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CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THOUGHT-CULTURE AND ITS SUPREME NEED IN SPIRITUAL PRACTICE(H.H. SRI SWAMI SIVANANDAJI MAHARAJ)This is a vital subject. Very few people know this art or science. Even the so called educated people are unaware of this fundamental education. All have random thinking. All sorts of loose thoughts of diverse kinds come and go in the mental factory. There is neither order nor harmony. There is neither rhythm nor reasoning. There is neither concord nor organised working. There is neither system nor discipline. All is in utter chaos and confusion. There is no clarification of ideas. You cannot think of one subject even for two minutes in an orderly and systematic manner. You have no understanding of the laws of thought and the laws of the mental plane. There is a perfect menagerie inside. All sorts of sensual thoughts fight amongst themselves to enter the mind of a sensualist and gain the upper hand. The eye Indriya (sense) struggles to bring its own thoughts. It wants to have sight-seeing. The ear Indriya wants to hear radio music and so on. In the vast majority of persons only base thoughts, lustful thoughts, thoughts of hatred, jealousy and fear exists. They cannot entertain a single sublime divine thought even for a second. Their minds are so framed that the mental energy runs into sensual grooves. Every man has got his own mental world, his own mode of thinking, his own ways of understanding things and his own ways of acting. Just as the face and voice of every man differ from those of another man, the mode of thinking and understanding also differs. This is the reason why misunderstanding easily occurs between friends. One is not able to understand rightly the views of another. Hence friction, rupture and quarrel occurs within a minute even amongst fast friends. The friendship does not last long. One should be in tune with the mental vibrations or thought-vibrations of another man. Then only one can easily understand another. Lustful thoughts, thoughts of hatred, jealousy and selfishness produce distorted images in the mind and causes clouding of understanding, perversion of intellect, loss of memory and confusion in the mind. Every thought has got image, form, dimension, weight, shape, colour, etc. Thought is as much a matter as a piece of stone. Thought moves and passes from one man to another. Thought influences people. A man of powerful thought can influence readily people of weak thoughts. Telepathy is a branch of occult science wherein the Yogi can transmit messages to any man in any part of the world. Telepathy is the first telegraphic or telephonic system in this world known to Yogins and occultists of ancient days. A thought of anger or hatred sends arrows from the mental factory towards the person aimed at, harms the individual, sets up discord and disharmony in the thought-world and comes back again to the sender and harms the sender also. If one can understand the effect and power of thought, he will be very careful in the manufacture of his thoughts in his mental laboratory. One should develop the faculty of producing only pure Sattvic thoughts by protracted mental discipline, dietetic adjustments, repetition of good Slokas with meaning, good company, study of divine books, Japa, meditation, Pranayama, prayer, etc. A good man can help his friend even though he lives at a long distance by good thoughts. You must not allow any evil thought to enter your mental factory. Watch always your thoughts. Avoid useless and baseless thinking and reserve or conserve your mental energy. Energy is wasted in idle thinking. Keep yourself always occupied in doing virtuous actions and the study of religious books. You can thereby cultivate good and sublime thoughts. Destroy random thinking. Take a subject and think on its different aspects and bearings. When you think so on one subject, never allow any other thought to enter the conscious mind. Again withdraw the mind to the subject on hand. Take for instance, you begin to think on the life and teachings of Jagadguru Adi Sankaracharya. Think of his birth-place, his early life, his character, his personality, his virtues, his preachigs, his writings, his philosophy, some of the important utterings in his works of Slokas, the Siddhis that he exhibited from time to time, his Digvijaya, his four disciples, his four Maths, his commentary on the Gita, Upanishads and Brahma-Sutras. Think of these items one by one in order. Exhaust them. Again and again bring the mind to the point. Then take up another subject. By this practice you will develop organized thinking. The mental images will gain intense strength and force. They will become clear-cut and well-defined. In ordinary persons the mental images are destroyed and undefined. Every thought has got an image. A table is a mental image plus some external something. Whatever you see outside has got its counterpart in the mind. The pupil is a small structure. How is it that the image of a big mountain seen through a small aperture or structure is cast on the mind? How does the big form of a mountain enter a tiny hole in the eye? This mind is like a big, vast sheet of canvas cloth that contains all the pictures of the objects seen outside. You must have knowledge of the mental laws, viz., the law of association, the law of relativity, and the law of contiguity. Then you can develop thought-culture very easily. You can remember things through the law of association. Brahmacharya and pure Sattvic diet are essential for thought-culture. Get up at 4 a.m. Sit on Virasana or Padmasana or Siddhasana. Repeat your Mantra— Om or Ram or Hari Om—for ten minutes and then practice thought-culture. Have another sitting at night. When you think on one subject, don’t allow other thoughts to enter. When you think of rose, think of the different kinds of roses only. Do not allow other thoughts to enter. When you think of mercy, think of mercy and mercy only. Do not think of forgiveness and tolerance. When you study the Gita, do not think of tea or a cricket match. Be wholly occupied on the subject on hand. Napolean controlled his thoughts in this manner: “When I want to think of things more pleasant, I close up the cup-boards of my mind revealing the more unpleasant things of life, and open up the cup-boards containing the more pleasant thoughts. If I want to sleep, I close up all the cup-boards of my mind.” Thought is both force and motion. Thought is dynamic. Thoughts move. There are various kinds of thoughts. There are instinctive thoughts. There are visual thoughts. There are auditory thoughts (thinking in terms of hearing). There are symbolic thoughts (thinking in terms of symbols). Some thoughts are habitual. There are kinaesthetic thought (thinking in terms of movement, as in playing a game). There are emotional thoughts. If there is mental fatigue, the processes of thought change from visual to auditory and from auditory to kinaesthetic. There is intimate connection between thinking and respiration as there is close relation between mind and Prana. When the mind is concentrated, breathing becomes slow. If one thinks fast, the respiration also becomes fast. There is a thought reading machine known as psychograph which registers correctly the type of thoughts. IN SEARCH OF THE REAL ‘ME’(SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA)“Hey, I’m in Nirvana!” We talk like this when we feel good. But what is it like to actually attain nirvana, otherwise known as moksha or self-realisation? Self-realisation is the goal of life. Vedic rishis found that everything in the world that blooms is also subject to ultimate decay. Are we here just to live a brief life and then pass away? They reasoned that life cannot be devoid of some higher purpose. After much investigation and contemplation and many generations later, sages declared that beneath this mortal body is an unseen immortal spirit — and that spirit is our real Self. That eternal spirit in the non-eternal body; that imperishable in the perishable body is actually a part of a vast infinite, eternal, beginning-less, endless, cosmic spirit. It exists. But not as an inert piece. It is consciuousness. It knows—I exist. So it is conscious existence. Existence is sat, Conscious- ness is chit. So it is sat-chit. In this state of pure sat-chit consciousness, we are subjected to many imperfect experiences—heat and cold, pleasure and pain. All these disruptive mortal experiences cannot upset that lofty, sublime, transcendental realm of the real Self, for once the state of pure consciousness has been achieved, only peace and bliss abide. There is ananda in that sat-chit. So it is sat-chit-ananda or state of eternal existence. To realise and enter this state is called self-realisation. Self-realisation is the goal of life because in that state there is pure and permanent Bliss and joy. Isn’t that the goal of each one of us? Of course, the mortal, perceivable world also has joy in it. But joy in our worldly life is neither pure nor permanent. If a thing is capable of giving pleasure, it is capable of giving pain, too. For instance, when a person marries, he or she does so in the hope of attaining to greater happiness and peace through raising a family and giving and receiving love. However, life is a mix of both pleasure and pain—what gives us happiness can also give us pain. Pleasure and pain go together because the world is imperfect and man also is imperfect. Pleasure is the womb of pain. Seeking pleasure, you have already created pain. For real and permanent happiness one needs to rise above petty desires and seek ultimate reality. There is Supreme Bliss and satisfaction there—an indescribable joy and peace. To seek ultimate reality does not mean you cannot fulfil your worldly duties. Even while fulfilling your duties, be a seeker of truth. Your mortal body is only a vehicle given to you to function on this earth. But you are distinct from it. You are an immortal part of divinity. Try to become one with that limitless ocean of sat-chit-ananda. I’m a little wave, but I’m also a part of the ocean. There is no difference between the wave and the ocean. The wave may appear separate because it has size and form.But that is momentary; the wave goes back into the ocean. The wave arises from the ocean, exists for a moment, and then goes back to the ocean. Someone asked me recently: How many self-realised people are there? That is imossible to say, I said. For, how can one make out if a person is realised—they do not have an outward distinguishing marks! But he persisted, demanding an answer to his question—he wanted me to guess the figure. I told him that whatever the figure, I had little doubt that most of them are from India. GOD IS PRESENT IN THE MIDST OF THE HUMAN CONDITION(SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA)Worshipful homage to that supreme, universal Spirit Divine that is here and now mingling with the spiritual presence of Gurudev in this sacred Samadhisthan. Gurudev’s spiritual presence is here because the mortal vehicle in which he dwelt and used for bringing about a spiritual renaissance in the modern world has been interred here with due honour. The supreme Universal Spirit is here because although It is transcendental, It is at the same time intensely relative and personal. The great mystery of Its transcendence, immanence and indwelling presence is the experience and declaration of sages of towering spiritual illumination and experience. Thus it is that we are in a dual presence, at once spiritual, at once divine. It is in this context that we have to see that both a method of spiritual evolution and attainment as well as a certain solution to our human predicament is contained in this truth. A method has been given: Keep yourself aware of this truth, then no matter where you are your experience will always be God-experience. No matter where you are, in what state, what surroundings, what condition, you will know that simultaneously you are in the presence of God. Therefore, the practice of this presence becomes to you a method of growing in God-awareness which will ultimately culminate in God-experience. Simultaneously, this truth also offers a solution to the human predicament. The human problem is that the place where He has reserved as the most suitable place for you to be constantly in communion with Him—the inner spiritual heart—usually is invaded by multifarious, miscellaneous considera- tions about the passing world. The great ones, who had established themselves in that transcendental experience, have come forward and told us, “Do not distress yourselves. In the midst of all this so-called invasion by outer factors and distractions, there is this centre of ever-present, undiminished, unshaken Divinity. In the midst of all vikshepa, all turmoil and all miscellaneous thought, This abides at the very centre, unassailable.” To cling firmly to this unassailable truth, this reality within, to abide ever in the reality of His presence, is to be practised with every breath. Then, even dwelling in the world, you will be dwelling in God. Even in the midst of ever-changing situations and experiences that are part of your unavoidable and inevitable earthly life, there is this never-changing, unaffected truth about the reality within. To contemplate it daily—to consciously contemplate it—is the heart of spiritual sadhana and spiritual life. And this awareness is greatly helped by satsanga, by svadhyaya, by smarana, remembrance: “I abide in You. You abide in me.” This is the truth. All other things may be changing. They do keep changing. This is the Unchanging in the midst of countless ever-changing movements in this outer world. Contemplate this truth! Cultivate the practice of this truth, and thus find your own solution to your human predicament. Success is sure because God made you in His own image to succeed in life and not to fail. He did not send us here to fail but to succeed. And this privilege, this birthright is the common heritage of all human beings of all times, for all are made in the image of God It is the uniqueness of man, but it is a common human heritage. If you have inherited it, it is not because you are something special. It is because of your uniqueness which you share with all other human beings. You are unique in the eyes of God, but you need not think that you are special in the eyes of God. If you are special, then everyone is special. Therefore, we should be humble and simple and not be unduly self-important, because we are not very important. We are important, as all other human beings are important, but not in any special way. So the fine distinction between being unique and being special should be grasped. Special brings with it the danger of being ego-oriented regarding ourselves, whereas uniqueness makes us humble. Uniqueness does not carry this inherent danger of ego. Thus, the truth to be practised is that even in the midst of our human predicament, God is very much here. So this fact, this truth, should be made our focus. We should emphasise more on it than upon the human predicament. It should be given greater importance, more value, more emphasis in our being. Then all will be well. When you make God central, other things naturally have to occupy the circumference—because there is only one centre. So there is the key to being established always in the feeling of God’s presence. Make Him central in your life. Then other things will fall into their place. May the grace of God and the loving blessings of Gurudev enable us to achieve this truth-oriented state of inwardness, this state of mind! MAN'S DESTINY IN THE UNIVERSE(SRI SWAMI KRISHNANANDA)(Continued from the previous Issue)The habit of relating causes and effects is not merely a philosophical prejudice but a more inveterate difficulty that has insinuated itself into man’s practical outlook of life. The causal notion in which the intellect of man is imbedded and soaked to its fibre appears in outward life as the seeking of perfection and achievement by the relating of one person, thing or circumstance with another, so that achievement of any kind is identified with doing something, in some manner, under some condition. But all ‘doings’, whatever be their nature, are infected with the impossibility of bringing about a real connection between the terms related, whose internal relation is prevented by the operation of space and time. Hence, every activity of man, in any field whatsoever, ends in an ultimate failure, though it may, in the beginning, assume a semblance of success. Finally, everything seems to be doomed to crumble down and be wiped out of existence, because the so-called existence of ‘relation’ is an appearance on the surface of the space-time structure and is not true inviolable being. Man’s professions and vocations, in short, all his business of life, is, thus, a perishable bubble floating on the tempestuous ocean of the space-time continuum. It appears futile, therefore, to hope for any substantial and permanent victory in such a precarious set-up of things. All this, and no more, seems to be the fate of man, because his body, senses, mind and intellect are all parts of the vicissitudes to which the space-time structure is subject, and, the whole environment being thus transitory, not barring one’s own physical and psychological constitution, actions, as known to man, cannot bring him freedom. And all the activity of science, it need not be pointed out, is within the framework of these phenomena. But, there have been exceptional geniuses who had rare visions of a secret that underlies phenomena. It is impossible that there should be appearance without reality. Change implies changelessness, that everything passes away shows that something does not pass away. The unending longing of man and his hope for a better future, in spite of the defeats he suffers in all his efforts, prove that there is an eternal ground of being behind temporal succession. Life is joy in its core, though pain on its surface. The problem which normally faces a person in entering into these depths is, again, the frame-work of space-time, from whose limitations the mind cannot free itself. Every thought and every sensation is restricted to the laws of space and time. What can man do, then, to gain access into reality? He cannot obviously make use of the commercial way of thinking, the doctrine of ‘give-and-take’, or even the methods of science, for all these are within the realm of space, time and causation. That this should be the location of man in the universe and yet he should presume the wisdom of life and put on an air of completeness and real achievement is a wonder. Nothing can be a greater marvel than this ignorance which man mistakes for freedom and success. However, there is a way out. And it has been called by various names,— spirituality, mysticism, religion, Yoga. This is the true vision of life. To have this proper vision of things, one has to set aside the old dogma, whether in the form of the belief that there can be real achievement through a business attitude to life which connects one thing with another, including some and excluding certain others, or the so-called approach of science, which is only a refined form of this very dogma of the senses and the mind which attempt to causally relate events in space and time. The correct perspective of life is what may be called the integral vision, which does not connect or disconnect, relate or associate, or outwardly manipulate things and conditions artificially through an apparent correlation of the impetuous tendency of the forces of the world not to yield to human effort at their subjugation. Man’s folly is that he wishes to stand outside Nature and then control it. This is the mistake which even the scientist commits, and, in this ignorance of truth, there is no difference between the mind of the scientist and the faith of the rustic. Nature refuses to be relegated to the position of an isolated object of observation by the human mind, for it asserts its sway even over the mind of man, who is really a part of the universe. This sublime understanding is the spiritual view of life and its conduct in practical affairs is what goes by the name of religion. Here, in this religion, man does not look at the world, but the world as a whole beholds itself and becomes an object as well as a subject of its own study. This is what is known as self-analysis, self-investigation and Self-knowledge. Until man reaches this consummation of wisdom, he cannot hope to be in peace in this world. This he may take both as a warning and a simple statement of his true position in the universe. The Consciousness that universally envelops this wide range of Nature, in its completeness, is what we know as God. And this God who is the true God, naturally, cannot belong to Hinduism or Buddhism, Christianity or Islam, to this creed or that faith, but exists by his own right, as the indisputable explanation of all the meaning that may be seen in life, in the march of cosmic history. The knowers of this God are the saints and the sages, the masters and the adepts, the Yogis, and incarnations, that the world hears of in the scriptures and chronicles which it holds as dear even in moments of its intense distress. This is the fundamental position and the grand goal. To attain this, the way is, in one word, self-restraint, which means the sublimation of the spatio-temporal urge in the form of sensory passion and mental distraction, on account of which man longs for physical pleasure and tosses about in life without the power of concentration on anything. Self-restraint is Yoga, which is the practical outcome of this glorious spiritual vision of things. And this is the proper vision of life. With this knowledge one becomes, at once, master over the senses and the mind, good in character and conduct, charitable in disposition, affectionate to all beings, powerful in thought and will, and immensely sober in a heightened awareness, which may be called God-consciousness. IIThe above is the principle and the policy-which devolves out of the knowledge (Jnana) of Truth, which transmutes all activity and process of becoming into eternal being. But life is action (Karma). The relation of knowledge to action has been a subject of long discussion and varied judgment ever since the time of the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita. These two scriptures of mankind may be regarded as the statements, respectively, of the vision of Reality as it is, and this vision translated into the processes of the world as life and action, in every stage of human relationship. While the world may be regarded as appearance, and to live in appearance a bondage, freedom consists in the experience of Reality attained by degrees of self- transcen- dence. While Reality has no degrees, the stages by which it is reached in consciousness have gradations of varying intensity. These steps of ascent are the stages of one’s rising through the degrees in which Reality is manifest in the world-process. Everything in the world is action, outwardly in Nature as well as inwardly in the individual. The world hurries forward to its destiny of self-completion, dragging with it the individuals which constitute its organic parts. The bondage of action, to which reference is usually made by teachers of the way of knowledge, is in one’s falsely imagining that individual initiative and effort is independent of the universal activity of Nature, which goes on everywhere, perpetually. The source of the sense of ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness in regard to oneself and others in the world is this erroneous notion of one’s being independent of Nature, while really Nature includes everything. It is this untenable position maintained by the individual that is called ignorance (Ajnana). All suffering in the world may be finally attributed to this inexplicable stupidity in which everyone seems to be sunk, and freedom and happiness would spontaneously follow if this ignorance is to be dispelled by the knowledge of the fact that all action is a phase of universal evolution, and the role that the individual plays in the system of Nature is that an organic part would in respect of the whole which it subserves. This is the methodology of enlightened action (Karma Yoga), enunciated in the Bhagavadgita, which is the great gospel of life that has been bequeathed to humanity. To live wisely is neither to assert nor to deny action in the world, but to appreciate and evaluate it in its true relation to Nature’s cosmic processes, to which individual thought and action are no more than aspects of its own ways of working. To know this, and to act on the basis of this knowledge, is the whole wisdom of life, in whose light individual and social activity becomes a self-movement of the universe, entirely free from the reactions called pleasure and pain. The universe is God in eternal action. This is the message of freedom to the world. May the New Year herald this awakening in humanity! TWO ESSENTIALS FOR OUR SPIRITUAL SUCCESS(SRI SWAMIA TMASWARUPANANDA)We have been attracted to the spiritual life. We are told that the goal is moksha, liberation. But do we have a clear idea in our mind what it is we are seeking? In truth, most of us would answer that it is to be liberated from the rounds of birth and death or, if we were to be really honest, we would have some vague idea that in someway we are going to be glorified, become the very best. Therefore, the first thing we have to realise about the spiritual life is that ultimately it has nothing to do with us. Who we think we are is what we have to be liberated from. As the scriptures tell us, our fundamental error is wrong identification. Therefore, our fundamental task or purpose is to correct that identification, which means that the spiritual life has nothing to do with accomplishing something for our false identification, but rather getting rid of it. This is the first realisation we have to come to, no matter how many years it takes us. But even when we see this fact clearly, for most of us it looks like an impossible task. We are so bound to the idea that we are a body and mind that to shift to another identification seems to be impossible. What then will give us the motivation to move? The highest motivation is knowing that it is the right thing to do, that this is why we are here. But perhaps this is not urgent enough for most of us. However, we all do want to be happy. Therefore, gradually there has to grow within us the conviction that there is no true, lasting happiness in anything else except final liberation. To convince our minds of this is no small thing. We may acknowledge it in theory, intellectually, but that is not where we really function from. We actually function from deep within ourselves, right down in our gut, we might say. And so it is our gut that has to be convinced that happiness is only in the Highest, in liberation. And we have to start from where we are at. For example, a drunkard has to be convinced in his gut that drinking is leading him to disaster. Only then will he give it up for the higher, for sobriety. A businessman who is obsessed with making money has to realise in his gut that it is destroying his family life, his social life, his very soul. And so too we as spiritual seekers need to convince ourselves in our deepest depths that there is no true happiness in anything except final liberation. Thus, as seekers, we have two essential tasks in front of us. First, to clearly recognise that what we have to be liberated from is our sense of identification with the body and mind or the ego, and then we have to cultivate the firm determination to do what is right in all circumstances—to determinedly and continuously give up the lower for the higher. REALISATION OF A HIGHER IDENTITY(SRI SWAMI SHIVAPREMANANDA)Like all other major Upanishads, the Mandukya Upanishad emphasises the immanence of God or the infinite spirit in the entire creation, without being limited by it. It is not pantheism, as western philosophy interprets the term: God becoming the universe, and thus remaining within its confine. Modern science recognises the fact that energy enforms itself as matter, while being its essence. Three thousand years ago, the sages of India assumed that the universe came into being through vibration, which they called spandana, in fact energy, because energy vibrates. Out of this vibration life evolved. Vibration has two aspects, static and reproductive. For example, a rock vibrates, but does not reproduce itself. On the other hand, a plant or a tree vibrates and reproduces itself. Its instinct for existence absorbs from the sun's rays the protoplasm in its leaves. For its sustenance, its roots go deeper into the earth to draw sap. From bacteria to worms replicating, group consciousness branches out in another direction, other than plants and trees, and evolves into multiple forms of individual consciousness. At this stage of evolution, the embodiment of individual consciousness undergoes a change, forming pairs of the opposites, XY and XX, the male and female, needing each other to replicate themselves, and become animals. The evolution continues from lower forms to higher forms of animal life. The mind, having become a particular field of energy, functions through instincts. They have three basic purposes: to survive, avoid pain, and seek happiness. Survival presupposes existence. The Indian philosophy hears in it the ring of eternity, sat being eternal existence. One exists in order to be conscious of oneself. Without consciousness, chit, individual existence cannot sustain itself. After the survival instinct and the instinct to avoid pain, emerges the longing to be happy, ananda. It has also the same ring of eternity, to be happy for ever. It wishes to be so while accepting the obligation of sharing the suffering of those one is related and responsible to, so as to make it feel less. The immanence of God or a higher force in creation is the greatest contribution of the Indian philosophy to the civilisations of the world. It becomes the motive-power to human progress, not being limited to the utilitarian evaluation. UNITY IN DIVERSITY Being and non-being are not separate. Matter as non-being in a state of inertia is called tamas. When tamas is activated by the vibration of energy, it is called rajas. Then the. universe comes into being, as apart from anti matter. In some areas of space, divergent matter becomes a mass of energy, acquiring an equilibrium, when it is called sattwa. Thus, sattwa, rajas and tamas represents the rhythm of creation. The human being as a miniature of the universe goes through the same rhythm psychologically, fluctuating from tamas to rajas, and from rajas to sattwa, and vice versa. There are two levels of reality: ishwara-drishti or from the point of view of God (literally) or, better said, from the level of a transcendental vision; and jiva-drishti or from the psychological level of the individual's multiple perspective. As names and forms (nama-rupa) change, their reliability is compromised. Gaudapada, the teacher of Shankaracharya's guru, Govindapada, who lived at the end of the eighth century, gave it a name, maya or illusion. Just because names and forms change, they cannot be called an illusion as such. They have their right to reality on a secondary level. It is the individual's attitude that determines the nature of illusion, such as the expectation that sense-pleasure will fulfill oneself, rather than provide a temporary satisfaction, or confusing attachment as love. However, within all kinds of experience in relationship to objects, runs a common thread of eternity. The existence of sat or the transcendental truth within satya, or the relative truth through which one operates, makes the understanding of truth progressive. The principle of transcendental consciousness, chit, in chitta or the subconscious and the unconscious makes human comprehension deeper, and the sublimation of mundane instincts possible, respectively. The existence of ananda or supreme felicity within dwandwa or the duality of experience of pleasure and pain, gain and loss, success and failure, enables us to be free souls. This is attained by deep meditation explained in the Mandukya Upanishad. The meditator seeks a merger in the infinite spirit. The mind is fixed in the heart, where one's identity is sought in the virata purusha or the cosmic being or God. All names and forms merge therein, including one’s own, through the mantra tat tvam asi or ‘that thou art’. Meditation is preceded by the chanting of Om, the universal mantra explained in the same Upanishad. A simple translation of the word Upanishad is: upa or near or in close proximity to a guru or a teacher, or God within; ni or down, meaning humbly, in order to be receptive; and shat or sit or have a steady mind. Upanishad: sit down near. NATURE OF EXISTENCE There are five characteristics of existence: nama-rupa or name and form, and asti, bhati and priya, or existence ( asti) enlightening (bhati) what exists, and causing a satisfactory (priya) experience. Our life is composed of these five facets. We do not wish to die. That itself is asti. We do not wish to be ignorant, and like to be regarded as intelligent (bhati). We wish to avoid suffering, and be happy (priya). The state of our mind is influenced by our perspective. It has three characters: the perceiver, the perceived, and the process of perception. When these three are in a state of balance, we are peaceful. When the perceiver is top-heavy with self-importance, there is unhappiness because of clashing with others. When self-importance distorts perception, there is confusion or at least lack of understanding. When perception is without objectivity, prejudice ensues or at least partiality. Whereas the infinite spirit pervades all, the Mandukya Upanishad speaks of the need to identify oneself with all that exists, in order to come out of one's self-centredness, by meditating on the mantra sarvam hyetad Brahma, or all becomes or merges in the infinite spirit. The many are beheld in one, and one in many. The simile of gold ornaments is given: the ornaments are many and various, but their content, the gold, is the same. Consciousness is subliminal. From the level of our own physical consciousness we rise to psychic or psychological consciousness in our relationship with people and material objects. From psychic consciousness we rise to causal consciousness, seeking resolution of the problems caused by our desires and other weaknesses. From causal consciousness we rise to spiritual consciousness to find peace through our identity with God within. (When I speak of God, I do not mean a deity, but a sense of the sacred.I also do not like to use the term Absolute, but transcendental). Human nature being a part of the nature around, we have at times the mood of the faint light clearing the darkness of night, our mind coming alive, relaxing and enlightening, as the rays of the rising sun enlightens all that is around. The mood is different when the sun sets and the dusk emerges. We feel peace within, being in peace with others and in peace with ourselves. The following two Sanskrit poems indicate what one can learn from the selfless example of nature. Rivers do not drink their waters themselves. The good souls are the same NEWS AND REPORTSNEWS FROM THE HEADQUARTERSSEVA THROUGH SIVANANDA HOMESivananda Home, situated near Laxman Jhula, is part of the D.L.S. Headquarters activity. It provides refuge and shelter for people in need of medical care, who have neither anybody to take care of them, nor any place to go. Not only new patients get admitted, but also regularly people get discharged after treatment. This month, however, 2 extraordinary discharges took place. One retarded boy, who ran away from his home in confusion at night, was traced by his parents after 6 weeks admission at the Home and taken back home. His happiness about being re-united with his parents knew no bounds and also the parents were filled with gratitude and joy that their lost son was found and kept sage and sound by the All-protecting Lord Almighty. The other discharge concerns a young girl, about 20 years old, brought from the banks of Holy Mother Ganga, a few months ago. She was almost unconscious, on the verge of leaving the body, severely anemic and weighing 23 kgs only. By God’s and Gurudev’s Grace, she recovered quickly and completely under treatment and dietary care and could not stop praising God for the great things He did unto her. Glory be to Him, in Whose Hands the whole creation rests and in Whose Heart only each and every heart exists and beats. New patients were admitted this month, each having a story of pain, despair and feeling of loneliness, culminating in prayer, surrender and inner-experienced knowledge that nobody is ever left alone and everyone breathes and moves by His Grace only. A 30-year old man, suffering from AIDS, pulmonary TB and gastro-enteritis was admitted for treatment. Since last 2 months this patient had continuous diarrhea, so one can imagine a completely exhausted and desolate physical condition. Treatment is relieving his symptoms and he is improving slowly. One night at 10 pm an old aged mother, about 85 years, was brought in, found on the roadside by an empathic Ashramite, who ordered for a tempo to Sivananda Home. Her hometown is Jaipur. Staying with her daughter, she was deprived from food for a few weeks and her head was hit against the wall again and again. But her body still did not give up; so they decided to send her out, and dumped her in Rishikesh, telling: ‘she could find shelter somewhere in an Ashram.’ She was even not allowed to take any clothes or belongings with her. After staying on the road for about fifteen days, completely exhausted, malnourished, with pain in the head and hardly able to walk, God residing in the heart of this Ashramite, arranged for a new home for her in Sivananda Home. In spite of this sorrow, she has not lost her faith at all. Daily she prays to Guru Nanak, keeping an image of Him in her hands. These are only two of the 13 newly admitted patients during the month, who all were given refuge and medical treatment under the protecting wings of Guru Bhagawan Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. May His choicest blessings and guidance continue to inspire us all! Jai Sivananda! “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move, at the impulse of Thy Love.” “Feed the Hungry. Clothe the naked. Serve the sick. This is Divine Life” —Swami Sivananda VALEDICTORY FUNCTION OF
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