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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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The Real Cause of Suffering
The Real Cause of Suffering by Swami Atmaswarupananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 20 March 2014 16:12 EST | New York Edition** |
The Real Cause of Suffering
Divine Life Society Publication: The Real Cause of Suffering by Swami Atmaswarupananda
As human beings, we all want to be happy. And one of the ways to be happy is to feel that everything is okay. The world is okay, and I am okay. But the trouble is, the world doesn’t seem to be okay, nor do we seem to be okay. Therefore, in order to be happy, most people live in some form of state of denial or escape.
This was not the teaching of the Eastern sages, at least on this level. They declared that this life is fundamentally suffering, and, therefore, if you want to be happy, you have to find another solution. Sometimes that solution was to get to heaven or to have a better birth.
But that’s in the future. We want to deal with our situation right now. And if we do, we have to try to understand one fundamental fact. Suffering could be said to have two aspects—one that we can’t do much about, and one that we can do something about. For example, if we have chest pains, those pains are suffering. But the real suffering is not the pain; the real suffering is worrying that we are having a heart attack. In other words, suffering is caused by our interpretation of our situation.
The same applies to almost everything around us. Suffering is caused by birth, death, sickness, old age and pain according to the philosophers, but the real suffering is caused by our attitude. If we see birth, death, sickness, old age and pain as natural phenomena, there is a minimum of suffering. If we have a different attitude, it can cause great suffering.
Fundamentally if we look at our inner self, we will discover that it is what we think about ourselves that determines how much suffering we’re undergoing. That frequently causes a state of anxiety; perhaps anger is always there, perhaps jealousy, perhaps greed, perhaps sadness. Something is there that is our real suffering and determines how we meet life. It is not the outer things that are the cause of our suffering, but how we react to them. What is left over when there is no outer stimulus is what is important.
The key to solving the problem is to recognize that these inner negative states, which seem to be at the core of our being, really are not at the core. There is something within us that is more fundamental, that is aware of all these states. It has the ability, not necessarily to get rid of these states, but to objectify them rather than identify with them.
Normally we do this by offering everything to God, by surrendering, by repeating God’s name or through introspection. The objective is to not tackle these things directly, but rather to identify with that which is aware of them. This is the purpose of all our spiritual practices. And the more we go to this deeper depth of ourselves, the less power these negative states will have over us.
So, we can say that life is fundamentally suffering, but at a deeper level it is all divine. And the scriptures tell us that not only is Divinity beyond all suffering, but that That is what we are. So our solution is not so much at the physical and mental level as it is at the level of our identity: Believe the scriptures and the gurus when they tell us that we are That. Recognize that we are the witness of all these states, and allow the healing to take place.
Excerpts from:
The Real Cause of Suffering by Swami Atmaswarupananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition or audio CD, 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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Mind in various states
Mind in various States
| **Baba Times Digest© | 19 March 2014 20:30 EST | New York Edition** |
Mind and its various states
Mind takes various states and phases like how ice (solid), water (liquid, slightly subtle) and vapour (gas, more subtle). During dream, the mind is like water, in dream same water splits into various names, forms and shapes and appears as the self being present in the dream and various objects and people. For example, if a tiger chases you in dream, a small potion of the mind stuff (like water) is able to wake you up. So a small amount of water is able to shift the entire mass of the water to another state like a solid state (like the wake state). In wake state the universe as we perceive is nothing but the same stuff from cosmic mind, but very solid. In deep sleep state the water turns into gas and the apperances of objects and people ceases. But when we return to wake state, there is no re-collection of the gas state ! We can only infer that there was some awareness or conciousness of the gas state as memory is not possible without any experience at all. So the re-collection of the gas state demonstrates that we had been existing in a more subtle state than the gas state which was watching the so called ‘nothingness’ and registered an experience which we recall later.
Similarly in wake state although the entire universe is the cosmic mind stuff, a Guru (is also a cosmic mind stuff) in the form of tiger can wake us up and move us to Awakened state (how we woke up from dream by a tiger) !
All these concepts and ideas, are derived from our Great Swamiji Krihnanandaji (Divine Life Society)’s wirings and speeches. Hari Om Guruji, pranams !
(This is the personal opinon of the writer and may not be accurate and / or may not represent any other materials)
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Negative Solutions Will Not Work
Negative Solutions Will Not Work by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 19 March 2014 20:17 EST | New York Edition** |
Negative Solutions Will Not Work
Divine Life Society Publications – A New Beginning by Sri Swami Chidananda
You are your own very best friend. Within you there exists total solutions to all problems in your life, total solutions, not negative solutions. The ostrich also has got a solution - a negative one. If someone comes to attack it, it does not want to feel threatened; it buries its head under the sand. Then it cannot see anyone attacking it. Like the ostrich, people try to have a negative solution. “No, there is no enemy.” “Why?” “I don’t see anyone.” And so they think that they have solved the problem. But this kind of solution - burying the head in the sand - does not work, because the attacker comes and kills the bird.
There is a lovely story in Brindavan in connection with child Krishna. He was troubling His mother to give Him milk. She said: “What do you mean … I’ve just now given you milk … and it is still not time for the next … “When is it time?” the child asked. “Night time” said the mother. “What do you mean by night time?” “When the sun sets, when it is dark, that is the time for your supper. At that time you can have milk.” “What do you mean by ‘dark’?” “Dark” is when you cannot see anything, when nothing is visible. Then is the time to drink milk.” So the child Krishna closed His eyes and said, “Mother! It is dark and I can’t see anything. Nothing is visible. So now … please … it is time for my … give me my milk”. This also is a type of solution! It is a very clever solution.
In the case of the ostrich, it was a foolish solution. In the case of child Krishna, it was a very clever solution. But both of them do not achieve anything. But solutions that are contained within you for all problems of life - those solutions are positive, creative. Because, everything here is creative. Life is an evolution; it is an upward ascent. It is a process which is progressive, not regressive. Neither is it stagnant. Life is neither stagnant nor regressive; it is progressive. The law of life is progression, ascent into a state of perfection. The Divine Plan of God for man, for each individual soul, is for the individual soul to become like Him, to become like the Creator who made him. So, that is the Divine Plan of the Maker for each individual soul He sends forth here, made in His own image, fully divine. Jivatma Paramatma Ke Amsa Hai. Divinity is your goal, and therefore, all the potential for overcoming everything, for solving everything and arising victorious and attaining the Goal has been put into you by the Good God who made all things great and small.
So, within you lies a total solution to all problems. There is a strength to support every weakness of yours. There is a light to banish every darkness that lurks within you. And there is a total force working within you, as it is working within every little egg laid by a bird in its nest, as it is working in every seed which contains the potential for a tree, as it is working in every chrysalis within which there is held a potential butterfly with beautiful wings. Even as such perfection lies in all these things, within you is the potential for Godhead, for God-experience, for divine perfection. Within you is the potential for Satchidananda consciousness and liberation. Within you is the light to overcome all darkness. And you yourself are your best friend in this world, in this life.
Excerpts from:
Negative Solutions Will Not Work - A New Beginning by Sri Swami Chidananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition or audio CD, visit:
The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:
generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
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The Yoga of Wisdom and Realisation
The Yoga of Wisdom and Realisation by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 18 March 2014 20:35 EST | New York Edition** |
The Yoga of Wisdom and Realisation
Divine Life Society Publication: - Bhagavadgita – Summary of Seventh Discourse by Sri Swami Sivananda
Sri Krishna tells Arjuna that the supreme Godhead has to be realized in both its transcendent and immanent aspects. The Yogi who has reached this summit has nothing more to know.
This complete union with the Lord is difficult of attainment. Among many thousands of human beings, very few aspire for this union, and even among those who aspire for it, few ever reach the pinnacle of spiritual realization.
The Lord has already given a clear description of the all-pervading static and infinite state of His. Now He proceeds to explain His manifestations as the universe and the power behind it. He speaks of these manifestations as His lower and higher Prakritis. The lower Prakriti is made up of the five elements, mind, ego and intellect. The higher Prakriti is the life-element which upholds the universe, activates it and causes its appearance and final dissolution.
Krishna says that whatever exists is nothing but Himself. He is the cause of the appearance of the universe and all things in it. Everything is strung on Him like clusters of gems on a string. He is the essence, substance and substratum of everything, whether visible or invisible. Although everything is in Him, yet He transcends everything as the actionless Self. Prakriti or Nature is made up of the three Gunas or qualities—Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. These three qualities delude the soul and make it forget its true nature, which is one with God. This delusion, termed Maya, can only be removed by the Grace of the Lord Himself.
Thus far Arjuna has been taught the highest form of devotion, which leads to union with God in His static aspect as also with His dynamic Prakriti. Krishna tells him that there are also other forms of devotion which are inferior as they are performed with various motives. The distressed, the seeker of divine wisdom, and he who desires wealth, worship Him, as also the wise. Of these the Lord deems the wise as dearest to Him. Such a devotee loves the Lord for the sake of pure love alone. Whatever form the devotee worships, the ultimate goal is the Lord Himself. The Lord accepts such worship, knowing that it is directed to Him only.
Excerpts from:
The Yoga of Wisdom and Realisation - Bhagavadgita – Summary of Seventh Discourse by Sri Swami Sivananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition or audio CD, 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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Plato and Patanjali
Plato and Patanjali
| **Baba Times Digest© | 17 March 2014 17:30 EST | New York Edition** |
The art of perception
Many times we ask ourselves, when we say we must withdraw from externalities and outer world (in the process of Yoga or meditation), what do we really mean? When we say everything (including every atom or electrons) in the Universe is THE ABSOLUTE BRAHMAN, then are we withdrawing from Brahman Himself?
When we see the thing in front of us as a ‘Wall’, it ceases to be The Brahman ! That is the problem. The name and form associated with the essential substance of anything is the problem. The name and form arise out of Space and Time perceptions which are fundamental qualities of mind. When you say ‘Pot’, you actually mean the name and form of the substance it is made of (clay) because the substance is eles where also, you can not call that as only ‘clay’.
Patanjali says, there are three features any objects exhibits. Firstly the substance it is made of and the essence that makes the substance that thing (which is independent of anything else). Secondly the chracteristics or the ‘State’ which makes it only that thing and not something else, mutual exclusion property (a cow is different from a tree) also can be called as name and form (dependent of perceptions). Thirdly in the process of perception, there are three different things involved. The Seer, the seen and the process of seeing. Only that thing which is not involved in any of these three can say that these three things are different from each other, because if itself involved in any of these three, then it will know the difference ! So there is something above these three which makes the perception complete and the same time not involving itself in the the process of perception (Transcendent and Immanent). Patanjali says the correct meditation is to focus on the Substance and not on the name and form which are caused by space and time (so think beyond space and time !)
Plato’s concepts align well with this theory, he says ‘Horseness’ is different from ‘Horse’. The Horse is the basic substance but only the ‘horseness’ in our mind is causing the perception of the horse complete, without horseness in our mind we can not perceive the horse. So ‘horseness’ comes first and then the ‘horse’, which is a basic ‘Idealistic’ concept. The ‘horseness’ creates the ‘horse’. The ‘horseness’ for Plato is same as name and form for Patanjali (the second feature). The ‘horse’ for Plato is the same as ‘Essence’ for Patanjali (first feature).
All these concepts and ideas, are derived from our Great Swamiji Krihnanandaji (Divine Life Society)’s wirings and speeches. Hari Om Guruji, pranams !
(This is the personal opinon of the writer and may not be accurate and / or may not represent any other materials)
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Some Light on Yoga Practice (Part II)
Some Light on Yoga Practice (Part II) by Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 17 March 2014 17:19 EST | New York Edition** |
Some Light on Yoga Practice (Part II)
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 6 The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda
** “Yoga is union with the ultimate state of things, not with things as they appear.”
(Click here to read Part I)
If The Absolute is everything, what am I withdrawing myself from?
Sometimes doubts arise in the mind. “From what am I withdrawing the mind? If Brahman is everywhere, if the Absolute is everything, whatever I think in the mind is the Absolute only. So what is it that I am withdrawing myself from? If I think of some object, it is a shape of the Absolute. It is a form taken by Brahman. So am I withdrawing the mind from Brahman itself, while my intention is the realization of Brahman? What is self-control?” These doubts may come to the mind of even experienced sadhakas or seekers.
It is true that the Absolute is everything. The Supreme Being is manifest as all these things. The Absolute, or Brahman, is the Atman; it is not a vishaya, or an object of sense. So when we look upon this wall as an object outside, it has ceased to be the Absolute, though it is true that ultimately, in its essence, it is that. The mistake is not in the substance of the object as such, or the astitva or existence of the object, but in the nama and the rupa, the name and the form of the object, which is the effect of the externalization or the separation of the object from our consciousness.
Name and form
Name and form have to be distinguished from the existence, or pure being, of the object. This shape of mine has risen on account of the space and time factors interfering with the being that I am. When I say there is a vessel or a pot, what I actually speak of is the shape which the substance has taken; it is not the substance itself that I am referring to, because that substance is elsewhere also, not only here. This particular shape, pot, is the space-time factor involved in that substance we call clay. So the entire problem is due to space-time. It is not due to the substance as such.
Thus, the interference of the so-called factors of space-time in the substance of the Absolute is the cause of the manifestation we call this vast universe. Therefore, self-control, control of the senses, mind control, yoga practice, whatever it is, is not a withdrawal of the mind from the substance of the object, which is the selfhood of things, but from the name and the form which are the external characters of the object.
Space-Time
Space and time are part and parcel of our experience itself and, therefore, we cannot say anything about them. They are expressional habits of the mind, they are the factors which pull consciousness in a particular direction called externality, and yoga practice is nothing but the subdual of the character of the mind from its movement in terms of space and time.
So the control of the mind, or withdrawal of the senses, is a very difficult task. We are always told by religions that we have to renounce things and the world in order to reach God. But we renounce the substance itself, together with the name and the form. This is a mistake arising on account of the incapacity of the mind to distinguish between the name and form, and the existence as such.
It is not the world that we have to reject. The worldness in the object, the externality in the object, and the non-selfhood, anatmatva, in things have to be thrown off. We think that to leave the house and to go to a forest is renunciation. Even in the forest, we are in the world; the world has not gone out of us. The idea that there is a world outside us is to be abrogated. A little closing of the eyes, a little japa and a little breathing will not make us a yogi. The intellect is a terrible hindrance; it will never allow us to grasp the truth of things.
Yoga proper is an internal psychological technique
It is the most difficult of things to conceive because the mind thinks of an object even in the act of rejecting the object. The objectness does not leave us, just as when we love a person or thing, we think of that person; and when we hate that person also we think of him. Merely because we hate a thing, it does not mean that it has gone out of our mind. So, even renunciation may be a bondage. The problems are not outside. They are not in the world; they are not caused by people; we are our problems.
This habit of thinking in terms of non-self, anatman, externality, space and time has to be removed. Then the world becomes something not intended to be rejected but absorbed into our Self, because the astitva, or the being of the world, is the Atman of the Absolute, which is the same as ours.
The ultimate Purusha is supposed to be realized by an internal movement, which is not a movement towards a place or some object. The movement to God does not mean movement in space; it is a conscious transfiguration that is taking place inwardly. It is a universalisation that is taking place gradually, which looks like an inwardness on account of the Atmanhood present there. This is yoga.
Grace of God
We are in a world of great complexities, diversities and misconceptions which sidetrack us every moment of time. Every thought that arises in our mind is a wrong thought. Correct thought very rarely comes to us, because we have no time to think correctly, as we are always moving in the same old groove of traditional thinking. The actual reoriented thinking is unknown to us. We are always busy—and that has engulfed us in such an intensity and to such an extent that we are immersed in it. And in that immersed condition we are crying for God, and He does not come. So it requires ultimately the grace of God Himself.
By some mystery of the workings of nature, as it were, divine hands begin to operate and grace descends, and we are brought in contact with a proper Guru or a teacher. Contact with a proper Guru is really coming in contact with God Himself. This is a great achievement, and again this is the work of God.
Excerpts from:
Some Light on Yoga Practice – Chapter 6 The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition or audio CD, 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
SEND FEED BACK ON THIS ARTICLE \\ Email to BT Digest Editor
Some Light on Yoga Practice (Part I)
Some Light on Yoga Practice (Part I) by Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 16 March 2014 19:58 EST | New York Edition** |
Some Light on Yoga Practice (Part I)
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 6 The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda
** “Yoga is union with the ultimate state of things, not with things as they appear.”
Why are we so far away from the Absolute?
The Supreme Being, or Absolute, is transcendent to our level. The greater the externalization, manifestation outwardly towards objects in space and time, the greater is the loss of selfhood. In all attachments to objects of sense there is transference of self to the object, so that we lose ourselves first in order that we may love the object. The greater also is the loss in the quality of happiness. So it is the Self that is the source of bliss, not any object or any kind of external movement towards an object. But the more we gravitate towards externality, the more is the extent or the measure of the loss of selfhood in us. Thus, we have descended too far.
On one side is the objective world, on the other side the individuals, and in the center we have got the controlling divinities called Devatas, so that we, the subjects, look upon the object outside through space and time as if it is bifurcated from us, with no connection at all between one and the other.
From the causal condition we have come to the intellectual, from the intellectual to the mental, from the mental to the vital, and from the vital we have come to the physical level. These are the five koshas. We can imagine how far we have descended. So there is no wonder that we are unhappy, and that the so-called happiness of sense contact is not divine happiness. Even that little fraction of so-called happiness of sense contact is due to the presence of the Absolute, by way of reflection and distortion. This is also the nature of happiness, and this also gives a clue as to how we can reach the Absolute. This method is called yoga.
The practice of yoga is the art of contacting the Absolute
We know we contact an object, but the Absolute is not an object at all. It is the Self, it is the internal being of everything. How can we contact our own consciousness? But this is what is meant by Yoga—union of the individual with the Absolute. We can unite ourself with our own inner being by gradually lessening the degree and the intensity of externality of consciousness and by moving inward gradually. It is self-control, ultimately, which is called yoga—self-restraint which includes the restraint of the operation of the sense organs, the restraint of the mind, the restraint of the intellect, and the restraint of the impulse to externalize consciousness in any manner whatsoever. The urge of the consciousness to manifest itself in an external form is contrary to yoga.
How to practice yoga
The senses have to be rooted in the mind. The mind has to be centered in the intellect. The intellect has to be fixed in the Cosmic Intellect, and the Cosmic Intellect has to be united with the Peaceful Being. This is how we have to control the mind.
The restraint of the mind and the senses is not an easy. We practice the traditional routines of stopping the breath, not thinking of objects, sometimes not thinking anything at all, and then keeping quiet in a blank state of mind, under the impression that we are practicing yoga. To control mind, intense philosophical analysis is necessary together with other accessories such as living in an atmosphere which is conducive to this practice and study of scriptures and books which will fill the mind with ideas that are elevating in their nature and of the nature of the practice of yoga. Living in the service of a Guru is a great help in this direction. Finally, a very correct grasp of the meaning of self-control is necessary. Since the Absolute is everywhere and all pervading, and its realization in our own experience is the aim of this practice, withdrawal of the mind from objects implies some subtle technique which is commensurate with, or not in contradistinction with, the presence of the omnipresent Absolute.
Sometimes doubts arise in the mind. “From what am I withdrawing the mind? If Brahman is everywhere, if the Absolute is everything, whatever I think in the mind is the Absolute only. So what is it that I am withdrawing myself from? (To be Continued..)
Excerpts from:
Some Light on Yoga Practice – Chapter 6 The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition or audio CD, 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
SEND FEED BACK ON THIS ARTICLE \\ Email to BT Digest Editor
On Free Will
Your Questions Answered by Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 16 March 2014 19:33 EST | New York Edition** |
Your Questions Answered
Chapter 1: On Free Will
SWAMIJI: It has been well said that every particle of our body—call them cells, or whatever they are—are concretisations, manifestations, solid forms of the cumulative force exerted upon a particular center called the human individuality by the total action of the planets and the sun. So, you are a child of the solar system. You are not born to any father or mother and all that; these are all social interpretations of your position, but you have a larger stellar relation. You are a citizen of the solar system.
We should not be under the impression that the sun is so far away, the planets are invisible to the eyes, and stars are still further. It is nothing of the kind. There is no distance in this electromagnetic field of the stellar region, the solar atmosphere. “Electromagnetic field” is the description we can give of the manner in which the entire atmosphere works. It is not visible to the physical eye. So forceful, so powerful is this influence that it concretizes itself in certain forms which are called individualities. They may be the forms of the plant kingdom or animal kingdom, or human kingdom.
But, there is something more about it. The entire structure of space-time is the parent of how the stellar system operates. Space-time is a complex existence which far surpasses, in extent and range, the whole world that you call the solar system or the stellar region. It is the influence exerted by the very operation of this endless space-time complex that congealed itself in the form of the solar system, the Milky Way, etc., and further down to the bodies like ours, so that we are little, tiny drops in the sea of electromagnetic force generated by what you call space-time continuum. So, you are not sitting in Rishikesh, nor in Delhi, nor in any other place. There is no such thing as earth. It is only a name that we give to a concentrated form of cosmic energy, of which we are a part.
We are born into this body by the cumulative action of various forces. One of them is the food that we eat. The mother’s diet has a great influence upon the formation of the child in the womb. Whatever diet you may conceive in your mind is a form of earth principle, water principle, fire principle, air principle, and space-time principle. These put together act upon a personality, and we cannot say whose children we are, to which country we belong, what our nationality is. Our father is somewhere else, of whom we have no knowledge, and about whom we do not think one minute, as if He is redundant.
Every atom of space has eyes. There is cosmic intelligence pervading everywhere. This cosmic intelligence which is ensouling the entire physical cosmos can be interpreted as something cosmically in relation to the intelligence pervading your personality. Dr. Rao or Krishnamurty—they are not what is visible to the eyes before a photographic camera. “Dr. Rao has come.” It does not mean that a six-foot physical body has come. It does not mean that. It is a significance; it is a meaning, isn’t it? Or is it a fleshy, bony individual walking—because there are many such individuals in the world. The significance is what you call “yourself.” There is a meaning in you; that meaning is what you are. This meaning is the creative force behind our existence, so that we exist not because of our individual initiative which appears to be there. The so-called initiative of ours, the effort that we put forth, is an impulsion that comes from the center of the cosmos. If that center does not operate, we cannot lift a finger; it will collapse. The finger does not lift, and the legs do not walk, merely because of the food that we eat or the medicines that we take. It is because of the permission that has come from the center. If the whole body is sick, every limb of the body also is sick.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Swamiji, is this permission only to act, or to act in a particular manner?
SWAMIJI: To exist itself.
Dr. P. C. Rao: To exist, and to act in a particular manner, too?
SWAMIJI: That also. Now, why should it permit you to act in a particular manner? That also is another question. It can permit you to act in some other way also than the way in which you are working. That is conditioned by your previous incarnations. Why do mirrors reflect different kinds of light?
Dr. P. C. Rao: I want to ask a few questions. I do intellectually comprehend the message that you have given me, because I am also capable of thinking abstract thoughts. Now, the books that I have helped me at least in arriving at a hypothesis—what I think is a hypothesis. And this is the very thought every day I go through. If this is meditation, I am going through that meditation. But, before I come to the next step, if you say that I am here because of the force given to me by an external force. . .
SWAMIJI: Yes, yes, yes. It has formed you and conditioned you and made you what you are, including the circumstances in which you are born and even the length of your life, and the mode of your existence, and the manner of your action. Everything is conditioned by that.
Dr. P. C. Rao: If everything is conditioned by that, I become an agent.
SWAMIJI: You are not an agent. It itself is doing it. There is no such thing as Mr. Rao or anybody. It doesn’t exist. You see, when the finger is moving, the finger is not moving. It is the whole body that is ordering it to get up like that. So, we are like fingers of this cosmic force, and it orders that you move in this particular way. If the finger had, by chance, a consciousness of its own, it would think it is moving independently.
Dr. P. C. Rao: This analogy may not hold good because if I were to order from a central point this finger to move, the finger does not act on its own. The finger does exactly what I indicate. It does not have an independent existence, Swamiji.
SWAMIJI: That is what I am saying. There is no independent existence for anything.
Dr. P. C. Rao: No. If that is so, then, while I go through various births and deaths, where do I evolve separately from the messages?
SWAMIJI: The whole point is that births and deaths should not take place, really speaking, if this consciousness is already there. But, somehow or other this takes place because this consciousness has not been implanted properly in the individuality. The ego functions as if it is outside.
Dr. P. C. Rao: But who has implanted it?
SWAMIJI: That, nobody can say. It is like asking who created the world.
Dr. P. C. Rao: You said that in the Canadian lawyer Larry’s questions. Exactly the same answer has been given.
SWAMIJI: Somehow or other the spark or the part has assumed an independence; that independence is called egoism.
Dr. P. C. Rao: But you say ultimately it has not. It appears to exist, but it does not.
SWAMIJI: It should not be there and it is not really there also. If this personality called the ego appreciates this position, it will surrender itself to the total whole, to which it belongs, of which it is a part—why a part? It itself is That. Then the whole force of the cosmos will enter it and you will feel an inner strength which cannot be compared with any other strength that you have in this world. So why I am telling all this is, in one minute you are in a state of meditation, provided you are able to collect your thoughts and put them in the proper context. It doesn’t require one hour. Immediately you are That—you are just that which you are contemplating on.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Therefore, I am thinking of me being That, or That being me, or whatever the whole thing is.
SWAMIJI: And also, when you say “That,” you should not imagine a distance between yourself and That. There is no distance. It is a total integration of consciousness where distance is abolished automatically.
Dr. P. C. Rao: So, you want to concentrate on the fact that there is no distance between you and That—that you are That.
SWAMIJI: Yes; there is no distance between anything. It is one Being. So this one Being is what people call God. There is no God outside.
Dr. P. C. Rao: This is where the intellectual exposition gets, in me anyhow—while I do understand the proposition that That is not divisible, I arrive at the root through different ways, but I arrive at the same proposition. I suppose this is very close to the Upanishadic principles. Now, once I come to the conclusion that It is not different from me, I am still unable, because I am still pursuing the logical path as to how I have to come to the separate feeling that I come to feel that I am separate, and that is where you say that we cannot take this enquiry beyond a particular level. In other words, it cannot be explained as to how we have come to feel that we are separate from That.
SWAMIJI: The difficulty is that we are unable to go beyond the level of the comprehension of egoistic personality. In whatever way we think, we assume that we are existing. Even the consciousness that “I am meditating”—that also must go.
Dr. P. C. Rao: That means you must dissolve yourself. Now the other thing is that somebody else does this thing and it gives the principle of life. Life itself is infused in you because of that particular thing. Independent of that, you are nothing. Then, also you are not allowing me to go logically on that principle and say, “If I am not independent of that and it is controlling me, the one who is controlling me should control anything.”
SWAMIJI: He does control everything.
Dr. P. C. Rao: If He does, then why should I be thinking and get blamed for anything at all?
SWAMIJI: You will not get blamed for that, provided that you are sure that you are not doing it. But you are not sure of it. You feel that you are doing it. If that kind of total inseparable identity with the whole is felt by you, your actions cannot bind you. The Bhagavad Gita is that only.
Dr. P. C. Rao: But coming to that conclusion, I must cross these hurdles.
SWAMIJI: That is up to you. You can adopt any method. The Bhagavad Gita is this much: No action can bind you, provided that vision of the cosmos is before you.
Dr. P. C. Rao: It is my way of looking at it. While the proposition that there is a Universal Principle, and It is indivisible, is logically arguable (that far I am prepared to go), the relationship between what is called individual and the Universal I think depends upon. . .
SWAMIJI: You see, there is a conceptual relation, but not a real relation. And conceptual relation is not. . .
Dr. P. C. Rao: It is only after you go beyond the concept that you feel you get integrated with that principle. First you have to go through that evolution, thinking process.
SWAMIJI: That is meditation. Again and again assert that position.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Swamiji, whatever you say gets implanted in me and I don’t leave it. I keep thinking this every day, but yet I have not evolved into that.
SWAMIJI: The very fact that you are able to understand that shows that you have evolved enough to make it a part of your life.
Dr. P. C. Rao: I am not satisfied with that, Swamiji.
SWAMIJI: You are not giving sufficient time to think.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Either I am not giving sufficient time to think, or I have really come to a stage where I am unable to break through.
SWAMIJI: You are not unable to understand; you can understand it. The only thing is that you have to assert it in your consciousness. And you are not going to be a loser. You are actually going to be a gainer by that. Your dimension will be enhanced, and why should you say that you have no time to think while it is the thing that you are actually aspiring for? Don’t you want to become a larger person of a larger dimension? How can you say that you have no time?
Dr. P. C. Rao: Otherwise, this enquiry would have been given up.
SWAMIJI: Don’t you like to be promoted? You should not say, “I have no time to think of it like that.” You will certainly find time if you are going to . . .
Dr. P. C. Rao: I do find—it is not physically finding time. I have, to some extent, read all your books. . .
SWAMIJI: It is not actually the question of physically finding time. It is the quality of thought. It should just take possession of you, as when a person is drowning in water. Only one thought will be there at that time. You will be thinking nothing else.
Dr. P. C. Rao: The Canadian lawyer’s questions are very much my questions, and they will continue to be my questions. In terms of intellectual satisfaction, the Canadian lawyer’s questions, his wife’s questions, still continue to haunt me because they happen to be my own questions.
SWAMIJI: It is everybody’s question.
Dr. P. C. Rao: The answers you have given have not completely dissolved my doubts.
SWAMIJI: You have to ponder over that again and again, and the whole thought should sink into your feeling, so that you are living that thought. You are not simply thinking it, you are that.
Dr. P. C. Rao: And then the environment in which I live, as we were discussing—the Sankaracharyas and various intellectual or religious leaders, etc.—they go about their activities, but it doesn’t generate the amount of faith that one hopes these leaders do.
SWAMIJI: They are unnecessarily interfering in matters which are to nobody’s good. There is no benefit. No purpose is served by that. They come so low to the segmented social level. It is not their duty also. They are supposed to inspire you spiritually in a divine manner, not interfere in political governments. That is not their duty. What is the purpose? Why are they so much interested in it? Though political activity is worthwhile, there are other people to do that. Why are these people doing that? If everybody becomes only a politician, then who will be there to think and impart knowledge? Everybody can become a businessman. Then, what will happen?
Sri C. G. Krishnamurty: But then Swamiji, how about the gunas? If no two human beings are the same, and if all of them are parts of the same whole. . .
SWAMIJI: In that condition of your deep meditation, the gunas will cease to operate. The gunas will not operate at that time. If at all there is some guna, it is sattva guna at that time. No rajas and tamas will be there at that time. Only when you assert your individual personality, the rajas and tamas will come. Rajas and tamas are characteristics of the ego consciousness, whereas sattva is of divine consciousness. And gradually they will evaporate. What is the time now? We sit for meditation and you can also sit. We sit at five o’clock, from five to six.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Reading-wise, I read practically all of your books, and I read the message directly given to me by you on each of my visits. They make a very deep impact on me. But yet, I am still a doubting Thomas you may call it—I am a person who has to be intellectually satisfied.
SWAMIJI: I think to a large extent you have been satisfied.
Dr. P. C. Rao: No, Swamiji. In other words, I am satisfied up to the stage that there is a Universal Principle, and that It is indivisible—that there is no birth and death, etc. Up to that, logically it is arguable.
SWAMIJI: But you must know the conclusion from that.
Dr. P. C. Rao: That is the stage of the Universal and the individual. You know in Christianity, Hinduism—I think each religion tried to explain this very relationship, and they have done so in their own manner, but sometimes I feel perhaps this is only intellectually explained. So, for me, you could say I am somewhat confused.
SWAMIJI: When the intellect asserts itself in deep contemplation, it becomes feeling, and if the intellect and the feeling go together, they can create a flash of what is called intuition. Intuition is nothing but the blending together of intellect and feeling. They are generally acting separately. What we understand, we don’t feel; and what we feel, we don’t understand. It should not be like that. They must act together parallelly, so that it may be one action of understanding and feeling. Feeling is nearer to you than understanding. Feeling is what you are, actually speaking. Into that the understanding has to sink. This is what they call the process of sravana, manana and nididhyasana. Whatever we are discussing now is sravana, hearing. I hear what you say, and you hear what I say. Then you cogitate over this matter and sink these thoughts into yourself. Finally, you be that thought itself; that is called nididhyasana. This practice has to be carried on throughout the day, not merely for a few minutes in some puja room or anything. Even when you are working in an office, what prevents you from stopping for one minute and putting the pen down? For one minute think this, and it will inspire you. Then start the work. It requires one minute. You put the pen down.
Sri C. G. Krishnamurty: I found that in my experience in the Tribunal.
Dr. P. C. Rao: When you get that feeling, your actions differ essentially from what you do now because informed as you are by that feeling, it should reflect in your actions. If I feel I am separate, everything is separate, the feeling generates different activity in me. The way I look at things, the way I react to things, whatever I think, is going to be paramountly different from when I realize that everything is That, and I am That, you are That, and I am no different from That. Is it not, Swamiji? In other words, it is the thought which regulates your activity, which gives character to your activity. Now, if the feeling of divisibility, that you are different from me, obtains in my mind, is the part which controls my activity, my actions would be selfish.
SWAMIJI: Certainly they would be selfish if things are different.
Dr. P. C. Rao: But when the controlling thought is that the entire universe is operating through me and I am that. . .
SWAMIJI: Then your actions will be impartial.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Altogether impartial. Therefore, from the types of activities we engage in, you can determine the thought that is propelling you to do these things. Is it not?
SWAMIJI: Yes.
Dr. P. C. Rao: But in terms of the activities I undertake, though it gives me great relief on several occasions, or it makes me resist attempts to influence my thinking, and this I trace to the concept “Look here, I should not do this”—I have not yet stopped doing things which I would intellectually consider to be undesirable. Therefore, the controlling thought, while it intellectually appreciates, it has not really started controlling my. . .
SWAMIJI: Yes, yes. I understand. You will have no problem like that if you actually enter into it. You start doing it. The problems also get dissolved automatically.
Dr. P. C. Rao: I know—provided I go through that stage.
SWAMIJI: You start it. You decide, “I have started it.”
Dr. P. C. Rao: It is as though I am at the doorstep but yet not opening the door.
SWAMIJI: No, it will open; it will open. Truth always triumphs: Satyam eva jayate. And if these thoughts are the truth, they will succeed, and nothing else can succeed. Only, you have to have some little faith that it will work. It will certainly work. The whole atmosphere will change. All shall be well.
Dr. P. C. Rao: I am still in search of that thing, and I am hopeful that light will dawn on me.
SWAMIJI: You should not have any doubt whether it will work or not. It will work.
Dr. P. C. Rao: I am greatly reassured, Swamiji.
SWAMIJI: If you want something, you must assert that it has already come: “It is already with me.” This is one of the psychological techniques people generally suggest; and it will immediately come. If you intensely want a thing, it will come.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Whatever activity I do, I never abandon it. That is why I am able to do certain things which I think ought to be done. So, I am still hopeful that this sort of pursuit will lead me to some destination which is what I am looking for.
SWAMIJI: Actually, this is the thought that has to be in your mind always. Whether you are in the motor car, or the office, or taking lunch or dinner—it is the vital thing that sustains you. You cannot keep it segregated.
Dr. P. C. Rao: I don’t. It would not be correct to say that I disengage myself from this thought at any given point of time. It may be that temporarily at that particular point I am thinking of some problem. . .
SWAMIJI: No. . . Due to problems, the intensity of the thought may diminish at some time; but, nevertheless, it will be there.
Dr. P. C. Rao: It is there, Swamiji. In every day of my activity, it is there. But something is shrouded in mystery still. Some dark area is still not resolved. Some doubt is still there. I have to put a spotlight on that and see what it is.
SWAMIJI: The spotlight is the affirmation of the Universal Being. That is the light, before which no darkness can stand. And, the affirmation of the Universal Being is done by the Universal Being only. It is not done by you. You have gone into It when you think like this. Actually, who is meditating? It is not Dr. Rao meditating. It is meditating because you have already entered It. You have become part and parcel of It, so you are not meditating. There is no such thing at that time.
Dr. P. C. Rao: True. But, as you said, until you realize that you are That, you will continue to believe that you are meditating.
SWAMIJI: No, that duality you should not create.
Dr. P. C. Rao: I am not creating it. But it exists because the other proposition has not yet dawned on me.
SWAMIJI: It has, to some extent, dawned in you. Only, you have to assert it vigorously by repeatedly thinking it. Once you have entertained it in clarified form in your mind, again you should not leave it afterwards, because the ego has such a power that it will immediately throw some dust over your thought and assert itself more and more than even the thought of God Himself. The ego always parades its importance and makes you feel that it is more important than anything else. We are feeling that the world is nothing to us—the world is something outside us, unconnected with us; it is taking care of itself and we mind our business. This is what we are thinking. Totally independent we are. We can walk on the road with arms thrown, and nobody can talk to us. But it is not like that. Even the earth is controlling you. You cannot walk on the road totally independent like that. The very gravitation of the earth is controlling your movements. There is no freedom like that, except in a cosmic sense. Man’s boast that he is independent of things and he can do whatever he likes is a vainglorious feeling. You cannot even walk on the road until the earth permits it. Such is the majesty of the structure of the cosmos. It is a very important thing to remember. If the earth is not to pull you adequately down by its gravitational force, you would be floating in the air. And, if the sun were not to pull you equally from above, you would be stuck to the ground; you could not lift your foot afterwards. So, they mutually collaborate and create a situation where you can move.
Dr. P. C. Rao: These are the laws of nature; they are immutable.
SWAMIJI: And still, we are thinking, “I will go for a walk.” Who is going for a walk? You tell me. Somebody else is helping you to push yourself.
Sri C. G. Krishnamurty: The mysterious thing is how thoughts are generated.
SWAMIJI: Thoughts are generated by body consciousness. You think that there is a body. The consciousness of a body is called thought. Otherwise, there is no other thing except that. Affirmation of this body is called thought, mind—consciousness concentrating itself in a particular location of space and time. That is individuality; that is the mind.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Suppose you let things happen as you wish—you don’t try to control anything—you just do whatever you want, on impulse.
SWAMIJI: What is the meaning of “whatever you want”?
Dr. P. C. Rao: Whatever you want—whatever your impulse tells you.
SWAMIJI: That impulse is an egoistic impulse.
Dr. P. C. Rao: If it is egoistic, let the activity also be guided by that. What is wrong with egoistic activities?
SWAMIJI: Unless the ego has surrendered itself to the Cosmic Being, it cannot help you.
Dr. P. C. Rao: No. But why do you want to get help? Let things happen in the way they are happening.
Sri C. G. Krishnamurty: Or, to put it another way, what is the meaning of the word “help”? How do you define help?
SWAMIJI: There is a difference between impulse and knowledge. They are two different things.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Let your ego control your activities. What happens?
SWAMIJI: That is what is happening in the world. Everybody is doing that work. Then he ruins himself. The person gets ruined. He will have a clash. One ego clashes with another ego. War takes place and destruction takes place.
Dr. P. C. Rao: All right. Let it.
SWAMIJI: Then rebirth takes place. It will go on endlessly. There is no end for this. A mistake that is committed once. . .
Dr. P. C. Rao: Let rebirth take place. Perhaps people would like to go on being born, and then get reborn, as they are against dissolving yourself into a higher principle.
SWAMIJI: That shows the bankruptcy of education in their mind. They are spiritually bankrupt.
Dr. P. C. Rao: I thought at one time you also said, “Don’t think that you are going to reform the universe itself, whatever is happening—good, bad or indifferent. There is no such thing called bad or good.”
SWAMIJI: But it can work through your individuality also, if you are in a state of unison with that. You can be an instrument in the hands of that power, when you are in unison with that in your deep feeling. They will propel you to act. These are the incarnations and the prophets, as they are called. They are individuals but they are working under the command of a universal force. The whole universal power is concentrated in one individual; that is an incarnation—like the entire power of the sun getting concentrated through a lens and acting at a particular spot. They are called super-human beings. The individuality is there for all purposes of perception, but they are treading in the heavens, actually speaking, because they have consciousness of earth as well as heaven at the same time. That is a peculiar state of jivanmukti, as they call it—you are liberated, and yet you are conscious of the whole of creation. It is an intermediary stage between ordinary human consciousness and Absolute consciousness. That is what is called incarnation consciousness, jivanmukti consciousness. It is an intermediary stage where you can become a cosmic worker, a world savior, as they call it. All the saviors of the world, the incarnations—Krishna, Christ, Buddha, whoever they are—they were intermediaries in the cosmic force, which operated through this physical individuality of theirs, as visible to the eyes. They were not thinking through the body. They were thinking through a larger area, and so we call them incarnations. That is, “incarnation” means the concentration of universal force in a particular body. And, you can also become that. You may become a world savior, a prophet, an incarnation, if the thoughts of yours are cosmic thoughts. And, you will not think in any other manner except that way.
Dr. P. C. Rao: By your own endeavors you can improve the quality of your perception.
SWAMIJI: You may say, yes.
Dr. P. C. Rao: This is the proposition. Is there a role for individual efforts?
SWAMIJI: When That operates through you, you should not call it an individual effort.
Dr. P. C. Rao: But if I want to lay down the proposition like this—because you are all the time telling us that you should improve constantly, improve and move towards that principle, ultimately realize that you are not different from That, and you are That, and there is no subject-object relationship. You are evolving from something baser to something higher. If this is the correct understanding of what you have laid down—therefore, there is a role for me in this, a role for me to evolve.
SWAMIJI: There is a role for you as a representative of that force—like an ambassador of the Cosmic Being.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Yes, but then, still it is my role. If I don’t make this, the cosmic force is not going to help me. So, therefore, I have to create this. . .
SWAMIJI: No, “my role” means that it is not your individual role. You are not having your own personal will. You are only an instrument in the operation of it.
Dr. P. C. Rao: If I am an instrument, then let that divine force guide me. I don’t make any individual effort.
SWAMIJI: When you think, you will know that It is thinking through you. You will know it. Sometimes you say, “he is possessed by divine forces.” You get possessed by that, and you can know that it is working through you, somebody else is speaking through you.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Why don’t I invite the divine force to enter and say, “Now let us move forward.”
SWAMIJI: It will do that. It can do whatever is necessary for the evolution of the total universe. It is not doing it for the welfare of any particular individual. There are no particular individuals.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Then, why should I meditate, Swamiji?
SWAMIJI: So that you may know that it is the truth. You are always thinking you are somewhere, in some place. You have to remove that idea. There is a peculiar habit of the mind asserting itself as located in some place, in a particular form, in a particular condition, etc. This must be removed.
Sri C. G. Krishnamurty: What Dr. Rao says is if I am That, why not let That guide me in the proper line?
SWAMIJI: It will certainly guide you.
Sri C. G. Krishnamurty: If that is so, then why should I meditate?
SWAMIJI: It will guide you only after you become one with It. For that, you have to meditate. The government protects and guides the ambassador, but for that he has to become the ambassador first.
Dr. P. C. Rao: But, the ambassador is different from the government. He only carries out the instructions of the government. He is not the government himself. Government is a larger entity.
SWAMIJI: That is true. So, he is acting as a representative of the government itself.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Therefore, I asked at the very beginning, “Am I the agent?”
SWAMIJI: In one stage, you are the agent. There are three stages.
Dr. P. C. Rao: If I am the agent, I carry out these instructions. I can’t be held accountable at all. I am not answerable to anybody.
SWAMIJI: Certainly you are not accountable, provided you are having that consciousness.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Then it is conditional; you have introduced a proviso.
SWAMIJI: Otherwise, if in the middle you start thinking you are Mr. Rao talking, then it won’t work.
Dr. P. C. Rao: No, if I am the ambassador, I know that if the government gives me instructions, it is as the ambassador of that country; I go and give it. And if these instructions don’t fructify, if nothing comes out of it, or bad comes of it, I can’t be held responsible because I merely carried out the instructions given to me by my superior.
SWAMIJI: He is responsible only if he does something contrary to the government ordinance.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Yes. But you are also saying that I cannot even act contrary to the direction. You are incapable of doing so, because it controls.
SWAMIJI: Sometimes it is possible in the intermediary stage to slip into ego consciousness. If you are continuously maintaining a universal consciousness, you are not responsible for anything. But that consciousness is not maintained always. Sometimes in the intermediary, earlier stages, the mind slips into ego consciousness and mistakes can be committed. Even Lord Krishna said, “I cannot repeat the Gita a second time.” He came down from that level. When Arjuna said, “Speak to me once again,” He said, “No, no. You are a foolish man.”
Dr. P. C. Rao: If you slip into it, while logically pursuing this, doggedly pursuing it, it means are you acting contrary to the instruction of. . . Even that slipping into that former direction—are you accountable?
SWAMIJI: You will not slip after a certain stage. It is a force of individuality. For ages and ages we have been living in this body, so it is having its say, even when you are meditating and insisting that “I am also there.” To overcome that feeling of body consciousness. . .
Dr. P. C. Rao: One can reconcile and say that it is the divine wish that it be like this.
SWAMIJI: You are not simply saying that it is a divine wish. You know that it is a divine wish and you will never feel that you are doing anything at that time. It all depends upon what you feel in your mind. What are you feeling? You will feel that you are not doing anything independently.
Dr. P. C. Rao: I somehow feel that you have to say that you can’t do independently of the divine principle. You are also saying that you can get out of this. And when you get out of it, there is a disconsonance between you and the principle and, therefore, the grief. Isn’t it? That is how it is. Then the person realizes that if I am totally controlled—I am a puppet in the hands, as it were, of the higher principle—then, if I am a puppet, I can’t go beyond that stage. I am always whatever I do good, I do bad, I do anything.
SWAMIJI: But, there is no good and bad at that time.
Dr. P. C. Rao: No. Until that realization comes, you will still say whether he is doing something good or something bad, it is all on account of the operation of the divine principle.
SWAMIJI: Your operations will be for the cosmic welfare. It cannot be called good and bad action.
Dr. P. C. Rao: But you should first think that you represent the higher principle.
SWAMIJI: Not merely think it—you have to be inundated with that thought and you will not think in any other manner.
Dr. P. C. Rao: So, until that state, duality is there?
SWAMIJI: Then you are responsible for what you do.
Dr. P. C. Rao: This is what you said: In other words, as long as you remain ignorant, you are the karta of your actions. You have to reap the fruits of your actions. Is it not what you said, Swamiji—notwithstanding the basic principle that you cannot do anything independently of the divine wish?
SWAMIJI: Even then, it remains an abstract acceptance, but the body asserts itself as “me.”
Dr. P. C. Rao: Asserts itself from what? From the divine wish?
SWAMIJI: No, it rejects the divine wish.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Can it?
SWAMIJI: It is doing it now in a foolish manner.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Its ability to depart from the divine wish is what makes the principle somewhat difficult for us to follow.
Narayani: But it is not against the divine wish that you are appearing to depart from it.
Dr. P. C. Rao: So, therefore, everything is on account of the operation of the divine principle?
SWAMIJI: Finally, it is that only.
Dr. P. C. Rao: If that is so, what happens is that anything that is happening in this world. . .
SWAMIJI: Everything is happening due to its action.
Dr. P. C. Rao: This is what I had said in the beginning because when the Lord reveals Himself in His total existence—you see, what you consider to be good, bad, indifferent, everything as it is, the universe as it is, is seen.
SWAMIJI: No part of the universe can be called good or bad.
Dr. P. C. Rao: So, therefore, what happens is that whatever you see now, a departure from—this is Kali Yuga. It has evolved from Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga—and then, the bad is more than the good here in this age. This is nothing but that.
SWAMIJI: It has its own plan, yes.
Dr. P. C. Rao: Very difficult, Swamiji, to evolve into the various. . .
SWAMIJI: This is the discussion of the law commission of the universe.
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A Philosophic Outlook of Life
A Philosophic Outlook of Life by Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 15 March 2014 13:53 EST | New York Edition** |
A Philosophic Outlook of Life
Daily Spiritual message from Divine Life Society New York
A Philosophic Outlook of Life
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 3 What is Knowledge by Swami Krishnananda
“Yoga is union with the ultimate state of things, not with things as they appear.”
The ordinary way of thinking
Our thinking is almost entirely conditioned by sense perception. We think as we see, as we hear, and as we sense in any form whatsoever. Our mind is a kind of confirming authority over whatever information is given through the senses. The peculiar central operation inside, which not only receives all these reports of the senses at the same time, but harmonizes them into a single cognition – that internal operation is the mind. Our thinking is also mostly sensory.
The philosophic mind is more than the ordinary empirical synthesizing mind. This is why it is sometimes said that there is a lower mind and a higher mind. The lower mind does this work of gathering information and simply synthesizing it into a central act of what is called perception and cognition. We seem to be doing very little independently; we are only reacting to what is happening outside insistently, perpetually. This is the ordinary man’s life.
Not that we are incapable of thinking in any other manner, but we will not be permitted to think because of the continuous pressure exerted upon the mind by events and circumstances of the outer world, of nature, and of society.
If we are forced to do something, do we call it a free act?
We may be running for two reasons. We may be a participant in a race and want to win a prize. We may regard it as an act of freedom. So, in this running, we are exercising our own free choice. But suppose we are running because we are chased from all sides by wild animals; do we call it a free act, though we are running in the same way as we ran in a race? Therefore, the action may be the same outwardly – in both cases it is running – but they are two different things altogether. In one case, we exercise a freedom. In another case, we are forced to run due to reasons beyond our control.
Now, our life normally, cannot be considered really as an act of freedom. We have to eat because we are hungry. But why should there be hunger? A philosophic mind will never be satisfied unless the ultimate reason for a thing is known. The ultimate cause alone can explain the lesser causes and effects of every type. These are the difficulties of a philosophic mind. It cannot be easily satisfied with mere perceptions of things. “Does the world exist as it is?” “Is it its own creator?” “Or does it have no creator?” We cannot easily get an answer to these questions.
A truly philosophic mind cannot rest in peace until it gets an ultimate irrefutable answer – not to one or two questions only, but to every question pertaining to every type of existence.
Curiosity to know things
Do you believe that it is necessary to know the reason behind things? Or will you be satisfied by merely reacting to phenomena or events that occur outside? There is a curiosity born of a dissatisfaction as well as a perception of wonder. “How do things arrange themselves in this world in the manner they occur and present themselves?” This rouses in our minds a sense of wonder.
Have we made ourselves ignorant deliberately, or has someone else thrown us into this condition? An entry into this abyss of human difficulty is attempted by a philosophic mind. Ancient thinkers, both in the East and the West, were very actively engaged in this adventure of knowledge. They were not satisfied with anything else. How can we say that anything else is important in this world, if these things are not to be known? If certain important serious matters are hidden out of our vision, how can we say that life is a satisfying field of existence even for a few moments? We realize, now, why knowledge is so important.
Pursuit of Knowledge
Philosophy does not mean reading some books or thinking something erratically. It is an attempt to have the true wisdom of life, and to know how to live in a world of this kind.
The ancient thinkers busied themselves with this great adventure – the pursuit of true knowledge which is the art of wise living. Knowledge is life itself, and is as important as life itself.
The process of the investigation of factors and conditions which contribute to the rise of this knowledge is philosophy. In India we call it darsana, the vision of Reality, and the practical methods that we employ to establish ourselves in this vision of Reality is called yoga.
Yoga is living knowledge
To apply knowledge to our practical existence in this world is yoga. Yoga is union with the ultimate state of things, not with things as they appear. Life does not anymore appear like a puppet show whose strings are operated by somebody else, someone who cannot be seen. We know the secret of the drama of existence, and we cannot any more be kept in a state of ignorance of values – because ignorance is, in a way, our incapacity to recognize any vital relationship that we have with the ultimate state of things.
Unless we know the cause, we cannot know why things are happening as they are, because an effect has a cause.
Cause and effect
This particular phenomenon we call life in this world, as it is seen now, is an operation by some cause which is not visible to the eyes. There is a chain of railway carriages, and we know very well that although it appears that the carriage in front is pulling that one behind it, they are all pulled by an engine which itself is not pulled by anything else. Hence, everything is moved by something else, but there must be something which itself is not moved, but moves all things. Only then will we know why the railway train is moving. Otherwise, we know only relative movements – one pushing the other – without knowing why this pushing should be there at all.
Thus, the reason behind all occurrences, events in life, seems to be an important matter for study and understanding; and this reason is not merely the logical reason. The final answer to all these relative motions, occurrences, activities and phenomena in life can be explained only by a final reference. If this is known, we know how things are, and why things are, and we will not put any more questions. We become spectators of the events of the universe; and we do not merely remain as spectators of something happening outside us – we realize that we ourselves are participators in this great activity of the universe.
A holistic vision of things
The events of the world are not taking place only outside us, as if we are unconnected. There is an interconnection of causative factors. This is so because the world is one single entity; it is not made up of unconnected parts. It is a living body, something like our own body. Any event in any part of our body is an event occurring in the whole body.
We want to know what is the matter with all things. This is why we are searching for something. The problem is the intricate, inexplicable relationship of the individual with the Total Whole. Therefore, we can get truth everywhere. We can touch a person by touching any part of the body of that person – any part is that person only. Similarly, since the whole world is one single organic entity, we can be anywhere; it is as if we are everywhere.
This is a new vision which would be worthwhile for us to entertain, because we would realize that even the possibility of entertaining such a wholesome, holistic vision of things brings us a new kind of satisfaction – a satisfaction that arises from the very fact of it being possible for us to have a total vision of things. It is not a satisfaction that comes merely by eating, drinking and sleeping. It comes merely by ‘knowing’ that this is so. Knowledge itself is satisfaction.
Excerpts from:
A Philosophic Outlook of Life – What is Knowledge by Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition or audio CD, visit:
The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
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The Art of Receiving Knowledge
The Art of Receiving Knowledge by Swami Krishnanandaby Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 14 March 2014 13:53 EST | New York Edition** |
The Art of Receiving Knowledge
Divine Life Society Publication: The Art of Receiving Knowledge by Swami Krishnananda
“By God’s grace alone is the tendency towards the Absolute explicable.”
Precondition of the reception of knowledge
In the art of the reception of knowledge, we have to be prepared in the same manner as any good artist would equip himself or herself for the execution of the task. The precondition of the reception of knowledge is the capacity to receive. The process of the receiving of knowledge is an art which demands of the seeker an uncanny preparation and a suitable disposition of the mind. Overenthusiasm is not a virtue because anything that is beyond its limits is likely to come back to its original state, and when the heat subsides there will be no enthusiasm and no energy to move forward. The prejudice of the emotion and the intellect has to be avoided very carefully when we are eager to receive the knowledge that can save us from the pains of life.
Wisdom is different from learning
Learning does not save us, though it can help us in a limited purpose. The knowledge which we are really after is to bring our mind to a permanent state of composure. Just as when a distinguished guest comes to our house we are eager to make the place clean, sweep the cobwebs, dust the floor, decorate the seats, and so on, a sort of preparation is demanded of us for the reception of the higher illumination, the knowledge that we are seeking. If we are already filled, we cannot be filled again with something else. So empty thyself, and then only I can fill thee, not before that.
If we study the lives of sadhakas, it is seen that in the end, years of effort appear to go in vain because while the effort was there, it was not properly directed.
The practice of yoga, the living of the spiritual life, is the ultimate task upon which we are now to embark. But before we enter into any field of activity, it is very essential to know what our powers are, what our strength is. Any work needs a proper instrument for working, and here the instrument is our own self. Our instrument in the reception of knowledge is our own body, our own mind, our own intellect, our own feeling, our individuality, our personality. Have we the needed powers, the equipment to tune ourselves to those conditions which are amenable to the entry of knowledge into our personality?
We must be very humble. The might of the cosmos, the majesty of the universe, is such that before it our personality pales into insignificance. We can be blown away like a dry leaf by the wrath of nature.
There is a difference between learning and physical enlightenment. The learning of colleges is information about an object – knowledge of the structure of things, knowledge about something. It is not knowledge of being. But knowledge that is en rapport with the object is spiritual knowledge. Intellectual and emotional preparations are more important than the studies that we have to make subsequently.
Search for Knowledge
We cannot be called a good person as long we have not got this virtue of humility, because humility comes by the knowledge of our true nature. When we know what we really are, we automatically become humble. As we do not know what we are, as we have a wrong idea, a wrong notion of what we are, we become vain, audacious and arrogant.
The search for knowledge is a search for the facts of life, which include facts of our own self. The primary object of investigation is not some distant thing or entity, but that which is nearest. That which is nearest to us is our own self. When we are going to use the instrument of our personality in knowing the facts of other objects in the world, our efforts will be a failure if the instrument is not up to the mark.
The essentialities of life are identical in all the ages, so the principle approach prescribed for the reception of knowledge cannot change. It flows from the Master, the Guru. “A Guru is one,” says the Upanishads, “who is a Brahma-srotriya and a Brahma-nishta – one who is well versed in spiritual lore, and one who is also practically and personally established in the experience of spiritual truth.”
Knowledge is the opposite of ego
Knowledge is the condition where the ego completely melts like camphor, without any residuum. So where there is even a trace of ego, there is no knowledge. Where one becomes one’s own Guru and thinks there is no one equal to oneself, knowledge is far.
We should be very simple and very humble. You should not think that you possess all the knowledge. Knowledge and words of wisdom may come even from a child, and good conduct even from an enemy.
The universe is vast, beyond the ken of our perception and understanding. The object of knowledge is infinite. It has no limits; therefore, we can never be fully possessed of the entirety of knowledge at any time in the world. There is always something over and above us, beyond us.
The search for wisdom
Difficult is the search for wisdom. Difficult it is to find a Guru. Most difficult is God-realization. But one of the qualifications expected of the disciple is tenacity. We have always to remember that the object of our quest will not come at the very outset. It is mud and dust and dirt and thorn and trouble that we see in the beginning. So is knowledge, a difficult thing to acquire. It requires persistent effort, humility of attitude, and the readiness, which is rare to find in people – the readiness to gain knowledge from wherever it is available.
That which we are searching for, that which we are asking for, that which is the answer to our questions is behind the question itself, is at the background of our minds. It is the presupposition of our very existence. This is why the search for knowledge has become so difficult. It is the I of the I, the understanding of the understanding, the mind of the mind, says the Upanishad. The eyes through which these physical eyes behold objects, that eye behind the eye, is the object of our quest.
Ordinary effort does not bring success in spiritual life
What is needed is a different type of effort altogether. It is a forward movement, towards that which the eyes cannot see, the senses cannot grasp, the objects cannot exhaust in their confinement. This knowledge is limitless expanse, and therefore, it cannot be observed as the observed things of the world.
You cannot be a big person in the world and also a big person in the eyes of God. That would not be possible. Every gain in the realm of the spirit looks like a comparative corresponding loss in the realm of nature and of the world, which we are not prepared to accept. We do not want to lose anything from the world of nature or the world of our personal lives. Therefore, we have received nothing of the divine life, and God seems to be far away from us yet, almost an impossibility still.
Be ready for the grace of God
When you are ready to receive the higher knowledge, the Guru will come to you. While it is our duty to keep ourselves ready for the reception of knowledge, the entry of it into our personality is God’s business. We can plough the field, sow the seeds, allow the water to flow, but we cannot create the harvest. The harvest shall take care of itself, provided we have properly done everything that is within our capacity.
Again, the primary precondition of the reception of knowledge in spiritual life is goodness of conduct and humility of behavior. In the light of the majesty of the Almighty, the dignity of the cosmos, the vastness of knowledge, and difficulty of attaining the Immortal, it is very important.
He that is on the ground fears no fall. Be small, be humble, be good, be the most unknown and unbefriended. Let there not be any misconception that importance in the eyes of people or status in society and the world has anything to do with spiritual life. It has to be made clear before your mind’s eye so that your search may be an honest asking and not merely a duplicity or self-deceit of the heart.
With prayers to the Almighty, the Supreme Being, may we tread on the path of this supreme attainment which is God-realization, the realization of Truth or the Self, which may, we hope, come to us by the grace of God in this very life.
Excerpts from:
The Art of Receiving Knowledge by Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition or audio CD, 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
SEND FEED BACK ON THIS ARTICLE \\ Email to BT Digest Editor