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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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Thoughts of Vedanta
| **Baba Times Digest© | 18 April 2014 18:4 EST | New York Edition** |
| Thoughts of Vedanta
Divine Life Society Publication: - Jnana Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
VEDANTA is that sublime philosophy which teaches that the individual soul is identical with the Supreme Soul and removes the illusion of the Jiva. Vedanta is the science of Atman that helps the aspirants to eradicate fear, sorrow, grief, delusion and to realize the Self. Vedanta is that magnanimous philosophy which raises the ignorant Jiva to the sublime heights of Brahmanhood. Mere theorizing of Vedantic principles will not do. You should live in the spirit of Vedanta. You should become a practical Vedantin. You should realize this Atman which Vedanta treats of. Then only you will become a liberated sage.
Brahman or Atman or the Supreme Self is self-luminous. Brahman cannot be manifested by anything else. Brahman manifests everything. The doctrine of self-luminosity is one of the foundational tenets of Vedanta. Atman gives light to the sun, moon, stars, lightning, fire intellect and senses. By the light of the Atman all these shine but they cannot illumine the Atman.
The ultimate principle or Atman or Brahman which is formless, colorless, fearless, timeless, spaceless, limitless, attributeless, endless and beginningless shines eternally and everywhere behind the names and forms. Vedanta treats of this ultimate Truth or Supreme Principle.
This world of names and forms is constantly changing. At the back of the ever-changing objects there is the changeless, eternal, immortal Brahman or the Supreme Self. He who realizes this Brahman attains Immortality, Freedom and Eternal Bliss.
Naturally the mind runs towards objects of the world. You will have to turn the mind inwards towards the Self (Atman) through Vairagya and Abhyasa (dispassion and practice). Constant practice is necessary to make the mind rest in the Self for ever.
Tear into pieces the veil of ignorance. Catch the fickle deer ‘the mind’ with the snare of enquiry and Brahma Chintan. Mount on the elephant of Self-knowledge and roam about freely in the hilly tracts on the highest peak of Supreme Wisdom of the Self.
Shake off the bonds of Karma through discrimination, dispassion and non-attachment. Know the secret of true bliss through concentration and meditation. Root out the passion. Embrace Peace. Enjoy the glory of Self-Bliss. Delight in the Self within.
Abandon thoughts of this little body. Rise above the worldly thoughts. Live always in the All-blissful Self. Thou art the sun, fire, sky, stars, mountains, oceans and rivers. The whole world is your body. The whole wealth of the world is yours. The whole world is your Lila. Maya is your illusory power. Exercise your power of Sat-Sankalpa. She is ever ready to fulfil your wishes. Thou art immortal, beginningless and endless. Death, sickness, sorrow, sin, old age, cannot touch thee. Feel the majesty of thy real nature. Feel, feel that thou art the all-pervading, imperishable, diseaseless, fearless Atman. Rest in that stupendous ocean of peace. Be perfectly happy.
Learn to discriminate between the permanent and the impermanent. Behold the Self in all beings and in all objects. Names and forms are illusory. Therefore sublate them. Feel that there is nothing but the Self. Share what you have, physical, mental, moral, or spiritual, with all. Serve the Self in all. Feel when you serve others that you are serving your own Self. ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself’. Melt all illusory differences. Fix the mind on the Self when you work. This is practical Vedanta. Put these things in practice in the daily battle of life. You will shine as a dynamic Yogi or a Jivanmukta.
OM is a symbol of Brahman. Meditate constantly on OM with Bhava and Meaning and realize the Self.
The illumined sage whose mind is merged in his true nature of Sat-Chit-Ananda, who has conquered the enemy ‘ignorance’, who is destitute of ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness, who has rooted out pride, selfishness, love, envy and hatred, rejoices in the ocean of boundless bliss.
A Jivanmukta or liberated sage sees only Brahman everywhere. All names and forms vanish. A worldly man beholds the illusory forms only.
The Jivanmukta has his upper shoulder as his pillow, the sky as his covering, the earth as his bed. He embraces renunciation and sleeps fearlessly anywhere without any anxiety and enjoys the supreme bliss of the Self or the unalloyed felicity of the Atman.
Feel your oneness with all. Feel your oneness with the sun, sky, wind, flowers, trees, buds, animals, stones, rivers and ocean. Realize the oneness of life, unity of consciousness. Behold the one homogeneous Self everywhere, in all beings, animals and plants.
Rise above the conventional distinctions of mundane life. Abandon the lower nature. Assume your true nature of Sat-Chit-Ananda. Meditate on the true principle of Brahman. Dispel the cloud of ignorance by the dawn of Jnana-Surya, the sun of knowledge. Extricate yourself from the three bodies and the five sheaths. Dwell in the abode of Supreme Peace. Revel in the ocean of boundless joy, O Ram!
Excerpts from:
Thoughts Of Vedanta - Jnana Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
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Parable of the Zamindar and His Agent
| **Baba Times Digest© | 17 April 2014 17:31 EST | New York Edition** |
| Parable of the Zamindar and His Agent
Divine Life Society Publication: Parables of Sivananda by Sri Swami Sivananda
A big zamindar appointed an agent over his estates. The agent had been given vast powers over the estate. People were made to obey him and believe that the power to control them, to appoint them and dismiss them vested in the agent. Though the zamindar was watching the agent and his activities from a distance, he made it look as though he was absent. Gradually, the agent grew more haughty and arrogant and began to assume the powers of the zamindar himself!
One day a Sadhu came to see the zamindar. The agent sternly rebuked the Sadhu and said: “Where is the zamindar? There is no such person here. I am the all-in-all. Whatever you want, ask from me.” The Sadhu who had wonderful powers, at once shouted out, “O zamindar, please come and enlighten this man!” The zamindar, as though he was waiting for the call, rushed in. The agent hung his head down in shame and fell prostrate at the feet of the zamindar and the Sadhu. The zamindar promptly suspended the agent and re-appointed him only when he had thoroughly realized his mistake and had sincerely vowed never to deny the sovereignty of the zamindar, but to sing his glory to all that came in contact with him (the agent).
The zamindar is the Supreme Lord. The agent is the mind. The mind is born of the Supreme Lord; it shines in His light only, and has no independent existence, in truth. But it appears as though its powers are unlimited, because the Self has appointed the mind as Its agent to carry on the Lila of the world. The mind imagines that it is the controller of the senses, that it can give power to or withdraw power from the senses. Gradually, the wicked mind begins to deny a power superior to itself. Then comes the God-realized saint who reminds the mind of the Self. But the wicked man denies the existence of the Self. “Where is the Self or God? I am the all.” But the Guru or the God-realized saint is not to be defeated so easily. He shouts the Lord’s Name in the man’s ears, and gives initiation. At once the man realizes a higher Power.
He recognizes the all-pervading, ever-present nature of the Lord. He surrenders himself to the Lord. The Lord at once dismisses the mind. When the mind vanishes, the Sadhaka enters into Samadhi and enjoys the Beatific vision. Then, when he returns from Samadhi, he is a thoroughly changed and chastened man. He vows never more to deny Him, but to sing His glory always.
Excerpts from:
Parable of the Zamindar and His Agent - Parables of Sivananda by Sri Swami Sivananda
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The Majesty of God-Consciousness
| **Baba Times Digest© | 16 April 2014 17:31 EST | New York Edition** |
| The Majesty of God-Consciousness
Divine Life Society Publication: -Chapter 9- The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The whole universe is envisaged in various facets as adhideva, adhibhuta, adhyatma, adhiyajna etc., all which somehow maintain the position of a transcendent reality. Aksharam brahma paramam – the super-cosmic aspect of the Creator is subtly maintained and that there is a graduated relationship of the individual to all these cosmical.
Inwardization leads to Universalization
The last thought – the total thought, and not one among the many thoughts, decides the future. This complete thought would be the factor that determines the future of the soul. Whatever one aspires for, that one shall attain to. Yadbhavaiti tadbhava. Social conditions and many other factors prevent inward longings from manifesting themselves in outward form, and we live a repressed life. But this repression is something like burying a seed in the ground, which will sprout itself forth one day when there is rainfall and a conducive atmosphere is manifest.
The point that we may bear in mind is that we have to be very cautious in thinking, feeling, and willing. “Whoever contemplates the Supreme Being, God Himself, that soul will enter God.”
Nothing is there outside God, nothing is superior to God, nothing external. In the earlier stages it appears that God is far away – infinite is the distance between us and God. But this doubt is dispelled when the religious consciousness deepens, and it realizes that the very being of God is the being of infinitude, eternity, and therefore there is no distance between the soul and God. The language of the Eternal is the voice of our inner conscience, and our Atman is Brahman.
God, the distant being, is also the God who is the soul of the very seeking spirit which feels God as a distant being. Thus the inwardization leads to the universalization of this concept. He is not a secretly hidden light within an individual body, but a large presence which occupies all space and all time so that outside it nothing can be – not the universe, not the individual.
Total Surrender
Timeless is God’s existence, and timeless, therefore, is God’s action in His operation. Timeless is He because He is also spaceless. Hence, the grace of God is a non-spatial and non-temporal gift. Inasmuch as it is non-temporal, it is instantaneous – just here and now. So when the soul, the seeker, the yogin, the aspirant, the devotee timelessly, spacelessly unites itself with this timeless, spaceless Being, there is a timeless and spaceless consequence that follows. There is an immediate fulfilment of all that is essential. A single thought, which is the total surrender of the whole of one’s personality to this God-Being, evokes a response which is eternal and non-spatial, and an abundance .
Everywhere He is present, sometimes more pronounced in His manifestations, sometimes not so manifest. Deluded man, totally oblivious to his glorious goal, foolish in his pursuits, regards himself as all-master in this world. A little bit of long rope is given by God Himself to every one of us, so we may live in our own fool’s paradise for the time being and we may rule in the hell that we have created here. But when adharma, which is this egotism of man, goes to heights, to the breaking-point, then God Himself cannot tolerate it anymore and there is a dissolution of the cosmos.
Total Consciousness
An integral vision is necessary to behold this integrality of existence. The superficial, phenomenal eye sees diversity everywhere, but distinction between the seer and the seen is not the tool that you can employ in the vision of the Absolute. The third eye is an integral intuition, the total consciousness, the whole of our being welling up into action – the Atman beholding Brahman.
There cannot be two kingdoms of God. If we establish our own kingdom here, on earth, vying with the eternal kingdom of the Absolute, then we may rule our kingdom well in the way we are having here in it; but this empire of ours cannot reach that divine empire.
God does not require anything from us. Nothing can be offered to God because everything belongs to Him. What can we offer to Him? Perhaps the last thing that we have is our own individuality, our egoism, our personality, our being. God asks that we may be offered to Him, and not anything that we may have. He does not want a temple to be built for Him, a house of brick and mortar, calling it a chapel or a church. He does not want any offering because we are offering to Him what does not belong to us – this is not a charity. But what we consider as our property is ourself only. The last thing that we can part with, the dearest and the nearest of our possessions, that object which we love most, it is our own self – let this love melt into God-love.
The bhakti, this devotion spoken of here, is not a little lip sympathy that we show to God. It is not a bowing of the head, it is not the folding of the hands – it is the melting of ourselves in the menstruum of God-Being.
Ananyashchintayanto mam ye janah paryupasate;
tesham nityabhiyuktanam yogakshemam vahamyaham.
Recite this sloka every day – contemplate its meaning. Nobody can harm us. There is nobody who is not under the subjection of God’s rule, and therefore when we are in communion with this Great Master of the World, the whole army of God will protect us, provided we are honestly in fraternal relation with Him and we regard Him as All-in-All. God will offer Himself only when we offer ourselves to Him – not before. Thus it is that the Self-offering of God is an automatic, instantaneous occurrence as a response to the whole-souled offering of ourselves to Him. It is not jnana, it is not bhakti, it is not yoga – it is every blessed thing. To know It, to visualize It and to enter into It, are the duties of man. Finally. God-realization is the goal of life. Thus, yoga is an art of attaining to God-consciousness.
Excerpts from:
The Majesty of God-Consciousness - Chapter 9- The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The Majesty of God-Consciousness – Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda
The Spiritual (story) message of – The Great Master of the World
If you would like to purchase the print edition or audio CD, visit:
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True Success
| **Baba Times Digest© | 15 April 2014 17:25 EST | New York Edition** |
| True Success
Divine Life Society Publication: - True Success by Swami Atmaswarupananda
(Early Morning Meditation Talks)
No matter the difficulties in the meantime, the promise of the spiritual life is a peace that passeth understanding, joy, total satisfaction. We think of these characteristics in terms of our own understanding, but our own understanding may not be the scriptural definition.
For example, one description of that exalted condition is that success and failure are the same. And yet we are urged to be determined to succeed and to do everything we can to achieve the goal; because if we sit back with the attitude that success and failure are the same, it is not likely we will make much progress in the spiritual life. Therefore, we must be determined to succeed and refuse to fail.
But then, it is the experience of most of us that our own efforts don’t seem to get us too far. And so ultimately we begin to understand that because we’re going from the known to the Unknown we need a guide. In the earlier stages normally that guide will be external, a guru, the scriptures. But finally they turn us to an inner guide. There is something within—beyond our mind—that we must rely upon for guidance. And the more we practise this, the more valid we find it to be. But still we want to succeed. We haven’t really surrendered to that inner Guide, because we have our own ideas of what success is.
But perhaps the true measurement of success is simply the degree to which we surrender to that inner guidance. If we come to recognize this, then we begin to get a glimpse of what is meant by success and failure being the same. Our only criteria of success is to depend upon that inner guidance. What the outward result of that guidance is no longer matters to us; we are living on a different basis.
This is one way of understanding the theme of the retreat: Spirituality Means Change. It means a gradual change from being determined to succeed in achieving a goal of our imagination to a recognition that true success is in letting go of all our goals, and being an instrument of that inner guidance.
There is, of course, a factor in us that does not want this surrender. That factor is what we call ego. But there is also within us a wisdom that knows that that is the goal and that that is a peace that passes understanding.
This is the change we want to bring about, a change from our own wisdom to the wisdom of our inner Self, our inner Guide. And this is possible for any of us no matter what our outer circumstances may be.
Excerpts from:
True Success by Swami Atmaswarupananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition or audio CD, visit:
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Sri Ramana Maharshi
| **Baba Times Digest© | 14 April 2014 16:51 EST | New York Edition** |
| Sri Ramana Maharshi
Divine Life Society Publication: - Lives of Saints by Sri Swami Sivananda
(Special message on the Maha Samadhi Day of Sri Ramana Maharshi)
Introduction
Sri Ramana Maharshi was born on 30th December, 1879. He was known as Venkataraman. Born in a pious middle class Brahmin family, he went to a mission school and learnt a little English.
Flight From Home
On the 29th of August 1896, Venkataraman left his home in the district of Madurai in search of his Father, Lord Arunachala, to whom he reported himself on the 1st of September 1896, thus:
O Lord, obedient to Thy call
Here have I come, deserting all,
No boon I ask; no loss bemoan,
Take me in and make me Thine own.
From that day till the end of his earthly sojourn, Venkataraman made Arunachala (Tiruvannamalai) his abode, transmitting through Mouna, the golden language of his egoless state, the Message of Eternal Truth, to the four corners of the globe.
Venkataraman left a note behind to his rebuking brother: “I have, in search of my Father, according to His command, started from this place. On a virtuous enterprise, indeed, I have this day embarked. Therefore, for this action none need grieve or trace this one. No money need be spent for searching me”.
The Great Enlightenment
“It was about six weeks before I left Madurai for good, in the middle of the year 1896, that the great change in my life took place” said Sri Ramana Maharshi, when asked by devotees as to how he was transformed, “It was so sudden. One day I sat up alone on the first floor of my uncle’s house. I was in my usual good health. But a sudden and unmistakable fear of death seized me. I felt I was going to die and at once set about thinking as to what I should do. The shock of the fear of death made me at once introspective or ‘introverted’. I said to myself mentally, ‘Now that death has come, what does it mean? Who is it that is dying? This body dies.
But with the death of my body, am I dead? Is the body I? This body is silent and inert. But I am still aware of the full force of my personality and even of the sound of I within myself as apart from the body. The material body dies, but the Spirit transcending it cannot be touched by death. I am therefore the deathless Spirit’. All this was not a feat of intellectual gymnastics, but came as a flash before me vividly as living Truth, which I perceived immediately, without any argument almost. I was something very real, the only real thing in that state, and all the conscious activity that was connected with my body was centered on that. The I or myself was holding the focus of attention with a powerful fascination. Fear of death vanished at once and for ever. The absorption in the Self has continued from that moment right up to now”.
Tapas of Maharshi
During his days of Tapas, mischievous boys pelted him with stones and hurled tiles at him; and yet Ramana was ever peaceful and calm through the strength of meditation and penance.
Ramana Maharshi was known as Brahmana Swami in Tiruvannamalai. The life of the Maharshi was one continued meditation, Ananda Anubhavam. Maharshi established peace within. He lived in the Light of the Lord within. He encouraged others to do the same thing. To him all the world was one.
Maharshi seldom talked, and whenever he did speak, he did so only because it was absolutely necessary.
His Divine Message
Ramana was a living example of the teaching of the Upanishads. His life was at once the message and the philosophy of his teachings. He spoke to the hearts of men.
The great Maharshi found Himself within himself and then gave out to the world the grand but simple message of his great life, “Know Thyself”.
“Know Thyself. All else will be known to thee of its own accord. Discriminate between the undying, unchanging, all-pervading, infinite Atma and the ever-changing, phenomenal and perishable universe and body. Enquire, ‘Who am I?’ Make the mind calm. Free yourself from all thoughts other than the simple thought of the Self or Atma. Dive deep into the chambers of your heart. Find out the real, infinite ‘I’. Rest there peacefully for ever and become identical with the Supreme Self.” This is the gist of the philosophy and teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Sri Ramana says, “The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true Self. Man’s real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true Self. Man’s search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true Self. The true Self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.
“In the interior cavity of the heart, the One Supreme Being is ever glowing with the Self-conscious emanation I…I… To realise Him, enter into the heart with an one-pointed mind—by quest within or diving deep or control of breath—and abide with the Self of self”.
Sri Ramana’s Who am I?, Upadesa Saram and Ullathu Narpathu are pearls of direct wisdom, expressed in aphoristic terseness.
Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi has shown by his lifelong Samadhi that it is still possible to realize the Supreme and live in that realization.
The Light Shines Brighter Than Ever
A meteor hit the sky at 8-47 p.m. on the 14th April, 1950, when Sri Ramana Maharshi left his mortal coil and entered Mahasamadhi.
The all-pervading Light which shone through the embodiment of that Light in Maharshi Ramana had once again resolved itself into its original state. The saint is no more in his mortal frame. But the Light of his soul is now merged in every receptive individual soul. Maharshi Ramana lives in our heart. For he had fulfilled the mission of his life. He had achieved the highest goal, Self-realization. The Light of the Maharshi’s soul shines today brighter than ever.
In the heart of humanity the saint shall live for ever, guiding, encouraging, goading and inspiring, so that millions and millions might seek and find the Great Truth that Ramana realized. His teachings imparted through all-absorbing ‘Silence’ embodied the highest ideals and the ultimate reaches in divine realization.
To pay the most befitting homage to that saintly personality is to follow his teachings and to grow up in that ideal model.
May peace be unto all!
Excerpts from:
Sri Ramana Maharshi - Lives of Saints by Sri Swami Sivananda
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The Thing to be Known
| **Baba Times Digest© | 13 April 2014 17:11 EST | New York Edition** |
| The Thing to be Known
Divine Life Society Publication: - The Thing to be Known by Sri Chidananda
May the divine grace of the Supreme Being and the loving and compassionate benedictions of the Holy Master grant that we many all live a life of simplicity and dignity, truthfulness and fearlessness, compassion and loving kindness—a life of ceaseless remembrance of God and continuous inner meditation in the midst of outer physical action and activity!
May God and Gurudev give us the gift of a synthesis of the inner and the outer. May they grant us their insight that there is neither the inner nor the outer, but there is only one single undivided God-principle to which everything is an inseparable part of Itself.
It is in dualities that we have inner and outer—action and inaction, remembrance and forgetfulness. In that state of absolute faith in the non-dual, all-pervading presence of the one Reality that is subtler than the subtlest, the self-created delusion of distinctions and the self-created delusion of the dual throng, the pairs of opposites, cease to exist, and God alone exists. So there is no possibility of there being such thoughts and such concepts as near and far, past and present, inner and outer, presence and absence, when whatever is is an eternal, all-pervading, non-dual IS of the Supreme Being.
Modern science prides itself in being impartial observers and relentless pursuers of truth. They want facts, facts that are verifiable, tangible, reproducible any number of times given the same circumstances. So they say, “We are the seekers of truth. We are in search of practical realities, of verifiable and provable facts, not in presumptions or assumptions.” They are seekers in pursuit of tangible facts, and they have marvelously succeeded in making themselves aware of ever so many facts in ever so many fields of human knowledge in this outer universe.
But our ancients experienced something without which no other experience is possible. They declared, “We have not bothered ourselves about searching, observing, experiencing and becoming aware of facts in this passing projection or manifestation. We have made our quest in another dimension of the human being, and we have discovered the fact of awareness.
“But for awareness, nothing can be cognized. But for awareness, no knowledge is possible. Knowledge itself has as its basis the knower. The knower can be the knower only if It is a center of luminous awareness, knowing all things.
It shines everywhere as awareness—prajnanam brahma. That ultimate Reality is awareness, consciousness, which existing all things become known to exist. Without consciousness there would be nothing, no knowledge. Nothing is possible. Because the irreducible, axiomatic reality or the truth is that there is a great awareness—chaitanyam sashvatam santam vyomatitam niranjnanam (…who is pure Consciousness, eternal, peaceful, beyond ether, and untainted). Beyond all categories, beyond all phenomena there is pure consciousness, which alone knows everything and is able to proclaim anything and everything.
Our scientists of the inner realm of the Spirit loudly proclaimed: “We have come across the thing to be known, knowing which everything else becomes known. It is of the nature of consciousness, awareness.”
The greatest of all knowledge is that which makes all knowledge possible, that is the alpha, the source. May you become thus blessed with that supreme experience beyond all things perceived by the senses, thought of by the mind, inferred by the intellect, felt in the deepest depths of your feelingful heart. Beyond all this is something indescribable, imponderable, which makes all these things possible—the awareness and the consciousness which says that I am.
May divine grace and the benedictions of the Master grant us that experience of pure consciousness. That consciousness is your identity. That consciousness you are. For other than That you cannot be anything else. Because that consciousness is supreme and non-dual.
That experience is peace, that experience is unutterable bliss, that experience is silence—a depth of silence where no articulate words are possible. For that experience this rare gift of the human status has been given. That is what makes it the most supreme of all gifts in spite of all things that may seem to be the contrary of peace and bliss. It is what makes the supreme gift of our human status unparalleled in value.
Knowing this to be so, may we apply ourselves with all earnestness, with total sincerity, with humility and determination. May we apply ourselves to making the highest and best use of this status, and thus putting it to the highest use attain the highest joy.
May this be the quest, and may full success be granted. May the quest cease to be, and may the experience absolute prevail in all its fullness at all times. To be established ever in that great experience is the vision of the ancients of this country, where God-realization was declared to be the highest of all goals of humanity.
Excerpts from:
The Thing to be Known by Sri Chidananda
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The Yoga of Distinction between The Field and the Knower of the Field
| **Baba Times Digest© | 12 April 2014 20:17 EST | New York Edition** |
| The Yoga of Distinction Between The Field & the Knower of the Field
Divine Life Society Publication: - Bhagavadgita – Summary of Thirteenth Discourse by Sri Swami Sivananda
In this discourse we have one of the most significant, most illuminating, most inspiring and most mystical portions of the Bhagavad Gita. The Lord gives us a wonderfully revealing insight into the human individual. It is the metaphysics of man, the unknown. The immortal Soul, with its physical embodiment, is the main theme of this discourse. The supreme transcendental Spirit, which is the eternal substratum beyond both, is also described in a wonderful manner. The knower of the Supreme Reality is instantly liberated.
The blessed Lord tells us that the knowledge of the Field and the Knower of the Field is the true knowledge. This highest and the best knowledge grants us divine wisdom and spiritual illumination that lead to divine beatitude. This body is the Field. The Immortal Soul (yourself), dwelling in the body is the Knower of the Field. Verily, it is the Supreme Being who has projected Himself and assumed the form of this Knower of the Field within this body. This self is none other than That. Thus, Lord Krishna explains the mystery of the individual soul dwelling within this mortal body. This knowledge constitutes the main subject matter of all the scriptures and the highest philosophical works.
The five elements, the ego, the mind, intellect and the ten organs, desire and aversion and such factors constitute the Field. Next follows a wonderful summing-up of what constitutes true knowledge. Then follows the declaration of the Supreme Soul, the knowledge of which grants us immortality. That Supreme Reality is the one universal Essence present everywhere. It pervades all. It shines within the inmost chambers of our heart, it is everything, and It is the one seer, the witness, the guide, sustainer, experiencer and Lord of all. One who knows this mystery is not bound by activity even in the midst of life. When we perceive this supreme Presence dwelling in all beings we cannot injure anyone. Krishna asks us to see and know the difference between the Field (body or Prakriti) and the Knower of the Field (Spirit or Purusha), and thus reach the Self. This is the teaching and the message of this illuminating discourse.
Excerpts from:
The Yoga of Distinction between the Field and the Knower of the Field - Bhagavadgita – Summary of Thirteenth Discourse by Sri Swami Sivananda
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The First Step of the Aspirant
The First Step of the Aspirant by Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 11 April 2014 15:29 EST | New York Edition** |
| The First Step of the Aspirant
Divine Life Society Publication: - The Realisation of The Absolute by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Vedanta is the Science of Reality. Reality is uncontradicted experience, the experience that is not transcended or sublated by any other experience. Naturally, Reality must be imperish-able, for perishability marks a state or a thing as unreal. Imperishability means, at the same time, unlimitedness, for limit is non-independence and non-absoluteness, which means changefulness. Changelessness is the nature of Truth. The world which we live in is characterized by change and destruction. The world includes the individual, also. The body of an individual is a part of the world as a whole. The changing character of the world is kept up by changing events, changing actions, changing thoughts and feelings. Hence, the quest for Reality must necessarily be of a nature quite different from the natural ways of the world. The seeker after the Real has to be specially equipped with the power of separating Truth from falsehood; Reality from the unreal, transient universe.
The change required of an aspirant after the Real is not an ordinary external one, but a total transfiguration of life itself. This extraordinary change in life is hard to be had; the seeker after Perfection is asked to get himself ready for this great change for good.
The immediate reality which presents itself before us is the physical body situated in the physical world. Hence the first discipline required is of bodily actions or karma. Karma has a special significance in religion and philosophy. In addition to service devoid of individualistic motive or desire, karma means the selfless performance of one’s own prescribed duty without reluctance or failure. Every person is expected to be either a brahmachari, a grihastha, a vanaprastha or a sannyasi. One should not live, as far as it is within one’s capacity, in a stage which is not one of these four. And also, a person can belong to only one ashrama at a time, not to more than one. Performance of one’s own duty means the observance of the ashrama-dharma. Nitya and naimittika karmas pertaining to an ashrama constitute svadharma or one’s own duty, as far as the Vedanta philosophy is concerned with it. Kamya-karmas are excluded from svadharma.
The rigid observance of svadharma renders the mind pure (shuddha), freeing it from mala, the gross tamas and rajas which are the deluding and the distracting factors in it. The Vedanta prescribes upasana or the worship of and meditation on the personal God (Saguna Brahman) to those who have thus already purified their nature or attained chitta-shuddhi through nishkama-karma. Upasana removes vikshepa and brings chitta-ekagrata or one-pointedness of mind. It is this prepared aspirant who is qualified with shuddhi and ekagrata of chitta that is required to possess the sadhana-chatushtaya, the ethical requisites which are directly connected with the entrance to the main court of Vedanta-sadhana.
Sadhana-chatushtaya means the fourfold equipment, the necessary means to brahma-vidya, which removes avarana or the veil of ignorance. The discussion about the adhikari is one of the main subjects in the Vedanta. The first of these sadhanas is viveka or clear discrimination between the Eternal Principle and the perishable universe of names and forms. Viveka generally comes through purva-punya or the effect of past meritorious deeds accelerated by the perception of pain and death here. Satsanga is another factor which generates viveka. Perhaps satsanga is the greatest of all the means that transforms a person from worldliness to divine life. Satsanga leads to viveka and vichara, consciousness of the inadequacy of the phenomenal world and enquiry into the nature of Truth.
Viveka creates an indifference to the world and its contents. This supreme indifference born of viveka is the second of the four means, vairagya. True vairagya is the effect of correct discrimination and not of mere failure in life. Real dispassion is the consequence of the perception of the impermanence of things, the falsity of the existence of happiness in objects, the knowledge of the distinction between Reality and appearance. This vairagya reaches even up to Brahmaloka, the highest phenomenal manifestation, and discards it as defective. Thus, vairagya is distaste for everything that is objective (including one’s own body). It is not possible to love the Eternal as long as there is faith in the impermanent. Immortality and mortality are set against each other. Passion for the world and its objects is opposed to devotion to the Supreme Being, even as darkness is against light. Where the latter is, the former is not. Vairagya is the gateway to the knowledge of what truly is.
The third of the requisites is shatsampat or the sixfold wealth of internal discipline and virtues. (1) Tranquillity of mind (shama) which is the result of viveka and vairagya, (2) Self-restraint (dama) or control of the senses which is the effect of the knowledge of the ultimate worthlessness of the forms of external objects, (3) Cessation from distracting activity connected with the world (uparati), (4) Fortitude (titiksha) or the power to endure the ravages of Nature, like heat and cold, hunger and thirst, censure and praise, insult and injury, etc., (5) Faith (shraddha) in God, Preceptor, Scripture and the Voice of one’s own purified Conscience, and (6) One-pointedness of mind (samadhana), i.e., resting of the mind in the spiritual Ideal alone to the exclusion of everything else, are the six spiritual qualities which together make up the shatsampat. All these virtues are to be developed on the basis of correct understanding or clarified intelligence and not by mere force. The greater and more purified the understanding, the more precious and diviner is the virtue.
The last of the four means is mumukshutva or an ardent yearning for freeing oneself from the ignorance of finite life. These are the important conditions that are to be fulfilled by every aspirant after the Absolute Truth, before he actually starts sadhana in its strict sense. It is to be, however, pointed out again, that none of these sadhanas is to be practiced with brute force without proper purification and a brilliant discrimination.
Excerpts from:
The First Step of the Aspirant - The Realisation of The Absolute by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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If The World is a Means, The World is Also the End
| **Baba Times Digest© | 10 April 2014 20:41 EST | New York Edition** |
| If the world is a means, the World is also the end
Divine Life Society Publication: - The Realisation of The Absolute by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The experience of the Eternal and the destruction of the ego are simultaneous events. The diverse world cannot, therefore, be said to be a necessary “means” in the individual’s struggle for Self-realisation. If the world is a means, the world is also the end, and we “reach” nothing “through” the world. A perishable means cannot lead to an eternal end. Knowledge, which is not of the world, is eternal, and it is this that is the means, and the end, too.
If the world is a means, the world is also the end,… etc.—The forms are not in the Real, but the Real is in the forms. The individual has the potentiality to realize the Absolute, not because there is any relation between the Absolute and the form of the individual or the factors which constitute the individuality independent of the Real, but because the Real is present in the individual as its essence or being. That the individual takes the help of its lower individualistic experiences in attaining the Absolute is not an argument that can favor the view that the world is real in itself. The lower experiences have a value because of the consciousness which is their reality, and this consciousness is not in any way a part or a content of the world of forms.
Consciousness is never identical with any form or condition. But still it is consciousness that gives reality to any value that is in any form or condition. It is true that in this world we take one thing as the end and another thing as the means thereto. The world is a long chain of causes and effects which have neither a beginning nor an end. This vicious circle is called samsara. But nothing in this wheel can ever touch the taintless Brahman or Pure Consciousness, and the individual, as long as it is revolving in this world-cycle, cannot have a comprehension of Brahman. What is reached through the world is the world itself, and not anything different from it.
The Absolute is beyond the relation between causes and effects, means and ends. That anything of this world can be of use in the Absolute or is a means to the knowledge of the Absolute is not true. “Verily, that Eternal is not to be attained through the non-eternal” says the Katha Upanishad. “That which is Not-Created is not (to be reached) through what is created” says the Mundaka Upanishad. We cannot jump from one realm to another unless there is something which is commonly real for both.
The individual in the world reaches the Absolute because the Absolute is the reality of both the individual and the world. The individuality or the worldly character in the individual does not reach the Absolute and is never a means to it, but the reality of the individual, which is eternal, is what realizes the Absolute, and is the real means to it. In the case of such realization, the means should not be different from the end in any way. Even a broken needle or a piece of straw from this world cannot be taken to the Absolute. The world of forms is not a means to Knowledge, for form and Knowledge are contrary to each other.
But, then, does it mean that the world is completely estranged from Brahman? Definitely not. If there is no relation of the world to Brahman, there would be no such thing as the individual’s attainment of Immortality. The truth of Brahman is present in every form of the world, and the world exists because of the existence of Brahman. It is the reality in the world and not the form of the world that is the link between the world and the Absolute. We reach Brahman through the reality of Brahman present in us and in the world, and not through the constitution of our individuality which is a group of forms, or through the world which is also a huge mass of forms. It was already observed that when the world is denied as unreal, it is its form, and not its essence or fundamental being, that is thus denied. The essence of the world is Brahman.
Excerpts from:
If The World Is a Means, the World is also the End - The Realisation of The Absolute by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Brahman - The Essence of Existence
| **Baba Times Digest© | 9 April 2014 20:41 EST | New York Edition** |
| Brahman - The Essence of Existence
Divine Life Society Publication: Moksha Gita by Sri Swami Sivananda, Commentary by Swami Krishnananda
The Guru said:
Salutation to Sat-Chit-Ananda Para-Brahman, that glorious first Preceptor, who is self-luminous, eternal, indivisible, pure, spotless, desireless, attributeless, timeless, spaceless, changeless,
beginningless and endless.
The greatest and the First Preceptor is the Ocean of Satchidananda. It is the Inner Reality or the central Being of all. The promptings of the innermost Light of the Self alone are responsible for the spiritual progress of the individual. Even seeking a Preceptor will be impossible if the Permanent Self within does not throw the discriminative Consciousness upon the individual or the Jiva. The proper grasping of the truths of Vedanta and the rapt contemplation on the Reality are the effects of the spiritual consciousness already existing in the aspirant in a potential condition. If not, none could communicate knowledge to another individual. The transmission of knowledge from one person to another presupposes the background of a universal consciousness that keeps beings in unison. This permanent verity is Satchidananda or Existence-Knowledge-Bliss which is therefore the Guru of all gurus, the Source of Light, Wisdom, Power and Bliss.
Satchidananda is self-luminous, for it is the very existence of eternal Consciousness. It is undivided, Akhanda-Ekarasa, for it is homogeneous and is without internal or external differentiation. There is no Swagata, Swajatiya or Vijatiya Bheda in Brahman or Satchidananda. It is One Mass of Brilliance and unblemished Grandeur of Divine Existence. It is pure because it is untainted by thought or objectification. It is untouched by the diversifying Prakriti and is desireless, for it is the Height of all Perfection. It is Bhuma or the Fullness of Life. It is attributeless, for the positive and the negative natures react with one another and get fused in it. It is spaceless and timeless, for space is a special mode of particularization in Being and time is closely connected with space and Brahman or Satchidananda is without any particularization whatsoever. Space and Time are individualized objectifications which are born of the self-limitation of a center of consciousness. Hence the changeless Reality which is ever Self-satisfied is beginningless and endless, for Impartite Existence in the Wholeness of its character cannot have motion in Itself and is, therefore, an inexplicable Being which is hard even to imagine. That is the Truth of all truths, “Satyasya Satyam” or the Supreme Brahman of the Upanishads. That is the Goal of all quests. That is the object of Meditation. That is the Ideal to be attained by one and all. That is the Essence of Existence.
Brahman cannot be defined. To define Brahman is to deny Brahman.
The only adequate description of Brahman is a series of negatives.
That is the reason why the Upanishads declare “Neti-Neti” “not this, not this.”
To define Brahman is to deny the essentiality of its all-inclusiveness. For, definition cannot but be partial. When it is said that Brahman is “something,” it is simultaneously asserted thereby that something is “not” Brahman. But such a method of defining Brahman is incorrect, for there is not anything which is not Brahman. Brahman is everything that the mind can think of and which is even unthinkable. If Brahman is consciousness, the unconscious objects are excluded from it. If Brahman is Bliss, the individuals filled with grief are excluded from it. If Brahman is Being, it cannot be said what non-being is, though non-being is not. Hence all definitions center themselves in aspects which are accepted as pleasant to the individuals and all unpleasant experiences are cast off as not belonging to Brahman. Such a narrow conception of Truth may be valid with respect to individual happiness but not to Truth as it is. Truth or Brahman excludes none, none is dear to it, none is its enemy. There is nothing pleasant to it, nothing is unpleasant, nothing good to it, nothing bad. Such an inscrutable Being is Brahman. It cannot be defined by any positive characteristics. It can only be said what it is “not,” but we cannot say that Brahman is “like this.”
Hence, the only adequate description of the nature of Brahman that we have to resort to is a series of negatives, “not this, not this.” After denying everything that is relational, what remains is Brahman. This is one of the methods of Vedantic Meditation, the negative method which arrives at Truth by denying the appearance of untruth. The positive method of Meditation conceives of Brahman as Satchidananda and asserts its absoluteness and tries to dissolve plurality, duality and individuality in that Glory of Eternity.
Excerpts from:
Brahman-The Essence of Existence - Moksha Gita by Sri Swami Sivananda, Commentary by Swami Krishnananda
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