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Dhyana (Meditation)
Spiritual Message for the Day – Dhyana (Meditation) by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 16 September 2014 11.10 EST | New York Edition** |
Dhyana (Meditation)
Divine Life Society Publication: Yoga Asanas - Daily Practice by Sri Swami Sivananda
Meditation is the seventh limb according to the Yoga Sutras of sage Patanjali, the eighth being Samadhi. There are many methods of practice of concentration which leads to meditation. The purpose of meditation is to understand the real nature of the object of meditation. The mind is the instrument with which we meditate. A certain amount of the study of the nature of activities of the mind is necessary before one takes up to meditation. The existence of the mind can be found only during its activities. The thief can be found out only during the act of thieving, for at all other times he may look like an ordinary person. When the thief comes to know that the police are after him, he restricts his movements. Similarly, if you begin to study the mind, the mental processes or the activities of the mind will be reduced.
There are mainly two stages of meditation. They are: (1) Constantly thinking on one object or thought, to the exclusion of all other objects and thoughts; and (2) keeping the mind free of all thoughts.
In the first stage one must concentrate one’s mind on an object, or engage oneself in the repetition of the Mantra into which he is initiated by his preceptor. If one starts repeating the Mantra with concentration on the Mantra, then alone one will come to know the innumerable other thoughts which lie submerged in one’s subconscious and unconscious levels of the mind and which rise to the conscious level and cause disturbance to concentration on the Mantra. When the concentration on one Mantra together with Bhava (feeling of its meaning), is increased through a long and continued practice, the mind reaches the state of meditation.
In the second stage, one should sit in a comfortable posture, close the eyes and relax all the limbs of the body from toes to the crown of the head. The ears being open, external sounds naturally will impinge on them. One should be a witness to these external sounds and also be a witness to the inner thoughts that may arise one after another in endless succession. One should not go after those inner thoughts, nor should one pay any serious attention to the external sounds. By complete relaxation in the sitting posture and by remaining as a witness of the internal and external activities of the mind, the mind will become non-objectified, after continued, unbroken practice for a long period. In the early stages care should be taken that one does not go to sleep.
Sincerity, earnestness and purity of thought, word and deed, are the important factors for success in the practice of meditation.
Excerpts from: Dhyana (Meditation) - Yoga Asanas - Daily Practice by Sri Swami Sivananda
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How to Get Your Desires Fulfilled
Spiritual Message for the Day – How to Get Your Desires Fulfilled by Sri N. Ananthanarayanan
| **Baba Times Digest© | 15 September 2014 18.17 EST | New York Edition** |
How to Get Your Desires Fulfilled
Divine Life Society Publication: What The River Has Taught Me by Sri N. Ananthanarayanan
Man is moved by desire. Life is maintained by hope of getting one’s desires fulfilled.
Instinctive desires, impulsive desires, rational desires, irrational desires, worldly desires, spiritual desires—they chase man all through life. Even the old man who is approaching death has a myriad desires in his mind. As Sivananda says, “The capacity may vanish, but the craving remains”.
“Be desireless” says the preacher, but he himself is quite often after more money, a larger audience, a greater reputation.
The universality of desire does not sanctify it, but only shows how nearly impossible it is to give up desires. That is why the spiritual seeker is exhorted, first of all, to substitute bad desires by good desires, and later, to replace all desires by an all-consuming desire for God.
How to get one’s good desires, righteous desires, legitimate desires fulfilled? What is the secret of success in achieving one’s ambitions, in realising one’s aspirations, in finding fulfilment of one’s fond hopes?
If you desire something, you must work for it. There must be exertion or Purushartha. Everyone understands the matter thus far. But what puzzles people quite often is how, after repeated exertion, they fail to achieve the desired result.
“Destiny!” says the spiritual preacher, “You are not destined to get it”. Then he goes on to explain the Law of Karma and its ramifications to the disappointed man in an attempt to console him. But what poor consolation for the disappointed man!
Is there no foolproof method of getting one’s cherished desires fulfilled? There is. It is the method of the Mantras. There are as many Mantras as there are desires. Recite the appropriate Mantra with faith and devotion and get what you want.
If you do not like the method of the Mantras, take to the method of whole-hearted prayer. When I say whole-hearted prayer, I mean that it should come from the innermost recesses of your heart, and not from your lips alone. The yearning must be intense, almost desperate. And you must feel the reality of God’s all-pervading presence, feel that He is listening to you, feel that He has the power to answer your prayer and the compassion to do so. Then your prayer will be answered. All this is made much easier if you can go to a realised saint (who, incidentally, is no different from God) or to the presence of a powerful Deity or Pratyaksha Devata and address your prayer to the saint or the Devata. In such a case, what happens is this: your prayer, your desire, is taken up or absorbed by the intense spiritual aura or vibrations of the saint or the Deity, and in the process, becomes the desire of the saint himself or the Deity Itself. No wonder, then, that it fructifies soon enough and easily enough.
A third method of getting your desires fulfilled is to expand in your consciousness and identify yourself with an ever-expanding spectrum of men and matter. The more you expand in this way, the sooner your desire will come to fruition. In other words, the extent of your identification with the cosmos or the extent of your nearness to God will determine the speed with which your desires get fulfilled. The closer you are to God, the faster will be the achievement of your ambitions. This method is not as difficult to practise as it might appear. Once you have a good grasp of the basic spiritual laws, a sound understanding of man and his relationship to God and the universe, all that is required is to feel your identity with the rest of creation in an ever-greater measure.
The fourth and the last method is the really difficult one, because in this you have to give up your desires to gain the desired objects. Paradoxical, yet true. The spiritual law that governs the operation of this paradox is more accurate than all the laws of mathematics, physics and the rest of the natural sciences. This infallible law states: “Desire a thing and it recedes from your grasp. Give up a thing and it comes to you unsought”. But the giving up should be total and spontaneous. If you say with your mouth, “I give up my desire for wealth”, but cherish the desire in your heart, wealth will not accrue to you. But if you really do not care one little bit for wealth, for whatever reason, then money will flow to you from all sides. It is the same with all other objects of desire. That is why a good doctor always advises his patient, “Don’t bother too much about your health”. Because, not bothering about one’s health is the surest way to preserve one’s health.
When you are truly fed up with the objects of desire, they will crowd around you. But, at that point, even if they crowd around you, you have no use for them. You need them no more. Desire, object of desire, satisfaction of desire—these words and phrases have lost all meaning for you. It is the highest stage of the renunciate monk.
Excerpts from: How to Get Your Desires Fulfilled - What The River Has Taught Me by Sri N. Ananthanarayanan
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
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Samyama or Mind Control
Spiritual Message for the Day – Samyama or Mind Control by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 14 September 2014 12.20 EST | New York Edition** |
Samyama or Mind Control
Divine Life Society Publication: Raja Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
SAMYAMA
The three (Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi) together constitute Samyama.
Samyama means perfect control of the mind. Here it is a technical name for three inseparable processes of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi taken collectively. By the practice of Samyama, the Yogi gets knowledge and powers. The three processes are practised on any one object successively at the same time. The five Angas of Yoga are intended to purify the body, Prana and the senses. These three practices purify the mind. They constitute the very basis of Yoga. With the help of these three, the Yogi dives deep within and brings out the pearl of knowledge of anything. Samyama is the name given to the combined practice of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi at one and the same time. By Samyama on external objects he gets various Siddhis and hidden knowledge of the universe of Tanmatras, etc. By concentration on Indriyas, Ahamkara and mind, etc., he gets various powers and experiences. These things are explained in the subsequent Sutras.
SAMYAMA AS ANTARANGA SADHANA
The three (Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi) are more internal than the preceding (Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara).
These three constitute the Yoga proper. The five accessories are the external means of Yoga. These three directly bring Samadhi. The other five purify the body, Prana and Indriyas. Hence these three are called Antaranga Sadhana.
SAMYAMA AS BAHIRANGA SADHANA
Even that (Samyama) is external to the seedless Samadhi.
Nirbija Samahi or Asamprajnata Samadhi is the final goal of Raja Yoga. Compared to that, this Samyama (Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi) also is external or indirect. It is also preparatory. Here there is Alambana or something for the mind to depend upon; whereas in Nirbija Samadhi, there is nothing for the mind to depend upon. It is Niralambana. It is Nirbija (seedless) Samadhi.
BENEFITS OF SAMYAMA
By the conquest of Samyama, comes the stage of cognition.
As Samyama becomes firmer and firmer, so does the knowledge of Samadhi become more and more lucid. This is the fruit of the practice of Samyama. Samyama should become very natural. Then the knowledge flashes like anything. Samyama is a powerful weapon for the Yogi. Just as the archer aims at the gross objects at first, and then takes to subtle objects, so also the Yogi does Samyama on gross objects and then takes to subtle objects. He does great deal of practice and ascends the Yogic ladder rung by rung.
Excerpts from: Samyama or Mind Control - Raja Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
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We are the Ultimate Knower
Spiritual Message for the Day – We are the Ultimate Knower by Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 13 September 2014 16.52 EST | New York Edition** |
We are the Ultimate Knower
Divine Life Society Publication: Early Morning Meditation Talks by Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda
There are many ways of looking at our life on earth. One way would be that it is nothing except experiences. We experience thirst and the satisfaction of that thirst. We experience hunger and the satisfaction of that hunger. We experience being cold; we experience being hot. We experience being loved; we experience being rejected. We experience being well off; we experience being poor. We experience being happy; we experience being sad. We experience being clear in our thinking; we experience being confused.
Most of these things we have in common with the animal kingdom. But as human beings we also have another experience. We experience a sense of “I”: “I” am this, “I” am that, “I” am cold, “I” am hot, “I” am clear in my thinking, “I” am confused in my thinking. “I” am this person who was born; “I” am this person who is growing older; “I” am this person who will die. This is who I am. It never occurs to us that this “I” is an experience just the same as being hot or cold, having good thoughts or bad thoughts.
If we enquire further, we recognise that something, which we can never find, is knowing this “I”. And if we ask who it is that is knowing this “I”, the only answer we can give is that I am knowing the “I”. This puts us in a peculiar position. If I am something that can never be known, but I am always identifying with something that can be known, that is simply a passing experience, then it must mean that I am divided from myself, separated from myself.
This has to be as unenviable position, because happiness is always in wholeness, not in division. Hell means division, to be separated from. Heaven means harmony. Therefore, we need to have a harmony or union between that which I can never know, but is what knows everything else including the experience of an ego—and the ego “I.” We require a union, a harmony between what we are experiencing and the ultimate experiencer.
How to bring about that harmony, that union? We have to actually bring into our field of experience a new factor. That factor is the knowledge that who we really are is much vaster, much more subtle than what we have been thinking we are. In other words, we must broaden our consciousness, lift ourselves out of ourselves. That is the purpose of all our spiritual practices.
But again, no matter how broad our experience, how sublime our experience, we’ll be caught up in it unless there is a constant reminder that ultimately we are That that knows all experience—no matter how sublime, no matter how universal the experience. This knowledge can only be retained in our consciousness through a spirit of profound humility, of surrender, of knowing that we can never know the ultimate knower. It is this profound humility that is the goal of the spiritual life. It is this profound humility that keeps us in touch with our ultimate truth and that recognises that everything comes from that ultimate, unknowable truth.
Excerpts from: We are the Ultimate Knower - Early Morning Meditation Talksby Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda
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Soham Dhyana
Spiritual Message for the Day – Soham Dhyana by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 12 September 2014 14.34 EST | New York Edition** |
Soham Dhyana
Divine Life Society Publication: Essence of Jnana Yoga - Mind-Its Mysteries and Control by Sri Swami Sivananda
The effort to keep the mind always concentrated on Atman or Brahman is what is called Atma-Vichara.
Till the blissful Jnana dawns on you, you should do constant and intense Sadhana. You must not stop thinking of Brahman (Brahma-Chintana) even for half a second, even for the time taken for one winking. You must become Nididhyasana-Parayana (one whose sole refuge is meditation on OM with feeling and meaning). Then only Brahma-Jnana is possible.
You will have to destroy the Jiva-Bhavana by entertaining the opposite ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ Bhavana. The Jiva-Bhavana is created by the Vyavaharic Buddhi. You will have to destroy this kind of Vyavaharic Buddhi by developing the Suddha Buddhi or pure reason.
Although you see your body and the world, they really exist not. Never move a fraction of an inch from your established position in Atman. Constantly think that you are the all-pervading Atman (Chidakasa). Even if you are in the mouth of a machine-gun, repeat “Soham”-“Soham”-“Aham Brahma Asmi.” Roar like a lion. Fear comes only when you identify yourself with this perishable, fleshy body. If you identify yourself with the infinite, eternal immortal Atman, you will become at once absolutely fearless. Fear is an imaginary modification of the mind of an Ajnani.
Find out your centre. Rest in your centre or equilibrium. That centre is Atman or Brahman or the One Truth that is shining in your heart from eternity to eternity. If you can rest in your centre, neither trouble nor tribulation, neither loss nor disappointment, neither grief nor sorrow can affect you and throw you off the balance.
If you can keep yourself up in tune with the Infinite, you will have a poised and balanced mind. Nothing can hurt you. You will be always in joy, because you are identifying yourself with Atman. You are resting on the Highest Self. Even though Mansoor and Shams Tabriez the great Sufi Jnanis, were flayed alive, they never felt any sort of pain. They simply uttered ‘Analhaq’ (I am He). Every drop of blood that fell down also uttered ‘Analhaq.’ They were always in the bliss of Atman. Look at this marvel. These are the real Jnanis. They showed their power and knowledge of Atman.
A small fishing boat is tossed about severely hither and thither even by ordinary waves of a river. But, a big steamer remains unshaken even though violent waves dash against it with tremendous impetuosity. Even so, a man of the world with a fickle mind is tossed about hither and thither even by the small waves of Raga-Dvesha of the mind; whereas a saint or a Jivanmukta with a balanced and serene mind remains in the world quite steady without being in the least affected by the stormy waves of troubles, tribulations, miseries, afflictions, etc. He is always resting peacefully in the perpetual calm of Atman or the Absolute Self.
Whenever you are much worried, whenever you get heavy depression, whenever you get severe attacks of pain, think you are Atman, full of Ananda. Withdraw the mind from objects and worldly thoughts and fix it on Atman. Enter a solitary room and assert: “I am Anandamaya Atman. How can there be pain there? Pain belongs to the mind. It is a mental creation. I am above mind. Atman is an ocean of Ananda. Atman is a storehouse of Ananda, power and knowledge. I feel that I am Suddha Chaitanya, all-pervading consciousness which is at the back of all these forms, at the back of mind. I am Atman. I am all Ananda.” You will derive immense joy, power and exhilaration by this practice.
Strangle every thought of deficiency, imperfection, weakness, inferiority. Even if you have nothing to eat, no cloth to wear, even if you suffer from a terrible incurable disease, cling tenaciously to the ideas, “I am God. I am perfect. I possess everything. All health I am. All joy I am.” Remember that to be your right mental attitude.
“I am that Atman or Brahman which is Eka (One), Chidakasa, Akhanda (without parts, indivisible), the Self of all beings (Sarvabhutantaratma).” Try to get established in this Bhava with all efforts (Prayatna). Then the Chanchalata of the mind will vanish. Then you will get eternal bliss. You will become a Jivanmukta. There is not an atom of doubt on this point.
Imagine that you hold the whole world in your womb, in the physical ether which is again supported in your own Svarupa (Chinmaya) body (Chidakasa, Jnana-Vigraha). Then the ideas of externality and separateness will vanish. There is nothing outside you. There is nothing outside Brahman.
Excerpts from: Soham Dhyana: Essence of Jnana Yoga - Mind-Its Mysteries and Control
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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Happiness Arises out of Freedom from Bondage
Spiritual Message for the Day – Happiness Arises out of Freedom from Bondage by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 11 September 2014 15.15 EST | New York Edition** |
Happiness Arises out of Freedom from Bondage
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 9 – The Meaning of True Knowledge by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The aspiration for God, the union with the great ideal of yoga, is love, no doubt, but it is not love which is the other side of hatred. We cannot love a thing unless we hate something else, because love is a concentration of consciousness by the exclusion of factors which are not connected with this concentration; so, that exclusion is hatred. But in the movement of consciousness towards the destination of yoga, there is no exclusion; there is only inclusion. Nevertheless, in all practices of yoga and forms of religion there is an insistence on excluding something.
Life in a monastery, a life of asceticism, sannyasa, or a life of a monk, a religious man, a spiritual recluse, implies a sort of dissociation or exclusion for the sake of a holy pursuit. Every holy man is a renounced person. But, what has he renounced? We have, generally, a very simple and commonplace definition of dissociation, exclusion and austerity. They are things which are well known to everybody.
But the salvation of the spirit does not seem to consist of the dissociation of itself from factors with which it is, somehow or other, associated at the back. The spirit is associated with all things in one way—though, in another way, it is not so associated. The spirit is pure I, complete Self, and not an object. The factor which somehow introduces itself into the selfhood of consciousness as an object thereof is the thing that is to be renounced.
We renounce objects. We are told again and again that objects of sense have to be renounced for the sake of the pursuit of the spiritual ideal. We have to understand, first of all, what an object is, in order that we may renounce it. An object is not necessarily that which we touch with our hands or see with our eyes, but this is the general notion that we have about objects. House and property, father, mother, brothers, sisters and relations are all objects which have to be renounced in the interest of the spiritual goal. But the spirit, or the soul—the consciousness within us—is bound by something which is very peculiar. It is bound by a conviction that there is something outside it. As long as this conviction continues, it cannot renounce that which it regards as existent outside it. One cannot go against one’s own conviction. It is a very difficult, hard thing to do.
Let any renouncer dispassionately analyse his own mind. Is he convinced that there are things outside him, or not? To what extent is this conviction deeply rooted in his consciousness? Or because of a religious admonition are we estranging ourselves from the objects?
Salvation is not such an easy thing. Moksha is hard to attain because, somehow or other, we get caught in a vicious circle by any amount of effort on our part, due to a subtle, small mistake that we commit—though it may be little, like a sand particle sticking to the eye. Whatever be the extent of our religious and spiritual aspiration, we are somehow convinced that there are things outside us. This conviction is our bondage, and not the things themselves. Therefore, bondage is an idea.
We have heard it said that mind is the cause of bondage —mana eva manushyanam karanam bandha mokshayoh— but do we realise why the mind alone is the cause of bondage, and not anybody else? It is because the mind is only a conviction; it is not a substance. A conscious affirmation in a particular point in space is called the mind; it may be within a body or outside a body. A conviction is bondage. A conviction is, also, freedom. So, from one conviction which is bondage, we have to release ourselves and enter into a larger conviction which shall be our freedom.
The world is mental; it is not physical. If the physical world is there, let it be there. We are not going to be concerned with it. We are not bound by it. We are bound by the fact of our conviction that it is there outside us; and, the conviction is a part of our very existence itself. As long as I am, you also are. But there is no ‘you are’ for God. Here is the distinction between the I of God and the I of man or the I of anybody else.
It is like peeling off our own skin when we try to practise real renunciation or austerity in the true spiritual sense. We are releasing ourselves from entanglement in the lower affirmation or conviction that there is a reality external to the self, because if the external is really there, attachment is unavoidable. As long as there is a conviction that the external is there, love and hatred cannot be avoided. How can we avoid being conscious of the existence of a thing which we are convinced exists? An attitude towards it has to be developed. We either like it, or we do not like it, or we are indifferent towards it.
Renunciation is neither liking it, nor not liking it, nor being indifferent towards it. All the three attitudes are out of point altogether. In true spiritual renunciation we are not liking, or disliking, or being indifferent towards things. We are rising above all three attitudes of sattva, rajas and tamas. But, what attitude can there be other than like, dislike and indifference? We are involved only with these three attitudes.
To like the world is bondage. To not like the world is bondage. To be indifferent towards its existence is also bondage. So, there is a fourth type of attitude, if at all we can call it an attitude, by which our self—our consciousness, we ourselves—attain to a freedom where we attain a different kind of conviction altogether in which these three attitudes get subsumed, included, melted into liquid, as it were, absorbed into its higher being, and we need not have any attitude at all.
Vairagya is not an attitude. It is an attainment which is deeply mystical, highly spiritual. That is why we are so happy when we attain this conviction. This is knowledge. When this knowledge arises, we are happy automatically, because happiness arises out of freedom from bondage.
Excerpts from: Happiness Arises out of Freedom from Bondage - Chapter 9 – The Meaning of True Knowledge by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Brush Yoga
Spiritual Message for the Day – Brush Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 10 September 2014 15.57 EST | New York Edition** |
Brush Yoga
Divine Life Society Publication: Yoga Samhita by Sri Swami Sivananda
Concentration of mind for which the Yogi practising the Yoga of Patanjali Maharishi has to struggle hard, comes easily and effortlessly to the Brush Yogi. The landscape before him or the inspiration within him at once subdue all other Vrittis (thought waves) and the Vritti of the Perfect Beauty alone remains behind. Perfect Beauty is the nearest approximation to God, or the Absolute. By experience and keen observation the painter or the artist discovers what is particular and uncommon in every object he sees. He has clearly understood the common nature of the objects. By long and intense contemplation, he has found out that there is some defect in every object; the same defect is not found in all objects. The particular or uncommon feature in an object is its highlight; the defects are its dark points. The artist seeking out Perfect Beauty in these objects, tries to reconstruct Nature by synthesising all the great characteristics found in various objects and by removing all the blemishes that mar the beauty of those objects. Thus he arrives at Ideal Beauty: and the method that he has adopted is precisely the same that the Jnana Yogi adopts in arriving at the consciousness of the Absolute (i.e., the method of negating all the imperfections that exist in the sense-objects as they are contradicted by others, by asserting the perfections that lie beyond these imperfections and finally by diving deep into these perfections to discover the Absolute which is Perfect, Infinite and Immortal). The artist’s studio is to him what a cave is to a Jnana Yogi.
This Ideal Beauty is not the product of the finite intellect of the artist. No artist, however much he struggles with the help of his little intellect, can ever arrive at the Ideal Beauty. Ideal Beauty is the Light that descends into his consciousness when the intellect has ceased to function. Long and protracted concentration on the Perfection which is the substratum of all imperfections in Nature, persistent application of the Neti-Neti doctrine by which all imperfections and blemishes are negated as “Not this, not this” ultimately lead the artist to the realm of the superconscious, where the unthought Truth reveals itself to the heart of the artist. In this enlightened heart is born real art. Thus the artist is a Dhyana Yogi or Raja Yogi.
This method of arriving at the Ideal Beauty precludes the artist getting attached to any particular object or conception. The real artist should be pre-equipped with the sword of discrimination with which he ruthlessly slays the imperfections and limitations that hide the spark of Perfection that is the Reality of every object. He perceives an object, at once separates the Reality from the appearance, the Substratum from the sheaths, the Truth from the limitations. No doubt it was the object that inspired him; but his inner consciousness does not receive the consciousness as it is, but the Truth underlying what appears to be. There this spark of Knowledge is added to the store of knowledge thus acquired before and the Ideal grows clearer within. A stage is soon arrived at, when the artist feels that art itself is a step in the ladder at the top-rung of which is his goal. Art, he realises, had turned his vision inwards in quest of truth. The quest now takes a different turn altogether. He feels that Ideal Beauty exists only in the Self, the Beauty of beauties. Thenceforward, he strives to realise the Self, even abandoning the art which had served only as a ladder to ascend to the threshold of Self-realisation.
That indeed is the goal of this glorious Brush Yoga. Brush Yoga includes not only the art of painting, but all the plastic arts, sculpture, architecture, even photography.
If you closely analyse the stages that precede the birth of a great work of art, you will readily discover that art is a kind of Upasana or devotional practice. First, the artist gets into the mood; his mind becomes calm and serene. It is like the stage when the aspirant is ready for meditation. With this serene mind he begins to contemplate upon a concrete object, the thing that he wishes to express in his work of art. This is the commencement of meditation. The third stage is when the object is transformed within the consciousness of the artist into a symbol. The name and the form have lost their value and out of them arises a symbol, an ideal. This ideal rising within the inward consciousness of the artist, attracts to itself, like crystal a number of other ideal concepts. This is meditation. The next stage, if it can be termed a stage, is beyond thought. It is the field of intuition. The work of art is born within the artist’s consciousness, intuitively. It is like Samadhi. Then the artist comes down to external consciousness and thinks of translating the vision into an artistic form. He selects the material and method of achieving this aim. This is more akin to the sage’s Lokasamgraha Karma, or service of humanity. The final stage is, of course, the actual reproduction on the canvas or in stone, the symbol that was intuitively born within the consciousness of the artist. This is the actual Lokasamgraha Karma of a Jivanmukta. By its very nature, all works of art share the imperfections of phenomena for that intuitive realisation of the artist is of a realm far beyond the mundane, and no brush can paint it and no chisel can shape it. It is this factor that leads the dissatisfied artist to excel himself every time, and finally to discover the Beauty of beauties within himself in his Self.
The artist is a very great Karma Yogin, too. In how many hearts devotion to God is aroused by a great work of art. The picture is so attractive that the Sadhaka very easily concentrates and meditates upon the Lord and thus attains Him. The picture speaks to him: it is not the picture, but the Lord who is present in the picture. To produce such inspiring forms is a great service to the world. These artists have rendered the greatest service to the world. They are great Yogis. Glory to the Brush Yogis! May God bless them all!
Excerpts from: Brush Yoga - Yoga Samhita by Sri Swami Sivananda
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Stages of Knowledge
Spiritual Message for the Day – Stages of Knowledge by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 9 September 2014 14.16 EST | New York Edition** |
Stages of Knowledge
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 11 The Philosophy of Religion by Sri Swami Krishnananda
It is said in the Yoga-Vasishtha that in the earliest stage of knowledge there is an inward inclination for search after truth. Self-consciousness, as it is available in the human level, is not supposed to be manifest in the lower kingdoms, the animal, the plant and the mineral. It is only at the human stage that discrimination is supposed to dawn, because self-consciousness is at the same time a capacity to discriminate and distinguish between what is proper and what is improper, and what is real and what is unreal. But it does not mean that every human being is in search of truth. While all can be regarded as men, some are, in fact, animal-men. They think like animals with an intensity of selfishness gone to the extreme, with a desire to grab and destroy and consume and with no consideration for others absolutely. This is the lowest state in which man can be evaluated. But there are superior individuals who have risen above the animal level, yet are intensely selfish nevertheless, who may be good to anyone only if the other is good to them, but bad if the other is bad to them. But man has to rise to the still higher level where he metes out only good to the other and cognises not the bad element. The good man is one who does good always, under every condition, and is not conditionally good. Beyond the good man is the saintly man, and still above, the Godman, whatever be our description of such a state of illumination.
It is only in the later stages of evolution that the spirit of search rises and fructifies in experience, firstly as a wish to be good. This is regarded as the first stage in knowledge. When man is not satisfied with the things of the world, when he begins to feel that there is something missing here, and that there ought to be a state of living superior to the earthly forms of life, and is eager to know what is behind this world, then he is in the first stage of knowledge (Subhechha).
When the enquiring spirit dawns, one does not merely rest with this spirit, he tries to work for its manifestation in practical life. One would run about here and there and try to find out how he can materialise this longing and make it a part of his living routine. Man, then, becomes a philosopher. A philosopher is in the second stage of knowledge (Vicharana). He employs his reasoning capacity and works through his logical acumen, trying to make sense out of this inward spirit of search for truth, and he utilises his whole life in study and analysis of the nature of things.
In the third stage, man becomes a truly spiritual seeker. He does not remain a professor of philosophy or an academic seeker in the metaphysical sense, but a seeker in the practical field. He begins to practise knowledge and does not remain merely in a state of searching for it. The mind is gradually thinned out of all its jarring elements and it recognises no value in life except a unitive insight into truth. Practice is the motto of the seeker. He does things, and is not content to imagine them. This is the third stage of knowledge where one starts actually doing things, because he has already risen above the state of conceptualisation, rational study and philosophising. The mind is thinned out of desires for the external (Tanumanasi).
The fourth stage of knowledge is supposed to be that state when there are flashes of the divine light appearing before the meditative consciousness like streaks of lightning (Sattvapatti). It is not a continued vision, but a passing state of exaltation. A flash does not continue for a long time. It manifests itself suddenly for a second and then vanishes as an intense beam of light. This is the fourth state of consciousness, regarded as the first stage of realisation.
The fourth stage of knowledge mentioned is considered to be the initial indication of God coming. The earlier three are only stages of search and practice. The fourth is the first encounter with the supramundane. The condition of this first stage of realisation or the fourth stage of knowledge is designated as the condition of the Brahmavit, or knower of reality, where one begins to see, actually, what is there, rather than merely think intellectually or imagine in the mind.
Then the fifth stage is described as a higher realm still, where on account of the immense joy one experiences beyond description, one is automatically detached from all objective contacts of sense (Asamsakti). One does not ‘practise’ renunciation here. One is spontaneously relieved of all longings in the same way as when one wakes up from dream there is no longing for the wealth of the dream world. There are no more realities outside, even as the objects of dream are no more realities to one who is awake.
In the sixth stage, the seeking soul becomes a Godman, a veritable divinity moving on earth, where the world is no more before him but the blaze of the all-enveloping creative spirit spread out in its splendour and glory. He sees the substance of the world and not merely the form and the name. He beholds the forms but as constituting a single interconnected whole. The veil of space and time is lifted. The conditioning factors, earlier known as space, time and cause, and the internal empirical relationships, get transcended. One enters into the heart of all things, the selfhood of every being. Light commingles with light. As a candle flame may join a candle flame, the self gets attuned to the Universal Self. Here it is not a beholding through the senses or even a thinking by the mind, but being, as such. The materiality of the world vanishes (Padarthabhavana). The world then shines as a radiance and as delight. Earlier it was iron; now it is gold. The world does not really vanish, but it has become now a different thing. It has no form; it is a mass of brilliance. The objectness of the objects has gone; the externality of things is no more; space and time do not exist; one does not ‘see’ things, for one has ‘become’ things. And, still, there is a higher communion.
The seventh stage is not a stage of beholding anything at all. There is no beholder any more. The seer is not dissociated from the seen. There is nothing to act as a bar or a distinguishing line between the subject and the object. The universe no more stands there as an object of experience, it is the Subject of All-Experience. Here, the Universal Spirit is what it is; none is there to know it, or experience it. It is experience pure. It is experience itself, not an experience of something. Nothing can be said about it, for there is none to say anything. This is the final attainment (Turiya).
The seventh stage is also called, sometimes, ‘liberation while living’ (Jivanmukti). The body may be there, but it is no more a body for the knower. What a liberated soul feels, no one else can understand. There is no standard by which one can judge that person. The state is beyond imagination. What happens to the soul in liberation, one has no means to measure or convey. The Goal of life is reached.
Excerpts from: Stages of Knowledge - The Philosophy of Religion by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma
Spiritual Message for the Day – Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 8 September 2014 14.20 EST | New York Edition** |
Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma
Divine Life Society Publication: The Philosophy of Religion by Sri Swami Krishnananda
In the knowledge process there are three ingredients involved: Pramatr, Pramana and Prameya, – the knower, the process of knowing, and the object of knowledge. The knower, or the Pramatr, comes in contact with the Prameya, or the known object, through the medium called Pramana, or the knowing process. What does one mean by these three items, – the knower, the knowing process, and the known object? The knowing process is the illuminating link connecting the knower with the object that is known. It has to be an illuminating or illumined process, because knowledge is always illumination. It is a light which is of a peculiar nature, not like others as the sunlight. It is a movement of self consciousness.
With difficulty can one explain what consciousness is. Everyone is aware that oneself is, and one need not ask for an explanation of what that phenomenon is. This clarity of one’s awareness that one exists is an illustration of what consciousness, or awareness, is, or has to be. If anybody wants to know what consciousness is, he has only to close his eyes for a few seconds, and feel how he knows that he is. This intriguing experience of one’s knowing that he is, is consciousness operating. In this consciousness of one’s being there is also the root of the urge to know that other things are also there, apart from oneself.
Consciousness of the knower is called Pramatr-Chaitanya. Chaitanya is consciousness; Pramatr is the knower. The knowing consciousness of the knower as existing in himself, or itself, is Pramatr-Chaitanya. It moves in some particular manner, or rather, it appears as if it is moving. It is omnipresent and, so, to say that it moves would be an inaccurate statement. Yet, it looks as if it is moving, for a reason which is to account for the ‘externality’ of the world of objects.
There is a thing called mind within man. The mind is charged with consciousness, as a copper wire may be charged with electricity: The wire becomes live when it allows the movement of electric energy through it. Likewise, the mind becomes live, and one says ‘the mind moves’. The wire is not electricity; even so, the mind is not consciousness. Yet, when one touches the wire, one receives a shock, because the force and the medium cannot be separated from each other. In the same way, we may say, the mind is consciousness. It is not consciousness in one way, and it is consciousness in another way. The process of the enlivening of the mind by the presence of consciousness within is the incentive given to the knowing process. It is as if life is induced into an inanimate object. The mind is an urge within to move outwardly. It is not a thing or a substance. It is a faculty which pushes everyone outside. The mind pushes itself beyond itself. And, so, when consciousness operates through the mind, it looks as if the consciousness is also drawn towards an external something. What moves actually is the mind and not consciousness. This movement of the mind attended with consciousness is called Pramana, or the knowing process.
The Vedanta psychology holds that the mind assumes the shape of its object. This form which the mind assumes is called a Vritti. A Vritti is a modification of the mind in terms of a particular object. When a form is known, or an object is contacted, the mind is supposed to envelop that object. This process of the enveloping of the object by the mind is called Vritti-Vyapti. Vyapti is pervasion. The pervasion by the mind of a particular location called the object is Vritti-Vyapti. However, it is not enough if the mind assumes merely the shape or the form of the object. One has to be aware that the object is there. This awareness that the object is there is due to the presence of consciousness in this moving process called the mind. The illumination of the presence of the form called the object is termed Phala-Vyapti. So, a twofold activity takes place when an object is known, viz., the mind pervades the form and the consciousness illumines the form. The knowledge of the object is actually the knowledge of a form. The form is made available to perception by the activity of the mind, and the awareness of it arises on account of the consciousness attending upon the mind.
The point is that the object cannot be wholly material. If it is to be material, consciousness cannot illumine it. Consciousness is qualitatively different from the object which is material, supposing that it is material. The Vedanta psychology holds that the object cannot be material because consciousness knows that the object is there, and it comes in contact with the object. This is possible only if it has some similarity with the object, which, again, makes one conclude that the principle of consciousness is somehow inherent in the object, also. This is a gradual deduction that is made from the premise that knowledge of the object is possible. The conclusion, therefore, is that consciousness is potentially inherent in the object. The Vedanta calls it Vishaya-Chaitanya (object-consciousness), and not merely Vishaya (object). Here, Vishaya-Chaitanya or object-consciousness does not mean consciousness ‘of’ the object, but object which is itself a phase of consciousness.
Consciousness is indivisible, and so it has to be infinite. It cannot be finite, for the very knowledge of the finitude of consciousness would suggest the infinitude of it. It has to be infinite, and, therefore, external to it none can be; no object can exist outside consciousness.
Thus, what is called an object turns out to be a phase of consciousness. It is a formation of consciousness itself. The Self collides with the Self; the Atman comes in contact with the Atman. This is the reason why we love the things of the world. This is the view of Sage Yajnavalkya as propounded in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. There is so much love for things because one is seeing one’s own Self in things. The attraction that one feels for the objects of the world is caused by the presence of one’s own universality hidden in the objects. Otherwise, nothing can attract anyone. One would not even know of its existence, what to speak of attraction.
The World Is a Flood of Consciousness
The knowledge process, which is the blending of the Pramatr and the Prameya through the Pramana, illustrates that the world is a veritable flood of consciousness. “Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma,” says the Upanishad; the whole universe is the Absolute appearing as if it is external to itself. The objects of the world, the things that are before everyone, are facets of consciousness. God Himself is in front of man, as it were. The Purusha Sukta of the Veda tells us that all these things that are seen are the limbs of the One Purusha, the All-Being. Every atom, every ingredient, every location or point of objectivity is the head of the Cosmic Being. God alone is. The Absolute is the only reality. This is the conclusion that metaphysical idealism draws, which does not mean that external objects do not exist. Only, the objects are not isolated material entities. Things are not what they seem.
The outermost probe of science has coincided with the innermost probe of the philosophers. The deepest self of man is identical with the outermost reality that is the universe. The Atman is Brahman. Thou art That; Tat Tvam Asi.
The process of knowledge has led to a grand discovery that there is One Being in the universe and that God alone exists.
Excerpts from: Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma - The Philosophy of Religion by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Be Free in Action
Spiritual Message for the Day – Be Free in Action by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 7 September 2014 19.11 EST | New York Edition** |
Be Free in Action
Divine Life Society Publication: Secret of Karma Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
Every thought and every deed of yours will generate certain tendencies which will affect your life here and hereafter. If you do good actions with a selfless spirit, you will soar high into the regions of bliss and peace. As you sow so shall you reap.
Good actions generate good thoughts. Wrong actions bring pain, misery and unhappiness. Everyone of us is governed by the law of action and reaction. Your present personality is the total result of your previous actions and thoughts. Your future depends upon your present action. Man moulds his own destiny.
Actions by themselves do not bind a person. It is the attachment and identification in regard to the work that binds us and brings pain and misery. It is the motive that binds you. It is the motive that liberates you.
Work, but work with detachment. In every act kindle the light of divine love. Always remember your essential divine nature and act in the world in a spirit of divine dedication. This world is ruled by the Lord’s eternal laws. In the east, the great law of cause and effect is called karma. In the New Testament the same truth is expressed in the words: “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap”.
Actions produce samskara (mental impressions) that coalesce and form tendencies. Tendencies develop into habits and character. Evil deeds generate bad character.
Actions, without the idea of agency, without expectation of fruits, without attachment to the action, and being balanced in success and failure, will not bind you. Selfless actions purify your heart and lead to the attainment of wisdom of the self.
Karma Yoga is skill in action. It is a great art. You have to take as much interest in each act that you perform daily, as an artist takes in his dearly loved paintings. Note how, after keen deliberation, the artist puts the brush. His entire mind is centred on the work in hand; his entire being is focussed on the painting he works, forgetting his very own self. This should be your attitude. Take this interest in all that you do and at the same time be detached from all your actions. Then you will not be bound to samsara (the wheel of birth and death).
Excerpts from: Be Free in Action - Secret of Karma Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
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