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Early Morning Talk on 11
November 2003 OM OM OM Om Namah Shivaya Hari Om. Worshipful homage unto Thee, O Thou Supreme, eternal and infinite, timeless and spaceless, supra-cosmic, transcendental Reality. Thou who art all-pervading; at the same time, Thou who art beyond everything; unreachable, unattainable, absolute, One without a second, non-dual. Paratpara-Tattva. And, a great divine mystery, a great divine paradox: this being beyond the reach of all things, supremely transcendental – Paratpara. Yet, Thou art most proximate of all proximate things; nearer than the nearest, being the Indweller of all things. How can both these aspects co-exist? We do not know. Thou alone knowest Thy own mystery. To Thee, our worshipful homage. May thy Divine Grace be upon all those seekers, jijnasus, mumukshus assembled here. Loving adorations and prostrations to revered and beloved Holy Master Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, who tried to reveal to us a little bit of this mystery through His teachings. Delving into the scriptures – Gita, Ramayana, Bhagavata, Upanishads, Yoga Vashishta – He translated; wrote commentaries; clarified the meaning of abstruse verses. And thus tried to make us understand the difficult-to-understand subtle truths. To Him, we also pay our worshipful homage, loving adorations and prostrations. This world is a world of the pair of opposites: darkness and light; night and day; happiness and misery; black and white; light and heavy; tall and short; good and bad; straight and crooked; plain and complicated; happiness and misery; learning and ignorance; hot and cold; high and low; far and near; easy and hard; thin and thick. It is legion. This is a jagat of dwandwa. Dwandwa-jagat. Old and young; soft and hard; friend and enemy; sweet and bitter; birth and death; death and rebirth; empty and full. They can go on filling pages after pages. It was so right from the very beginning. In Indian philosophy, metaphysics, they speak of this world and human life as “Samsara-Chakra” – the wheel of birth and death. And they say, right from the origin, this Samsara-Chakra has been just like this. That is why it continues like this. They say, “in the wheel with two spokes only”; not many spokes. And the two spokes of this wheel are Raga and Dwesha – attraction and repulsion; or love and hate. Beginning and end. Because they started with separateness; samsara-chakra itself started with two spokes of the opposites – love and hate, attraction … Raga-Dwesha. Everything that is the outcome of this reflecting of this Being naturally partook of the same characteristics, namely: duality, dwandwa. Which means … What is the quest of man? What does man want? Man wants HAPPINESS. No one wants misery. Everyone wants happiness. But unfortunately, this world being a world of dwandwa – there where is happiness, inevitably, unavoidably, there is also misery. Therefore, if you want happiness and you go after happiness, you should prepare to encounter its inseparable companion, misery, also. Is there a possibility of freedom from misery, sorrow? Yes, there is a possibility – provided you are scientific. “Swamiji, what do you mean by being scientific?” Scientific means: being aware that where there is something – some condition, some state of affairs – it must have some cause. Without cause, an effect cannot come into being. The whole world is based upon a cause and effect relationship. Scientists make up a thesis … if they want to correct something, they first of all find out what is the cause of this effect which requires to be correct. Once you find the cause, remove the cause, then this effect will vanish, this effect will disappear. “I have got tummy-ache – give me something to stop the tummy-ache.” No, no! That is not the scientific approach. Find out why the tummy-ache started in the first instance: there must have been some cause. Not taking sodium bicarb or not taking some medicine is not the cause of your tummy-ache! So that you take that, and then tummy-ache disappears. No. Due to some cause, this pain started in your stomach – try to find out what the cause is. And remove that cause … and the stomach-ache also will go; even without taking anything, taking any medicine. That is the scientific approach, and the scientific remedy. If you remove the cause, tummy-ache will go away by itself and not return. As long as the cause is there, you put the medicine – as long as the effect of the medicine lasts, there will be relief; but the tummy-ache will be there as long as the cause is there. Did we remove the culprit that tells us: “What is the cause of sorrow? What is the cause of our ‘Hai, hai!’ – pain and sorrow?” They said: “Desire.” Because, if the mind is at peace, relaxed, expanded, is at peace – there is happiness. Peace and happiness are inter-linked, inter-connected. Where there is no peace, you cannot have happiness. The condition pre-requisite for happiness, the state of expansive happiness, is peace. Therefore peace is to be sought. And anything that destroys your peace is to be avoided, if you are wise and want to be happy; and remain happy. You must avoid anything that causes peacelessness. What is it that destroys the peace of mind, makes it restless? Great minds, after having delved deeply into this question, they came out with the answer: “DESIRE is the cause of the restlessness of mind.” Because, by passage of time, all things deteriorate. That time is a great havoc-maker! ‘Khano jagat vakshataha.’ Khao jagat vakshata. Time is a great havoc-maker. A beautiful youth, or a beautiful girl, is a teenager; but 20, 25, 30 years pass – no longer a beautiful teenager! Why? Because minutes trickled by; and hours passed, and days, and weeks and months and years passed. Then everything changes. Time does not allow anything to remain in the same condition. Therefore nothing is stable. If you understand this, then you get peace of mind. “Yes, this is natural. So I will take it in my stride.” So, one who understood that desire causes restlessness; and restlessness, irritation, means peace; and when there is no peace, no happiness. And the cause of peacelessness, cause of the person with disturbed mind, is desire. So there is a couplet telling, “The desire ends, sorrow takes leave.” No desire, no sorrow. Mind becomes carefree. And, in whom does desire cease to be? In that person who says, “I don’t want anything.” “What do you want? – I don’t want anything.” Is there any man in this world, is there any person – man or woman in this world – who says, “I don’t want anything”? Yes! One who wants real happiness, and one who has found out this secret, that the enemy of happiness, desire, is desire, that clever person, you see … “If I am filled with wants, I will not have happiness. I want happiness. I have found out the secret. I know how to be happy. Therefore I say ‘I don’t want anything.’ I don’t want anything.” It appears a dervish once went to ask something of an emperor. And that emperor was a great democratic man. He did not surround himself with walls of iron, make himself unapproachable due to intricate, complicated, palace royal protocol, the imperial protocol. He said, “Anyone can approach me. Anyone can directly approach me. Whatever you want, you ask. I will give. This person is here to give everything to subjects and make them happy.” So he said, “No one should prevent anyone from approaching me. Let anyone approach.” He was such an austere emperor; even though he was ruling India, yet he lived in such a state – upon money which he earned by his own labour. He made leather shoes. And he had them sent to the bazaar – open market – had them sold; and whatever money came out of the sales of his leather shoes, upon that only he subsisted. Unbelievable, but true! Unbelievable; but true. He was, this highly democratic emperor was Avarzee; Avarzee. And very pious man, very devoted. Five times a day, he would do his prayers at the mosque. And read the Qu'ran without fail, every day. And one day, a mendicant, a Muslim dervish, had some want; so he said, “I will approach my emperor and ask him. Because he is known to be a very simple, easily approachable person and known to be a great …” He never turned away the suppliant without giving him what he wanted, whatever he asked. And what he approached the emperor, it so happened it was the time for prayer; and the emperor was devoutly praying at the mosque. After the regular prayer, he raised his hands and eyes to Allah and said: “Allah! There is famine in that part of my empire. Please, give us rain. Due to drought there is famine; please give us rain, so that crops may grow, and the famine may end.” And then: “O Allah! I have heard that far away in that distant border, some people are conspiring against the empire. They are bringing up an army, want to invade. Please grant that their efforts may fail: they will not be able to raise an army; they will not be safe.” Then: “I am told, messengers have come from that part of my empire where a certain disease is spreading, and people are dying. Please grant that that epidemic disease may be quelled, stopped. They may not …” The mendicant who came to take something, he heard these things; and he turned to go. Avarzee saw that a mendicant who had come to ask him something is going away. So he called to one of his retainers, servants. He said, “Go and stop him. Let me finish my prayers; then I shall attend to him.” So they went and stopped him. The mendicant was unwilling to come back. He said: “What can I get from this man? He himself is beggar! He is begging God, ‘Please give me this; please do this, please do that, please do that.’ And … what can he give me? If he is begging from Allah, I can also directly ask Allah Himself! I came for a small thing. He is asking such big things from Allah! And if Allah is capable of granting such big things – He is certainly hundred times more capable granting my small request! My request is very small, compared to the request of this great emperor. He is an emperor; I am only a mendicant. A beggar could not give anything. If he thinks Allah can give everything, I can approach Allah directly!" That is the story of a mendicant, but it goes that as long as there is desire, the person is a beggar. And if one should be a real emperor of empires … emperors, he must be separate. ‘Chaha gahi chinta mitti; manana va beparvah.’ Chaha gahi – desires left me; chinta mitti – all sorrow also disappeared from me; and mind is carefree. ‘Jako kuch na chahiye…’ – to that being who wants nothing – ‘…wahan hai SHAHENSHAH!’ He is the emperor of emperors. ‘Chaha gahi chinta mitti, mananava beparvah; jako kuch na chahiye, wahan hai Shahenshah.’ If you want to become an emperor of emperors … want nothing. Then no one can enslave you. No sorrow can assail you; you are always happy. You are always happy. There is a couplet which says: “What is the cause of human misery? Fire of craving: always burning you – this fire of craving is consuming the human being. There is a couplet in Sanskrit. They take two identical words, there are two identical words; they are identical … and they are spelt “c-h-i-t-a”. C-H-I-T-A. Chita. Chita. And, if it is not written in Roman script, English language, but it is written in classical Sanskrit, they both are the same. “CHI-TA.” It, the heap of wood that is heaped up in an orderly way upon which a dead body is kept, and it is set fire to, so that cremation takes place. Because Hindus cremate their dead. So it is called “chita”. And, if over this “chita”, one little dot with the tip of your pen is put over the first alphabet “c”, then the word becomes changed from “chita” to “chinta” – “c-h-i-n-t-a”. By the mere putting of one little dot! Ninety-nine percent they are identical; that one percent is, if you put a little dot with the tip of your pen – immediately, the word becomes quite a different word! Instead of “chita”, it becomes “chinta”. “Chinta” means “sorrow”. Sorrow is a fire that can consume a person. So the couplet goes: ‘Chita aaya to chinta aaya ta bindu matra visheshataha.’ There is only the difference of one little dot between “chita” and “chinta”. But then: this dot makes this word far more powerful than the fire that burns the dead body! The fire of the single fire in the cremation ground burns only a dead body. But the fire of sorrow burns away even a living individual. Even a living individual. And, it consumes. Sorrow consumes a living human being. And so, the Urdu couplet says: If you want to overcome sorrow, give up all desire. ‘Chaha gayi chinta mitti, mananava beparvah; jako kuch na chahiye, wahan hai Shahenshah.’ “Eh, desire, get out! I shall always be an emperor of emperors. I will want nothing: I will say I don’t want anything: I am full by myself. I am myself complete, full. Surfeit. Therefore I laugh. I laugh at sorrow. Sorrow cannot approach me.” Thus… And so, if you want one thing, the opposite also will always be with you. The wheel of samsara, with its two spokes of Raga-Dwesha, has made everything in this samsara dual. If you want happiness, misery also will come; if you want health, disease also will come. Therefore, you must try to become a dwandwatita. Free yourself from this involvement, entanglement to this pair of opposites. “I neither want this nor want that.” The 5th and the 6th verses of the 15th Chapter of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita indicate to us that path of going beyond the dualities and forever becoming free from this world of pain and psychosis. Death and rebirth; death and rebirth. Going from one body into another body; going for another body. Getting entangled in this wheel. ‘Nirmaanamohaa jitasangadoshaa’. Be without … For that being who is without pride and delusion – maana and moha – free from pride and delusion; and having attained victory over attachment – adosha – the defect of attachment; adhyaatmanityaa vinivrittakaamah – and well-established in the like spirit in God – adhyatma – and with all desires … free from desires; and dwandwairvimuktaas sukhadukhhasamjajnair – and liberated from this dual thong: the pair of opposites, like pleasure and pain; happiness and misery. ‘Gacchantyamoodhaah padamavyayam tat’ – these undeluded being, these wise beings go to that supreme abode, that eternal abode, that abode which is always there, never ceases to be. Avayam – eternal. What is that abode? Ahhh! Here comes the crucial question! It is that abode beyond the moon, beyond the sun, beyond everything; back of the beyond. ‘Na tadbhaasayate sooryo bhati no shashaanko na paavakah’ – there in that abode there is neither the sun nor the moon nor this earthly fire. And it is that eternal abode of Mine, having reached which one does not return once again here. Having reached where one does not come here, that is My supreme abode. To that abode you go. So if you want to go to that abode – be liberated from pride and delusion, be liberated from attachment, rise above the dual thong, pleasure and pain, happiness and misery – you left everything, say, “I don’t want anything.” There is that eternal abode, and that eternal abode is My supreme abode; My supreme abode, attaining which one does not once again return here. So that should be your goal. You should strive for that. You should pray for that. Go beyond everything. Reach the supreme abode. And you will not return once again here to this world of pain and death. In “Song of Govinda”, Gurudev says: “This is the world, Govinda ‘Janma-mrityu-jada-vyaadi-dukh.’ See, this is the world of these defects: birth and death, old age, disease, sorrow. Go beyond birth and death. Go beyond disease and sorrow. Become established in sorrowless state of supreme joy – Parama Ananda – by attaining Him. He who attains Him goes beyond all these defects of this world of sensual pleasures, sensual objects. They are all perishable, subject to change, decay and destruction. Be wise. Eschew these pleasures. Become FREE from all desire and attachment. You will reach that supreme abode which is God’s supreme abode, and where only BLISS pervades. Bliss alone pervades. Not sukh-dukh, the pairs of opposites. But beyond the pairs of opposites. Beyond the pair of opposites. Ananda is absolute. It is not a pair of … It is not one of a pair. It is Absolute. By Itself. Ananda. Om Namah Shivaya First father, afterwards son. Son cannot come before the father. Om Sri Sharavanabhavaya Namah Om Namo Narayanaya |
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