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Ignorance and Wisdom
Spiritual Message for the Day – Ignorance and Wisdom by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 3 September 2015 16.27 EST | New York Edition** |
Ignorance and Wisdom
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 4 – What is Knowledge by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Consciousness refuses to be artificially and externally associated with anything outside it because, basically, yoga tells us that our being is infinite. It is not a finite dimension that we are seeking to achieve; it is an unlimited dimension that we are asking for. This is the reason why nothing that is given to us can make us happy. May the world be ours, but we are still unhappy, because we know that there are more things than this world. Finally, even if the whole universe is under our possession, we may be cut off by death, and we do not know what happens to us at that time. The fact that our psychophysical existence can be wiped out in a moment by operations which are beyond our control is also a feature which demonstrates the artificiality of the way in which we are living, and the non-yogic way in which people conduct themselves.
What is yoga, then? It is that sort of expanding the ‘being’ of our consciousness. It is not the expanding of the consciousness of possession of anything; it is not to become a rich person, and it is not to become a very important person in the world in the eyes of people. Nothing of the kind is yoga. It is to become important in a different sense altogether – ‘important’, because that which is ‘not you’ becomes ‘you’. The anatman, as they call it – the not-self, or that which is not at all us – which is threatening us, and which we would like to subdue and make a part of ourselves, that ceases to be ‘that which we have to deal with externally’. We are struggling, actually, with our own higher nature. All our struggles, finally, are struggles with our own selves. It is not a struggle with people, it is not a struggle with things or the world outside, because the people around, the things around, the world – all these things that we call by these names and terminologies – are areas where we ourselves will find ourselves one day or the other, because our jurisdiction exceeds the limit of the present location of our consciousness.
The Real is not ultimate in the sense of a distant or remote object. It is logically remote, but not physically remote. The distance that we feel between ourselves and that which we wish to achieve in yoga is logical, not geographical. It is as far away from us as the waking state is away from dream state. Dream and waking are not two different locations physically.
Therefore, inasmuch as the distance between our present consciousness and the state which yoga wishes to attain is only logical, and not physical, there is a great hope for us. It is in this sense that we say that Reality is immanent in every one of the degrees of its expression. It is immanent in the sense that there cannot be a real distance between the aim – the goal, the end – and the means. There is a distance, but that distance is not measurable mathematically by foot rulers or any kind of measuring rods. Thus, the distance between ignorance and wisdom is the distance between you and God. This is the distance between your present state of consciousness and that state which you are trying to attain in yoga.
Excerpts from: Ignorance and Wisdom - Chapter 4 – What is Knowledge by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Space, Time and Causation
Spiritual Message for the Day – Space, Time and Causation by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 2 September 2015 16.52 EST | New York Edition** |
Space, Time and Causation
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 6 The Philosophy of Life by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The term universe signifies the totality of space, time and matter. Modern physical science has discovered that matter has no independent existence but can be reduced to the ultimate constitution of the space-time manifold. Ordinarily, space is conceived as extendedness with three dimensions, and time as a consciousness of the succession of events in space. Thus, common perception makes an empirical distinction between space and time. But scientists like Minkowski, Einstein and Eddington have tried to demonstrate and prove that every event in the universe has a four-dimensional character. What we perceive is not space and time but a space-time continuum. Matter itself is found to owe its origin to a particular feature discoverable in the space-time manifold. A kink or twist or curvature in space-time is said to be responsible for the appearance of what is commonly called matter. The nature of this curvature is dependent upon the quality and the amount of matter that it contains. The greater the matter, the greater is the curvature. And this curvature it is that goes by the name of gravitational force.
The stable universe of Newton has disappeared into a cosmos of relativity with space-time as its ultimate basis, constructed out of lines of force and intervals of events. There are no objects, only events; no points of space, only waves of energy. The visible universe is, therefore, not the real one.
The Yogavasishtha, which abounds in an extensive treatment of the nature of the world in terms of space and time, propounds the amazing doctrine that space and time are not realities in themselves but appearances relative to experience. It teaches that space and time are ultimately constructions of thought and are dependent on thought. One cannot conceive of space and time when the functions of the mind are inhibited, or where no consciousness seems to operate. It is possible for different persons existing in different orders of reality to experience the same world as being possessed of different space-time significance. The reality of space and time, and the stability, order and meaning of the things of the world, change, according to the Yogavasishtha, in different space-time realms.
There can be no experience of space without the individualisation of consciousness. Space is a mode of perception by the individualised observer. Where individuality is not, space also is not. The perception of space is relative to the activity of the mind. Under different conditions, different orders of space can be perceived by the same mind. Even a small area of space can appear to the mind, under certain circumstances, as a vast extension, or a kingdom itself.
The mind in the state of dream, for example, experiences a universe with its own space and time. The dream world has all the characters and structural qualities of the waking world, and yet the two realms are different from each other. We also know that, even in this world, the mind can perceive a thing as what it is not. Two-dimensional pictures can be made to rouse the idea of a three-dimensional region of great immensity. The mind can project forth space in accordance with the condition in which it is.
The idea of time, again, is dependent on the idea of space. In fact, the concepts of space and time rise simultaneously, and as spatial characters are relative to states of mind, so are time characters. A moment of time can appear to the mind as a long universal cycle, and the latter, again, can appear to it as a moment under certain given conditions. Whatever is the nature of the objective condition to which consciousness is related, that alone appears to it as reality. When consciousness is switched on to the idea of a moment, even an age can be passed as a moment, while, when it is identified with the idea of a long period of time, even a moment can be experienced as such.
The nature of the experience of space and time depends upon the manner in which the consciousness happens to be objectively modalised. Persons who are in a depressed state of mind or who are in deep sorrow are apt to feel that a moment of time is like a year, while those who revel in happiness would feel the contrary.
Space and time are ultimately conditions of consciousness and are not independent of it. In the dreaming state experiences ranging over thousands of years can be undergone in a moment’s time, while, at the same time, the mind in this state can also project a moment’s experience into a history of several years. In the state of intense spiritual contemplation and Samadhi, space and time are transcended, and only pure consciousness reveals itself. In this consciousness the entire universal cycle is said to appear and disappear within the millionth part of a moment. Space is the way in which the mind knows things as having extension, and time is the feeling of the succession of internal states reacting to those of events outside.
Excerpts from: Space, Time and Causation - Chapter 6 The Philosophy of Life by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Intuitive Recognition and Sensory Perception
Spiritual Message for the Day – Intuitive Recognition and Sensory Perception by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 1 September 2015 15.57 EST | New York Edition** |
Intuitive Recognition and Sensory Perception
Divine Life Society Publication: The Meaning of Religion and the Spiritual Attitude in Life by Sri Swami Krishnananda
There is a difference between intuitive recognition and sensory perception. Whenever the senses operate in respect of a particular object or a group of objects, they cast the mind into a particular mould. Mental operation and sensory activities are practically inseparable. The mind acts in terms of the reports provided to it by the senses. The senses may be regarded as some sort of spectacles through which the mind begins to observe the objects. As we know, our observations depend to a large extent on the nature of the structure of the glasses that we put on.
The constitution of the senses, the structure of the instruments of perception, has much to do with the nature of our appreciation of the values outside, as well as objects in general. The object, whatever be its distance from the location of the senses, stirs the senses into activity, stimulates them in a particular manner, and transmits this stimulation of the senses to the mental faculty; then we perceive the object. What actually happens is that an impression is formed in our mind. The object does not come and physically impinge on the mind, as we know. There is not necessarily a physical contact between ourselves and the object of perception, but we are influenced by the presence of an object on account of an invisible, subtle undercurrent of activity that takes place during the process we call sensory perception.
One aspect of this perceptual process, for instance, is that light rays travel from the location of the object to the retina of our eyes and bring about a kind of physiological transformation in the structure of the eyes. This physiological change is communicated inwardly to the apparatus of perception in our brain through the nervous system utilising a very intricate and complicated relationship between the brain and the mind. While the lay outlook of life, without any scientific probe into it, may give us an impression that the brain cells are actually responsible for the perceptual activity, on a little investigation and analysis of the situation we will come to know that the brain cells themselves cannot perceive, because they are inert. The physical structure of the brain is a necessary instrument in the perceptual process, but nevertheless, it is only an instrument; it is not the actual perceiver, because an instrument by itself cannot perceive or act. It requires a motive force behind it.
Now, this motive force naturally has to be a consciously directed power. It is not a hodgepodge of organic activity that is taking place in our brain, but a very well-ordered, systematised, voluntary action. This shows that there is a principle involved in the process of perception, which we generally call intelligence or consciousness. Without this element of understanding – this inscrutable principle in us we call consciousness, etc. – perception would be blind. It would be like a blind man looking at an object, seeing nothing.
The conscious element in the perceptional process is a very, very important aspect of the activity of perception. Seeing an object is not a simple process. It is involved in a series of activities along chains with many links in it, the prominent among these being the distance of the object from the perceiver, the natural conditions contributory to the successful activity of perception, light rays intense enough to enable the perception of the object, the healthy condition of the retina and nerves of the eyes, and a very sane mind and healthy brain. All these are very essential elements in the perceptional process, but they would be null and void in their activity if the life-giving element behind them, namely, intelligence or consciousness, is absent. That is why while all these apparatuses are present when we are asleep, we do not see objects. Light rays may be there, objects may be there, we may be favourably placed in the location of the object, the brain also is there, the nerve currents are there, the retina is there, but we will not see anything even if the eyes are open, which means to say the final judge and determining factor of all perceptual processes is consciousness.
Excerpts from: Intuitive Recognition and Sensory Perception - The Meaning of Religion and the Spiritual Attitude in Life by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Religion and Spirituality
Spiritual Message for the Day – Religion and Spirituality by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 31 August 2015 12.38 EST | New York Edition** |
Religion and Spirituality
Divine Life Society Publication: The Meaning of Religion and the Spiritual Attitude in Life by Sri Swami Krishnananda
In religion the spirit within summons the spirit without, and it becomes an endeavor which is wholly spiritual. We can’t ultimately distinguish between religion and spirituality. Spirituality is the basic character and religion is the outward mode of it, the form which it takes. A non-temporal asking by the spirit of man is the religious aspiration of man. It is not an asking for anything that is temporal. Thus it requires self-control, self-restraint, control of the senses and the mind, which are all clamorous about fulfillment of things, fulfillment of desires with respect of their own objects outside. The clamour of the senses of the mind has to be subdued so that the voice of the spirit can be heard from within. As it has sometimes been said, religion is what you do when you are absolutely alone – that is your religion. Religion is not what you do in the presence of other people. What you do when you are absolutely alone – that is your religion. Also it is said that religion is the adoption of an aloneness in one’s life, a recognition that you are absolutely alone here, without any kind of external relationship – a fact which will be known when things reveal their true natures. You are even now alone. You have no relationships. But that there is an external relationship pampering you is a misconception in the mind. They can open up their true, real nature at any time, and you will stand alone once again, in the wilderness of things.
So the aloneness of the spirit asks for the aloneness of perfection – ‘the flight of the alone to the alone’, as philosophers will tell you. Alone you stand in this world! Namutra hi sahayartham pita mata ca tisthatah. Na putradarah na jnatih dharmas tisthati kevalah (Manu Smriti 4.238), the great codifier of law, Manu, tells us in his smriti. Namutra hi sahayartham pita mata ca tisthatah: Your mother and father will not come to help you in the other world. Na putradarah: Your children, your family – they are not going to help you when the hour for departing comes. What comes with you? You will go in the same way as you came to this world. You did not bring even a piece of cloth when you came, you did not bring a broken needle when you came, and when you go you will not take anything – so how is it that you have accumulated so much in the middle? The property does not belong to you. Dharmas tisthati kevalah: Dharma will come with you. What you have thought, what you have felt, what you have done – the impact of that will come with you, not anything else.
It is this awakening that is necessary before we adopt a truly religious life and become God-conscious. A psychological cleansing of the cobwebs of life is necessary before we begin to become really spiritual in our life. Spirituality is a very advanced state of affairs, and before that attainment is aspired for, it is necessary that we should prepare ourselves for this attainment – that is, the purification of the personality by freedom from desires that are temporal, transient, binding, and not helpful in the life to come. The life to come is not that which will come after fifty years or hundred years; it is a thing that can come after one minute, or even few minutes.
Therefore, an eternal vigilance on the part of the human being is called for so that we are perpetually religious. This mood of watchfulness, inwardly in the spirit, divesting ourselves of all physical associations, bodily attachments and psychological pride – freeing ourselves from all these accretions that have grown upon our true nature – we stand independent and resplendent in our own spiritual character and endeavour to commune this true spark of spirit that we are with the conflagration of spirit that is in the cosmos, which is the Supreme Being, the God of the universe. That is the aim of religion ultimate.
Excerpts from: Religion and Spirituality - The Meaning of Religion and the Spiritual Attitude in Life by Sri Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
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Impressions (Samskaras)
Spiritual Message for the Day – Impressions (Samskaras) by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 30 August 2015 12.24 EST | New York Edition** |
Impressions (Samskaras)
Divine Life Society Publication: The Successive Processes of Analysis – Psychological, Moral and Spiritual
by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Most of our actions are impulse-driven. They are done at the spur of the moment by an impulse, as we say, a mood of which we had no predisposition or previous knowledge, but which took possession of us with such vehemence that we did a particular act without deliberation. This is how we take sudden steps in certain directions which sometimes, more often than not, are for our misery and suffering.
All our actions of our conscious life cannot be called deliberate or voluntary in the strictest sense of the term. We are slaves of our own inner reservoirs of perceptual possibilities, and we appear to be exercising freedom of choice when this unconscious impulse comes to the surface of our consciousness. We mistakenly think that we embark upon a conscious activity which assumes the role or form of a deliberate, voluntary, free exercise of will, while really it was a stir that took place in the subconscious and unconscious layers of our personality causing the conscious level to act, as the rumbling of waters at the bottom of the ocean may come up to the surface through a vibration and create a stir in the form of waves, etc.
Psychoanalysts, especially of the Freudian kind in the West, tell us that man is not free merely because of this kind of analysis which they have made, namely, that man is a bundle of impulses, instincts, hidden desires and frustrated longings which have been submerged into the bottom of the layer of the mind but which rise up to the conscious level when opportunities arise, whatever be the distance of time between the present activity and the previous origin of the impulse or the impression. A patient who is hypnotised by a physician does not know that he is hypnotised and thinks that his actions are deliberate or voluntary, notwithstanding the fact that he has been hypnotised to act in a particular manner by the physician’s will; similarly, psychologists tell us that we are not entirely free, at least not as free as we imagine ourselves to be. We are impulse-ridden, forced to act in a particular manner by the samskaras or impressions that are already embedded in our mind on account of perceptions of the past. It is the conscious aspect of our activity that makes it appear as a freedom of choice. Our ahamkara, or egoism, is directly connected with our conscious life. So the personality, which is nothing but an embodiment of our ego, assumes the role of freedom of will and choice – deliberate, voluntary action – and we go scot-free, as it were, imagining that everything has been done by us wantonly, purposely, with predetermination of the course of action. But we are deeper within ourselves than we appear from the outside. Psychologists have compared our mental apparatus to an iceberg in an ocean, of which a little crest is visible outside as our conscious life and the larger part is underneath as the subconscious and the unconscious.
Thus, perceptions play an important role in our life. We are a bundle of perceptions. This is the conclusion we will arrive at if we psychologically analyse ourselves thoroughly, down to the very bottom. Perhaps this is the reason why Buddha held his doctrine that all the world is nothing but a movement of perceptions. There are no substantialities behind things; there are only perceptions which cause our experiences. This was a great doctrine of Gautama Buddha. These perceptions are momentary; they come and go, though they leave a chain of impressions behind them as a causative factor of further impressions, further perceptions and activities. In Buddhist philosophical parlance, this is called the pratityasamutpada, which means to say, the causation or the causal chain of perceptions and cognitions, finally ending in the misery of the human being.
The art of yoga is the remedy that has been discovered to free the human individual from the clutches of this series of impressional perceptions. This is really yoga: yogaś citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ (Y.S. 1.2). Yoga has been defined classically as the complete restraint that is exercised over the various modifications, such as the impressions of the mind.
Excerpts from: Impressions (Samskaras) - The Successive Processes of Analysis – Psychological, Moral and Spiritual by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Is Desireless Action Possible
Spiritual Message for the Day – Is Desireless Action Possible by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 29 August 2015 21.09 EST | New York Edition** |
Is Desireless Action (Nishkama Karma) Possible
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 8 – The Philosophy of The Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
It was stated earlier in the Second Chapter of Bhagavadgita that action should be grounded in understanding. Now, what does it mean? How is it possible to root activity in understanding? This is expounded in the Third Chapter.
We can withdraw ourselves from action as such, and remain inactive and do nothing. There are occasions in life when people feel like doing nothing. And the Bhagavadgita’s answer is that this is an impossibility. There is no such thing as doing nothing, because of a very important reason, viz., the activity of the universe. The universe is ever active, and it can never be inactive.
The universe is not separable from the individual, and vice versa. Inasmuch as there is nothing inactive in the universe and no individual can be inactive, there is no chance of any person maintaining a silence in regard to activity. The idea of inaction arises on account of a misunderstanding of the nature of action. We feel that, if our hands and feet do not move, or if we do not speak a word, we are inactive. But action does not necessarily mean the movement of the physical limbs. It is a vibration that we set up in ourselves and in our atmosphere by the process in which the constituents of our individuality conduct themselves. Every cell of the body is active, and our mind is never inactive. To think is to act.
Every finite entity is active on account of the very finitude of itself. Action is the necessary consequence of the finitude of entities.
Why is it that the whole universe is evolving and moving towards something?
The finite struggles to overcome its limitations, because the essential nature of the finite is not finitude. We are not finite entities, really speaking, and the consciousness of finitude is attempted to be overcome by the activity so-called, involving what we know as evolution. No action can be isolated from finitude.
To be thinking actively and to be inactive physically is condemned vehemently in the very beginning of the Third Chapter. Mental action is real action. Our bondage or our freedom is in the way in which our mind works, and not in the manner of the movement of the physical body, merely. So, the substance of this essential point about action is that everyone is active, and everyone has to be active, on account of the very structure of the universe.
Or have we some freedom? If bondage in the form of this compulsive activity cannot be escaped under any circumstance, what for is any endeavour? To this the answer is the principle of karma yoga. While karma or action binds and can bind, karma yoga which is transmuted action cannot bind and will not bind. An action which shall not bind is designated in the Bhagavadgita as ‘yajna karma’, action performed as a sacrifice.
Individuals were created together with the principle of yajna, or sacrifice. The obligation to perform a duty is a call to sacrifice. And action performed as a sacrifice becomes a divine worship, and it shall not bind. Any action which is performed without the spirit of sacrifice involved in it but with the selfish intention of the fulfilment of an individual or personal motive shall bind and bring sorrow to the individual.
Desire is our bondage, action is not the bondage. Any desireful action is binding, desireless action is free. To be desireless, again, is not an easy thing, because even as every finite entity is inseparably involved in some kind of activity, it is also involved in some sort of desire. We ask for freedom from finitude, that is our desire, and we have no other desire even when we ask for small things. We run to shops, go on trekking, climb mountains, go to circus and cinema, and we do all sorts of things not for their own sake—to think so is a mistake in our minds—but for the sake of achieving an illusory freedom from finitude.
Krishna enlightens the mind of Arjuna, “You are mistaken, my dear friend, in saying ‘I shall not act.” What does poor action do to you? It cannot harm you. It is an impersonal requisition of the law of the cosmos and in the obedience of yours in respect of it, you shall not be bound, you shall be rather liberated, because the activity of the cosmos is towards the liberation of the spirit. It is not intended for binding you, for the whole of creation moves towards Self-realisation, finally. We may call it the realisation of the Absolute; towards that end the universe is evolving and we are dragged on as when we are in a railway train which is moving. The whole cosmos is a vehicle rushing in a tremendous speed towards Universal Selfhood, the great Atman of the Cosmos, the God of Creation, the Absolute, Brahman. Hence, perform action with this consciousness of its being a sacrifice of your individuality, gradually, by degrees towards the larger purpose of the consciousness of the Deity that is transcending both you as an agent and the end as the limited object outside. This synthesis between the subject and the object is the Deity.
If action is selfishly performed the fruit thereof shall be a reaction, and every such reaction of action is unpleasant in the end, for every selfish action is an interference with the balance of things, the harmony that exists amongst the objects. And Nature as a whole tries to maintain its equilibrium; it cannot tolerate any kind of interference from its parts; it resents all interference, and the moment we touch it in the form of an action selfishly motivated, it expresses its resentment in the form of a reaction that recoils upon us as the karma-phala or the fruit of the action, which, is grief and rebirth. We suffer due to our own deeds.
Our actions, our activities, our deities, whatever they are, are not really our actions, our duties, our performances. They are the performance of the Cosmic Powers, sattva, rajas and tamas. They are doing all things in an impersonal manner for a universal purpose. And we, unnecessarily, ask for a credit for this impersonal activity of someone else! We are a result of the commingling or the permutation and combination of sattva, rajas and tamas in some degree, and all the objects of the senses also are of a similar nature. Thus, the whole universe is working without any sense of individuality within itself.
One who knows this secret cannot be bound by action. But people have no awareness of the inner meaning of action. In the verses of the Third Chapter we have the basic principles of karma yoga stated; how we have to conduct ourselves in this world. Our existence in this world is teleologically conditioned by the purpose of the cosmos and we are here for the fulfillment of this great purpose, the divine design that is behind the entire panorama of Nature. I do not exist for myself and you do not exist for yourself. Nothing exists for itself. Everything exists for everything else. This consciousness of the fact that we exist for everyone and that everyone exists for everything else is perhaps the height of the consciousness of the democratic administration prevailing in the universe. When everything is for everything else, and nothing, is only for itself, where, then, comes the binding character of activity? The question does not arise. Neither is it possible for one to sit inactive, doing nothing, for the reasons already mentioned, nor can action bind one if one is truly awakened and has an insight into the meaning of existence.
Excerpts from: Is Desireless Action (Nishkama Karma) Possible? - Chapter 8 – The Philosophy of The Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at: generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
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The Seven Stages of Perfection
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Seven Stages of Perfection by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 28 August 2015 15.01 EST | New York Edition** |
The Seven Stages of Perfection
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 70 The Study and Practice of Yoga by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Tasya saptadhā prāntabhūmiḥ prajñā (II.27): Consciousness is sevenfold. The awareness of this type arises by gradual degrees, in seven stages and these are the stages of the discovery of reality, by degrees, in the phenomena of experience.
The first stage is supposed to be the detection of the defect in the objects or things: there is something wrong with things, and they are not as they appear to be. This is the first awareness that arises in a person. Things are not what they seem, as the poet said. That the objects of sense, the things of the world, are constituted of a nature essentially different from what they appear to the senses and the mind is an awareness that arises in the discriminating, and not in all people. Crass perception takes the world for granted, and people run after things as moths run to fire, not knowing that it is their destruction. The awareness arises, pointing out that there is some mystery behind things which is quite different from the colour and the shape of things visible to the senses – that there is pain in this world, and it is not pleasure. Pain is rooted behind the so-called pleasure of the world. Sorrow is to follow all the joys of the world, one day or the other. The first step is the awareness or discovery that pain is present and it cannot be avoided under any circumstance as long as things continue to be in the present set-up.
The second stage is the discovery that there is a cause of this pain and that it has not come suddenly from the blue. How has this pain come – this suffering, this sorrow? What is the reason for this defect behind everything? There is a reason. Without a cause, there is no effect. The discovery of the cause of this troublesome situation is the second stage of knowledge. That is a greater control that we gain over our situation. So, in the second stage of awareness there is a recognition of the causal background of the troubles of life, the pains of experience.
The third stage is the recognition of a way out of these causative factors. Even if we know the causes of the trouble, is there a way out of it, or is it impossible to do anything? We will find out that there is a way. We can get over these causes of pain and trouble. This gives greater confidence and a satisfaction that, after all, we are not going to suffer like this for all time; there is going to be an end to it. That is the discovery that there is a possibility of getting over the causes of pain. Not finding the way out is samsara, the essence of suffering. When the way is discovered, there is an effort that automatically arises in oneself to work out this way which is the redemption of the sorrows of life. The awareness that there is a state which is beyond the sufferings of life is itself a great solace.
These stages directly correspond to the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, what the Buddha taught originally as his gospel.
There is an awareness of the presence of a state beyond all suffering; and when the existence of this state beyond suffering becomes an object of one’s awareness, coupled with a feeling that there is a way to it – that is the beginning of the actual freedom of the soul. Then, there is a complete shaking up from the very roots of one’s being. The internal organ, the mind, whose purpose is to bring about bhoga and aparvarga to consciousness, begins to withdraw its sway over consciousness. The power that the mind has over us gets lessened, and instead of our being mastered by it, we seem to have a chance of gaining mastery over it. This awareness arises only when experiences in the world which are to be undergone in this span of life are about to be exhausted. Until that time, the awareness itself will not be there.
When we are fast asleep, snoring, we are not even aware that the sun is about to rise. The awareness felt subtly within that perhaps the day is dawning is an indication that we are not fully asleep. We are half-aware of the coming dawn. Likewise, when the mind becomes aware of these stages it puts forth effort, as it has slowly risen from the slumber of life and is now dreaming of the possibility of a higher experience.
The efforts that are mentioned here are nothing but the efforts of the practice of yoga. When the mind loses control over the consciousness, which is the fifth stage, there is a dismantling of the house of the gunas. As I mentioned, all the material of the house of this individuality is pulled out. The materials are the gunas – sattva, rajas and tamas. The prison of this individuality is pulled out, broken down, because the material of this individuality, which is nothing but the complex of sattva, rajas and tamas, is withdrawn within its cause, and this complex of body-mind ceases to operate. That is the sixth stage.
The seventh stage is the return of consciousness to itself, where the self becomes aware of what it is – completely freed from all bondage. Yogā ṅgānuṣṭhānāt aśuddhikṣaye jñānadīptiḥ āvivekakhyāteḥ (II.28): When there is complete purification of the mind by the practice of yoga, there is an automatic and spontaneous manifestation of consciousness in the direction of its freedom.
The powers that are mentioned in the Yoga Sutras, which a yogi is supposed to attain by practice, are the experiences one passes through on account of the ascent of consciousness to higher degrees of perfection. Powers are nothing but the outcome of harmony with nature. When there is disharmony, there is weakness; when there is harmony, there is strength, because it is nature that is powerful. Nobody else can be strong; and the strength of nature comes to us when we are in harmony with it.
Excerpts from: The Seven Stages of Perfection - Chapter 70 The Study and Practice of Yoga by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Purpose of Life
Spiritual Message for the Day – Purpose of Life by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 27 August 2015 15.18 EST | New York Edition** |
Purpose of Life
Divine Life Society Publication: The March of the Universe towards Self-realisation by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The urge towards action is an indication that evolution is not yet complete because an urge towards a forward movement through action, movement, or evolution mean one and the same thing. We are not yet complete, and we are trying to achieve a higher completeness. Though we act without an understanding of what it all means, the universe drags us towards this action. But the Bhagavadgita warns us: Can you perform this obligatory action with understanding, or do you want to go on working like a slave under the orders of nature?
When we act as slaves, we are samsarins. When we act as masters knowing what we do, we are liberated. The action of the karma yogin and the action of the bound soul are outwardly the same in their nature, character and form, but the one acts without knowing, and the other acts with knowing. There is nothing wrong with action, nothing wrong with the world, nothing wrong with anything, for the matter of that, but the wrong is with the state of our mind. Stone walls do not a prison make, as the proverb says. Prison is not four walls constructed around you. The consciousness with which you are living in a particular locality will determine whether you are living in a palace or in a jail. As far as the outer form is concerned, the jail also may look like a palace, but one is called a jail and the other a palace. The consciousness differs; the liberty of the person differs. The consciousness and the liberty of action make all the difference between the action of a master and of a slave – karma yoga and bundaka karma.
The liberation of the spirit is the purpose of the cosmos. Liberation from what? Liberation from the bondage of unintelligence. Bondage is identical with ignorance. Bondage is not physical. It is not something you can physically see with your eyes. It is a state of mind, a state of consciousness. Your happiness depends on the kind of consciousness that you are entertaining in your mind, in your heart. Life is consciousness. Your unhappiness is determined by the kind of consciousness that you have, and your happiness also is conditioned by the kind of consciousness which is in you. So the purpose of the universe is to blossom this consciousness into its fullest perfection and pristine purity. The purusha should recognise himself and free himself from the bondage of objective forces which is matter. The Kauravas have to be completely overthrown and their dominion has to be extended to the Pandavas. The spirit has to rule the cosmos. This is the millennium which Christ promised perhaps, or Ramraja which we are speaking of – spirit ruling the cosmos, which means to say, knowledge ruling everything, not ignorance binding things.
The purpose of life is, therefore, the achievement of this ultimate knowledge, the unfoldment of the spark of consciousness that is within us into its deeper and deeper implications both quantitatively and qualitatively. It is for this purpose that we are struggling and fighting the Mahabharata battle. Until the ultimate purpose of this consciousness is reached, life is incomplete. You will not be satisfied with anything that is given to you until this purpose is achieved.
Excerpts from: The Purpose of Life - The March of the Universe towards Self-realisation by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Disciplining the Mind
Spiritual Message for the Day – Disciplining the Mind by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 26 August 2015 15.30 EST | New York Edition** |
Disciplining the Mind
Divine Life Society Publication: Disciplining the Mind by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The necessity for the control of the mind arises on account of the structure of the relation of the mind to its object. This is a very important thing that we learned. The nature of things in the world demands that the mind has to be disciplined, and the process of the discipline and control of the mind is a gradual and steady approach to the ideal before us, slowly dissociating and freeing the mind from its entanglements in external phenomena, then steadily rising to the internal conditioning factors of the mind until we come to the mind itself.
At present, the mind is out of control. It does not listen to what is really good for us. The mind is after what is pleasant, and not what is really to its own benefit, like a naughty child who does not know what is for its own good.
The difficulty in the discipline of the mind is because the mind itself is the subject of action in this intricate process. We are used to thinking of objects, things and persons in the world who are brought into a sort of relation with the subjective mind. We can deal with things and persons in the world, but we cannot deal with the mind in any manner whatsoever because of the simple fact that the mind is the centre of action, and it is not the object towards which the action is directed.
In one of his books, Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj has defined the mind in a humorous way as thus: “The mind is something which is really nothing but does everything. This is the mind.”
The control of the mind is in essence the control of our own self. We are trying to subjugate our own self. How can we control our own self when the controller and the controlled are one and the same? The ruler and the ruled, the king and the subject are identical, as it were. How can we exert an influence on our own self? How can we pass a rule or a mandate on our own self? How can we discipline our self, when the discipliner is the same as the disciplined? This is the peculiarity of the mind, and this is also the peculiarity of what we really and essentially are.
While in the regulation, discipline, etc., of things outside we seem to move horizontally with things, in the control of the mind we have to move vertically with our own self. We do not move externally as we do in our dealings with the things of the world. This is not a movement outward in relation to things, persons and objects; this is a rise from the lower to the higher.
In the control of the mind we try to raise ourselves from a lower status of consciousness to a higher status. This is an ascent of the individual into the higher realms of wider and wider connotations of mind and self. This is not a causal relation of the subject with the object, it is not a connection that you establish between yourself and something outside, and it is not an order that you issue to someone alien to you or totally different from you. This is an inner transformation that you try to bring about in your own self by an act of what may be rightly called the contemplative process. The discipline of the mind is a process of inward contemplative transformation.
The child grows into an adult. The sapling becomes a tree. What do we call this process? It is an inner transformation constitutionally taking place in every part of the total that we call the personality, or whatever it is. No outward agent, external instrument, is necessary or even possible in the control of the mind. Who can control the mind, because the mind is the subject of action, as I mentioned already. The subject cannot be controlled by anyone else. The inward readjustment of the constituents of the mind is the process of the control of the mind.
The objects of the mind are the same as the contents of the mind. The object of the mind is that pattern or shape into which the mind casts itself when it comes in contact with a so-called physical object or even merely a notion. What affects your mind is not the object physically existing outside. What affects your mind is the shape or mould into which the mind is cast. What affects your mind is the mind itself. Do not be under the notion that it is somebody else that is troubling you. The world outside, the people around you, the things that are created by God are not the troublemakers, though we are under the impression that all our troubles come from outside persons. The troubles, the pains and the pleasures of our life are ultimately to be equated with the internal transformations that the mind undergoes for reasons which we cannot easily explain at present.
Just as molten lead, molten gold or molten metal cast into a crucible takes the shape of the crucible, the mind takes the shape or the pattern of that particular object to which it is related, with which it is connected, to which it is attached, from which it is repelled, etc. So the discipline and control of the mind is ultimately a process of preventing the mind from casting itself into moulds of various patterns, etc. The mind should contemplate itself.
Aristotle’s definition of God is thought thinking itself – not thought thinking an object, which would be human thinking and empirical thinking. As our intention in the practice of yoga is to grow into the divinity of Godhood, we have to slowly learn the art of freeing the mind from the necessity of casting itself into moulds of empirical characters.
God, the Absolute, which is the goal of the practice of yoga and the goal of the evolution of the entire cosmos, has two characters: infinitude and subjectivity. Infinitude implies transcendence of space and time. Subjectivity implies freedom from the consciousness of externality. This is what we mean by ‘the Atman’ in Sanskrit. The term ‘Atman’ really means the character of subjectivity in consciousness which refuses to get related to anything outside it.
The lowest concept of the mind is of objects. The next higher concept is of the senses. The next higher is the mind. Higher than the mind is the intellect. Higher than the intellect is yourself, which is indistinguishable from the Infinite or the Absolute.
Bhagavan Sri Krishna says, if you take resort to the higher forces which are more integrating and comprehensive, ultimately resorting to the Self, the supreme Parmatman, Ishvara, God, the Absolute Himself, if you take resort to Him, strength will be drawn from Him. God Himself will help you. While all the forces may be set against you at a particular moment of your practice, while it will appear as if there are only clouds, wind, thunderstorms and darkness everywhere, it will not continue for long. The clouds will disperse; the sun will shine. It will all be brilliant sunshine, beauty, warmth and clarity of perception if only you have the patience to wait for the day. So one of the most important qualifications for a seeker is patience. Do not try to know everything at the same moment of time. Everything will be unfolded before you gradually, systematically, one after the other, until glory will be the name of your final achievement.
Excerpts from: Disciplining the Mind by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Moksha is The Highest Dharma
Spiritual Message for the Day – Moksha is The Highest Dharma by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 25 August 2015 16.54 EST | New York Edition** |
Moksha is The Highest Dharma
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 4 The Heritage of Indian Culture by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam mahajano yena gatah sa panthah. The great men of the Mahabharata tell us that we cannot know what dharma is. Dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam: It is hidden in a cave, as it were, in the darkness of oblivion—perhaps in the cave of our own hearts. Unless we dive deep into our own hearts, we will not know what dharma is. Our conscience is the voice of dharma. The impartial voice that speaks deeply from within ourselves is the voice of dharma. It can speak inside us, and it can also speak from without by a consensus of opinion passed in a most impartial manner.
Nothing is evil in this world when it is seen as a vehicle which carries a deep meaning within itself which is transcendent to its own outer form. Every nama and rupa is a vehicle for sat-chit-ananda. Sat, chit, ananda, nama, rupa are the five things that we see everywhere in the world. The Panchadasi says that the whole world and each individual particular object are nothing but a complex of asti, bhati, priya, nama, rupa. The first three are characteristics of Brahman; the other two are characteristics of the world.
But what is the world, if it is only name and form? Minus sat-chit-ananda, what is the world? What is a pot, if it is not clay? If we remove the clay from it, we will see no pot. Likewise, if we remove asti-bhati-priya, remove sat-chit-ananda, we will feel nothing is there. That is why the world is supposed to be non-existent in one sense. It is existent as the pot exists, and it does not exist even as the pot does not exist. This is a highly technical theme. The pot does exist because it is clay. What we call ‘pot’ is only in our minds; it does not exist. But the pot exists; we can carry water in it, as we know very well. We cannot say that we have purchased some balls of mud; we say we purchased pots. The bringing together of nama-rupa-prapancha with asti-bhati-priya into a state of harmony—Existence Absolute, Consciousness Absolute, and Bliss Absolute—is the wisdom of life. One who is bankrupt in this wisdom will be a failure, not only in spiritual and religious life, but even as an ordinary shopkeeper or in a clerical job. A person who is a failure in one thing will be a failure in another thing also, because it is an incapacity to adjust to circumstances that makes him fail, and that incapacity persists wherever he goes, notwithstanding the fact he has changed his profession.
Dharma, artha, kama, moksha are the foundations of the cultural vision of India. Moksha is the deity which is worshipped in this vehicle of dharma, artha, kama. When the deity is absent, we no more call it a temple; it is only an ordinary building, a dilapidated hut, a corpse with no sense. When nobody is living in a house, we do not value it; we do not even look at it. While artha and kama are the visible values of life, and moksha is the universal value of life, dharma is the cementing value of life. We know how important each one is in our life. Nothing can be regarded as wholly unimportant, because everything plays a role in the superstructure of a completeness called human life, which is an advance of the personality towards the fulfilment of existence, moksha—which is not cut off from dharma, artha, kama, but is the fulfilment that is attained as a transcendence, and not a rejection of them.
There is a difference between transcendence and abandonment. When a child becomes a youth, his childhood is not abandoned but transcended. Whatever value was present in the baby is also present in the youth, but the youth is not the baby. He is something different, far superior to the baby. Similarly, moksha is not this world, is not artha, is not kama, and is not even the so-called dharma; but yet, every one of these is present in it in a transfigured form—not in a particularised, isolated, objectivised form. That which we regard as an outside thing will be realised there as Universal Being. This world is not negated, but it will be seen there, experienced there, in a different way altogether. Our vision is corrected; things are not denied or abrogated from experience.
Thus, moksha is the highest dharma, and the way in which it produces its impact upon our practical life is the so-called dharma of our scriptures, our Dharma Shastras, our social laws, personal regulations, regimens, disciplines, etc. This is a very interesting vision which does not ignore anything in this world, and yet does not consider anything in this world as complete. Such a wondrous vision was bequeathed to the great masters of yore in India, on the strength of which they brought down this law of moksha into the practical daily existence of society and the individual through the application of varna and ashrama.
Excerpts from: Moksha is The Highest Dharma - Chapter 4 The Heritage of Indian Culture by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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