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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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Before You Move Forward
Spiritual Message for the Day – Before You Move Forward by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 12 December 2015 21**.41 EST | New York Edition** |
Before You Move Forward
Divine Life Society Publication: Consciousness Alone Is – A Text Book of Yoga by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Before you move forward, it is necessary for you to see that your feet have been planted firmly on the ground and all things are clear to you. The advance along the line of yoga is something like a military operation. You are conscious that there is an encounter. This is the first step. As is the case with the awareness of an army general, so is the case with the yoga student. The yoga student is aware that there is going to be an encounter. What kind of encounter? Whom are you going to encounter?
From the military point of view, it is an encounter with a neighbouring country or some other country. In the case of a yoga student, it is an encounter with people outside and the world in front of you, because they have been always too much for you. You suspect the world, and suspect everybody in the world, as every country suspects every other country, basically—though the suspicion will not be manifest openly in behaviour. You do not go on declaring that you suspect everybody, but you do suspect. You are always cautious even about nature itself.
After this awareness of there being something to be faced, an assessment of the situation takes place. What kind of strength does the other party have? It takes a lot of time to understand this. Who is it that is facing you? After a lot of investigation with the application of varieties of methods, you come to a conclusion about the strength of the other party. Then comes an assessment of your own self. What is your strength? To what extent are you in a position to face this encounter? If your strength is not equal to the strength of the other side, you will not suddenly go for an onslaught. There will be peace negotiations, give-and-take policies, and for some reason or the other, the question will be dragged on for an adequate length of time.
This also happens to the yoga student. You have some idea of the world, and of people around, and about your own self; but it is not a complete knowledge. There is a fear, together with a longing. There is a longing to face the encounter, but a fear that it should not be done hastily. The world is so large and people are so many that you have to take all these factors into consideration before you take any step.
Well, you know to some extent what is the strength of the world and what is the strength of people. But you may not be fully aware of your strength because mostly you look like a fraction of this vast sea of power that is around you, and you may not be prepared to risk your life and your career in facing this world which is so large, and people who are so many. But sometimes you will gird up your loins and put on courage, saying, “I have a strength within myself which may not be the physical strength of an elephant, but it is a strength born of my thought and feeling.” Atma-shakti is the power of soul. “God will bless me.” This is what the seeker thinks, even in the beginning itself. “God will bless me” is a way of thinking that one’s own effort and energy may not be sufficient, and that some other support is necessary.
Even the powerful Pandava forces were not confident of winning victory. They had the assistance of the gods in heaven, but even then they required some collaboration from a friend and well-wisher, who was Bhagavan Sri Krishna. That is why we go on saying, “God bless! God’s grace of course is there. God will not let me down.” The Pandavas knew that Sri Krishna would not let them down. “In the hour of difficulty, He is always there to lend us succour.”
So the seeker feels, “After all, even if my efforts may not be sufficient and adequate, God is there to see that I am honest in my aspirations, and He will bless me, certainly.” You have a hope that He will bless. Afterwards, the war encounter actually begins. But what do you do? Do you know what a war means? It is not a foolhardy jumping on something. It is a tremendous arrangement of factors which moves forward, backwards, sidewards, and so on—sometimes visible, sometimes not visible. Sometimes the manoeuvres are clear, even to the other side. Sometimes it looks like you are doing nothing, you are only keeping quiet; but actually you are not keeping quiet. The Pandavas kept quiet for a very long time, but that was not actually a keeping quiet; it was a preparation for an onslaught. So even if the force of a military strength appears to be keeping quiet, it is always on guard and is ready to take the necessary step.
Likewise, as with many other similarities of this kind, there is a yoga type of military operation before the whole world that is in front you. It is very important to realise in the beginning itself that you have the required facilities, appurtenances, equipments, to face the difficulties in yoga. The equipments are your inner strength of conviction first of all, and a feeling that inasmuch as you are on the right path, success is bound to come. Many a time success does not follow, even after years of effort. But the Bhagavadgita is behind you as your philosopher and guide, and it tells you that you should never look to the end result of your effort even if it be in the form of an expectation of success, because when you have done your duty, the consequences will automatically follow. You need not have to bother about whether they will come today or tomorrow. Many are the circumstances which go to contribute to the appearance of what is called victory or success. (To be continued – The Factors That Cause the Effect)
Excerpts from
Before You Move Forward - Consciousness Alone Is – A Text Book of Yoga by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Parable of the Husband and the Wife
Spiritual (Story) Message for the Day – Parable of the Husband and the Wife by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji
| **Baba Times Digest© | 11 December 2015 21**.08 EST | New York Edition** |
Parable of the Husband and the Wife
Divine Life Society Publication: Parables of Sivananda by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji
There once happily lived a poor couple in a little village. Whenever the wife brooded over their poverty and pressed the husband to procure enough things to lead a decent life in uniformity with the rest of the villagers, the husband used to reply that the Lord loved them most and that is why He had kept them in that poor state. Through blandishment, coquetry and crocodile tears, the wife reduced the husband to a mere slave in the long run. One day she sent him to a generous friend of his, commanding him to offer a handful of water to his friend as a present. Without any alternative, the husband did the same. His generous friend, knowing fully well the devotee’s poverty, amply rewarded the hands that offered a little water with love and devotion. But the poor man lost his devotional aspect and began to think, “If a little water can fetch me a handful of wealth, what I would have received, had I only offered a pot-full of water.”
Sivananda Says:
Look into this Parable.
Thy Buddhi is like the husband, and thy physical being is like the wife. They are destined to live together happily like Man and Woman.
It is the duty of the wife to procure the little domestic needs. Her world is confined only to that. It is the duty of the husband to guide her and lead her properly. But, when the wife displays her crocodile tears, the husband loses his brain and trying to comfort her, willingly obeys her forgetting his own duty and integrity.
Thy physical being, too, craves for its little comforts. Your Viveka tries to convince it that they are useless. But, when it pleads and weeps before you, you allow it a little freedom and choice. Instead of trying to check it, you pacify it. In doing so, you yourself fall a victim to its snares.
O Man, wake up. Do not allow your Viveka to become a slave to your love for flesh, for your body. Mercilessly turn down the demands of your body for little comforts. If once you allow it the use of little comforts and you also taste them, it is very difficult for you to assert the superiority of your Viveka over your lower nature.
You cannot divorce your body. Viveka and Vichara are possible only in the human body.
The wife is not merely a mistress to the husband for giving carnal pleasures. She is not a mere creature, but the glory of God’s creation that should help you to know Him.
Utilise this body to know and realise God without becoming a slave to it. Otherwise, you are lost. Read the story of ‘The Husband and Wife’ once again.
Parable of the Husband and the Wife - Parables of Sivananda by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji
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The Deepest Self in Man
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Deepest Self in Man by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 10 December 2015 18**.27 EST | New York Edition** |
The Deepest Self in Man
Divine Life Society Publication: Light on the Internal Self – The Philosophy of Panchadasi by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The body is illumined by a twofold consciousness in the same manner as a wall, for example, can be illumined by two types of light. Just as a wall can be lighted up directly by the sun as well as by the reflection of the sun through a mirror, and we can observe the natural sunlight on the wall existing in the middle of the different patches of reflected light, so also we can observe the natural consciousness of the Atman between different thoughts and feelings, in the short span of time when one thought subsides and another thought has not yet arisen.
Generally speaking, the human mind gets attached to certain objects, and its perception is always coloured by the nature of the object to such an extent that there is no time left for the mind to contemplate the Consciousness as it is in itself, unconnected with the objects. It is possible by careful and thorough investigation and psychological processes to differentiate between the factors that belong to the object and those that belong to Pure Consciousness. In the waking, the dreaming, as well as in the deep sleep states, it is possible to make this analysis by which we are enabled to dissect consciousness from the object.
An object is known by the mind with the assistance of Chidabhasa-chaitanya (consciousness reflected through the intellect, or the psyche), and it is by this that we know there is such a thing as an object or a form, but the Consciousness behind the ‘I’, which is at the background of even the object consciousness is Brahma-chaitanya (Absolute Consciousness), designated here as Kutastha (internal Self). The knowledge, “This is a body” is brought about by the Chidabhasa, and the knowledge, “I know the body” has its reference to Kutastha. Even the knowledge of the absence of an object is based on the Consciousness of the Kutastha, and it is this very Consciousness that enables, later on, the particular form of perception in relation to an object.
As an arrow may be sharpened with a pointed steel-head for the sake of hitting objects, the Buddhi, or the intellect, has in itself the projecting form of Consciousness of the Chidabhasa. It is when this Chidabhasa begins to act that we have object-consciousness; otherwise there is ignorance of it, the Consciousness not being particularised. Both the unknown and known conditions of an object are, thus, finally rooted in Brahman-Consciousness, as Kutastha-chaitanya. The intellect by itself cannot know an object, because it is, after all, a modification of Prakriti (cosmic matter). Just as matter cannot know matter, the intellect cannot know an object. What is known is material and what knows is Consciousness. The freedom of the Consciousness lies in its Self-realisation that it is independent and absolute and is not really tainted by the nature of any object at all. (Verses 1-9).
Excerpts from
The Deepest Self in Man - Light on the Internal Self – The Philosophy of Panchadasi 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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Communing with the Absolute
Spiritual Message for the Day – Communing with the Absolute by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 9 December 2015 19**.31 EST | New York Edition** |
Communing with the Absolute
Divine Life Society Publication: A Study of The Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
“How do we approach God?” and “How do we conceive Him?” are questions raised at the beginning of the Twelfth Chapter. These procedures that we adopt in our endeavour to contact God are called, as you know very well, Yoga. A Yoga is an art of union with Reality. God, who is the Ultimate Reality, is to be contacted by some means. The means that we adopt is the Yoga, the method of inner communion.
It is possible to regard God as an all-pervading, infinite presence. Or, we can conceive God as a Supreme Person appealing to our emotions and feelings. Which is the better way? Arjuna put a question: “Are we to concentrate our mind on our concept of the Universal Impersonality of the Absolute, or are we to occupy ourselves with the Supreme Personality of God?” The answer is very interesting: It is perfectly all right if you are in a position to commune yourself with the Infinite Presence. This is very good. But who on earth will be able to achieve this, or perform this mighty feat?
The concept of the Infinite becomes a bare abstraction without any inner content when we stand outside it as visualisers of the Infinite. The mistake that the concept of the Infinite can commit is that it stands outside the Infinite when it so conceives it. Who will conceive the Infinite, inasmuch as the Infinite includes all the finites? So the question itself becomes redundant. Are we to meditate on the Infinite Impersonality? Who are ‘we’? What kind of ‘we’ or ‘I’ is this? Who is it that is thinking in this strain? Is there anyone capable of conceiving the Infinite? The Infinite precludes the concepts of finitude of every kind – finitude of even the conceiving person, the seekers of God. As long as this body is here as a so-called hard substance clinging to our consciousness, as long as even the best of seekers of Truth cannot forget that he or she has a body, a strong isolated personality and the consciousness of ‘I’ exists. The best of people cannot overcome this consciousness of ‘I exist’. The consciousness of ‘I exist’, or the awareness of the so-called ‘me’, will not be able to achieve this feat of the communion with the Infinite.
Excerpts from
Communing with the Absolute - A Study of The Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Santosha – A Habit of Contentment and Cheerfulness
Spiritual Message for the Day – Santosha – A Habit of Contentment and Cheerfulness by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 8 December 2015 15**.11 EST | New York Edition** |
Santosha – A Habit of Contentment and Cheerfulness
Divine Life Society Publication: Path to Blessedness by Sri Swami Chidananda
Santosha means a habit of contentment and cheerfulness. This is a virtue which is very highly lauded. Contentment is a continued feast. It is said that a king was always so much full of worry, troubles and anxiety about his kingdom and his duties as a king that he said, if he could find one man who is absolutely cheerful, he would pay anything to that man and bring him. He sent some messengers to find out a really happy man. The messengers went in search of such a man. They found a shepherd who was always singing as though he was full of happiness, and he was brought to the king. He said: “I am satisfied with two loaves of bread a day. I do not want anything more”. The secret of his happiness was he was contented with what little he got. This contentment is a very great virtue. It is very difficult to understand what contentment is. Some argue that contentment would put a stop to all progress and that only when man has got greater and greater ambitions, he will be goaded to do further actions and make further progress. But what is progress? Progress in worldly matters will only bind us more and more. This world is a mere valueless husk to be rejected, and therefore, such progress is a virtue which has got no value in the eye of a seeker. For him the sense of value is different. The seeker says that in the pleasures of the world does not lie the realisation of his true nature. The grandeur of Self-realisation cannot be found in all the pleasures of the world put together. The answer given by Nachiketas in the Kathopanishad gives us the true sense of value. What is worthwhile and what is not worthwhile, we should know. “Is it permanent; is it lasting?”—that was the question that Nachiketas put. He said: “I do not want that which lasts for two days and then passes away. I want that which is eternal”. That is the criterion which the seeker takes and when he does so, all the pleasures of the world fail. Everything is perishable. He said: “Reject the whole thing; let it go to hell. I do not want it.” This is the seeker’s attitude. Whatever God has given you be absolutely contented with that. “Why God has given me this kind of nose?” Never entertain such thoughts. Take a keen joy in having what you have.
You always brood over what you have not got and what other persons have got. It is the greatest trick of the mind to keep you in sorrow. A territory chieftain thinks that he should become a king. A king wants to become an emperor and an emperor wants to conquer the whole world. The beggarliness of the mind can never be satisfied. The world ruler thinks that he must become the lord of the heaven, and if he becomes the lord of the heaven, Indra, then he will think something else. So, from the highest Brahma, who is the lord of creation, there is only dissatisfaction. But a man who is wearing rags, if he is contented, is happy. So be contented in whatever position He has placed you. Whatever be your abilities, whatever be your talents, whatever wealth you have got, whatever daily needs you get, be contented with them. Then you have got the key to all happiness and peace.
One more important thing. When you get contentment all rivalry goes away. Otherwise you will think: “That man has got that, I have not got that”. This jealousy is there. But when contentment is there, you are happy. The spirit of rivalry disappears. Out of rivalry comes jealousy, envy, competition, hostility. If you cannot get what another has got, you at least try to deprive him of what he has got and bring him to your own level. Human jealousy is such that if you cannot rise to another man’s level, you want to pull him down to your level. You make some bad reports about him. So all these things come due to absence of contentment. Contentment gives a wonderful purifying effect to the mind. Mind is rid of hostility and pettiness and this action which contentment has upon the mind tends to purify the mind. Have serenity which is the essential prerequisite for contentment.
This contentment should not be applied in your Sadhana. There you must have infinite discontent. You should not be content with your devotion, or with your love for the Lord, your development of mercy, etc. You should feel: “I am still imperfect. Where is my devotion?” You should always compare yourself with the great souls who have gone through the agony of separation from the Lord, like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Ramalingaswamy and others. Their agony made it impossible for the Lord to deny them His Darsan. So in the spiritual field, you should have discontent for your attainments.
Santosha – A Habit of Contentment and Cheerfulness - Path to Blessedness by Sri Swami Chidananda
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The First Step in The Practice of Yoga
Spiritual Message for the Day – The First Step in The Practice of Yoga by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 7 December 2015 13**.48 EST | New York Edition** |
The First Step in The Practice of Yoga
Divine Life Society Publication: In The Light Of Wisdom by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The practical side of yoga is founded on moral and personal discipline. As a matter of fact, this process of purification and training is as important as anything that follows. On analysis it was discovered that the process of preparation—the setting in tune of the equipment—is the essential prerequisite of the practice. The practice of yoga is impossible for unpurified instruments. It is not that anyone can practise yoga, because the practice is not undertaken by a person or a personality in general, but by a condition of mind. It is our mind that practises yoga more than anything else, and that mind should be prepared for the necessary transformations that yoga requires. It was thought that in the process of alchemy that iron could be converted into gold, but wood could not be converted into gold. In the same way, it is not so that all minds in whatever condition are to be regarded as capable of this practice.
It is said that there are three kinds of disciples: the gunpowder type, the wood type and the plantain stem type. We know what gunpowder is. To set fire to it takes very little time. In a second after the match is lit the gunpowder catches fire. Wood takes a little more time to catch fire. We may have to blow hard on the wood to catch the flame gradually. Sometimes we have to pour kerosene on it, and so on. A little effort is needed to make the wood catch fire, while gunpowder requires no such effort. But the plantain stem will never catch fire—however much we may roast it, it will remain cool.
These three comparisons are supposed to be exemplary of the three types of yoga students—the first class, the second class and the third class. The first class is the one who immediately catches the point of teaching. At once, like fire that ignites gunpowder, the mind that is purified receives the instruction. Not only does it understand what is said, but it also catches the spirit behind the teaching. The students who are of the wood type require hard blowing, being told again and again many a time—sometimes for years. But then there is the plantain stem type which will not understand anything. They may be taught throughout their lives, but nothing will enter the brain. These three kinds of students mentioned in the analogy as gunpowder, wood and plantain stem are the sattvic, rajasic and tamasic types of disciples. Even among many students of the same class we find a distinction.
It is more difficult to catch the import of the teaching of yoga than its outer implications. It is more difficult to catch the spirit of yoga than the meanings of the arts and sciences that are studied in colleges and universities. We know the difficulty about yoga—it does not merely give us information, as is the case in history, geography, physics, chemistry or biology. Yoga does not give us information about things, and this is the difficulty with it. Yoga is not a study about something; it is a study of something. A study of something is the study of a thing directly and not merely gather facts connected with it.
All our studies, generally speaking, are facts related to a thing, so it is indirect knowledge that we gather in colleges. This is information, facts and related circumstances rather than the very substance of the object concerned. In this system we become no wiser after our education, and life remains as complicated as before. Conversely, the spirit of yoga infuses itself into the mind of the student from the very beginning. We have to be, at least in one sense, a yogin from the very outset. We do not become a yogin merely at the end. Even at the first step we are a yogin in one degree of its understanding and practice, because whatever be the step that we have taken in the practice of yoga, whatever be the stage—even if it be the most initial of stages—we will realise that the whole of us has gone into it.
This is the speciality about the learning of yoga, as distinguished from other types of learning or branches of knowledge. The whole of us is in it. It is not just understanding or feeling that merely react in the study of yoga—it is us as a complete personality. This is something very difficult to understand. We have not been initiated into these ways of thinking, and we do not know what it actually means. What do we mean by the whole of personality? We have never been taught this. We have always been taught to understand, to act, to do, or to feel and react. But for the whole of our personality to keep in unison with everything in the world is something untaught and un-understood by us.
Excerpts from
The First Step In The Practice of Yoga - In The Light Of Wisdom by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Avatara: The Grace of God on Man
Spiritual Message for the Day – Avatara: The Grace of God on Man by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 6 December 2015 19**.13 EST | New York Edition** |
Avatara: The Grace of God on Man
Divine Life Society Publication: Avatara: The Grace of God on Man by Sri Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on March 30, 1966 on the occasion of Sri Rama Navami)
The essence of religion is adoration of God. Religion, to be permanent, to be Sanatana, should cater to the needs of all creation, and to the extent it excludes, it is subject to destruction. Sanatana Dharma is eternal religion. It belongs to creation as a whole. It is capable of adjusting itself to the vicissitudes of time.
An idea or concept cannot be eternal unless it is capable of enduring. But everything here is perishable. The body perishes. The world is subject to change and destruction. The world is anitya and asukha. How then can we have something which is eternal in this anitya world? Man is not eternal. Even the greatest saviours have gone. Even Avataras like Rama and Krishna have cast off their physical bodies. Yet, there is something enduring in the midst of all unenduring things. The Upanishads refer to it as the eternal among those which are not permanent. Even though everything is unenduring, we say eternal dharma, Sanatana Dharma, notwithstanding the fact that none have seen it.
Bharatavarsha is identified with eternal religion. Sanatana Dharma is capable of adapting itself to changing times. Some opine that the caste system is one of the reasons for this. Others hold that it is capable of absorbing into itself, and so it is eternal. But, what is the substance of our religion that is the cause of its Santana? As I told you in the beginning, it is in the adoration of God, which is the quintessence of religion.
Now, the concept of God differs in every religion and, accordingly, the relation between man and God also differs. The perpetual relation is the relation of the essential nature of the human being, and not the outer relation. That which is eternal in us establishes a relation with that which is eternal in the cosmos so that the relationship will be eternal. There cannot be relation between the eternal and the non-eternal. Thus, this eternal relation is the summoning of the inner with the outer. It is the cry of the soul for God. As God is eternal, religion must be eternal, as it is the way for the establishment of a relation between man and God, between Nara and Narayana, between Arjuna and Sri Krishna.
How can we establish relation with God? We have not seen God. He is unknown, unthinkable. Hence, relation would fade away if one of its ends was not clear to the mind of man. This is one of the reasons why religions shake. Therefore, viveka, or clear understanding, is necessary. It is one of the qualifications of an aspirant. He must have an unshakable conviction and conception of God. It must a perception, a clear vision.
Hence, our seers have emphasised that a person who is to be initiated into the Sanatana Dharma should pass through the Gurukula. It is not like present day education. After coming out of the college, he does not know what to do. He has not been taught to live. He is filled with all unwanted information, not useful for living. But in the Gurukula, the inner man is trained, and faith is given the greatest importance. The human intellect cannot function except in terms of duality, such as ‘I and you are different’, ‘The world is outside me, and I have a function to perform for my satisfaction in the world which is outside me’, etc.
Religion is not rooted in the reason of man, but in faith based on intellect. It is a symbol of inner culture. This inner training imparted in ancient times was of a permanent nature, and was to help the student throughout his life. Today there is a large gap between education and life. There is nothing which touches the soul of man. The Gurukula during the Brahmacharaya ashrama was a process of initiation of the soul into true living in the consciousness of a higher life. The students were told to always live for something higher, as the present life is not complete. It was taught that life is a process for higher living, a journey to reach a destination.
Religion, therefore, takes that higher into consideration. At every step in the journey, an inner connection is established between the soul and God. Religion is what we do when we are alone, and not what we worship in temples, etc. It is the unfoldment of our consciousness.
Sanatana Dharma has the capacity to include everything in itself because of its universality. It sees God everywhere. The idea of Avatara makes this concept easy of understanding. The concept of Avatara is peculiar to our religion, though it is in some other religions also. Avatara means coming down. It is the descent of God into the world. How can God descend when He is universal? Then, what is Avatara? It is not so much like a person coming down the steps; it is grander and more profound. Avataras, as generally understood, are possible only when there is a collective cry of humanity for redeeming humanity from some calamity. Then such Avataras, as the Ten Avataras, come. We also have lesser Avataras, like Sankara, etc, called Amsavataras.
It is one of the fundamentals of religious worship that God is immanent, God is in the world. He sees us, hears us. Hence, religion becomes a matter of the heart, of love, adoration and feeling. That God is all-pervading, omnipresent, just here, not apart from us even by a few inches, is the soul or essence of religion. Mere speculation is not religion. Philosophy put into practice is religion.
Religion is, therefore, divine living – divine life. It is not your religion or my religion. It is religion of humanity because it is the relation of man and God – not Hindu with God or Christian with God, but man with God. Religion, therefore, essentially cannot be many. Yet, universal religion is not possible, because each one’s way is different. The approach is different because of the difference in the temperaments and capacities. So, we have tolerance. Universal religion should therefore mean following one’s religion with tolerance towards all other religions.
It is impossible to think of God as He is. To think of God as He is, we have to cease to be. Hence, the idea of Avatara is given – as He is to man, as He is manifest. Avatara is the connecting link between the ordinary human nature and the divine. Avatara is the manifestation of God through Mula Prakrati. That is why we have to worship Avatara, though God is everywhere and can be worshipped as such.
Whether an Avatara is a descent of God to man or the man’s ascent to God is immaterial to us. Literally, Avatara means descent or manifestation, as also told in the Gita. When the need for the higher life is felt more, the Avatara becomes necessary. The farther we are from God, the greater is the need we feel for the higher life. When humanity drifts too much from Truth, the Avatara becomes very necessary.
God tolerates our mistakes to some extent. When we go too far, He comes with a rod to correct us. Just as a mother allows her child to play and go here and there, but when the child is about to fall into a pit she runs to help it, God manifests when it is necessary to correct mankind. Lord Rama had to manifest when it was impossible for people to live. The Avatara comes when evil is too much or when sattva is too much – when we are in a high state of spiritual consciousness. In both cases, he comes. Avatara is divinity manifested into prakriti to draw humanity. It is the grace of God on man. It is the descent of God for the ascent of man, as Sri Gurudev put it.
Excerpts from
Avatara: The Grace of God on Man by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Inaction in Action and Action in Inaction
Spiritual Message for the Day – Inaction in Action and Action in Inaction by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 5 December 2015 21**.44 EST | New York Edition** |
Inaction in Action and Action in Inaction
Divine Life Society Publication: The Philosophy of The Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Yoga is the establishment of harmony in all the levels of being. There is nothing superior or inferior in this world. Everything that God has created has a value in its own level, or stage. And the level in which we are now is also equally valuable, and its value bas to be recognised by us; we cannot reject it as if it is not there. Our action, our conduct, our movement, our behaviour in the particular atmosphere in which we are placed has to be one of harmony with that atmosphere. When the harmony is established between ourselves and the environment outside, our actions cease to be actions, they become movements of Cosmic Power. Action, then, becomes non-action; one can see action in non-action and non-action in action. Our intelligence has to rise to that level where we should be able to recognise inaction in action and action in inaction. When our action is set in tune with the movements of things outside, action becomes non-action. It is as if we are doing nothing, because we are moving in harmony with the whole pattern of the environment outside, with which we are connected, and of which we are a part, organically. When we are in union with the laws of the universe, our actions are not our actions. They are laws operating in themselves in an impersonal manner.
But there are other actions which appear to be non-actions while they are really actions. For instance, people are often under the impression that when they can keep quiet, doing nothing, they are in an inactive state. There is no such thing as keeping quiet. And even when we keep quiet imagining that we are doing nothing, we are doing something, because the mind is acting, and mental action is real action—that is the source of bondage as well as freedom. But, when action is performed as a yajna, or sacrifice—then, all our efforts and movements become sacrifices of the self in the knowledge of this unity of ourselves with things; such action is sacrifice, and such action is no action. This is knowledge, wherein the individual that performs the action, the end toward which it is directed, the process of the action—all these appear to be one continuous movement of a single Reality, like the dashing of the waves in the ocean, one colliding with the other, the waves and the process of their collision and that which is connecting them together, all being one mass of water, and the very force of this water. The action is dedicated to the Absolute, and we ourselves as individuals, as the source of action, are a part of that Absolute, and the process of the offering of ourselves through the medium of action is also a working of the Absolute itself—Brahman. The aim or the objective of this action is also the Absolute. It is all a movement of the universal force of God-Being within itself as every movement of the waters in the ocean can be regarded as the single movement of the root of the ocean itself. This is the yajna described in the Fourth Chapter as compatible with action in this world. Knowledge-based action is karma yoga.
It was told in the Second Chapter that knowledge is necessary and action has to be rooted in it. The imperative was declared there. And how actions are not our actions really was mentioned in the Third Chapter. Now, how this action can really be rooted in knowledge, how this performance has to become a practical day-to-day affair in our life, is explained in the Fourth Chapter. This particular section emphasises the necessity to behold a unity between activity and knowledge.
Often we make a distinction between the two, and no one can help making this distinction. We can never believe, ordinarily, that knowing is the same as acting. And so, under a misapprehension that the two are different, we take to a way of knowledge severing ourselves from action or activity altogether; or, otherwise, we go to the other extreme and plunge into activity without proper understanding or, knowledge. What we call activity is the movement of our being, it is not something outside us, as the rays of the Sun can be said to be the movement of the power and force of the Sun itself. Our efforts, our endeavours, our conduct and behaviour and action in this world are a spatio-temporal expression of our own being. When this spatio-temporality is cut off from the movement of our being, when we do not any more regard ourselves as helpless victims at the hands of this isolatedness in space and time, we, then, become a universal being participating in the purpose of the Cosmos. Then it is that we receive the Grace of God, for God is non-spatial and non-temporal. God’s actions are not individualised movements towards some ulterior purpose. Human beings as we are today in this condition, we will find it difficult to understand what all this means.
Thus, the Fourth Chapter gives us two important aspects of the message of yoga. Firstly, that God’s Hands move in this world as Incarnations which cannot be counted in number. It is not that there is only Incarnation historically. Every event in the world is a divine miracle beyond the understanding of the human individual. And this divine miracle is the working of the Incarnations. The other message of the Chapter is that we have to perform, perforce, action as integrated beings in the structure of the universe, basing it on a knowledge of the wholeness of things and our basic relationship with the environment in which we are, so that karma yoga becomes more and more intensive as we rise higher and higher in the level of our comprehension. When we realise God, when we enter into the being of God, when we are established in the wholeness of God’s Being which is called realisation of God, action becomes knowledge in the literal sense; so; that the two do not exist even in thought or memory; action is being, and being is action; God’s existence is the same as God’s activity, and God’s activity is the same as God’s existence, as distinguished from what it appears in our own individual level.
Inaction in Action and Action in Inaction - The Philosophy of The Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Understanding Karma (Action)
Spiritual Message for the Day – Understanding Karma (Action) by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 4 December 2015 08**.55 EST | New York Edition** |
Understanding Karma (Action)
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 4 - Commentary of Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
(This week’s svadhyaya verses 4.13-4.22)
The karmas which bind the soul are such intricate processes of relativistic association in this world that it is not easy to know what is actually happening when a karma binds. Kiṁ karma kim akarme’ti kavayo’pyatra mohitāḥ: Learned people with great insight, very advanced in knowledge, are also bewildered as to what karma actually is. What is karma? What is akarma? Kiṁ karma kim akarme’ti kavayo’pyatra mohitāḥ, tat te karma pravakṣyāmi yaj jñātvā mokṣyase’śubhāt (4.16): Now I shall tell you what kind of thing karma is. Karmaṇo hy api boddhavyaṁ boddhavyaṁ ca vikarmaṇaḥ, akarmaṇaś ca boddhavyaṁ gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ (4.17): It is necessary to know not only what karma is, but also to know what non-karma or inaction is, and what wrong action is. Therefore, what is right action, what is wrong action, and what is inaction? It is necessary to know all these things.
Karmaṇo hy api boddhavyaṁ boddhavyaṁ ca vikarmaṇaḥ, akarmaṇaś ca boddhavyaṁ: Very difficult is this peculiar, intricate way in which karma works. There is no such thing as karma sitting outside on a tree. It is not a thing whose existence we can visualise somewhere. Just as we consider diseases to be a peculiar maladjustment of the physical functioning of the body rather than a thing that is sitting outside the body and existing separately, so also the karma is not sitting outside, waiting to harass us.
Karma is the peculiar automatic reaction set up by the cosmic forces in proportion to the action performed by an individual. The reaction will be exactly in proportion to the action that we perform. In a way, it looks like tit for tat—and in a crude way, we may say it is like that.
The world is supposed to be something like a mirror through which we see our own face. We see our contour in our relationships with the world. If we smile at the world, the world smiles at us; if we get angry with the world, it gets angry with us; and if we denounce it, it will denounce us also. It will treat us in the same way as our body treats us. We cannot know how the body acts and reacts in regard to our own individual existence. The body is not outside the soul. It is inseparably acting on our consciousness, which is our individual soul. Automatic action takes place through the body, and that experience of an automatic reaction set up by the body is the pleasure or the pain that we speak of.
In a similar manner, there is a spontaneous action that is taking place in the cosmos when any activity, any action, takes place anywhere. The reaction is not created by somebody, such as God in heaven. God does not sit there and say, “So-and-so is doing something. I shall react in this manner.” It is an automatic action of the cosmos. When something happens to some part of the body, an automatic reaction is set up by the entire organism in relation to the particular event taking place in the limb of the body. There is no third person who pushes the button.
The difficulty in understanding what karma is arises on account of our difficulty in knowing what our relationship is with the world at all, and finally, with God Himself. There is an inveterate habit of the sense organs to compel us to feel that the world is totally outside, and God is very far away. Even the most learned in scriptures cannot escape this difficulty of suddenly feeling that the world is outside and God is away, and is not as near as their skin. This erroneous apprehension of the relation of oneself with the world and God is the cause of the reaction set up by what reality is in the form of the world or God, and this error itself is a karma.
The wrong apprehension of our relation to the world and to God is the karma that we perform. Our consciousness is our action. Actually, the physical movements are not action. How we modulate our consciousness, how we direct our thoughts, and how we feel things around us—this is the action that we are performing day in and day out. Every moment we feel something, and think something, and understand something. This psychological activity perpetually taking place inside is the perpetual action in which we are engaged, and this is also the reason for the perpetual reaction that is being set up. Karma is supposed to get accumulated in our psyche, in the sense of a propensity of the reality outside, to give the individual that has motivated this wrong action his due. And if this impact goes on continuing again and again—if we persist in wrong thinking, wrong feeling, and wrong understanding—the cosmos persists in giving us a blow again and again, in the same way that if we persist in having a wrong diet and living a wrong life, nature will persist in tormenting us with varieties of illnesses.
The piling up of impacts coming repeatedly from the cosmos on account of our repeated wrong actions every day becomes thick—like a cloud, as it were. Inasmuch as it is a force that is acting upon us from the cosmological side, karma cannot be regarded as a substance. The action engendering a reaction from another source is a kind of experience, and the karma residuum which causes rebirth, etc., is also a potentiality for experience in the future. The repeatedly occurring impact of cosmic forces upon individuals becomes thick like a cloud, and it becomes what we call the unconscious, subconscious and conscious levels of the mind. These three layers are: the thick and turbid residuum at the bottom, like the thick layers at the top of clouds; a slightly thinner layer further down; and a thinner layer further on, like the layer which slightly illumines the sunlight even in the rainy season when the clouds are thick.
The thickest part of our karma is in the anandamaya kosha. This is what psychologists called the unconscious level. The slightly thinner part is in the subconscious, which we experience in dream many a time, and the thinnest part is in the waking condition. Because of its transparency, consciousness is reflected so clearly that even through that karmic residuum we begin to perceive things in the world as clearly as if it were in the waking state. But we perceive things dimly in the dreaming condition because it is subconscious and not as clear as the waking condition. And we know nothing in the sleeping condition because the cloud is very thick and consciousness does not penetrate through that cloud—just as during the monsoons we will not see the sun even at midday, and it will be like night due to the thick clouds covering the entire sky.
This is the difficulty in knowing what karma is. Gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ: “The way of karma is indeed very hard to understand,” says Bhagavan Sri Krishna. But karmas loosen their grip upon the individual who does not act entirely according to the preponderance of the demands of the sense organs, but acts in the spirit of a Yajna.
The Spirit of the Bhagavadgita - A Short History of Religious and Philosophic Thought in India by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Karma Yogi
Spiritual Message for the Day – Karma Yogi by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji
| **Baba Times Digest© | 3 December 2015 19**.13 EST | New York Edition** |
Karma Yogi
Divine Life Society Publication: Karma Yoga, Yoga of Service by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji
A Karma Yogi who does all work in the form of worship of God in the beginning, who surrenders his body, mind, soul and all his actions as flowers or offerings at the Lotus Feet of the Lord, who is ever absorbed in the Lord by constant thought of God, loses himself in God-consciousness by total self-surrender. He gets absorbed in God. His will becomes one with the Cosmic Will. That is his last and advanced stage. He realises that whatever is going on in the world is but the Lila of the Lord or divine sporting. He realises the truth of the utterances in the Brahma Sutras: Lokavattu lila kaivalyam. He feels that he is one with the Lord and that he is a partner in His Lila. He lives for Him only. He lives in Him only. His thoughts and actions are now of God Himself. The veil has dropped. The sense of separateness has been totally annihilated. He now enjoys the Divine Aishvarya.
A doctor who works in the hospital should think that all patients are manifestations of God. He should think that the body is the moving temple of God and that the hospital is a big temple or Brindavan or Ayodhya. He should think: “I am doing all my actions to please the Lord and not to please my superiors.” He should think that God is the inner ruler (Antaryamin), that He alone manipulates all his organs from behind, and that He is the wire-puller of the body. He should think that He works to carry out the Divine Will in the grand plan or scheme of things. He should consecrate all his actions at His Feet, whether they be good or bad. He should then say: Om Tat Sat Krishnarpanamastu or Om Tat Sat Brahmarpanamastu in the end and at night when he retires to bed. This is Jnanagni or the fire of wisdom or the fire of devotion that destroys the fruit of action, brings about Chitta Suddhi, knowledge of the Self and final emancipation. He should never dream even: “I have done such meritorious acts. I will get an exalted place in Svarga, etc. I will be born in the next birth as a rich man.” By means of constant practice of this nature he will slowly get mental non-attachment towards work. A lady, when she does her household duties, should also entertain the above mental attitude. In this manner all actions can be spiritualised. All actions will become worship of the Lord. A man can realise Godhead in whatever situation he may be placed in life, if only he works with this right mental attitude.
May the great Lord, the Flute-Bearer of Brindavan, the lover of Radha, the joy of Devaki, grant us right belief, Suddha Prem, right mental attitude and inner spiritual strength to do selfless service to the world, and to realise Godhead even while remaining in the world, by doing Nishkamya Karma Yoga with Narayana Bhava, by remembering Him at all times and by offering all actions, body, mind and the soul at His Lotus Feet! May the blessings of Siva and Hari be upon us all!
Karma Yogi - Karma Yoga, Yoga of Service by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji
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