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Arjuna’s Delusion
Spiritual Message for the Day – Arjuna’s Delusion by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 14 May 2015 17.17 EST | New York Edition** |
Arjuna’s Delusion
Divine Life Society Publication: The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda
Arjuna took all these mental conditions, these strong emotions and sentiments to be real, to have some reality, sat. And he thought himself to be the experiencer of all these terrible ups and downs that were taking place inside the antahkarana. He identified himself with them. He thought: “This is happening to me,” because at that time he was in a state of ignorance of his own true nature. He had no jnana of his svarupa which is nitya and nirupadhika (eternal and without attributes), which has no body, no mind, no intellect, no ahamkara (ego), no memory, no senses. It is beyond the body, the senses, the pranas and the four-fold interior instrument consisting of the mind, intellect, ego and memory.
Arjuna did not know it. Therefore, he thought that these passing phenomena were real, whereas in fact they had no reality. They were the product of maya; they were simply illusory things. Reality was his Self. But his entire interior was clouded, so he took the passing, the evanescent, the unreal, to be the real. All these silly sentiments and moods became for him a tangible reality. And his own reality, which is always above and beyond, the paramatma tattva, the nityasuddha, nityamukta, the eternally pure, eternally free, of the very nature of ananda, was to him a myth. He had no awareness of Reality. He took the unreal to be the real and allowed it to affect him in such a terrible way-weeping and wailing, profuse tears flowing out of his eyes, throat choked with emotion.
In an instant, the great World Teacher, Lord Krishna, recognised the situation, the source of his delusion. He thought within Himself: “I must give him the right knowledge. I must make him aware of what he is. I must bring about an eradication of this state of ignorance, of this ajnana and avidya.” And so the first sentence He speaks is: “You need to get rid of this ignorance. You are speaking wisely, but you are in a state of ignorance. You are speaking apparently very wise words, but you are doing something very foolish. You are grieving for that which should not be grieved for.”
Therefore, right at the very commencement, Lord Krishna diagnoses Arjuna’s state as being due to ignorance, to a lack of vidya, a lack of jnana, a lack of a proper perspective of what is real and what is unreal, what is sat and what is asat. Arjuna is taking the unreal for the real and allowing himself to be terribly affected by it. He has forgotten his own reality. If only he had a glimpse of it, he would never succumb to such a mood, such an abject state.
Therefore, Krishna begins by telling Arjuna what he really is. He starts by telling him: “Your delusion is because you are thinking that these beings in front of you are perishable, that they can be killed, they can die, that you will destroy them and create anartha, great chaos. Let Me tell you, never were these beings ever not. Neither you, nor I, nor these beings were ever non-existent at any period of time. We have always been. And never shall we be non-existent at any time in the future.
“We shall always continue to be, because we are eternal; we are beginningless and endless, eternal and imperishable. That is what we are, you and Me and all these beings. So give up this deluded notion that anyone is being killed or that anyone is killing. Who can kill whom? It is ignorance. Those who do not know the reality of things, the truth about being, existence, they alone think someone is killing and someone is being killed.
“All these beings are eternal sparks of Divinity. Bodies come and go. Just as a person casting aside worn-out garments takes on new ones, even so the dweller within the body casts aside a worn-out body and takes on a new one. What reason is there to grieve? It is a transition. We close our eyes in death for a little while and then wake up into a new life. So why upset yourself in this manner?”
Thus, in ever so many ways, He brings home to Arjuna the central truth of Vedanta-the immortality of the inner Spirit, the imperishable nature of the atma tattva. It is avinasi (indestructible). Nothing can happen to It. It can never be put out of existence.
Arjuna asks many questions. All the questions are answered and his doubts are cleared. Again and again the necessity of being firmly established in this knowledge, if one really wants to succeed in life, is brought home. Otherwise one will be at the mercy of every little passing experience that afflicts one. Experiences descend like waves battering someone who is trying to swim across a storm-tossed ocean. This is inevitable. This is the world of dvandvas (the pairs of opposites) and ever-varying experiences. The pairs of opposites are always there. If there is day, there is night also. If there is joy, there is also sorrow. If there is pleasure, there is also pain. If there is success, there is also failure. It is inevitable. Face them boldly. They cannot touch you or afflict you. You are the ever-stable, never-changing atma tattva.
One who has thus realised, who has become established in this inner state, him nothing can touch. Not all the afflictions in the world can touch that being. Be in that state, ever serene, ever untouched, ever calm, ever stable!
Only such a being, who has become firmly established in the truth of his eternal, imperishable nature, only such a being is a truly successful person in life. He has already attained victory over life. Life cannot devastate that person. Life cannot shake up, agitate, confuse or delude him. Life can come and go; he will remain ever stable, like a rock, knowing that all things are passing except the Self within.
Everything here is perishable, evanescent, transitory, subject to decay and dissolution. The being who has seen this realises the pettiness of all desire, the uselessness of all things, the foolishness of running after pieces of glass when a priceless diamond is his birthright. Those who do not realise this take the unreal for the real. And mystics have very strong words to say about them: “A great wonder it is in this world of men, that discarding the life-giving nectar of immortality, the very ambrosia, they are running after poison which brings about death. They throw away a priceless jewel for the sake of a piece of glass. Wonder of wonders!”
When this folly of running after these petty, perishable things dawns upon a person of deep reflection, then that person clearly sees that his foolishness is no good. He feels: “This does not become me who am an amsa (part) of Isvara, Who is the very form of absolute knowledge, wisdom consciousness, jnana svarupa isvara.”
When we are the essence of, part and parcel of that Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, how dare we manifest ignorance in our life? How shameful, how ignoble, how pitiable it is! Whatever mistakes and follies that we might have, in ignorance, committed are past and gone. We should once and for all forget them. We should now firmly resolve not to commit them in the future. We should endeavour to be always alert, awake and vigilant at every step, at every moment, at all times and in all circumstances. We should endeavour to keep ourselves armed with discrimination and sublime thoughts.
Excerpts from: Arjuna’s Delusion - The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda
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Man’s Extremity Is God’s Opportunity
Spiritual Message for the Day – Man’s Extremity Is God’s Opportunity by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 13 May 2015 16.06 EST | New York Edition** |
Man’s Extremity Is God’s Opportunity
Divine Life Society Publication: The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda
It is only when a person is in greatest danger that he begins to shout and call for help: “Help! Help! Help! Save me! Save me! If you do not save me, I am lost!” In that state of dire extremity, he looks for someone to come and rescue him. He calls aloud and is prepared to do anything, because he wants to save himself_“Whatever you say, I will do.” When one’s resources are completely at an end and one realises one’s absolutely helpless state, then, like a man drowning, knowing he can no longer rely upon himself or save himself, one reaches up and calls out for help from the outside.
In this way, perhaps certain heavy sorrows, extremely dire situations, catastrophes or calamities become the turning point of one’s life. From a feeling of self-sufficiency, from a basic egoistical arrogance of feeling that one is capable of doing everything in this world, one comes into a sudden realisation that here is something which one cannot face.
As long as the jivatma is in a state of, as they say “hypervitaminosis I,” an oversupply of the vitamin “I”, ahamkara (egoism), the jivatma is lost, because ahamkara is the first product of avidya or ajnana. It contains the essence of individuality. And this individuality is a state of alienation from one’s eternal oneness, one’s unity with the Divine Reality. And this state of alienation from our divine Source, our divine cosmic Origin, which deprives us completely of the awareness of our essential svarupa as amsas (parts) of the supreme paramatman, is the root cause of all the tapatrayas (sufferings or afflictions) of samsara and prapancha (worldly life).
If you wish to commence your liberation from total bondage in this net of ahamkara and mamakara (I-ness and mine-ness), attachment, selfishness and an identification with these inner principles of a separate, finite, little ego-personality, then the first thing needful is to realise and recognise the insufficiency of this little ego-principle, which up till that moment was to you the centre of your universe, the most important and precious thing in the world, the dearest thing, for which, to protect its interest, you have been prepared to fight with anyone.
When this ego-principle is recognised in its true colours, that it, as a matter of fact, constitutes your real problem, that it is the factor that holds you in thraldom, in bondage, then you realise that if you rely upon it, you will ultimately be left in the lurch. When that realisation begins to dawn and you start looking up for a higher Being, a higher Power to take you out of this predicament which has been brought about by giving over-importance to the ego, then commences your liberation.
Thus the all-knowing Lord-of all existence, anantakoti brahmanda nayaka prabhu bhagavan (God, the Lord and the Ruler of millions and billions of universes), Who is the inner prompter, sarvantaryami, in order to give the highest wisdom teachings for all mankind, brings about this conflict situation and puts Arjuna into a fix, like Hamlet, not knowing what to do.
Arjuna actually does know what he has to do; he has come fully prepared for it. But suddenly, when the attachments of the sentimental and emotional aspect of his personality begin to invade his consciousness and begin to overcome him, overwhelm him, then he finds himself in a terrible fix. Suddenly there is this clash between the clear thinking intelligence, the rational aspect of Arjuna, and the overwhelming and very powerful emotional and sentimental aspect of Arjuna. And the sentimental aspect of Arjuna is now trying to undo everything. And in this state of fix, not able to decide what to do, this normally clear thinking young prince, who had come with no doubts about what he had to do that day, cries aloud for help. They say: “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.”
Excerpts from: Man’s Extremity Is God’s Opportunity - The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda
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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Action Cannot Be Avoided
Spiritual Message for the Day – Action Cannot Be Avoided by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 12 May 2015 14.49 EST | New York Edition** |
Action Cannot Be Avoided
Divine Life Society Publication: The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda
(Lord Krishna to Arjuna) “Look here, O jivatma, no matter what you do, you cannot avoid action, because you are part of prakriti and prakriti has an excessive share of rajo guna. She will drive you to activity. You cannot escape it. Even if you think, ‘I am not doing any action,’ even if you seemingly sit quietly, thousands of processes are constantly going on within your own anatomy and physiology. Cells are dying and being eliminated and new cells are being formed. Blood is coursing through your arteries and veins. Your heart is pumping this blood and your lungs are ever supplying fresh oxygen to purify it. Every internal mechanism is actively engaged in doing its function-your liver, spleen, kidneys, bladder, stomach, all your organs. Without action you will not even be able to keep alive.
“When you think you are not acting, you are breathing. Breathing is also action. When you think you are not acting, the mind is busy thinking a hundred things, remembering a hundred things, planning and scheming a hundred things, imagining a hundred things. How can you say that you are not acting? You are acting in so many ways. You deny activity only when it comes to action that you have to engage in as part of your kartavya karma (duty). This is either foolishness or hypocrisy. Therefore, realise this fact well: As long as you are in this universe of prakriti, you cannot avoid action. It is better, therefore, to act wisely than to act foolishly.”
There is in prakriti iccha sakti, kriya sakti and jnana sakti. If jnana is kept out and only iccha (desire) is the impelling force behind your kriya (action), then you get into trouble, you make all manner of mistakes and act foolishly. It is only alter you bring in jnana and purify your iccha that your kriya becomes a liberating force.
Action, purushartha, is never undesirable. The whole of the voluminous advice and admonition given by the great Brahmarishi Vasishtha to Maryada Purushottama Bhagavan Sri Ramachandra in the great treatise Yoga Vasishtha ultimately declares the supremacy of purushartha, right action, engaged in with knowledge which gives it a proper direction.
“Therefore, O Arjuna, engage in action, but not with folly. Engage in action with wisdom-unattached, recognising all things, yet not becoming involved in delusion with them.” Thus is the message of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita for each and every individual soul engaged in working out its karma and moving towards the great goal of God-realisation upon this earth plane.
Act you must, willy-nilly. But, if you do not invoke wisdom and act wisely, you will get caught. Therefore, unfold the wisdom within and, infilled with this wisdom, engage in activity. Let wisdom purify your desires, make them all dharmic. Purified desires are not obstacles on the way to God-realisation. Let all your desires be dharmic, spiritual, divine, God-oriented desires. Thus purifying your antahkarana (inner being) by wisdom, with the fire of wisdom, engage in wisdom-filled activity. Perform all activities with wisdom, with expertise and rise above the binding force of action, being detached within, anasakta.
In this way, Arjuna is gradually made to realise that behind his apparent words of rationality and logic, there was really the weakness of silly sentiment, not any great knowledge much less wisdom. He is made to come to his senses and recognise his inadequacy. Consequently, he begins to ask questions which are more rational and sane, more appropriate and suitable. And then Krishna takes a real interest in leading him on to an increasingly higher awareness of knowledge. Until that, Krishna brushes aside all his queries. Krishna tells him: “You are ignorant, yet speaking seemingly high words of wisdom.”
After that correction, Arjuna comes to his senses, realises that his feelings have carried him away and that his thinking was neither logical nor rational. He then requests Krishna: “Please teach me. I have been deluded. I have been overcome by karpanya dosha (weakness of heart). My chitta has become completely dharmasammudha (confused about dharma). Now, please teach me.”
Thus, in the first chapter, the situation prepared the ground for the Gita jnana-upadesa. In the second chapter, Arjuna himself prepares the ground. He makes himself receptive. He now wants to listen.
Thus the way is prepared for further wisdom teaching by Lord Krishna.
Excerpts from: Action Cannot Be Avoided - The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
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Knowledge and Action
Spiritual Message for the Day – Knowledge and Action by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 11 May 2015 19.27 EST | New York Edition** |
Knowledge and Action
Divine Life Society Publication: The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda
The path of knowledge is an absolutely indispensable must. It is the absence of knowledge that is the root cause of all sorrow. It is the failure to perceive the imperishable nature of the human spirit that is the cause of all attachment, grief and delusion. Without knowledge you will make a total mess of your whole life and reduce yourself to a miserable predicament.
But then, the acquiring of this right knowledge is not incompatible with engaging in right activity. They are not mutually opposed to each other; they are not mutually exclusive of each other. On the contrary, in truth, they have to go hand in hand. Knowledge has to support and supplement action and all activity should be full of knowledge.
Knowledge-filled activity and action-oriented knowledge is the message and the sadhana of the second chapter of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. If in ignorance you engage in action, you are finished. You are heading for trouble, inviting trouble. And having theoretical knowledge, if you neglect right action, you will put a stop to your evolution. Action is God’s plan for man for moving towards perfection. Action constitutes the inner dynamics of human evolution, collective as well as individual.
There is a trite but very wise saying: “To rest is to rust.” Action is like honing something to keep it sharp, incisive. Knowledge blooms forth into experience only when it is transferred into action, when it is practised. Knowledge is meant to be practised. And, therefore, if you are not to get caught in the circle of action and reaction, then action is as necessary for knowledge as knowledge is necessary for right action. Being in the midst of activity, if you do not want to be bound by activity, knowledge is the only way. It is the key.
Therefore, Sankhya Yoga and Karma Yoga are not opposed to each other. They are mutually supportive; they are not incompatible. On the contrary, they are two facets of the one process of the progressive evolution of the human soul towards the fullest unfoldment of knowledge through knowledge-infilled activity. The Yogi who thus synthesises within himself both Sankhya Yoga and Karma Yoga is the real daksha (expert). He is the one who will succeed.
For, such a Yogi, by elevating normal secular activity into a higher dimension of the Spirit and transforming it into sublime spiritual activity, thus synthesising karma and jnana, has learned the art and science of making life itself a process of liberation. Just as the subdual of all mental vrittis while practising a technique is termed Yoga, the same Yoga becomes defined as yogah karmasu kausalam (Yoga is skill in action) when one is in the field of active day-to-day living. You act with the awareness that the three gunas are doing their dharma; whereas I, the trigunatita atma tattva (Self beyond the three gunas), am really nishkriya (actionless). “I am the silent, detached, unaffected witness of all activity. How can action bind me! But I am not a passive witness. I shine my wisdom upon all the limbs, all thoughts, and thus illumined with wisdom, they engage in action.”
Excerpts from: Knowledge and Action - The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
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The Reality Never Ceases To Be
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Reality Never Ceases To Be by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 10 May 2015 22.03 EST | New York Edition** |
The Reality Never Ceases To Be
Divine Life Society Publication: The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda
Krishna tells him (Arjuna): “This idea of yours is because of your lack of knowledge; it is because of your ignorance. You are adducing arguments like a lawyer in a court of law. You are trying to argue with Me, but yet your mind is full of confusion and ignorance. That is why you are refusing to act. You think that you are going to kill someone. Who can kill whom? Do you know? These beings whom you, with your sthula drishti, gross outer vision, characterised by unknowing and ignorance, think to be perishable beings whom you will destroy, do you know what they really are? They are immortal, imperishable, eternal. Weapons cannot injure them, fire cannot burn them, water cannot wet them, wind cannot dry them. They are unborn, eternal, beyond time. Who are you to say that you are going to kill something which is imperishable and immortal? One who says that he is killing someone or one who thinks that he is being killed, both of them are in ignorance. The Reality never ceases to be. And the unreal is never really there; it is only an appearance; it never exists. To think that you are sending something unreal out of existence is ignorance. So, first of all, clear your brain of avidya, this ajnana. Have clear perception, know properly, understand properly. Then let us see whether you talk about killing, destroying, and all that.”
Therefore, Lord Krishna, first and foremost, brings Arjuna to an awareness of his ignorance. He says: “O Arjuna, listen, this tendency of yours to run away from action is not the answer to your dilemma and your problem. You must open your eyes, have an inner understanding and see clearly. It is not a question of action and inaction. The wise thing is to know that there is a third way, which is the right and proper way, and that alone is the solution and answer to your present situation. And that way is wisdom-filled action.
“For it is ignorance that is making you feel this terrible way, and it is ignorance that is making you shy away from action. Let Me tell you one thing. Whether you want to or not, act you must. The very nature of this life on earth, the very nature of the human individual, is such that the drive to activity is inherent in that nature. And, whether you want it or not, you are part and parcel of this Cosmic Nature that has brought manifestation into being. The Cosmic Nature contains within Herself this inaccessible impulsion to action. Understand this clearly. Forcibly you will be made to engage in action.
“It is better, therefore, to prefer to act in a wisdom-filled manner and thus liberate yourself from the consequences of action, than to either engage in foolish action or foolishly try to give up all action. The choice is not just between the total giving up of action or acting with ignorance. There is a wise alternative choice, which is to act with knowledge and understanding. Such action cannot bind the individual. Such action goes beyond the operation of the law of action and the inevitable experience of the fruits of action. It is almost like engaging in action, yet being actionless. This is the great secret of action.
“Therefore, do not think that turning away from action and trying to merely become a mendicant, trying to go into a life of spiritual quest, a life of meditation and contemplation, is the only alternative, the only way out. Rather, here and now you have to elevate action to a higher dimension by bringing into it a clear knowledge of the realities of the human situation in this universe.”
Excerpts from: The Reality Never Ceases To Be - The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda
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Karma Yoga
Spiritual Message for the Day – Karma Yoga by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 9 May 2015 20.00 EST | New York Edition** |
Karma Yoga
Divine Life Society Publication: Karma Yoga by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
Karma Yoga is consecration of all actions and their fruits unto the Lord. Karma Yoga is performance of actions dwelling in union with the Divine, removing attachment and remaining balanced ever in success and failure.
Karma Yoga is selfless service unto humanity. Karma Yoga is the Yoga of action which purifies the heart and prepares the Antahkarana (the heart and the mind) for the reception of Divine Light or attainment if Knowledge of the Self. The important point is that you will have to serve humanity without any attachment or egoism.
Action of some kind or the other is unavoidable. You cannot keep quiet without doing anything. What binds you to phenomenal existence or Samsara is not the action but the idea of doership and enjoyership. Karma binds when it is done with a selfish motive, with the expectation of fruits. But when action is done without the expectation of fruits, it is liberating. If you act as an instrument in the hands of the Lord, as a participant in the cosmic activity of Nature, without expectation of fruits, that Karma will not bind you. Karma, then becomes Karma Yoga. Work unselfishly. Feel that you are only an instrument and that the Lord is working through you. Surrender the actions and their fruits to the Lord. You will be freed from the bonds of Karma and enjoy peace.
The practice of Karma Yoga prepares the aspirant for the reception of knowledge of the Self. It makes him a proper Adhikari (aspirant) for the study of Vedanta. Ignorant people jump at once to Jnana Yoga, without first having a preliminary training in Karma Yoga. That is the reason why they fail miserably to realize the Truth. Various impurities lurk in the fourfold mind (Antahkarana). The mind is filled with likes and dislikes, jealousy, etc. They only talk of Brahman. They indulge in all sorts of useless controversies, vain debates and dry, endless discussions. Their philosophy is only on their lips. In other words, they are lip-Vedantins. What is really wanted is practical Vedanta through ceaseless, selfless service. Selfless service is the only way to remove the impurities lurking in the mind.
Two things are indispensably requisite in the practice of Karma Yoga. The Karma Yogi should have non-attachment to the fruits of actions. He will have to dedicate his actions at the altar of God with the feeling of Ishvararpana. Non-attachment brings freedom from sorrow and fear. Non-attachment makes a man absolutely bold and fearless. When he dedicates his actions at the Lotus Feet of the Lord, he develops devotion to God and approaches Him nearer and nearer. He gradually feels that God works directly through his Indriyas or instruments. He feels no strain or burden in discharge of his works now. He is quite at ease. The heavy load which he felt previously on account of false notion has vanished out of sight now.
PRACTICE OF KARMA YOGA
The practice of Karma Yoga does not demand that you should possess enormous wealth. You can serve with your mind and body. If you find a poor sick man lying on the road side, give him some water or milk to drink. Cheer him up with sweet, encouraging words. Put him in a carriage and take him to the nearest hospital. If you have no money to pay for the carriage, carry the patient on your back and see that he is admitted into the hospital. If you do service like this, your heart will be purified. God is more pleased with such sort of service for the poor helpless people than with the service done by rich people with pomp and vanity.
If any one is suffering from acute pain in any part of the body, at once shampoo the affected part very quickly. Feel, when you massage, that you are shampooing the body of the Lord (Virat). Repeat your Ishta Mantra or any name of the Lord while shampooing. Pray also from the bottom of your heart: “O Lord! Remove the pain of this man. Let him rest in peace. Let him possess good health.” Feel, when you massage, that the energy from the cosmic source, Hiranyagarbha, is flowing continuously through your hands. The more you give, the more you will get. You will be in tune with the cosmic energy or the Infinite. This is the divine law.
Excerpts from: Karma Yoga – Karma Yoga by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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Jnana Yoga
Spiritual Message for the Day – Jnana Yoga by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 8 May 2015 11.14 EST | New York Edition** |
Jnana Yoga
Divine Life Society Publication: Self-Divine by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
Jnana is knowledge. To know Brahman as one’s own Self is Jnana. To say, “I am Brahman, the pure, all-pervading Consciousness, the non-enjoyer, non-doer and silent witness,” is Jnana. To behold the one Self everywhere is Jnana.
Ajnana is ignorance. To identify oneself with the illusory vehicles of body, mind, Prana and the senses is Ajnana. To say, “ I am the doer, the enjoyer, I am a Brahmin, a Brahmachari, this is mine, he is my son,” is Ajnana. Jnana alone can destroy Ajnana, even as light alone can remove darkness.
Brahman, the Supreme Self, is neither the doer of actions nor the enjoyer of the fruits of actions. The creation, preservation and destruction of the world are not due to Him. They are due to the action of Maya, the Lord’s energy manifesting itself as the world-process.
Just as space appears to be of three kinds - absolute space, space limited by a jar, and space reflected in the water of a jar, - so also there are three kinds of intelligence. They are absolute intelligence, intelligence reflected in Maya, and intelligence reflected in the Jiva (the individual soul). The notion of the doer is the function of intelligence as reflected in the intellect. This, together with the notion of Jiva, is superimposed by the ignorant on the pure and limitless Brahman, the silent witness.
The illustration of space absolute, space limited by a jar and space reflected in water of a jar, is given to convey the idea that in reality Brahman alone is. Because of Maya, however, It appears as three.
The notion that the reflection of intelligence is real, is erroneous, and is due to ignorance. Brahman is without limitation; limitation is a superimposition on Brahman.
The identity of the Supreme Self and the Jiva or reflected self is established through the statement of the Upanishad ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ - ‘That Thou Art’. When the knowledge of the identity of the two arises, then world problems and ignorance, with all their offshoots, are destroyed and all doubts disappear.
Self-realization or direct intuitive perception of the Supreme Self is necessary for attaining freedom and perfection. This Jnana Yoga or the path of Wisdom is, however, not meant for the masses whose hearts are not pure enough and whose intellects are not sharp enough to understand and practice this razor-edge path. Hence, Karma Yoga and Upasana (Bhakti) are to be practiced first, which will render the heart pure and make it fit for the reception of Knowledge.
Excerpts from: Jnana Yoga – Self-Divine by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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Jivan Mukta
Spiritual Message for the Day – Jivan Mukta by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 7 May 2015 15.40 EST | New York Edition** |
Jivan Mukta
Divine Life Society Publication: Bliss Divine by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
A Jivanmukta is a liberated sage. He is released even while living. He lives in the world, but he is not of the world. He always revels in the eternal bliss of the Supreme Self. He is Ishvara (God) Himself. He is a God on earth.
The Jivanmukta or full-blown Jnani (a person with full wisdom) is full of pure love, compassion, mercy, exquisite gentleness, and hidden power and strength. Love and lustre shine through his brilliant eyes.
The Jivanmukta has not a bit of selfish interest in him and is absolutely free from worries, difficulties, troubles, tribulations, sorrows, and anxieties under all circumstances. Even when pains and the rest attaching themselves to his body exhibit themselves on his face, his mind never writhes under them and their antithesis. He is not a slave of his moods; he is ever cheerful and peaceful. His higher excellences have been perfectly unfolded; all divine attributes are fully awakened in him. Every one of his weaknesses and limitations is burnt in toto. He shines in his own pristine glory, in his own essential nature of divine consciousness. He radiates peace and joy everywhere.
The true greatness of a realised Yogi is indescribable. His eyes are serene and steady, his actions perfect and holy, his speech sweet and short, inspiring and impressive. His gait is magnanimous, his touch purifying; his looks are merciful, gestures illuminating. He is omniscient; he has intuitive transcendental knowledge and clear insight into the very heart of all things and beings. You will experience a deep sense of peace and harmony, great elevation and inspiration, in his presence.
SIGNS OF A JIVANMUKTA
The Jivanmukta or liberated sage is absolutely free from egoism, doubt, fear, and grief. These are the four important signs that indicate that one has attained perfection.
The Jivanmukta has perfect contentment, unruffled peace of mind, deep abiding joy and bliss, possession of supersensual spiritual knowledge, and ability to clear any kind of doubt of aspirants. Doubts vanish when one remains in his company.
The Jivanmukta does not care even for the wants of the body. He is not afraid of death. He has no longing to live also. Maya or Prakriti (Mother Nature) is his obedient and sweet nurse. She attends upon him carefully. Bodily wants come by themselves. Prakriti arranges everything for him beforehand. This is her look-out.
Balanced mind, equal vision, indifference to pairs of opposites like pleasure and pain, censure and praise, heat and cold, success and failure-these are the marks of a Jivanmukta. Jivanmuktas are not frightened or astonished at any unusual occurrence in nature. They will never be disconcerted even should the sun grow cold, or the moon turn hot, or the fire begin to burn with its flame downwards, or the course of the river begin to rise upwards. The Jivanmukta is not perturbed under any condition. He is undistracted amidst distractions.
THE DOUBLE-CONSCIOUSNESS OF A JIVANMUKTA
A man who stands in water up to his neck has a twofold experience. His head is exposed to the sun. He experiences both heat and cold. Such is the experience of a Jivanmukta. He has double consciousness. He enjoys the bliss of Brahman (God). He also has the experience of this world. He is like a man who knows two languages.
Just as the pot in which asafetida or onion is kept emits a certain amount of smell even when it is cleaned several times, so also, a small trace of ignorance still remains in the mind of a Jnani even. The Jivanmukta has a consciousness of the body in the form of a Samskara (impression in the subconscious mind). That is the reason why he eats and drinks. Though the instinctive mind with low desires is destroyed, the Sattvic (pure) mind does not perish in the Jivanmukta. How will he be able to do Vyavahara or worldly dealings without an instrument, viz., the mind?
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A WORLDLY MAN AND A LIBERATED SAGE
The phenomenal universe does not vanish from the vision of the Jivanmukta. The Jivanmukta sees the world as a dream within himself. Just as the mirage appears even after the illusory nature of the water is understood, so also, the world appears for the Jivanmukta even after he has attained Self- realisation, even after he has clearly understood the illusory nature of the world. But, just as the man who has understood the nature of the mirage will not run after the mirage for drinking water, so also, the Jivanmukta will not run after sensual objects like the worldly-minded people, though the world appears to him. That is the difference between a worldly man and a liberated sage.
When he is absorbed in Brahman, the Glory of glories, the Soul of souls, the Jivanmukta will not be able to work. But, when he comes down from his full Brahmic consciousness owing to the force of Prarabdha (destiny) and Vikshepa Sakti (tossing of the mind), he will pour forth his love at the cry of a suffering soul. So radiant and compassionate is he. He is the ocean of mercy and love and peace, a Buddha or Jesus.
COSMIC VISION
The Jivanmukta beholds the one Reality or God everywhere and in all things. For him there is no distinction between a rogue and a saint, gold and stone, honour and dishonour. He actually feels that all is himself only, that snakes, scorpions, tigers, bears, and lions are as much part of himself as his own eyes, nose, ears, hands, and feet. He is one with the flower, ether, sun, ocean, mountain, and sky. He has cosmic vision and cosmic feelings.
Excerpts from: Jivan Mukta - Bliss Divine by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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Start Sadhana Now
Spiritual Message for the Day – Start Sadhana Now by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 6 May 2015 11.11 EST | New York Edition** |
Start Sadhana Now
Divine Life Society Publication: Sadhana by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
Act now. Live now. Know now. Realize now. Be happy now.
Every death is a reminder. Every bell that rings says, “The end is near”. Every day robs off from you one part of your precious life. Therefore, you should be very earnest in plunging yourself in constant Sadhana.
Never fall a victim to fruitless regret. Today is the best day. Today is the day of your new birth. Start Sadhana now. With folded palms, bid good-bye to past mistakes and faults. You have learnt your lessons. March forward now with new hope, determination, and vigilance.
Waver not. Fear not. Doubt not. Do something substantial in the path of Sadhana instead of wasting your time in idle pursuits and lethargy. You have infinite strength within you. There is a vast reservoir of power within you. Therefore, do not lose heart. Obstacles are stepping stones to success. They will develop your will. Do not allow yourself to be crushed by them. Defects remind you of perfection. Sin reminds you of virtue. Chose the positive path.
If you think, “I will take a bath when all the waves of the sea subside”, this is not possible. The waves will never subside and you will never take a bath. Even so, if you think, “I will start spiritual Sadhana or meditation when all my cares, worries and anxieties cease, when all my sons are fixed up in life, when I have ample leisure after retirement”, this is not possible. You will not be able to sit even for half an hour when you become old. You will have no strength to do any rigorous Tapas when you are in advanced senility.
You must start vigorous spiritual practices when you are young, whatever your conditions, circumstances and environments may be. Then only you will reap a rich spiritual harvest when you become old. You will enjoy the everlasting peace of the Eternal.
Excerpts from: Start Sadhana Now - Sadhana by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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The Interrelatedness of All Things
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Interrelatedness of All Things by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 5 May 2015 20.28 EST | New York Edition** |
The Interrelatedness of All Things
Divine Life Society Publication: The Study and Practice of Yoga by Swami Krishnananda
There are three stages by which the mind attains communion with its object, which is the aim of meditation. The first stage is that it thinks deeply over the object, pays entire attention to it, and does not want to think anything else. So much is the longing for communion that the mind cannot think anything else at that time. The heart fixes itself in its thought, in its will, and in its emotion, upon the object. This is a very important factor to remember. It is not merely the thought that fixes itself – it is also the will, and also the emotion. This is important because we are generally under the impression that concentration is the settling of the thought on the form of the object. But, usually, the emotions are not there and, therefore, the will is also not there. There is no need to repeat, again and again, that the subject which meditates is not the mind in its shallow conscious aspect. It is the very vitality and essence of the whole of the personality of the subject. It is the very breath of the personality that is drawn towards the object – the very prana is moving towards it. We are entirely, wholly, totally, moving towards the object.
What it is to be totally drawn towards an object is something difficult to imagine under normal conditions, because we are never totally drawn towards anything. Intense fright, intense joy and deep sleep – these are the stages or states of mind that may manage to draw the attention of the whole personality.
The achievement becomes quickened if the ardour is intensified. The word used is ‘samvega’. One’s heart should throb at the very thought of the object. We are sunk in it totally, saturated and absorbed, and nothing else remains.
We become superhuman the moment we are able to draw the attention of the total personality in respect of anything. We must have heard of the saying that Lord Krishna has sixteen kalas – which means to say, sixteen powers. These sixteen powers are nothing but the sixteen energies that are present in the individual. The implementation of a thought, or the materialisation of an idea, is nothing but the extent of the union which one feels with the object concerned; that is called the materialisation of the thought. The moment we think something, it happens – and it must happen if the mind is able to unite itself with the object wholly. But if always there is the feeling that the object is totally outside the mind, and the mind has very little interest in the object, it has also, correspondingly, very little control over the object. So, where can there be implementation? Where can there be materialisation?
The communion that we are seeking – which is samadhi, the aim of yoga – is the total merger of the subject with its ideal of meditation. There it has total control over the object, whatever that object be. For this purpose it is that the mind is directed towards the object.
‘Taila dharavatu’ is the term used. Taila dhara is the flow of the oil from one vessel to another. A continuous stream is there, and such should be the stream of the flow of thought of the subject towards the object. That is called dhyana, or meditation. There is no interruption of thought; there is no breaking of the flow of the mind. It is a continuous movement without any kind of intervention of any other thought. In the dhyana, or the meditation process, there is not even the attempt at the elimination of extraneous thought, because there is no extraneous thought – there is only one thought. There is only that which we want, and our heart has gone for it; and it has drawn, together with it, all the accessories – the thought, the will, the memory, everything.
The total absorption of the meditating consciousness on the form of the object, with such intensity as to forget its own existence, as it were, and to identify itself with the object with such force that it looks as if the object itself – not the subject – is meditating; that is called samadhi. The fixing of the attention of the mind on a particular spot or objective is concentration. At the very point of concentration when the flow of the mind becomes continuous, without any kind of interruption – that is called meditation, or dhyana.
That meditation itself becomes samadhi. How? When it becomes arthamatranirbhasam – that is, the object only shines; the subject has vanished out of sight. We do not exist there any more. We have evaporated like burnt-up camphor, as it were, and our residuum is absent. There is nothing to call our own – our existence itself has lifted itself up to the level of the object. The svarupa is the self-consciousness of the subject, the individuality or the self-sense. That has become absent. There is a vanishing of personality; that is called svarupasunyata – that is called samadhi. The term ‘samadhi’ in Sanskrit means the balancing of consciousness. Sama adhana, the equilibrated condition of consciousness, where it establishes a total harmony in content and intensity between itself and its object, is called samadhi.
In this deep absorption of consciousness, the contact of the subject with the object is not sensory. It is not at all contact in the ordinary sense. It is not one thing coming in contact with another thing. It is the commingling of one with the other – water mixing with water, milk with milk, so that one cannot know which is what; both have become one mass. This sort of experience, where there is an utter equilibration of consciousness with its object so that one does not know which is consciousness and which is the object, where they stand on equal footing in every respect – that condition is called samadhi. It is not merely the flowing of consciousness towards the object. The flowing stops.
We have lived in a world of externality to such an extent that it is difficult to teach the mind the lesson of there being such a thing as internality of perception. How long it will take for us to establish a proper communion with the object, as required in this technique of meditation, will be known only by ourselves, each for oneself, and another cannot make a judgement on this. It depends upon the absence of extraneous interest in the mind. There is no need for us to think of other things, because this particular object maintains a necessary connection with everything else, so all the other things in which we are interested also will be included. This is not to be forgotten. When this focusing of the attention of the mind is done on a particular object, we are converging the forces of the universe on that object. So, all our business also will be there, and we need not be frightened. As a matter of fact, our business will improve, our relationships with the world will become friendlier, and success will be on hand, at the tip of our fingers, in any walk of life. There need not be any fear about this matter, provided we are able to comprehend the principle that the object of our meditation is the focusing point of the whole universe.
Excerpts from: The Interrelatedness of All Things - The Study and Practice of Yoga by Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
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