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The Conflicts of Life
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Conflicts of Life by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 24 April 2015 17.57 EST | New York Edition** |
The Conflicts of Life
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 8 An Introduction to the Philosophy of Yoga
by Swami Krishnananda
The whole of life is permeated with various conflicts and irreconcilabilities varying in nature from person to person. The aim of yoga is to resolve all such conflicts and make us perfectly normal in the absolute sense of the term. Whenever there is an inward feeling of irreconcilability in a family, there is a conflict, and when it gets deepened, it can become a malady, a disease by itself.
We have a rough idea of what these conflicts are, and they are the common difficulties that we face in our day-to-day life. We cannot bear too much heat or too much cold, we cannot bear hunger and thirst, we cannot tolerate the presence of certain persons, and so on; of an unending nature are our pin-pricks. But all these diversified conflicts of life can be boiled down to four conflicts finally, in the philosophy of yoga, or, we may say, the philosophy of the Vedanta. All problems are reduced to four fundamental conflicts.
The lowest or the immediately cognisable conflict is the social one, where people cannot get on with one another for one reason or the other, i.e., the immediately visible external conflicts. We are unable to face situations created by people outside; and others, too, cannot strike a reconcilability with our own conducts and activities. There is a mutual difficulty, one hanging on the other, each one attributing its cause to the other, thus making life a scene of sorrow. Everyone is unhappy, saying that the cause is somebody else.
Now, apart from this ostensible external conflict of a social character, we have internal conflicts in our own selves. We are not aligned in the layers of our own personality. We have the physical body, we have the pranas, we have the sense-organs, we have the mind with all its various functions, we have our reasoning capacity; we have so many things in us, which we study in psychology. These facts or aspects or layers of our personality are not in harmony, so there is an internal conflict apart from the outer social conflict. There is a psychological conflict in addition to social frictions.
There is a third type of conflict which is of a more serious nature. We cannot get on with the world itself. There is something seriously wrong with the very structure of things, and nothing does attract us. We cannot see any perfection or beauty in this creation of the physical Nature. The seasons, even the five elements, appear to be very defective to us. We are not happy somehow, and we have a feeling that we are harassed by the very make-up of Nature. The elements create a torturous irreconcilability with ourselves; we are grief-stricken.
And, finally, as the last but not the least, we have a tension with God Himself. There is no harmony between us and the Ultimate Reality. The truth seems to be made of characters which do not appear to be the characters which we exhibit in our life. We are at loggerheads with God, Nature and human society.
These four conflicts can be called the social, personal, natural and spiritual irreconcilabilities. In India we have a great scripture called the Bhagavad Gita which has devoted itself entirely to the resolution of these conflicts.
While the Bhagavad Gita is openly dedicated to the resolution of these problems, every other text on yoga also is devoted to the very same subject, including the Sutras of Patanjali, the Upanishads, or the scriptures of any nation, for the matter of that.
Before we go into the details of these peculiar conflicts which are to be resolved in yoga, so that we may become universally healthy and perfect, we have to consider another aspect which we observe in our life, viz., the aims and objectives that we are pursuing – the intention behind activities, which has something to do with the joys and the sorrows that we pass through in our life. (To be continued “The Aims of Life”)
Excerpts from: The Conflicts of Life - Chapter 8 An Introduction to the Philosophy of Yoga by Swami Krishnananda
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The Transmigration of the Soul - 1
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Transmigration of the Soul - 1 by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 23 April 2015 16.55 EST | New York Edition** |
The Transmigration of the Soul (Part – 1)
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter3 A Study of the Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda
The eighteen chapters of the Bhagavadgita constitute, in a way, stages of the development of the spirit of man from levels of greater involvement through higher and higher levels of lesser involvement.
Our perception of anything in this world is an attempt to bring about a cessation of the so-called clash between the subjective and the objective sides. Our knowledge of the world, our knowledge of anything that is external or objective, is this finally futile attempt in bringing about a real harmony between ourselves and the world outside. Two things cannot be harmonised, because they are two things. When we have already assumed that there are two things, bringing them together into a state of absolute harmony or unity is not going to be a successful endeavour.
This is the reason why, in the First Chapter of the Gita, Arjuna found himself in a quandary. He had a subjective attitude and an objective attitude towards the army that was arrayed. He saw the army of his opponents, which is another way of saying that he saw an enemy in the camp. He also saw, at the same time, blood relations in the midst of the army generals, footmen, etc. You like a thing and dislike a thing at the same time. So your relationship with anything in this world is a love and hate complex. There is an organismic relation of yourself with the structure of the world; therefore, wholesale hatred is not possible. But because of your organic connection with things in the structure of the universe, wholesale love is also not possible due to the factor of alienation of the object from yourself.
This is the reason, we may say, why Arjuna found himself in a difficult situation: to do or not to do – or, as Shakespeare put it, to be or not to be, etc. Arjuna found himself in a situation comparable with Hamlet. Some people say that Hamlet represents thought without action, and Othello represents action without thought. Arjuna found himself in this peculiar situation. He was torn to pieces. He went deep enough to find no ground on which to stand. He expresses his tragic condition: “My mind is reeling, my intellect is not functioning, my hairs stand on end, my skin is burning, my prana is agitated, I am drooping completely.” This is to say, he was drooping in all the five sheaths of his personality. The five sheaths are called Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vijnanamaya and Anandamaya Koshas. The physical body is called the Annamaya Kosha, the vital body is called the Pranamaya Kosha, the mental body is called the Manomaya Kosha, the intellectual body is called the Vijnanamaya Kosha, and the causal body is called the Anandamaya Kosha. All the five sheaths of the spirit of Arjuna were about to crack. They were giving way due to the sorrow in which he found himself. “Therefore, I do not know what my duty is in this predicament.” Though he said that it is not possible to clearly see what his duty is, he had already made a decision within himself not do to anything. Though he was not in a position to decide what to do, he seems to somehow have made an attempt to decide things for himself by saying, “Down with bows and arrows!”: visṛjya saśaraṁ cāpaṁ śokasaṁvignamānasaḥ (Gita 1.47). When you cannot understand a thing, you are not supposed to make a decision on it. A confused state of mind is unfit for making decisions of any kind. He knew that he was confused, and therefore he had no right to come to any conclusion whether to do or not to do.
We are facing the world, this universe of the Mahabharata scripture. The confrontation of the subjective individual with the objective universe is the Mahabharata war. The Bhagavadgita is a spiritual gospel. It is not a historical document, a story of what happened some years back. It is an eternal message for all time, for all people, in every condition. Whatever be your mental condition at any time, you will find some verse or the other about your position.
Sri Krishna was there as Arjuna’s charioteer. This long harangue of Arjuna was received with dismay by Sri Krishna. “At this hour, when you are face to face with a difficulty, you say that there is no difficulty, and you come to the conclusion that the best thing is not to do anything. But you are a hero, and the problem has to be solved. The Mahabharata is a world problem, and when the problem raises itself before you, you are saying, ‘Inasmuch as I cannot understand the meaning of the problem, I will refuse to solve it. I will go by the idea that it does not exist at all.’ Is it all right? What do you say?” In one sentence Sri Krishna rebukes Arjuna and says, “How come this mood has overpowered you in this predicament? Very strange indeed!”
Then Arjuna again speaks, in the beginning of the Second Chapter. “Did I not explain myself properly? My love goes for my own elders on whose lap I sat, and who gave me education and taught me the art of archery. And my own brethren, kinsmen, are arrayed in front of me – the Kurus, whose blood also flows through my veins. What benefit can accrue to me by opposing my own kinsmen, my own well-wishers, my own elders?”
The answer of Sri Krishna is the Second Chapter of the Bhagavadgita, commencing from the eleventh verse.
Excerpts from: The Transmigration of the Soul 1 - Chapter3 A Study of the Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda
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Guru Bhakti
Spiritual Message for the Day – Guru Bhakti by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 22 April 2015 16.41 EST | New York Edition** |
Guru Bhakti
Divine Life Society Publication: Divine Life for Children by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
“Spiritual truths will stand revealed only unto him who has great devotion to God and has as great a devotion to his preceptor as he has to God,” declares the Upanishad. The Reality or God that is beyond the mind and senses, reason and intellect, can hardly be understood by man by reading books or indulging in intellectual gymnastics even for a hundred lives; the Reality will even then have such significance to him as the characters of the Chinese alphabets to an illiterate African aboriginal.
On the other hand a word from the master’s lips, a touch of his divine hand, a thought from his mastermind, would be enough to enlighten the aspirant’s intellect, to bestow upon him an intuitive realisation of the Reality or God, if only the aspirant had qualified himself for a spiritual communion with the preceptor. How is he to qualify himself? Says the Lord Krishna:
“Know That by prostrating yourself before, serving, and enquiring of, the Great Sages of Self-realisation. They will enlighten you.”
A shining illustration of this grand truth we have in Sri Trotaka, one of the four great disciples of Sri Sankaracharya, who was more intent upon serving the illustrious master than on studying the Scriptures; through a mere Sankalpa Sri Sankara bestowed the highest knowledge upon Trotaka who gained all knowledge of the Shastras by mere personal service of the Guru.
Therefore it is that a sincere Sadhaka firmly believes:
The Guru’s Form Itself is fit to be meditated upon; the Guru’s Feet are the object of the Sadhaka’s worship; the Guru’s words are gospel-truths; and the Guru’s Grace is the bestower of Immortality.
Excerpts from: Guru Bhakti - Divine Life for Children by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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Work is Worship
Spiritual Message for the Day – Work is Worship by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 21 April 2015 20.31 EST | New York Edition** |
Work is Worship
Divine Life Society Publication: Practice of Karma Yoga by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
Work is worship. Work is meditation. Serve all with intense love without any idea of agency and without expectation of fruits or reward. You will realise God. Service of humanity is service of God.
Work elevates when done in the right spirit without attachment or egoism. If you are a Bhakta (devotee), feel you are a Nimitta or instrument in the hands of God. If you adopt the path of Jnana, feel that you are a silent Sakshi (witness) and that Prakriti does everything. All work is sacred. There is no menial work from the highest view-point (from the view-point of the Absolute, from the view-point of Karma Yoga). Even scavengering, when done with the right mental attitude as described above, will become a Yogic activity for God-realisation.
It is selfishness that has deplorably contracted your heart. Selfishness is the bane of human life. Selfishness clouds the understanding. Selfishness is petty-mindedness. Bhoga (sensual enjoyment) increases selfishness and selfish Pravritti. It is the root cause of human sufferings. Real spiritual progress starts with selfless service.
Serve Sadhus, Sannyasins, Bhaktas, the poor and sick people with Bhava, Prem and Bhakti. The Lord is seated in the hearts of all.
Isvarah sarvabhutanam hriddese arjuna tishthati
bhramayan sarvabhutani yantraroodhani mayaya.
“The Lord dwelleth in the hearts of all beings, O Arjuna, and by His illusive power, causes all beings to revolve as though mounted on a potter’s wheel.” Gita: Chapter XVIII-61.
The spirit of service must be deeply ingrained in your very bones, cells, tissues and nerves. The reward is invaluable. Practise and feel the cosmic expansion and infinite Ananda (bliss). Tall talk and idle gossiping will not do, my dear friends. Evince intense zeal and enthusiasm for work. Be fiery in the spirit of service.
Have Nishtha with God and Chesta with hands. You will be able to do two things at a time through gradual practice. Repeat the Name of the Lord while at work. Karma Yoga is generally combined with Bhakti Yoga. A Karma Yogi offers to the Lord as an oblation (Isvara Pranidhana) whatever he does through the Karma Indriyas (organs of action).
A Karma Yogi does not expect even a return of love, appreciation, gratitude or admiration from the people whom he is serving.
In the beginning, all your Karmas may not be of the pure Nishkamya type. Some may be Sakamya (with expectation). Some may be Nishkamya. You must be very vigilant in scrutinising your motives during action. You must be ever introspective. By and by, when the heart becomes purer and purer through constant work, your actions will be perfectly disinterested and selfless.
In the mind there are three Doshas, viz., Mala (impurities like lust, wrath, greed, etc.), Vikshepa (tossing of the mind), and Avarana (veil of ignorance). Mala is removed through Nishkamya Karma Yoga; Vikshepa by means of Upasana (worship); and Avarana by means of study of Vedantic literature and Jnana. Karma Yoga gives Chitta Suddhi. It purifies the heart and prepares the mind for the dawn of knowledge (Jnana Udaya).
Only he who has reduced his wants and controlled his Indriyas can do Karma Yoga. How can a man of luxury, with his Indriyas revolting, serve others? He wants everything for himself, and wants to exploit and domineer over others. Another qualification is that he must have a balanced mind. He must be free from Raga-Dvesha (likes and dislikes) also. “An action which is ordained, done by one who is undesirous of fruit, devoid of attachment, without love or hate—that is called pure.” Gita: Chapter XVIII-23.
You must learn the secret of renunciation or the abandonment of the fruits of action. Long is the lesson, toilsome the practice. You have to combine energy in work, with indifference to the result of the work.
Kill ambition, kill desire of life, kill desire for comfort. Work as those work who are ambitious. Respect life as those do who desire it. Be happy as those who live for happiness.
The reconcilement of these opposites is the secret of renunciation. All who seek power, life of comfort, perform actions with a view to obtaining and enjoying these fruits, and they direct their activities to this end. The fruit is the motive for exertion and the longing of it inspires the effort.
Aspirants must work as energetically as the children of this world, but they must substitute a new motive; they work that the divine law may be fulfilled, that the divine purpose may be promoted, that the Will of God may be carried out in every direction. This is the new motive and it is one of the all-compelling forces; they work for God alone. Thus acting they create no Karma-bond for it is desire that binds.
Now, the attainment of renunciation is difficult and requires prolonged and patient practice. The probationer will begin by trying to be careless of the results brought to him personally by his actions; he will try to do his very best and then rid himself of all feeling as to the reaction on himself, taking equally whatever comes. If success follows, he will check the feeling of elation; if failure, he will not permit depression to master him. Persistently he will repeat his efforts, until by slow degrees he finds that he is beginning to care little for retards (or falls) while he has lost no whit of his energy and painstaking in his actions. He will not seek external activities, but will do his best with every duty that comes in his way and will begin to show the balanced state of mind which marks the crowning strength and detachment of the soul.
He will hasten the attainment of these through a cool estimation of the value of the earth’s so-called prices, and will meditate on their transitory nature, the anxiety and unrest of those whose hearts are fixed on them, and the emptiness of them when finally grasped and held, the satiety that follows close on the heels of possession. The intellectual appreciation of them will come to his help in disappointment and restrain him in success, and so aid him in giving more equilibrium. Here is a field of daily effort which will demand his energies for years.
The probationer must remember that much of his work consists in practising the precepts laid down by all earnest religionists.
Excerpts from: Work is Worship - Practice of Karma Yoga by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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Knowledge Through Intuition
Spiritual Message for the Day – Knowledge Through Intuition by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 20 April 2015 18.15 EST | New York Edition** |
Knowledge Through Intuition
Divine Life Society Publication: God Exists by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
At several places the Upanishads clearly state that intellect or discursive reason is not adequate to grasp the Supreme. “Speech, with the mind, turns away unable to reach it”. “The eye cannot perceive it, nor can speech describe it, while the mind cannot reach there. We do not know how we can reach it.” “The great Spirit transcends the reason.” “That which one cannot think with the mind, but that by which they say the mind is made to think, know that alone to be the Brahman.” “It cannot be apprehended by word or eye.” “Through argumentation, it cannot be grasped.” “Much learning, genius, or knowledge of books cannot lead us to the Atman.”
That the Brahman cannot be known through a study of the Vedas is the earlier view maintained by the Upanishads. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Janaka who has studied the Vedas and heard the Upanishads confesses that he is ignorant of what will become to him when he is dead. In the Chhandogya Upanishad, Narada who has studied the Vedas, history, science, philosophy, fine arts, politics and the art of warfare, confesses that he is only a knower of scriptures and not of the Atman, and so he was still plunged in misery. In both of these Upanishads, Svetaketu, the son of Aruni, who was well-taught by his father in all branches of learning, confesses to Pravahana Jaivali that he does not know the mysteries of death and birth; and in Chhandogya Upanishad, after a twelve year study of the Vedas, Svetaketu is still depicted as ignorant of that by knowing which all that is unheard is heard and all that is unknown is known.
The Mundaka Upanishad finally sums up this trend of thought by saying that all the four Vedas and the six Vedangas are inferior knowledge, while superior knowledge is that by which the Imperishable is known. The Brihadaranyaka, therefore, advises us not to study too many books, as that is only a cause of fatigue, but to cultivate Prajna or intuition. Having spurned scholarship, the seeker after Brahman should become like a child. This reminds us of Christ’s teaching, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Excerpts from: Knowledge Through Intuition - God Exists by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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Parable of The Gardener and The Shepherd (2)
Spiritual (Story) Message for the Day – Parable of The Gardener and The Shepherd by Sri Swami Sivananada
| **Baba Times Digest© | 19 April 2015 15.54 EST | New York Edition** |
Parable of The Gardener and The Shepherd
Divine Life Society Publication: Parables of Sivananda by Sri Swami Sivananda
A gardener was proceeding towards his master’s house one morning, with a flower-pot on his head; and in the flower-pot was a beautiful, green plant, for growing which the gardener had taken immense pains. On the way he met his friend, the shepherd, who was going to his house with a sheep slung on his shoulders. The gardener had not met the shepherd for some time. He greeted the shepherd with a big smile and the two began to talk. When the exchange of news came to an end, they went their way. The gardener wanted to take a look at the plant, before he entered the master’s house. He lowered the pot from his head. To his horror, he discovered that there was not a leaf left in it, and that it was all but a naked stem. The sheep which his friend had around his shoulders had eaten away all the leaves while he was busy talking to him. How could he enter his master’s house without the plant? He, therefore, returned to the garden, sorely disappointed.
A Sadhaka cultivates divine virtues in the garden of his heart. He has to struggle hard and exert much in order to cultivate even a single virtue. The virtue is a passport for him to enter his Master’s House, the Kingdom of God. He carries the pot of his virtues, as it were, while proceeding to the Kingdom of God. But during his journey of life here, he meets a ‘friend’, who has with him the eater of virtue, viz., vice. Contact with this friend seems to be amusing to the man of virtue. But this is costly friendship. Very soon, the virtuous man discovers that the company of the ‘friend’ has denuded him of his virtues. He has lost the passport to the kingdom of God. He has to return to this world of pain and death, sorely disappointed.
O man, beware of wrong company. Have Satsanga. You will be spiritually elevated.
Excerpts from: Parable of The Gardener and The Shepherd - Parables of Sivananda by Sri Swami Sivananda
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Parable of The Gardener and The Shepherd
Spiritual (Story) Message for the Day – Parable of The Gardener and The Shepherd by Sri Swami Sivananada
| **Baba Times Digest© | 19 April 2015 15.54 EST | New York Edition** |
Parable of The Gardener and The Shepherd
Divine Life Society Publication: Parables of Sivananda by Sri Swami Sivananda
A gardener was proceeding towards his master’s house one morning, with a flower-pot on his head; and in the flower-pot was a beautiful, green plant, for growing which the gardener had taken immense pains. On the way he met his friend, the shepherd, who was going to his house with a sheep slung on his shoulders. The gardener had not met the shepherd for some time. He greeted the shepherd with a big smile and the two began to talk. When the exchange of news came to an end, they went their way. The gardener wanted to take a look at the plant, before he entered the master’s house. He lowered the pot from his head. To his horror, he discovered that there was not a leaf left in it, and that it was all but a naked stem. The sheep which his friend had around his shoulders had eaten away all the leaves while he was busy talking to him. How could he enter his master’s house without the plant? He, therefore, returned to the garden, sorely disappointed.
A Sadhaka cultivates divine virtues in the garden of his heart. He has to struggle hard and exert much in order to cultivate even a single virtue. The virtue is a passport for him to enter his Master’s House, the Kingdom of God. He carries the pot of his virtues, as it were, while proceeding to the Kingdom of God. But during his journey of life here, he meets a ‘friend’, who has with him the eater of virtue, viz., vice. Contact with this friend seems to be amusing to the man of virtue. But this is costly friendship. Very soon, the virtuous man discovers that the company of the ‘friend’ has denuded him of his virtues. He has lost the passport to the kingdom of God. He has to return to this world of pain and death, sorely disappointed.
O man, beware of wrong company. Have Satsanga. You will be spiritually elevated.
Excerpts from: Parable of The Gardener and The Shepherd - Parables of Sivananda by Sri Swami Sivananda
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The Doctrine of The Bhagavadgita
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Doctrine of The Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 18 April 2015 21.45 EST | New York Edition** |
The Doctrine of The Bhagavadgita
Divine Life Society Publication: To Thine Own Self Be True by Swami Krishnananda
The chapters of the Bhagavad Gita may be said to indicate the progressive march of the spiritual seeker by graduated steps towards the achievement of the goal. What one sees in the beginning while looking at things with open eyes is a field of turmoil – a historical conflict and a difference between one thing and everything else.
We see the world in this manner. Everything is at sixes and sevens, everyone distrusts everyone else, everyone wishes to use and utilise everyone else, everyone is suspect about everything outside. Everyone has to guard oneself from every other person, though it is true that one cannot completely ignore the presence of this multitude of the variety of persons and things in the world. This is the picture of the field of battle.
Every moment of time we are facing such a situation. It is an inward battle, manifesting itself as an outward conflict; an irreconcilability within reveals itself as a physical irreconcilability and a practical difficulty. This is what is happening to us every day from morning to night, from moment to moment. We have to be cautious and look around in all directions, noticing what is happening, how we can adjust and adapt ourselves to the movement of conditions around, which are not uniform always, but vary from day to day and sometimes several times even in a single day. We have to face this world of irreconcilability. Why should we face it? Because we are in it. We have entered the field willy-nilly and while we are in the field, we cannot absolve ourselves from the necessity to handle the situation in a requisite manner.
This is what they call the need to perform one’s duty. Duty is what we are expected to do under a given condition; therefore, the colour and the contour and structure of duty also changes according to place, time and circumstance. What is duty in this place may not be duty in another place. What is duty at this time may not be duty at another time. What is duty under these prevailing conditions may not be duty under different conditions. Desha, kala, paristhiti (place, time and condition) decide the nature of what we are expected to do, so that we cannot have a textbook of the nature of duty anywhere in the world. We have to use our common sense, our feeling, and our understanding. Understanding is the word that will be underlined when we move forward through the chapters of the Bhagavad Gita. The word buddhi, reason, is emphasised always.
We find that this world is often too much for us. The large army of people, the entire humanity, seems to be facing us, staring at us, and telling us that we should be cautious: Beware! Sometimes we look much smaller than the world, which is larger, like the Kaurava army which is larger than the Pandava group. The world which is objective in its nature occupies a larger area in space and time than our individuality, our personality. We seem to be singly facing the world, which is like a vast ocean in front of us.
While it is emphasised that we have to face the world, we will also feel that it is not an easy affair. How will one person that I am, be able to confront the sea of humanity, this vast world of space and time? Yet we are told again and again to get up and gird up our loins for doing what is necessary. What is necessary? This requires not only a personal understanding within, but also guidance of a specific nature.
We may, in a mood of inadequate understanding of the circumstances prevailing, imagine that we can do something. There are people in the world who feel that they can conquer the whole of nature, face humanity, rule the world, become kings and emperors, dictators. Such feelings some may have, but these are only types of initial enthusiasm.
The world has not come under the control of any dictator finally. It has thrown them all out by producing historical circumstances, political conditions, and social catastrophes. In this situation, where one is not sure of whether it is possible to do anything at all in this world, one can throw down one’s arms: “I shall not take up my weapon of effort in any way when now I realise that I am not up to the mark in my relationship with this power of humanity, the world of nature. This is not for me.” So goes the defeatist attitude, which overpowers a person after a while, though there was initially a feeling that one could do many things.
Spiritual seekers, who have in the beginning felt a spurt of aspiration, begin to feel now that they can renounce the world and work vigorously for attaining God in this birth itself. This is what Arjuna felt: “Let the Kauravas know who I am.”
We can see in the discourses given by Arjuna on the Pandavas’ side, described to us in the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, prior to the commencement of the war: “What do they think they are? They do not know the power of my Gandiva. Let me twang my bow and see that their hearts quail.” All this was told in the preparatory discussions in an audience, but, when, actually, the confrontation was on hand with the magnitude of the forces in front, the assumed confidence and valour flew like mist before the sun and a totally different mood overpowered the very same person who said he will twang the bow and break the hearts of the enemies.
The field of confrontation judges us. We will know ourselves only when we are faced by the opposite party. When nobody is opposing us, we cannot know what we are. Even the power of God Himself cannot be seen unless we oppose God. There are people who opposed Vishnu, Narayana. Then only He manifested Himself as a ferocious man-lion, Narasimha, or as a Rama or Krishna.
When we are confronting the world, it shows its strength, and we also will show our strength only when we are confronted. When we are losing everything, we will put forth all our energy to save ourselves.
Excerpts from: The Doctine of The Bhagavadgita - To Thine Own Self Be True by Swami Krishnananda
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What You Say Is the Expression of What You Are
Spiritual Message for the Day – What You Say Is the Expression of What You Are by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 17 April 2015 17.57 EST | New York Edition** |
What You Say Is the Expression of What You Are
Divine Life Society Publication: Ethics of The Bhagavadgita by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
Srimad Bhagavad Gita is the Gospel of Sri Krishna. Sri Krishna is regarded as the Purna-Avatara of God. He was perfect in every respect. God is All-pervading; Sri Krishna’s life-on-earth, too, was all-comprehensive. Study Srimad Bhagavata and the Mahabharata. You will understand what a multi-faceted diamond Sri Krishna was. He was a wonderful child, divine boy, resplendent youth, dearest friend, mighty warrior, wise administrator, sweet comrade, master of diplomacy, protector of the meek, death of the wicked, preserver of Dharma, clever strategist, humble servant, obedient pupil, dutiful son, loving husband and Supreme Guru. These and countless others are but aspects of His Immanence as Krishna. Above all these, He is God Who, in His own transcendental nature, is the Lord of lords, the Father and Mother of all creation, the very Soul of all that exists. He is the Substratum of all existence. He is the Reality, immortal, eternal, infinite and absolute. He is not only immortal but Immortality Itself.
It is, therefore, in the fitness of things that the Scripture that He propounded should partake of all these great virtues that characterised His Divine Manifestation and His transcendental Nature. The Bhagavad Gita is so comprehensive that everyone can draw inspiration and guidance from it, whatever his social status may be, whatever his profession and in whatever stage of spiritual evolution he may be. For, into the Bhagavad Gita the Lord has woven a beautiful and universal pattern of ethics that would appeal and apply to all. The grand edifice of the Ethics of the Bhagavad Gita has been built on the Eternal Corner-stones of (1) Immortality of the Soul; (2) Immanence of God; (3) Impermanence of the world; (4) Immediacy of Liberation. Because these truths are universal, the Ethics of the Bhagavad Gita also have universal application.
Existing as He does as the very Immortal Principle in all beings, Lord Krishna proclaims with unimpeachable authority, the Immortality of the Soul. Being manifest here in this world as the very life and soul of all beings, He reveals the Immanence of God. Being the witness of the actions of Prakriti and the interplay of the Gunas, and in the perfect knowledge of the nature of this play of the Gunas, He declares that the objects of the world are evanescent, that all that is born must die, that all that is created must perish. Being the One who is conscious of the One Imperishable, Indivisible Truth which is never affected by the illusory play of Prakriti in which the Jiva which is essentially one with that Supreme Being dreams that he is dumb-driven and bound, the Lord asserts that Liberation is possible here and now.
The thundering revelation of the Immortality of the Soul in the Sloka: Ajo Nityas-sasvatoyam Purano Na Hanyate Hanyamane Sarire warns man not to deceive himself by trying to ignore the Law of Karma, the Law of Rebirth and the Law of Retribution. The soul within him does not die with the death of the body; and, so long as it does not liberate itself by attaining Jnana, is bound to reap the harvest of the seeds it has sown in this birth–Dhruvam Janma-Mritasya. The Jiva which imagines that it is the doer of an action is bound to it by an invisible thread called attachment. The action is a rubber ball with a long rubber band attached to it which is given to the children to play with; one end of the band is tied to the finger of the child and he throws the ball on the ground; and the ball promptly rebounds to the child’s hand. Similarly, every action performed by you with the idea that you are doing it, with a desire to attain a certain end, is bound to rebound on you sooner or later, in this birth or in another. Death itself is but going from one room to another; and so long as the band of attachment is not broken by the knife of non-attachment (Asanga Sastrena Dridhena Chhitva) and the knot of desire born of ignorance is not loosened; the ball of action is bound to come back. One who realises this will do no evil. It is ignorance of the immortality of the soul and the inevitable working of the law of action and reaction that makes the wicked man to go his evil way. The wise man dismisses the misfortunes that may befall him as the working out of the evil Karmas of a previous birth and is indifferent to them; and he is active in cultivating goodness and in doing good, convinced, in the words of Sri Krishna, “that the doer of good never comes by evil” and that in the life to come, he will not only be free from misery and misfortune, but will get greater opportunities of progressing more rapidly towards the goal, viz., Jnana. The doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul is, therefore, the most important corner-stone in the Gita-ethics.
The next is the revelation of the Immanence of God. God is not a cruel monarch or just a benevolent deity sitting on a golden throne in a far-away city depending for his knowledge of your actions on agents and spies. He is the Indweller of everyone. He is the Witness of your thoughts. People around you watch your actions and hear your words; God watches not only your actions, but the motives that prompt them; He hears not only your words but the whisper of your heart’s intentions. It is therefore that Lord Jesus, too, said: “Thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” The doctrine of the Immanence of God exposes, too, the hypocrite who pretends to worship God in a shrine, ignoring the Lord walking bare-bodied on the road with a begging-bowl in hand, who is writhing in pain, groaning under subjection and groping in the darkness of ignorance–the disguises assumed by Him to test your sincerity and to give you a chance to worship Him truly, and to attain Him here and now. Look up, and see your Lord watching you through the eyes of everyone you meet. Have you got the sincerity to recognise Him? Then you are fit to realise God and your own Immortality. He is here, near you; and in order to bring this fact graphically before you, Sri Krishna describes Himself as the several manifestations set forth in the Vibhuti Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita.
The third–the doctrine of the impermanence of the world–is a stern warning against your setting too much store by the things of this world. The greatest treasure you acquire is but straw! The least that you do to the Lord immanent in all around you is the key to inexhaustible treasure. The things that you acquire are of this world which will pass away; but by the service you render to God immanent here, you are watering the plant of Immortality. Remember; the things that you possess, and the whole world; not only this world which is but a mere speck of dust in this universe, but the universe itself; not only this but countless universes that constitute creation–are but objects of a passing dream of the Supreme Being. Grabbing them is like catching hold of a cobra mistaking it for a rope to tie round the waist as belt. Great is the misery of one who takes the world as reality and runs after the pleasures of the world. Supreme Bliss is the prize that awaits one who, understanding the evanescence of the world, applies himself to Namasmarana, Japa, Kirtan, selfless service, renunciation and meditation, in short, to the life divine.
To such a one liberation is promised here and now. One, who, through knowledge of the Immortality of the Soul, the Immanence of God and the impermanence of the world, casts off attachment to the world and the actions of Prakriti, attains Liberation here and now–Ihaiva Tairjitassargo Yesham Samye Sthitam Manah, Nirdosham Hi Samam Brahma Tasmat Brahmani Te Sthitah. Not only that; the true devotee of the Lord attains Him quite easily: Tasyaham Sulabhah Partha Nityayuktasya Yoginah. This doctrine of the Immediacy of Liberation, this doctrine of hope, is the great incentive to the diligent student of the Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita and is, therefore, the fourth important corner-stone of the Ethics of the Bhagavad Gita.
May the blessings of Lord Sri Krishna be upon you all! May you all attain Liberation from bondage here and now!
Excerpts from: What You Say Is the Expression of What You Are - Ethics of The Bhagavadgita by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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Yogic Life – In and Through The World
Spiritual Message for the Day – Yogic Life – In and Through The World by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 16 April 2015 15.29 EST | New York Edition** |
Yogic Life – In and Through The World
Divine Life Society Publication: Daily Swadhyaya by Sri Swami Chidananda
Om! Om! Om!
We take up now the vital subject of how being in the midst of worldly activities, one may yet fulfil the supreme spiritual purpose of life on earth. While it is true that both the secular life and the spiritual life are a part of you, the spheres of the two are different, in the sense that the secular life has its sphere outside of yourself, and the spiritual life has its sphere within yourself. But then, your spiritual life does have some expression outwardly also, and wherever you are your spiritual life has to be there.
This interior life cannot be created by bringing about visible external changes in yourself or your circumstances. You cannot be a better spiritual man if you are living at the top of a mountain than if you are living at the foot of it. Mere change of the external form cannot really and truly affect your spiritual life; for it is the life of the soul, and wherever you are, the inner self can be looking towards God. It is what you are within yourself that determines whether you are living a spiritual life or a worldly life, and not the place you are in. That gives the secret of living a yogic life in and through the world.
Everything can become yogic if you spiritualise your life. The method of spiritualising life has been expounded in the most sacred scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. Yoga is the union with the Divine. And if you are living your life in constant inner union with the Divine through a link of great devotion and love for the Supreme, then whatever you may do, wherever you may be, and in whatever manner you may be living, you are living a life of Yoga. For you are living with God, and you are at one with God in your inner life.
Such a life of at-oneness with God, such a life of conscious effort to be for ever united with Him in love and devotion, and with an awareness that the whole of this life is meant for totally consummating of perfecting such union is Divine Life. It is a life of Yoga. If you are consciously trying all the time to reach out towards Him in spirit, to draw nearer and nearer to Him day by day, then you are living a life of Yoga, no matter what shape your external life might take. This spirit is the most important and essential factor, which makes the life spiritual. This enables us to be united with God in the interior of our being. Neither thief, nor even nuclear bombs can take away the spiritual wealth gained from living such a yogic life.
Excerpts from: Yogic Life – In and Through The World - Daily Swadhyaya by Sri Swami Chidananda
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