made up of the emotional potential
and of the man’s personality, is very much in evidence here. It
is very much the reason, the causative factor or the propelling force
in this present involvement out of which there is much bondage, slavery
and losing of oneself in the experience of things. So laying oneself
open to the experience of all the impacts that evolve out of this involvement,
man exposes himself to all the variety of experiences that result from
this involvement, always the same in joy and sorrow, in suffering and
anxiety, in fulfilment and disappointment. So you ever react, due to
being exposed to the inevitable outcome of this involvement with the
outer through your emotional potential, to that dimension of your being
made up of the emotional content of your personality.
Homage unto the Supreme Lord, the Father of all mankind, the Almighty
Ruler of countless universes and the Supreme God of Love. Prostrations
and salutations unto Thee, beloved Father, by whose Will we are all
gathered together this morning. May Thy presence be felt by all at this
moment. For it is before Thy Supreme Majesty that we are here in humble
servitude to seek to know one another more closely in the spirit and
in our common love for Thee. We thank Thee for this hour of spiritual
solicit amongst ourselves and we recognise that Thou hast grant in this
grace of spiritual treasure not as something deserved by us out of any
merit on our part but due to Thy boundless love for us all, due to Thy
spontaneous grace upon us all and due to Thy infinite imponderable compassion
for us all and we humbly acknowledge Thy compassion, Thy grace and Thy
love towards us all, who are far from worthy for this great grace, for
this grand mercy. Thy name be glorified for all times. I thank also
the Madurai Branch of the Divine Life Society for having enabled me
to come before all of you who are devoted to that path of life which
brings you closer to God day by day. By coming here to this holy seat
of spiritual learning I feel myself satisfied. I thank also my beloved
and revered brother Selvamani for having very kindly and graciously
invited me to this place during this visit to Madurai and thus for giving
me an opportunity to speak to you about God, to speak to you about yourself,
to speak to you about your relationship with Him, who is the source,
the support, the Goal Ultimate of all beings. And lastly I also thank
you all who are here this morning, prompted by the Lord. I am here as
a humble servant of God as well as humble disciple of the Master Sri
Swami Sivananda.
Swami Sivananda was one of those rare beings, who was born in a particular
religion, who was bred up according to the beliefs of that religion,
but who later on rose to a spiritual stature, which spontaneously made
him outgrow that religion and took him into a plane of experience and
consciousness, where he no more belonged to any religion and he felt
that he belonged to a universal religion, which is concealed in the
heart of all religions and he felt at home equally with Christianity
or Islam as he felt at home with Hinduism. He felt at home equally with
every faith and every religion. He used to say that there is but one
religion and it is the religion that seeks to bring man back to God.
It is a religion of the journey of the finite to the Infinite, journey
of the individual to the Universal, journey of the human towards the
Divine, man towards God. At the heart of all religions is this quest
and this movement of the Spirit within the human being seeking to reach
and grasp to ascend and to enter into an experience of the Reality,
which is beginningless and endless, the Reality which is eternal, the
Reality which ever was, is and never shall cease to be, the hidden Truth
behind changeful and temporary appearances, the names and forms that
go to make up this external physical gross universe of ours. There is
something behind these vanishing names and forms. Whereas these are
changeful with changeless, whereas these are non-eternal, That is eternal
and that permanent abiding Reality which we call God, he said, that
is the ultimate quest, that is the ultimate goal, which all religions
seek to enable man to attain, seek to help man to reach, and it is sure
that he found the essence of religion. All the other factors which go
to make up the formal structure of organised religions, he said, do
not comprise the life of that religious system. These comprise the body.
But the life of religion is this unerring movement of the spirit in
the human individual towards that eternal imponderable Being and that
eternal, imponderable, subtle, supra-cosmic essence. It has no name.
It is nameless. We can call it by any name. Its names are legions and
equally it is nameless. It is that which is and declaring itself ‘I
am that I am’. Knowing as such I am That which for ever exists
in the eternal presence, where past, present and future are fused into
a timeless eternity. That I am. That is the nearest definition one could
give to the Supreme Reality as It declared Itself to Moses ‘I am
that I am’—‘Yahve’. And the great ones who
have cut through the formalism of the religion and tried to go to the
heart of the experience, this mystic experience, they all ultimately
found themselves upon a common ground where they partook of an experience
of this eternal affirmation ‘I am, I am’ and long ago, thousands
of years, in a time beyond recorded history, the mystics and seers of
this land when they attained into that experience, they declared, though
called by various names, that Reality is only one. That hidden Truth,
that hidden eternal Reality, is only one. It is not many. It is non-dual.
Because it is infinite and it is whatever is. Ekameva Advitiyam Brahma.
That Supreme Reality is Brahman,—the word is not to be mistaken
with the first of the Hindu Cosmic Trinity, the creating functional
aspect of Divinity, the creating principle. In the Vedantic sense Brahman
or Brahma is that which was when nothing existed. That which was even
before manifestation of names and forms, even before creation, the uncreated
causeless primal cause of all things is Ekameva Advitiyam Brahma.
It is one and non-dual and therefore whatever name you may call it by,
it does not make it more than one. You may call it Almighty Father in
Heaven, you may call it Jehova, you may call it Allah, you may call
it Ahura Mazda, you may call it Isvara, you may call it Nirvana, you
may call it the Supreme Tao, it does not make any difference. It cannot
make it more than one. The one ultimate non-dual God of all religions
is beyond all religions. It is He alone who is the Eternal, the Infinite,
the All-full, All Perfect and until and unless the human spirit enters
into an experience of that Being it will ever feel itself dissatisfied,
discontented. A sense of insufficiency will always break the human head,
the human spirit, until the All-full is attained; because this here
what we know, this universe, is fragmentary. It is finite. It is conditioned
in space and time and all things here are changeful and will soon pass
away. They have a beginning in time and an end in time and therefore
they are evanescent and transitory and they are ever unstable. For even
in this little temporary time continuum when they exist, they are ever
changing, always changing. They are unreliable and with these ever-changeful,
evanescent, imperfect, finite objects the human spirit cannot be satisfied.
It thirsts for something which is full and complete, all-perfect, everlasting,
enduring and eternal. That thirst cannot be fulfilled by anything in
the created phenomenal universe. That hunger cannot be satisfied by
anything except the All-full, the All-perfect, the Eternal and that
we call God.
God is the quest of man. God is the goal of all religions and the holy
Master Swami Sivananda sees that instead of trying to grasp this essential
fundamental universal principle that is hidden in the heart of all religions,
he found that human society had entered into a state, where they had
involved themselves in the outer structure of organised religions and
have begun to emphasise their differences rather than entering into
a consciousness of the essential unity, which would at once make a man
into a harmonious, homogeneous whole and make every being feel kinship
with everyone else in this universe, a fellowship in the Spirit, a oneness
in God, a kinship in this quest. Instead of that, religion had become
a factor to create antagonism, hostility, friction, discord and he was
very sore that man is fighting over things which should be a unifying
factor. So he made his mission in life trying to bring to all beings
in this much disturbed, restless twentieth century the essential unity,
the real religion of mankind. Religion is one, God is one and the true
language of religion is the religion of love. It is the religion of
the heart. The more you begin to split, hair-split, and start trying
to find out in how many ways we differ from others, the more the religion
takes you farther and farther away from one another. But the more you
begin to feel this beautiful unity that exists at the heart and goal
of religion, the more you will begin to come closer to one another.
Therefore, he said, there is one God, the Father of man. There is one
religion to love man and serve man and dedicate one’s life to the
worship and the quest after divine. He said, to worship God and to seek
to find Him, to seek to attain Him, to love all beings and to seek to
serve them. These two sum up the very heart of religions, the eternal
message of all religions.
O man! Worship the Supreme and make your life a conscious movement,
a conscious attempt to attain God-experience and O man! love all beings
and make your life a ceaseless field of service, loving service and
brotherhood. His definition for service was love in expression. Love
in expression is service and his definition of religion was the worship
of the Supreme, a conscious attempt to attain this experience.
We are all in Theological Seminary here. Theology is knowledge of God.
‘Theos’ is God and knowledge of God is theology. We can get
knowledge of God by reading the scriptures. We can get knowledge of
God by sitting in discipleship before holy people, putting questions
to them and seeking answers, light from them and thus getting to know
God through the mouths of those who are competent to expound this nature
to speak about Him. This knowledge of God is called the lesser knowledge.
For it is knowledge through mind and intellect through understanding.
This can give us the ability to explain to others. But this cannot give
us a living experience of the God-principle. Therefore, it is called
the lesser knowledge or Paroksha-Jnana, as they call it. But
there is another knowledge of God. That is a deep personal experience
of the God-principle within the depths of our own spiritual nature.
Here you require no argument, you don’t have to be told, you don’t
have to be convinced, but here at once you are caught up and gripped
and lifted into a state of consciousness where God becomes to you a
palpable reality, where the knowledge of the universe vanishes. You
have no more consciousness of anything here, but there is a living luminous
vibrant, palpable experience of God within the depths of your own consciousness.
Such experience, once for all, takes away doubts about the non-existence
of God, whether this way or that way or another way the knowledge of
God becomes to you as absolutely certain and indisputable as a fruit
placed in the palm of your hand and this knowledge is not gained through
the media of any sense either of the physical senses or the mind or
the intellect. It is at once direct, immediate and spiritual. This is
called Aparoksha-Anubhuti. Once you attain it, you are no longer
the same being. You are totally transformed. Your consciousness becomes
illumined with a luminous quality, where everything becomes clear as
day light. God becomes to you a living fact and part of your life, part
of your normal consciousness. It is then only you can say that you live,
move and have your being in God. It is this knowledge that is the essential
thing to attain. It is called Aparoksha-Anubhuti. It is not so
much a knowledge. It is a living experience. It is like a man who up-till
a certain day was told by someone about what sugar is and who was taught
physically or chemically the structure of sugar and the appearance of
sugar and how it is produced. It comes from wheat, it comes from cane-juice
and it is manufactured in this way; it is a white amorphous powder;
it is also sold in cubes; it is also sold as sugar-candy and hundred
other things he knows completely. He has a knowledge about sugar. He
can give lectures, he can write a thesis. But it makes a world of difference
until he actually has been made to taste sugar by taking into his mouth,
putting it on his tongue and then entering into experience of the sweetness,
this is sugar. This is the difference between Aparoksha-Jnana and
Paroksha-Jnana.
Enter into God-experience, so that it becomes a living experience to
you. That is essential and I would humbly submit that all the students
of Theology in this very holy and sacred seat of learning while they
equip themselves with the book knowledge about God, this world, man,
relation of man to God, relation of the world to God, relation of man
to world, while they acquire all the knowledge through books, through
lectures, through study, through reflection, at the same time, I urge
you all with all the earnestness of my heart, simultaneously within
your heart, within your interior, let there be the ceaseless quest for
living experience of God. I would put before you, my spiritual brethren,
that the theology that you here learn should be known to be not an end
in itself, not even a means for some secular end here as equipped in
yourself for the clergy or becoming a writer of theology or propagating
the tenets of the church or even preaching theology to the masses, not
even a means to this end only but you must know your theology, you must
make your theology a means for the entry into the living experience
of God, who is the central theme and subject of theology. I would eagerly
look forward to that day when each of you would be endowed with that
grand God-experience, would shine with that inner radiance of spiritual
communion with the Supreme Being, by which alone life becomes fulfilled,
by which alone man justifies his existence on earth, by which alone
you can raise to a state of spiritual consciousness, when you can claim
‘I am the Father’s child’. ‘He only is my Father’.
‘I do not belong here. I belong to Him’. In that way as the
great mystics like St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of the Avila and
St. Francis of Assisi, as all these great illuminers of the mystical
Christian Church as they entered into this experience, beloved brethren,
make your theology a stepping-stone, a take-off ground for that supreme
experience. Be not satisfied with anything. Have always That as your
goal and while you are fulfilling your humble role as a member of the
church and propagating the message of the Master side by side live a
rich, dynamic, progressive, interior life and immense spiritual life.
Day by day, may we go nearer and nearer to the Supreme Experience of
God-consciousness, Supreme experience after living what they call Nirvikalpa
Samadhi. This was our holy Master Sivananda’s central mission in
life. He wanted once again not only to bring this God-experience and
take our attention away from the apparent external diversity. In addition
to this invaluable service he did to the twentieth century mankind that
was, he worked to restore to the religious life of twentieth century
man, the spiritual quality, the spiritual quest. Otherwise all religion,
the practice of all religion, was only formal. The Hindu was only a
formal Hindu. He fulfilled the external form of Hindu life. But inwardly
he was totally bankrupt of any spiritual aspiration or spiritual urge
to know God. No one wanted anything to do with God. They wanted to fulfil,
have the satisfaction I am not an atheist, have the satisfaction I am
not irreligious, so that they may not be feeling guilty and so just
in order to satisfy themselves they fulfilled only the external form
of religion. The Muslim of today is only an external namesake Muslim.
The Christian of today is only an external namesake Christian. In the
same way the Parsee.
Almost 98% or 99% of man goes only to lip allegiance to his particular
faith and religion. They only fulfil the external forms. But the real
things for which religion exists to give man, that is, the spiritual
quest after God, after God-experience, that has been somewhere lost
and so religion has become devoid of the spiritual content. It is dry
and Gurudev came and worked all his life with all his might to restore
to all religions this spiritual void. So religion may mean to man a
conscious effort to know God; to enter into an experience of God here
and now. So religion must become a dynamic movement towards God, intensely
vibrant along spiritual process, not merely an external process. So
he wanted religion to enter deep into you and become active within the
innermost heart of your being. Therefore he gave this great message—goal
of life is God-realisation. O Man! Wake up. Life is a wonderful chance
and opportunity given to you to be made use of and to attain God. Before
this body falls off, before this physical body drops away, some how
or other, attain God-experience and become blessed. Make life successful.
That is the only thing which crowns your life with true success, the
living experience of God. Therefore do this through selfless service
of mankind, seeing God in all beings. Ceaselessly remember God in the
midst of all your daily activities and whatever you do link it up with
God. Every activity, no matter how petty or how ordinary insignificant
it may seem, no, it is not insignificant. Link it up with God. Do not
think it something which links you up only within this passing universal
show, this drama, world drama, that links every bit of activity with
God. Tell Him, “O Lord, whatever I do, verbal, mental, physical,
I offer it up all at Thy feet. Thus I seek to worship Thee. With every
ordinary act of mine in the home, in the professional field, in the
market place, in society, every little act I offer it unto Thee. For
the love of Thee I do this act and I offer it up unto Thee.” In
this way, he said, transform your secular activity into activities that
directly connect you with God. See God in all beings. He is not only
a transcendental supra-cosmic Reality, He is an immanent Reality. He
is present everywhere here and now. Therefore see Him everywhere and
all your activities offer up unto Him with deep devotion and dedicate
your entire life unto God and thus let your life itself become a perpetual
process of moving towards God. To act is to adore. To live is to pray.
To work is verily to worship the ever-present Divinity. Thus he sought
to bring to us this message of spiritualising your entire life in every
minute detail of it. So from morning till night you do nothing but you
are a worshipper of God. The worship may not be inside a Church or a
Mosque or Sinagogue or a Temple or Gurudvara, but wherever you are,
you are verily in a church; you are verily before God’s presence.
Therefore all places are sacred. They are sanctified by His presence
and therefore make your life a beauty-offering unto the Divine.
Just as this beautiful garland with so many flowers was brought and
put upon my neck, make your entire life a garland of the cosmic Reality,
the Supreme Being, the God, who is here and now and always and let every
action of yours be cause unto these various flowers that go to make
up this beautiful garland, that every little action of yours be a blossom
that goes to make up this garland of life which is offered to God. Therefore
spiritualise your activities. Transform them into acts of Yoga. Feel
His invisible presence at all times. See Him immanent in all this creation,
indwelling all these names and forms and thus make your life itself
a grand process, an integrated process, a concerted movement, towards
God-experience. Love mankind. Worship God. Think of Him ceaselessly.
Remember Him in the midst of all activity and morning and evening set
apart some time and enter into your Self. Forget the external. Forget
the body. Forget time and enter into your Self and be stayed in the
Divine, calm, peaceful with true devotion and love. Contemplate. Meditate
upon God and thus refresh yourself, recharge yourself spiritually and
come and carry on your activities and again in the night once again
enter into God. Thus attain Self-realisation. Serve all. Love the Supreme
and worship Him daily and do this in an intensified interior form by
meditating upon Him regularly every day and ever seek through all the
moments of your life to enter into a spiritual realisation of the Supreme
Being. Serve. Love. Meditate. Realise. To bring this great message of
restoring to your religious life the indispensable and most essential
spiritual quality Master lived all his life and worked. He gave a universal
spiritual message. He did not preach so much any particular ‘ism’,
particular religious system, but he rather spread broadcast his message
of the spiritual life, the spiritual quest, without which religion becomes
devoid of true life, it becomes dry, it becomes essenceless.
The essence of religion, therefore, beloved brethren, is the quest
after God and the experience of God. May your theology indeed become
a living and vibrant process of attaining living personal experience
of God, the true inner spiritual experience of God. Knowledge of God
in the lesser sense is the basis for it. Build upon this basis of the
Knowledge of God, the superstructure of God-experience and thus become
blessed. May your life be crowned with this glorious experience. In
this very body, before you quit this frame, may you be established in
God-consciousness. In that same consciousness in which our Lord Jesus
the Christ was, where He knew Himself as the Son of the Father, which
was not merely a statement, but He knew in the deepest depths of His
being that He was the Son of the Father. May you all have this consciousness
‘I am the Son of the Supreme Father’ and thus make yourself
supremely blessed. Become a light unto yourself and become a light unto
all beings. That is my humble prayer at the feet of the God and that
is my earnest urge to one and all of you. Live to seek and to attain
God. Live to love and serve man and fuse both of these loves of man
as well as God into a great all-consuming love which makes you forget
your self and become a centre to bring joy, bring happiness, bring succour,
bring consolation, bring help and service unto one and all. May your
life be ideal. May your life enter into a state of perfection in God-experience.
God’s Grace ever be upon you all. May the blessings of all saints
of the East as well as the West, ancient as well as modern, past as
well as the present be upon you and the earnest prayers of this humble
servant will always be with you. May your life be radiant with spiritual
virtues, may your life be vibrant with spiritual love for God, in the
quest for God and may your life become luminous and radiant with God-experience.
Three things are very difficult to obtain in this mortal world,—birth
as a human being, desire for liberation and association with the wise
ones,—and they are obtained only through the blessings and grace
of God. Of the three, human birth is a very precious gift that has been
put first and foremost. Because, it is that state of existence where
alone the Jiva becomes endowed with intellect and the extremely rare
faculty of discrimination,—Nitya-Anitya-Vastu-Viveka. Therefore,
human birth is put down as a very rare gift of God and, having got a
human birth, if you do not have a yearning to attain that state which
will bestow upon you eternal bliss and immortality, it means that you
do not utilise this human birth to any purpose at all. Then your existence
becomes patterned as of the animals. Eating, drinking, sleeping and
sensual pleasure are common things to man and animals, but that which
distinguishes man is his idealism, his earnest desire for attaining
something higher than mere material existence. We know that there is
a higher thing to be attained and we have also a keen desire to become
free from the imperfections of this physical life. And then comes association
with the wise. Even after getting these two,—human birth and desire
for liberation,—our life becomes clouded in an illusion, clouded
in unfruitful endeavour, because we do not know what is right endeavour.
And that right endeavour is given to that blessed man who has this third
gift, which obviates the obstacles on the path. If we surrender ourselves
unto God, He shows us the path, He is able to give us inspiration, enthusiasm,
courage, when temptations beset us on the path. We have been endowed
with all these three blessings. And the fourth also, i.e., the mind
should say, “All right.” There is no devil except the mind
of man. It is the representative of Maya, Mara or Ahrimn—something
that stands as an obstacle on the path of God-realisation. So, the mind
should be propitious. You may have Devakripa (grace of God), Gurukripa
(grace of Guru) and Sastrakripa (grace of scriptures), but the mind
also should cooperate.
We are here to progress day by day towards the highest ideal and, therefore,
it is very blessed a day and very auspicious an occasion, when we start
regular classes upon the theory and practice of meditation and all aspects
of Sadhana and on how to spiritualise all our activities. We do meditation
in the morning and in the evening, but during our activities and dealings
with others during the day we show petty-mindedness and selfishness.
That obstructs our Sadhana and nullifies the benefit of our meditation.
Penelope, the wife of Ulyses, had during her husband’s absence
many suitors, but she did not want to become the wife of any other man.
She was a faithful and loyal lady. She, therefore, told her suitors
that she was preparing a fabric and until the fabric was finished, she
would not accept anyone. They agreed. Everyday she went on knitting
and, at night she used to undo the work till Ulyses appeared. This sort
of ‘undoing’ should not happen in our life. Whatever we might
have practised in the morning and evening,—we should not add to
it any undivine element. If, during our actions, we forget our essence,
if we are harsh, if we criticise, if we are dishonest,—all these
things will undo whatever Sadhana we have done in the hours of meditation,
and, therefore, our external physical life and activity, our speech
and actions, have closely to keep up and further the spirit of our meditation,
worship and Sadhana. Therefore, in order to keep up Sadhana, it is very
essential that we not only confine our Sadhana to the quiet hours, but
divinise all our actions. All our deeds should express our real, inner
nature. They should all become spiritualised. Therefore, this divinisation
of all activities is given in Karma Yoga. Everyone must know this, whether
he is a Dhyana Yogi, Bhakta or a Vedantin. Karma Yoga is very difficult.
You can have a very ideal Bhava (pure feeling) when you are alone, but
when you come into clash with hard realities, then, in the world of
diversities, to keep up harmony, to express only divinity, selflessness,
is a hard job. But it is worth the while. Because it will make other
Yogas fruitful. In the case of the man who lives an ideal life, full
of self-sacrifice, sweetness,—one Mala of Japa that he does is
equal to ten thousand Malas done by other people, because his nature
is ready and purified by divine activity. But if the nature is full
of Kama (desire), of Krodha (anger), etc., even if you do meditation,
the field is not prepared, it is not fruitful. One wonders, “Why
am I not progressing?” Because you are contradicting your Sadhana
in your active life. An aspirant must be wise. He should know where
the pot is leaking. Otherwise, when the pot is leaking you go on filling
it. It is useless. So you must know where the pot is leaking. For this,
you have to know the art of Karma Yoga.
You will have a practical knowledge of these things in the classes
of the Ashram. Once there was a king who had three skulls, and he asked
his Court-Pandit as to which of them was the best. The Pandit passed
a rod through one ear of the first skull, and the rod came out of the
other ear. In the second skull, the rod, when inserted through one ear,
came out of the mouth. In the third skull the rod which was inserted
through one ear went right into the chest. The Court-Pandit said that
the third skull was the best. The first skull represents that type of
people who hear wisdom through one ear and, without assimilating it,
leave it through the other ear and forget about it. The second skull
represents those people who, after receiving wisdom, are anxious to
teach it to others, but do not practise the wisdom themselves. This
is the second class of people. The third skull represents the best type
of aspirants, who after hearing wisdom, keep it in their hearts and
try to practise it in their everyday-life. So, I would request you all
to be like the third skull, cherishing and practising whatever you may
learn from your association With the wise, the saints and the sages,
May God bless you all!
The theory of Ayurveda is that the root of disease is not in the body,
but in the mind, and this disease which is the cause for the outward
physical disease they named by a very significant term. The disease
of the body they called Vyadhi and the mental cause, the root of these
physical diseases, they called Adhi. At first disease comes, and from
that springs a second disease and then the actual effect is abuse of
one’s own vital energy, the vital life-force. Abuse of the vital
life-force brings about certain conditions in the body which cause disease.
The ancient seers of India interpreted in a very unique way, and not
in the Western way, these body-conditions. They had the theory of Tridoshas
(ailment caused by disbalance of forces) in the Ayurvedic science of
diagnosis of the diseased conditions which manifest as a result of Mala
(dirt) which is in your mind. Your vitality is based upon the three
‘humours’ of the body. They said that such upsetting of the
purity of the mind and the fineness of the vital energy brought about
a state of disbalance of the three humours which constitute the normal
condition of each human being. The theory of these three humours was
not entirely unknown to the medieval type of medicine which they had
in Europe and England. In Europe, I do believe, they had something similar
to Ayurveda and perhaps it had come through Arabia and Greece.
The three humours are the phlegmatic humour, the bilious humour and
the windy humour. These humours are found in a certain proportion in
a normal healthy body and when there is an upset in the vital force
due to abuse and misuse, due to overindulgence, and there is an upset
in the mind due to wrong thoughts and emotions, there comes about a
disbalance in the three humours and then disease conditions begin to
manifest themselves. If due to this imbalance there is a predominance
of the phlegm condition, for instance, then all sorts of phlegmatic
diseases,—bronchitis, lung trouble, coughs, colds, toxins, etc.—come
about. If this disbalance brings about an excess of wind, then rheumatic
diseases such as aches, joint-pains, rheumatism, lumbago, flatulence,
etc., manifest themselves in the body.
It is the imbalance of these three humours which is sought to be set
right by the actual medicine which the Ayurvedic physician gives; but
he says, “I can, with this medicine, but try to bring about once
again a rebalancing of your three humours; but you have to work from
the inside.” So, the first necessity is, of course, complete self-restraint,
and secondly come the emotions. Get rid of all bad emotions. How? Here
the Ayurvedic seers were of real help. They did not know ‘psychology’
as the modern psychologists know it, yet they knew what ought to be
known. They said, “If you want to calm your mind and free it of
all emotions, arouse in it a spiritual wave.” And, to this end,
a physician always prescribed the uttering of such-and-such a Mantra,
or a particular mode of worship to some particular aspect of the Deity,
to be offered in a certain way, in a certain shrine.
Worship, you know, is such a powerful instrument in your life, and
when you once lift up your mind to God, when once you attune your spirit
to the higher Being, that Source from which you have cut yourself off,—which
is the root cause of this great disease called worldly existence, this
human birth,—the mind is completely overhauled. When once again,
in worshipfulness, you attune yourself to the Divine and start repeating
the Mantras, chanting the Divine Name, then the whole of the mental
stuff is put into a state of purity and fineness and that gross condition
which had given rise to these disease symptoms in the physical body
is corrected. So the physician on the outside, from out to within, and
the patient from within, cooperate, and once again the body is restored
to its healthy condition. This, in short, is the theory and system of
health according to the Ayurveda, the fifth Veda, the science of life.
Based upon the first premises that man is Divine, that health is his
natural condition, and that purity and fineness are the prerequisites
of health, Ayurveda has a very interesting declaration. In the Hindu
view of life the individual is supposed to live and work for the four
great attainments,—Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Dharma is fulfilment
of the ethical norm. Artha is the earning of wealth in an honest way
in order to live decently. Kama is the fulfilment of all legitimate
desires that are necessary for a dignified and honest living, one’s
well-being, and also for the well-being of all others with whom one
lives; the fulfilment of all legitimate desires that are not opposed
to the welfare of others. Moksha is, ultimately, liberation in the Divine,
Eternal Freedom in God.
Ayurveda says that for these four aims of life, health is the supreme
and excellent root or basis. Without health, none of these four can
be achieved and, therefore, a proper care of the body is one of the
most important duties to be attended to, and this can be done only by
conservation of the vital energy through moderation, restraint and the
proper refined modification of mind through right thinking, right feeling
and worshipfulness; the proper care of the physical condition through
pure food taken moderately at the proper time and in the proper way,—thoroughly
chewed, taken when you are calm, and with a little rest taken after
it. Try to be moderate, and always take food in a spirit of worshipfulness,
for food is the giver of life as well as the taker of life. It is all-important.
If, thus, through the proper care of your health, the proper conservation
of vital energy, and the right attitude of mind, you are in a state
of good health, how shall you try to attain, also, a prosperous condition
of living? How can you have a fair level of prosperity—which does
not mean the fulfilling of cupidity, of avarice, of greed, or of inordinate
desire, but, within legitimate bounds, to have a comfortable life permitting
calmness of mind, freedom from worry, freedom from agitation and restlessness,
so that you can give your mind and thought to the service of your fellow-men
and to the worship of God, in order to be of use on the outside and
to be of the utmost use to yourself. What are the laws of prosperity?
I am not telling you the secrets of becoming prosperous, but I am telling
you the law of prosperity.
The secret of prosperity, of course, would be to live within your income,
to spend less than what you earn and not to go into debts. That
would be the greatest wisdom in a nutshell! How, then, to be prosperous?
If you earn 150 dollars, spend 149 dollars, then you always have 1 dollar
left. If you would have me make a comment on it, I would say, “Never
get into the instalment system.” If you have cash, then, all right,
purchase things. If you have not the cash, then don’t purchase
them,—go without them.
Yet, there are certain laws of prosperity which also stem from eternal
spiritual truths. If you begin to feel and think lack (want), you experience
lack. If you assert your abundance, then, as the shadow follows the
person, abundance follows you. If you begin to desire, immediately you
admit poverty. Desire is poverty. Desire is a feeling of inadequacy,
and when you begin to desire, you are a beggar already. The secret of
becoming prosperous is to live in conformity with this law of prosperity
and also to live with commonsense.
Once one unconsciously begins to affirm poverty by desiring, then poverty
only becomes the law. To get free of desire is the secret of setting
free the law of prosperity into motion. Why? All plenitude is within
you. There is nothing that you lack, for you are of God, who is All.
He is All-in-All. He is the source of all. In Him there is everything,
and if you know that you are in Him, you have everything, you are in
everything. And it is just to affirm this knowledge, to affirm this
fact of your ever being in Him, who is All-in-All, that is the Master-Key
for making prosperity follow you, as a dog follows its’ master.
After all, you are the master of the whole creation, for you are heir
to the one who is the Master of everything. You lack nothing. All plenitude,
all abundance is your Self. Your True Nature is plenitude. The more
you begin to assert that, to affirm that with perfect confidence, not
as a thing to be, but as a fact that is, prosperity is
yours.
Want and a feeling of poverty is an attitude of the mind. If you have
so much and you feel “I have everything”, then you don’t
want anything else, but if you have so much and yet you feel “I
don’t have it,” then you haven’t anything else. A millionaire
who is always wanting to make ten million or twenty million, is really
a beggar. A cab-driver or a porter who is getting, say, 3 or 4 dollars
a day, and says, “That is quite enough for me. My pocket is always
full,” is greater than the millionaire. He is richer, more wealthy
than the millionaire, for he has not the nagging feeling of lack and
want and the beggarly attitude of desire.
So, the inner secret of the true law of prosperity is to affirm your
plenitude, to affirm your abundance and live in that ever-present condition
of lacking nothing, of having God, and, therefore, of having everything.
This is the only way. This is the only secret, and the moment you start
affirming it, you will find conditions changing, for, your conditions
are the product of your own thoughts. The ultimate factor, the vital
factor that goes to make up all your life is your thoughts. They are
as much tangible and substantial as bricks that pile up and become a
big mansion. They can build your whole life. They can create any condition
in your life. They can even create the condition of your own health
if the proper thought is thought. Just as a human being catches hold
of something and mounts it, even so proper thought has the power to
build up cell by cell; broken cells can be built up. Anything that has
been destroyed in you can be built up by the proper thought and, in
the same way, the wrong type of thought can destroy whatever is whole
and make it diseased.
The power of thought is something that stems right from you, from the
very soul, because it is nearest to You, and the soul-force is beneath
and behind all thought-force, and the affirmation of your true condition
overcomes all conditions that are foreign to you, that are not natural
to you.
To this end, contentment is the true secret of affirming your abundance.
Whatever comes, feel full. If it is 1 dollar, feel as though it were
a million, and if it is 10 dollars, feel as though it were ten millions.
Once you have contentment, there is nothing that can make you unhappy,
and if you don’t have contentment, nothing can make you happy.
The secret of prosperity is to affirm your true, abundant nature, the
true fact of your plenitude. Be content and put a notice on your mind:
“No admission for any desire.” “Desire—Get Out!”
The moment desire arises, just reject it, and then you will begin to
experience that the desired object comes, by itself, to you. The moment
you turn away from it, it follows you by itself. This is an eternal
law. This is a law which has been proved in the life of all those who
have discovered it and applied it to themselves; the more you desire,
the more does your want increase. Let this theorem be in your mind;
let it be in your heart.
There is something a little higher even than this. The Hindu believes
that whatever there is in this universe is all the Divine Essence. It
is all God. You may feel that I am repeating the same thing again and
again in all my tales, but Truth cannot be changed, I cannot say that
everything is God today and, for a change, say that all that is not
God tomorrow. Truth is always eternal. It bears even a million repetitions,
for it is never properly taken to heart, never properly lived. Everything
is God. Every force is God. Every phenomenon is God. Every being is
God. Every name and form is God. Everything you experience is only the
Divine Essence in various manifestations, and prosperity is one of the
direct manifestations of the Divine Power as the sustaining force in
this universe. The Divine Power in this Cosmic Process expresses itself
first as a projecting power, a power that brings into being, and then
it acts here upon the threefold time continuum of past, present and
future, as the sustaining power. That which has been brought forth,
it sustains, it nourishes, it protects, it takes care of. You see it
is God, and the cycle closes at the other end. The same power once again
dissolves all that has been brought forth, where it once again reabsorbs
projected phenomena into the original state of non-manifestation.
It is the central portion which is the most important to us,—that
aspect of the Divine Force which protects, sustains, nourishes, takes
care of,—and this it does in various ways. It is present as food
seasons, clouds and rain. It is present as the abundance that comes
out of the earth, the fertility of the earth, and it is also present
within us as the gastric fire that digests food and nourishes us. It
is also present as all prosperous conditions.
Ultimately, we have to know that the whole of human life is being directed
by God. Here is the inner guardian of the whole universe. He is the
inner director of the entire cosmos, and He is the one who is guiding
your life. In every moment of your life He is bringing about conditions,
so if you fulfil these conditions of honouring the law of prosperity,
of honouring the manifestation of God in these various forms.
For a Sadhaka mind is the arch-enemy in the unfoldment of spiritual
consciousness. It is the mind that acts as the greatest barrier in its
various aspects, as craving, Vikshepa or unsteadiness, etc. If the mind
is absolutely steady, the light of the Atman gets itself fully reflected.
Ahamkara (ego), the self-arrogating little personality never allows
us to realise our essential nature. The process of remembrance (Smriti)
is also a great obstacle. Avichara-Buddhi alone with the above various
aspects of the mind taken together, is a great slayer of the Atman.
The Atmic consciousness is not allowed to manifest itself. There is
an irresistible tendency for thought to become translated into action
and every action becomes a habit in the nature of man, and when habits
are constantly indulged in they become part and parcel of his nature.
All behaviour of man is based upon character. Every action becomes
fruitful seed for reaction later on. As he lives, he builds up the whole
superstructure of action which becomes his destiny. So, we find how
the thought of man governs his destiny and also the importance of selected
thought, right thinking and the avoidance of wrong thinking. In the
science of Yoga, the ultimate technique is aimed at the stoppage of
all functions that are the root activities of the mind. But already
we are in the grip of its wide ramifications in the form of likes, dislikes,
imaginations, fancies and thoughts. Therefore, before we proceed to
the root, we have to destroy these ramifications. Suppose you want to
give battle to a lion. First of all you have to travel in the jungle
and ultimately come to its den. Chitta-vritti is the den of the lion
of the mind and you have first to cut all its manifestations in the
form of jealousy, hatred, etc., and the whole host of wrong actions,
which are caused by wrong thoughts, have to be corrected. It is a process
of narrowing down the range of our attack until we come to the target.
So in order to cut the mental functions in its extrovert far-flung
manifestations, sage Patanjali took up the exposition of Yoga and did
it in a very scientific and methodical way. Apart from man’s nature
as a rational being with a gross lower self pulling him downwards, there
is his essential spiritual nature, and in between we have the Buddhiyukta
Manushya, one who is capable of thinking being endowed with a mind.
So in the centre is the being endowed with thinking capacity as distinguished
from the world of subhuman species which cannot think.
Apart from the result of the study of man in his essential nature,
sage Patanjali made a study of man as he is actually composed and he
arrived at the above conclusion. He made the study of the universal
man, not a Hindu or a Mohammedan, but the man constituted as he is all
over when he is created upon earth and will continue to be till the
last day of his existence. He found out that first and foremost, he
is of the nature of pure Existence essentially. Man is the Spirit essentially.
He is a spiritual entity, and this is evident to everyone who thinks.
The ultimate principle in man is his Being. No one can imagine his own
non-being for if you have to imagine your own non-being, there must
be an imaginer to imagine that, and therefore, the imaginer is the ultimate
Being. The ultimate undying principle of man is Being. He IS.
I exist. I am pure Existence, pure Being, Kevala Sat, and this essential
portion of man is the fundamental part of his personality. Sage Patanjali
then found that this fundamental fact is somewhere inside, whereas the
first thing that appears to man when he sees another man is his physical
being.
Our experience of human being is only a certain shape, appearance and
features. So sage Patanjali said, there is the physical, gross sheath
of man. That is one aspect of man and within this there is the thinking
man. There is the mental aspect of being, the mental sheath. Ideation
occurs, thoughts come, and the being begins to think and out of the
thought the body is made to act in order to give expression to the thought.
The entire life of man is an expression of his thoughts, and these expressions
are in the form of various actions, and so there is the thinking man.
He said that in between these there is a link. Between the thinking
man and the acting man there is the power to act. There is a peculiar
invisible, internal electricity, as it were, which makes a man act.
This power which animates the human being, without which all the senses
will be absolutely incapable of any activity, is Prana Sakti. The eye
sees through the power of Prana. The ear hears through the power of
Prana. The tongue speaks through the power of Prana.
At the time of death when the Prana is withdrawn, the process of departure
commences. Death means the flying away of the Prana from the body. So
actually we are all moving and talking corpses only. When the Prana
goes away, we will become absolutely immobile, because the Prana is
moving the body, is acting, eating, enjoying, etc. All this is due to
Prana Sakti. This is the third aspect of man and behind it as the mover
of all is the pure Self, ‘I am.’ But a peculiar confusion
has occurred. You have got yourself identified with the mind, and you
have thought yourself to be part and parcel of the mind, though in rare
moments unconsciously you assert your unattached, witness-nature. When
you say, ‘My mind is restless,’ you unconsciously admit that
you are one and the mind is something which you possess. So you are
different from the mind when you make such statements as ‘My mind
is restless,’ ‘I cannot control my mind,’ etc. These
are the spontaneous expressions of your real nature. So physical body
sheath, vital Pranic sheath and mental sheath,—these three aspects
of the being are temporary, passing, superficial and the non-essential
aspects of the being, and the essential aspect is Being itself. You
are yourself the pure Existence unborn, eternal and ancient—Ajo
Nityah Sasvatoyam Puranah. Long before the mind manifested itself
you were. The study of man as he is in reality, as a centre of pure
Being covered up by mind-sheath, Pranic sheath and the grossest physical
body sheath is the process called the practice of Yoga. Hence Yoga is
the only way to realise one’s real nature.
The scriptures contain the revelations of sages who have communed with
God, from whom they have derived a knowledge higher than the knowledge
of physical things. This knowledge they have given in the form of scriptures.
All the experiences and revelations and deep inner knowledge derived
through meditation and superconscious state have been put down in the
various scriptures—the Upanishads, etc. They contain the recorded
experiences of the ancient sages who have established themselves in
a higher spiritual realm through their determined effort, having tapped
the Source Eternal of all knowledge. They are the books which reveal
the knowledge of eternal verities. They are the texts whose declarations
hold good for all times. They cannot be changed. They give us the wonderful
knowledge of the ways of living in a divine way, so that we can transcend
life in matter. They give us the secret of Sadachara (spiritual living).
All these can never be found in any other books. How to awaken the divinity
within us and how to progress higher towards spiritual development cannot
be learnt from books of law, medicine, or books on business, etc. To
work out the eternal destiny of your soul, you have to go to books other
than the college texts and other than the books that fill the ordinary
library. You have to go to the spiritual books and the lives of saints,
which have within themselves the gems of the truths of life. And therefore,
Svadhyaya (sacred study) is a golden key that opens for us the doors
of the treasury of eternal wisdom, the treasury of spiritual knowledge
which guides the aspirant in the path of perfection and immortal life.
Let us see what is the psychological value of Svadhyaya—scriptural
study,—and also its practical value, what man can gain from Svadhyaya
in his usual life. It has a very deep and intelligent reason. We know
that every experience our mind comes to have at once takes in the impression
of it and leaves a mark on itself. These marks become the seeds, and
you know how the nature of the mind changes according to Vasanas (impressions)
that it goes on acquiring. All these things were taken into account,
and the sages said that if man is to progress at all and overcome unfavourable
Vasanas, some methods should be devised to counter these Vasanas that
are coming into his mind in his daily life. For countering these Vrittis
(psychic impressions) they have given us Svadhyaya.
Svadhyaya works in somewhat this way. Supposing you drive a nail in
a log of wood and you subsequently find that it is not wanted there.
Instead of tugging it, you hold another nail and go on driving the second
nail. The previous nail will come out and in the same process the second
will have gone into the plank. Something like that,—instead of
trying everyday to pull out and throw out every single Vasana which
involves a lot of nervous energy, you do Svadhyaya. Everyday in the
morning and in the evening you try to contact the bygone personalities
of different ages, sublime spiritual personalities, whose words have
got a power, for they spring out of actual experience. They are transforming
words. So you place yourself in direct contact with these masterminds
whose living experiences fill the pages of these scriptures. When you
read a scripture you forget the material world and you are in a world
of ideas springing from experience, and the power of spiritual illumination
is behind the words of the sages who have given out the scriptures.
Svadhyaya means, therefore, sitting before the authors of the scriptures—Valmiki,
Vyasa, etc. It is a kind of Satsanga (company of the divine). You place
yourself enraptured with the great ones who are illumined with the radiance
of Self-realisation, when you sit in Svadhyaya. These personalities
are not dead and gone. They are not extinct. They have become one with
the eternal Spirit and therefore their personality is eternal. It does
not perish. Their personality is not like the personality of ordinary
men, which changes at death. Thus you establish contact with the sages
who are present invisibly. You get the company of the illumined by reading
their books.
Svadhyayanma pramadah—says the Upanishad. “Never disregard
Svadhyaya”. The sages have given us this precious process of Svadhyaya,
so that we may have contact with the greatest master-minds. As you go
on doing Svadhyaya, if you deeply get merged in that particular book,
your thoughts become completely fixed upon divinity. That itself is
a sort of Savikalpa-Samadhi (superconscious state) with the feeling
of awareness, for at that time all worldly ideas are shut off from the
mind and there is absorption of the mind in the spiritual ideas. As
you constantly do this Svadhyaya, what happens? These ideas you take
into the mind; sentiment is created by these inspired ideas and your
mind is filled with a whole wealth of spiritual ideas. Everyday, in
Svadhyaya, you take in enlightening, higher, inspiring spiritual ideas
which give you courage during your moments of depression. Supposing
you are depressed, Svadhyaya elevates you, invigorates and gives you
everyday the spiritual manna of the soul. It is the food which
you take for the soul.
From morning till night, you are in a worldly atmosphere (Vyavahara).
So many ideas and so many impressions are formed. So, in the evening
you should do Svadhyaya which will drive out all secular impressions.
They are never given a chance to stay. So the one practical utilitarian
effect of Svadhyaya is the taking in of spiritual ideas, so that the
worldly ideas may be overpowered by the latter. And, secondly it is
a great help in concentration and meditation. How? I will give you an
analogy. Now, our aim is to make our mind firmly established in a single
spiritual idea. That is the idea in prayer and in all worship, so that
the mind can ultimately get itself fixed in a single thought. But the
mind always thinks about various undesirable things.
In ordinary unregenerate man, the mind is full of all kinds of sensual
and carnal thoughts. All thinking is about objects of this world. He
does not know whether anything exists beyond what he can smell, touch,
etc. Suppose you begin to realise that these are not for your real progress
and elevation, then, you try to think good thoughts and hold on to pure
ideas. Sometimes good thoughts come in, and other times bad thoughts.
The mind is like a fly which sometimes sits upon good objects and sometimes
even upon spit. Thus your mind alternates between various things. But
the honey-bee always sits upon flowers. It never sits upon dirt. So
the mind has to be weaned away from the first stage of a fly and then
it should be weaned away from the stage of a bee and finally established
in a higher position. It is this that Svadhyaya does. It binds down
the mind only to elevating thoughts. It does not give chance for the
mind to entertain bad thoughts. The mind takes in only what is repeatedly
presented to it. In the beginning, the mind will revolt. But later on,
when you begin to get a taste, without Svadhyaya you would not like
to take food. It becomes an essential part of man. It is food for the
real being. When this habit is formed spiritual ideas only begin to
dominate the field of our mental consciousness. That is the deep inner
psychological working of Svadhyaya.
‘Occult Phenomenon’, we are told, is anything that is hidden,
not easy to observe, something secret of mystic. Here we are concerned
with a reference to these Phenomena as occurring in Yoga. Great ones
pondered over life in the world with its bondage, imperfection, its
restlessness and peacefulness, its pain, suffering and sorrow, its various
miseries characterising this earthly life and came to the conclusion
that there must be some permanent state beyond this changing phenomenon.
The technique evolved for this process of achieving fulfilment and perfection
is named ‘Yoga’.
Yoga is an intensified effort for communion and in this intensified
effort to pack into a short span of a few years or one’s lifetime
all the experiences that the evolving individual would otherwise have
had to go through over a much longer period of time, very unusual appearances
and unusual phenomena are frequently brought about. By the one who does
not realise what is taking place within the consciousness of the individual,
these things are looked upon as extraordinary; but the one who understands,
knows exactly why they have come about. It is not in the lives of all
seekers, of all practitioners of Yoga that one comes across these phenomena,
but only in the lives of these who go all out for Yoga with every cell
and nerve-fibre, with all their heart, all their mind, all their might,
and with a sole dedication to the life of Yoga.
During the process of this evolution this unfoldment, various transformations
and changes come into the individual upon five different levels of his
being. On the physical level various changes and experiences are seen.
Upon the psycho-mental level (the mind and the Prana) certain changes
take place, certain abilities come as a natural course, and certain
phenomena are witnessed, both subjectively, by some, and objectively,
by others. Thirdly, on the astral level, which is still inward from
the mind (the astral body is the repository of all countless mental
seed-impressions, Samskaras, with which it leaves the body at physical
death and travels on and takes another physical body), certain other
phenomena take place. Fourthly, you have your spiritual level and with
spiritual unfoldment you begin to experience many of these inner experiences.
Here it is more subjective and it is the seeker alone who is aware of
what is going on inward and others are not able to know, for, it is
in a finer realm, much deeper in the depths of his being. The fifth
is the highest level of Super-Consciousness. It is Universal Consciousness,
God-consciousness, and upon this level the phenomena that are witnessed
are the true miracles as we know them. Jnanins (Saints and Sages) operate
upon this level and whatever is witnessed in their life is the manifestation
of the glow and the power of this supreme level of Cosmic Consciousness
or Divine Consciousness. They do them not as an individual, but as a
Divine Being. Upon all these five levels occult phenomena are witnessed.
When the practice of Yoga is started in earnest, even the physical
processes like the Yogic postures and breathing exercises or a little
attempt at concentrated attention on the breath in Pranayama, it may
bring various mystical experiences. If one honestly tries to practise
Asanas (postures) and keeps on with this practice until one acquires
what is known as ‘victory over posture’, (Asana Jaya or ‘victory
over posture’ is a Yogic term which means one is able to sit absolutely
motionless and steady for a period of three hours without a break),
extraordinary sensations may be experienced from time to time. Yoga
means the ascending into purity. We are given the Yogic division of
all things in the universe into Sattva (that which is of purity, light
and harmony), Rajas (that which is of passion, restlessness and movement),
and Tamas (that which is of lethargy, darkness and ignorance). Through
activity and passion, gaining control by will and discrimination, we
rise to a state of absolute harmony, light and purity, and when this
process is going on there come about changes in the body cells, and
also changes in the psychic energy through the various inner currents
or channels (‘Nadis’ as they are called). When this happens,
a new nerve-current, which hitherto has been inactive, is set into motion
by the prevalence of an excess of Sattva in the body, and the body,
reacts and sometimes ‘jerks’ are experienced.
On the psycho-mental level it is a very common experience of those
who have done a little sincere seeking (whether they have known it by
the name of ‘Yoga’ or just been seeking and have been practising
certain physical exercises without even having heard about Yoga) to
find that they have developed certain abilities. The most common of
these abilities (inner occult experiences) is thought-reading. You may
be talking to someone and before he speaks out you know what he is going
to say. You may pick up a telephone and say something and it happens
to be exactly what the other person is thinking about, and when talking,
you anticipate the other person’s mind. It is telepathy, but it
is spontaneous rather than developed telepathy. You begin having contact
with the workings of other people’s minds, unconsciously, and even
when you are exercising it, you are not aware of so doing. This spontaneous
telepathy just happens and it is the first and the most common of occult
phenomena and is on the mental level.
The second is clairvoyance, which is also common. Many people are able
to see things that are far away. In clairaudience, you may suddenly
be put into a state where you are able to hear someone who is talking
two hundred miles away.
These are in lower levels. When one’s Prana becomes refined and
one’s mind purified, these phenomena come naturally and often one
is not aware of them, and some, even though aware of them, do not know
that they are extraordinary and take these powers for granted. When
a thing grows very slowly and gradually in a person, that person is
not conscious that it is unusual and thus takes it for granted. These
are all the primary powers in Yoga and they come much more rapidly.
Personal magnetism comes when your evolution goes still further, and
when from the psycho-mental level, a little unfoldment of the astral
level takes place the development of other powers begins. The power
of healing and that of instantly subduing a person are upon the astral
level. They are powers which are not exactly on the spiritual level
and they begin to develop even when you are progressing very little.
These powers on the three levels, viz., mental level, psycho-mental
level and astral level, do not necessarily have any direct connection
with the Yogic way of life. One can have all these powers sheerly by
pure effort. If the necessary effort with determination is made, one
can develop them. In Yoga they come through purification and in the
other case they come through will-power. Without observing any of the
principles of Yoga, certain persons possess these powers. They are plain
and pure occultists who have made these, such as hypnotism and mesmerism,
their main vocation. The powers they have developed in this way do not
indicate the evolution of their nature or any progress upon the spiritual
line.
Everyone of us has contact with the Cosmic Mind, for we all belong
to the Cosmic Mind. Our consciousness is a part of the Cosmic Consciousness
and our mind is a part of the Cosmic Mind. Because we are bound up with
our own ego-personality we do not feel this, and when we try to rise
above our ego-personality the channel which connects our mind with the
Cosmic Mind and our consciousness with the Cosmic Consciousness become
more clear and we are able to feel our oneness. When this happens, knowledge
hidden from ordinary minds comes into the possession of such a mind,
and knowledge of the distance, and sometimes even into the future, is
known. This is due to the expansion of consciousness when a certain
level of development is reached, when the spiritual being within is
activated and the spiritual nature awakened.
This whole projected universe has come out of the subtle elements which
are the first evolutes. The subtle elements are Earth, Water, Fire,
Air and Ether, Ether being the most subtle. From this subtlest essence
these grosser manifestations have later developed, which make the visible
Universe. The source of these gross and material elements is invisible—purely
subtle—Cosmic. During the course of Yoga, if the Yogi concentrates,
meditates and goes into trance meditation upon one or more of these
subtle elements, ultimately when he is able to do this threefold process
called Samyama, then he gains mastery over these elements. He is able
to travel in space at lightning speed. He is able to withstand either
fire or water because he has complete mastery over these elements at
their very source, and this you will find to be the extraordinary phenomenon
that explains the immutability of certain Yogins. Even when passing
through fire and water they seem to come through unscathed and this
is on account of the Samyama which they did upon these elements.
When your practice takes the form of Kundalini Yoga and you begin the
inner occult process of Hatha Yoga, then with the rise of the power
of the Kundalini from the lower centres (Chakras) into the higher mystical
Centres, which are in the occult body of each being, there arise various
extraordinary powers and various experiences to the seeker.
By the practice of all paths of Yoga, viz., Karma Yoga (Selfless Service),
Bhakti Yoga (Path of Devotion), Jnana Yoga (Path of Knowledge) and Raja
Yoga (Control of senses and mind through Yogic discipline), and through
purity the dormant powers in the various Centres (Chakras) become manifest.
Through perfection, when you get to the end of Yoga you are endowed
with the eight major Siddhis (Powers) and many minor Siddhis, such as
Anima (the ability to reduce yourself to microscopic proportions). Mahima
(the power of increasing the size at will), Laghima (weightlessness),
Garima (extraordinary increase in weight), etc. For instance when one
attains Laghima—if one is taken to the top of a building and dropped,
one would not fall but would just float to the ground like a wisp of
feather.
All these powers are by-products. They are not the quest of the Yogi.
These powers come also as temptations to test your moral worth and they
are the greatest barrier to Self-knowledge. The possession of these
powers works subtly, so insidiously that, unless you are extraordinarily
introspective and watchful, you may succumb to them and become vain
even without your knowledge. This type of subtle vanity and egoism is
the greatest danger to the seeker; for it goes to the very root by invading
the ego which is the deadliest enemy of the seeker, and anything which
increased this ego is the very antithesis of God. If one is not vigilant
these powers divert one from God, take him away from the straight path
and puff up his ego.
All Yogic Masters—our Master, Swami Sivananda, one of the greatest
saints that India has produced in recent times, and Sri Ramakrishna,
the Master of Sri Swami Vivekananda who went and gave Yoga and Vedanta
to the West in 1893, and many other saints,—have been absolutely
at one in their opinion regarding this matter. Right from the beginning
of the spiritual path they say: “Beware of psychic powers. Beware
of occult powers.” If you get caught in their fascination you are
lost. Your spiritual life is destroyed and all your Yoga will simply
go away, and when you lose Yoga once, it becomes very, very difficult
to regain it. They say, “Shun occult powers as you shun poison,”
and they are indeed poison to spiritual unfoldment.
These powers might have their place in the case of those Masters who
have the special task of guiding seekers bringing people to God, to
the path. Sometimes the Masters make use of these powers to induce faith
in a seeker who is ready for the path but the lack of faith is holding
him back, and sometimes they help even common people.
But in the Case of aspirants, who are our concern, these occult powers
can become the greatest of corrupters, the greatest of obstacles for
all true seekers. They are not true and they have no ultimate value,
no inherent worth. Therefore, my ultimate conclusion is do not run after
shadows, but hold on only to the substance. Do not go after the chaff;
go only after the grain that nourishes and gives life. Live only for
the Lord. Love only God, and seek and be in quest with absolutely one-pointedness
and whole-heartedness for the great Reality—God and God alone.
May the Love of the Divine fill your hearts! May the blessings of all
great Masters ever keep the light of discrimination and true awareness
bright in your heart. May they guide you on the path. May they give
you the true understanding. May they give you the inner spiritual strength
to overcome the lure of all petty powers that seek to divert you from
the path.
We are children of Bharatavarsha; and we are heirs to the lofty sublime
Upanishadic lore. The clarion call which we have been hearing, running
down the centuries from the lofty pinnacles of the Upanishadic wisdom
and experience has been Ekam Sat vipra bahudha vadanti and again
Ekameva advitiyam Brahma, thus authoritatively, from the force
of their living experience, establishing the fact of the unity of Godhead.
God is one: sages declare boldly, because they know Him to be so. They
know Him; they feel Him; and they delve into a cosmic experience of
oneness. Living this experience, they declare from the pinnacles of
their Upanishadic realisation and wisdom: Ekam Sat—the Truth,
the eternal Reality, the great Existence, the Being, is one and there
is no second to it.
This great heritage is ours. To declare once again this great assertion
of unity, to create waves of this feeling of unity, and to take this
message of the unity of the ultimate Being to every nook and corner
of the universe, into the hearts of all, would be the best way of being
worthy of this birthright, this heritage of ours.
Existence being one, mankind is also one; for uniformity is the law
of the universe in its inner aspect. Externally, variety or diversity
is the law of nature. But in its inner aspect, uniformity or unity is
the fact of life. Let us illustrate this in a very simple but clear
manner. Take all the forms of life. Take all the elements in the external,
visible, physical universe. Take all the various species of created
things. You will find that they are one everywhere upon earth.
The sky is the same everywhere, whether it is the Christian land, the
Muslim land, the Buddhist land or the Chinese land or the Japanese land.
Water is the same; earth is the same, sunshine, the wind, the trees
and the forests, light and darkness, sun, stars and moon—in all
the forces of nature, there is absolute unity, absolute oneness, sameness,
uniformity, similarity, all over this universe.
We have infinite variety in the submarine species; but fish is the
same in all the oceans, be it the Pacific or the Atlantic or the Indian
ocean. Flies, mosquitoes, ants, birds and insects—conceive of what
you will, you will find that they are essentially one and the same everywhere.
Banana in India may slightly differ from banana in South Africa or America;
but the species banana is the same. Of course, because externally variety
is the law of nature, banana may differ in different parts of India;
in some places during different seasons. But, all over the world, ever
since creation began, through all the centuries past, and into the future
also, these species of the creation have been and will be the same.
They are one everywhere. Thus, you will find, as you study nature, that
oneness or unity is quite an inescapable fact, the inevitable law.
The same law holds good in connection with man also. Mankind is one.
The species of homo-sapiens is one. The unity of mankind is a fact from
which there is no escape. We have to accept it. Observation irresistibly
drives us to the conclusion.
On the one side we have this unity of mankind all over the universe;
at the other side, we have utterances of sages, Ekameva advitiyam
Brahma: God is one. Thus the two terminals being established in
unity, the field which is between them, the field of their interaction,
and interrelation, this life and the processes of their experiencing
and relationship, which we name religion, also has naturally to be one.
This, too, has to be governed by that law. Absolute unity has to partake
of the nature of oneness. Thus when we go into the fact of religion
from this observation and from this attitude, or point of view, we are
drawn to the conclusion that whatever the apparent external differences
of religions may be, yet the process of religion has necessarily to
be one and the same.
Now taking this inference, let us proceed to examine it and see if,
in fact, this inference is correct. Let us try to see if actually the
process of religion is of the nature of unity. It is so. Any process
may be regarded to have three aspects. Everything is done with a purpose.
There is a motive force behind the actual process of technique.
There is an ultimate objective which this process strives to
achieve. These three aspects in the matter of religion ultimately seem
to be this. What is the motive behind the existence of religion? It
is a desire to escape from the vexing trammels of this earthy existence.
Examine all religions. They may have risen from a single human personality,
a prophet with divine inspiration, or the religion may be some eternal
law coming down to us from a time which is beyond the reach of historical
survey. We will find that, whatever be the nature of the religions now
existing amongst mankind upon this earth, at the basis, the motive
force is to free man from the torments that beset this severely
limited physical existence, this mortal life upon earth which is full
of miseries, pains, sorrows, disappointments, diseases, death, separation,
grief, loss, which the Hindu religion named Tapatraya; the chief
aim is to escape from the menace of death and to get beyond sorrow,
to attain a state beyond sorrow, beyond pain, beyond all imperfections,
defects, limitations and bondage—that is the motive of all religions.
The ultimate destination it promises for the believer, one who
practises and lives a life of religion, is a state where the being is
free from all pains, from all wants. Everything is fulfilled there.
There is no feeling of want. There is complete cessation of sorrow.
There is no more pain or death. The fear of death goes away. Each religion
promises this end in its own way. We have the Pleasure Gardens of the
Islamic conception of heaven. We have an eternal state of glory by the
throne of God on High where man is once for all free from all trouble,
pain, sorrow and death, according to the conception of the Christian.
There is the Supreme Nirvana, infinite, ineffable Peace, that is reached
by the Buddhist. There is the Bliss of Satchidananda where man becomes
immortal, free from all fear, full of light, full of eternal bliss as
conceived of by the Upanishadic religion. Every religion ultimately
points to infinite peace, eternal bliss, all-light, as the final beatitude.
The process of religion is the freeing of man from the factors which
bind him down to this earthy existence of pain and death. The process
is to free him from these factors. If unrighteousness is the factor
for suffering, then be righteous. Give up Adharma. If through untruth
man is to be bound to this vexing mortal life, and has to pay a heavy
penalty in suffering and pain, then abandon falsehood; be truthful.
If by being cruel, you will reap a harvest of pain, torment and suffering,
cast away cruelty or Himsa and embrace Ahimsa.
Be good, be kind, be compassionate. Thus the process of religion develops
in a scientific way by studying the causative factors of this earthly
life and its pains and sorrows and torments: they insist that by living
a life of practical religion you can remove all these causative factors.
Lead the life carefully in such a way that you do not commit these things
which result in this painful existence. Thus they wean man away from
the indulgence to the play of his Asuric, sinful nature, the Pasu in
him, the animal in him.
The process of religion slowly works out a scheme of life for man,
and he is made to bring into manifestation, into active expression,
all these lofty, life-transforming elements of the divine aspect of
his being to overcome the animalistic aspect and progressively unfold
the divine element that is already part and parcel of his innermost
consciousness. Man is made in the image of God; therefore, godliness
is the essential factor of his real being. Therefore, the external operations
of the undivine nature have to be completely removed and cast away,
thereby giving full scope for the perfect manifestation of the Divine
Svarupa in him.
With the unfoldment and the blossoming of the divine Consciousness
in man, he becomes at once a powerful link with the infinite divine
existence, Satchidananda. Thus the unity which has been for the time
being veiled, as it were, by ignorance—by Mala, Avarana and Vikshepa,—is
re-established. This comes from the fullness of experience and culmination
of religious practice which is the discovery of the eternal unity with
Godhead. These three factors of the basic purpose, the process and the
goal or end in view also would be found to be absolutely the same in
all religions.
No religion wants you to be tied down to this earthly life. All religions
have as their goal the reaching of perfection, freedom and immortality.
All religions also have the same process in their essence, whatever
may be the differences in the details, and they all want the complete
annihilation of the lower self, the animalistic part of man, and the
progressive unfoldment of his divine nature, until the unmanifest becomes
manifest, the latent becomes potent, and man who is made in the image
of God partakes once again the infinitude of his real nature. All religions
are at one in this ultimate goal.
Religions have come either from eternal wisdom enshrined in scriptural
texts like our Upanishads and Vedas, or from some great persons inspired
by God. If we go to the source—after all what flows out from these
can best be judged from the source from which they have flowed out—and
seek out Jesus, Mohammed, Zoroaster, Krishna and Buddha and examine
the lives of all these great fountain-heads of the various faiths in
the world, we will find that by their practical example, through their
exemplary life, they have shown us what is really the very soul of the
religion.
Here, again, the glorious sublime unity is found; for all seers depicted
in themselves, in a most splendid manner, the good life, the life of
absolute purity, of infinite compassion, and of sweet love. This is
what lay enshrined in the divine personalities of Mohammed, Christ,
Buddha, Zoroaster and all the great sages. They were the very incarnations
of love, goodness, compassion, purity, wisdom, non-attachment and brotherhood.
They were not merely passive embodiments of these qualities, but their
lives were active expressions of these great divine qualities. In every
action and every word they uttered, when they moved among mortals in
the universe, they reflected these qualities. They demonstrated the
practical living of the religion which they later on gave to their followers.
In this demonstration they were all at one. They all lived a godly life.
They all lived love. They radiated purity and they all acted, spoke
and thought with compassion, service and sacrifice.
Let us examine the religions and the prophetic utterances of these
great messengers of God. Is there any religion which tells us ‘Utter
lies; be dishonest?’ No, is the answer. Is there any religion which
says ‘Hate people; develop hatred and anger?’ No, again, is
the answer. Is there any religion which tells you, ‘Be impure.
Be immoral?’ No, is the answer. Every religion, on the other hand,
lays stress upon a life of truth, of absolute purity, of belief in God,
of compassion and tenderness, a life of sacrifice, of goodness in thought,
word and deed, a life devoid of hatred. Every religion has given a way
of life to its followers as the ideal to be followed; in order to
attain the goal; and that way is one and the same. It is a life of
divine qualities. It is a life as practically demonstrated by each
one of these prophets.
Therefore, from whichsoever angle we approach and study the subject
of religion, from whichever angle we see it, we find that religion is
one, all faiths are one and that all prophets have lived the same life
of ethical perfection, divine compassion, goodness and oneness. They
have been inspired by the same vision of fatherhood of God and brotherhood
of mankind. Thus, we find that, however much we may try to close our
eyes to this fact, the oneness in all faiths is proclaiming itself in
a living, irresistible manner through the ideal life lived by these
prophets, through the very motive-force underlying each faith and religion,
through the oneness in the very process that these religious achievements
are to be worked out, and through the ultimate conception of the destination
which each one of these faiths wants its followers to realise.
We have, therefore, always to put before mankind these shining and
unifying links which make all faiths one. These different faiths are,
as it were, so many beautiful flowers that go to make a beautiful bouquet
which we offer at the feet of the Almighty Being. Let us ever remember
these unifying notes that are at the basis of all faiths. Let us ever
try to declare this unity to all mankind so that the external strife,
rivalry and exclusiveness that have been brought about by losing sight
of these fundamental unifying factors, may be once for all removed from
the face of this fair earth and peace and goodwill amongst mankind may
come to prevail for all time.
Sri Krishna has declared in the Gita, ‘As different beings variously
approach Me, even so, according to their approach I reveal Myself.’
Taking this as the great truth, a small analogy will be found to be
a very interesting way of effectively realising the unity of different
religions and faiths.
Different people are travelling; they are all travelling in different
directions. A devotee from Gujarat has got leave from his work;
he wants to pay a visit to Banaras and worship Sri Visvanatha. Another
devotee from Assam has retired and wishes to make a round of pilgrimage
and wants to take a dip at the Dasasvamedha Ghat and worship Varanasipurapati.
A devotee from Calcutta also wishes to worship the great Visvanatha
at Kashi. Someone from Madras is similarly urged to go and worship Sri
Visvanatha at Varanasi. Thus, various people from different parts of
India are travelling towards ‘different’ directions, to different
‘places’. One wishes to go to Varanasi, the other to Banaras,
the other to Kashi, and so on; while the fact is: their destination
is one, though called by different names.
Each one goes his own way. The Chettiar from the South takes a plane
because he is wealthy. The great devotee from Assam does the whole journey
on foot. The man from Calcutta travels by train. The man from Gujarat
may use different means of conveyance. A Sadhu from Rishikesh also goes
to Banaras on foot.
The very important fact which I wish everyone to grasp is this: No
doubt, they are all thinking that they are going to different places
(Varanasi, Banaras and Kashi). Their mode of travel is also different.
Whatever difference there may be in the external way of proceeding,
the process worked out is a progressive approach to that central purpose—to
have Darsana of Visvanatha. Two important things which I want you to
understand are these. One is the misconception of ‘going to different
places’ due to the different names by which they call Banaras.
The second is: they apparently working out a contrary process.
One is moving to South. One is moving towards North. The man from Gujarat
is proceeding Eastward, and the man from Assam is going Westward. They
are all going in opposite directions. And yet they are proceeding
to the same goal!
This will explain how the various faiths which seem to be going in
apparently opposite ways, yet take the followers to the same goal. There
is another important factor. The Chettiar from Madras, during his journey
to Kashi approaches nearer and nearer the Himalayas, his progress towards
the desired place is taking him nearer the Himalayas. Whereas, the Sadhu
from Rishikesh, who is also going to Banaras, goes farther and farther
from Himalayas. Two absolutely contrary processes! But, curiously enough
both achieve the same result.
This analogy illustrates the paradoxical phenomenon of how two processes,
which are seemingly contradictory to each other and seemingly different
in their results, have as their ultimate result a single goal. Each
one has his desire fulfilled, though each man may maintain that he has
done something different from what the other man has done. One may say,
‘I have come to Kashi, travelling northwards.’ Another may
say, ‘I have come to Banaras, travelling southwards.’
Even so, the ultimate goal, sustenance and source of the entire universe,
is God. In reaching Him, souls from different states of consciousness
come towards a single goal, however different and however conflicting
the apparent outward processes in this quest may seem to be. These eternal
differences and seeming contradictions in the eternal structure of the
religious pattern and the practices need not and cannot deny the essential
factor of the unity. Therefore, the best thing to do is not to cling
to our own conceptions conceived of in a limited mind which has not
reached the state of impartial wisdom.
Let us remember the great declaration of the Mahabharata:
‘The Srutis differ; the Smritis also differ. The real essence
of the ancient truth is hidden, as it were, in a cave. You cannot have
direct access to it. Therefore, follow the way through which the great
souls have trodden and gone before us, leaving footprint on the sands
of times.’
The best way for us is to humbly and devoutly study the lives of these
great ones and reckon the ideal examples which they have given us in
their own sublime personalities, and try to mould ourselves upon the
pattern of their ideal lives. This would be the greatest way of achieving
the true consciousness of the absolute oneness of all mankind, the unity
of all religions, and the oneness of all life. Universality, or cosmic
consciousness, can best be achieved only by this way.
Yoga, Its Significance And Importance To Health
(Lecture delivered by the Swamiji at the Hindu Temple, Trinidad,
during the year 1970.)
God-realisation is a heritage and birthright of all mankind for all
times. The saints and sages of yore discovered that the ultimate aim
of human life is to attain Perfection or in other words God-realisation.
And this discovery which they did, by their own quests and struggles,
they later on systematised into a scientific system of attainment. What
they attained through spontaneous struggle, trial and error, as it were,
and progressing from a lesser truth unto a greater truth (this, ultimately
for our benefit), they systematised into a scientific method of self-unfoldment
and attainment—a system, a method, a series of practices, that
lead us from ignorance to the light of knowledge, from death and mortality
to immortality and everlasting life, from sorrow and suffering into
a state of absolute bliss, eternal satisfaction, fearlessness and freedom—(Paramananda
Prapti—Sarvaduhkha Nivritti). This scientific system which
they evolved and handed down to posterity is what we know as Yoga.
These great people, these intrepid researchers in the inner realm of
man’s spiritual being, these great souls could climb over death,
pain and suffering. When they attained that state of realisation and
illumination, they sent forth a clarion-call to man. They said: “O
ye mortals, toiling and weeping in this valley of tears, in this world
of fleeting names and forms, in this world of transitory, changeful,
perishable objects, weep not, fear not! We have found a solution for
this problem of man’s pains and fear of death. We have gone beyond
sorrow and we have experienced a realm of everlasting sunshine, attaining
which man becomes free and liberated, man becomes fearless, and is filled
with bliss and peace. We will show you the way, we declare to you the
way. What we have attained, you also can attain.” So, they addressed
the mankind—not to any particular nation or race, not to any particular
section or any particular religion. They said: “O man, O mortal,
come, come, listen! We declare to you your highest welfare, in short
and brief. We have come face to face with the radiant Being, beyond
death, beyond ignorance, attaining whom one becomes immortal. Brahman,
the Supreme Reality, the Supreme God of all religions, He who is worshipped
as Allah, as Jehovah, as Almighty Father in the Heaven, as Ahuramazda,
as Omkara, He, that Being, the Nameless One,—we have come face
to face with Him. You also can attain Him. Come, come!” Thus these
great people, the towering sages of illumination call upon man.
Yoga is the practical method of attaining this state of supreme blessedness.
Who does not want to overcome sorrow and suffering? Who does not want
to reach a deathless state? One ignores here death itself. Death becomes
a thing to laugh at. Who does not want to attain a state of profound
serenity and peace, away from all the restlessness, agitation, hurries
and tensions and anxieties of life—a profound peace that nothing
can shake and a bliss that is perennial, inexhaustible, that nothing
can change, nothing can take away from one? Is it not the universal
quest of man? Go throughout the world and question any individual. No
matter how much practical difference there may be between man and man,—they
may differ in every respect,—but in this respect all are one. All
want to avoid pain and suffering and sorrow. Everyone wants to attain,
if it is possible, a perfect state of continuous joy, which does not
end, which is not temporary merely, but which is everlasting. This is
a universal quest of all men. No one wants to suffer, no one wants pain
and sorrow—be he an Easterner or a Westerner, a man of Christian
religion or an Islamic, a Hindu or a Buddhist, a Jew or a Parsee, a
Taoist or a Shintoist, a catholic or a communist. Every race, every
caste, every creed, every religion is linked by this universal common
desire to avoid pain and suffering. They want to avoid them and they
want happiness. In answer to this universal hunger of the human being,
human nature, has come to this great solution. Yes, there is an experience,
there is for you an attainment of a plane of consciousness, attaining
which that which you are seeking since birth and that which you fail
to find in this world of temporary names and forms you can find. It
is not an Utopia. It is not phantasy or imagination which is ever beyond
the reach of man. It is a fact. It is a real experience, true and lasting
peace, true and lasting joy, a perfect joy that never goes. It is complete
freedom from sorrow, pain and suffering, and total satisfaction, a feeling
of fullness, a feeling of absolute plenitude. And, as a matter of fact,
this is your real nature. This is your birthright. Man has not been
sent into this world in order to suffer, weep, wail and die. It is left
to your choice: do you want to ever remain in bondage, as a slave of
senses, a slave of desires, a slave of the inner cravings of the mind;
or do you want to break out from this cage of bondage of your lower
self and enter into the realm of absolute freedom, even here? This state
of perfect experience is not something to be visualised in some remote
hereafter, something which you can attain only after you die and pass
away. But this experience is within the reach of anyone who struggles
for it and who is really sincere and honestly strives for it. Here and
now, in this body, in this physical, material realm, it is possible.
That is the goal of Yoga—beatitude, liberation, even in life, Jivanmukti,
the transcendence of sorrow and pain and attaining to a state of serenity
which is not affected by anything outside.
“Samatvam Yoga Uchyate”—come success or failure,
come honour or dishonour, come heat or cold, come sorrow or joy, it
does not matter. Whatever it is, it is not affected. We are always the
same when we attain to a state of divinity, firmness. Then, one’s
inner peace is not affected by anything. The dualities (Dvandvas) that
go to make up what is called life, the ups and downs, they leave the
Yogi who is well-established in Yoga, absolutely unaffected. And if
you want to attain to this state of absolute serenity within, you must
know how to conduct yourself in life. You must move about amidst these
sense-objects, amidst these various vicissitudes of day-to-day life,
with wisdom, with discrimination and inner detachment. Being in the
world, yet be not of the world. Involving yourself in phenomenon, do
not allow phenomenon to entrap you, to ensnare you. Go moving in this
world of sense-objects as a master, not as a slave succumbing to the
temptations of every little fascination and external pull of sense-objects,
colours, sounds and tastes. Always be a master, knowing how to deal
with them, with self-control intact. You must know how to move amidst
these objects, with wisdom, discrimination and skill, in activity, yet
with inner detachment. “Yogah Karmasu Kausalam”—Yoga
is skill in action, not to get into a mess in this life by deluded attachment,
blind infatuation, getting crazy with desires and cravings for sensual
experiences and sense-pleasures. But move to your higher nature, ever
trying to base yourself upon that higher nature, still fully fulfilling
the obligations of life. They should be fulfilled. Do all the duties
that are incumbent upon you according to your particular position in
which Providence has placed you. And yet, maintain your freedom and
integrity in the presence of the outer environment of persons and things.
That is skill in action. This is Yoga; to be in the world, yet not to
be of the world.
If you want to do this, if you want to be detached in the midst of
these alluring objects and if you want to become established in that
‘inner stability,’ you must know the act of disciplining the
mind. Attachment as well as non-attachment, are states of the mind.
To become easily agitated and upset at every little thing, every little
changing occurrence, or to become firm, unagitated, unruffled, serene,—this
is all a question of the state of the mind. Therefore, the disciplining
of the mind and the gradual training of it to attain to that state of
unperturbed serenity through a certain graduated series of techniques,
gradually alters its nature. The nature of the mind is restlessness.
The nature of the mind is agitation. It is always in a state of activity.
Tranquillity is unknown to the mind. Because, that is its very nature.
Just as it is the nature of fire to burn, of water to flow, of the wind
to blow, so it is the nature of the mind to be ever restless, to be
ever agitated. Why? Because it is endowed with a certain percentage
of Rajo-Guna, that quality of agitation, restless activity. The Creator
has made it that way. And so, you have to change the nature of your
mind.
The unstable mind is comparable to quicksilver or mercury. One of the
greatest scriptures of Yoga which describes all the different methods
of disciplining the mind, in one place, makes the statement that it
may ever be possible for a man to control the wind and stop it, but
it is difficult to control the mind. Mind is even more difficult to
control than the wind itself. When this is being told, the great Teacher
tells the disciple: “Thus you must control the mind, make it restful,
bring it into a state of equanimity, direct it towards the Eternal Reality
and meditate upon It. Then, you will overcome all sorrow and suffering.”
The disciple then says: “You are explaining a very nice method.
But I think it is futile for you to explain the method, because this
mind which you ask me to discipline in such a way, to control it, unify
it and direct it in meditation, is impossible to control.” When
the disciple thus counters the Teacher’s position the Teacher does
not totally disagree. He says: “You are right. No doubt, it is
very difficult to control the mind. It is not easy, I do agree. I admit,
because I know. But then, it is not impossible. It is possible to conquer
this almost unconquerable mind. It is very difficult, but it is possible.
And the only way of controlling and disciplining this mind and make
it completely obey you and come to a state of stillness and rest is,
never to give up the effort. This is the only prescription. Keep on
with it. Go on trying, trying, trying. Never give in. There is no word
‘impossible’; in the dictionary of Yoga and a true seeker.
It is sheer persisting and persevering in your attempt, day after day,
without missing a single day. Regularly persisting and persevering in
this discipline of stilling the mind and controlling it and making it
calm brings you to success. But, a word of caution: while you are in
this process of persistent and persevering attempt to control mind,
do not do things in your life which tend to make the mind more restless.
Then, you are defeating your own effort. Here you are in one area of
your lifetime to control the mind, and here you are in another area
of your lifetime, trying to do all things which make the mind even more
restless. Then, you are feeding the fire, putting gasoline in one place,
and pouring water and quenching the fire in another place. This is not
the way. A proverb in South Indian language says: ‘He pinches the
child in the cradle and tries to make it not to cry.’ This is something
which you should not do with yourself. As you are trying to discipline
the mind by daily setting apart some time to sit quietly, dropping thoughts
of the world, internalising your consciousness and trying to be in silence
with the help of visualising your concept of God and the repetition
of the Divine Name, with the help of prayer or a continuous train of
similar thoughts—all of them connected with the centred object,—let
your external, normal, day-to-day life be such that it is helpful and
favourable to this inner discipline that you are trying to progress
in. Let there not be counteracting thoughts in the mind.”
Supposing you are trying to control the mind and at the same time you
are a heavy drinker or a gossip, at the same time you cannot remain
without reading the newspaper from the first column to the last, every
day you want to fill your mind with countless distracting ideas, things
that do not concern you, listen to every programme in the radio, habitually,—what
happens is: you set the mind into motion like a wheel every day. By
doing all these they increase the Samskaras, take on countless impressions
on this fast-moving kaleidoscope, of the phenomenon of the outer world.
Try to turn the mind inwards. Try to lessen unnecessary activities,
things which you are better without. Keep the senses from going too
much into the phenomenon of the outer world. Control your desires and
appetites. Try to see that you do not add fuel to the fire by indulging
in too many sense-enjoyments. That makes the mind restless, because
the more you get into sense-enjoyment, the more the desires are created
in you and the mind becomes ever more restless. Therefore, from one
side you fence the mind by sense-control and from the other side simplify
your life, reduce your wants, limit your desires and engage in this
discipline. Do this persevering discipline, day after day, with unfailing
regularity and at the same time lead the outer life characterised by
restraint, moderation, simplicity and a certain extent of self-denial.
These are all the characteristics of a civilised, cultured human being.
What is the hall-mark of culture? It is the ability to control oneself.
It is the essence of education, it teaches a person to keep himself
under his own self-management, self-government. To be able to become
a self-managed person,—that is the essence of education. It is
the basis of real civilisation. What is the difference between an uncivilised
person and a civilised person? A civilised person is self-managed. He
can control himself. If your outer life is characterised by moderation,
simplicity, self-control, then day by day, your practice, your exercise
and your discipline of the mind begin to bear evidence. They begin to
succeed and progress. And a day will come when you will be established
in the mastery over your mind. When that day of perfect mastery over
your mind comes, it becomes still and unified. This unified mind is
concentrated upon the Eternal Reality. When all the restless thought-activities
of the mind are totally under your control, then, you enter into a state
of Yoga,—“Yogaschittavrittinirodhah” which means
that Yoga is the control of the restless modifications of the mind.
Desire, restless thoughts, anger, envy, jealousy, passion, temper, Raga-Dvesha
(likes and dislikes), hate,—all these modifications of the mind.
Once you are able to discipline and control the mind, then you attain
mastery over your lower nature and its manifestations in the form of
these negative traits. That is to say with the discipline of your mind
you develop character. No more, the mind controls you. You control the
mind. Mind cannot push you and make you become its director.
You have the power to discriminate what is wisdom and what is un-wisdom,
what is worldly and what is un-worldly, what is good and what is not
good, what is noble and what is ignoble. You are able to reject what
is ignoble, unworthy and impure and select and tune that line of action
which takes you up. For, at all moments, day by day, in your own home,
in your own relationships with your own family, in your own professional
field, two ways always present themselves before you. One way is merely
pleasant and very attractive. The other way, elevates you, ennobles
you, leads you towards a higher level of living which, ultimately, takes
you towards your highest welfare. A normal human being, indiscriminating,
without the power to control himself, at every moment, is pulled towards
that which is merely pleasant and attractive. And he becomes a victim
of his own sensual cravings, passions and desires. That is the way of
degeneration. That is the way of greater bondage, greater darkness.
But one who has been disciplining the mind and controlling its vagaries,
is able to discriminate and turn away purposefully and resolutely from
the merely pleasant and the attractive and move towards that which is
good.
That which is attractive and pleasant, does not necessarily mean that
it is good for you. That which is really good for you takes you towards
your welfare. It may not necessarily be pleasant. It may be hard. But
discrimination tells you that, that which is hard may ultimately lead
you towards your own highest welfare and good. It will raise you higher
and ultimately take you to the goal. This is Yoga: mastery of the mind,
developing a character, thinking clearly, rejecting that which is merely
pleasant and attractive but which brings you into deeper bondage, and
resolutely selecting and accepting that mode of conduct, that way, which
takes your life higher and higher. For, in the ultimate context, Yoga
is the process of moving towards divine perfection. Within you is a
divine essence which is your true nature, real nature. You are not merely
this body-mind complex which the world regards as a personality. This
name and form, this body and mind, these thoughts and dealings, do not
make up your real nature. The body is only a dwelling-house and the
mind is only your instrument through which you think and express yourself.
The intellect is also an instrument for your use to attain knowledge
of the external universe, to ponder over the purpose and meaning of
life, to live intelligently and wisely to attain the goal of life. All
these three, viz., the body, mind and intellect, therefore, are instruments
or factors with which you are endowed, which God has given you to make
use of, to be utilised in a wise way. But beyond these three, you remain
an eternal spark, eternal spirit, with divinity inherent in you.
Yoga is the unfoldment of that within you which is divine, which is
real Self. You are coming into your own, you are awakening to attain
a state of Self-awareness. You become conscious: “I am Immortal
Atman. I am Bliss. I am not this cage of flesh and bones. I am not this
restless, impure mind, filled with selfishness, filled with ego, puffed
up with vanity, filled with anger and passion, fears and worries. I
am not this limited intellect, prone to so much of error, so much of
confusion, finite and limited. I am imperishable and immortal essence.
I am distinct from this restless and impure mind. I am ever pure, ever
peaceful Atman. Distinct from this finite and imperfect instrument of
the intellect, this reasoning faculty, I am infinite, all-perfect, ever-full
and complete Atman, Soul, a centre of spiritual consciousness, characterised
by wisdom, peace and purity, Anadi-Ananta about which, in stirring tone,
the Bhagavad-Gita declares: ‘Ajo Nityah sasvatoyam purano, Na
Hanyate Hanyamane Sarire—unborn, eternal, permanent, ancient
and timeless is this Being within the body, who is not destroyed when
the body perishes.’”
Nothing can touch you. You are an immortal soul. You have somehow lost
this awareness. Are you living in that awareness? Are you aware that
you are an immortal Soul? There is no beginning or end, nothing can
touch you, death and birth have no meaning for you. They are only something
concerned with the body. “I am without birth, without death, immortal,
imperishable and indestructible”—what a grand state! Even
if a little bit of this awareness comes into you, how fearless you will
be, how perfectly free from anxiety and fear you will be! You will become
the witness of all the changes that take place within you. You will
be the untouched Witness of the different conditions of the world, pain
or pleasure, heat or cold. You will become that unattached Witness of
the changing conditions of the mind. Whether the mind is restful or
restless, you will be away from it. If the mind is suddenly overcome
by passions, you will sit back from it and say: “No, I am the ever-pure,
spotless Atman. Disgust or passion is something that is taking place
in the mind. I am not associated with it. I am the ever-pure Atman.”
So you develop a new awareness and a new consciousness, where you are
able to be the unattached Witness, unaffected by the changing conditions
of your mind. That is real life.
Yoga And Christian Religion
(Gist of a discourse addressed to a Western audience.)
I shall speak to you at some length upon the subject of ‘Yoga
and the Christian Religion’ because most of you are from a Christian
background, very pious and very religious. Some are only Christian because
they are born Christian, but some are halfway going to the Church once
in two months, but all are from a Christian background, may be some
Roman Catholic, may be not, may be Protestant, may be Methodist, may
be some other. Some of you are Jews. Whatever religion you belong to,
when I speak about Yoga and the Christian religion, it could equally
apply to Yoga and any other religion. So, what is the connection between
Yoga and one’s religion? One takes it for granted that Yoga is
of the Hindu religion, and asks: ‘What is the connection between
this Hindu thing and my religion?’ Anyone belonging to another
religion must wonder. So, it is worth—knowing how to relate Yoga
to religion. Is it like other religions or are there sharp divergences
between Yoga and other religions? If these things are not clear, may
be some would feel a sense of guilt. ‘O, I am a Christian, am I
doing the right by coming and taking to Yoga? Perhaps, I am being a
little irreligious in the particular area of my interest in Yoga.’
Thus, a vague sort of uneasiness may be felt.
First and foremost, it has to be known that Yoga has arisen from a
background or basis of the Hindu religion. It has its origin in India
and it is part of the Hindu religion. But it is not Hindu. It is a universal
science that has arisen out of the Hindu religious ground—a science
that has risen above religion. It is a universal technique. Because
in Yoga, as it is given in the Yoga-Darsana of Patanjali, one of the
six systems of philosophy, no particular dogma is laid down and no particular
God is pointed out for your worship. Yoga doesn’t say that you
must worship Rama or Siva or meditate upon Krishna, or you must worship
Kaali or Durga, or Hanuman; Yoga has nothing to say upon all these things.
Yoga doesn’t say that you must repeat any particular Name of God.
Yoga only says that repetition of one of the Divine Names is one of
the ways of concentrating the mind. It says repetition of the Divine
Name. You may repeat the Divine Name, you may say the prayer of Jesus,
you may say Allah, you may say Rama, you may say the name of Siva, or
you may say some other Name if you are in some other religion, but it
does not specify that Name and also whom to worship. The All-perfect
Divine Being, who is ever-free, ever-perfect, free from all the imperfections,
ever-free beyond Maya, the Supreme Purusha, means the Supreme Being,
Almighty Father in Heaven, Allah, Jehovah, you can call it by any name,
it does not matter, the ever-free Being is not bound by Maya, and who
is free from affliction, who is of the nature of Bliss-Absolute, Consciousness-Absolute;
that is the object of meditation to be attained, that is the goal of
Yoga. So, it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of Yoga;
it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of your religion.
It does not point out a God different from the one pointed by your own
religion—Christianity, Islam, etc.—and it does not give a
special name of that God so that you will have to change Gods. It does
not give any special name to the one God. Emerging from the ground of
Hinduism, it goes beyond religion.
Yoga is a Religious Science, which means that it goes beyond religion,
and assumes a universal characteristic. Secondly, Yoga is a science
for Man. It is not a science either for an Easterner or a Westerner,
an Oriental or an Occidental. Yoga is for man on earth. It was given
to mortal man on this earth of birth, pain and death. It was given to
man on earth, no matter what he is or who he is; and it is given to
man for all times. It was not given to an ancient man or medieval man
or a modern man, or anyone who might come, wanting to go beyond all
sorrow, pain and suffering, go beyond bondage and delusion. If he takes
to this path, it brings him to the place of supreme experience. So it
is the answer to the need of mortal man, on this earth plane. So it
is something that is the property, the heritage of humanity—Yoga
is the heritage of humanity. It does not interfere with religion. What
does Yoga do? Yoga supplies to the life of man and makes up for certain
lack brought about by religion failing man or man failing religion.
There is a condition created by the failure of religion administering
to man’s highest needs, or the failure of man to take advantage
of religion or properly utilise his religion which it is, we cannot
say.
Some say religions have failed. I say, no. Man has failed to follow
religion. It is not due to religion that man suffers. It is due to the
neglect of religion, the ignoring of religion and its teachings and
its wisdom. Mostly, this is the situation. But in some places where
religion has become totally institutionalised, it has become a great
impersonal structure, and lost living contact with the individuals.
Under it, then, it becomes barren of real spirit. It becomes only a
pattern for dogma and ritual, and ceremony and belief. You are a Christian;
if you say ‘I believe in salvation through the blood of Christ’.
Yes, I believe, then you are a Christian. You are a very good Christian;
so go your way. Do what you like, drink, smoke, break all the ten commandments,
but you are a Christian. Religion has come to mean just accepting certain
things which an institution has set to be the very heart of religion—a
set of dogmas, and if you say you accept all this, then, you are a religious
man. But, then, this is not religion. In each religion there is a certain
spiritual content which has direct relevance to that part of you which
is your innermost essential being, which is your innermost reality,
a true, essential reality, and where religion fails to touch that part
of your being, and loses its concern with that, and only concerns itself
with the way in which you live, your social life and pattern of your
social life, and your domestic life, whether you pay your tithe and
whether you attend the Church regularly once in a week, or whether you
go through all the various sacraments. You Baptise, and you are Christian.
It is interested only in that but not in that highest part of you. It
never asks you to question yourself or query ‘What is the purpose
of my life? Why have I come here? What have I to attain? What is the
true meaning of my life? What is my goal?’ In organised religions,
the structure does not encourage you to ask these questions, does not
insist that you raise these questions and seek an answer and make life
a quest of that great goal which you ascertain through the answer. In
such case, religion is not ministering to you in depth, while it is
ministering to you on the surface. It fails to deal with you in that
dimension of your being where you are the real being. Other dimensions
are touched and affected, but that dimension is left untouched.
So, when the spiritual content in religion is no longer active, no
longer progressive, then that religion has petrified. It is not alive
in such cases. Yoga is a wonderful answer because the prime concern
of Yoga is the spiritual reality within you, the attainment of the spiritual
goal for which you have taken this human birth; that is the prime concern
of Yoga. Yoga is the path to God-realisation. Yoga is the path of Divine
Experience, and the Divine Experience is the heart of religion. Trying
to attain God-realisation is the very heart, the very essence of religion.
That is the inner spiritual core of religion, and where that spiritual
core has been neglected and cast aside, and is forgotten, then religion
is only there as a great forum; a great structure is there, but inside
there is no one living. There are a hundred houses, only a built palace
is there, no one is living. It is a deserted palace. Like that, religion
becomes a huge imposing structure with no life; and if such has become
the religious life of any person, be he a Christian, a Catholic, a Protestant,
a Jew, a Parsi, or a Mohammedan; if such it has become, then Yoga comes
as life-giving waters, the living waters to revive that withering, languishing
inner spiritual core, that innermost spiritual path that has been neglected
and dried away. Yoga comes as the life-giving force. Once again it makes
spring into life the spiritual centre of your religion. It makes your
religion alive for you. It can make religion alive for anyone, be he
a Christian or a Muslim, and it gives back to you the life within your
religion. It is the common experience of many people that after Yoga
came to them they started being really religious. After Yoga came to
them a Christian became a real devoted Christian, started going to Church,
started reading the Bible and trying to find out more interest in the
words of Jesus, began to understand the meaning of many things he is
now doing in the name of Christianity, which he otherwise stopped doing
because he found it to be meaningless,—‘I find no meaning,
it is mechanical’. It has no meaning, and once now he has found
meaning, he begins to get interested in it. He begins to practise the
teachings. Many things which were just meaningless once, become now
meaningful. So one becomes a better Christian. In many cases Yoga has
helped a person to find the inner meaning of his religion. He begins
to see the reason behind the practice and then he begins to take more
interest in his own religion, understand it better than he understood
it before. Yoga restores to people whatever religion they may belong
to. It restores to people the inner spiritual content of their religion.
It restores to people the spiritual life which is the centre of any
real religion, lacking which religion becomes merely an external facade.
Yoga restores, makes it alive, makes it green, brings it forth into
life. Yoga can be applied to Christianity and to any other religion.
In what way does it differ? That also we shall see. It differs in its
refusing to accept the doctrine of ‘original sin’. It does
not call man a sinner. It may call man a fool but it doesn’t call
him a sinner. Man is God playing the fool, or, man is God who has lost
his way home, wandered away, stumbling and running about in circles.
It clears up the path, puts light and puts man on the path again and
says, ‘go ahead now, go straight to your home’. So it doesn’t
want you to consider yourself a sinner. And the other thing is this:
Much of Christianity, unfortunately, in certain of its areas, becomes
wholly a preoccupation with avoiding hell, trying to avoid hell, and
somehow or other slip past the doors of heaven; somehow or other, even
if you are not fully qualified for it. Yoga says: ‘This is a little
childish, you have got something more glorious. Why do you play this
game of heaven and hell?’ Yoga rejects hell, and Yoga rejects heaven
also. Go to the Creator of heaven, the Master of heaven. Why heaven?
Heaven is also a petty desire. You don’t want it. ‘I want
God. I want to experience God, the Supreme Being, the Master of heaven’.
Yoga concerns itself with God, not heaven or hell. You can say these
are some of the differences, the way that Yoga differs from Christianity.
It is where orthodox Christian doctrine differs from Yoga.
Yoga restores the most precious part of religion, which, unfortunately,
by and large, is not present. In most of the major religions of the
world, except in a microscopic section of people who enter into monastery
for all life, the nuns and the monks, who somehow or other concentrate
all their life upon this spiritual content, except for them, by and
large, normally, the spiritual content is found to be lacking in religion.
But since the impact of Yoga over the past fifty years, gradually, we
see a very wonderful phenomenon, a revival is taking place in the Christian
world, emphasising this inner spiritual aspect, your connection with
this Godhead. There are many such examples. Some of them are working
like the apostles. In the early days, some of them were really fired,
like Pentecostal inspirations. They are all good signs. Yoga is presently
doing that, restoring to religion the religious life of any being. It
restores to him the spiritual quality, the spiritual factor and that
is the greatest thing that it does. It doesn’t disturb your religion.
It doesn’t contradict your religion. In no way does it contradict
anything. It says: ‘wherever you are, whatever you are, try to
find God, try to live a noble life. Purify yourself of the lower nature.
Shine with virtue. Create in yourself divine qualities and awaken the
divine within you, and move towards God.’ That is the central message
of Yoga. It can be harmoniously incorporated into any religion and the
religious life of any being, any faith to enrich that religion and make
it alive and take you towards the true goal which is the goal of any
religion.
Sri Swami Sivananda was a noble-souled man, filled with wonderful love
in his heart, who lived all his life to make other people happy, the
chief aim and objective of his life, and therefore he became a person
beloved by countless people all over the world. He was himself very
happy person and enjoyed to laugh and make other people laugh also.
He was very humorous and radiated cheerfulness, made people forget all
their sorrows and troubles, and brought joy and sunshine into their
life. This he did to all people. He had no sense of difference between
East or West, this country or that country, this race or that race,
this religion or that religion. He was also a person of great compassion,
understanding and sympathy. His personality was such that he immediately
made everyone feel that they belonged to him and he belonged to them.
He had no strangers in this world. For him, everyone was his. He simply
showered his love upon all. It was a very strange thing to observe how
even people who did not know his language and whose language he did
not know, immediately felt a sense of oneness, the moment they came
before him. He was a person of very simple nature. Many ministers, scholars,
statesmen and other public figures came and offered their homage and
respect to him. But he never felt himself big or great or in any way
extraordinary. He was just natural and simple, almost childlike in his
behaviour. But together with this absolute naturalness and simplicity
deep wisdom was there in his head, for he had attained this nature through
years of great penance and prayer in a very lonely place. Of course,
he had some elements of this nature even previously from his young age.
He was a kind and helpful person even during his school-days. He was
very serviceable to elders and even strangers.
Later on, he qualified himself as a medical man and became a doctor.
He travelled out of India to the Far-East where he served as a doctor.
For about ten years he was in Singapore and Malaya doing such medical
service with great love. This medical service-period of his was something
that brought about a great change in his nature. He served the poor
and the suffering people without any expectation of gain or reward.
In those days, Malaya was the land of British rubber-planters. People
of the East slaved and laboured for them in their great rubber-plantations.
There were also tin-mines in which people worked. Indian labourers,
Chinese labourers, Malayan labourers—all of them were thus working
in these plantations and mines. He lived and worked near one a such
very big plantation. And he grew in compassion, kindness and sympathy.
He was moved by the pains and sufferings of these poor people. His large-hearted
nature went out to them in great sympathy and friendliness. He became
a brother to all and was something like a good Samaritan. He made no
difference between day and night in his work. His door was open to all
people at all times. Whenever a suffering man called on him, immediately
he went to his side. And sometimes, because they were very poor, he
went and treated them freely. And at times he even offered them some
money from his own pocket. This was the type of person that he developed
into during those days.
At the same time, this contact with disease, human sorrow, human pain,
suffering and death brought an inner awakening in him. He found the
real nature of life on earth. He found it was no beautiful or sweet
experience. He found that it was full of pain and suffering, disease
and death. This brought in him the awakening of a religious consciousness
He felt that life here was painful and human body was an abode of much
suffering and sorrow, and the soul within was in a state of bondage
and imprisonment in human body. So his mind turned to philosophy. He
read the lives and teachings of saints and philosophers, and he began
to search for a way out of sorrow and pain. “Is there not a way
by which man can transcend this present state? Is this the only state
of experience available to man? Or is there another state of experience
also within the reach of man,—another state where the imperfections,
sorrows and pains of this present state will not be present, a state
which will be marked by peace, joy, by true happiness which is absent
here now?” This questioning and this quest drew him into the study
of philosophy and the study of thought. He reflected and contemplated
upon these questions. Ultimately it dawned upon him that there was a
state full of blessedness, full of beatitude, full of peace and joy,
and that state was within the reach of all human beings. So what previously
people had attained, now also one can attain. Thus, he decided to dedicate
himself to this attainment.
Suddenly a day came when he gave up his very successful practice, his
popularity, his wealth, everything, and came away to India. He came
as a lone wandering seeker and he turned his footsteps to North, towards
the Himalayas. After weeks and months of travel he reached a quiet little
village on the bank of the sacred river Ganga. It was a little place
on the slope of hills, close to the Ganga bank. It was surrounded by
mountains on all sides. Practically, civilised modern India ended at
this spot, for, beyond this place were only the Himalayan mountains
and the forests. It was the Northernmost part of India, where, in the
Himalayan mountains, India ended and the land of Tibet began. And here
he made it the place of his silent seclusion, penance, prayer and inner
meditation. He reached this place sometime in 1923-24. For ten years
he plunged himself in quiet meditation. He spoke very little, practised
self-control, lived a simple life, served the neighbouring people with
compassion and kindness. It was a place where only monks and such recluses
lived. He served them. There were some villages with simple village-folk.
He sometimes gave medical aid to them also. Otherwise, most of the time,
he was sunk in prayer, meditation and study. This intensely lived life
brought about spiritual illumination to this wonderful man. From that
day onwards began his mission of calling to mankind towards this great
attainment. He wanted to share his joy and peace with everyone. So he
called to all people and said: “O friends! O beloved children!
There is a way by which you can transcend all the sorrows and all the
sufferings of this life and attain true peace and happiness in this
life here. You have come only for this attainment. That is the main
purpose of your life. And this is true life, a life that leads you to
this great attainment, where sorrow vanishes and joy comes into your
heart, where all the restlessness of the mind subsides and there comes
peace, where there is no more inner darkness, where comes light within,
and life becomes no more a thing of sorrow, true life becomes a thing
of great joy.”
This message which he brought into the life of countless beings, he
gave the simple name of “Divine Life.” He gave a simple universal
name which did not have the label of any particular religion. A life
that took you towards divine experience, a life that was lived in the
knowledge that within this physical body and this restless mind there
is an all-perfect, divine principle. That eternal divine principle is
of the very nature of absolute peace and radiant bliss. Within you is
this hidden divinity. Within you is this immortal spirit. That is eternal
existence. That is radiant, pure consciousness. That is bliss. That
is peace. There is this foundation of joy within you. And leaving this,
neglecting this, we are searching here and there, wandering in this
world of external objects. We are trying in vain to seek for happiness
in objects which are temporary, which are changeful, which are finite,
full of defects. How can perishable, changeful, finite objects bring
real happiness and satisfaction? This is impossible. And therefore man
ever seeks for happiness where it is not to be found. And then he weeps
and wails. He weeps and wails and does not know what is the reason of
his sorrow. The reason of his sorrow is in him only. It is this primary
state, this great error of thinking, that this imperfect world can give
real happiness that is at the root of all sorrow in this world. There
is no mistake in this outside world. The world does not stand up before
you and say: “Come, O man, I will give you happiness!” The
various things and objects in this world do not declare and say: “Yes,
we are the source of happiness. We can give you happiness.” So
they do not promise anything; they do not cause disappointment. It is
you who is expecting something and then cause this disappointment. So
mistake lies not in the world but in man. And thus, from birth to death
man wanders in this forest of earth-life, in this desert wilderness
of perishable, changeful objects, ignorantly imagining that through
these objects he can attain true happiness here. These objects can only
give some temporary sense-satisfaction. A nice, beautiful form or colour
can give a little satisfaction to the eyes. Some pleasant sound or an
endearing word can give a little satisfaction to the ears. Some sweet
taste can give a little satisfaction to the tongue. Some nice, soft
touch can give a little pleasure to the sense of feeling. So these pleasant
little experiences of a little pleasant taste, smell, touch, hearing
and sight only give a little sense-satisfaction. This sense-satisfaction
is not happiness. It is not joy. It is only upon the physical bodily
level. It is a biological process, depending entirely upon your nervous
system. This nervous system is part of this animal structure. This physical
body is only the animal structure of your personality. If any part of
your nervous system cannot function, then you cannot have this sensation.
So all these fivefold sense-experiences are a matter of physical nervous
process. This is not happiness. Happiness is an inward state of being.
It is an inward state of mind and heart. And sometimes it just wells
up from within, even when there is no object present at all. When you
are sitting alone at times, when no desire troubles your mind, when
there is no particular wish or want felt inside, and you are sitting
at peace with yourself, you can experience a rare joy from within. This
joy comes in the absence of any object or thing whatsoever.
This great truth, that joy is within, happiness is the very centre
of your true being, and it has to be sought for inside and not outside,
and that the more one runs outside it increases desire, the further
one gets away from happiness and peace. This truth was given to every
one by the teachings of our Master. But he was a realist and a practical
man. Even though he gave this great ideal of Self-experience, he knew
man has to live his normal life also. And he gave some practical suggestions
and rules for daily living through which, even while living and fulfilling
the duties of normal life and carrying on one’s normal domestic,
social and professional duties, man gradually grew into this state of
self-management and inner control. This graduated discipline that he
gave to man was the very essence of his Divine Life teachings. And he
gave these rules and regulations of an utterly non-sectarian character,
so that they did not interfere with the religion in which one was born
or the religion and faith which one practised. These rules of Divine
Life were such that anyone could incorporate it within one’s own
life without affecting one’s belief and religious practices. He
embodied these teachings in twenty instructions. And in these Twenty
Spiritual Instructions he put the essence of the teachings of all saints
and sages. He said that this is religion in daily life. He said that
this is the practice of religion, this is the science of religion. And
the adoption of these rules made one move towards happiness and peace
and move away from suffering and sorrow.
Be kind and friendly. Hate none. Dislike none. See only the good points
in others and do not look into the defects of others. No one is perfect
and no one is responsible as God made him what he is. Therefore, take
things with a charitable view. See the good and ignore the false. If
you want to see the false, see the false that is in you. And try to
remove it and become a perfect person. Thus, practise kindness in daily
life. Let your speech be free from anger and harshness. Speak sweetly
and speak softly. Forgive people. Ever try to serve. Stick to truth.
And thus, through selfless service of all, through the practice of kindness
and compassion, through the practice of sweet speech, purify your heart.
Develop a great love for the supreme universal principle which is the
source of this entire universe. That is what is the very basis and source
of both your being as well as the existence of this universe. Seeing
that, attaining that, one attains fullness. In this present state of
separation from that source of your being you are incomplete. Completeness
and wholeness comes into your life when you regain once again your inner
spiritual contact and relationship with That. And therefore, generate
a great aspiration and a great longing for attaining the experience
of That. Develop this inner hunger, this inner devotion, through practice
of inner life. Be alive in your interior and grow in your inner life.
Progress through prayer. Progress through daily contemplation. Progress
through inner adoration. And try to practise ceaseless remembrance of
that supreme divine principle. Do it in the midst of your daily life.
Let your interior rest in that eternal Substance. Such a life is called
Divine Life, for it is a life that takes you towards divine experience,
it is a life that unfolds the divine nature that is inherent within
you. It is a life that is lived in the awareness of the spiritual purpose
of your life. It is a life where, through your thoughts, words and daily
activities, you express the divine within you. It is a life where you
manifest beauty, love and joy from within. Life is no longer a process
of giving expression to your petty little selfish nature. It is not
a process of petty selfish action, of anger, irritation, sharp words,
fights and quarrels, petty enmities and jealousies, temper and restlessness,
but it is a life which radiates compassion and kindness, friendliness
and love, the spirit of selfless service, the desire to make others
happy, the wish to be more and more useful to others. Such a life is
called Divine Life. You become a blessedness to yourself. You bring
joy into your home. You cause happiness to your parents and your own
kith and kin. You bring friendliness, love and happiness in your own
neighbourhood, amidst your friends, in the society in which you move,
in short, in all fields of your active life. You move as a centre of
blessedness. You fill yourself with joy and peace. You bring joy and
peace to others also. But to do this you require self-control. If you
are a slave of your own senses, you cannot live such a life. So, you
require sense-control,—control over your mind and its desires,
control over this ego and its selfishness. But you should not think
that this discipline of control is something puritan. You should not
think that this is austerity of monks and nuns. On the contrary, such
discipline and such control is the symptom of real civilisation. These
are the signs of true education. Such control and self-government over
oneself and such denial of one’s own desires in the higher desires
to make others happy is the very essence of true culture. Civilisation,
education, culture,—all are based upon such rational self-control.
It is such self-control only which makes life worth living. A society
or a community is truly rich and wealthy if it has men and women of
such self-government. This is not a world-denying philosophy. For, don’t
forget, remember, that out of this temporary denial you are moving towards
an abiding state of true joy and happiness. It is not a control and
denial for its own sake. You know, because this is the way to the attainment
of true happiness. Thus, the goal is joy, the goal is happiness, the
goal is peace and perfection. This is the way, and this is Divine Life.
