By
SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA
A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION
First Edition: 1971
Second Edition: 1972
Third Edition: 1998
(2,000 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 81-7052-146-7
Published By
THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
P.O. Shivanandanagar—249 192
Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttaranchal,
Himalayas, India.
CONTENTS
Take Time to THINK...
It is the source of power.
Take Time to PLAY...
It is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take Time to READ...
It is the fountain of wisdom
Take Time to PRAY...
It is the greatest power on earth.
Take Time to LOVE and BE LOVED...
It is a God-given privilege.
Take Time to BE FRIENDLY...
It is the road to happiness.
Take Time to LAUGH...
It is the music of the soul.
Take Time to GIVE...
It is too short a day to be selfish.
Take Time to WORK...
It is the price of success.
Take Time to DO CHARITY...
It is the key to heaven.
Lord, help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way,
That even when I kneel to pray,
My prayer shall be for “Others.”
Help me in all the work I do
To ever be sincere and true,
And know, that all I do for You
Must needs be done for “Others.”
And when my work on earth is done,
And my new work in Heavens begun
May I forget the crown I’ve won,
While thinking still of “Others.”
“Others,” Lord, yes, “Others!”
Let this my motto be.
Help me to live for others
That I may live for Thee.
Mend a quarrel. Search out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion, and
replace it with trust. Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give
a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in a word or deed.
Keep a promise. Find the time. Forego a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Listen.
Apologise if you were wrong. Try to understand. Flout envy. Examine
your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Appreciate, be
kind, be gentle. Laugh a little more.
Deserve confidence. Take up arms against malice. Decry complacency.
Express your gratitude. Worship your God. Gladden the heart of a child.
Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love.
Speak it again. Speak it still again. Speak it still once again.
Radiant Immortal Atman!
Om Tat Sat! Homage unto the Divine. It is an immense happiness to me
to address these few words to you today. May they be engraved in your
heart and be enshrined in your thoughts.
Live with understanding and wisdom. Understand the meaning and purpose
of life. Understand your real nature and why you are here. Here on earth
you are but a passing traveller. Your Real Abode is that realm from
whence you came. Here all things are temporary. All things pass. Therefore
seek the eternal. Your Real Nature is not earthly. It is spiritual and
deathless. To realise your Reality, your eternal identity is the purpose
of life. While you strive diligently for this inner Experience cultivate
Ideal Relationship with this world around you. To all beings relate
yourself with nobility, sympathy, kindness, love, selflessness and the
desire to serve all. Serve humanity and seek Divinity. Compassion
to all is the key to blessedness. Humility is the highest virtue. Truthfulness
is the greatest treasure. Self-control is the supreme wealth to possess.
Egoism is the worst blemish.
Be an ideal individual. Become a spiritually illumined soul. Thus crown
your life with Wisdom, Peace and Blessedness. You will then become a
blessing to all mankind. I wish you Joy and Peace.
24-9-72
—Swami Chidananda
Blessed Immortal Atman!
There is a permanent Reality behind this entire universe that lies
before you. There is a vital living Truth behind the names and forms
that constitute the world we have come to know. That great Reality,
that living Truth is of the nature of the Bliss and Blessedness. It
is a state of untrammelled Freedom, limitless Peace, boundless Wisdom
and indescribable Bliss. It is a joy which nothing upon the surface
of the earth can even remotely equal. And this Bliss, Freedom, Peace,
Wisdom and Joy is your eternal state. That is your real abode. That
is your ultimate destiny. Your life has as its purpose the attainment
of that state. This life is given to you in order to realise that Reality.
It is this realisation that ultimately gives you the power of totally
transcending all the sorrows and miseries and limitations which this
earth-life imposes upon you. In one word, the goal of your life is the
realisation of the Supreme Reality.
You may call It by what name you will, call It the Self, the realisation
of the Self; call It God, then the realisation of God. Call It Consciousness,
then it is the realisation of Cosmic Consciousness. But it is this achievement
alone, which is the central purpose of your life. This is the fact which,
despite all the sordidness, all the wretchedness and misery of human
life upon this earth, is its one redeeming feature. The fact is that
life is a glorious means of attaining the Supreme State in which real
and unalloyed Happiness can be experienced.
Both the ancient and the modern Indian sages are idealists but their
idealism is practical. It is combined with a very sane and sensible
realism. On the quest for Bliss and Peace, the outer life has to be
reconciled with the striving for perfection. The physical and intellectual
aspects of the being which operate upon this relative plane have to
be reconciled with the great urge of the truly spiritual being. This
reconciliation is one of the tasks of the spiritual life.
With this reconciliation in view, two things must be understood. One
is that the body and the mind and all the intellectual faculties of
the being have been given to us as instruments, whereas in ordinary
life man is at the beck and call of the physical body and the senses.
He does not know himself to be apart from them. And the other is that
man also finds himself totally entangled in the desires and cravings
of the mind. But to consider yourself the servant of the senses and
slave to the cravings and desires of the mind is a woeful misconception.
And also to regard them as instruments given solely for indulging in
an endless round of sense-pleasures and objective enjoyments is a deplorable
perversion. These instruments have been given in order to bring you
closer to the attainment of the great goal. The mind, the body and the
intellect should be recognised as such, treated as such, and nobly utilised
to this end. In the great teachings of the sages we find that man as
a social being and a member of the community is advised to live a life
of honest labour. This labour may take the additional form of selfless
service to all:
Experience shows that every great benefit conferred upon others by
the exercise of man’s faculties comes from this highest form of
labour. In his practical affairs, man should continue to care for and
look after his family, his immediate relations and his friends. In his
personal affairs, he should take due and proper care of his own body
and mind. Thus living a life of usefulness and service unto others,
you maintain your integrity. In doing thus, you are not taken out of
the spiritual life. When it is based on the principles of Truth and
honesty, your exertion for means of maintaining a livelihood is in no
way an obstacle or a bar to your advancement in the inner life of spiritual
unfoldment.
As right action must be followed in the external life, so right thinking
must prevail in the mental life. Thoughts that trail after the pull
of the senses are wrong. Thoughts that follow the principles of righteousness
are right. Therefore, think thoughts of goodness. Think thoughts of
purity. Think thoughts of selflessness. Forget about “What shall
I get? What shall I obtain? What pleasure and enjoyments shall I find
to fill my life?” Think instead, “Out of me, what good could
come to all people? In what way could I add to the happiness of others?
In what way could I lessen the sorrow of others? How could the intellect
be used to obtain the true knowledge of this universe? What is real?
What is unreal? What is permanent and what is transitory? What is the
ultimate goal and what belongs to the temporary life?” Thus let
the intellect ever discriminate between the truly good and the merely
pleasant, between the real and the unreal, between the permanent and
the passing. To get an insight into this world, into the nature of things
here and into your own nature is proper use of your intellect. Thus
you may find out how thoughts operate, how desires operate, how senses
try to deceive you, how thoughts and senses may be controlled. Awaken
discrimination and let it serve as the guide. Most important of all,
let the spiritual life lead you towards the attainment of the goal.
Behind all action should be perfectly pure motive. Both the thoughts
and the motives should always be noble, sublime and pure. The person
respecting the standard of absolute purity partakes of pure speech,
and action. The impure thought or motive, characterised by greed, lust
or anger, instantaneously discredits the action. Greed is a fire which
blazes more and more fiercely if it is fed. A contented person is always
alert and recognises the greedy thought which he thereupon stamps out
of his mind.
Life is very precious. Say, “I have come here to realise the Supreme
State of Blessedness and to experience the highest Bliss. I have been
given this unique opportunity of a human birth and human life in order
to attain that Ultimate Goal.”
The chance is now given. Who knows if the keen state of aspiration
and receptivity to the highest princilples will continue? Therefore,
now is the time to make the supreme effort to realise the true purpose
of life. Now is the time to make earnest effort to attain the highest
Blessedness and the wondrous Bliss of realisation.
The ancient Vedas have from time immemorial sought to bring home to
mankind the lofty message of the unity of existence, the oneness of
all life. We have the declaration in the Vedas: ‘Duality is the
cause of all sorrow’. That is, from duality springs fear, great
fear; and Truth is non-dual, One without a second, from which springs
happiness. And all that is, the entire universe that we see, is nothing
other than the Universal Reality. That alone appears as the entire Universe.
That alone is. All is, verily, the Absolute Reality, the Supreme Truth.
This two when put together bring the message to us that in Truth there
is no duality, and if we live in Truth we shall feel oneness spontaneously,
from the very fact of our being based upon the consciousness of Truth
which is Oneness.
The true basis of human unity where all beings are at one is the factor
that is the essential being within us. Superficial factors express diversity;
there is a difference. In form all are different. Diversity, more than
unity, seems to be the law of creation. In everything, everywhere upon
the face of the earth, we find diversity. No two leaves are alike but
even though a tree is full of diversity, and is full of diverse branches,
twisting twigs, leaves, flowers, fruits etc., it is rooted in unity.
The root is one; the tree springs from oneness. So, if you trace all
diversities to their source, the apparent diversity is found to be based
upon unity, based upon oneness, having a singleness of source. There
could no more be an apt analogy to bring home to us the truth of the
oneness of mankind than that of the tree with its diverse branches,
shoots and twigs being founded upon the one, viz., the root. Therefore,
you find in the 15th chapter of the Srimad Bhagavadgita that this universe
is described as a great inverted tree of countless, variegated names
and forms, having its roots above, in the One, the Supreme, the Changeless.
The Lord says: “It has its roots above and diverse branches ramify
in all directions.” But they do not one whit affect or alter the
essential oneness that is at its Source; so also the true basis of human
unity.
Humanity is found to be so diverse with varying languages, cultures,
customs, manners etc., that if we try to bring about a sort of superficial
unity by forcing upon diverse mankind a single way of life, a single
language, a single type of living, a single type of education, we will
not succeed, because we will not touch the innermost core of the being
in man. There is something much deeper than the appearance. The essential
being of man has to be touched if the sense of unity is to be roused
within him. Uniformity is not unity; it will always be only in appearance.
Real unity is in the heart, in the feeling and being. The innermost
being of man provides the ultimate rock-bottom basis of unity.
There is something in all beings, which does not alter at all and which
is the one common symbol of existence. It is the ultimate essence of
the individual, his spiritual nature, his spiritual identity. This spiritual
nature is of the very nature of oneness, of unity. Bodies may differ,
languages may differ, cultures may differ, but all beings do exist,
all beings are. Everyone feels, “I am.” This consciousness
of being, of existence, is the principle which is a universal common
factor underlying all apparent diversity.
The Gita has brought out this truth very beautifully. As a necklace
of variegated beads of diverse colours and shapes has, as the one common
factor, the thread which holds all these beads together and passes through
the centre of each one of the beads, there is this thread of the universal
common factor which is the same, which is the one, in all the apparently
many different lives. To give to humanity this awareness, this consciousness,—that
of the recognition of the existence of this divinity within all life,—is
the basis for all human unity and even cosmic unity. We recognise that
things exist because God is in them, for He is the principle of existence
within. He is the Cosmic Existence. This changeless eternal existence
is God. And this principle of existence is God and this principle of
existence is common to everything, to all life.
It is, therefore, in the recognition of the essential divinity of man
that we have our surest basis of human unity. Recognise this and go
beyond names and forms. Do not see changing appearance on the surface.
Be always aware: “I am one with all that lives, in my essential
Self. I am one with all that lives, in my essential being as pure light,
pure being. Existence is one. Life is one.”
Such is the wisdom of those who have this awareness and perception,
and their whole life becomes a blessedness to others as well. They would
not do unto others that which they would not like be done unto themselves.
“That which brings me joy and happiness, that I know will give
joy and happiness unto others,” is their policy. Therefore, this
basic education has to be given to all. If this awareness is not there,
how can the feeling of oneness come? “May we all sit together,
live together, think together. May we all think and aspire in the same
way”, is an ancient Vedic prayer.
Manu, the law-giver of India, says: “This body has been given
to you, O mortal, for the well-being of others, for the service of others,
for doing good unto others.” The awareness of this supreme purpose
of life has to be a source of happiness and helpfulness to others. This
education, the right education of the soul to grow into the awareness
of these principles, would be the factor to ensure lasting human unity,
true human unity.
Human unity cannot be based on principles like: We both are one and
we can now fight the third man. There are unions and unions, there are
so many kinds of unions. People join together in order to fight another
group. That is not unity. It is self-doom, because the very basis of
that unity is hatred, for harming some other group. Even if for a time
it gives an illusion of unity, it has not the true essence of unity
in it. It is destructive unity. Unity should be constructive. Unity
is partial, if it does not embrace within its scope the entire universe,
the entire humanity, because the same Divine spark dwells in all beings,
and we are all brothers and sisters, children of one cosmic family.
Only when you know that the happiness of all is the great duty of life,
when the ideal of giving happiness to others is accepted and recognised
by you to be the great law of this universe, then alone do you live
truly. Then the relationship of oneness and the happiness of all is
coordinate. Not to feel this oneness will undo the happiness of all,
undo the goodness of all. The entire universe throbs with one cosmic
life-principle. The perception of this deep, beautiful truth underlying
life can be given only to the growing soul before it is warped by the
fact of selfish and competitive living that is the pattern of life on
earth. If people were to speak in terms not of ‘my good’ or
‘your good’, but of ‘our good’, then the question
of right education of the generation in the making, the generation which
will lead the world of tomorrow, would have been at least partially
solved. This question should receive great attention and much consideration
of all responsible people, who are at the helm of affairs. My sincere
prayer is: May this essential spirit of oneness of man, this oneness
of all life, be recognised, accepted and expressed in all our life,
in all our behaviour towards one another. Then, indeed, the ideal of
oneness will be a glorious and happy fact. May God bless mankind! May
God inspire all people to feel His Presence indwelling all names and
forms! May God bless you!
Unity of mankind, if it is to be real and enduring, should be based
upon the common factors of all beings, viz., Satchidananda Atman. Unity
on no other basis will be fruitful. Supposing all young men decided
that those people who have a black beard should form a new party, imagine
how futile this unity would be, for soon their hairs would turn gray!
But, the common consciousness that enlightens all souls is one. This
is the Truth, which is Eternal, which can never change. Therefore, unity
based on this consciousness alone can be real and lasting.
The awakening of this consciousness being the purpose of religions,
religion was chosen by Sri Gurudev as the proper basis for unification
of mankind. By religions is not meant the institutional religions, because
that again has created many dissensions, riots and wars. In the institutional
religion, the real ideal of the religion is forgotten, the spirit of
religion is lost and only a poor external structure remains, from which
the great religion, exemplified in the life of the prophets, is lost.
What is the spirit of real religion? Be pure. Be humble. Do selfless
service. Let the welfare of ‘the other man’ be your first
concern. If you want to make life happy and comfortable for yourself,
try to make life comfortable and happy for others. If you want to get
honour, give honour. Do not give pain or dishonour to others. Regard
others as your own self. This is the pure spirit of religion.
Even though different saints may outwardly belong to various religions
and various countries they give us but a single, fundamental pattern
of life. They may achieve their destination or realise their ideal through
worship of the different manifestations of the one eternal Reality,
through the worship of different deities and praying to them by different
names; but the pattern of life which they put before us to follow is
fundamentally one and the same all over the world ever since the day
of the creation. What is that pattern? The way of saints is based upon
faith in God. That way is based upon purity of life. Take the life of
any saint from any land, from amongst any race, we find that the way
they have shown us by their own personal examples and ideal lives is
one and the same.
All saints were men of simple nature, devoid of all crookedness, devoid
of all cunningness. They never knew how to disbelieve man, and they
trusted all beings. This was one of the most salient traits in their
character. They were guileless. They did not have the so-called shrewdness
and cleverness which the worldly man has, which he thinks essential
for him to get along. But to get along where? To get along as quickly
as possible to perdition or his own ruin! But this so-called shrewdness
which the deluded man thinks is very necessary for him to get along,
the saints were lacking, and they were not the losers for it. They became
worshipful. They were immortalised because they were guileless. Their
nature was pure and simple, crystal clear, and this is the nature of
children. Saints were like children.
Secondly that universal quality which characterises 999 out of 1000
of all mankind is egoism. Man feels, “I am something.” And
he does not like to be disregarded. Saints were humble. They were meek
in spirit. They were lowly in spirit. “Blessed are the lowly in
spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” The “lowly”
is not from the point of money. A saint may have everything, but in
spirit he feels that he is a speck of dust at the feet of the Lord.
“Lord is everything. I am nothing. Thou art everything, my Lord.”
This is the attitude of all holy men, and this total absence of egoism
and the resultant humility—this is also universal characteristic
of all saints. Even as egoism is the universal characteristic of the
ordinary man in his unregenerate days, the man who is in the grip of
delusion, Maya, even so, the universal characteristic of all saints
has been perfect humility. Blessed are the meek. And the spirit of the
same verse was re-echoed by one of the greatest saints India has produced.
He was Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a being who was immersed in the ecstasy
of divine love. He says that one should consider oneself lower than
a blade of grass. But one who has not learned this great secret, viz.,
that ego is the great bar to true refinement and progress of man, does
not feel himself to be something.
The lives of saints were full of trials and tribulations. They were
persecuted. They had to bear too much hardship. The Lord put them in
the furnace of suffering and persecution. Even as gold is put in the
crucible to be purified of all dross and to shine as pure metal, even
so saints are put to much tribulation and suffering. But through all
these they manifested three important qualities. One was they accepted
all trials and tribulations as the blessings of God and bore them. Endurance,
fortitude, and forbearance,—these were always and will ever be
the characteristics of saints; rather the more they endured, the more
God tried them, and the greater their faith became. “No, I shall
never lose faith. You may send me the worst sufferings, but I will not
lose faith in Thee, O Lord.” That was the wondrous spirit they
had. They never lost faith in the Lord. So whatever happens to you never
lose faith, and you will be rewarded with eternal life and infinite
Bliss.
Contentment was another great universal characteristic of all saints.
They lived a life in God and they always considered God to be the only
real treasure, the greatest wealth, the only object worth having in
life. They never had any other desire. They were totally desireless.
They were completely satisfied with God alone, and this desirelessness
made them full with perfect contentment. To them God was not a distant
entity. Every moment of their life they turned to Him. Whenever they
were in need of help, whenever they were in need of solace, strength,
guidance or light, immediately they turned to the Lord, even as a child
turns to the mother. They melted all differences between themselves
and God. They felt God to be their own. We also express this intimacy
with God every day through hymns but we do not feel it intensely enough.
In troubles we trust our money or other external aids of the world rather
than the Indweller. We lack the sense of God’s presence. Saints,
though living in the external world, were always in close contact with
the Lord. Therefore they are regarded as Godmen. Even if someone tried
to cut a saint’s throat, he embraced him. That was the saintly
reaction. Saints were filled with the spirit of this divine quality.
In short, they fulfilled the spirit of the Amritashtaka, the last eight
verses of the 12th chapter of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, wherein Lord
Krishna describes the characteristics of a lover of God, one who is
dear to the Lord. All saints fulfilled the description of the ideal
devotee or saint given by no less a person than Lord Krishna Himself
through the Bhagavad Gita.
We must always remember saints. Even for a short moment if we think
about the saints, at once our hearts get purified. Our nature gets purified.
We are filled with inspiration and we feel elevated because in their
life there is a peculiar power. They were completely empty and the Divine
Spirit filled them. Due to their humility they had emptied themselves.
So the spirit of God entered them. They carry a great force, and by
merely remembering them we get inner strength and many of our problems
are solved.
To constantly remember them is to constantly make unceasing efforts
towards the goal of life, because, by their lives they show us, “We
have achieved this. Therefore, you can also achieve this by following
our example.” Therefore we must read the lives of saints every
day, even if it be for five minutes, and as already stated we should
try to emulate their example. If we remove all bias from our hearts
and, with open hearts, if we try to delve into the nature of saints,
these gems which made up their personality will come before us. We should
engrave these in our hearts and the only effective manner in which we
can worship these great souls would be by a devout and earnest emulation
of their lofty personalities and effort to carry out their teachings
with sincerity and in a true spirit of receptivity. This emulation will
be the greatest tribute we can pay to these saints. We should try to
follow in their footsteps. To make ourselves adherents of the pattern
of Divine Life which they have worked out, to make ourselves faithful
reproductions of these great ideal lives would be the most effective
manner in which we can offer our tribute and honour to the saints.
The first thing we have to understand about the nature of the mind
is that it is a creature of habit. Mind is a thing which always tends
to follow whatever shape is given to it by habitual thought. Any thought
that is held with greater and greater repetition tends to become part
of the natural state of the mind, and this law can never be forgotten
by the earnest seeker who is attempting to gain perfect control over
the mind. I shall try to explain in greater detail and in greater clarity
the implications of this peculiar characteristic of the mind. If a student,
trying to qualify himself for the medical profession, studies for six
years continuously in a medical college, then his entire mind becomes
predisposed always to think in the groove of diseases, medicines and
therapeutic treatment. Automatically his subconscious mind will be filled
with thoughts of medicines and thoughts of patients and all these thoughts
will again and again revert to the centre. They will be less capable
of thinking about other things and more predisposed to think about things
of medical profession. After a continuous period of saturation of the
mind with thoughts connected with crime, with civil disputes, with application
of law, with courts, with judges, what happens? Always the mind gets
a certain habitual predisposition which naturally tends to hold only
thoughts on these subjects; thinking of grief, thinking of crimes, will
become its predisposition. Same is the case with the engineering or
any other profession. An engineer’s mind is devoted to mathematics,
and a whole shape is given to his life, and his mind becomes engineering-minded.
Even if he thinks about things other than engineering, they will not
be very effective. If a doctor is also a seeker, if he sits to meditate
the types of thoughts that come and distract him will always be connected
with hospitals, patients etc. If a businessman tries to concentrate
on Yoga, profit and loss, the market trends etc., are the things that
will always come and disturb him.
Now, this gives us a certain clue as to how we can get control over
the mind and succeed in concentration. What is that clue? You must,
even during your active outward life when you are living and moving
and doing your ordinary work, always try to fill the mind with the thoughts
of the same object upon which you are trying to meditate. Supposing
you are a Bhakta. The method which a Bhakta will employ to gain control
over his mind and progress in concentration upon his ideal,—Lord
Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Siva, Devi or Jesus Christ or Allah,—is
that the Abhyasa should not be confined to the hour of meditation. Suppose
you sit in the morning and in the evening for meditation. Throughout
the day you should maintain an undercurrent of the thought of the object
of meditation. The Bhakta constantly thinks of Rama or Krishna or whoever
is his Ishta. You should never forget Him at any moment of the day.
It is not only during the period of prayer that the thoughts of your
Ideal should be maintained, but the thought of your centre of meditation
should always be kept up even during your Vyavahara. The current of
meditation should never be absent from your mind. Even during your active
life the current should be maintained. It may not be as active and deep
as during meditation. Nevertheless, it should be kept up, it should
be continuous.
You know the story of Theseus. He went into a maze, where there was
a monster. He had to kill the monster and come back. The maze was such
that one who went into it could not come out. His friend gives him a
ball of thread and says: “Go into the heart of the maze, where
there is the monster, and as you go in, go on releasing the thread.
If you do not have any link with the entrance, then it is absolutely
impossible to get out of it.” So this device was given to him,
and he followed the advice, and he was able to come back after killing
the monster. Even so the thread of concentration should be kept up.
Once you do concentration in the morning, keep up the current. At noon
you again sit for concentration, and the link again continues. During
sleep also the subconscious mind carries on the process of meditation.
This will be found when during dream the current of meditation comes
and alters the course of your dream. Suppose you are getting nightmares
before you enter into Yoga, and when nightmare comes you try to think
of God. The same nightmare may again come in a lesser form. Suddenly
inside your dream the consciousness will come to you: “God is constantly
with me. How can anything come to me?” This courage is experienced
even in dream state. That experience which used to terrify you will
be powerless and it will pass off. So this gives us a hidden revelation
that the current of Smarana or remembrance is not lost even during dream
and sleep states, and sometimes it manifests in a tangible form. And
this continuing of the current of meditation throughout the waking,
dream and deep sleep states keeps up a link of meditation and a certain
portion of the mind goes on doing its ordinary work. This technique
has been perfected in all the four Yogas and they have given different
devices in order to do this.
According to Vedantic practitioners, this method is called ‘Brahmabhyasa’.
In ‘Brahmabhyasa’, you meditate upon the formless Brahman
when you sit in an Asana for the purpose, and also throughout your work
you keep up the thought that you are Brahman. This is also called Brahmachintan,
and the little difference between the actual meditation and the keeping
up of the subtle current of meditation is that whereas meditation is
intense and deep and is accompanied by a total withdrawal of the senses
from sense-objects so that the senses do not function externally, and
you are absorbed, this Chintan is not accompanied by a total withdrawal
of the senses. Senses perceive the external world. Senses are outgoing
and you are moving amidst the external objects, but the inner current
is there. They also call it Atmachintan. This is a very effective method,
because it invokes the same law of the habit of the mind, that of tending
to be of that nature which it holds to constantly in waking hours. When
we constantly try to keep up remembrance of our meditative Ideal, what
happens? The same phenomenon is worked out, as in the medical student,
lawyer or the engineer. If you sit for meditation, what thought comes?
What does the mind tend to think? Same things that it was having constantly
during the daytime. What was it thinking? It was thinking of the Lord,
the object of meditation. So this process should be developed as a technique
by the practitioners of meditation. A Bhakta tries to remember the Lord
at all times,—Smarana, as it is called. He does Manasic Japa (mental
Japa) of the Deity. If he is a Bhakta of Lord Siva, whether he is moving
about, listening to anything, doing physical work or mental work, this
current of ‘Om Namah Sivaya, Om Namah Sivaya’ goes on inside.
And if you are a devotee of Rama, the Name of ‘Sri Ram’ goes
on in the mind. These are the methods by which the mind is made to absolutely
dwell upon the same object upon which it has to meditate during the
Yoga practice. And this habit is a great asset to the practitioner of
Yoga, to the meditator who is trying to advance in concentration and
meditation. And another device which he makes use of to keep the constant
remembrance, in addition to Japa, is that he tries to superimpose God
on everything. He makes the whole mind filled with the thought of Ram
or God, by feeling that whatever he sees, tastes or hears is God. Above,
below, to the right, to the left, everything is Ram. In everything see
God. All objects in this world, both moving and static, are Ram. So
he tries to superimpose Ram and Ram alone in everything, and therefore
everything in this world becomes Ramamaya, and Tulasidas has very beautifully
given in a couplet: “Knowing that the entire world is nothing but
pervaded by Sita Ram, again and again I prostrate myself before you
with folded hands.” In air, water, ether, in breath, in everything
he sees the Lord. This is the lesson given in the eleventh chapter of
the Gita. God is transcendent and He is also immanent. The immanence
of the Lord was brought out to Arjuna. The Lord shows him His Cosmic
Form. Arjuna sees the Almighty Spirit alone everywhere. There is nothing
other than the Lord. It is called the vision of the Cosmic Form, and
this is a marvellous technique of making the mind completely coloured
with the supreme ideal. The mind itself slowly tends to take that form,
and so if this practice is persisted in, wherever his senses move, they
never move from the Lord. Where do the senses go? They go to the Lord.
If he sees any object, there he sees the Lord. If the eyes take him
out, he sees only the Lord. If he hears something, he hears only the
voice of the Lord. Wherever the senses move, they move towards the Lord.
So, for him there is no distraction caused by the senses. Even the senses
try to keep him in touch with God. This is a marvellous method for completely
eliminating all distractions. For, the man beholds the Lord and Lord
alone, and his external life is also covered by the chain of Chintan.
The Sikhs also make use of Nama and Smaran.
The mental and emotional attitude of the Karma Yogi himself makes it
possible for him to achieve the object,—constantly feeling the
presence of God. The basic emotional attitude which forms part of a
Karma Yogi has this technique spontaneously, for how is one to see God;
but if you try to see God alone, what happens? The Karma Yogi by constant
remembrance of the Lord, the Bhakta by repeating the Lord’s Names,
the Jnana Yogi by constant thought of the all-pervading Brahman and
the Raja Yogi by keeping his mind always established in Pratyahara,
change the thought-habit of the mind. The concentration of a Raja Yogi
goes without difficulty. The habitual state of Pratyahara is firmly
established by him. He is a master of this technique of not allowing
the mind to go towards external objects. And when he is perfectly established
in Pratyahara, he takes up concentration. Thus, by becoming established
in Pratyahara, the Raja Yogi’s mind is not completely given away
to external objects, even when he is working, because his vision is
changed. The external objects to him are like shadows. Pratyahara for
the Raja Yogi, Smarana and mental repetition for a Bhakta and the attitude
of worshipfulness too, and Brahmachintan for a Vedantin—these are
the processes by which the very thought-habit of the mind is changed.
A new thought-habit is created in the mind, and instead of the worldly
thought-habit, the man acquires the Godly thought-habit. And when this
habit is acquired, even in meditation the entry of thoughts inimical
to meditation gradually lose their hold upon the aspirant; they begin
to fade out and soon a state of concentration is achieved, where what
all thoughts come during the practice of concentration are all thoughts
which are of the same nature as the object of concentration and meditation.
Therefore, they do not come as disturbing factors. They may, of course,
lessen the intensity of concentration, but immediately concentration
again proceeds. There is no break of the current of concentration. It
is never broken, though it may be faint for sometime, and this practice
should be constantly carried on, whether you are Vedantin, a Karma Yogin
or a Raja Yogin.
Sadhana is the purpose for which we have come to this plane. It is
this earth-plane alone upon which Sadhana for Self-realisation can be
done and so this is called Sadhana-Bhumi. Not so in the other planes;
the lower ones in hell are for working out one’s bad Karmas, wrong
actions, paying the penalty for sins, and the higher planes, the heavens,
are for enjoying the happy fruits of merits. But going to either of
these, man has to come back once again to where he was before he went
there. But on the earth-plane he can so live that he may pass on to
an abode of eternal existence from which he need not once again return
to this plane of pain, suffering, birth and death.
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 desires
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.
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.” 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, for you are the Master.
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 you develop noble character and walk the path of the good and 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 glory of God-realisation.
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
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 in the mind due to a 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 and totally 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 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,
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 totally makes you 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
constitute 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 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 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 of Sattva.
Why do you call this 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, 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 impurities or blemishes can be
done by overcoming them by their opposites. What do you do when you
want to remove darkness? You do not bring mops or brooms to sweep it
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 positive qualities. He is a
great liar means he has no truth in him. There are no such things as
lies 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 in 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 ceases to be.
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 on 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 the thorns and brambles
what will happen is that when the seeds begin to sprout and grow they
will all be choked and killed because the ground has not been 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 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 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 processes the veil of ignorance is
torn aside. Through deep meditation and philosophical enquiry, 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.’
Yoga means the joining of the limited self with the unlimited one.
Merging of the localised consciousness of a Jiva into the Supreme Self
is Yoga. Even as the rain-water flows through the river and merges into
the sea, wherefrom it originated, so also the Jiva that has sprung up
from the Supreme Self tries to reach its source. The merging of individual
soul with the Supreme Soul is Yoga, and when this is attained, the knots
of the heart are rent asunder. This means the cessation of all sorrows
and the acquisition of unlimited bliss and supreme peace. You have no
more wants. You have no more cravings. You will feel yourself in a state
of absolute plenitude. That is the culmination of Yogic endeavour.
All things upon this earth are passing. Therefore, they cannot give
permanent joy. The moment the experience of enjoyment ceases, there
will be disappointment. Hence they said, “Sarvam Duhkham Vivekinah.”
To a man of discrimination this world is characterised by pain.
Therefore, in this existence man cannot find real joy. Yet he tries
to get joy, which is lasting. The sages, therefore, cry out from the
housetops, “O, ye mortals! Wake up. Listen to our message. We have
found that eternal thing, wherein you will enjoy imperishable bliss.
Reach that state which we have reached.”
So the bliss of the Eternal, the Supreme fruit of Yoga, is simply indescribable.
So they say it is ecstasy. They cannot express it. That is the ultimate
fruit of the state of superconsciousness which a Raja Yogi attains by
practising the eight stages, viz., Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara,
Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. It is a limitless bliss that breaks your
individual consciousness. One who gets this bliss, cannot say anything.
He becomes dumb. Suppose you give the most delicious thing to a dumb
man, he cannot express the taste. That gives you an inkling of the supreme
bliss into which the Yogi merges himself.
Yoga bases its origin upon the necessity felt by man to rid himself
of all sorrow and suffering and to free himself forever from bondage
brought about by finite existence and to attain final victory over all
fear, even over death itself. To this great problem, Yoga comes at the
practical solution. It provides the lost link between man and the Infinite.
Yoga plainly states that man is essentially of the nature of Bliss,
Perfection, Peace and freedom. Everlastingly he is one with That. The
loss of his awareness of that oneness with the infinite, all-perfect
Source of his being is the very cause of his involvement in this earth-process
called life. To regain a true awareness and to realise once again his
everlasting oneness with the Divine is actually the practice of Yoga.
The means of overcoming the defects and imperfections of this earth-life
and thus experiencing union with the Supreme constitute its structure.
Yoga shows how to overcome the imperfections of the lower nature and
to gain complete mastery over the mind and senses.
All the techniques of Yoga require perfect ethical and moral purity.
Purity is the foundation of Yogic life. One cannot be a bad man and
yet try to practise Yoga. One cannot allow himself to be impure, insincere,
untruthful, deceitful and harmful to others and at the same time try
to practise Yoga. There cannot be any spiritual realisation when interior
circumstances are imperfect. There cannot be any religious practice
or true interior life when moral goodness is not deeply implanted in
the being. One has to be rooted in goodness, in purity, in truth and
in selflessness. Half of the process of Yoga is in getting thus perfectly
established in ideal moral conduct. When this basis has been established,
then the application of the techniques of Yoga is like the striking
of a dry match upon the match-box and immediately there is a flame.
Without this basis, it is like trying to strike and ignite a wet match
upon a cake of soap—nothing happens.
In all phases of Yogic life, the supreme factor is the Grace of God.
Call it what you will. It is the Grace of the Supreme Essence, the Source
of all existence in which alone man realises his true nature and his
deathless divinity. All the practices are purposeful when they make
man move towards God and merge into oneness with Him. That is the purpose
of Yoga.
Meditation is the ultimate process when one has laid the foundation
of spiritual fife, 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 perceived 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 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. This ingathered and directed, when this 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. Meditation requires 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 attains the pinnacle
of meditation. Meditation is, as it were, the point of the pyramid.
It 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 refined qualities which keep out of
your nature forces that are the direct antithesis of the Divine experience—factors
which are direct contradictions of the state of meditation and of the
spiritual experience. As long as these contrary forces and factors 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
and forces there is only one way. That is, you have to create in your
nature a strong positive movement within yourself and then they are
no more. They are countered and overcome. They cannot remain, because
they are merely the negation of certain virtues or positive forces.
They have no separate or independent existence and identity by themselves.
So to overcome them, certain positive factors (virtues) have to be created
in you. Those 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 unspiritual and directly contradictory
to and the antithesis of the experience which you are trying to attain.
Based upon this essential ethical change and readjustment 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 effervescence 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 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 sensual desires, and by renunciation,
attains a state of purity. See, mind is also matter. It is a very subtle
matter compared to physical matter. Compared to spirit it is also matter.
When it is filled with earthly tendencies, passions and greeds, it is
full of Tamas and full of 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. Then the mind assumes 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. Thinking that you are meditating
is only a thought in your mind.
You may be sitting straight and you may be thinking 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.
The Gita is a veritable Divine Kalpataru or the bestower of everything
to every one according to one’s particular need. The historian
would see in it a memorable document marking the moment when decadence
set in the ranks of the human society with the lapse of Dharma from
the land and the advent of the age of unrighteousness. The imagination
of the philosopher sees in it the symbolic representation of the play
of inner forces in the individual monad and the presentation of a sublime
method of its perfect resolution. To orthodox traditionalists in the
field of philosophy, it is one of the great Triad, i.e., the Prasthanatraya.
To all votaries of Hindu culture, the Gita remains as the quintessence
of all the highest flights of the Vedantic, Upanishadic investigations
and conclusions.
There was once a young person. He played with cows. He spoke something
which has now become immortal. What he spoke has become one of the greatest
little books that the world has before it. It is the Gita. It tells
us the dynamic practical way, the Upanishadic way of life. This tells
us how bliss may be extracted from the Upanishads and tasted.
The Upanishads insist upon Aparoksha Anubhuti (direct experience) that
the whole world is a dream. But what is our actual experience? A little
word of abuse, a little difference in the taste of the food you get,
and the dream, which you say the world is, becomes very real! That is
the net in which you are caught.
Supposing there is a rich man and supposing he gives an open banquet.
He extends an invitation to all. But, supposing the man has tied a fierce
dog at the door. All can peep in, but none can enter; because the devilish
dog is there. Similar is the case with the bliss of Self-realisation.
In the religious field, too, there is this thing which won’t allow
you to eat the bread—to taste the bliss of the Self. Some call
it Satan; others call it Mara or Maya. It is there in every religion.
All the bliss of the Upanishads is there, tempting you; but there is
this hurdle which is not easy to jump over—Mama Maya Duratyaya—as
the Lord says in the Gita. That is why, in spite of all the Upanishads,
all the scriptures, all the saints, all the Avataras and all religions,
the dream continues to be real, and attraction to objects is still there.
It is very difficult for man to turn away from the Preyas and take to
the path of the Sreyas. Herein comes the real problem for us, if we
ought to experience the glory, grandeur and bliss of the Upanishadic
state of Atma-Jnana, what is the way? This obstacle, Maya, is there
within every man. The ultimate analysis would show that it is actually
man’s mind itself. It is the overcoming of the mind in man that
is the main problem of the seeker, overcoming which he would enrich
himself with the experiences expounded in the Upanishads, enjoy the
state of Para Brahman, that Bhuma,—an experience having gained
which nothing more is to be gained. What is the method by which we can
overcome this Maya or mind?
Maya is manifest in the human individual as mind. This aspect of individual
Maya, deluding him completely, works havoc upon the external field of
life, based upon egoism. That egoism may be in the form of a false identification
of the self with the body, which is called Adhyasa. The Vedantins refer
to the nescience in man in terms of Adhyasa. Break away from this false
identification; you are what you are. Then, you will shine in your own
glory. The Raja Yogins refer to this wonderful power in its aspect as
Vritti (thought-wave). Vikshepa or tossing of the mind is always there.
This Vritti is the bane of human life. Therefore, mind has to be completely
subjugated by absolute annihilation of Vrittis. The same mind based
upon ego, manifests itself through the emotional aspect of the individual
in so many attachments. This clinging nature of the mind which works
through the emotional aspect of man as Mamata (mineness) is effectively
purified and sublimated, through another Yoga which they call Bhakti
Yoga. This same mind has also got the habit of manifesting itself in
another way, in the form of pride, selfishness, and the urge to acquire
material gain: to that end man will work himself to death, so that there
is a perverted dynamism completely seeking to engage oneself in selfish
activity, with a desire for personal gain and taking pride in all the
successes one has achieved in this process. This is effectively tried
to be counteracted through yet another Yoga which they call Karma Yoga,
the path of overcoming selfishness, pride; giving up of Raga-Dvesha,
by an impersonal, altruistic unselfishness, acting with worshipful Bhava
or mental attitude.
Therefore, to overcome Maya of the Lord, in these very broad universal
aspects, was considered to be the one thing important, necessary and
indispensable, if you had to make the Upanishadic truth live in you
as glorious, direct experience. It is purely negative process. It cannot
give you Atma-Jnana; but it is very necessary. This is the process of
Sadhana which the Gita gives in various beautiful ways to suit various
individuals.
We know that Sadhana is to be done. How is it to be done? We have got
a lot of wrong Samskaras. How actually should a man do Sadhana? For
that the Gita has given some Sadhanas. No amount of lecturing, no amount
of reading can ever bring you nearer the Atman. These are all necessary,
to know what the Reality is. The Gita itself embodies a discourse or
a talk given by the blessed Lord to all of us, through Arjuna. Therefore,
here, in this particular case the problem is to quieten all our talk
and to listen to the voice of the Lord. We are Shrotas (listeners);
and the Lord is the Vakta (teacher). We should silence all noises of
our finite individual being, and in this silence we should strive earnestly
to listen to this divine Voice of the Lord, the call of the Gita. Thus,
silence was thought to be the best adoration of the Gita—a silent,
earnest practice. That is the ultimate word with which Arjuna closes
his eager questioning: “I shall do as you say.” Our duty also
should be to be silent and to live the Gita.
We never know that the mind is different from us. Overcoming the mind
is like killing oneself. But, that is the most important thing. Disassociating
yourself from the mind means giving a death-blow to yourself, to that
which you have always been feeling in your consciousness as yourself.
A new ‘myself’ has to come into being. Non-cooperation of
the mind in the Viveka-aspect of the individual’s personality can
start to come into operation; and you will know that the mind is other
than yourself. This Sadhana requires courage. Mind is able to play all
this havoc with the help of the ego. We have to play another master-stroke.
We have to kill the ego. This ego-dichotomy has to start in the very
beginning of Sadhana. It is completed in Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Blind-folded,
you have to walk. It is not outside but inside, about which we know
nothing. How great is the necessity to have a guide and to have absolute
trust in the guide, and to completely surrender oneself to him! These
three things are absolutely essential.
Tadviddhi Pranipatena Pariprasnena Sevaya: Know that by prostration,
enquiry and service. No one likes to fall at the feet of another, accepting
oneself to be inferior, accepting there is one who is far superior to
oneself in every way. This brings about a revolution in the consciousness
of the individual. Pariprasnena: no one wants to know that there are
lot of things he does not know. “Who are you to teach me?”
he asks. You have to completely give up this aspect of your ego and
humbly ask the guide and try to know the truth. Then, Seva. We all want
to be served; but the effective method to batter down this aspect of
the ego is, therefore, service. Renounce the ego. Serve the preceptor,
serve him as an ordinary slave. This way the foundation is laid for
the latter Sadhanas which are all concerned in attacking the ego in
all its evil aspects and ultimately annihilating its last vestige in
Asmita itself. Asmita is the realm of duality; therefore, it does not
come up to the standard. Therefore, go on attacking, overcoming, sublimating
and transmuting the ego, till there shines only the splendour of the
universal Atman, the Infinite “I am That I am.”
In this process you may fail not once or ten times, but a hundred or
thousand times. Sadhana is going from bigger failures to smaller failures.
They are progressively lesser. When you wish to see the whole world
as the Atman, you plunge into meditation; the moment you open your eyes,
the moment you come into Vyavahara, you see that one man is good and
another is bad. Heroism is therefore needed in a man who has set himself
to go forth and capture the Atmic experience. He does not care for discouragement
at all. Then he will progress and he will get what he has set himself
to get.
The first chapter of the Gita asks you to be bold and courageous. It
stresses upon heroism and strength. The second chapter is full of wonderful
Viveka and Vichara. Always discriminate between the Permanent and the
evanescent. It reminds you, “The Immortal Atman does not die with
the body.” This truth of the distinction between the body, mind
and Prana on the one side, and the glorious, ever-perfect Atman on the
other, is taught in this chapter. In the twelfth chapter is taught the
way of transmuting emotions. The last eight verses of the twelfth chapter
give you the Yoga of devotion. The tenth chapter gives you the experience
of the Cosmic Being and the secret as well, how to keep up the Consciousness
of the Atman. The fourteenth chapter gives you the secret—how to
make yourself completely Sattvic, because Sattva is the nearest approach
to divinity. Only after being established in Sattva can you reach the
transcendental. The sixteenth chapter tells you how to recognise that
which is undivine so that you may put forth effort, to erase them from
your personality, and how to recognise all that is divine so that you
may diligently and earnestly strive to acquire them. The fifteenth chapter
tells you how to live your life as a sacrifice, and how to recognise
the Atman which is immanent in all. The Gita deals with all important
aspects of practical Sadhana which lead us to the realisation of the
Upanishadic wisdom of Aparoksha Anubhuti. These we have to follow, and
also enshrine the practical Sadhana of the Gita in our hearts. We have
to live in a constant state of humble surrender to the Lord who is manifest
as the Sat-Guru and if we thus live and carry on our Sadhana with perfect
Vairagya, always choosing the Sreyas, every time a choice is put before
us, rejecting the Preyas, then our Sadhana will become fruitful; the
ultimate attainment is in the hands of the Lord. May you all lead the
Gita way of life and attain Supreme Happiness!
Guru-Kripa (The grace of the Preceptor) is a wonderful mysterious factor,
that will enable the aspirants to seek and to attain the summum bonum
of life, Self-realisation, the vision of God, or Moksha. Whether
the disciple is deserving, or undeserving, Guru-Kripa sets aside all
normal laws that operate in the spiritual plane and takes one to the
transcendental Bliss.
There is absolutely not the least bit of exaggeration in the statement
and also in the fact that the Guru is always gracious. But then, Guru-Kripa
has not only to be bestowed, not only to be given, but it has also
to be received. In receiving it, we immortalise ourselves and divinise
ourselves.
There must be joy in obedience to the Guru and there should be a real
craving in the spirit that “I should obey.” To be a disciple,
you should obey even in dream. Day and night our Sadhana should be to
cultivate this attitude of obedience to perfection. This is the external
part of Sadhana.
To the disciple, the nature of the Guru is not human. We should be
completely blind to the human side of the Guru and we should be conscious
only of the divinity that he is. Then alone will we be able to partake
of his Kripa which will transform us from the lower human into the transcendental
divine. Our relationship with the Guru is purely divine, purely spiritual.
Similarly we have first of all to develop in us the consciousness that
we are immortal beings and that we are in essence Satchidananda. Then
we can demand that Satchidananda consciousness from Guru and Guru will
be able to give.
Patience and humility in the spiritual realm may have to extend over
a period of decades. We have to wait like a dog at the door-step of
the Guru for a whole lifetime, if need be. There is no loss here. For,
the goal is immortal life and freedom.
The best thing is to humbly leave everything to the Guru. “I do
not know whether I am a disciple or not. Therefore, O Ocean of Mercy
and Compassion, pray, make me a proper disciple. Generate in me that
Mumukshutva which makes me a disciple and give me the spirit of willing
obedience. Help me in trying to follow thy instructions. Help me in
trying to mould myself upon the pattern set up by thee”—this
must be our constant prayer. And, by this alone shall we be able to
draw the Kripa of our Guru and make our life fruitful. And the perfect
way of praying is in obeying and in trying our best to be a real disciple.
Existence being one all life is one. All life being essentially one
mankind is also one. Uniformity, is the law of the spiritual plane.
Though externally, variety or diversity is the Law of Nature in the
manifest universe, in its inner aspect uniformity or unity is the Fact
of Life. Mankind is one. Thus on the one side we have this unity
of mankind all over the universe. On the other side, regarding Godhead
too we have utterances of sages ‘Ekam Eva Advitiyam Brahma’—God
is one. 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 Religion too is one! Whatever the apparent external differences
between religions may be, the inner process of religion has necessarily
to be one and the same. For, all religion but implies and comprises
man’s movement towards Godhead.
The process of religion is the freeing of man from the factors which
bind him down to this earthly existence of pain and death. If unrighteousness
is a factor in causing suffering, then be righteous. 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 and practise Ahimsa, be good, be kind, be compassionate.
Thus Ethics becomes a part of practice of religion. Thus the
process of religion develops in a scientific way by studying the causative
factors of your bondage to this earth-life and its pain and sorrows.
It insists that by living a life of practical religion you can remove
all these causative factors of suffering. We must, therefore, lead the
life carefully in such a way that we do not commit those things which
result in painful experience and existence.
The process of religion slowly works out a scheme of life for you where
you are made to bring into manifestation or into active expression,
all these lofty life-transforming elements of the Divine aspect of your
being, thus helping to overcome the animalistic aspect and progressively
unfold the divine nature that is already the essential part of your
inmost Consciousness. Man is made in the image of God; therefore Godliness
is the very essence of his real inner being. Hence the external operation
of lower nature has to be overcome and cast away, thus giving full scope
for the manifestation of the Divine Svaroop (nature) in him. With the
unfoldment and the blossoming of the Divine Consciousness in man, he
becomes at once linked with the infinite divine existence, Sat-Chit-Ananda.
The unity which had been for the time being veiled, as it were by ignorance
is reestablished. The consummation of the religious quest is to make
man declare: “I am not this body, I am not the senses, the mind
and the intellect, I am Sat-Chit-Ananda Brahman.” This comes from
the fullness of experience and the culmination of religious practice
which is the experience of your Eternal spiritual Unity with Godhead.
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
be the difference in the ritual or ceremonial details. Real Religion
wants the complete annihilation of the lower self, animalistic part
of man, and the progressive unfoldment of his divine nature. Thus from
the very genesis, the process to be worked out and the ultimate goal,
we see that all religions are at-one.
Religions have come either from eternal wisdom enshrined in scriptural
texts like the Upanishads, Vedas, or from some great men of wisdom inspired
by God to give out His message about the Way of attainment. If we go
to the source and look at the great and inspired lives of Jesus, Mohammed,
Zoroaster, Buddha and examine the 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 the very soul of the
religions which they have given to mankind. They demonstrated the practical
living of the religions which they later on gave to their followers
and in these personal, living demonstrations they were all at-one.
Let us examine a few of the prophetic utterances of these great messengers
of God. Is there any religion that tells us “Utter lies; be dishonest;
hate people; develop anger and animosity; be impure; be immoral?”
No, certainly not, is the emphatic answer. Every religion lays stress
upon a life of Truth, Absolute purity, of compassion, of
love, of devotion, of tenderness, of a life
of sacrifice and of goodness in thought, word and deed. Every
religion has given a way of life to its followers as the ideal to be
followed, in order to attain the goal viz., ultimate imperishable happiness
free from birth and death, disease and misery. The way or the means
is one and the same in every great religion. It is a life of purity
and devotion practically demonstrated by each one of the prophets, Saints
and great men of wisdom.
Therefore, from whichever angle you approach and study the subject
of religion and spirituality, and from whichever angle you look at it,
you find that every important factor is fundamentally one and the same
in all faiths. All faiths are one and all Prophets have lived the same
life of ethical perfection, divine compassion, goodness and awareness
of the oneness of mankind. Thus, however much we may try to close our
eyes to these facts, we find the oneness of all faiths proclaiming itself
in a living, irresistible way through the very motive force underlying
each faith and religion. In other words 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 wants
its followers to realise. These different faiths are, as it were, so
many beautiful flowers that go to make a beautiful bouquet which we
offer at the Almighty Being.
We, as seekers of Truth, have first of all to bear in mind that there
is a twofold aspect in which Sannyasa pervades our life. In its purely
spiritual aspect, Sannyasa embodies the highest spirit of Nivritti,
viz., the total negation of names and forms, and the masterful and purposeful
assertion of the One Reality, beyond all names and forms, Brahman or
the Self. This is the highest outcome of the highest Vedantic Sadhana.
This is the innermost core of the culture of Bharatavarsha, the highest
and the only aim of human existence according to the Hindu genius. Not
only this physical universe, but the countless number of universes that
exist as a drop in the infinite ocean of Satchidananda, are negated
in order to ever remain immersed in the blissful consciousness of the
Atman.
To realise this great end and aim, our ancient sages and saints have
interwoven and blended into the fabric of our social life the four Ashramas,
viz., Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha and Sannyasa, to effect a
gradual unfoldment of this spirit stage by stage in the life of an individual.
In the Brahmacharya Ashrama or the student-life one has to live with
his Guru, give up all distracting thoughts and give himself up completely
to the study of scriptures, living a life of self-control, purity, simplicity,
austerity, attention to studies and obedience to and service of the
preceptor. In the next stage, he lives an ideal life of a householder,
with selflessness, self-sacrifice and self-effacement as his mottoes.
This is the preparation for the next stage, viz., Vanaprastha, where
he has to discipline himself to enter the life of Sannyasa.
In the Sannyasa life, meditation and collecting food for his livelihood
were the Dharmas enjoined upon the man who had done all his duties to
society, to the nation, to his own family and to his friends. He has
now no more attachment and has but to fulfil the one great duty, i.e.,
of meditation upon the Self, and realisation. Thus in the last stage
of the social order, viz., Sannyasa, we have the highest spirit which
embodies the soul’s upsurge from finitude to infinitude. This is
the natural and dynamic movement of every soul which strives to break
all finite bonds and cast aside all traces of attachment; and, completely
shattering the illusion of duality and phenomenal existence, it strives
to soar into the splendour of Atman-consciousness.
This innate urge of the individual is the spiritual aspect of Sannyasa
for which no social order exists. It depends upon the intensity of the
soul’s urge, upon the thirst for Self-realisation which seizes
the Jiva that has been awakened to the transient nature of the phenomena
and to the ever-present Reality that is its very nature.
The real meaning and the true glory of Sannyasa can be best understood
by devoutly observing saints and men of God who are the living embodiments
of the highest and the best in Sannyasa. They personify Sannyasa in
the truest sense of the term. Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj
is verily the greatest exemplar of the true Sannyasa spirit. Every act
of his is the illuminating revealer of the secrets of real renunciation.
The spirit of Sannyasa has been misunderstood to be a sort of retreat
to the quiescent and a sort of escapism which arises out of inability
to face life. That sort of Sannyasa stands self-condemned. Sannyasa
is infinite strength. By escaping from active struggle of earthly life,
an individual cannot escape his Prarabdha. This is an illusion which
people who do not know the law of Karma hold on to. He who understands,
would not dare to enter this fiery order of Sannyasa in order to escape
from the struggle of life. Fate will show that he is woefully mistaken.
Those very Karmas which he has sought to escape in secular life will
stand before him, ruthless and pitiless, and he will have to work them
out with compound interest.
Sannyasa is based upon heroism. The real soldier in the Adhyatmic field
is he who has dared to see life as it is, who knows that everything
in this world is a transitory dream; and having the courage of this
conviction that the world is unreal, he has
