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This website is devoted to Philosophy, Religion, Spirituality and Science. We bring in articles on teachings by Great Saints like Sri Shirdi Sai Baba, Adi Shankara, Swami Sivananda, Swami Krishnananda, Aurobindo, Mother of Auroville and others.
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Gita Jayanti
Spiritual Message for the Day – Gita Jayanti by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji
| **Baba Times Digest© | 22 December 2015 17**.24 EST | New York Edition** |
Gita Jayanti
Divine Life Society Publication: Hindu Fasts and Festivals by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji
(December 21, 2015 – Sri Bhagavadgita Jayanti is observed in Sivananda Ashram)
THE HOLY Gita Jayanti, or the birthday of the Bhagavad Gita, is celebrated throughout India by all the admirers and lovers of this most sacred scripture on the eleventh day (Ekadashi) of the bright half of the month of Margaseersha (December-January), according to the Hindu almanac. It was on this day that Sanjaya narrated to King Dhritarashtra the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, and thus made the glorious teachings of the Lord available to us, and to people of the world, for all time.
The Gita Jayanti marks one of the greatest days in the history of mankind. Nearly six thousand years ago on that day a dazzling flash of brilliant light lit up the firmament of human civilization. That flash, that marvellous spiritual effulgence, was the message of the Bhagavad Gita, given by the Lord Himself on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Unlike ordinary flashes of light which die away after a split-second, this brilliant flash of that memorable day has continued to shine through the centuries, and even now illumines the path of humanity on its onward march to perfection.
The Gita is the most beautiful and the only truly philosophical song. It contains sublime lessons on wisdom and philosophy. It is the “Song Celestial”. It is the universal gospel. It contains the message of life that appeals to all, irrespective of race, creed, age or religion.
The Gita was given to us about six thousand years ago by Sri Krishna, the Lord incarnate, through His most devoted disciple, Arjuna. Its teachings are based on the sacred Upanishads, the ancient, revealed metaphysical classics of India.
The Gita shows a way to rise above the world of duality and the pairs of opposites, and to acquire eternal bliss and immortality. It is a gospel of action. It teaches the rigid performance of one’s duty in society, and a life of active struggle, keeping the inner being untouched by outer surroundings, and renouncing the fruits of actions as offerings unto the Lord.
The Gita is a source of power and wisdom. It strengthens you when you are weak, and inspires you when you feel dejected and feeble. It teaches you how to resist unrighteousness and follow the path of virtue and righteousness.
The Gita is not merely a book or just a scripture. It is a living voice carrying an eternally indispensable and vital message to mankind. Its verses embody words of wisdom coming from the infinite ocean of knowledge, the Absolute Itself.
The voice of the Gita is the call of the Supreme. It is the divine sound explained. The primal source of all existence, all power, is the manifested sound—Om. This is the Divine Word. It is Nada Brahman, whose unceasing call is: “Be ye all ever merged in the eternal, unbroken, continuous consciousness of the Supreme Truth.” This is the sublime message that the Gita elaborates and presents in all comprehensiveness and in a universally acceptable form. It is this message of the Gita that I wish to recall and reproclaim with emphasis to you.
To be always conscious of the Divine, to ever feel the Divine Presence, to live always in the awareness of the Supreme Being in the chambers of your heart and everywhere around you, is verily to live a life of fullness and divine perfection on earth itself. Such a constant remembrance of God and such an attitude of mind will release you forever from the clutches of illusion and free you from all fear. To forget the Supreme is to fall into illusion. To forget Him is to be assailed by fear. To live in unbroken remembrance of the Supreme Truth is to remain always in the region of light, peace and bliss, far beyond the reach of illusion and delusion.
Mark carefully how the Gita stresses again and again this lofty message.
The Lord declares: “Keep thou thy mind in Me, in Me place thy reason”.
In another verse He says: “Therefore, at all times remember Me and fight. You will surely attain Me, having thus offered yourself”.
And yet again: “Perform thou action, remaining united with Me at heart”.
The Gita guides you to glory with the watchwords: “Be thou divine-minded, devoted to Me as your goal, and let your subconscious mind be divine”.
The Lord gives the following firm assurance also: “I become the saviour from this mortal world for those whose minds are set on Me”.
Such is the most illuminating message of the Gita, seeking to lead man to a life of perfection even while performing his ordained role here. Long has this message been neglected by man. Forgetting the Lord, the world has turned towards sense indulgence and mammon. A terrible price has been paid. O man, enough of this forgetfulness! The Lord has warned you against heedlessness: “If, out of egoism, thou wilt not hear, then thou shalt perish”.
It is a matter of great regret that many young men and women of India know very little of this most unique scripture. One cannot consider oneself as having attained a good standard of education if one does not have a sound knowledge of the Gita. All post-graduate knowledge, all research in universities is mere husk or chaff when compared to the wisdom of the Gita.
Live in the spirit of the teachings of the Gita. Mere talks or lectures will not help you in any way. Put into practice the teachings of this most sacred scripture and attain eternal bliss and peace.
The Gita may be summarised in the following seven verses:
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“Uttering the one-syllabled Om, the Brahman, and remembering Me, he who departs, leaving the body thus, attains the Supreme Goal”.
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“It is meet, O Lord, that the world delights and rejoices in Thy praise; the demons fly in fear to all quarters, and all the hosts of Siddhas bow to Thee!”
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“With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, He exists in the world, enveloping all”.
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“Whosoever meditates on the omniscient, ancient ruler of the whole world, minuter than an atom, the supporter of all, of form inconceivable, effulgent like the sun, such a one goeth beyond the darkness of ignorance”.
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“They, the wise, speak of the indestructible Asvattha, having its roots above and branches below, whose leaves are the metres or hymns; he who knows it is a knower of the Vedas”.
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“And I am seated in the hearts of all; from Me are memory and knowledge, as well as their absence. I am verily that which has to be known by all the Vedas; I am indeed the author of Vedanta, and the knower of the Vedas am I”.
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“Fix thy mind on Me; be devoted to Me; sacrifice to Me; bow down to Me; having thus united thy whole Self with Me, taking Me as the Supreme Lord, thou shalt verily come to Me”.
Read the whole of the Gita on Sundays and other holidays. Study carefully again and again the verses in the second discourse, which deal with the state of the Sthitaprajna (a perfected Yogi and sage). Also study the eight nectarine verses in the twelfth discourse.
The study of the Gita alone is sufficient for the purpose of scriptural study. You will find in it a solution to all your problems. The more you study it with devotion and faith, the deeper will your knowledge become, the more penetrative would be your insight, and the clearer your thinking. Even if you live in the spirit of one verse of the Gita, all your miseries will come to an end and you will attain the goal of life—immortality and eternal peace.
None but the Lord can bring out such a marvellous and unprecedented book, which grants peace to its readers, and which guides them in the attainment of supreme bliss.
The teachings of the Gita are broad, sublime and universal. They do not belong to any particular cult, sect, creed, age, place or country. They are meant for all. They are within the reach of all. The Gita has a message for the solace, peace, freedom, salvation and perfection of all human beings.
At the Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, the holy and auspicious Gita Jayanti is observed every year on a grand scale:
All the aspirants wake up at 4 am and meditate on the Lord. From sunrise to sunset there is unbroken recitation of the Gita. The Samputa method is used, that is, before and after each verse the following Samputa is recited:
Sarva dharmaan parityajya maamekam sharanam vraja;
Aham twaa sarvapaapebhyo mokshayishyaami maa shucha.
Thus, between two verses, this verse is recited twice. This is an extremely efficacious method of earning the Grace of the Supreme Lord and the Gita, the Mother.
Aspirants fast on the day, as it is also the Ekadashi day. Competitions are held among the little children, to develop their talents in the recitation of the Gita. In the case of the slightly older children, they are given a chance to deliver discourses. This is a wonderful way of encouraging them to study the scripture.
In the evening, a special Satsang is held at which scholars, Yogis and Sannyasins discourse upon the Gita. Leaflets, pamphlets and books containing the teachings of the Gita, as also translations of the holy scripture, are distributed.
Take a resolve on Gita Jayanti that you will read at least one discourse every day. Recite the fifteenth discourse before taking your meals. This is done at the Sivananda Ashram.
Keep a pocket-sized edition of the Gita with you at all times. Mark a few verses in it which inspire you. Everyday, while you wait for your bus or train, or whenever you have a little leisure, pull out the book and read these verses. You will be ever inspired.
May you all lead the life taught by the Gita! May the Gita, the blessed Mother of the Vedas, guide and protect you! May it nourish you with the milk of the ancient wisdom of the Upanishads!
Glory to Lord Krishna, the Divine Teacher! Glory to Sri Vyasa, the poet of poets, who composed the Gita! May his blessings be upon you all!
Gita Jayanti - Hindu Fasts and Festivals by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji
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Weakness of Will
Spiritual Message for the Day – Weakness of Will by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 21 December 2015 17**.24 EST | New York Edition** |
Weakness of Will
Divine Life Society Publication: The Yoga of Meditation by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Weakness of will is partly the reason for failure in spiritual pursuits. Also, it so happens, unfortunately, that the time most people devote for meditation is too little in comparison with the extensive part of the day and night when the consciousness is vigorously in pursuit of pleasure. Whatever little benefit has accrued during the short period of meditation is likely to be swept away by the strong winds of desires during the larger pan of the day. For, desires are not to be taken lightly. They have powers before which the most destructive bombs cannot stand. The celestials who send nymphs to stultify the meditations of Yogins are the subtler essences of the senses which are cosmically distributed in ethereal realms and which fly like jets towards their respective objects while the feeble ratiocinating power of man keeps looking on with bewilderment and a sense of depression, a mood of melancholy and a feeling of the hopelessness of all human efforts in the end.
It is not that effort is useless, but ordinary efforts are inadequate. The celestial beauties descend into the moral world to tempt the unwary aspirants by a constant presentation of f variety in beauty and value. When the aspirant has mastered one form of resistance, he finds himself in the grip of another which is quite new to him. When he is busy with methods of overcoming this second front, he finds that he has fallen into the pool of a third group whose existence he could never notice before. One’s life seems to be spent away in this manner in a perpetual struggle for conquering the sense of erroneous values, but life is too short even to be able to count the number of such values and sources of temptation and opposition. This has been the predicament of thousands of seekers both in the East and the West, and it is no wonder that Bhagavan Sri Krishna warns us in the Bhagavadgita: ‘Among thousands of people, some single being attempts to achieve perfection; and even among those who strive, some rare soul it is that really attains it’.
Excerpts from
Weakness of Will - The Yoga of Meditation by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Karma-Yoga
Spiritual Message for the Day – Karma-Yoga by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 20 December 2015 17**.24 EST | New York Edition** |
Karma-Yoga
Divine Life Society Publication: The Yoga of Meditation by Sri Swami Krishnananda
A system of spiritual living known as Karma-Yoga rarely gets associated with meditation. But Karma-Yoga is really meditation in action and it is a Yoga by itself It is, however, difficult for beginners in spiritual life to imagine how an action can also be a meditation, for action is usually associated with movement, physical or psychological, while meditation is regarded as attention in which all movement is checked. The action, which Karma Yoga is, differs from this usual definition of action as distinguished from concentration or attention of mind. An exposition of this method is mainly found in the Bhagavadgita where expertness in action is identified with balance in the attitude of consciousness.
Yoga is not only supreme ability in the execution of perfected action but is at the same time stability of consciousness or equanimity of mind. The two aspects of this particular technique cannot be reconciled as long as action is limited to the personal activities proceeding from desire. Karma-Yoga is desireless action, which alone can be consistent with spiritual consciousness. The Self which is pure balance of existence is co-extensive with cosmic reality and can therefore be reconcilable with action when it is transformed into an impersonal process of spiritual being instead of a personal activity of individual desire. This concept of spiritualised action is an advanced step in Yoga and cannot be prescribed to novices who cannot imagine anything beyond their bodily personality. But once the spirit is grasped, a seeker moves unscathed in life, unaffected by likes and dislikes and contemplates divinity in all actions which he identifies with the processes of the universe.
In lesser concepts of Karma-Yoga, it is defined as one’s attitude to all activity as a form of the movement of the properties of the external Nature, of which one remains an unconcerned witness. It is also regarded as action performed in the spirit of service of God or even service of humanity and all living beings, the fruits of which the performer does not long for but offers up entirely to God.
Excerpts from
Karma-Yoga - The Yoga of Meditation by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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The Unity of Oneself with One’s Own Self
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Unity of Oneself with One’s Own Self by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 19 December 2015 17**.24 EST | New York Edition** |
The Unity of Oneself with One’s own Self
Divine Life Society Publication: The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
In a single verse which occurs in the fifth chapter of the Bhagavadgita, the gradual stages of the ascent of human perspective are given to us. Yoga-yukto visuddhatma vijitatma jitendriyah, sarvabhuttmabhutatma kurvann api na lipyate. Jitendriyah: ‘One who has restrained the senses.’
The very same chapter in the Gita gives us an insight into the futility of the search for pleasure in objects. Ye hi samsparsaja bhoga duhkha-yonaya eva te, ady-antavantah kaunteya na tesu ramate budhah. There is a beginning and an end for the pleasures of sense. There is anxiety permeating this search for pleasure in objects; anxiety which is equivalent to sorrow, which is present continuously from the beginning to the end in one’s search for pleasure through objects. Wise people do not indulge themselves in this search for object experience. Na tesu ramate budhah: It is the blind senses that, like moths rushing to fire, go headlong into external contact; a contact which they can never establish in this life, for reasons beyond their expectation and knowledge. Hence, it is necessary to control the senses.
A self-controlled person is also a sense-controlled person, and vice versa. The one is the same as the other, but the matter is not over here. There is an establishment of the mind in pure sattva when there is the withdrawal of sense energy into the mind by way of consideration and an establishment of oneself in non-distracted attention or concentration. All concentration of sense is distracted attention, but the concentration that we attain to when the senses are withdrawn into the mind is not distracted—it is sattvica. Therefore that state is referred to as visuddhtmta. We become pure in the literal sense, not only in the ethical or social sense. It is not the ethical righteousness that is spoken of here, but the purity that is of a spiritual character. The resplendence of sattvaguna, the equilibrated condition of the psyche where the Atman within gets reflected as the sun is reflected in a clean mirror, that unity of oneself with one’s own Self is called yoga—yogayuko.
Yogayukto visuddhatma vijitatma jitendriyah. Such a person who has established himself in the Self by means of the withdrawal of the senses from the objects by way of controlling the mind, by means of establishment of oneself in sattva or purity, by getting uniting with the reality within, becomes united with all things in the world.
To be united with your Self is equivalent to uniting with everything else. This is the magnificent outcome of the practice of yoga—to know your Self is to know everybody. This is a wonder indeed, that knowledge which is of the Self—Self-knowledge—is the same as world knowledge. It is equivalent to Universal knowledge. It is brahmasakshatkara. You become sarvabhutatmabhutatma. “He becomes the Self of all beings.” One who has become the Self of one’s own self has, at the same time, become the Self of all beings. To know my Self is to know you and everybody. Such a person acts not while acting, because actions cease to be actions in the case of a person who has ceased to be a person and thereby has ceased to be an agent of action, therefore evoking no consequence of action. This is Universal action; this is the great vision of karma yoga that the Bhagavadgita places before us in a concentrated verse in the fifth chapter. For this attainment, deep meditation is necessary.
Excerpts from
The Unity of Oneself with One’s Own Self - The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and 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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Flaw in The Western Theory of Evolution
Spiritual Message for the Day – Flaw in The Western Theory of Evolution by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 18 December 2015 16**.19 EST | New York Edition** |
Flaw In The Western Theory of Evolution
Divine Life Society Publication: Yoga as a Universal Science by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The Western theory of evolution starts from the lowest material level, from which there is a rise into larger and larger organisms manifesting life, mind and intellect which can be seen in plants, animals and human beings respectively. Now, the Western education which has been imparted to us may make us think that we are advancing from a lower level to a higher level. We are always told that there is an ascent, and therefore an improvement, from matter to life, from life to mind, and from mind to intellect. Man is always supposed to be the pinnacle or summit of creation. We are superior to animals in every way, animals are superior to plants, and plants are superior to inorganic matter. This is the way we generally think. Rather, this is the way we are made to think, as we are repeatedly told about it by our educational syllabi. But, this is not true wholly. It does not mean that we are moving towards Reality if we are rising from matter to life, life to mind, and mind to intellect or the reason of man. Why it is not really an improvement can be known only to the subtle thinking to which a little hint is given in an Upanishad known as the Aitareya Upanishad. The subtlety of this idea is almost unparalleled and cannot be easily found in other systems of thought.
This can be illustrated by an example. Number two is more than number one; three is more than two; four is more than three; five is more than four. If we have two dollars, naturally we are richer than the one who has only one dollar, and so on. So, if we have five dollars, we will feel that we are richer than the one who has four, three, two or one, merely because five is the larger number. But, minus two is not larger than plus one. Minus two is less than plus one, though two is larger than one, ordinarily speaking. Mere quantitative measurement is not the only criterion in our judgement here, in this process of analysis. There is a kind of reflection as it were. And there is this characteristic about a reflection that it removes the reality from its base into an opposite direction, and so, the more we go away in the direction of the reflection, the more also may be said to be the distance that we maintain from the original reality.
An important point is made out by certain thinkers in the West, like Henri Bergson, for instance. Bergson is very sure that animals are nearer to Reality than man, for important reasons which may not occur to the minds of people ordinarily. The instincts of the animals are nearer to truth than the reasons of man, because the reasons of man are laboured, are mathematically calculated with tremendous effort. Whereas, animals have sudden responses, albeit those responses may be blurred and not clarified. This instinct of the animals, however dim, is supposed to be nearer to Reality than the clarity of the so-called intellect of man. There is this instinctive sensation in the lower creatures which is not available to man. Even dogs and cats have a peculiar sense of contact with Reality, which sense is not accessible to us. There are, it is said, very minute insects, like the snails, living some three or four kilometres below the level of the ocean waters, a depth which moonlight may not reach and sunlight may not touch. These insects there, crawling at the base of the ocean, might not have seen even the light of day. Such insects are now discovered to be guided by the waxing and the waning moon, moving in the sky, two hundred thousand miles away from the surface of the earth. We are very dull in our brains, compared to all these sensations which the snails feel and the ants feel and the honey bees feel. Even when the rainy season is one month away, the ants know that the rains are to come; whereas, we cannot know even if it is to rain tomorrow, unless we go to the meteorological department. Even there, something goes wrong oftentimes. Even the plants know what vibrations are around them. The great discoveries of Sir J. C. Bose are a standing refutation of our old belief that plants do not feel, do not think, and know nothing.
Excerpts from
Flaw in The Western Theory of Evolution - Yoga as a Universal Science by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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The Niyamas (Systemised Daily Routine)
Spiritual Message for the Day–The Niyamas (Systemised Daily Routine) by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 17 December 2015 16**.27 EST | New York Edition** |
The Niyamas (Systemised Daily Routine)
Divine Life Society Publication: True Spiritual Living by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The niyamas mentioned by Patanjali are, generally speaking, the necessary disciplines of body, speech and mind. We are averse to discipline because we have been brought up in an atmosphere of enjoyment of the senses and too much social contact. This is how we have been brought up by our parents, by our teachers, by our friends; and this education, this culture, this civilisation, which has gone into our blood, makes it impossible for us to follow any system or any kind of discipline. It is, therefore, necessary to awaken ourselves into the seriousness of the matter. We should forget the past as it is never too late to mend, and earnestly take to this practice.
Purity of body, speech and mind is emphasised by Patanjali, which he refers to in a single word, saucha, which includes pure thoughts, pure words, pure diet, pure physical contact, and pure sensory activity. We should not see anything that is disturbing, we should not hear anything that is disturbing, and so on. Nothing that is going to defeat our purpose should become the object of the senses, the body should not come in contact with things which are going to stir up passions within us, and we should not speak what is not going to affect either ourselves or others in a positive manner; and the mind, of course, the supreme factor of all, is to be kept in perfect control. The Bhagavadgita gives a beautiful description of this discipline, called manasika, vachika and kayika tapas, which will bring us the needed satisfaction, contentment, santosha, without which tapas, or austerity, is not possible—all which are brought together in what is called kriya yoga. Kriya yoga, according to Patanjali, is this combination of some of the principles of the niyamas.
To make it possible and easy for us, the system also prescribes certain advantageous practices such as the study of holy scriptures, and a perpetual remembrance of the presence of God. The practice of the presence of God is ultimately the key to success. Sā hānistanmahacchidra sā cāndhajaḍamūḍhatā, yanmuhūrtaṁ kṣaṇaṁ vāpi vāsudevaṁ na cintayet. (Pandava Gita 70) says the Pandava Gita, which means that all sorrows befall us, calamities come upon us, everything becomes difficult and the entire horizon looks dark before us as if there is no hope at all, the moment we forget the existence of God. One of the main teachings of the Sufi school of mysticism is that what we call samsara, or the life of earthly bondage, is not merely the world that we see outside. Samsara is not merely this world in which we are living, samsara is a name given to the forgetfulness of God. The moment we forget the existence of God, we are in samsara. Merely because we are living in a world of trees and mountains, it does not mean that we are in samsara. Samsara is an entanglement of consciousness, and it is not merely the physical location of our body in the astronomical wonder of this world.
In his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali regards saucha, santosha, tapas, svadhyaya, and Ishvara pranidhana, as he calls it, as a combined necessity to bring about an order in our life. This can be applied with the necessary intensity, each one for oneself, according to one’s own conditions of living, strength of mind, and so on. But what it finally means in essence is that there should be a stipulated method of thinking, speaking and acting. We must know what we will do at what time, and then we will see that success is not far off even in the ordinary life of this world, not merely in the spiritual field, because method or system is the way by which we focus our energies, and wherever there is a focusing of energy, there is strength—just as a focused beam of the sun’s rays can burn things, while the sun’s dissipated rays cannot.
It is, therefore, necessary to have a systematised daily routine. We must know when we will get up in the morning, what we will do after getting up, whom we will see, how much work we will do and in what manner, at what time—including even such minute details as bathing, walking, meals, the time of going to sleep, what we do before going to sleep, what should be around us and what should not be there. All this should be at our fingertips. This is method, this is system, this is niyama; and when this system is introduced into our life, we become ready for the higher practice. Each succeeding step becomes easy of approach and practice when the preceding step is firmly placed.
Again, we are to remember that we should not take an advanced step unless the earlier step is well placed. Hurry and too much enthusiasm are not called for. What is required is a pure, dispassionate understanding of our strengths as well as our weaknesses. Whatever our weaknesses are, they must be overcome by the strengths that we have. One has to be very dispassionate about this because we are going to open our hearts before the Truth of all truths—the Great Reality before us—and nothing can be hidden from its eyes.
Excerpts from
The Niyamas (Systemised Daily Routine) - True Spiritual Living by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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God is Love and Beauty
Spiritual Message for the Day – God is Love and Beauty by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 16 December 2015 16**.35 EST | New York Edition** |
God is Love and Beauty
Divine Life Society Publication: The Rasa Panchadyayi of The Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana by Sri Swami Krishnananda
God is love and beauty, and there is a sense of imminence of this presence in every little object in this world. God is not merely a transcendent creator, a magnificent, almighty ruler. He is also imminent as the element of survival, beauty, self-love and altruistic love in this world. The Rasa Panchadhyayi of the Srimad Bhagavata clinches the whole matter when, in ecstatic language of Sanskrit poetry, Vyasa himself seems to be rising into an apotheosis of love.
The attraction and the separation, the twofold operation of love, are quoted in these chapters. We are pulled towards God, and in a tremendous ecstasy of love we seem to be gravitating towards God Who is everywhere, seeing Him in everything – in little things, in inanimate things such as objects, trees, stones, and whatnot, hugging even thorns as if they are the utmost of beauty. And, on the other hand, there is a sense of a cracking down of personality due to the bereavement due to a sense of separation from God. Only one who has experienced bereavement will know what it is, as only one who is hungry will know what hunger is. A well-fed man does not know what hunger is, and one who has not experienced bereavement will not know what bereavement is. One who has not loved, or who is incapable of loving and has a faint heart, cannot understand the beauty of these feelings of those lovers of God par excellence called the Gopis of Brindavan.
There is a sense of coming and going, attraction and repulsion in the operation of love. This is felt in human love, and also in divine love in a different context. We cannot adequately describe the relationship between the lover and the beloved. Are they one or are they two? We cannot say what it is. There are no two persons when the two love each other in the climax of their affections. And yet they are two different persons because if they are not two and it is just one person, that attraction cannot be explained. We cannot account for that surge of feeling which bounds above the limits of its own location and runs in the direction of the object if it were true that there is no one who is loved and no one who is the lover, and there is only one being. In that sense we may say that the lover and the beloved are not an identical entity. It is not one being; it is a one-in-two operation.
Perhaps it is this enigma of the lover-love relationship and the devotee-God relationship that has made great devotees and authors like Nimbarka, Vallava and Gauranga Mahaprabhu Chaitanya Deva to consider the relationship between the soul and God as one of identity and difference. We cannot say it is different, and we cannot say it is one because we are pulled toward God. We are asking for God; we are craving for Him. Our weeping and crying for Him shows that we are not yet one with Him and we cannot feel that oneness, yet we are not wholly different. If we were entirely different, that pull would not be there.
Nimbarka says in his great Bhasya, “Is the wave one with the ocean? Is the wave the same as the ocean, or not? The wave is not the ocean because the wave rises in the ocean and subsides into the ocean. But the wave is the ocean because a wave cannot be other than the ocean.” The devotee is inseparable from the all-encompassing existence of God. Yes, it is true, because outside God nothing can be. Yet – there is a great ‘yet’ – the devotee’s, the jiva’s, the soul’s pull towards God is an indescribable relationship that obtains. Were the Gopis one with Krishna or were they not one with Krishna? Who can say? No impure mind can understand the meaning of these chapters. It is an exquisitely purified mind that alone can appreciate the purity of this wondrous drama of love which the Gopis evinced in their hearts for the great Krishna whom they saw in trees and stones and pebbles and thorns, and in everything.
Thus, the Srimad Bhagavata highlights the need for the love of God and for being in ecstasy for God. You have to want God, not merely to understand God, analyse God, dissect God or vivisect Him. Analytical logic is not the way to God. It is you that wants God, and God wants you, not your reason and intellect. God wants not your apparatus, nor are you in any position to carry any luggage of apparatus to God’s kingdom of heaven.
Is the world outside you or is the world inside you? Are you different from the world or are you one with the world? You cannot say. Are you one with what you love or are you different from that? None of these questions can be adequately answered because of the peculiar relationship that obtains between that which loves and that which is loved. So is the case with God and His devotee, and saints like Mira, Surdas, Tulsidas and many others are great examples before us. God has to be loved and felt, not merely understood, analysed, discussed.
To this point we are raised by the majesty and the beauty of the Rasa Panchadhyayi, The greatest devotees of God are portrayed in the personality of the Gopis, and the reaction of God to the devotees is the reaction of Krishna to the Gopis. The coming and the going, the union and the separation, this wondrous ebb and flow, the rising and subsiding of the waves in the ocean of the bliss of God is the intention of the whole Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana. It is absolutely necessary for us to know and love and melt and feel and become anguish-filled due to our separation from the Almighty. And He shall come.
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God is Love and Beauty - The Rasa Panchadyayi of The Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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The One Reality
Spiritual Message for the Day – The One Reality by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 15 December 2015 16**.50 EST | New York Edition** |
The One Reality
Divine Life Society Publication: The Yoga System by Sri Swami Krishnananda
There is the vast universe, and we know it with our senses. We live in a world of fivefold objects. The senses are incapable of knowing anything more than these elements. The internal organ, as informed and influenced by the objects, deals with them in certain manners, and this is life. While our psychological reactions constitute our personal life, the adjustment we make with others is our social life. The yoga is primarily concerned with the personal life of man in relation to the universe, and not the social life, for, in the social environment, one’s real personality is rarely revealed. Yoga is essentially a study of self by self, which initially looks like an individual affair, a process of Self-investigation (atma-vichara) and Self-realization (atma-sakshatkara). But this is not the whole truth. The Self envisaged here is a consciousness of gradual integration of reality, and it finally encompasses all experience and the whole universe in its being.
There is only one Reality, where the universal object and the universal subject become a unitary existence. Neither is that an experience of a subject nor an object, where is revealed a knowledge of the whole cosmos, at once, not through the senses, mind or intellect - for there are no objects - and there is only being that is consciousness. Yoga is, therefore, spiritual, superphysical or supermaterial, because materiality is shed in its achievement, and consciousness reigns supreme. This is the highest object of yoga, where the individual and the universe do not stand apart as two entities but come together in a fraternal embrace. The purpose of the yoga way of analysis is an overcoming of the limitations of both subjectivity and objectivity and a union of the deepest within us with the deepest in the cosmos.
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The One Reality - The Yoga System by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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The Illusory Appearance
Spiritual Message for the Day – Adhyasa – The Illusory Appearance by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 14 December 2015 16**.50 EST | New York Edition** |
Adhyasa – The Illusory Appearance
Divine Life Society Publication: The Philosophy of The Panchadasi by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Reality is not merely consciousness without existence, but consciousness with existence, in such a manner that the one cannot be distinguished from the other. The appearance or the non appearance of Chidabhasa is the cause of our bringing in a distinction between the sentient and the non-sentient. As Chidabhasa is superimposed on the Atman, the objectness of the pot is also superimposed on it in a like manner. There is a universal background of things, on which appear the subject as well as the object, both of which are superimposed on it.
The Self is set in opposition to the notion of all objectivity, because it is never objectified in experience. To it, everything objective is outside reality, as the feeling of ‘I’-ness in the individual regards all other things in the world as outside its reality. The sense of ‘I’-ness in the Jiva is falsely taken as a centre of consciousness, and all other things known by it are regarded as objects merely instrumental in bringing about experience in the former. Though ‘I’-ness assumes selfhood so far as its experiences are concerned and considers the world as an object to it, the ‘I’-ness itself is an object from the point of view of the Atman. The ‘I’-ness may falsely regard itself as a conscious principle, but from the standpoint of the Atman it is not consciousness-in-itself. The ego is objective to the Atman. ‘I’-ness and Self are different from each other, as silver and nacre are different in the analogy cited. This intrinsic superimposition, called Tadatmya-Adhyasa, between the Chidabhasa and Kutastha is responsible for the confused form of experience as conscious individuality. Avidya is the cause of all these, and when Vidya dawns Avidya is destroyed. However, the effect of Avidya may persist for sometime, though the cause is removed by Jnana. In the case of the Jnanin the Bhramaja-Adhyasa or the misconception consequent upon false identification of the Kutastha with Chidabhasa, and vice versa, is cut off, due to which he will not have any further birth. But the Sahaja-Adhyasa or the natural error of identifying the Chidabhasa with Ahamkara (ego), and vice versa, as also the Karmaja-Adhyasa or the identification of the ego with the body, and vice versa, will persist. The Sanchita-Karma or the result of actions done in the past, but not manifested in experience yet, and Agami-Karma or the result of actions performed during the present life, do not, in the case of a Jnanin, bring about any reaction in the form of rebirth, etc. But the Prarabdha-Karma, or that portion of the Sanchita-Karma which has been allotted for experience in a particular span of life, has to be undergone until its momentum is exhausted, whether the Jnanin feels the working of the Prarabdha or not. The Chhandogya Upanishad (Ch.VI.) testifies to the operation of Prarabdha in a Jnanin. It is reasonable, as it is possible, for a momentum to continue even while its cause has ceased to operate. This is also corroborated by the saints who have given expression to such experiences. (Verses 18-56)
Excerpts from
Adhyasa-The Illusory Appearance - The Philosophy of The Panchadasi by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Factors That Cause the Effect
Spiritual Message for the Day – Factors That Cause the Effect by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 13 December 2015 19**.32 EST | New York Edition** |
Factors That Cause the Effect
Divine Life Society Publication: Consciousness Alone Is – A Text Book of Yoga by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Adhisthanam tatha karta karanam ca prthag-vidham vividhas ca prthak cesta daivam caivatra pancamam is a verse in the Bhagavadgita which tells how many factors are involved in the production of an effect—such as success, for instance. Your physical and mental strength is one factor. Suppose you are a sickly person; you are crawling and coughing, have aches of every kind, fever, and also the mind is oscillating. You may not be considered ready for this work. The psychophysical condition is one factor—adhisthana. Adhisthana is the basis itself, which is your mental and physical condition. You must be very clear that your condition is perfectly fit for this adventure.
Then comes tatha karta, the intention behind the adventure which you are trying to embark upon. This is a very important factor. Why do you do anything? What is the intention behind it? Vague, various and multi-faceted are the answers to this question. If you ask any yoga student, “Why are you practicing yoga?” each person will give a different answer. One will say, “I want freedom.” Another will say, “I want to become a teacher of yoga.” A third will say, “I want to regulate my breathing.” A fourth will say, “I want to increase my height.” These are the answers. Or rarely, without actually knowing what they are speaking, one may say, “I want to attain God, whatever God is.” Even this good answer that you want God is not a clear answer. It is a child’s answer about something which you cannot understand. The intention behind your practice should be very, very clear. Each one of you is your own master in this respect, and do not make mistakes by having wrong motives or intentions. That is the implication of the word ‘karta’ in this verse of the Bhagavadgita. Adhisthana is the psychophysical condition; karta is the intention of the person inside—the ego, as it is called.
Karanam ca prthag-vidham. The third factor is the facilities that you have to do this practice. Have you adequate facilities? Have you a room to stay in, or are you in the wind outside? Have you some means of eating a single meal in a day, or are you starving? Or, is there any other opposition from anywhere? Is there any kind of hindrance, whatever it be, from inside or outside? All the facilities necessary for this practice should also be there. These are the karanas, or the instruments of action. These instruments are not necessarily physical instruments; they are conditions that are to be considered as conducive. So, adhisthana, karta and karana are the three factors mentioned.
Vividhas ca prthak cesta. The fourth factor is the possibility of your being engaged in various types of activity, while your intention is to be engaged in only one. Vividha cesta is the practice of circumstances which also are possible in your case, though your intention is to wean yourself from all these possible extraneous actions and concern yourself with only one type of action. That is, if you have the facility to do something, you may do it, though that is not your intention. For instance, even if you have no intention to commit theft and are not thinking about it, but are placed under certain circumstances where to commit that action is most easy and nothing will happen if you do it, then the possibility of stealing may manifest into action.
Actually, there should not even be the possibility. Even if gold is heaped in front of you, the idea of owning it should not arise in your mind. Even the idea should not arise. You should not have doubts in the mind. “If I get it, it’s all right, though I was told that it should not be done.” You have a dubious attitude at that time. You want it, but some other pressure from inside says that you are not supposed to do that. This is a conflict in the mind, a psychological conflict. These are the possibilities of action, from which you have to sever yourself gradually, and engage yourself only in one kind of action.
Now comes the last thing, the last straw on the camel’s back, as it is said. Daivam caivatra pancamam: The will of the cosmos will decide your fate. “Oh, this is something very terrible. You have already said something which is like a thunderbolt on the head, after all this which was so nice to hear, that finally it looks that it is not in our hands.” You do not know what the judge will say in the court, all your arguments notwithstanding. Finally, it is the whim and fancy of the judge. One sentence is sufficient, and the case is lost. Is it so? Is the Gita frightening you by saying that finally the will of the Universal is the ultimate factor and if that will is not operating, nothing will work? Are you dependent on that will? Are you totally subservient to something outside you so that you are at the mercy of something? Then what is the good of any effort? Everything that has been told seems to be useless if, finally, you are helpless in the hands of a power that is beyond you and totally external to you. But this is not the case.
You were not told that you are helpless and you are at the mercy of somebody else. The difficulty arises because you have somehow slipped into the wrong notion that the Universal Will is outside you. This has been the point that we have been hammering again and again: the object of perception, even if it is God Himself, is not external to you. So the Universal Will, which is the final conditioning factor of all your victory and success in yoga, is not a frightening externality. It is not an outside judge sitting in a court, apart from you. It is a judiciary operating in your own heart. Because the will of the cosmos operates within you also, your will is not working in a fashion totally dissonant with the will of the cosmos.
These few words are only a description of the preparation that one has to make for this great adventurous march of the soul to what you consider as the unknown—the unknown being your own higher Self. You are going to pursue your own higher Self. These things about which you have heard up to this time—such as the adhidaiva which is the intermediary consciousness between adhibhuta and adhyatma, the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether, the tanmatras, and even space-time—are not outside you.
Excerpts from
Factors That Cause The Effect - ** **Consciousness Alone Is – A Text Book of Yoga** **by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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