By
SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA
from
Early Morning Meditation Talks
A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION
First Edition: 1997
(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
Published By
THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
P.O. Shivanandanagar—249 192
Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttaranchal,
Himalayas, India.
CONTENTS
This special series of eight booklets is being published between September
1996 and September 1997 in honour of the 80th Birthday Anniversary of
H.H. Sri Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj, the President of the Divine Life
Society.
Each booklet contains several of his early morning meditation talks
given on special spiritual occasions in the sacred Samadhi Hall of the
holy founder of the Divine Life Society and Sivananda Ashram, H.H. Sri
Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. The series of eight booklets covers the entire
year of special occasions and festivals celebrated in the Ashram.
The talks contain penetrating insights into the meaning and purpose
of sadhana as Swamiji takes advantage of these occasions to point
out the fundamentals required for success in the spiritual quest such
as devotion to the goal, discrimination, obedience to the Guru, faith
in God and oneself, and a divinely lived life.
The spiritual advice and encouragement contained in these booklets
will be an inspiration and help to earnest spiritual seekers throughout
the world.
THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
The whole year for the Hindu is a continuous observance of some sacred
day of worship or other. The year is completely built around a great
many days of sacred worship of various expressions of the one non-dual
Divine Reality.
Each month is significant for the presence of some important day of
divine worship. So, from beginning to end, life becomes God-oriented;
it becomes devotion filled. Life becomes based upon worship.
The holiness and sanctity of life and actions of the followers of the
Vedic religion is insured by this great wisdom-based approach to life.
All the twelve months become a composite period of adoring the Divine
Reality around which the entire life of the individual revolves.
Swami Chidananda
“The quintessence of Advaita Vedanta
sadhana is to affirm the truth and reality of your essential,
eternal, divine identity and to resolutely reject the error
of thinking of yourself as a finite human creature.”
—Swami Chidananda
|
Radiant Immortal Atman! Beloved and blessed children of Light assembled
in Gurudev’s spiritual presence in this sacred Samadhi Hall! May
the divine grace of the supreme Eternal Reality, the one reality behind
ever-changing names and forms, enable you to become firmly established
in the noble ideals and divine principles that you have adopted for
living your chosen way of life and in the lofty spiritual qualities
which are required and are indispensably necessary to become firmly
established in the sublime spiritual life. May His divine grace enable
you to develop the inner spiritual strength necessary to cultivate successfully
the noble divine qualitieS, daivi sampada, like sama, dama,
titiksha, uparati, sraddha and samadhana (calmness of mind,
control of senses, endurance, self-withdrawal, faith and proper concentration),
like viveka, vairagya and mumukshutva (discrimination,
dispassion and a burning desire for liberation), like the qualities
of ahimsa, satyam and brahmacharya.
And may the grace of Gurudev make it possible for you to not only be
firmly established in these sublime divine qualities, but also to effectively
apply them in living your day-to-day life, in your daily thinking, feeling,
speech and actions. May Gurudev’s guru-kripa grant you the
insight and wisdom to effectively adhere to and apply these noble principles
and divine qualities in your relationship with life around you, with
your fellow beings whom you have to deal with in the practical living
of your life in the vyavaharic field.
Idealism is one thing. Idealism becoming a living force in your day-today
life, in your being and doing, in the manner in which you relate yourself
to your fellow beings in the field of daily vyavahara, that becomes
another thing. That becomes practical idealism. That becomes applied
divinity, daivi sampada in action. This is more difficult because
it encounters various adverse factors and obstacles. It also encounters
the formidable obstacle of your mind’s refusal to give way to higher
principles in preference to lesser principles. This is because the mind
sometimes has its own attachments, whims and fancies, and it has fallen
in love with certain lesser ways of expressing itself. It clings to
them; it does not want to leave them.
There is an essential unwillingness of the mind to change, sometimes
obstinacy, sometimes even obduracy. Therefore, great wisdom, earnestness
and sincere application are necessary in order to bring the mind around,
recreate it and to cultivate in ourselves a new mind. It is a regeneration.
Gurudev used a significant phrase in one song: “Die to live.”
The old has to die and give place to the new in your interior. It is
in dying to the little self that one attains to everlasting life.
It is a very difficult task. You can suppress the mind. You can repress
it. You can keep it in check. But to make it die, so that it forever
leaves off its old inveterate tendencies and consents to become totally
new, that is very difficult task. For the mind is always propelled by
a basic delusion, a basic ignorance. A Hindi bhajan contains
the line: “Man mari, maya na mari—I thought I had killed
my mind, but I had not yet killed my delusion, my maya, my spiritual
ignorance. Therefore I found that the mind is still there. It appeared
to be dead, but it is still there, because it is propelled from my inside
by this great illusory and delusory force.”
In his song of “Eighteen Ities,” Gurudev says “Brahman
is the only real entity,” and follows it immediately by saying
“Mr. So and So is a false non-entity.” As long as one does
not overcome the deluded notion that “I am important, I am something,
I am someone,” unless you realise and become convinced that Mr.
So and So, your “I” within, your little personality consciousness,
your distinctive ego-consciousness, is a false non-entity, then it is
very difficult to really start living the divine life.
For we still cling to that within us which is not the Divine, which
is the outcome of bhranti (error), the outcome of avidya,
of ajnana. Dehatma buddhi (considering the body as
the Atman) gives rise to this false ego-principle of a distinctive,
separate, individual human personality consciousness. It is the adhyasa
(superimposition), the proximity of the suddha chaitanya tattva
(pure consciousness principle) which is your nija svarupa (own
true nature) with the jada tattva (insentient principle) that
goes to make up your prakriti that is your earthly self.
It is this proximity that has given rise to this ego-principle which
is, at the moment, the most important thing in the whole world. Even
though it is a nothing, even though it constitutes your bondage, your
essential darkness, your prapancha and samsara, your greatest
problem and affliction, yet such is the tremendous power of maya
that she makes you regard it as the most important thing to be treasured
and supported, to be carefully preserved and nurtured. From morning
till evening we are doing nothing but taking care of it, trying to see
that it is not in any way assailed or hurt. We do everything to keep
it permanently there, whereas we should see clearly that it is our greatest
problem. It indeed constitutes our true problem, the central problem
of our spiritual life.
And if you psychologically investigate ego-consciousness, analyse it,
pursue it and begin to find out, then psychologically also, you will
find it to be the kingpin of all troubles, the clashes and conflicts,
the fights and quarrels, the bitterness and hatreds. But then, one does
not wish to do this keen critical analysis of one’s inner personality
structure. For the ego is the essence of it. It is the prop of the personality.
It is the ridge-pole of this life. And if the ridge-pole is taken away,
the whole tent will collapse. There will be nowhere for you to reside.
So, therefore, it is always maintained. Great importance is given to
it. Yet it is our affliction. Ahamkriti (egoism) is our badha
(hindrance). It is our bhavaroga (disease of transmigration
and worldly existence). It is the main affliction from which we are
suffering. But we do not know that it is the source of our suffering.
We think that it will protect us from all suffering. We rely upon it.
We depend upon it to maintain our integrity.
Everyone knows the great adage: “Then shall I be free, when I
shall cease to be,” but we do not recognise its truth, its validity
and its importance. We do not recognise its worth in our life, its central
place in our sadhana. So we know everything, yet we live in ignorance.
We have all the knowledge, yet we cling to ignorance. That is why we
weep and wail, we fight and quarrel. We bring upon ourselves various
types of afflictions, frustrations, disappointments, disillusionments,
sorrows and griefs, not knowing that the key is simple. We can rise
above all of them if we refuse to give importance to this ego-consciousness,
this “so and so” false non-entity and become established in
the truth of our being.
Yet, even though this is said a hundred times, we fail to recognise
this truth. That is why Lord Krishna says: “daivi hyesha gunamayi
mama maya duratyaya (Verily, this divine illusion of Mine, made
up of the three qualities of nature, is difficult to cross over).”
Difficult it is to understand, for it is so subtle, so elusive, so effective,
that knowing, yet one does not know. One lives in ignorance. Seeing,
yet one does not perceive. One still remains blind. Hearing, yet one
does not really understand. One pays no attention to what one hears.
Therefore, even though hearing, one still fails to understand what is
being said.
This is the subtle workings of maya, which wants to preserve
this personality, which deserves to be liquidated and not preserved.
Yet its preservation is the most important business of life for the
vast number of individuals that go to make up human society. Fortunate
indeed are the microscopic few who clearly recognise that our main problem
is ourselves, that our prapancha lies within us, our samsara
lies within us, our bondage lies within us, not outside. Others
are not our problem. We are more our problem than all others put together.
This indeed is to be pondered, to be grasped, to be understood and known,
and this indeed has to be dealt with one day or another, if you are
to transcend yourself and attain your true status, your divine identity.
One day it has to be done. Until that time, we shall still be carefully
nourishing and preserving our problems, we shall be carefully perpetuating
our bondage and protecting our troubles.
Think deeply. Cursory reflection will not take you into that which
alone can make you realise the truth of the reality. It is only deep
thinking that will bring you face to face with this central truth of
your present situation, that you are presently established in a limited,
separate human consciousness, a “so and so” consciousness,
“such and such” consciousness. Deep reflection will be necessary
to realise the actual nature of your present consciousness, deep and
constant reflection.
Therefore, we invoke the grace of the Divine and the benedictions of
holy beings like Holy Master, to enable us to become well aware of the
state of our inner consciousness, to enable us to deal with the situation
the way it is, and become established in our true Self, to rise and
go beyond our lesser self and to make our ground a dimension of our
true Self, our divinity.
Then alone divine life starts. Then alone divine life is possible.
Otherwise, maya deludes us into thinking that we have already
lifted our consciousness into a higher plane, while keeping us firmly
established in our plane of the I-consciousness. So it is difficult
to understand the very subtle workings of maya unless we are
constantly after Her with in-depth thinking, reflection and reasoning.
Therefore they say, you must have keen, actively-exercised discrimination
as your constant companion day by day. Great is the need to supplement
our devotion with keen, analytical, critical reasoning. Bhakti, jnana
and vairagya—all three have to go together.
We are celebrating the birth anniversary of one of the greatest spiritual
personalities of India, who had within himself an abundant measure of
bhakti and jnana as well as vairagya. So his name
has become immortal. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Gauranga Mahaprabhu was a
supreme devotee of the highest state of bhakti. But at the same
time, he was a very strictly rational, logical and keenly analytical
personality. And due to the combination of these two, he became established
in the highest type of vairagya, supreme vairagya. If
you study his life, you will be astounded to see in his personality
a rare confluence of the highest bhakti, highest jnana and
highest vairagya.
He, who lived more than 500 years ego and is the inspirer of the Hare
Krishna movement, the Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya (sect), is indeed
a great ideal. He perfectly realised the falsity and nothingness of
his little ego-consciousness and at one stroke was able to cast away
all ambition and all his love for learning and rationality. He had been
an outstanding scholar and a towering intellect. But due to his great
insight and great spiritual awakening within, he was able to put away
his ambition and scholarship and conquer the ego—a very difficult
task indeed. If you have conquered the ego, you have conquered samsara,
you have conquered prapancha, you have overcome bondage,
you have liberated yourself.
“Then shall I be free when I shall cease to be.” This “I”
which is so dear to everyone, which is the most important thing in the
whole world for everyone, which one does not want to let go of, it is
this that really constitutes your problem and it creates problems for
others also.
And it is to solve this problem that all philosophies have come up.
All the great Acharyas, Sankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya,
Vallabhacharya, Nimbarkacharya, etc., all the great teachers, Guru Nanak,
Zoroaster, Jesus, Buddha, have laboured only in order to teach us, to
enable us to overcome this little “I”. It is inveterate and
very difficult indeed to recognise in its true colours. All the philosophies
exist only in order to debunk this “I”. All systems and schools
of philosophy exist to make us see this truth clearly, that “I”
is your real problem. It is not an easy joke. You have to become a real
philosopher, you have to become a real Yogi, you have to become a real
Vairagi, you have to become a real Viveki, in order to recognise this
subtlest of all subtle truths.
God bless you. God’s grace is necessary. Guru’s Kripa is
necessary and our willingness to face facts is necessary. Our willingness
to recognise the truth when we see it, is necessary. It is the third
important necessity. May you be endowed with all three!
Adorable Divine Presence, Thou Who art the one all-pervading, ever-present
Reality behind the ever-changing, vanishing names and forms that constitute
this world appearance, this projected phenomenon in time and space!
Adorable Divine Presence, Thou Who art without and within and everywhere,
Thou Who art interconnected in the innermost cells of our body, Thou
Who art the Eye of our eyes, the Ear of our ears, the Breath of our
breath, the Mind of our mind, the Heart of our heart, the Prana of our
prana, the very Soul of our soul, Thou Who art seated within us as our
own inner, eternal being, bless us dear Lord that we may ever be aware
of Your Presence! This is all we ask of Thee: that we should never lose
the awareness that we live, move and have our being in Thy glorious,
holy, sacred Divine Presence and that our life is lived in You.
May there be peace in the whole world. May there be harmony and oneness
between individuals, communities and nations. May there be peace in
the East and the West, peace in the North and the South, and peace all
over the universe. Give us this day the guidance necessary to make this
day a fit and worthy offering at Thy Feet. Let this day be lived with
noble deeds, sublime feelings and with right understanding, good intentions
and pure thoughts.
Beloved and worshipful Gurudev, thou who has granted to us once again
the grace of being in your spiritual presence at this early morning
hour, bless all your children, who are gathered together here in this
sacred Samadhi Hall of your holy Ashram! Bless them that their eyes
are opened and from darkness they may see light. Remove spiritual blindness
and grant them all divine sight.
Bless them all that they may grasp the message of these past nine days
and the reason why our ancients had ordained that a new year commences
with nine days of continuous worship, adoration and prayerfulness. For
nine is the fullest number beyond which numbers cease and then combinations
start, all permutations and combinations of this mystical culminating
figure of nine. For this nine days, our ancients wisely ordained that
we observe a period of fast, prayer, worship, adoration, chanting of
the Divine Name and reading of the scriptures. Thus they gave us unmistakable
direction that the full year should be filled with worship, adoration
and diligent reading of the scriptures, so that we get guidance upon
the pathway of life through the wisdom teachings contained in the scripture
and so that the air should be filled with devotion, worship, prayerfulness
and all that is conducive to the highest human welfare here and hereafter.
What a great love for mankind our ancient had! What a great concern
for posterity they harboured in their hearts! Through their universal
love and compassion they made this provision for these nine days, so
that we may know how to live our life in order that the whole year may
be a great step in our spiritual evolution towards divine perfection,
illumination and ultimate liberation. How can we ever repay this debt
of gratitude they have put us into by this great wisdom, this great
consideration for our highest welfare!
Radiant Atman! What are your thoughts about the way in which the year
has commenced that you have been blessed to participate in? Have you
reflected upon it? Have you tried to understand its meaning and the
depth of its significance? Have you tried to grasp the message it has
for you and your life, what it seeks to convey to you? Or have you,
like millions of other people in India, just passed through it mechanically,
in a routine manner, as a habit, because it is a tradition? Or have
you tried to understand it in a special way, because you are a special
group of people who have chosen the spiritual path, who have made God-realisation
the goal of your life?
You are sadhakas, you are seekers. You are expected to be full
of vichara, full of viveka, spiritual enquiry, spiritual
discrimination, and jijnasa, a keen hunger for Knowledge. Therefore,
in your special capacity as jijnasus, mumukshus, sadhakas, spiritual
people and try to understand the message that Vasanta Navaratri has
for you. Otherwise, it will have come and gone and you will be where
you are and what you were before. That was not the purpose with which
these great sacraments and occasions of worship were instituted. They
were instituted with a different purpose—that they may awaken you
from time to time, inspire you, give you the right guidance, point out
to you the direction in which you must go. All this and more is contained
in these great occasions set up for us by our illumined ancestors.
We bemoan the condition of the world, the condition of present-day
mankind. We regret the deterioration in the individual’s character.
But we seldom try to see wherein lies the cause, wherein lies the reason
for this that we bemoan, this that we regret. We seldom seek to know
why this has come about or how it can be corrected. We seldom seek to
know.
Gossip is just talking about things one sees and hears. But serious
deliberation and discussion takes into consideration why these things
are happening, what are the cause or causes, how can they be remedied?
And What can I do as a contemporary individual in today’s
society in order to remove the causes? What can I do? What can
be my contribution? This is deliberation. This is not gossip.
And Gurudev has given us the key: “As a man thinketh, so he becometh.”
Thought leads to action. Action is the outer manifestation of the thought
that has arisen in the mind. A person thinks something and then does
what this thought impels. Thought is the origin of all human conduct,
all human behaviour, all human actions, the world over. Thought is the
key, it is the source of human life and conduct, of human action and
reaction and interaction also. If thought is properly taken care of,
then everything that results from it will also be properly taken care
of. You sow a thought and reap an action. If you continue to sow such
an action, you will reap a habit. Such habits repeated bring about character,
and your future destiny depends upon your present character. At the
root of it all is thought, what we think. Thought leads to action, action
leads to habit, habit leads to character and character decides destiny.
Therefore, what is to be done? We have just completed the Vasanta Navaratri,
where after nine days of continuous reading of the avatara lila of
the maryada purushottama Bhagavan Sri Ramachandra, we have celebrated
the birth of Lord Rama, Ramajanma. Do you not see the significance of
it? Clearly what is indicated is that the very purpose for which we
devoutly read the scripture is that the ideal of Rama may be born in
our heart. This is the only solution to the disease of sorrow, conflict,
clash, immorality, impurity and asuric conduct that prevails
in the world today. That is the only solution, the only right remedy,
the only right key.
Constantly there should be a renewal of the human heart. Noble thoughts
should be generated. Sublime ideas and sublime motivations should be
created in the hidden interior of the human heart and mind. Then alone
the human world will change, human conduct will change, human character
will assume new, sublime dimensions; man will become different, what
he is destined to be, divine, a child of God. It will not be possible
unless we bring about a revolution in our thoughts, unless we make idealism
to be born in our hearts every moment, every day.
Let idealism be born each day in the human heart. Let idealism be born
again and again in the human heart. That is the one way. All other efforts
are bound to fail if this fundamental process is not initiated in the
human nature, in the human mind, in the human heart. An abandonment
of base, wicked thoughts and a deliberate encouragement and determined
attempt to bring about a sowing of sublime thoughts, great thoughts,
noble intentions and pure motivations, is indeed the key. Let idealism
be born in the human heart every moment each day.
If the inner man is ideal, if the mind thinks sublime thoughts and
ideas, if the heart harbours noble emotions, if these intentions are
at the back of each action, then the human being will behave like a
true human being; he will begin to live like a God on earth. Then alone
a new era will dawn for man and mankind in the human world. For the
key lies in what the human mind thinks and in what feelings and sentiments
the human heart harbours. And this can be of the highest, sublimest,
holiest quality only if idealism is kept alive in the human heart.
When idealism vanishes, darkness envelops the human world. Man’s
interior, the mind, becomes a dark factory for the manufacture of ignoble
thoughts, dire thoughts. Man then creates a hell upon earth, he creates
his own undoing, his downward descent. The key lies, therefore, in taking
every care, taking great care about how the mind functions, how it behaves,
what thoughts it generates and what are the quality of those thoughts.
Idealism alone can keep these thoughts lofty, noble and sublime. In
this way only will man become a source of all that is auspicious and
blessed. All other solutions will be symptomatic solutions, patching-up
symptoms, not eradicating the root cause.
Therefore, let idealism be born in the human heart every day. This
is the great significance and the message of the jayanti of Lord
Rama who was the ideal divine human individual, human character. Reflect
deeply over this facet, this angle, this aspect of what you have just
now gone through. Know that its message is: Let idealism be born in
the human heart each day, freshly, newly, vigorously. This is the solution
to the problem of human character, human conflict and human unhappiness
created by human thought, the wrong type of thought, human error, and
not doing the right thing to bring about a change.
You have been told. An indication has been given about the solution.
Now it is up to you—yathe’cchasi tatha kuru—it
is up to you to make use of the solution or not. If you want to see
a better world, a better humanity, a better future for the world, there
is but one way: Let idealism, lofty, noble, sublime idealism, ethical
and spiritual idealism, humanitarian idealism be born in the human heart
each day, every moment.
Our human thought is the key to human destiny. Srotavya, mantavya,
nididhyasitavya—this is to be heard, reflected upon and pondered
deeply. God bless you!
Radiant Atman! The words aviveki, viveki and sadhaka refer
to three different types of individuals. An aviveki is a person
who does not discriminate. All the lessons in life which God sends him
or her are wasted, because he or she is in ajnana (ignorance).
And ajana is the outcome of aviveka (non-discrimination).
On the other hand, a viveki is a person who does discriminate.
He learns the lessons of life, but they have no effect on him. His learning
and the lessons he has learned are stored up in his head; they produce
no fruit because they are not applied. He does not allow these lessons
to have a powerful impact upon him.
But a true sadhaka (spiritual aspirant) is one who is both a
viveki as well as one who actively reacts to whatever lessons
life brings in the course of going through it, the experiences that
form part of it. Nothing is wasted upon the true sadhaka. Everything
produces a change, a transformation for the better. Everything brings
forth from the true sadhaka and seeker a certain positive, creative
response, after which he is never the same as before. He is changed.
His character, his nature, his very life becomes enriched, enhanced
by something new which was not there previous to the impact the experience
had upon him.
Two hundred years ago, there was born a grandchild, a baby girl, in
the family of a very renowned Japanese warrior, a samurai. He
was a great warrior, very brave and heroic. And the baby girl was a
most beautiful child. She grew up to be a maiden of such exceptional
and unusual beauty that the family thought it fitting that she be offered
to the Empress of the country as a handmaiden or servant.
At that time the Japanese were ruled by emperors. So they took her
to the palace and the Empress and the entire royal family were also
struck by the beauty of this girl. She was found to be very keenly intelligent,
very active and very perceptive. So she soon became a favourite and
an important part of the Empress’ retinue.
Unfortunately, within a few years, while the girl was still in her
teens, the Empress, whose health had been apparently perfectly normal,
suddenly passed away. This sudden passing had such a profound impact
upon this young girl that something stirred deep within her and a sudden
change came into her entire psychology. She said: “What is this
life? Everything is vain. Everything passes away. There is no stability;
nothing can be relied upon. Nothing is real. Everything is evanescent,
transitory, ephemeral, perishable and passing.”
She was very intelligent person, and so profound was this conviction
that she lost all interest in life and determined then and there: “I
must pursue the path of meditation and enlightenment.” She determined
to become a Zen nun, a seeker and a meditator.
Everyone was shocked. Her whole family was in an uproar. They said:
“Impossible! It is against our family tradition. You are too young
for this; you are unprepared. You must marry. Moreover, it will not
be possible for you to be a nun having such great beauty as God has
endowed you with.” She yielded to them upon one strict condition—that
after she had mothered three children, the marriage agreement would
be at an end she would then become a nun. No one believed that such
a thing would be possible and so they readily agreed and arranged a
match for her. She also told her future husband and in-laws the same
thing—that only on this condition would she be willing to enter
into wedlock.
All agreed and so she was married. Dutifully she served her husband
and in-laws, took a full interest in family affairs, looked after the
household and behaved in a one hundred per cent normal way. But, at
the same time she was a keen student of Zen literature and practised
meditation. Still, in all ways she was an efficient house-wife, a good
wife, and obedient daughter-in-law and a good daughter to her parents.
However, after the third child had been born and reared for a few months,
she suddenly announced that her promise had been fulfilled. She would
no longer continue in the family life and instead would take to the
life of a Zen nun. In spite of all protests, she shaved her head and
silenced them with a reminder of their promise.
She then left everything, put on a nun’s robe and wandered away
in search of a Zen master. She went to a great city where a famous master
was and asked to be taken in discipleship. She was refused due to her
beauty. She went to another master where she was also refused on the
ground of her beauty.
Therefore, she determined that this obstacle should be removed. So,
one day, in the privacy of her room she made a big fire, put a iron
rod into it and branded her face. She made her face ugly beyond recognition
and thus lost her beauty forever. She then went back to the second master
who immediately accepted her as a disciple. She soon became a very earnest
and sincere practitioner of the Zen way of life and advanced spiritually
in an amazing manner.
Such was her determination. And it was all due to the way in which
she was able to react when confronted by the sudden death of her patron,
the Empress. Of the hundreds of others who must have been in the service
of the palace and the Empress, some would have wept, mourned for some
time and then adjusted themselves. Others might have been thoughtful
and reflected and for some time had some smasana vairagya (graveyard
dispassion). They might have stopped wearing ornaments or good clothes.
But soon they too would have reverted to normal, back to square one,
as they say, or into the old rut. But here was one who was not only
not an aviveki, not only not ignorance, not only not merely a
viveki, but was one who was also practical, who had the viveka
and immediately applied it to her own life.
Similar indeed was the case of Prince Siddhartha. He was a uttama
adhikari (best qualified aspirant), a practical spiritual seeker,
who was ripe to react to the experiences of life in a creative and transforming
manner. And that was what made him first a renunciate, a tyagi, then
a tapasvi, then a Yogi, then a jnani, then an enlightened
Guru, an uttama tattvavetta (one who fully knows the truth) and
finally a world teacher. And the whole world has benefited. Because
he was a uttama adhikari, he did not go through life’s experiences
blindly with eyes closed, in a state of ignorance, in a state of non-discrimination
and non-enquiry, avichara and aviveka. Nor did he merely
go as an intellectual vicharavan and viveki.
Intellectually we may make enquiries, come to conclusions, learn things
and then do nothing about it. So we are only burdened with knowledge.
Life is left untouched. But Prince Siddhartha was a practical spiritual
seeker, and he reacted to even simple ordinary experiences which leave
millions of others just cold. Everyone has seen old age; everyone has
seen disease; everyone has seen death. They are seen but nothing happens.
It is only when metal is touched by a philosopher’s stone that
it becomes gold. If clay or wood comes into contact with a philosopher’s
stone, it will remain clay or wood only. If a person of metal comes
in contact with even day-to-day experiences, he will be transformed.
Siddhartha was a person of metal; he had the right stuff in him. And
this beautiful Japanese girl also had the right stuff in her. There
was something there ready to absorb, to react, to get transformed. And,
therefore, a transformation took place.
Today is Sri Buddha Jayanti. You should, therefore, ponder Buddha’s
life, his ideal reaction to experiences and the memorable and epoch-making
step that he took. When he felt this profound change, he did not keep
quiet about it. He was a practical Yogi. He took a bold step and became
a renunciate and a seeker. Then he became an austere practitioner, a
tapasvi, practised Yoga and meditation and became a jnani
and a world teacher.
The great poet Sir Edwin Arnold has written about him in wonderful,
inspiring poetry, The Light of Asia. And a very readable and
most absorbing biography of Buddha was written by Adam Beck. Then Professor
Edwin Burtt from Cornel University near New York has written Teachings
of the Compassionate Buddha. It is worthwhile purchasing a copy
and studying it. During the late forties, Professor Burtt stayed in
this Ashram for two or three weeks during a visit to India and Nepal.
He gave a series of talks on comparative religion before Guru Maharaj
Swami Sivanandaji.
So, it is not what the jiva keeps experiencing in this life
that really enriches it or transforms it and lifts it up to sublime
heights, rather it is actively exercised vichara and viveka.
More than that, for even this is not sufficient, it is how one reacts
in a living manner, in a vital manner to experiences. It is this that
becomes the transforming factor in the life of a true seeker.
This is so not only in the spiritual field but also in the secular
field, even in the business field. If a businessman’s son goes
on like a fool, he will never learn anything. The same son, if he is
not a fool but a keen observer, may learn many lessons about the business
world, but if he does not react to them, he will not be successful.
It is only the one who keenly absorbs these experiences, reflects deeply
over them, applies the lessons learned and brings about changes, it
is only such a one that becomes a successful business person and perhaps
a multi-millionaire. It all depends upon whether one vitally and in
a living manner reacts to the experiences that one undergoes. It is
that which determines one’s transformation in life.
That is what the life of Buddha teaches us. He reacted in a wonderful
manner, in a living manner, very early in life. Thus it was that at
a young age he became a great enlightened and illumined teacher of his
own times and has gone down as an immortal personality in human history.
Even though it is well over 2500 years since he was born, even today
his teachings are followed by millions of Buddhists. And the world also
remembers him, both East and West.
That is the result of the living way in which he faced life, underwent
experiences and responded to them in a living way. May this be well
absorbed. May this be deeply pondered. That is the benefit of observing
such occasions as Buddha Jayanti. May you all try to make this a period
of special study of Buddha’s life, his teachings and what they
imply, what message they have for us. May we become enriched by his
lofty and sublime example, life and teachings. God bless you all!
Radiant Atman! This week we will observe the jayanti of Adi
Sankaracharya, one of the greatest of Self-realised souls and philosophers
this world of ours has produced. Leaving home, in a spirit of renunciation
and aspiration to realise the Reality, at the tender age of eight years,
he completed an unbelievable mission in the span of just a few years,
passing away in his 32nd year. During that period he did what is known
as digvijaya (conquest of the quarters), carrying the banner
of Advaita Vedanta, the supreme philosophy of absolute monism, into
the four corners of India and overcoming all lesser schools of philosophy
through his convincing, irrefutable arguments. His incredible work remains
dynamically living, active and ever progressive even to this day, more
than 1200 years after he propounded his doctrine.
The quintessence of Advaita Vedanta is to affirm the truth and reality
of your essential, eternal, divine identity and to resolutely reject
the error of thinking of yourself as a finite human creature having
a name and form, beginning and end, and subject to changes such as birth,
death, old age, disease, decay, pain, sorrow, suffering, etc. Resolutely
rejecting this error and simultaneously affirming your eternal, unchangeable
divine identity is the centre of Advaita Vedanta sadhana. They
call it affirming and rejecting, pushtikarana and nirakarana—neti,
neti.
Sankara’s most popular work, Vivekachudamani, is a call to discrimination
between the Self and non-Self—atma-anatma viveka. Atma
is sat (existence absolute). Anatma is appearance
only, temporary in time, limited in space, perishable; it is kshara
purusha (perishable being). Atma is akshara purusha (imperishable
being)—ajo nityah sasvato’yam purano na hanyate
hanyamane sarire (Unborn, eternal, changeless and ancient, the Self
is not killed when the body is killed). Thus the Vivekachudamani is
a discourse, a treatise and a sadhana on discrimination between
the Self and the non-Self.
And a second work of his, Atma Bodha, is a light upon what the Self
is. As you discriminate between the Self and the non-Self, you get a
good knowledge of what the non-Self is, so you can reject it; you will
not be deluded by it. You can free yourself from the veil of delusion
by knowing the nature of anatman. And then, to be rooted in the
Reality, to be fixed in it firmly, to be able to think, reflect and
meditate upon it and to awaken the correct awareness within your consciousness,
a thorough study of what the Self is is of great importance and value.
To that end, Atma Bodha can be the way that God can gradually answer
your prayer, “tamasoma jyotir gamaya” and “dhiyo
yo nah prachodayat” (“From darkness lead me unto light”
and “May He illumine our intellects”).
To avoid that which is wrong, we have to get a knowledge of what wrong
is; and to pursue and practice that which is right, we have the need
to have a knowledge and a grasp of what right is, of what Reality and
Truth is. Thus both the negative and positive and positive aspects of
Vedantic admonition are of equal importance in making the mind aware
of its error and to make the intellect grasp the truth.
When Brahman is the reality to be attained, why unnecessarily know
about the world, prapancha, samsara? The answer is that because
you want to free yourself from the delusion of the world, you must know
the tricks of this deluding appearance. Indeed, you must know everything
about it, because it comes in numerous subtle ways.
We think the world is outside us, but, by and large, the world or prapancha
or samsara is within us. We have to understand that. What
is it within us that makes us regard prapancha to be real and
makes us move towards it, get attached to it, get bound by it? What
is it within us? That has to be rooted out, eradicated first. Thus the
study of avidya or maya within is the key to freeing ourselves
from delusion and rising from darkness to light.
Gurudev again and again reiterated: “Thou art immortal Soul. Thou
art not this body nor this mind. They are upadhis, limiting adjuncts
temporarily added on to you. They are there as part of your lesser personality,
your earth consciousness, but you are also there far beyond them, transcending
them, a divine personality, a supra-human spiritual reality, untouched
by time and space, not bothered by pain, sorrow and suffering.”
This, then, is to be heard, reflected upon and meditated upon. May
you direct all your attention to the practice of this truth which shall
make you free. For it is this truth that arouses in us our kinship with
the eternal, universal Reality, paramatman. May the grace of
the Lord grant you success in this sadhana of being what you
really are and of resisting the pull of the lower mind to make you imagine
that you are something other than this Reality.
Constantly you have to reject the attempts of the mind and its age-old,
inveterate tendencies to keep itself tied down to a lower level of ignorance
and mistaken identity. It should be given no quarter. By the strength
of your will power, your positive, awakened consciousness and your resolute
and determined sankalpa to attain realisation in this very body,
you must keep this process up. You must shine with an effulgent inner
awareness of your own essential, immortal and imperishable divine identity.
Your interior should be a mass of effulgence, of jnana prakasa.
There should be a state of jnana bodha within, a state of wakefulness
within—no slumber. For this you must pray, and for this you must
practise.
May this week be permeated by the spirit of Jagat Guru Adi Sankaracharya,
the Advaita Acharya, and may it have the effect of successfully lifting
up your consciousness from the present, ordinary, humdrum human level
of earth consciousness into a lofty, sublime higher spiritual level
of a divine spiritual consciousness!
