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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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Science and Religion
Spiritual Message for the Day – Science and Religion by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 16 March 2015 15.56 EST | New York Edition** |
Science and Religion
Divine Life Society Publication: Bliss Divine by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
Science is not the enemy of religion, but a preparation for it. Science is an enemy of superstition alone. Both religion and science are engaged in the search for Truth. Their attitudes are essentially the same. But the fields of applications vary. Raja-Yoga is an exact science. Its methods are very scientific. A scientist is an external Raja Yogi. Hindu Rishis, seers and sages have recognized the harmonious relation between religion and science. The divorce of science from religion is the cause of confusion and conflict. Science is religion as applied to the investigation of Truth in the finite nature outside - the object. Religion is science as applied to the realization of the Infinite, the Bhuma, the Truth that underlies all objects - the Subject.
Science interprets on the phenomenal plane the One as energy. Religion interprets the One as the Self, “the Atman”. Science analyzes, classifies and explains phenomena. But Brahma-vidya teaches you to transcend phenomena and attain immortality.
The scientific and the religious approaches to Truth are really complementary, and not contradictory. Religion and science are the twin-brothers. They should help mutually and harmoniously to search Truth and live the life of Truth here.
Science has to do with facts; religion with values. Where science ends, religion begins. A close study of the observations and revelations of science brings a man nearer to God. Who gave power to electrons ? What is at the bottom of these electrons ? What is that power that has combined four parts of nitrogen and one part of oxygen ? Who has framed the laws of nature ? Nature is blind. What is that intelligence that moves nature ? Who is the primum mobile ? A study of the physical forces and the physical laws, an understanding of the mental forces and the mental laws, are not sufficient to make us perfect. We should have a thorough knowledge and realization of the substratum that lies hidden behind these names and forms and all physical and mental phenomena. Then only we will become perfect masters or full-blown adepts or Arhatas or Buddhas.
Mind and intellect are finite instruments. They cannot realize the infinite Reality. But, they are a means. When the intellect has passed through the various stages of reasoning, and when it has been completely purified, then revelation dawns. True religion begins where the intellect ends.
Let it not be thought that religion is dogmatic, other-worldly, a pet tradition of blind believers or irrational emotionalists. Religion is the most rational science, the science of life itself, the science of man as he essentially is, not merely as he presumes himself to be. The basis for all the secular sciences is Brahma-vidya or the Adhyatmic science. Brahma-vidya is the foremost among all sciences, because by it one attains immortality. Secular experiences are partial, while spiritual experiences is the experience-whole. If you know this supreme science of Brahma-vidya through direct intuition, you will have knowledge of all other worldly sciences; just as you will have knowledge of all articles made of clay, if you have knowledge of clay itself. You cannot learn this Science of sciences in any university. You will have to learn this from a Brahma-srotri, Brahma-Nishtha Guru, after controlling your senses and the mind.
Matter cannot be totally ignored; but, matter should be subordinated to spirit. Science should be subordinate to Brahma-vidya. Science cannot be the be-all and end-all. If you end your life in the laboratory alone, you cannot enjoy the eternal bliss of the Soul. You cannot attain the supreme wisdom which can free you from births and deaths. Science cannot give you salvation.
Seek within. Stand not as beggar before the door of science-power that kills, more than heals. Do not surrender yourself to the scientists. They are not able to explain anything. Science knows nothing of the origin of life, the origin of thought, and the origin and destiny of human nature and the universe. There are many questions to which religion alone can give answers - and not science.
Excerpts from: Science and Religion - Bliss Divine by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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Yoga - The Study of the Inner Structure of the Mind
Spiritual Message for the Day – Yoga - The Study of the Inner Structure of the Mind by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 15 March 2015 19.29 EST | New York Edition** |
Yoga - The Study of the Inner Structure of the Mind
Divine Life Society Publication: Achieving the State of Cosmic Experience by Sri Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on January 3, 1973)
The study of the vritti is the entire task of yoga. The condition of the vritti, or the particular modification of the mind in respect of objects, is the condition of our life. Whatever the vrittis are, that we are. We are almost inseparable from the situations through which our mind passes because life is experience, and experience is associated so intimately with the stages and states of our mind that, we may say, mind is life and life is mind. If this is the fact, the mind is, again, inseparable from its constituents, and these constituents of the mind are known as the vrittis. Thus, by a gradual reduction to the minimum of the processes involved in our life as a whole, we conclude that the modifications of the mind are an explanation of everything.
Now, what are these modifications? They are certain transformations which the mind undergoes on account of stimuli which it receives from outside. The term ‘object’ that we use here in yoga psychology has a peculiar significance that is slightly different from the common-sense definition of it. In this psychology of yoga, the object before the mind or before the psyche is not necessarily something physical outside, but it is any kind of form that is presented to the mind. The object is better put as ‘form’ rather than any kind of concrete substance. The shape presented before the mental operation is its object. Thus, the object of the mind may be external or it can be purely internal. A concept also is an object. Just as when a physical object is perceived it casts the mind into the mould of that particular form of the object, in the same way, when a thought arises in the mind, the mind gets cast into the mould of even that concept.
So the vritti of the mind studied in yoga is that modification of the mind into which it is cast by either an external perception of a physical object or by purely the rise of a concept within itself. How do concepts arise in the mind? Whenever an idea, concept or notion arises in the mind, that becomes an object for the mind. The mind temporarily is cast into the formation or the mould of that concept, and there is a vritti even in internal perception. Even if we close all our sensory avenues, shut our eyes and plug our ears and have no sensations outside, there can be an object for the mind, which is samsara or existence binding us to temporal life even if our senses are not operating.
Hence, the yoga psychology tells us that the study of the mind is a more difficult task than merely an analysis of sensory perception. Though it is true that the mind depends upon the senses for its knowledge, it does not always depend on sensory activity for undergoing any transformation into a vritti. It is not true that the vritti of the mind takes place only when there is sensory perception. Even a mere thought can cause a vritti. Concisely speaking, a vritti is any kind of modification of the mind into a particular form.
What is a form? The form which we call an object for the purpose of our study here is a location of consciousness. It is the tethering of our thoughts into a particular spot, the fixing of our attention on a particular notion in terms of space and time. The form is inseparable from the space-time concept. As a matter of fact, there is no form without space-time, and the very idea of the operation of a limiting adjunct such as space-time is the determining factor of any form. The mind cannot escape transforming itself into vrittis under any circumstance. Even if there be no physical objects, it will be in samsara; it will be in a process of vritti. Therefore, the study of yoga is a very deep-rooted subject which is not merely a theoretical formation of ideas concerning the outer structure of object, but is primarily a study of the inner structure of the mind.
Excerpts from: Yoga –The Study of the Inner Structure of the Mind - Achieving the State of Cosmic Experience by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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The World We Live In
Spiritual Message for the Day – The World We Live In by Sri Swami Venkatesananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 14 March 2015 18.43 EST | New York Edition** |
The World We Live In
Divine Life Society Publication: Yoga by Swami Venkatesananda
Man has endeavoured through the ages to live without God or the cosmic Being. Political philosophers, economists and scientific ‘sages’ have assigned to themselves the godly role of protecting man’s peace and happiness, while others function as religious leaders, offering easy salvation to their supporters. Politics, science and economics have failed. Let man now turn towards God. If the religious spirit is absent from our life it has no value, but once it is added then learning, wealth, social position, political or scientific leadership can all assume meaning and purposefulness.
The word ‘dharma’ means “a factor that sustains, upholds, protects and brings together”. It brings us all together, binds us in a wonderful and divine cord of love; that is what religion means. Anyone using this dharma or religion to divide society into antagonistic groups is spreading irreligion and doing the greatest harm to this dharma. Ultimately dharma unites us with god; god who dwells in all beings.
Thus our religion or dharma ought to promote the prosperity of mankind and also ensure the salvation of man. By keeping us together in a bond of love, we are almost compelled to serve one another and thus promote one another’s interests and welfare. By uniting us with god, we are liberated from pettiness, worldliness, selfishness and greed. Here is the greatest miracle on earth: the silent transformation of the human heart, which our dharma brings about. It reminds us that we form the one body of god, inseparably united in him. We may have our own characteristics, faculties, and temperament; we may follow different paths to him, but in his love we are all united, and eventually we shall all reach his feet. All our efforts for the betterment of the lot of mankind fail only because we have not yet realised this.
Religion has suffered the same fate as the present era—that of distortion. The simple is made complex. Yet we see on the horizon the dawn of the age of simplicity, and of an urge to seek for the truth in a maze of distortions. Even the word ‘yoga’ has been distorted. Yoga has nothing to do with miracles and magic, but is the synonym of its phonetic cousin ‘yoke’, which is the essential meaning of the word ‘religion’. Yoke unites two, religion binds them.
Distortion has also crept into religion and divided mankind into opposing camps of ‘your religion’ and ‘my religion’. True religion (yoga) ignores this disharmony and yokes all of us together for humanweal. The source scriptures of all religions say that we should love our neighbour as ourselves and that we should love God with all our being. That is yoga and that is religion. The two must be linked.
Understood aright, therefore, yoga can enrich our life and fulfil its purpose. By yoking us, uniting us and binding us together with a cord of love, it indirectly promotes harmony, peace and prosperity. God is love. The soul yoked to god is possessed and led by this love. We are all bound by the cord of his love which is the omnipresent omnipotence that creates sustains and redeems all.
That is theory, and theory must be translated into practice. Fundamentally, yoga is simple. It demands the curbing of our egoism, annihilation of selfishness and effective control of our mind and senses, so that they function in tune with the infinite. In practice however, we discover that before we attempt to harmonise the self with society and with god, we should strive to integrate our personality so that our thought, word and deed, as also our intellect, emotion and life, do not tear us into several disjointed personalities. Yoga integrates our personality by revealing our own inner nature, its potentialities and limitations.
By an interesting process of social service, worship by god, inward contemplation and health giving physical posture and breathing exercises, yoga achieves the greatest of all miracles—the transformation of the human heart.
Excerpts from: The World We Live In - Yoga by Swami Venkatesananda
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The Golden Era is at Hand
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Golden Era is at Hand by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 13 March 2015 13.00 EST | New York Edition** |
The Golden Era is at Hand
Divine Life Society Publication: Sivananda: His Mission and Message by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
Power is an intoxicant. Under its sway man will cut his own throat, bring about his own ruin. O Man! Have you not yet realised this patent truth? Have you not had enough of the poisonous fruits of power-politics, a mad hunt for power in national, international, social and even in domestic fields? Have you not yet realised that it will only produce disharmony, wars, riots and misery?
Power is an intoxicant. Even superhuman Tapas, even the Darshan of Lord Siva (for which aspirants engage themselves in life-long Sadhana) proved to be the ruin of Ravana who had surrendered himself to the lust for power.
Nothing can save you, except Dharma. Nothing is of any use, except Dharma. Nothing avails here except Dharma. Nothing, nothing can bring about harmony, universal peace and prosperity, except Dharma. Peace will remain unknown where Dharma remains unknown. Happiness will desert that house, village or nation in which Dharma has not been enshrined.
With Dharma as the sovereign ruling principle, everything acquires meaning. Based on Dharma, Tapas acquires Divine Power. Founded on Dharma, politics and nation-building activities ensure prosperity. Anchored in Dharma, family life will be happy and blissful, ennobling and divine.
The universe is maintained by Dharma. The planets are held together by Dharma. O Man! Wake up! Wake up now at least and walk the glorious path of righteousness.
You will attain what you want only if you seek for it where it is. If you want happiness, seek for it in the Self, in God, the fountain-source of the highest bliss, not in the little sensual objects. If you aspire for power, get omnipotence in Self-realisation; you will become One with the Supreme power that governs the universe; but not in petty positions, in empires and colonies, in wealth and machine-guns. If you want prosperity acquire it in righteousness, not in artificial living, bungalows and motor cars. If you seek happiness, prosperity, power and glory in the things of this earth, you will suffer the fate of the drowning man who got on the crocodile’s back mistaking it for a log of wood that would take him to the shore. Remember this. Be not deluded. Wake up, wake up, this very moment.
Remember: Adharma cannot survive for long. It will ruin its adherents and then suffer defeat at the hands of Dharma. That Golden Era, that Age of Dharma, that Satya Yuga, when Dharma will reign supreme is not far off. No power on earth can hold it back. If you co-operate with the divine forces that work for the ushering in the Golden Era, you will enjoy unalloyed bliss, peace and prosperity.
Beloved Children of Immortality! Arise, awake! Lead the Divine Life of truth, purity, love and goodness. Attain peace, perfection and Eternal Bliss. May God bless you all with health, long life, peace, prosperity and Atma-Jnana!
Excerpts from: The Golden Era is at Hand - Sivananda: His Mission and Message by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
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What is Maya
Spiritual Message for the Day – What is Maya by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 12 March 2015 14.49 EST | New York Edition** |
What is Maya?
Divine Life Society Publication: Frequently Asked Questions on Spirituality by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
That which truly is not, but appears to be, is Maya. That which causes infatuation or Moha is Maya.
Maya is an appearance. It is semblance. It is the illusory power of God.
Maya is the illusory power of God. She is the creatrix of this universe. She projects this world for His Lila (sport). Mind, intellect, body, and senses are her forms. She is the energy or mother-aspect of the Lord.
Just as heat is inseparable from fire, coldness from ice, Maya is inseparable from Brahman (God). It is dependent on Brahman.
Maya has countless potencies. Solidity of stone is a power of Maya. Fluidity of water is another power of Maya. Fire is a third burning power. Air is the moving power of Maya. Ether is the void or space power of Maya.
You know you will die, and yet you think you will live forever. This is Maya. You know that the world is full of miseries, and yet you take delight in the perishable objects and will not leave them. This is Maya. You know that the human body is made up of all sorts of impurities, flesh, bone, urine and faecal matter, and yet you rejoice in embracing it under the sway of lust. This is Maya.
Maya causes false glittering and entraps the deluded Jivas (individual souls). She does a little electroplating work. Man is entrapped. He is caught in the wheel of birth and death.
Maya is neither true nor false. It is truly false and falsely true. It is neither real nor unreal. It is not real like Brahman, because it disappears when one gets Knowledge. It is not unreal like a barren woman’s son or the horn of hare, because its presence is felt.
This Maya is a sort of jugglery. You are astonished so long as the juggler is not seen. As soon as the juggler is known, the results are known to be unreal; the wonder ceases at once. When you realize Brahman, the wonder of Maya’s working vanishes.
When the mesmerist hypnotises the whole audience, all people believe that the man is ascending the rope in the air. All people see that the mesmerist devours a big sword and cuts the body of a lad in the box. Even so, you are all hypnotised by Maya and Avidya (ignorance) and you take this unreal world as a solid reality. De-hypnotise yourself by getting Knowledge of Brahman. Then alone you will understand the grand jugglery of Maya.
Excerpts from: What is Maya? - Frequently Asked Questions on Spirituality by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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What is Yoga
Spiritual Message for the Day – What is Yoga by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 11 March 2015 16.51 EST | New York Edition** |
What is Yoga?
Divine Life Society Publication: Frequently Asked Questions on Spirituality by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
To live in God, to commune with God is ‘Yoga’. Life in God brings eternal bliss. Yoga shows you the way, unites you with God and makes you perfect and immortal.
Yoga is a system of integral education, education not only of the body and the mind or the intellect, but also of the inner spirit. Yoga shows you the right method of rising from evil to good, and from goodness to holiness and then to eternal divine splendour. Yoga is the art of right living. The Yogi who has learned the art of right living is happy, harmonious, peaceful and free from tension.
Yoga is for all and is universal. It is not a sectarian affair, but a way to God and not a creed. The practice of Yoga is not opposed to any religion or any sacred church. It is purely spiritual and does not contradict anyone’s sincere faith.
Yoga is not a religion, but an aid to the practice of the basic spiritual truths in all religions. Yoga is union with God, union with all. God dwells in all. Moral purity and spiritual aspiration are the first steps in the path of Yoga. One who has calm mind, faith in the words of his preceptor and the scriptures, who is moderate in eating, drinking and sleeping and who has intense longing for deliverance from the wheel of births and deaths is a qualified person for the practice of Yoga.
The four paths for God-realization are Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Jnana Yoga. Karma Yoga is suitable for a man of active temperament, Bhakti Yoga for a man of devotional temperament, Raja Yoga for a man of mystical temperament and Jnana Yoga for a man of rational and philosophical temperament.
Life today is full of stress and strain, of tension and nervous irritability, of passion and hurry. If man puts in few of the elementary principles of Yoga, he would be far better equipped to cope with his complex existence.
Yoga brings perfection, peace and lasting happiness. You can have calmness of mind at all times by practice of Yoga. You can have restful sleep and increased energy, vigour, vitality, longevity and high standard of health. You can turn out efficient work within a short space of time and have success in every walk of life. Yoga will infuse new strength, confidence and self-reliance in you. The body and mind will be at your beck and call.
It is within the power of everybody to attain success in Yoga. What is wanted is sincere devotion, constant and steady practice. Spiritual growth is gradual. There is progressive evolution. You should not be in feverish hurry to accomplish great Yogic feats or enter into superconscious state in two or three months.
Do not stop the practice when you get a few glimpses and experiences. Continue the practice until you get perfection.
Excerpts from: ** What is Yoga? -**Frequently Asked Questions on Spirituality**by**Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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The Goal is not Far from Us
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Goal is not Far from Us by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 10 March 2015 19.30 EST | New York Edition** |
The Goal is Not Far from Us
Divine Life Society Publication: The Background of the Foundation of Spiritual Life by Sri Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on Oct 28, 1972)
A life of spiritual discipline is one of constant vigilance over the small details, not only of one’s thoughts and states of consciousness but also of one’s daily conduct and reaction. Spiritual seekers are likely to be carried away by grand ideals in their spiritual quest while forgetting, in a state of untutored ignorance, that the details, the small units of practice, are going to make up the large achievement of the spiritual goal.
Among the majority of cases a failure to achieve success in spiritual life can be attributed to a sheer overenthusiasm in respect of the large and the distant, while being completely oblivious of what is under one’s own nose because the object of our quest in the spiritual field is something unique and not capable of being equated with the objects which we are generally accustomed to see with our eyes or perceive with our senses. It is next to impossible for an uninitiated mind to comprehend the extent and magnitude of the details of spiritual practice.
The goal, which is the realisation of the spirit, is intimately related to the processes that are involved in the practice. As it is usually said, the end that we are going to achieve is nothing but the culmination of the evolution of the means that we are adopting in the practice. The fruit that we enjoy from a tree is the finality of a long process of evolution of what we call the tree, which has arisen from the seed, arisen from an incipient stage of invisibility and comparative unimportance. We know how large, strong and spacious the tree is and how delicious is the fruit that it yields, but all this has come from a relatively insignificant factor that we call a small seed, which we are likely to cast away without giving it much value or meaning. But unfortunately, the small seed has been the mother which has been nurturing this spacious tree and embodying within its bosom the luscious fruit which delights the senses of man. It is, therefore, no use merely gazing at the possibility of having a large tree and delicious fruit without paying any attention to the factor of the seed involved in it because without the seed there is no tree, and without the tree there is no fruit, notwithstanding the fact that the seed seems insignificant. The timber of the tree is so costly and the small seed has no such value, yet the tree and timber have come from this seed. But for the seed, there would have been no tree.
In a similar manner, we may say that the vast achievement of spiritual realisation, the yoga siddhi, perfection in the practice of yoga, which is so attractive and so very charming, so enrapturing even to think, is constituted of very fine, subtle factors which come before us every day but which we totally ignore as not connected with the goal of our realisation. But this is a mistake. The goal is not far from us. It is not a distant ideal spatially disconnected from us so that we can cut off the means from the end. We cannot sever the relationship between the end and the means, and in this particular context, this relationship is more intimate than the connection that we usually see between temporal means and temporal ends.
We work hard and earn a good salary. Earning a good salary is the end, and the working hard for it is the means. Now, there is some sort of connection between working hard and acquiring a good salary, but this connection is not vital, not a living relation; it is a made-up connection in a social pattern of understanding and arrangement of things. The connection between work and the fruit of the work in the form of salary or wages is not an organic tie between the two but an accepted connection due to a social rule that we have made to prevail under certain principles adopted in common. But the relation between the spiritual means and the spiritual goal is not merely a contrived relation in a social sense or a mechanical relationship, but a living, growing, vital process of inseparable links in a chain of living forces. The connection between the body of a child and the body of the same child grown into an adult is organic. It is not a mechanical relationship. The same thing has come up into this present condition of growth, expanded in various aspects but containing within this expanded form the vitality of the original condition which preceded this stage years back.
The practice of spirituality is constituted of organic units all related to one another in an inseparable bond of spirituality. The relationship of the units also is spiritual, and the more we advance in the path of the spirit, the more we will be able to realise that things are essentially spiritual and not material, physical or externally related. The lower we are in the strata of evolution, the more physical and more external do things appear to us, and the more distant is the relation between the means and the end. We try to cheat people, are dishonest, and are one thing inside and another thing outside because we are under the notion that the end and the means are not connected with each other, and so if we are dishonest, a bad result may not follow from it. This is our belief. We think we can deceive without being deceived.
This notion is the cause of malpractices in personal life as well as in social life, but this is a grave error of thought. There is a connection between the means and the end, so we cannot be one thing inside and another thing outside. This will not work because what we are inside is the means, and what we are outside cannot be completely unconnected with it, though we try to be different. The rule of nature, the law of the cosmos is so constituted that the seed must grow into the structure that is already inherent in it. It cannot grow into something else. We cannot expect an elephant to come out of a mango seed. It is impossible. It is only a tendril of a mango plant that will come out of it. But ignorant that man is, in spite of his so-called qualifications, he is bankrupt of understanding of the natural laws that prevail in the world and work throughout the layers of the cosmos.
What paves the way to the particular conduct of a person is also going to be the factor contributing to the manifestation of its inherent nature. More cautious than ordinary people in the world should a spiritual seeker be because the law operates more strictly in the case of a spiritual seeker than in the case of ordinary persons. The reactions set up by natural forces in respect of spiritual seekers are more immediate and more vehement than in the case of people who are thick-skinned, or buffalo-skinned, as we call them. The reason is the subtlety of thought and the greater capacity to receive the reaction from forces of nature. It does not mean that the forces of nature do not react in the cases of other persons, but the sensitivity of normal people, ordinary people, is much less than the sensitivity of spiritual seekers, and so they feel the rebuff much more quickly than others.
Hence, any palpable achievement in the field of spiritual work and spiritual sadhana can be expected only if we take care of the penny, as they say; we do not have to see that the pounds also are taken care of, because the pounds are made up of pennies.
Thus, the large fruit of God-realisation, yoga siddhi, atma sakshatkara, spiritual perfection, is nothing but the evolution into perfection of the methodology that we are adopting in our day-to-day life.
Excerpts from: The Goal is not Far from US - The Background of the Foundation of Spiritual Life by Sri Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at: generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
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The Otherness We Perceive
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Otherness We Perceive by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 9 March 2015 16.48 EST | New York Edition** |
The Otherness we Perceive
Divine Life Society Publication: The Coming and Going of All Things by Sri Swami Krishnananda
We can never be happy permanently in this world, whatever be our efforts to be happy, for the simple reason that we cannot diagnose our own illness. May be, there are means of this diagnosis. But one cannot be one’s own doctor; in a similar manner, we cannot know what our problems are, though we attribute our difficulties to events that take place outside. There is no ‘outside’ in this world, The meaning of involvement is the abolition of anything as external or internal. There is no thread in the cloth which can be called external to the other threads, because they are intertwined in such a way that everything is involved in everything else. So, one cannot be called the ‘other’; the ‘otherness’ that we perceive is an error, and the cause of this error in perception in the form of a conviction of there being something outside us is the reason also for the involvement.
It was said that there was the perception of the many. But we cannot have merely the knowledge of the many and remain quiet without any dealings with the many, because the very knowledge of the many implies a necessity felt at the same time to relate oneself to the many. I cannot simply know that you are sitting there, I have to feel a sense of relation to that which I see. This is the beginning of involvement. And, the freedom of the soul, our final salvation, we may say, consists in our disentangling ourselves gradually from the network of this involvement, which is a hard task, indeed. Sometimes Samsara is compared to a quagmire. A quagmire is a kind of marshy area where, if you keep your foot, you will go in. And if you try to lift your sunk foot with the help of the other foot planted on it, you will see the other foot goes in. And so both feet go in, and you can be sunk neck deep. And you do not know what will happen to you. This state of affairs is called the quagmire-involvement, and our life is something like that. Often, by ancient masters, life is compared to involvement in a quagmire. When you try to free your foot, you will see that the other foot has gone in; and when you lift the other, this one has gone still deeper, so that you do not know where you are. It is an unthinkable misery, unadulterated sorrow.
Where is the salvation, and where is the remedy? The remedy is not in further involvements. Often we try to cure one disease by introducing another disease into the body; this is not a real curative method. You cannot pay your debts by borrowing from some other person, though many a time we do this thing and feel that debts are paid. But we have paid the debt by creating another debt, paying perhaps compound interest and making matters worse. Our search for joy in life is at the same time an accumulation of sorrow from another side. This we forget in our involvements. So, at least from the point of view of man’s present way of involvement and thinking we can say that he cannot attain real freedom. But it is not true that the expectation is absolutely impossible. There is a necessity to go to facts as they are, and not merely opinionate about things and hold judgments on objects in any manner whatsoever, because every judgment is a characterisation of that which you see with your eyes, and, as I mentioned, this characterisation is always infected with a defect caused by your having sunk into the mire of an involvement which is called birth.
The withdrawal of conscious operation objectively in terms of what we see with our eyes, judging things from the point of view of the senses, would be the beginning of the development of wisdom in our lives. Then, to speak in the language of Buddhist psychology, we move from what they call Kama-loka to Rupa-loka. The world we are living in is called Kama-loka_,_ because it is the world of involvement by desires, positive as well as negative. A positive desire is the clinging to something, and a negative desire is aversion to something. And we have a twofold attitude towards things in the world. Whatever be that attitude, like or dislike, it is Kama only, and inasmuch as there is nothing visible in this world except these two types of involvement, they consider this world as Kama-loka_._ You cannot see a person as he or she is in himself or herself. A person, a thing, or an object, whatever it is, is to us what it means to us in terms of an involvement, and minus the involvement, we cannot know what it is. I cannot know what you are except in relation to me. This relation is the undoing of all things. Whenever we understand things or cogitate on any person or thing, we always do this cogitation work in terms of what sort of relation that thing has with us. Independently, we do not consider a person as a tree in the jungle. We do not bother what the tree is about; let it be there! It is not my son, it is not my brother. Whatever happens to it is not my concern. But it is a great concern of mine in relation to that with which I am related. This concern is the bondage of the soul.
Why should you be concerned? That is the externalisation of your relationship. This is overcome by what you call detachment in its true spirit, not detachment in the ordinary ritualistic manner. Detachment does not mean moving from Kanyakumari to the Himalayas, or from one country to another. It is the disentanglement from the involvement of consciousness in this act of judging in terms of what it means to ‘me’ positively or negatively. Then you will reach the next world, called Rupa-loka_,_ where the world may be seen by us, as it is. The beauty of the painting will no more be there; you will see only a canvas and ink spread in a particular pattern. To give an example of how you move from Kama-loka to Rupa-loka_;_ from the beauty that is seen in a painting, you move to the substance out of which the painting is made. The arrangement of the ink on the canvas in terms of a spatio-temporal context, again involved in our way of looking at things at a particular distance also – all these factors considered – becomes the cause of our knowing things as beautiful, or otherwise. So, when this Kama is no more there, we begin to see Rupa_,_ or the forms of things as they are. Are you not something independently in yourself other than what you are to others? You know very well you are something to yourself. Whatever be the opinion others may hold about you, minus all these opinions, you are something, and that is the pure principle of existence, sometimes called Isvarasrishti, apart from Jivasrishti. The ideas of ‘I’ and ‘mine’, and the notions of ‘my belonging to somebody’ or ‘something belonging to me’ or ‘not belonging to me’, etc., are known as Jivasrishti, or the involvements mentioned – the abyss, Samsara_,_ this quagmire. But if I can know you as you know yourself, and I know me as I am to myself, and each one stands by himself or itself as a pure subject unrelated to the objects, relation is abolished, because, really, there is a basic unity of things where the pure subject which is the universe stands supreme in its integrated completeness, which is the universal perception we are waiting for finally, you may say, the vision of God. And when God knows Himself, not as an object of vision by somebody – That is the origin of things, That which is, the Almighty God Supreme, call Him Narayana, call Him the Father in Heaven, the Unimpeachable, Ununderstandable, Non-Externalisable, Pure Being, All-Being, the Bhuma, the Infinite, the Vaishvanara of the Upainshads, the Viratsvarupa of the Bhagavadgita. That is our Goal. And we can have an iota of satisfaction and joy in this world only to the extent of our approximation to this reverse movement of ours in the direction of Truth. But if you try to be happy here by adding more untruths to the already existing ones, purchasing more illnesses to the existing ones already in the body, and piling up sorrows over sorrows, over those which are already there, then the fate of man is booked, for what it is.
May this be a heralding moment to us to find time to brood over these truths of our real state of affairs in this world, what we really are, also what anyone is really in himself or herself, what any thing is in itself, in the eyes of that which alone can see things clearly without the spectacles of likes or dislikes. Such is the mighty Goal before us, into whose facts we are awakened by great masters like Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. Their blessings we seek, and the Grace of the Almighty we invoke upon the whole of humanity at this auspicious hour of mutual communion. May we, then, sing the song of the ancient mystic in a slightly different strain: “In the beginning there was the One, and there was not the many; Then there was the many, but not the consciousness of the many; Then there was the consciousness of the many; but not judgment of ‘the other’; Then there was the judgment of ‘the other’, and, lo, mortal sorrow became the name of all life.”
Excerpts from: The Otherness We Perceive - The Coming and Going of All Things by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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The Divine Person
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Divine Person by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 8 March 2015 18.39 EST | New York Edition** |
The Divine Person
Divine Life Society Publication: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad by Sri Swami Krishnananda
manomayo’yam puruṣaḥ, bhāḥ satyaḥ tasminn antar-hṛdaye yathā vrīhir vā yāvo vā. sa eṣa sarvasyeśānaḥ, sarvasyādhipatiḥ, sarvam idaṁ praśāsti yad idāṁ kiṁ ca.
‘This Supreme Puruṣha who is conceived by the mind, meditated upon by the mind and embodied as the Universal Mind on one side and the individual mind on the other side, is radiance is essence.’ Bhāḥ means lustre, light, luminosity, and the characteristic of this Puruṣha, or Satya, or truth. Reality is the nature of this Puruṣha, which means to say that what you call the Puruṣha, within or without, is indestructible. That which is subject to transformation or destruction is not called Reality. So, when it is called Satya, or real, it is understood that it is free from the trammels of change of any kind. Now, this Puruṣha is ‘the smallest of the small and the biggest of the big, the greatest of the great’ – ano’raniān mahato mahiān. Nothing can be smaller than that, and nothing can be larger than that. Nothing is nearer than that, and nothing is more distant than that. If you are trying to locate it somewhere outside, you are not going to catch it however much you may pursue it, even as you cannot succeed in grasping the horizon. It is apparently in front of us, but is not capable of being grasped. It recedes as we proceed onward in its direction. It is inward; it is also outward. Tad antarasya sarvasya: ‘It is inside everything’ and yet it is outside everything. It is inside everything because of the fact that it is the Self of all beings; it is outside everything because it is beyond the limitations of the body-individuality. It is that which envelops the whole universe, and because of this universality of character it is very distant to you. Who can know the boundaries of the cosmos. It is very far, and yet very near. Because of the expanse which it is, because of the largeness of its comprehension, because of its infinitude, because of its omnipresence, it is very distant. But, because it is inseparable from what we ourselves are, it is the nearest. ‘It is smaller than a grain of rice; it is smaller than a grain of barley – so small!’ It is smaller even than these illustrated examples, ‘but it is the Lord of the whole universe – sarvasyeśānaḥ, sarvasyādhipatiḥ. It is the controller of all things, and it rules everything’ – sarvam idaṁ praśāsti. One who knows this truth also shall become like this – yad idāṁ kiṁ ca.
It is not possible to rule, or to become the lord of anything, or to become the controller of all things, unless one becomes tuned up to the reality of all things. The great point that is driven home to our minds in the Upaniṣhads, especially, is that power is not that which we exercise externally. It is an influence that we exert internally that is called power. An external coordination and organisation may look like a power, but it is capable of disintegration. Anything that is of a complex nature can decompose itself into its components. Everything is complex in its nature, including the constitution of the body. This body is complex; it is made up of different ingredients. So is every type of organisation, whether it be social or cosmic. Everything shall come to an end. It is not possible for one thing to control another, on account of the absence of coordination between them. It is impossible to exert any kind of influence on a totally external being, because externality is the character of a total isolatedness of existence. If an external being is to be the subject of another who rules it, that power which is exerted on the subject will not last long, because the self which exerts the power on the external is different in character from the thing upon which this power is exerted. That which is the Self, and that which is recognised as the Self in all, alone can be the source of power. So power is not a force that emanates from one being to another – it is the recognition of one’s own being in another. So, ultimately, no real power is conceivable or practicable unless the Selfhood which is recognised in one’s own self is felt and realised in the object also. That which is the smallest is supposed to be Self, this is called the ātman. And that which is the biggest is Brahman. These are the two great terms in the Upaniṣhads. The two are identified. The extreme of the cosmic is identified with the extreme of the microcosmic. It is the subtlest and the smallest because it is the deepest in us. It is the principle that precedes even the function of the understanding in us. Even the intellect is external to it, though for all practical purposes we may think that the intellect is the internal faculty with which we think and understand. We have a being within which faintly manifests itself in deep sleep when our presence is felt, yet the intellect does not function. The endowments of the psychic being, intellect, feeling, will, etc. are all absent in deep sleep, and yet we do exist. So, we can exist independent of psychological functions. Hence, even the subtlest of rationality in us is external to the deepest in us, which is the ātman. Because of the depth and profundity of its reality, it is called subtler than the subtle, deeper than the deep, smaller than the small. It is not small in a mathematical or an arithmetical sense. The smallness that is attributed to it is on account of its subtlety. And the largeness that is attributed to Brahman outside is due to its infinitude.
So, that which is deepest in us, the subtlest ātman or Self in us is the same as the Cosmic Ruler, Īshvara, or Brahman. Thus can meditation be practised. Consciousness which is designated as the ātman, the subtlest and the smallest, is indivisible. It cannot be partitioned; it cannot be conceived as having parts within itself; it has not any internal distinctions. This is an essential characteristic of consciousness which is the ātman. Whatever be our conception of the magnitude of this consciousness in it, it has to be accepted that it is incapable of partition or division. The consciousness that there is something outside oneself would not be possible if our consciousness were limited to our own body. How could we be conscious of the limitation of anything or the boundary set to anything unless consciousness exceeds the limit of that boundary. We cannot know that something is finite unless we know that something is infinite, because the very awareness of finitude is an implication that we are subconsciously aware of the being that is infinite. Thus we can contemplate the ātman which apparently is located in our own bodies as if it is finite, but is infinitude; is consciousness; is Chaitanya. Consciousness cannot be finite because the very consciousness of finitude is an acceptance of the fact that it is infinite. Hence, consciousness must be infinite, and this infinitude of consciousness is called Brahman, the Absolute. Hence the ātman is Brahman. In this manner one can meditate.
Excerpts from: The Divine Person - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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The Path of the Seeker
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Path of the Seeker by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 7 March 2015 13.09 EST | New York Edition** |
The Path of the Seeker
Divine Life Society Publication: Essays on the Upanishads – Kathopanishad by Sri Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on September 10, 1972)
The sruti says, “Arise, Awake! Through obtaining men of wisdom, know it. A sharpened edge of a razor, hard to tread, a difficult path it is, - thus sages declare.” The individuals of the universe are all sleeping persons or dreamers in the night of ignorance. They are exhorted to wake up to the day of knowledge. The path of sadhana is beset with great dangers. The sadhaka has to experience sorrows and very unpleasant conditions in the process of the transformation of the individual into the Supreme.
Knowledge arises, in the beginning, not through more self effort but through the company of the wise, the result of which is accelerated by the effects of past meritorious deeds. Self-effort takes the form of an intellectual undertaking, and the intellect being very strongly influenced by internal convictions and experiences of the individual concerned, the effort is many times not well directed. Every right effort should be preceded by right thinking, and no right thinking is possible as long as the individual is controlled by personal prejudices and desires. Hence the need for the company of the wise, which shall break open the fort of preconceived notions in the individual. Further, the path is a very difficult one to tread.
The search for truth is attended with many dangers. The sadhaka is likely to be tempted, opposed, misled or held up on the way. The inner propensities take concrete forms and present themselves before the seeker because of his attempt at concentration of mind. Concentration is a death-blow given to mental desires, and hence they rise up with all might to put an end to the practice of concentration.
Moreover, sadhana is the method of the disintegration of the entire personality consisting of the five material sheaths. These sheaths include within themselves the substance of the entire universe. Therefore, when the aspirant turns his face against these sheaths, he is actually acting against the lower natural current of the whole external universe of manifestation. Here lies the danger of the practice.
The objective powers of the universe rebel against the internal consciousness, and though this consciousness is more powerful than any objective power, it does not appear to be so because of its non-manifestation. The aspirant seems to be defeated, because his condition is one where the external tendencies are opposed and the internal Self is not known. Hence, he has no help until a higher state is reached, though he is unconsciously being led higher by the law of the Absolute. It is in this helpless condition of the absence of knowledge that the power of the result of previous discriminative practices raises the individual above the material entanglements.
The object of knowledge is too subtle to be easily known, and the object of the senses is too gross to be easily avoided. This is the reason why there is every likelihood of the seeker’s falling back into relative experience. But there is one great helping hand that pushes forward every sadhaka, in spite of the several oppositions before him. Every bit of action that is done as a sadhana for perfection produces such a power that it can never be destroyed by any material force of the universe. When a sadhaka is opposed by an external power, the impression of the previous practice urges him forward, and this forward march is another act which adds another fresh stock of power to the already existing one. Every step taken forward adds more power to the previous stock, and the cumulative effect of sadhana-shakti becomes so great that it is able to overcome any external power.
The subject is always more powerful than the object, because the subject is conscious and is the influencer of the object. The knower has a power over the known. The fact that the knower has the power to know the entirety of nature shows that nature is subservient to the knower. If the knower were less than the known, it would never have been possible for the knower to have complete knowledge of anything. Knowledge of everything means transcending everything in quality as well as in quantity.
The path to perfection is, therefore, the way to the expansion of the localised being into the limitless existence. Since every being is essentially consciousness, it is possible for everyone to become the greatest and the best, and exist as the Absolute.
Excerpts from:** The Path of the Seeker -**Essays on the Upanishads – Kathopanishad**by Sri Swami Krishnananda**
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